Freshsales vs HubSpot: low-cost sales CRM or broader platform?

The real difference between Freshsales and HubSpot

Freshsales is Freshworks' sales CRM. It is sold as a simple ladder of four plans (Free, Growth, Pro and Enterprise) where each step adds more of the same sales machinery: pipelines, workflows, sequences, bulk email and reporting. Even the top plan stays at $59 per user per month.

HubSpot is a customer platform with a CRM at its center. Sales Hub is one of several hubs that share the same contacts, companies and deals with marketing and service. The free tools are generous, Starter is cheap, and then Professional more than quadruples the seat price and adds a required onboarding fee.

For pure selling, Freshsales delivers more automation per dollar at every paid tier. HubSpot earns its higher price when other teams work from the same records, or when you can stay on its free tools.

Freshsales vs HubSpot at a glance

Freshsales vs HubSpot pricing

Freshsales lists Growth at $9, Pro at $39 and Enterprise at $59 per user per month on annual billing. Monthly billing costs $11, $47 and $71, roughly 20% more. HubSpot Sales Hub lists Starter at $20 per seat, Professional at $90 on annual billing and Enterprise at $150 (annual only), and both upper tiers carry a one-time onboarding fee you cannot skip.

The like-for-like comparison is the first plan with sequences. For five users, Freshsales Pro costs $2,340 in year one and HubSpot Professional $6,900, close to three times as much. Even Freshsales Enterprise ($3,540 for five) costs about half of HubSpot Professional. In year two HubSpot's onboarding fee drops away, but five Professional seats still cost $5,400.

For plan-by-plan detail see Freshsales pricing and HubSpot pricing, or enter your own seat count in the CRM pricing calculator.

Free plans: Freshsales covers more users, HubSpot more tools

Freshsales' free plan covers up to 3 users. It has no workflows and no sequences, multiple pipelines start on Pro, and custom reports start on Pro too. In practice it is a shared contact and deal list for a team of three, with automation arriving only when you pay.

HubSpot's free tools stop at 2 users and, per HubSpot's pricing FAQ, 1,000 contacts. In exchange they document much more: Gmail or Outlook connection, email tracking with 200 open notifications a month, 3 email templates, a personal meeting link, forms with one automated email each, live chat, one shared inbox and up to 10 dashboards. The catches are HubSpot branding, only 10 custom properties, one pipeline per object, and reports and record timelines that only look back 30 days.

Our take: a team of three that only needs a shared pipeline should start on Freshsales Free. One or two people who live in their inbox and want forms and chat on their website will get more from HubSpot's free tools. See every free option side by side in the best free CRM software, and the full limits in HubSpot free CRM limits.

Pipelines and deal management

Both products put deals on a stage-by-stage board; the difference is how many pipelines you get and at what price. Freshsales gives you one pipeline on Free and Growth, 10 on Pro and 25 on Enterprise. HubSpot gives one per object on the free tools, then 15 on Starter, 100 on Professional and 350 on Enterprise, counted across all objects such as deals and tickets.

That makes HubSpot Starter the cheaper route to several pipelines: 15 at a $20 list price, against Freshsales Pro's 10 at $39. If you run one sales motion, the count does not matter and Freshsales Growth at $9 is enough. If you sell new business, renewals and partner deals through separate stages, budget for Pro or Starter from day one.

Define your stages before you count pipelines; our CRM pipeline stages guide shows how.

Email, sequences and automation

For routine automation, such as assigning new leads or creating a follow-up task when a deal changes stage, Freshsales Growth's 20 basic workflows are a sensible start at $9. HubSpot Starter offers more workflows on paper, but they are the restricted Starter version, and neither product includes sequences below its third tier.

The real gap is at the sequence tier. Freshsales Pro adds sequences, 50 advanced workflows and 1,000 bulk emails a day for $39 per user. HubSpot reaches the same capability at Professional, where you also get 300 workflows that can act on marketing, sales and service records. Only teams with many automated processes across departments will use that extra headroom.

Reporting, customization and AI

Reports. Freshsales unlocks custom reports on Pro. HubSpot's free tools include up to 10 dashboards with 30 days of history, but custom reports start at Professional (100) and Enterprise (500), along with default and custom forecasting; Enterprise adds forecasting by team hierarchy.

Custom data. Both keep custom objects for the top tier: Freshsales Enterprise includes 10 custom modules at $59 per user, and HubSpot Enterprise includes 10 custom object definitions at $150 per seat plus $3,500 onboarding. If you need record types of your own, Freshsales is the far cheaper way to get them.

AI. The pricing models differ. Freshsales sells Freddy AI as an add-on at $49 per 100 sessions, a separate line on the bill. HubSpot includes monthly credits (500 on Starter, 3,000 on Professional, 5,000 on Enterprise) that AI agents and data features draw on; extra credits cost $0.010 each and the allowance resets monthly rather than rolling over.

Calling, marketing and service

HubSpot includes calling minutes in every Sales Hub tier: 500 a month on Starter, 3,000 on Professional and 12,000 on Enterprise, although calling is not supported in every country. If phone selling is central to your team, make calling part of your Freshsales trial and confirm number availability and call costs for your country before you compare totals.

Marketing and service are where HubSpot pulls ahead. Marketing Hub and Service Hub share the same contact records as sales, so a marketer can see which campaign produced a deal and support can see what was promised. Freshsales is a sales CRM first; its bulk email allowance (250 to 5,000 a day by plan) covers announcements and simple campaigns to your own contacts, and anything deeper means another tool.

One HubSpot cost to know: new customers who want to send quotes from the CRM now need a Revenue Hub subscription, priced at $95 (Professional) or $140 (Enterprise) per Revenue Seat.

Pros and cons

Freshsales

HubSpot

Who should choose Freshsales, and who should choose HubSpot

Still weighing options? See the Freshsales alternatives, the HubSpot alternatives or HubSpot vs Pipedrive. Teams of five or more reps should also read the best CRM for sales teams of 5 to 20, or score both in the CRM scorecard.