The core difference
HubSpot was founded in 2006 and built its name as an inbound marketing platform before expanding into CRM, sales, and service tools. The free CRM is a loss leader -- it is good enough to get your team using it, and then the upsell to paid Sales Hub tiers is where HubSpot makes its money. That is not a criticism, but it is worth understanding before you commit. The free tier is real. The jump from free to Professional at $90/user/month is also real.
Freshsales is part of the Freshworks ecosystem, which also includes Freshdesk (support) and Freshservice (IT). It launched in 2016 as a sales-first CRM and has always included phone, email, and live chat natively rather than as paid add-ons. If your sales team makes outbound calls and you want that activity logged automatically without a third-party VoIP integration, Freshsales is the more out-of-the-box choice.
The pricing model is the clearest difference. HubSpot gives you a lot for free, then asks a lot once you need serious features. Freshsales charges from the Growth tier upward but does not hide core functionality behind enterprise-level plans. For a 5-person sales team, Freshsales Pro at $39/user/month comes to $195/month. HubSpot Professional at $90/user/month is $450/month for the same headcount. That gap compounds over time.
"HubSpot's free CRM is genuinely good. Freshsales' pricing is more predictable. Which one matters more depends on how far you plan to grow and how fast."
Quick comparison: Freshsales vs HubSpot CRM
| Feature | Freshsales | HubSpot CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes -- up to 3 users | Yes -- unlimited users and contacts |
| Entry paid plan | Growth: $9/user/month | Starter: $15/user/month |
| Mid-tier | Pro: $39/user/month | Professional: $90/user/month |
| Built-in phone | Native calling included | Limited on lower tiers |
| Email sequences | Growth and above | Starter and above |
| AI features | Freddy AI (lead scoring, deal insights) on Pro+ | ChatSpot AI assistant (free), more on paid tiers |
| Reporting | Standard on Growth, advanced on Pro+ | Basic free, custom on Professional+ |
| Integrations | Freshworks ecosystem + 500+ apps | 1,500+ integrations |
| Best for | Teams wanting native phone/email and predictable pricing | Businesses starting free and planning to scale |
Pricing: what you actually pay
Freshsales' free tier covers up to 3 users and includes basic contact management, deal pipelines, and email integration. Growth at $9/user/month adds bulk email, phone sequences, basic automation, and a sales dashboard. Pro at $39/user/month brings in multiple pipelines, AI-powered lead scoring via Freddy AI, time-based workflows, and advanced reporting. Enterprise at $59/user/month adds custom roles, audit logs, and dedicated support.
5-person team cost comparison: Freshsales Pro costs $195/month ($2,340/year). HubSpot Sales Hub Professional costs $450/month ($5,400/year). That is a $3,060 annual difference for roughly comparable features at the same team size. Confirm current pricing at freshsales.com and hubspot.com.
HubSpot's free CRM is the most generous in the category. Unlimited contacts, unlimited users, deal tracking, basic email integration, and meeting scheduling links -- all free, no time limit. The upsell happens when you need email sequences (Starter), custom reporting (Professional), or advanced automation (Professional). Most growing sales teams hit that ceiling within 6-12 months. At $90/user/month, Professional is not unreasonable for an established team, but it is a significant jump for a small business still figuring out its sales process.
Freshsales deep dive
The native phone is Freshsales' most distinctive feature. You can buy local or toll-free numbers, make outbound calls, receive inbound calls, and have everything logged automatically in the contact record -- no separate VoIP tool, no Zapier integration required. For sales teams calling 20-50 prospects per day, this alone saves real setup time and avoids the integrations that break whenever either tool pushes an update.
Freddy AI, Freshsales' built-in AI layer, does lead scoring on Pro and above. It ranks leads by likelihood to convert based on engagement signals -- email opens, website visits, call history -- and surfaces the highest-priority contacts at the top of the queue. It is not magic, but for teams that would otherwise prioritize manually, it saves time and tends to improve conversion rates over time.
The Freshworks ecosystem is a real advantage for businesses that also need support ticketing or IT management. Freshsales connects natively to Freshdesk and Freshservice, which means a customer support ticket can be linked directly to the sales contact without a custom integration. If you want a single vendor for CRM, support, and IT management, that shared data layer is worth factoring in.
