HubSpot vs Salesforce: How to Choose the Right CRM

Two powerful platforms. Two different approaches. One decision that should reflect your strategy.

When evaluating CRMs, the conversation often lands on two of the biggest names in the space: HubSpot and Salesforce.

Both offer robust features, strong ecosystems, and proven results. And both continue to evolve with smarter automation, more AI-driven insights, and increasingly flexible tools to support sales, marketing, and service.

But how do you choose between them?

It starts with understanding how they compare and how each aligns with your company’s size, complexity, and long-term goals. That’s the real question at the heart of HubSpot vs Salesforce.

A Quick Overview: Both CRMs, Two Different Philosophies

This is where you'll start to see the difference in HubSpot CRM features vs Salesforce CRM features, and which fits your organization best.

What We Love About HubSpot

Fast Time to Value

Setup is quick, training is minimal, and early-stage teams can see ROI fast, especially with free tools and starter tiers.

HubSpot Academy and Support

The HubSpot Academy provides ongoing training through an extensive, regularly updated library of free resources and certifications. Beyond on-demand courses, they also offer more advanced learning opportunities, including weekly admin user group presentations, collaborative discussions, and seasonal bootcamps, ensuring training that supports every level, from new users to experienced administrators. HubSpot also offers 24/7 customer support.

Workflow Builder Simplicity

Highly user-friendly, suitable even for beginners, while also allowing integration of various modules and custom code for advanced automation.

Built-In Marketing Power

Email automation, landing pages, lead scoring, and analytics are tightly integrated — especially appealing for marketing-led teams.

Forecasting and Campaigns

"I didn’t come to HubSpot looking for a career platform, but it quickly became one. What I love most is how it lets me blend structure with empathy. As an admin, I get to work across marketing, sales, and delivery, not just managing data but helping teams understand the people behind it. HubSpot makes complexity feel manageable, and collaboration feel natural, often with clicks instead of code.

It has connected me to teams around the world and given me a front row seat to how work actually happens after a deal closes. In the end, I keep coming back to HubSpot because it helps me build systems that feel human, protect relationships, and make everyone’s job a little easier."

- Chris Toyn, HubSpot Consultant

What We Love About Salesforce

Unmatched Customization & Scalability

Salesforce is famous for being able to scale with you, from a 5-person startup to a global enterprise. You can customize objects, automate complex processes, design custom UIs, and extend the platform endlessly with configuration or code.

Enterprise-Grade Automation

Flow, Einstein, and Apex together let teams streamline anything – lead routing, compliance workflows, multi-step approvals, cross-team handoffs, you name it!

Largest CRM Ecosystem in the World

With 7,000+ solutions on the AppExchange, Salesforce offers the most mature and expansive marketplace of add-ons, integrations, and industry accelerators. This makes it uniquely powerful for companies building a tailored tech stack.

Trailhead

One of Salesforce’s biggest advantages! Trailhead is a free online learning platform for gaining skills in the Salesforce ecosystem through guided modules, hands-on projects, and gamified challenges.

Massive Global Community

Salesforce arguably has the most active CRM community in the world. Endless best practices, templates, and solution patterns from a passionate ecosystem of admins, architects, and consultants.

"I fell into the Salesforce ecosystem by pure chance, but it ended up feeling like the career that had been quietly waiting for me all along. What I love most is that it lets me use a strange mix of skills—technical problem solving, being creative, listening to people, and figuring out how they actually work day-to-day. Salesforce has pulled me into industries I never expected to work in and connected me with people from all walks of life. And honestly, the community still blows me away; people share, teach, and help without expecting anything back. In the end, I come back to Salesforce every day because it lets me blend empathy, logic, and curiosity to create things that genuinely make someone’s day better."

- Jennie Kennedy, Salesforce Solution Architect Lead

What We Love About HubSpot and Salesforce Together

More companies aren’t choosing between HubSpot or Salesforce, they’re choosing both and building hybrid stacks that match each team’s needs.

