Pick HubSpot if you want the most complete free CRM, marketing tools on the same record, and the largest integration marketplace; it scores 4.6 and is free for 2 users. Pick Freshsales if your team sells by phone and you want the cheapest way to get a dialer built in; it scores 4.1, is free for 3 users, and Growth costs the same $9 a seat as HubSpot Starter — with calling included.
HubSpot and Freshsales solve the same basic problem — a CRM a small team can start on for free — from different angles. HubSpot bets on breadth: marketing, service and a huge integration marketplace all built around the same contact record. Freshsales bets on depth in one place: phone, email and chat inside the CRM, priced to compete directly with buying a dialer separately.
We price both at 1, 5 and 20 seats, including HubSpot's mandatory onboarding fees and both tools' free-plan caps, then compare ease of use, features, integrations and support. Facts come from our full HubSpot CRM review and Freshsales review, scored with the same weighted rubric. Pricing verified Sept 2026.
| HubSpot | Freshsales | |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 4.6 / 5 | 4.1 / 5 |
| G2 rating | 4.4 (14,302 reviews) | 4.5 (1,223 reviews) |
| Free plan | Yes — 2 users, no expiry | Yes — 3 users, no expiry |
| Entry paid price | Starter $9/seat/mo | Growth $9/seat/mo (tied) |
| Built-in phone | Calling minutes on Starter | Full softphone from Growth |
| AI included in price | Breeze — free on every tier | Freddy — paid add-on, $49/100 sessions |
| Best for | Sales + marketing on one record, biggest marketplace | Phone-first small sales teams on a budget |
Pricing
HubSpot's tiers are Free (2 users), Starter $9, Professional $90 and Enterprise $150 per seat per month billed annually, with mandatory one-time onboarding fees of $1,500 on Professional and $3,500 on Enterprise. Freshsales' tiers are Free (3 users), Growth $9, Pro $39 and Enterprise $59 per user per month billed annually, with no seat minimum and no onboarding fee at any tier — but a Freddy AI add-on at $49 per 100 sessions on every plan.
The entry tiers land in almost the same place: both free plans cost nothing, and both paid entry tiers cost exactly $9 a seat. What differs is what's included at that price. HubSpot Starter adds calling minutes, simple automation and removes branding. Freshsales Growth adds a full phone system, email and chat, all built around the contact record. Above the entry tier the prices diverge hard: HubSpot Professional is $90 a seat plus $1,500 once, while Freshsales Pro is $39 with nothing extra.
| Tier (annual, per seat/mo) | 1 seat | 5 seats | 20 seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot Free $0 | $0 | — (2-seat cap) | — (2-seat cap) |
| HubSpot Starter $9 | $9 (tied) | $45 (tied) | $180 (tied) |
| HubSpot Professional $90 | $90 + $1,500 once | $450 + $1,500 once | $1,800 + $1,500 once |
| HubSpot Enterprise $150 | $150 + $3,500 once | $750 + $3,500 once | $3,000 + $3,500 once |
| Freshsales Free $0 | $0 | — (3-user cap) | — (3-user cap) |
| Freshsales Growth $9 | $9 (tied) | $45 (tied) | $180 (tied) |
| Freshsales Pro $39 | $39 | $195 | $780 |
| Freshsales Enterprise $59 | $59 | $295 | $1,180 |
At 5 seats on the mid tier, the gap is stark: HubSpot Professional is $6,900 in year one once the $1,500 onboarding fee is included; Freshsales Pro is $2,340 with no onboarding fee at all. HubSpot earns that premium with marketing tools, a bigger marketplace and forecasting; Freshsales earns its lower price by staying a sales tool and nothing more.
Watch two things: HubSpot's onboarding fees at Professional and Enterprise are mandatory, and Marketing Hub is a separate product with its own pricing if you want more than the free tier offers. Freshsales' telephony minutes beyond the plan allowance are billed by usage, and Freddy AI's per-session pricing can get unpredictable for heavy users.
Ease of use
HubSpot scored a perfect 5.0 for ease of use, the highest on our list; Freshsales scored 4.5, second only to HubSpot and Pipedrive in our testing. Both are quick to start — the difference is in ceiling, not floor.
HubSpot's free plan gives two users a working pipeline, email tracking and dashboards within an hour, and the product is deliberately structured so you can't over-configure it by accident. In our Freshsales test account, connecting email and buying a phone number took minutes, and a small team could be calling from the CRM within an afternoon — the interface stays uncluttered even as Pro adds territories and sequences.
Features that matter
The pattern is consistent: HubSpot wins wherever marketing, AI-at-no-extra-cost or integration breadth is the job; Freshsales wins wherever the phone is the job and price per feature matters most.
| Feature | HubSpot | Freshsales |
|---|---|---|
| Phone / calling | Calling minutes from Starter ($9) | Full softphone from Growth ($9); recording, notes captured live |
| Tracking, templates, sequences from Starter/Professional | Sync and templates from Growth; sequences on Pro | |
| Marketing tools | Forms, live chat, chatbot, email campaigns — free tier up | None — Freshsales doesn't have a marketing product |
| AI assistant | Breeze included free on every tier | Freddy — paid add-on, $49/100 sessions |
| Automation | Simple workflows on Starter; full builder on Professional | Workflow rules from Growth; deeper on Pro |
| Customization | Custom properties and pipelines across every hub | Standard CRM fields; custom objects on Enterprise only |
| Quotes & payments | Quotes and payment links included | CPQ available as a $19/user add-on |
| Integrations | 2,000+ marketplace apps | Smaller marketplace; strong within the Freshworks ecosystem |
| Free plan depth | Pipeline, email tracking, chat, dashboards — 2 users | Contacts, deals, lifecycle stages, Kanban — 3 users |
If your CRM also needs to run marketing campaigns or plug into a large integration stack, HubSpot's breadth is the differentiator. If your CRM's main job is getting reps dialing quickly at the lowest possible cost, Freshsales' phone-first design wins.
