Close
from $49/mo
Inside-sales CRM purpose-built for high-volume outbound teams.
Visit CloseClose vs HubSpot
A side-by-side of Close and HubSpot on pricing and our methodology scores, drawn from each tool's category Listings. They compete in CRM for Small Business.
HubSpot
from Free
All-in-one CRM with strong free tier and broad integration support.
Get 20% offThe verdict
HubSpot is the stronger overall pick. In the CRM for Small Business ranking it scores 4.08 to Close's 3.40 out of 5. That said, Close wins on individual criteria below, so read the breakdown against your own priorities.
At a glance
| Close | HubSpot | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $49/mo | Free |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| CRM for Small Business score | 3.40 (#4) | 4.08 (#2) |
Head to head: CRM for Small Business
scored / 5 Contact & Pipeline 25% weight
Close 4.5
The standout strength — a clear real-time activity overview, unlimited contacts on every paid tier, and drag-and-drop pipeline visualization that reviewers consistently single out as easy to work from.
HubSpot 4.5
Contact hygiene and pipeline visualisation are above category average — 92% positive sentiment on these workflows specifically, and the May 2026 conditional property operators tightened data quality further.
Automation 20% weight
Close 3.5
Multichannel automation across email, calls, and SMS with cloneable templates is capable, but true workflow automation is gated to the Growth and Scale tiers and absent from Solo and Essentials.
HubSpot 3.5
Basic email and task automation work well on Starter; the workflow triggers, predictive lead scoring, and Prospecting Agent that reviewers actually want require Professional or above.
Integration Breadth 20% weight
Close 3.0
Around 100 native integrations — far short of the category leaders — and reviewers note thinner connectors that frequently push teams onto Zapier workarounds.
HubSpot 5.0
1,500+ apps in the marketplace including Gmail, Google Calendar, LinkedIn Ads, and most marketing automation tools — the strength independent reviewers return to most often.
Reporting 15% weight
Close 2.5
The most-cited limitation across review sources; pipeline reports lack the customization to be useful, advanced analytics rate only medium, and leaderboards sit behind higher-priced plans.
HubSpot 3.0
Free and Starter dashboards are functional but limited; 43% of negative reviews call out reporting flexibility and Professional is where the dashboards a growing team needs actually live.
Value for Money 20% weight
Close 3.0
Expensive for startups with sharp jumps between tiers and no free entry point, but rated worth it by high-volume phone teams who collapse calling, email, SMS, and pipeline into one tool.
HubSpot 4.0
Free tier is rated unmatched value for solo founders and very small teams; value drops sharply at Professional, where seats and contact counts compound quickly.
Close
Pros
- Calling, email, and SMS auto-log to the contact record in one place — reviewers call it a feature usually found on CRMs that cost four times as much
- Clear real-time activity view that makes follow-up prioritization easy for reps working a high-volume pipeline
- Unlimited contacts and drag-and-drop pipeline on every paid plan above Solo
- Holds a 4.7/5 on Capterra across 164 verified reviews, with ease of use rated 4.6
Cons
- Reporting is the single most-cited weakness — Opportunity-pipeline reports aren't customizable enough to be useful, with no good workaround
- Roughly 100 native integrations against HubSpot's 1,500+, so connectors often fall back to Zapier
- No free tier, and the jump from Essentials to Growth more than doubles the per-seat price
- Workflow automation is locked out of Solo and Essentials entirely — you pay for Growth before you can build one
HubSpot
Pros
- Free CRM with unlimited contacts genuinely runs a small business for 12+ months
- Sales-and-marketing on one contact record is the rare consolidation play that actually saves money
- Lead and pipeline workflows score 92% positive across 4,465 verified Capterra reviews
- Integration ecosystem is the largest in the category — Gmail, Calendar, ads, accounting, payments
Cons
- Reporting depth on free and Starter tiers is the single most-cited paid upgrade trigger
- Workflow automation, predictive scoring, and the useful triggers all sit behind Professional
- 35% of negative reviews are about pricing escalation and tier complexity
- Performance bugs and glitches are the dominant theme in negative review sentiment
FAQ
- Is Close or HubSpot better?
- HubSpot edges ahead in our scoring. In the CRM for Small Business ranking Close scores 4.08 and HubSpot scores 3.40 out of 5. Close still wins on specific criteria, so the right pick depends on what you weight most.
- Is Close cheaper than HubSpot?
- HubSpot has the lower entry price: Close starts at $49/mo and HubSpot starts at Free.
- What is the difference between Close and HubSpot?
- Close is positioned as Inside-sales CRM purpose-built for high-volume outbound teams. HubSpot is positioned as All-in-one CRM with strong free tier and broad integration support. They go head to head in CRM for Small Business.
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