Which CRM Is Better in 2026?

Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms are an integral part of business growth strategies. 91% of companies that have at least 10 employees or more use CRM software, according to various industry statistics. HubSpot and Salesforce are two industry giants, cloud-based CRM platforms that lead the market.  

HubSpot vs Salesforce are often the primary options for businesses when they are choosing a CRM platform. Both are fully capable of managing everything related to your sales process from A to Z, whether it’s automating marketing funnels or managing customer requests.  

So, does that mean you can just pick one randomly or by rolling the dice? Well, not exactly, custom Salesforce solutions will offer you different features than what you might get in HubSpot, and vice versa.  

This article will compare HubSpot and Salesforce to give you a better idea of which vendor is more suited for your needs. We’ll evaluate their current offerings, performance benchmarks, target markets, pricing models, and future trajectories in the light of AI advancements. 

HubSpot vs Salesforce: Quick comparison at a glance 

HubSpot and Salesforce are both cloud-based CRM platforms, but they have taken different paths to achieve success. HubSpot was founded in 2006 as an inbound marketing tool, not as a CRM. Its founders championed the idea of “get found online” through smart tools for inbound marketing. Even today, it is still best known for its inbound marketing features.  

Salesforce, on the other hand, was released in 1999, and it was intended to be a CRM platform right from the beginning. In fact, Salesforce CRM was the world’s first cloud-based CRM platform at that time. It launched with the slogan of “the end of software” to promote its novel idea of delivering CRM as a service over the internet.  

However, both vendors started to offer similar features over time, such as: 

• CRM 
• Marketing tools 
• Customer service support 
• Data analytics services 
• Automation and integration services 

We have compiled a table below showing a quick breakdown of HubSpot vs Salesforce differences before we explain them in detail further.  

At a brief look, the biggest difference between them is their price. HubSpot offers a free tier and charges a minimum of $20/month for paid plans, while Salesforce implementation will cost you $25/user/month with no free plan available. 

HubSpot vs Salesforce: Major offerings 

HubSpot and Salesforce offer a wide set of features that help businesses manage various business functions. Furthermore, HubSpot and Salesforce customization allow enterprises to mold these features according to their unique needs.  

Because these CRMs are entire environments in themselves, HubSpot and Salesforce consulting services are hired to help businesses properly utilize their many features.   

Here are their core offerings: 

HubSpot  

1. Marketing Hub 

The Marketing Hub provides robust tools for email marketing, lead nurturing, landing page creation, SEO, and social media management. 

2. Sales Hub 

The Sales Hub offers features for sales enablement by streamlining the sales process, including email tracking, meeting scheduling, live chat, and sales automation. 

3. Service Hub 

Dedicated to customer support and service, the Service Hub includes tools for ticketing, live chat, knowledge bases, and customer feedback. 

4. Operations Hub 

This hub focuses on data synchronization, automation, and data quality. It helps businesses clean and enriches their customer data to ensure a connected and efficient operational backbone. 

5. CMS Hub 

Integrated with the CRM, the Content Management System (CMS) Hub allows businesses to build and manage websites, blogs, and landing pages. 

6. Social Media Management 

Known as Social CRM by users, it provides capabilities for managing customer interactions and insights across social media platforms of an enterprise.  

Salesforce 

1. Sales Cloud 

This is Salesforce’s flagship product for sales teams, which offers tools for lead and opportunity management, sales forecasting, and automation of sales processes. 

2. Service Cloud 

The Salesforce Service Cloud provides a comprehensive platform for customer service and support. Features include case management, knowledge bases, live chat, and omnichannel routing. 

3, Marketing Cloud 

This suite offers powerful tools for marketing automation, email marketing, social media marketing, advertising, and customer journey orchestration. 

4. Commerce Cloud 

Designed for ecommerce platforms, Salesforce Commerce Cloud provides a scalable solution for creating personalized shopping experiences, managing product catalogs, processing orders, and handling payments. 

