For a straightforward sales CRM, start with Pipedrive. For marketing automation without paying $890 a month, ActiveCampaign covers most of what Marketing Hub Professional does for far less. For one platform doing marketing, sales, and support on a small budget, Zoho CRM Plus is the closest match to what HubSpot promises. .
I run marketing for a three person coaching business, and six weeks ago I moved our lead capture and nurture sequences off HubSpot's Marketing Hub after the Professional quote landed in my inbox. HubSpot's own G2 reviews page (14,797 reviews, 4.4 out of 5) kept surfacing the same complaint I was about to have myself: the jump from Starter to Professional. One named G2 reviewer, an inbound marketing strategist and small business owner, put it plainly after HubSpot auto upgraded his contact tier and refused to reverse it: "I consider this very sketchy."
That's the story behind this list. HubSpot's free CRM is good, and Starter at $20 a seat is fair. The trouble starts at Professional, and this guide is built around the businesses hitting that wall.
Why people go looking for something else
HubSpot's own Marketing Hub pricing page shows Professional starting at $800 a month billed annually (or $890 month to month) for 3 core seats, and that price does not include the required, one time Professional onboarding fee of $3,000. Enterprise's onboarding fee alone is $7,000, before a single month of the $3,600 subscription. 
There's a second cost most buyers miss. HubSpot's own pricing FAQ states every Core Seat in an account prices at the highest tier owned across all your hubs. A 5 person marketing team on Starter at $20 a seat doesn't just pay extra when it adds one Sales Hub Enterprise seat for a single rep, all 5 existing marketing seats reprice to Enterprise's rate too. A team that thought it added one sales seat ends up repricing its whole marketing team, a mechanic buried in the FAQ, not the pricing table.
The onboarding fee nobody mentions
HubSpot isn't alone here. Keap charges a required $500 onboarding fee on top of its $249 a month base plan, roughly a sixth of HubSpot's Professional charge, and nowhere near HubSpot's $7,000 Enterprise fee. If a mandatory setup fee is a dealbreaker, check for one before you sign, since it rarely shows up in the plan comparison table.
Best HubSpot Alternatives Explained
1. Pipedrive
From $14/seat/mo (Lite, annual) | Best for: sales teams that just need a clean pipeline
Pipedrive was built as a sales CRM first, and it shows in the drag and drop pipeline view. There's no marketing hub bolted on, which is why teams that only need sales tracking end up here instead of paying for HubSpot's bundled marketing tools they'll never open. Pipedrive's own pricing page shows Growth ($39/seat) adding email sync and automation, and Premium ($59/seat, Pipedrive's most popular tier) adding lead scoring and AI email tools. Even Ultimate ($79/seat) costs less than a single Marketing Hub Professional seat before the onboarding fee.
If Pipedrive itself isn't quite the fit, our Pipedrive alternatives roundup covers more sales focused picks.
2. ActiveCampaign
From $15/mo (Starter, 1,000 contacts, annual) | Best for: email automation without the Professional cliff
ActiveCampaign is where most people land for automated sequences, segmentation, and behavior triggered emails without a four figure monthly bill. Branching logic and conditional splits work even on cheaper tiers, more than HubSpot's own Starter plan offers. Pricing is contact based, so the bill grows with your list, but even Enterprise at $145 a month for 1,000 contacts sits well under HubSpot's Professional price, with no separate onboarding charge.
3. Zoho CRM Plus
From $14/user/mo (Standard, annual) | Best for: budget teams wanting marketing, sales, and support in one login
Zoho runs $14 to $52 a user across four tiers with no sudden cliff, and the free plan supports 3 users. Enterprise at $40 a user includes Zia (Zoho's AI assistant), predictive analytics, and custom modules, locked behind HubSpot's pricier tiers. The interface takes longer to learn, but one G2 reviewer described running an entire agency on Zoho for $45 a user a month, a fraction of a single HubSpot Professional seat.
