Many organizations that go through a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) selection process include Salesforce and HubSpot on their vendor shortlists.
Multiple available resources on the web take a feature comparison approach to the differences between the two solutions.
Ahref’s web analytics tool indicates that 80% of people’s online search intent is feature-comparison-oriented when looking for information about HubSpot vs. Salesforce.
In this post, we’ll buck the features-first trend and focus mainly on the high-level differences between the two vendors. Here’s why:
Deciding between HubSpot and Salesforce is not as simple as reading feature comparison articles and scheduling sales presentations.
We recommend that teams evaluating CRM at mid-sized companies and enterprises follow a structured CRM buying process to select the best-fit solution.
Editorial Note: we do not earn commissions or margins from the vendors we cover on this website.
Vendor Overviews
HubSpot and Salesforce are both established powerhouses in the areas of data management and business process automation.
Salesforce was founded in 1999 in San Francisco, California, by Marc Benioff and Parker Harris.
Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah founded HubSpot in 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Both companies are publicly traded on the NYSE.
Products
Salesforce began as a sales force automation (SFA) system and eventually became a comprehensive suite of business applications, some of which were gained through acquisitions.
Because of the company’s origins, Salesforce Sales Cloud continues to be one of its most popular offerings. Salesforce offers over a dozen other products, including Service Cloud, Tableau, and Slack.
HubSpot began as an inbound marketing and content management platform for website pages and blog posts. The company later added Sales, Service, Operations, and Commerce products or ‘Hubs’ as HubSpot calls them.
Both companies have seen enterprise adoption in their respective flagship categories.
Marketing & Sales
You hear so much about these two companies because they are both marketing ‘forces of nature.’
According to the web analytics tool Ahrefs, HubSpot.com gets about 11 million monthly organic search visitors, and Salesforce.com receives about 8 million. This is significant traffic for B2B company websites.
Both companies have elite sales organizations. As we jokingly tell our CRM selection services clients, “prepare to have a new best friend” if you sign up for a trial or free edition.
Longevity Effects
Like any software platform, having more longevity than competitors cuts both ways.
It usually means richer features and functionality.
However, more time in the market can also mean more baggage, such as ongoing transitions from legacy interfaces and dated ways of accomplishing specific administrative tasks. Certain configurations require a bit of a ‘bubble gum and bailing wire’ construct.
There can be positive and negative longevity effects.
Because of the two companies’ origins, many organizations use both Salesforce and HubSpot — HubSpot for marketing automation and Salesforce for sales, customer support, and custom business applications.
Some companies using both platforms are considering moving entirely to one or the other.
Companies that use neither platform may be considering one or the other.
Several high-level differences between Salesforce and HubSpot should be considered when deciding between them.
Scope and Complexity of Business Needs
Generally speaking, Salesforce is well-suited for organizations with many departments, complex record and field visibility requirements (Who Sees What), data-intensive needs, advanced reporting and dashboards, deep customization capabilities, and robust validation rules.
Salesforce is well-structured for organizations subject to industry and regulatory compliances such as HIPAA, CMMC, FedRamp, and SOC 2.
HubSpot recently released a beta version of encryption for Highly Sensitive Data.
HubSpot is often the preferred platform for startups and SMBs looking for integrated sales and marketing functionality. It is easy to get started, especially for non-technical people and organizations new to CRM.
A Reddit commenter summarized these differences by saying that Hubspot has a higher floor and Salesforce has a significantly higher ceiling.
Extending the CRM Database
CRM consultants and admins often create custom objects, a.k.a. custom CRM database tables, to support business requirements.
Custom objects are supported in any Salesforce edition, whereas one of HubSpot’s enterprise editions is required to create custom objects.
Native vs. Integrated Marketing Functionality
HubSpot began as a marketing automation platform. When HubSpot introduced Sales Hub, the functionality was added natively to the existing platform.
Because of this unified code base, sales and marketing users can share many of the same properties (fields) rather than an admin having to replicate fields in different systems and then set up mapping and precedence rules.
The entire awareness-to-order journey can all be managed in one container.
Conversely, Salesforce does not have natively-developed marketing automation functionality.
However, Salesforce integrates with several marketing automation systems, including HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, and its internal Pardot and Marketing Cloud offerings.
