HubSpot CRM vs Pipedrive for small sales teams

The case for

• The free CRM stores up to a million contacts with no time limit, which is more headroom than most teams reach before they pay.
• Sales Hub Starter is 9 dollars per seat per month on annual billing against 15 monthly, and you buy only the seats you need.
• HubSpot India Private Limited issues e-invoices carrying an IRN and QR code to customers with a valid GSTIN, so GST paperwork is handled locally.

The catch

• Sales Hub Professional costs 90 dollars per seat per month on annual billing and carries a one time onboarding fee of 1,500 dollars.
• Sales Hub Enterprise is 150 dollars per seat per month with no annual discount, plus a one time onboarding fee of 3,500 dollars.
• Marketing Hub bills by marketing contacts in blocks of 1,000, so crossing from 2,000 to 2,001 contacts pushes you into the next tier.
• Automated payments above 15,000 rupees need SMS approval each cycle under Indian card rules, and a missed approval fails the payment.

The case for

• Lite starts at 14 euros per seat per month on annual billing, which buys a complete visual sales pipeline without a sales call.
• Every plan is self serve with a 14 day trial, so a five person team can evaluate and buy without talking to anyone.
• Annual billing drops the Lite seat price from 24 dollars to 14 dollars, so committing for a year removes a large part of the cost.

The catch

• Monthly billing on Lite costs 24 dollars per seat against 14 dollars annually, so paying month to month costs roughly 70 percent more.
• LeadBooster, Web Visitors, Campaigns, Projects and Smart Docs are separate paid add-ons, and LeadBooster alone adds 32.50 euros per month.
• Annual plans are not refunded pro rata on mid term cancellation, and downgrading mid term refunds none of the price difference either.
• Seats you remove keep billing until the renewal date, and buyers report being charged for seats they had already cancelled.