HubSpot

Starting at: $20/mo
Free trial: Yes
Founded: 2006

About

HubSpot is a customer relationship management platform founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2006. It started with inbound marketing software and grew into a full customer platform covering marketing, sales, service, content, data and commerce.

Businesses use HubSpot to manage contacts and deals, run email and ad campaigns, build websites and landing pages, and support customers. Its AI layer, Breeze, includes Breeze Assistant inside the CRM and Breeze Agents such as the Customer Agent and Prospecting Agent.

As of October 2026, HubSpot offers free CRM tools, the Starter Customer Platform at about $20 per seat a month (lower billed annually), and Professional and Enterprise plans that cost much more and carry onboarding fees. Breeze agents use HubSpot Credits, and the Customer Agent is billed per resolved conversation.

Features and integrations

Smart CRM: Track contacts, companies, deals and tickets in one shared database.
Breeze Assistant: An AI helper that drafts content, summarises records and answers questions inside HubSpot.
Breeze Customer Agent: An AI agent that resolves customer questions across chat and email.
Breeze Prospecting Agent: Researches leads and drafts personalised outreach for sales teams.
Marketing Hub: Email marketing, ads, landing pages, forms and automation.
Sales and Service Hubs: Pipelines, sequences, help desk, knowledge base and customer portal.

Pros and cons

Pros

All-in-one customer platform: Marketing, sales and service share one CRM.
Free CRM to start: Small businesses can begin at no cost.
Strong AI agents: Breeze agents handle support and prospecting tasks.
Huge ecosystem: Thousands of integrations and a large partner network.

Cons

Big price jump to Professional: Advanced features are much more expensive.
Onboarding fees: Professional and Enterprise plans include one-time setup fees.
Credit-based AI costs: Heavy agent use consumes credits beyond plan allowances.

Founder

Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah

Founder, HubSpot

Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah co-founded HubSpot in 2006 after meeting at MIT Sloan School of Management. Together they popularised the concept of inbound marketing.