HubSpot's free CRM is good. The next step up is the problem.
HubSpot's free tools are genuinely capable, and free for up to two users. The trouble starts on user three, or the day you want a forecast: Sales Hub Starter is $7 per seat per month billed annually — $20 billed monthly — and forecasting doesn't arrive until Professional at $90 per seat, plus a required $1,500 one-time onboarding fee. SB CRM is one flat $14 seat with nothing behind a tier, and SB Time Tracker and SB Project Management in the same seat. Below: every row, including the ones HubSpot wins.
Compared at HubSpot's published pricing as of 21 August 2026
| Feature | SB CRM | HubSpot |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No — 30-day trial, then $14 / seat / mo | Yes — free tools at $0/mo, up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts, no credit card, no expiration |
| Free trial | 30 days, every feature, no card | Free tools instead of a time-limited trial |
| Entry paid price | $14 / seat / mo — the only plan | Sales Hub Starter from $7 / seat / mo billed annually, $20 / seat / mo billed monthly |
| Next tier up | There isn't one | Sales Hub Professional from $90 / seat / mo billed annually, $100 billed monthly |
| Top tier | n/a | Sales Hub Enterprise from $150 / seat / mo billed annually |
| Required onboarding fee | None | $1,500 one-time on Sales Hub Professional, $3,500 on Enterprise |
| Deal pipelines | One pipeline, stages you name | 2 on Sales Hub Starter, 15 on Professional, 100 on Enterprise |
| Drag-and-drop deal board | Yes, with stage totals and stage-to-stage conversion | Yes — deal pipelines are in the free tools |
| Weighted forecast | Yes — on the one plan | Not on Sales Hub Starter. Default and custom forecasting starts on Professional ($90 / seat / mo annually) |
| Contacts and companies | Yes, no stated contact cap | Yes — free tools cover up to 1,000 contacts |
| Embeddable web forms | Yes — as many as you want, on the one plan | Yes — the free online form builder is part of the free tools |
| Email templates and inbox tools | No — SB CRM doesn't send sales email | Yes — email templates are in the free tools, with more in Sales Hub |
| Marketing, service, and content tooling | No | Yes — separate Marketing, Sales, Service, Content, and Data hubs, or the bundled Customer Platform |
| AI features | None — by design | Yes — plans bundle HubSpot Credits: 500 on Starter, 3,000 on Professional, 5,000 on Enterprise |
| CSV import | Yes — contacts and companies | Yes — CRM import is in the free tools |
| CSV export | Yes — companies, contacts, and deals | n/a — not checked on HubSpot's pricing pages |
| Teams and role-based access | Yes — Viewer to Company Admin, with team-lead delegation | Yes — permission sets, with the granular controls on higher tiers |
| Time tracking and invoicing on the same seat | Yes — SB Time Tracker included | Not part of Sales Hub pricing |
| Project management on the same seat | Yes — SB Project Management included | Not part of Sales Hub pricing |
| Mobile | PWA install (installable; offline page only) | Native iOS + Android |
For a lot of teams, the free tools are the right answer.
We're not going to pretend a $14 seat beats $0. HubSpot's free tools give two users a real CRM — contacts, deal pipelines, forms, email templates, reporting — for nothing, forever, with no card. HubSpot is also a far bigger product than ours: marketing automation, service desk, content and landing pages, a large app marketplace, native mobile apps, and forecasting that goes deeper than ours once you're on Professional. If you need any of that, buy HubSpot. We'd rather say it here than have you find out in month two.
- Free forever for up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts
- Marketing, Service, Content, and Data hubs we simply don't have
- Sales email, sequences, and inbox tooling
- Multiple deal pipelines — 2 on Starter, 15 on Professional, 100 on Enterprise
- Native iOS and Android apps (we're PWA-only)
- A much larger integration marketplace
The bill after you outgrow free.
The free plan stops at two users. Add a third and you're on Sales Hub Starter at $7 per seat billed annually — reasonable — until you want a forecast, which lives on Professional at $90 per seat per month billed annually, $100 monthly, plus a required $1,500 one-time onboarding fee. For a five-person shop that's $5,400 a year plus onboarding, versus $840 a year with us. Our $14 seat is the whole product: weighted forecast, unlimited embeddable forms, teams and audit log, and SB Time Tracker and SB Project Management on the same login and the same bill.
- One price, one plan — no feature sits behind a tier
- Weighted forecast included, not a Professional-tier upgrade
- No onboarding fee, ever
- Time tracking, invoicing, and project management in the same seat
- Client-portal users are free and AI agents don't take a seat
- No AI credit meter to watch — there's no AI in SB CRM at all
Export from HubSpot, import here.
HubSpot lets you export your contacts and companies to CSV. SB CRM imports both, so your book of business comes over without retyping. Deals stay where you rebuild them — the pipeline takes about as long to set up as naming your stages.
- CSV import for contacts and companies
- CSV export for companies, contacts, and deals — nothing is locked in
- Companies you add here become clients in SB Time Tracker and SB Project Management
When to stay on HubSpot, when to switch.
Stay on HubSpot if: you fit inside the free tools — two users, 1,000 contacts — and price is the deciding factor, because free beats $14. Stay if you send marketing email, run sequences, need a service desk or landing pages, live in the native mobile apps, need more than one deal pipeline, or depend on an integration in HubSpot's marketplace. Stay if you want AI in your CRM; we don't have any.
Switch to us if: you're a 2–10 person US service business that has outgrown two free users and doesn't want to choose between a Starter plan without forecasting and a Professional plan at $90 a seat with a $1,500 onboarding fee. One $14 seat, every feature, and time tracking and project management in the same account. 30-day free trial, no credit card.