While cloud-to-cloud integrations are better than ever, more ongoing maintenance is required compared to all-in-one systems.
The Consultant Ecosystems
A positive longevity effect for Salesforce is the sheer volume of worldwide administrators and developers.
So many people are involved with Salesforce that the company has dubbed this global collective the ‘Salesforce Economy.’
While an extensive group of marketing agencies and independent consultants are experts in HubSpot Marketing Hub and CMS Hub, HubSpot’s consultant ecosystem for Sales, Service, Operations, and Commerce Hubs is newer.
If you plan to use a third party for CRM implementation and integration services, the Salesforce ecosystem currently has more collective experience.
The HubSpot & Salesforce App Marketplaces
Third-party CRM apps typically include integrations, add-ons, and natively installed enhanced functionality.
HubSpot’s App Marketplace has over 1,700 apps.
Salesforce’s AppExchange has over 7,000 third-party apps.
HubSpot’s App Marketplace is geared toward ease of use and SMB needs. In contrast, Salesforce’s AppExchange offers a broader, more customizable set of tools, many of which are suited for larger companies seeking extensive functionality.
For example, while HubSpot’s App Marketplace offers integration solutions for various accounting systems, AccountingSeed provides a complete accounting system on the Salesforce platform that can be installed from the AppExchange.
Freemium vs. Only Pay-For
While Salesforce gives time and money to many organizations and people, it does not provide free licenses to business customers.
On the other hand, HubSpot continues to use an extensive freemium model with ‘lite’ functionality for up to five users at no charge. This pricing model means an extensive try-before-you-buy experience compared to a time-limited free trial.
CRM vendor prices constantly change, but as of the last update to this article, HubSpot’s Sales Hub Enterprise edition was $150 per user per month, and Salesforce’s Sales Cloud Enterprise Edition was $165 per user per month.
Scope of Product Offerings
Salesforce’s growth through acquisition strategy means that the company has many different offerings outside of the core CRM platform. While product brand names have changed, past acquisitions include Slack, Tableau, ExactTarget, Pardot, Demandware, SteelBrick, and Own Company.
HubSpot has acquired far fewer companies than Salesforce and tends toward building all functionality in-house and on a single platform.
A product from HubSpot that Salesforce does not offer is a content management system (CMS). Customers can build entire websites on the same platform as the other HubSpot apps they use.
AI Features
Both vendors offer artificial intelligence capabilities across various functions, such as analytics, email creation, sales forecasting, lead scoring, and customer service.
The vendor’s AI features allow teams to streamline processes and personalize interactions at scale.
Salesforce’s Agentforce lets customers build AI agents, a “proactive, autonomous application that provides specialized, always-on support to employees or customers.”
Salesforce promotes the guardrails of its Einstein Trust Layer.
HubSpot’s Breeze aims to “boost productivity, scale growth, and unlock actionable insights.” It makes AI-driven features accessible to businesses of all sizes.
Its tools emphasize ease of use, with AI-powered agents for content, social media, prospecting, and interacting with website visitors.
Other Breeze features include data enrichment, buyer intent, and form shortening.
Business Process Automation Tools
Business process automation tools like workflow designers have become indispensable to businesses.
Today, these tools are a must-have for sales, marketing, service, and custom applications.
HubSpot’s Workflows were initially designed for marketing requirements but have been applied to address similar business needs for sales, service, and operations.
Salesforce’s Flows have more design and data options and are, therefore, more complex to configure than HubSpot’s Workflows.
HubSpot’s Sequences are a predefined series of scheduled tasks and touchpoints that help users connect with prospects and customers.
Salesforce Engagement Cadences perform a similar function.
The User Experience and Interface
CRM system user adoption is a perennial challenge. CRM vendors are looking for ways to improve the user experience.
Salesforce uses a traditional ‘lists and forms’ CRM interface for standard objects like Leads, Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities.
By contrast, the HubSpot record detail view de-emphasizes traditional-looking forms and fields and emphasizes activities more. HubSpot has a robust user interface for companies focusing heavily on sales pursuit and Account-Based Marketing (ABM).
A thorough analysis is critical for the highest CRM success before any significant change in CRM software platforms.
It’s not just about the general differences between HubSpot and Salesforce but how respective platforms address your organization’s unique needs.