5. AppExchange 

AppExchange offers Salesforce integration with thousands of pre-built applications and integration options, which extend the platform’s functionalities. 

6. Tableau Analytics 

Salesforce acquired Tableau, which offers advanced Salesforce analytics as well as data visualization capabilities. 

HubSpot vs Salesforce: Performance benchmarks 

Like Ford vs Ferrari, Windows vs Mac, or Coca-Cola vs Pepsi, there are some subtle yet telling distinctions between HubSpot and Salesforce in different performance metrics. In some ways, HubSpot has the edge over Salesforce, while in other ways, Salesforce CRM comes on top. 

1. Reporting and analytics 

Salesforce has a clear advantage over HubSpot in sales reporting, analytics, and forecasting. Its reporting and analytics tools are much more integrated within the CRM and offer users a deeper insight into their sales statistics.  

Moreover, ever since the acquisition of Tableau, you can avail of advanced predictive modeling and AI-powered insights, which are ideal for large enterprises that have global operations.   

2. Marketing tools and features 

This round of HubSpot vs Salesforce goes to HubSpot. It is better for marketing with more all-round marketing tools and features compared to Salesforce. Furthermore, HubSpot provides all marketing features in an integrated platform, unlike Salesforce, where Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud etc, are all different products with separate pricing plans.  

Here are some of the features of HubSpot’s Marketing Hub: 

• Pay-per-click (PPC) ad management 
• Website builder 
• SEO assistant 
• Blogging assistant 
• Trigger-based marketing automation 
• Website analytics and performance monitoring 

On the plus side, HubSpot’s marketing features are much cheaper than Salesforce’s, which is ideal for SMEs and users with a tight budget.  

3. Growth and scalability 

HubSpot vs Salesforce: which of these CRMs will grow with your business? This is an important question you need to ask before making a choice. And the answer to that is Salesforce has much greater scalability than HubSpot. 

Salesforce professional services utilize the platform’s unmatched scalability and flexibility to adjust the CRM according to the business of any size, from a startup to Fortune 500 companies.  

HubSpot doesn’t have the same scalability level, which can stagnate your company’s growth. 

4. Integration with other systems 

You won’t just be using a CRM if you’re running a business in 2026. Modern businesses operate PLM, ERP, and tons of other business tools in tandem with their CRM platform.

Therefore, integration capabilities are a major factor in the HubSpot vs. Salesforce performance comparison. 

Salesforce wins this round easily. It has an extensive ecosystem through its AppExchange. It is a cloud marketplace that allows Salesforce integration with an array of business tools, such as CRM and ERP integration.  

These are some of the major platforms that Salesforce offers prebuilt integrations for: 

• Amazon 
• Shopify 
• Sage 
• FedEx 
• Stripe 
• PayPal 

Apart from these, integration services can create custom APIs to connect Salesforce with other tools that don’t have prebuilt integrations. On the other hand, HubSpot also integrates with some of these platforms, but these integrations are limited and not enterprise-grade.  

5. Ease of use and implementation 

HubSpot is renowned for its user-friendly interface and intuitive design when comparing HubSpot vs Salesforce. It’s easier to use than Salesforce, which has a steeper learning curve due to its extensive features and customization.  

HubSpot implementation is also quicker than Salesforce implementation. The low-code/no-code capabilities make customization even easier. The overall experience of using and navigating HubSpot is much smoother and hassle-free.  

HubSpot vs Salesforce: Target market 

Despite some overlap, HubSpot and Salesforce cater to different users and markets. 

HubSpot 

HubSpot’s primary users are SMEs, new users to CRMs, and inbound marketing. Since it’s user-friendly and affordable, HubSpot is ideal for businesses with limited budgets or from a non-tech background.  

Marketing Hub is especially oriented towards sales teams and marketing agencies that focus on lead generation and customer engagement. Moreover, HubSpot vs Salesforce branding efforts are also different. HubSpot pitches itself to younger generations of buyers like Gen Z and millennials due to its relatively modern origins. 