Seamless Sales + Marketing alignment

When HubSpot handles inbound marketing and early-stage nurturing and Salesforce manages the deeper sales cycle, both teams finally get tools that fit the way they actually work. Instead of forcing everyone into one system, each team can lean into the strengths of the platform that supports them best.

Cleaner Data & Unified Reporting

With a two-way sync in place, companies end up with a single, consistent customer record. Marketing can see the full journey from first touch to close, and sales gets visibility into every email, ad, and campaign without having to dig for it or ask someone to run reports.

Flexibility Without Compromise

Some companies love HubSpot’s automation and campaign tools, while others rely heavily on Salesforce’s customization and enterprise features. Using both means you don’t have to choose one or the other — you can build a tech stack that fits your business instead of forcing your business to fit the tech.

Faster Scaling Across Departments

HubSpot gives smaller or newer teams the speed they need to move quickly, experiment, and adjust on the fly. Salesforce, on the other hand, is built to support more complex operations. When both platforms are combined, growth feels smoother because each group uses the system that matches its level of maturity.

How to Choose: A 5-Step CRM Decision Framework

If you’re torn between HubSpot and Salesforce, use this quick framework to guide which CRM best aligns with your business. While not exhaustive, and real-world decisions aren’t always this clean-cut, it’s a starting point to help clarify priorities, not a definitive rulebook.

1. Map the Complexity of Your Processes
   • Simple workflows → HubSpot
   • Multi-step, cross-team workflows → Salesforce
2. Identify How Fast You Need Adoption
   • Need near-instant adoption? → HubSpot
   • Willing to invest in setup for long-term structure? → Salesforce
3. Evaluate Customization Needs Today & Next Year
   • Stable, predictable needs → HubSpot
   • Growing or evolving complexity → Salesforce
4. Consider Cross-Department Collaboration
   • Marketing-led → HubSpot
   • Sales-or service-heavy org → Salesforce
   • Teams with different needs → Hybrid stack
5. Determine Long-Term Resourcing
   • Minimal admin overhead → HubSpot
   • Dedicated admin or partner → Salesforce

So......Which CRM Is Better?

It’s not about which platform is better, it’s about which platform aligns with your business needs.

When people search HubSpot vs Salesforce, they’re usually looking for a clear winner. But the truth is simple: both platforms are great, it just depends on what your business needs.

Some teams do best with HubSpot’s ease of use and all-in-one marketing tools. Others need Salesforce’s power and customization to handle more complex processes. And many succeed with a combination of both, letting each system do what it does best.

So instead of asking, “Which CRM is better?” try asking:

• How complex are our sales or service processes?
• How important is fast adoption and ease of use?
• Do we need deep customization, or something ready out of the box?
• How closely do our marketing and sales teams need to work together?
• What resources do we have to manage the system long-term?

There isn’t one right answer — only the right answer for your business. Our job is to help you find it.

The Best CRM Is the One That Works for You

Whether it’s HubSpot’s clean, user-friendly experience or Salesforce’s scalable depth, both platforms are trusted by companies around the world. We help teams make the most of each, from implementation to long-term strategy, so your CRM matches your business, not the other way around.

Need help choosing or optimizing your CRM?

We work with both HubSpot and Salesforce every day, and we help teams choose, implement, and scale the right CRM for their future — not just their present.

Whether you’re evaluating Salesforce, HubSpot, or a hybrid stack, we can guide you through the right approach for your business. Let’s talk about your goals and build a CRM strategy that sets you up for long-term success.

Meet Your Author: Jennie Kennedy Jennie is a Salesforce Solution Architect who believes the best technology solutions are built around people first. She brings a strong focus on collaboration, process clarity, and user adoption, helping teams feel confident in both the solution and the journey to get there. When she’s not designing scalable Salesforce solutions, you’ll likely find her getting lost in a fantasy novel or tackling a new art project.