If you're exploring tools to grow your business, HubSpot has likely appeared on your radar. It’s a well-known platform in marketing and sales software, promising an all-in-one platform to attract leads, engage prospects, and delight customers. It offers a solution for nearly every team, from marketing to sales and customer service.
But as you navigate its extensive offerings, one question quickly comes to mind: how much does it all actually cost? The HubSpot pricing structure can feel complex. Understanding the specific HubSpot marketing hub pricing versus the HubSpot sales hub pricing requires a close look at its various "Hubs," feature tiers, and add-on costs. For many businesses, calculating the total investment required, including HubSpot seat pricing, is a significant challenge.
This guide will demystify the HubSpot pricing plans. We'll break down the hubspot crm pricing for each Hub and bundle, from the marketing hub pricing to the sales hub professional pricing. We'll examine every feature available at each tier and explore whether it’s the right fit for you. More importantly, we'll introduce a powerful, more integrated alternative to help you make the best decision for your team’s needs and budget.
What is Hubspot?
Image source: hubspot.com
HubSpot is a comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed to help businesses manage their marketing, sales, and customer service efforts. Its core strength lies in its modular structure, built around different "Hubs." Each Hub caters to a specific business function but is designed to work together, creating a unified view of the customer journey. Each tier makes a different set of features available to users.
Key features of HubSpot's platform include:
Marketing automation tools: Create and automate marketing campaigns, manage social media, and build landing pages to generate leads.
Sales pipeline management: Track deals, manage contacts, and automate sales processes and outreach to close deals faster.
Customer service tools: Implement ticketing systems, knowledge bases, and in-app chat to support and retain customers. The exact feature available depends on your subscription level.
Content management system (CMS): Build and manage a website that is fully integrated with your CRM data.
While HubSpot offers a powerful suite, its tools are often used in separate modules. For a truly unified experience where CRM, chat, and project management exist in one seamless platform, an alternative like Lark helps eliminate app-switching and keeps your team aligned.
Key pricing factors to calculate Hubspot price
Before diving into specific numbers, it’s crucial to understand the variables that determine your final HubSpot pricing. The cost isn't just a simple monthly fee; it's a calculation based on how you use the platform and which features you need. Understanding these factors will help you accurately estimate your potential investment and avoid unexpected costs down the line.
Your chosen hubs and tiers
The foundation of your HubSpot cost is which Hubs (e.g., Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, Operations Hub) you subscribe to and at which tier (Starter, Professional, or Enterprise). Each combination unlocks a different set of tools, and the specific feature available varies greatly between a Hub Starter plan and a Hub Enterprise plan. You can start with one Hub and add more later, or purchase a bundled Customer Platform Suite at a discount.
Number of marketing contacts
For the Marketing Hub, a primary cost driver is your number of "marketing contacts." These are the individuals you can send marketing emails to or target with ads. The Starter, Professional, and Enterprise plans include a certain number of marketing contacts in the base price. As your list grows beyond that threshold, your cost for additional marketing contacts will increase in tiered increments. It's essential to manage your contact list to avoid paying for disengaged leads.
Number of paid user seats
Unlike marketing contacts, paid seats apply to the Sales Hub and Service Hub. A "seat" is a license for one of your team members to access the advanced features available in the Professional or Enterprise plans. The question of how many users need access directly impacts your bill. For example, if you have five salespeople who need access to the Sales Hub Professional features, you will need to purchase five paid seats. Adding additional users increases your monthly cost.
Mandatory onboarding fees
This is an important and often overlooked cost. If you subscribe to any Hub at the Professional or Enterprise level, HubSpot requires a one-time, mandatory onboarding fee. This fee can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars. HubSpot states this is to ensure you are properly set up for success and can use every feature available to you, but it's a significant upfront investment you must budget for.
Product add-ons
Finally, you can further customize your plan with various add-ons for an additional monthly fee. These additional features might include increasing API call limits, purchasing a dedicated IP address for sending emails, or adding more custom reporting dashboards. These are optional but can be necessary as your business needs become more complex.
Hubspot pricing plans breakdown
The core of HubSpot pricing is broken down into its specialized Hubs. Each Hub focuses on a different area of your business, and each has its own pricing tiers. The feature available in each plan is designed for businesses at different stages of growth. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what you can expect from the Starter and Professional plans for the most popular Hubs.