Want the full field?
Our ranked guide compares HubSpot, Freshsales and four other CRMs on price, ease of use and who each one is for, with pricing verified this month.
Integrations
HubSpot scored a perfect 5.0 for integrations, Freshsales 3.5. HubSpot's marketplace lists more than 2,000 apps — Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Zoom, QuickBooks, Stripe, Shopify, Zapier all native — with a well-documented API and a connector shipped by most other business tools because HubSpot is so widely used.
Freshsales covers the essentials — Gmail, Outlook, Google Calendar, Slack, Mailchimp, QuickBooks, Xero, Zapier — and, for teams already on Freshdesk or other Freshworks products, shares data with that ecosystem without a separate integration. Its marketplace is smaller than HubSpot's, so anything beyond core sales and support usually means a second vendor.
Support
HubSpot scored 4.5 for support, Freshsales 4.0. HubSpot Free users get community and knowledge-base support; paid tiers add email and in-app chat, with phone support at Professional and above, backed by the free HubSpot Academy and a large partner network. Freshsales includes email and chat support with a solid knowledge base at every tier; phone support and faster response times are reserved for higher plans.
Who should pick HubSpot
- Teams that want sales and marketing on one record, not two separate products stitched together.
- Anyone who wants AI included at no extra cost, on every tier including free.
- Teams that want the biggest integration marketplace and a connector for almost anything else they buy.
- Companies planning to grow past a simple sales pipeline into forecasting, custom reporting and a bigger stack.
- Teams that can absorb the Professional price cliff once they outgrow Starter.
Skip HubSpot if phone outreach is central to how you sell — Freshsales builds the whole product around it instead.
Who should pick Freshsales
- Phone-first sales teams — insurance, recruiting, real estate, B2B appointment setting — that want calling built into the contact record.
- Budget-conscious teams that want more headroom before hitting a price cliff: Pro is $39 against HubSpot Professional's $90 plus $1,500.
- Teams already on Freshdesk or another Freshworks product, for the shared data and single login.
- A team of exactly three that wants to stay on the free plan one seat longer than HubSpot allows.
- Anyone who wants a purpose-built sales tool rather than a broader suite with marketing bolted on.
Skip Freshsales if you need marketing tools on the same record or AI included in the price rather than metered per session. For that, HubSpot starts free.
Decision rule: if phone is how your team sells, buy Freshsales — the $9 Growth tier with calling included is hard to beat, and Pro at $39 stays cheap well past the point HubSpot gets expensive. If you want one system for sales and marketing with the biggest ecosystem behind it, buy HubSpot and budget for the Professional jump before you need it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Freshsales cheaper than HubSpot?
At the entry tier they're nearly identical: HubSpot is free for 2 users then $9 per seat on Starter; Freshsales is free for 3 users then $9 per seat on Growth — the same price, but Freshsales covers one more free user and includes a phone dialer HubSpot doesn't. Above that HubSpot pulls ahead in features but costs far more: Professional is $90 a seat plus a $1,500 onboarding fee, while Freshsales Pro is $39 with no onboarding fee at all.
Does HubSpot or Freshsales have a better free plan?
Freshsales covers one more user — 3 against HubSpot's 2 — but HubSpot's free tier includes more: live chat, a chatbot builder, a meeting scheduler and its Breeze AI assistant, none of which Freshsales' free plan includes. For a team of exactly 3 with simple needs, Freshsales' cap is more generous. For a team of 2 that wants live chat and AI at zero cost, HubSpot's free tier does more per user.
Which has built-in phone calling, HubSpot or Freshsales?
Both include some calling from their $9 tier, but they're not equivalent. HubSpot Starter adds calling minutes as one feature among many. Freshsales built the product around it: a full softphone lives in the contact record from Growth, with call recording, notes captured live, and sequences that mix calls, emails and tasks on Pro. For a team whose day is built around the phone, Freshsales is the more central experience.
Is HubSpot's AI better than Freshsales' Freddy AI?
HubSpot's Breeze is included free on every tier — company research, email drafting, call prep and record summaries at no extra cost. Freshsales' Freddy AI does similar work — lead scoring, deal insights, email drafting — but is sold as a paid add-on at every tier, $49 per 100 sessions, rather than bundled into the plan price. If AI at zero marginal cost matters, HubSpot wins outright.
Which is better for a small outbound sales team on a budget?
Freshsales. A 6-person outbound team on Growth costs about $54 a month with phone, email and chat all included — likely cheaper than a CRM plus a separate dialer from anyone else, including HubSpot. HubSpot's calling minutes are useful but the product isn't built around the phone the way Freshsales is, and HubSpot's real strength — marketing tools and a 2,000+ app marketplace — isn't what a phone-first team needs most.
Conclusion
HubSpot and Freshsales both give a small team a real, permanent free plan and an identical $9 entry price on their first paid tier — which makes this comparison less about price and more about what each dollar buys. HubSpot's $9 buys calling minutes, simple automation, and a foothold in the biggest CRM ecosystem on the market. Freshsales' $9 buys a phone system built around the contact record, at a price that stays low well past the point HubSpot gets expensive.
Choose on what your team's day actually looks like. Selling across email, chat and eventually marketing campaigns: HubSpot. Selling mostly by phone on a tight budget: Freshsales. To see how both compare with Pipedrive, Zoho, monday and Salesforce, read our best CRM software ranking.