4. Freshsales
From $9/user/mo (Growth, annual) | Best for: the cheapest paid CRM from a major vendor
Freshsales (Freshworks CRM) undercuts nearly everything on this list. The free plan covers 3 users, and Growth at $9 a user adds a built in phone dialer and Freddy AI lead scoring, tools that usually need a separate integration elsewhere. Pricing tops out around $59 a user, still under half of a Professional seat. Marketing automation is thinner than ActiveCampaign's, so heavy email senders often pair it with a dedicated email tool.
5. EngageBay
From $14.99/mo | Best for: an all in one platform built to compete with HubSpot on price
EngageBay markets itself directly at HubSpot switchers: marketing automation, a sales CRM, and a help desk in one login, without tiered onboarding fees. Capterra reviewers rate it 4.7 out of 5 across more than 900 reviews, with value for money the most cited strength. It won't out feature HubSpot's advanced reporting or 2,000 plus app marketplace, but for the marketing plus sales plus support combo most small teams actually use, it's a close match at roughly a tenth of the Professional price.
6. monday CRM
From $12/seat/mo (Basic, 3 seat minimum) | Best for: teams already running projects in monday
monday CRM grew out of monday.com's work management platform, and it handles pipeline tracking well. If your team already lives in monday for project work, keeping sales data in the same workspace removes a tool switch HubSpot can't offer. The 3 seat minimum means a solo user still pays for 3 seats, so the real starting price is closer to $36 a month. monday CRM also has no AI lead scoring on any plan, a gap against HubSpot, Zoho, and Freshsales.
7. Salesforce Starter Suite
From $25/user/mo | Best for: teams expecting to outgrow a small business CRM within a year or two
Salesforce's Starter Suite covers lead management, dynamic email marketing, and basic analytics, roughly comparable to HubSpot's Starter tier. The difference shows up later: Salesforce's ecosystem of add ons and its AppExchange marketplace go far deeper once you're ready for custom workflows. That depth has a learning curve, and Salesforce has a reputation for needing an administrator to configure properly, something HubSpot markets itself as avoiding.
8. Close
No free plan, tops out around $139/user/mo | Best for: outbound teams calling and emailing from the CRM
Close is built for high volume outbound, with calling, SMS, and email baked directly into the CRM instead of bolted on. There's no free tier, but built in communication tools mean reps skip the separate dialer subscription HubSpot's Sales Hub often requires at Professional. There's no marketing automation layer and no content management system, so Close works best for teams that already have marketing solved and just need sales to move faster.
9. Brevo
Free plan available, paid tiers from roughly $25/mo | Best for: email marketing and CRM without HubSpot's contact tier math
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) pairs email marketing with a built in CRM. Its own SSO add on runs $324 a month on top of the $499 Professional plan, worth flagging, but that combined total still lands well under HubSpot's Professional cliff, and Brevo's entry tiers work fine without it. It's a marketing first platform with CRM features added on, so sales heavy teams may find the deal management thinner than Pipedrive's or Close's.
10. Keap
From $249/mo (2 users, 1,500 contacts, annual, plus a $500 onboarding fee) | Best for: solo operators who want automation without hiring an admin
Keap folds CRM, email, SMS, invoicing, and a landing page builder into one flat priced package instead of gating features by tier. Every customer gets the same tools, and price scales with contacts and seats added on top of the $249 base. The mandatory $500 onboarding fee is real, but it's a sixth of HubSpot's Professional charge and nowhere near HubSpot's $7,000 Enterprise fee.
11. Salesflare
From $29/user/mo (Growth) | Best for: a lightweight CRM that fills itself in automatically
Salesflare's pitch is minimal manual data entry: it pulls contact details, email signatures, and meeting history automatically instead of asking reps to type them in. G2 reviewers rate it 4.8 out of 5, among the highest scores on this list. It's built for small teams, and it doesn't try to match HubSpot's marketing automation or reporting depth at scale.
12. HighLevel
From $97/mo (Starter, unlimited contacts and users) | Best for: agencies managing multiple client accounts
HighLevel bundles a CRM, funnel builder, email and SMS marketing, and appointment scheduling into a flat monthly price, with unlimited contacts and users on every tier, a stark contrast to HubSpot's contact tier math. Agencies get real value from Unlimited at $297 a month, since sub accounts scale without the per client cost HubSpot would charge. The Starter plan's 3 sub account cap limits solo businesses, and usage based add ons for SMS, calls, and AI stack on top of the base price.