Hubspot Marketing Hub pricing
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The Marketing Hub is designed to help you attract an audience, convert leads, and run inbound marketing campaigns at scale.
Starter
Pricing: Starts at $9 per month per seat.
Best for: Small businesses that need essential tools to capture leads and run basic marketing campaigns.
Features include:
Includes 1,000 marketing contacts
Landing pages and forms
Email marketing
List segmentation
Live chat
Removal of HubSpot branding
Professional
Pricing: Starts at $800 per month.
Best for: Growing businesses that want to scale their marketing with powerful automation and personalization.
Features include:
Includes 2,000 marketing contacts and 3 core seats
Omni-channel marketing automation
A/B testing for emails and landing pages
Custom reporting and dashboards
SEO recommendations and content strategy
Social media scheduling and management
A one-time Professional Onboarding for a fee of $3,000 is required.
Enterprise
Pricing: Starts at $3,600 per month.
Best for: Large organizations with complex marketing operations needing advanced analytics and team management.
Features include:
Includes 10,000 marketing contacts and 5 core seats
Multi-touch revenue attribution
Predictive lead scoring
Adaptive testing for website pages
Hierarchical team management
Custom objects for advanced data segmentation
A one-time Enterprise Onboarding for a fee of $7,000 is required.
Hubspot Sales Hub pricing
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The Sales Hub provides your sales team with the tools they need to close more deals, deepen relationships, and manage their pipeline efficiently.
Starter
Pricing: Starts at $9 per month per seat.
Best for: New or small sales teams just starting to use a CRM to organize their sales process.
Features include:
Deal pipelines
Simple sales automation
Quote creation
Meeting scheduler
Reporting dashboard
Professional
Pricing: Starts at $90 per month per seat.
Best for: Established sales teams looking to increase productivity with automation, forecasting, and personalization.
Features include:
Advanced sales automation sequences
Sales forecasting tools
Multiple deal pipelines
E-signatures for quotes
Personalized video messaging
A one-time Professional Onboarding for a fee of $1,500 is required.
Enterprise
Pricing: Starts at $150 per month per seat.
Best for: Large sales organizations that require advanced tools for coaching, management, and complex reporting.
Features include:
Conversation intelligence and call transcription
Predictive lead scoring
Custom objects
Advanced permissions and user roles
Sales playbooks
A one-time Enterprise Onboarding for a fee of $3,500 is required.
Hubspot Service Hub pricing
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The Service Hub is focused on helping you deliver exceptional customer service and support.
Starter
Pricing: Starts at $9 per month per seat.
Best for: Small support teams needing to organize customer inquiries and streamline communication.
Features include:
Ticketing system
Live chat and shared inbox
Basic reporting on ticket volume
Meeting scheduler
Simple help desk automation
Professional
Pricing: Starts at $90 per month per seat.
Best for: Growing service teams that want to be more proactive and measure customer satisfaction effectively.
Features include:
Knowledge base creation
Customer feedback surveys (NPS, CSAT, CES)
Service level agreement (SLA) management
Advanced help desk automation
Customer portal
A one-time Professional Onboarding for a fee of $1,500 is required.
Enterprise
Pricing: Starts at $150 per month per seat.
Best for: Large service departments requiring advanced tools for managing teams and complex support operations.
Features include:
Custom goals and playbooks
Advanced user roles and permissions
Field-level permissions for data security
Conversation intelligence
Skill-based routing
A one-time Enterprise Onboarding for a fee of $3,500 is required.
Hubspot Content Hub pricing
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The Content Hub (formerly CMS Hub) helps you create and manage a powerful, optimized website integrated with your CRM.
Starter
Pricing: Starts at $9 per month per seat.
Best for: Businesses needing a professional, secure, and reliable website without complex features.
Features include:
Drag-and-drop website editor
Premium website themes
Standard security features like SSL
Basic SEO recommendations
Website traffic analytics
Professional
Pricing: Starts at $450 per month.
Best for: Marketers focused on optimizing their website for conversions and personalizing the user experience.