Salesforce 

Salesforce’s primary customers are large enterprises that have complex sales operations and require extensive custom solutions. Due to its maturity as a platform, Salesforce markets itself to executives and heads like CEOs, CMOs, and industry leaders. 

HubSpot vs Salesforce: Pricing models 

As mentioned earlier, price is a major difference between HubSpot and Salesforce. HubSpot offers a free tier and is relatively cheaper than Salesforce, but here is a complete breakdown of their pricing models for different suites.  

HubSpot 

HubSpot offers basic tools for free, permanently up to 2 users. Pricing for each Hub depends on the number of users and contacts made, such as emails or ad campaigns.  

Salesforce 

Salesforce offers more complex features, but that also makes it a more expensive platform. Moreover, the pricing models for each cloud and suite differ in Salesforce. 

These are the price ranges for Salesforce Sales Cloud. 

Marketing Cloud offers three tiers and charges per organization.  

Service Cloud’s pricing model is similar to that of Sales Cloud. 

Other features, such as Commerce Cloud and Tableau, have their own prices.  

HubSpot vs Salesforce: AI developments 

AI and machine learning solutions are entering every walk of life. HubSpot and Salesforce are also investing in custom AI solutions to modernize their platforms. It has become the latest frontier in the HubSpot vs Salesforce competition.  

HubSpot 

HubSpot has released a series of AI-based tools for its platforms. They are delivered under the brand name of Breeze, which includes tools like ChatSpot.ai, Breeze Intelligence, and Content Assistant.  

This is the overarching theme of HubSpot’s future development. Continued integration of generative AI for content creation is expected. The goal is to make AI a foundational layer in the CRM platform that allows users to achieve more with less effort.  

Salesforce 

Salesforce is incorporating agentic AI agents in its platform to automate routine CRM tasks, augment users, and handle business operations. These agents are released under the platform of Agentforce. 

Agentforce helps businesses automate repetitive tasks, scale their workforce, and implement AI solutions in their general workflows. Further, Salesforce is also improving the Einstein AI platform, which offers AI assistance and predictive analytics capabilities.  

HubSpot vs Salesforce: Final verdict 

HubSpot vs Salesforce is really like apples vs oranges. Both are CRM platforms with similar features and capabilities, but they’re built for different needs. Those differences are subtle but profound, which can make or break your CRM investment.  

This comprehensive article has given you a detailed analysis of the two that helped you understand these platforms a bit better. Based on that information and comparisons given so far, here is what we recommend: when to choose one or the other: 

HubSpot 

Go for HubSpot if you’re a small to mid-sized business. It’s user-friendly, affordable, and offers great built-in tools for marketing and sales. However, it can feel limiting as your business grows or becomes more complex.  

Salesforce 

If you’re a large enterprise with complex sales cycles or a burgeoning business that has ambitious growth plans, Salesforce is for you. It’s highly customizable and supports deep integrations, advanced analytics, and even full business operations. It is a CRM platform that can scale with you and act as your company’s central hub. 

Conclusion 

Both Salesforce and HubSpot have stellar features on paper, but the question of HubSpot vs Salesforce is about the right fit. HubSpot brings simplicity, and it helps you get up and running quickly. With HubSpot, you have enough firepower to grow your sales and marketing teams without calling in a developer every time.  

Salesforce, on the other hand, is a heavyweight that gives you more control. For large businesses or those planning for scale, it offers a level of depth and adaptability that’s hard to match. 

Ultimately, the right CRM is the one that matches your business needs. Features won’t make a real impact if they don’t fit how your team works.  

Xavor is a certified Salesforce partner that offers premium Salesforce development and consulting services. Our experts can provide you with expert guidance on how to optimize Salesforce for your enterprise. They are fully proficient in customizing the platform to enhance its capabilities. 

Get a free consultation session by contacting us at [email protected] right now.