13. Attio
Custom pricing, per user, billed annually | Best for: data heavy teams that want a CRM built around live data
Attio syncs automatically with email, calendar, and outside data sources rather than relying on reps filling in fields by hand. One G2 reviewer switching from Salesforce called out the lower learning curve and lower cost as the reasons for the move. It fits Series A and later startups better than a first time CRM buyer, since it assumes some technical comfort configuring data models.
How the HubSpot Alternatives Pricing actually Compares
Tool | Starting price | Free plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
Pipedrive | $14/seat/mo | No | Clean sales pipeline |
ActiveCampaign | $15/mo | No | Marketing automation |
Zoho CRM Plus | $14/user/mo | Yes, 3 users | Budget all in one |
Freshsales | $9/user/mo | Yes, 3 users | Cheapest paid CRM |
EngageBay | $14.99/mo | Yes | HubSpot style bundle |
monday CRM | $12/seat/mo | No | Teams already on monday |
Salesforce Starter | $25/user/mo | No | Room to scale later |
Close | ~$139/user/mo top tier | No | Outbound calling |
Brevo | Free tier | Yes | Email plus CRM |
Keap | $249/mo | No | Solo automation |
Salesflare | $29/user/mo | No | Self filling CRM |
HighLevel | $97/mo | No | Agencies, flat price |
Attio | Custom | No | Data first startups |
How to pick HubSpot Alternatives without wasting a trial period
Start with what you're actually replacing, since HubSpot is a bundle and most teams only use part of it. Mainly running email campaigns and nurture sequences: ActiveCampaign or Brevo cover that directly. Living in the sales pipeline and rarely touching marketing tools: Pipedrive, Close, or Salesflare feel more focused than HubSpot ever did. Wanting one login for marketing, sales, and support: Zoho CRM Plus and EngageBay are the closest matches for a smaller budget.
Team size matters too. A solo operator gets more from Keap's flat pricing or Salesflare's automatic data entry than from a per seat platform. An agency with several client accounts should look at HighLevel first, since its flat pricing avoids the per client math every seat based CRM forces. Expecting real growth soon: Salesforce Starter Suite or Zoho's higher tiers give you room to grow without a full platform switch later.
FAQs: HubSpot Alternatives
What is the best HubSpot alternative for a small business?
Zoho CRM Plus or EngageBay cover marketing, sales, and support at a fraction of the Professional price, with no required onboarding fee.
Is there a free HubSpot alternative?
Yes. Zoho CRM, Freshsales, and Brevo all offer usable free tiers, and HubSpot's own free CRM stays generous too, the issue only shows up once you need paid features.
What are HubSpot's biggest competitors?
Salesforce and Zoho compete with HubSpot at scale, while Pipedrive, ActiveCampaign, and EngageBay compete for the small and mid sized teams switching away from its pricing.
Is Pipedrive cheaper than HubSpot?
Yes, by a wide margin. Pipedrive's top tier costs $79 a seat a month, less than one seat of Marketing Hub Professional before its $3,000 onboarding fee.
What's a good HubSpot alternative for agencies?
HighLevel is built for agencies managing multiple client accounts, with flat monthly pricing and unlimited sub accounts instead of HubSpot's per seat, per client cost.
Can I migrate my HubSpot data to another CRM?
Most alternatives here, including Zoho, Pipedrive, and Freshsales, support CSV import and guided migration for contacts, deals, and companies, though custom properties rarely transfer cleanly.
Why do people switch away from HubSpot?
The most cited reason across G2 and Capterra reviews is the jump from Starter to Professional, combined with the onboarding fee and the seat repricing rule that raises costs across every hub you own.
Getting started
None of these 13 tools replace HubSpot feature for feature, and that's the point. HubSpot built a platform wide enough to need a $3,000 onboarding fee to configure properly. Most teams switching away don't need that width, they need the 3 or 4 features they were actually paying for. Figure out which hub you're really using, match it to the tool built for that one job, and you'll likely pay less than HubSpot's Starter tier for something that fits better than its Professional tier ever did.