Features include:
Includes 3 core seats
Smart content and dynamic personalization
A/B testing for website pages
Custom reporting on web performance
Advanced SEO tools
Video hosting and management
Enterprise
Pricing: Starts at $1,500 per month.
Best for: Companies managing multiple web properties or needing advanced web application functionalities.
Features include:
Includes 5 core seats
Custom objects to build web apps
Content partitioning to manage multiple sites
Advanced security and governance controls
Hubspot Operations Hub pricing
Image source: hubspot.com
Operations Hub is designed to sync, clean, and curate customer data, as well as automate business processes.
Starter
Pricing: Starts at $9 per month per seat.
Best for: Businesses needing to ensure their customer data is clean and consistent across different applications.
Features include:
Data sync with third-party apps
Automated data cleanup
Email health reporting
List segmentation based on synced data
Professional
Pricing: Starts at $720 per month.
Best for: Operations teams that need to create custom automation to fit unique and complex business processes.
Features include:
Includes 1 core seat
Programmable automation (custom code in workflows)
Data quality command center
Webhook integrations
Scheduled workflow triggers
Enterprise
Pricing: Starts at $2,000 per month.
Best for: Large companies with complex data and operational needs requiring advanced reporting and management.
Features include:
Includes 1 core seat
Datasets for creating custom reports
Advanced data formatting tools
Data quality issue management
Snowflake data share integration
Hubspot Commerce Hub pricing
Image source: hubspot.com
The newest addition, Commerce Hub, allows you to manage payments, invoices, and subscriptions directly within HubSpot. Unlike other Hubs, Commerce Hub does not have tiered monthly fees. Instead, it offers a set of free-to-use core features and charges a consumption-based fee for each payment processed through the platform.
You have two options for processing payments: using HubSpot Payments (their native solution) or connecting your existing Stripe account. The right choice depends on your business location and fee structure preference.
Here is a breakdown based on the latest official information:
Note: For HubSpot Payments, international transactions and currency conversions may incur additional fees. The rates shown are for the United States; fees for other regions like the UK and Canada may vary.
Why Lark is the best alternative to Hubspot
While HubSpot is a leader in customer-facing software, its pricing can quickly become a significant hurdle. The costs for marketing contacts, seats, and mandatory onboarding can add up, pushing it out of reach for many growing businesses. Another challenge is that nearly every advanced feature available comes with a higher price tag. Moreover, HubSpot is designed for marketing and sales, but what about the rest of your business operations? You still need tools for internal communication, project management, and team collaboration.
This is where Lark offers a powerful and cost-effective alternative. It’s not just a CRM or a marketing hub tool; it’s an all-in-one platform that unifies your customer management with your team's daily work, including chat, meetings, documents, and project management—all in one place.
Lark vs. Hubspot: Pricing comparison
Let’s break down how the pricing models compare and why Lark provides more value, especially for startups and small-to-medium-sized businesses.
Hubspot pricing overview
As we've seen, HubSpot pricing is modular and usage-based. You pay for each Hub, with costs increasing based on your number of marketing contacts and user seats. The feature available to you is strictly tied to your payment tier. The reliance on different tiers and add-ons can make budgeting unpredictable, and the mandatory onboarding fees for Hub Professional and Enterprise plans add a significant upfront cost. Even the ability to remove HubSpot branding is a paid feature.
Lark pricing overview
Lark’s pricing is simple and all-inclusive. It offers three straightforward plans:
Starter: Free for teams of up to 20 users. Features include 18 months of message history, 100GB of storage, 1,000 automated Base workflow executions per month, unlimited AI translation, enterprise search, and 10 wiki spaces.
Pro: $12 per user/month (billed annually), for teams up to 500. Features include everything in Starter, plus unlimited message history, 15TB of storage, 50,000 automated Base workflow executions per month, unlimited meeting transcription, and video conferences with up to 500 attendees for up to 24 hours.
Enterprise: Custom pricing for large organizations with unlimited users. Features include everything in Pro, plus supergroups of up to 50,000 users, 15TB of base storage with an additional 30GB per user, 500,000 automated Base workflow executions per month, Single Sign-On (SSO), and advanced security, management, and compliance controls.
