Choosing the right CRM is about more than a feature checklist.
The right platform must align with your sales processes, marketing goals, and customer experience strategy — and set your business up for the right stage of growth that you're at.
HubSpot and Pipedrive are both popular options, but they serve very different needs.
Here’s a breakdown to help you know whether HubSpot or Pipedrive is a better fit for your business.
HubSpot is a full CRM ecosystem: sales, marketing, service, and operations all in one platform. It’s built for teams that want an integrated solution and plan to scale.
Pipedrive is laser-focused on sales pipelines. It’s ideal for small teams that want to track deals.
| Feature | HubSpot | Pipedrive |
|---|---|---|
| Sales Pipeline | Advanced, customizable pipelines | Visual, simple pipelines |
| Marketing Automation | Built-in workflows, email campaigns | Limited; relies on third-party tools |
| Reporting & Analytics | Comprehensive dashboards and reporting | Customizable reports; less advanced |
| Integrations | Extensive native integrations | Over 400 third-party integrations |
| AI & Automation | Predictive lead scoring, workflows, chatbots | Basic automation and sales activity tracking |
| Pricing | Free tier available; paid plans scale with features | Straightforward per-user pricing; no free tier |
Pipedrive is a great tool if your goal is tracking deals and moving them through a pipeline. It’s visual, easy to use, and helps sales teams stay organised.
HubSpot adds layers: Pipelines are still there, but you can link deals to marketing campaigns, customer service tickets, and automation rules. This is ideal for businesses where sales, marketing, and support need to work together.
HubSpot: Powerful marketing automation is baked in. Email campaigns, lead nurturing, workflows, and AI-driven scoring are all part of the platform.
Pipedrive: Marketing functionality is limited. Teams often rely on external tools like Mailchimp or Outfunnel to manage campaigns, meaning extra integration work.
HubSpot Service Hub: Full ticketing system, knowledge base, and live chat functionality. Perfect for businesses that want to unify customer service with sales and marketing.
Pipedrive: Customer support features are minimal. Teams needing integrated service tools will have to layer additional apps.
Pipedrive: Simple, predictable pricing. You get what you pay for—a solid, visual sales pipeline without extra bells and whistles. Ideal for teams where budget matters more than comprehensive features.
HubSpot: At first glance, HubSpot can seem expensive—but it often replaces multiple tools. For example, in the Freedom Heat Pumps migration, it consolidated their sales tool, an emailing tool, help desk software, and customer survey platform, (and more!) into one system. When you add up the costs of all those separate tools, HubSpot quickly becomes more cost-effective and efficient, while giving teams a single source of truth for sales, marketing, and service.
Choose HubSpot if you need a platform that grows with you, integrates all teams, and supports automation, reporting, and customer service in one place.
Choose Pipedrive if your priority is a simple, visual, easy-to-use sales pipeline that keeps your team organized without adding extra layers.
Many businesses start with Pipedrive because it’s simple and quick to implement. But as teams grow and require marketing automation, service integration, and deeper reporting, migrating to HubSpot becomes an attractive option.
This is exactly how we helpedFreedom Heat Pumps. Their sales, marketing, and service teams were all using separate tools. elcap helped them:
Audit and clean their Pipedrive data
Migrate pipelines, contacts, and deals into HubSpot
Integrate WordPress and automate marketing workflows
Train their teams to use HubSpot efficiently
The result? One unified CRM that supports every team and unlocks more value from their HubSpot license.