- Less name recognition than HubSpot, which can matter when hiring salespeople who expect a specific tool.
- The integration library is smaller than HubSpot's 1,500+ app marketplace.
- HubSpot Academy and community resources are more extensive than Freshsales' documentation.
- The free tier caps at 3 users, which limits how long a growing team can stay free.
HubSpot CRM deep dive
HubSpot's free CRM is the best starting point in the category. If you are setting up your first real CRM and have a team of fewer than 5 people who do not need email sequences or advanced automation, the free tier runs a real business. Deal pipelines, contact records, email integration, meeting booking links, basic reporting -- it is all there with no credit card required and no 14-day expiration.
The ecosystem is HubSpot's strongest long-term argument. Sales Hub connects natively to Marketing Hub, Service Hub, and CMS Hub. A lead that converts becomes a customer who feeds into your support ticketing and email marketing without any integration work. For businesses that want to centralize the full customer lifecycle in one platform, HubSpot's suite is the most coherent option available to SMBs.
HubSpot Academy is genuinely good. Free courses on sales methodology, CRM setup, and inbound marketing. For a business without an in-house sales trainer, the Academy resources actually change how teams use the tool -- not just how to click buttons, but how to run a sales process. Freshsales has nothing comparable.
- The jump from Starter to Professional is steep. $15/user to $90/user is a 6x price increase. Most small businesses hit this ceiling before they are ready for it.
- Some features are gated behind higher tiers in ways that feel arbitrary -- custom reporting, for example, requires Professional on most hubs.
- HubSpot's interface has grown complex as the platform has expanded. New users sometimes find it overwhelming compared to more focused tools like Freshsales.
- Phone calling is available but not as polished or deeply integrated as Freshsales' native dialer.
"HubSpot is the right choice if you are building toward a full marketing-sales-service stack. Freshsales is the right choice if you want a focused sales CRM with predictable costs."
Who each platform is for
Freshsales makes the most sense when your team makes outbound calls and you want calling built into the CRM without paying for a separate VoIP subscription. It is also the better pick when per-user pricing matters -- for a 4-10 person sales team, the per-seat math strongly favors Freshsales Pro over HubSpot Professional. And if you already use Freshdesk or Freshservice, the native connection is a genuine advantage.
HubSpot makes sense when you are starting out and want a free CRM your whole team can use today. It is also the better long-term bet if you plan to add marketing automation or customer support tools later -- the ecosystem handles that without custom integrations. The training resources and name recognition are real advantages too, especially if you hire people who already know HubSpot.
For a 3-5 person team doing straightforward pipeline management with email outreach, both tools work fine. The real decision is about trajectory: starting free with HubSpot and upgrading later, or paying from day one with Freshsales and knowing exactly what you get.
The automation gap neither CRM closes
Both Freshsales and HubSpot manage contacts, pipelines, and deals well inside their own platforms. Neither one automatically connects to the rest of your business stack.
A deal closes in HubSpot -- that should automatically create a project in your project management tool, send a kickoff email to the client, and trigger an invoice in your accounting software. It does not. A new contact is created in Freshsales after a web form submission -- that should book them on the right rep's calendar, add them to the correct email nurture sequence, and notify the sales manager in Slack. That also does not happen without custom wiring.
CRMs are good at storing what happened. They are not good at automatically triggering what should happen next across other systems. Building that cross-system automation -- from CRM event to action in your project tools, accounting software, and communication platforms -- is exactly what Aplos AI does.
Using HubSpot or Freshsales but still manually creating projects, sending kickoff emails, or triggering invoices when a deal closes? We build the automations that connect your CRM to the rest of your business.
Get a Free Automation Audit →The verdict
Starting from scratch with a small team: HubSpot free. There is no cheaper way to get a real CRM. Use it until you hit the ceiling, then decide whether the jump to Professional makes sense or whether a focused tool like Freshsales is the better move.
5+ person sales team that makes outbound calls: Freshsales Pro. The native dialer, predictable pricing, and AI lead scoring on Pro make it a better value than HubSpot Professional for most SMB sales teams. The $3,000+ annual savings at the same headcount is hard to ignore.
Building a full marketing-sales-service stack on one platform: HubSpot. The connection across Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub is the best available to SMBs that want a single vendor for the full customer lifecycle.