Instead of charging for separate Hubs, Lark provides its entire suite of powerful tools in one subscription. With Lark's savings calculator, you can see that a team of 100 using tools like Slack, Google Workspace, and a separate CRM could save over $25,000 annually by switching to Lark. 👉 Try Savings Calculator now!
Lark free plan vs. Hubspot free plan: What’s included?
Both platforms offer free plans, but their value propositions are worlds apart. While HubSpot provides a collection of excellent but separate basic tools, Lark delivers a fully integrated, all-in-one suite designed to run your entire team's operations.
Here’s a direct comparison of what’s included in each free plan:
As the table shows, HubSpot's free offering is a great starting point for basic customer-facing activities. However, Lark's free Starter plan equips an entire team of up to 20 people with a complete, operational toolkit for free—something HubSpot’s free plan cannot match.
Lark vs. Hubspot: Features comparison
Beyond pricing, the fundamental difference lies in their approach to business software. HubSpot provides best-in-class tools for customer-facing teams, while Lark provides an integrated platform for your entire organization.
Key features of Hubspot
Marketing automation: Renowned for its ability to build sophisticated lead nurturing workflows and email campaigns.
Sales pipeline management: Provides clear, visual pipelines for tracking deals from lead to close, showing when deals change stages.
Comprehensive contact management: A powerful database that creates a 360-degree view of every customer interaction.
Detailed analytics: Offers robust reporting dashboards to measure marketing and sales performance. The quality of the custom reporting feature available depends on the plan.
Limitations
However, HubSpot's primary limitation is its focus. It’s not built for internal collaboration. Teams often find themselves paying for a HubSpot account while also subscribing to Slack for communication, Asana for project management, and Google Workspace for documents. This creates data silos, increases costs, and forces teams to constantly switch between apps. The platform also presents many limited features unless you upgrade.
Key features of Lark
A unified workspace: Chat, meetings, calendar, and documents are seamlessly connected in one app. You can start a video call from a chat using Lark Meetings, share a collaborative Lark doc with one-click permissions, or create a team event in Lark Calendar without ever leaving your conversation. Every feature available is designed for synergy.
Customizable work management: Lark Base is a powerful no-code database that empowers anyone to build the tools they need. You can create a custom CRM, a sales pipeline, an inventory tracker, or a project management board with simple drag-and-drop functionality and powerful views like Kanban and Gantt charts. This is a key feature available even on the free plan.
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Integrated project and task management: With Lark Tasks, you can create task lists, assign duties, and manage task queues and track progress. You can even turn any message in Lark Messenger into a task, ensuring action items never get lost in conversation.
Powerful automation: With Lark AnyCross and built-in automations, you can automate reminders, follow-ups, and data syncing across your apps without writing a single line of code. For example, set up a workflow where a new entry in Lark Base automatically sends a notification to your sales team in Messenger. This automation feature is available across the platform.
AI-powered productivity: Lark uses AI to enhance efficiency across the platform. This includes generating automatic meeting summaries in Lark Meetings, translating chats and documents in real-time, and using smart functions in Lark Base to categorize and extract data. The AI feature available here acts as a productivity multiplier.
Enterprise-grade security and integration: Lark ensures your data is protected with advanced permission controls, single sign-on (SSO), and compliance with global standards. Its Lark AnyCross integration platform allows you to connect with hundreds of other tools, centralizing your entire tech stack.
Lark’s strengths over Hubspot
True all-in-one platform: While HubSpot excels at customer-facing tasks, Lark manages both internal collaboration and external communication. It eliminates the need for a separate tech stack for your team's daily work, reducing costs and complexity. Lark functions as a complete customer platform and internal OS.
Unbeatable value: For the price of a single Hub Starter plan, you can get Lark's Pro plan for a dozen users, giving them access to a full suite of enterprise-grade tools. There are no hidden fees for contacts or mandatory onboarding. Almost every feature available is included in one price.
Flexibility and customization: HubSpot’s structure is relatively fixed. With Lark Base, you can build a CRM or project management system that is perfectly tailored to your team's workflow, without paying for features you don't need. This puts the power of customization in your hands, not behind an enterprise paywall. This powerful feature is available to all users.
