The Customer Relational Management (CRM) software market is both rapidly expanding and intensely competitive. The market has over 379 players vying for dominance. This saturation creates a challenging environment for business when it comes to choosing the one. The market is projected to reach $41.7 billion by mid of 2025. Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft, and Zoho are the top CRM providers based on number of installations.
We’ve picked the two among the bests. Let’s do a comparative analysis on Zoho CRM vs Hubspot CRM.
Introduction
When selecting a CRM, businesses need to consider various factors such as pricing, user-friendliness, market positioning, functionality, scalability, and whether to opt for a best-of-breed or all-in-one approach. The landscape is further complicated by the fact that many CRM providers offer similar features, pricing structures, and even replicate functionalities.
Selecting a CRM system is crucial for businesses to grow, and manage their various stakeholders. At the very front of the CRM market, there are two well-known CRM systems, Zoho CRM and HubSpot CRM.
These two platforms provide features to help companies run their business, but they differ in terms of price, features, customization, integrations, etc. This blog provides a comparative analysis of both Zoho CRM and HubSpot CRM, from features to pricing, reviews, and more to help you make your decision. Before talking about Zoho CRM vs Hubspot, let’s talk about some basics.
What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has assumed a position in business ecosystems and has become non-dispensable. With the help of CRM development services, companies can centralize customer data from multiple sources, streamlining sales, marketing, and customer service processes. It allows businesses to track customer interactions and identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling, promoting collaboration across departments.
With Zoho CRM and HubSpot CRM, businesses are presented with much strength in the two contenders available. They incorporate rich functionalities but differ in several aspects like approaches, pricing, and integrations. So which CRM would best fit your business?
In this blog, we will try to outline the main differences between Zoho CRM and HubSpot CRM, feature-by-feature details like pricing, ease of use, client support, with a clear-cut comparative analysis. After going through this piece of content, you should have a more coherent view about which CRM is the best for your company.
What is Zoho CRM?
Zoho CRM is an online software that enables businesses to handle their sales, marketing, and customer appliances in one place. Founded in 1996, Zoho CRM is part of a bigger suite of Zoho applications comprising over 45 business tools for everything from project management to accounting.
Zoho CRM is largely customizable and is filled with features like advanced automation, AI-based insights, and a wide array of integration options. It is popular among big businesses that require customer base management and those who seek diversified customization for their specific CRM requirements.
For more details, you can check out Zoho CRM’s pricing page here.
What is HubSpot CRM?
Designed for companies from small to large, HubSpot CRM is a free, easy-to-use platform for managing their sales pipelines and customer relationships. Being simple and easy to run, HubSpot CRM is a strong supporter of inbound marketing.
An attractive point in favor of HubSpot lies in its simple design and integration into the HubSpot ecosystem that includes marketing, sales, and customer service tools. This gives HubSpot a strong candidate advantage for companies that are already using or planning to use any of HubSpot’s different tools.
For more details, you can check out HubSpot CRM’s pricing page here.
Zoho CRM vs HubSpot CRM: Quick Comparison
Here is the quick comparison on Zoho CRM vs HubSpot CRM.
Feature | Zoho CRM | HubSpot CRM |
Ease of Use | On the slightly steeper end of things as far as the learning curve is concerned. | Incredibly easy to navigate |
Pricing | A good free plan with reasonably priced upgrades. | Has free option that can be upgraded |
Customizability | A high degree of customization. | Customizability is somewhat hindered |
Automation | Strong automation tools. | Advanced automation for paid plans only |
Integrations | A wide variety of third-party integrations. | Best suited for companies with HubSpot ecosystem integration |
Customer Support | Available only in upper-tier plans. | Good customer service for paid accounts |
Zoho CRM vs HubSpot CRM: Detailed Comparison
Pricing
Zoho CRM Pricing
Several tiers of pricing are available, including a free plan of sorts with somewhat limited features. Paid pricing plans for Zoho CRM start as low as $14 per user month. The higher the price, the more one receives in terms of processing power or extra features.
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Free Plan: Limited to 3 users.
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Standard Plan: $14/user/month; features include workflow automation and reporting.
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Professional Plan: $23/user/month; includes advanced sales automation and forecasting.
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Enterprise Plan: $40/user/month; includes AI-powered insights and custom modules.
HubSpot CRM Pricing
Another attractive feature for small businesses, or those that are just starting, is that HubSpot CRM is free for an unlimited number of users. However, the disadvantage of the free version is that it comes with several restrictions.
HubSpot’s paid plans start at $50 a month for 2 users, with the price going up depending on whether more users are added or other advanced features are chosen.
