Which CRM should you choose, HubSpot Vs Zoho? This is arguably one of the toughest decisions the marketers have to take when they are expanding the horizons of email marketing, lead capture, and management. HubSpot is 100% free forever to a certain limit and the limit is way higher than that of Zoho. To enjoy some of additional perks that enhances your campaign’s performance and ease the job, you do have to feed some money to HubSpot CRM. Zoho, on the other hand, has limited features, but it is reasonably priced when we see other major CRM softwares. So, we are down to discuss the two most popular CRM softwares that get the job done without drilling a hole in your pocket.
What do you get in Free HubSpot CRM?
- HubSpotFree CRM features include
- Contact (contact is your lead or prospect) Management
- Contact website activity
- Companies, Company Insights
- Deals, Tasks & Activities
- Gmail and Outlook integrations & App Marketplace integrations
- Custom support form field, prospects, ticketing, & forms
- Ad management, conversations inbox, & reporting dashboard
- Email tracking and notifications, & email templates
- Canned snippets, documents, calling, meeting scheduling, messenger integration, and custom properties.
These 23 features are good enough to manage your lead management, email marketing till you feel the need for landing pages, live chat, conversation bots, marketing automation, A/B testing, call-to-action, video hosting & management, blog, social media, SEO among other features.
When the marketing team is capable enough to convert for you, then equipping them with a good CRM plus tools is never a risky bet.
What do you get in Free Zoho CRM?
- ZohoFree CRM features include
- Leads, contacts, and accounts
- Deals, tasks, events
- Call log, and notes
- CRM views, advanced filters, and page customization
- Rename tabs, custom list views, and workflow rules
- Email Notification per day, 50 emails/user license, 150 emails/day (whichever is lower)
- Standard reports, 10 email templates, and website visitor tracking
- Email authentication, email opt-out among others.
Zoho’s free CRM also has quite a long list of features, which keep on increasing as you upgrade your plan. Both the software cover from the standard to pro features your marketing teams in their respective plans.
Pricing
HubSpot is free for unlimited users. Adding the CRM Plus plan to it the costs go up significantly.
- The Starter pack of the Marketing Hub you have to spend $480 a year.
- The Professional plan costs $9,600 a year ($800 a month)
- The Enterprise plan costs $38,400 a year ($3200 a month)
Zoho is free for three users only. But, when the paid plans are explored, the pricing is way lower than the HubSpot.
- The Standard Zoho plan costs around $9 per user per month
- The Professional Zoho plan costs around $16.09 per user per month
- The Enterprise Zoho plan costs around $28.15 per user per month
- The Ultimate plan Zoho costs around $30 per user per month
You add 1 more user and the cost doubles up. And if you have a 10-member team, that cost will jump 10 times. So, even if the price looks lower, the final price you pay depends on the team size you have.
Hard to Beat Pros of HubSpot CRM
It’s Free: You can’t argue that. You can run your campaigns as long as you want because it is free for life.
Unlimited Users: Even when your business expands and you have more team members, you won’t have to worry about the added cost on the CRM.
Live Chat: Live chat is also free for all users whether free or paid.
Integration: Seamlessly integrate your HubSpot CRM with third-party apps or HubSpot’s products that cover other aspects of your business.
Customer Support: Email, live chat, call, or community, HubSpot got you covered to resolve your queries. Zoho gives you basic support in the free version. Even in the ultimate plan, you have to pay extra to get their premium or enterprise-level support.
Easy Usability: HubSpot gave a new life to inbound marketing methods. Their whole CRM and the terminology used in it revolve around that. After using it a couple of times, you will be able to use it comfortably because all the important options are easily accessible.
Marketing Automation: HubSpot’s marketing automation features are premium and mature than Zoho’s.
Cons of HubSpot CRM
HubSpot might not be suitable for a complex marketing and sales process. HubSpot does offer a decent eCommerce solution with Shopify and Snipcart integration, but it is only good for a limited product line.
The free version of the CRM does have decent features, but when you need the paid ones, it becomes costly in comparison to Zoho.
Reporting could have been more detailed and in-depth.
Hard to Beat Pros of Zoho CRM
Value for Money: The top plan of Zoho CRM is way cheaper than that of HubSpot’s. The cost only increases if you keep on adding team members. You have to pay the entry-level HubSpot’s price to Zoho to enjoy the most (if not all) premium features.
Integration: Zoho too integrates well with many third-party and in-house apps. Over 200 applications are available covering various features such as finance, business operations, email marketing, meeting scheduling among others.
Analytics and Reporting: Zoho’s analytics and reporting are detailed in comparison with HubSpot.
Zoho CRM Pricing & Plans in Detail
Cons of Zoho CRM
Business Outshines the Platform: When your business grows and your marketing team demands more freedom and features in the tool, they don’t get that punch in Zoho. Your business needs seem bigger what Zoho has to offer.
Contacts Still Don’t Convert to Leads: Users have been demanding this feature for quite some years, but Zoho doesn’t seem to bother. You get two different tabs for leads and contacts respectively. If you initiated contact with a prospect you put it under the Contacts Tab. But, when it becomes a lead, there’s no way to shift that contact automatically to the leads tab. You have to fill the details again in the leads part or you can export the list of contacts and import that again in the leads tab. HubSpot manages contacts and leads perfectly.
Where your business is positioned tells which software is right for you.
- If you want some decent options to create, run, and manage your email marketing campaigns and leads, then go for HubSpot’s free CRM. The Free version will support your business for many years.
- If you want some extra features at a low price even in your early days, go with Zoho.
- If you are a large enterprise and want completely premium features to equip your marketing team, go with HubSpot.
- If you have a complex sales structure and want more detailed reporting, go with Zoho.
There are many such scenarios that depend on the position of your business. It’s like a fight between Apple and Samsung. Both are good, both have good products and sales figures, but your requirement tells which is best for you.