Seamless global collaboration: Lark breaks down language barriers for global teams. Its real-time meeting translation and subtitles mean team members from different countries can collaborate effortlessly in the same meeting. This fosters a more inclusive and efficient environment, a level of internal team support that HubSpot’s customer-focused communication tools are not designed to address.
How to choose the right pricing plan for your needs
Selecting the right software and pricing plan is a critical decision that can impact your team's productivity and your company's bottom line. With so many options available, it's important to think strategically..
Assess your core needs first
Before looking at any pricing page, list your must-have features. Do you primarily need essential marketing automation tools, or is a flexible CRM for tracking sales deals more important? Are you looking for a tool just for your sales team, or do you need a solution that your entire company can use for collaboration? Being clear about your priorities will prevent you from being distracted by flashy additional features you’ll never use.
Calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO)
Don't just look at the monthly price. Consider all the associated costs. This includes per-user fees, charges for exceeding contact limits, mandatory onboarding fees, and the cost of any other software you'll need to supplement it (like a separate chat or project management tool). Factor in the price of adding additional users as your team grows. If budget is a primary concern, an all-in-one platform like Lark offers a significant advantage, bundling collaboration and CRM tools into one affordable plan and eliminating the need for separate subscriptions.
Look for scalability and flexibility
Your business will grow, and your tools should be able to grow with you. Examine how the pricing changes as you add more users or contacts. Can the tool be customized to your workflow? Many free and starter plans have limited features, so check if the upgrade path is reasonable. Avoid getting locked into a rigid system that can't adapt. If your primary need is a customizable CRM and project tracker without a steep learning curve, a tool like Lark Base allows you to build exactly what you need without the overwhelming complexity of enterprise software.
Take advantage of free trials and demos
Never commit to a platform without trying it first. Use the free trial period to test the software with your team. Is it intuitive? Does it actually solve the problems you identified? A hands-on experience is the best way to determine if a tool is a good fit for your company culture and workflow. Verify which feature is available in each plan and how it works in practice.
Ultimately, choosing the right plan means finding a balance between features and affordability. For a truly scalable solution that combines powerful features with a predictable cost, Lark provides an integrated platform that grows with your team's needs.
Conclusion
Navigating HubSpot pricing can feel like a daunting task. While HubSpot offers an undeniably powerful suite of tools for marketing, sales, and service, its complex pricing structure, driven by contacts, user seats, and mandatory fees, can quickly become a significant expense for growing businesses. The cost of admission for its most valuable features in the Professional and Enterprise tiers places it out of reach for many, forcing them to juggle multiple, disconnected tools to fill the gaps. The platform often presents limited features on its lower-cost plans to encourage upgrades.
Ultimately, the right choice depends on finding a balance between robust features and predictable, affordable pricing. HubSpot is a fantastic tool for what it does, but if you're looking for a solution that supports your entire business—not just your customer-facing teams—without breaking the bank, it's worth exploring alternatives. For a truly seamless and cost-effective platform that combines CRM with all the collaboration tools your team needs, consider giving Lark a try.
FAQs
How much does HubSpot cost?
HubSpot’s cost varies widely depending on your chosen Hubs (Marketing, Sales, etc.), tiers (Starter, Professional, Enterprise), and usage. Plans currently start as low as $9 per user per month for the Starter tier, but Professional plans begin at several hundred dollars per month and can easily reach thousands, plus mandatory one-time onboarding fees.
What are the downsides of HubSpot?
The primary downsides are its high cost for scaling businesses and its complexity, which can be overwhelming. Another key limitation is that it’s not built for internal team collaboration, often requiring separate subscriptions for tools like chat and project management, which adds to the overall expense and creates data silos.
Is HubSpot CRM actually free?
Yes, the foundational HubSpot CRM is free to use and provides excellent tools for storing contact and company data. However, most of the features that make HubSpot a powerhouse—like advanced automation, detailed reporting, and campaign management—are locked behind its paid Starter, Professional, and Enterprise plans.
What is cheaper than HubSpot?
Lark is a significantly more affordable alternative that offers greater functionality in one platform. Its Pro plan provides a full suite of tools, including a customizable CRM, in-app chat, meetings, and project management, for just $12 per user/month—a fraction of the cost of a single HubSpot Professional Hub. Lark also provides extensive user resources and support without extra fees.