- Free Plan: Unlimited users-basic CRM features and sales tools.
- Starter Plan: $50/month for 2 users, includes advanced features like email tracking and templates.
- Professional Plan: $500/month for 5 users; more customization and reporting tools.
- Enterprise Plan: $1,200/month for 10 users; includes AI-powered tools and advanced reporting.
Therefore, while both have free versions, Zoho CRM price plans for advanced features are cheaper, thus favoring most advanced users.
Ease of Use
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is full of features but can be a bit intimidating for someone who is new to using it. It doesn’t look as neat as HubSpot. When you are putting up workflows, automatons, and custom fields, you will spend quite some hours. However, Zoho CRM has a broad self-help resource section or you can always ask for help in real-time.
HubSpot CRM
Undoubtedly one of the user-friendliest CRMs in the market, HubSpot makes good sense. It is extremely intuitive. Drag and drop make quick work of sales pipeline design and activity tracking when dealing with actual leads. This is ideal for companies lacking an exclusive CRM manager or those just initiating the business CRM inductions.
Customization and Flexibility
Now, we’ll talk about customization in this blog on Zoho CRM vs HubSpot.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM, for its part, offers a high level of customizability other than Hubspot, which proves of great use to operationally complex businesses. There is a more successful way to create custom fields, workflows, reports and custom modules for your CRM.
Zoho also provides advanced custom settings for tasking security and permission, which is rather apt for large-scale teams and those particular business entities with different requirements.
HubSpot CRM
Though HubSpot allows for a decent amount of customization, it doesn’t go anywhere near Zoho in terms of personalization. Custom fields are available, but workflows and anything else that’s more complicated, such as reporting, are only part of the more costly paid plans.
Automation
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM features 24/7 support, but only for higher-tier plan subscribers. Free and lower-tier plan customers have limited support, with many users stating that responses can take a while to receive. To know more on this, avail our Zoho CRM services.
HubSpot CRM
HubSpot has good customer support across all its pricing plans, but even more so for the ones on paid plans. 24/7 support is offered via chat, email, and phone. HubSpot has an extensive knowledge base that offers good troubleshooting assistance in addition to community forums.
Core Overview
Zoho CRM Features
- The Zia AI: Zia is the AI assistant in Zoho CRM. The agent helps the businesses predict sales, detects anomalies in the data, and assists in activities such as lead scoring. Zia simplifies insights for sales teams.
- Omnichannel Communication: With Zoho CRM’s integration of email, live chat, social media, and calls, your team can reach customers the way they prefer. This way, communication is kept orderly and all in one place.
- Customization: In Zoho CRM, you can set up custom workflows, fields, and modules that suit your business needs. These customizations allow the system to operate according to your requirements, specifically for bigger or niche businesses.
- Real-Time Report: Zoho provides real-time dashboards and analytics that allow monitoring of sales performance, customer engagement, and other important metrics. Thus, you are in an easy position to track what is working and change your strategy on the go.
- Automating Workflows: Zoho CRM reduces the manual burden by automating follow-ups, lead assignments, and task reminders, allowing your sales team to focus on closing.
HubSpot CRM Features
- Deep Pipeline Insights: HubSpot CRM gives very granular views of the various stages of deals in the sales pipeline. It offers forecasting that lends itself to understanding potential revenue.
- Email Template Builder: While creating email templates in HubSpot, the user can reuse them. This saves time and ensures consistency in messaging toward customers.
- Breeze Prospecting: HubSpot uses its Breeze Prospecting tool to auto-score and qualify leads based on their interactions, so that your sales team can better prioritize leads with higher potential.
- Interactive Cards: The HubSpot CRM provides interactive cards that give you a snapshot of deal or contact details, thereby easily allowing you to update information directly from the dashboard.
- Meeting Scheduler: A built-in meeting scheduler in HubSpot synchronizes with Google Calendar and Office 365, allowing clients to book time directly with your team and reduce back-and-forth emails.
Conclusion: Zoho CRM vs HubSpot CRM
Zoho CRM and HubSpot CRM are both powerful tools used in sales and customer relationship management. Customization options, advanced features, and a more approachable pricing model make Zoho CRM best suited for businesses that require these capabilities. However, HubSpot CRM appeals to firms seeking a more intuitive interface, particularly those already using or intending to use other HubSpot tools.
HubSpot CRM may be right for you if you’re a small business or startup that prefers a simple, affordable CRM with the basic features. If your business is scaling, looking for advanced features, and needing customization, then a single option will be more appropriate.
That’s it in this blog on Zoho CRM vs Hubspot. Ready to get started? Have a free consultation with experts from Webuters.