Zoho and HubSpot are two of the most common choices for a small business looking for a CRM, short for customer relationship management system: one place for every customer, conversation, and deal. Both are good. They are good at different things, and they cost money in very different ways.
One thing to say first. We are an authorised Zoho partner, and we run our own business on Zoho, so read this knowing where we stand. We have tried to be fair to both, and HubSpot is the better choice for some businesses.
We have left out prices. Both companies change them often, so check each pricing page before you decide. What does not change much is how each one charges, and that matters more.
Where each one comes from
HubSpot began as a marketing company. Its first products helped businesses attract customers through content, such as articles and guides, an approach it calls inbound marketing. The CRM came later, and it is now the centre of a set of products HubSpot calls hubs: Marketing, Sales, Service, and others, all sharing one customer database.
Zoho began as a maker of business software of every kind. Its CRM is one of dozens of apps, alongside accounting, helpdesk, email, HR, and more, all from one company and one login. Zoho also makes Bigin, a simpler CRM built for very small teams that mainly need to track deals.
That history explains most of the differences below.
How each one charges
HubSpot has a genuinely useful free CRM. For a small team that only needs contacts and a simple pipeline, it may be all you need for some time. The paid hubs come in tiers, usually Starter, Professional, and Enterprise, priced by the number of users, called seats. The marketing tools are also priced by the number of marketing contacts: the people in your database you send marketing to. The jump from Starter to Professional is large, and it is where most businesses feel the cost.
Zoho prices each app per user per month, and its list prices are generally lower. It also offers Zoho One, a bundle of nearly all its apps priced per employee, which can work out cheaper than paying for three or four separate tools from different suppliers.
Think of HubSpot as a shop where the basics are free and the premium range is expensive, and Zoho as a warehouse where everything is reasonably priced but you choose and assemble it yourself.
What to check. Price both for the size you expect to be in three years, not the size you are today. That is where the two diverge most.
Setup and ease of use
HubSpot is quick to start and pleasant to use. Its screens are clean and consistent, and it makes many decisions for you. That suits teams that want to get going without much configuration. The trade-off is that changing how it works, beyond its own settings, is harder.
Zoho is more configurable. You can shape fields, layouts, stages, and automations closely around how your business already works. That takes longer to set up well, and the interface is less consistent from one app to the next. Many businesses use a partner for the first setup, which is part of what we do.
Marketing
HubSpot is stronger here, as its history suggests. Email campaigns, landing pages, forms, and marketing automation, which sends the right message to the right person without anyone doing it by hand, all sit in one product and work together well.
Zoho covers the same ground through separate apps, such as Zoho Campaigns for email and Zoho Marketing Automation for the rest. They are capable, but connecting them takes more setup, and they feel less like a single product.
Beyond sales and marketing
Zoho reaches much further. Accounting, invoicing, a customer helpdesk, HR, and business email can all come from Zoho and share the same customer records. For a business that wants one supplier for most of its software, that is a real advantage.
HubSpot concentrates on customer-facing work and connects to other software for the rest. It has a large marketplace of integrations, connections that pass information to and from other systems, such as accounts packages like Xero and QuickBooks.
Who each one suits
HubSpot tends to suit businesses that win most of their work through marketing, want a polished product with little setup, and have the budget for the paid tiers as they grow.
Zoho tends to suit businesses that watch costs, want one system across sales, finance, and support, and are willing to spend time on setup, or to have someone do it for them.
Bigin, Zoho's simpler CRM, suits very small teams that mainly need to see their deals in one place. We use it ourselves for the enquiries that come through this website.
Three questions to decide
- What will it cost at three times your current size? Include every user and, for HubSpot, your number of marketing contacts.
- Who will set it up and look after it? HubSpot needs less of this. Zoho rewards it.
- What else must it connect to? List your accounts software, website, and email tools, and check each connection exists.
Both let you try before you commit. Use the trial on a real week of work, not a demonstration.
If you would like a second opinion on which suits your business, get in touch. We will tell you if the answer is HubSpot.
Glossary
- CRM (customer relationship management): one place for every customer, conversation, and deal.
- Inbound marketing: attracting customers with useful content, such as articles and guides, rather than advertising at them.
- Hub: one of HubSpot's product areas, such as Marketing, Sales, or Service.
- Seat: one user's paid place on a system.
- Marketing contact: a person in HubSpot that you send marketing to, which affects the price.
- Marketing automation: sending the right message to the right person at the right time, without anyone doing it by hand.
- Zoho One: Zoho's bundle of nearly all its apps, priced per employee.
- Bigin: Zoho's simpler CRM for very small teams.
- Integration: a connection that passes information between two systems automatically.