7 HubSpot Smart CRM alternatives that will help you grow in 2025

Sales and marketing teams are likely familiar with HubSpot Smart CRM, but the popular platform isn’t the only one on the market that can boost sales and streamline marketing campaigns. For some businesses, HubSpot Smart CRM doesn’t make the cut for one reason or another, leaving teams to look for other options.

In this article, we’ll guide you through seven different HubSpot Smart CRM alternatives to consider. We’ll also look at what factors to look at when choosing a CRM and why an AI-first solution like monday CRM is a strong competitor that can be a fit for a range of businesses.

What to consider when choosing a HubSpot Smart CRM alternative for your business

If you’re in the market for an alternative to HubSpot Smart CRM, you’re probably looking for a tool that’s either more affordable, easier to use, or more easily scalable. There are plenty of other great CRMs that can meet and even exceed your expectations. However, tech time-wasters, such as inefficient CRMs, can account for 42.3% of teams’ work time, so it’s important to consider what you need before jumping straight into a new system.

• Complex workflow management: The best CRM for your team should help your team handle complex workflows while still staying simple and easy to manage. Look for visual workflow builders, customizable pipeline stages, and clear task management features that don’t require extensive technical knowledge to set up and maintain.
• AI and automation: Most modern CRMs come packed with AI and automation tools that enable sales teams to speed up the sales funnel with features like sales forecasting, personalized emails, lead nurturing, and others.
• Deep customization: Some CRMs are more flexible than others when it comes to customization. Ideally, you should find a system that’s highly customizable so that you can build boards, workflows, automations, and sequences that match your existing work procedures.
• User feedback: Like any big purchase, you want to do your due diligence beforehand. Sift through user reviews on different software review sites or talk to people in your industry to understand the benefits and drawbacks of any system your team is considering.
• Reporting and analytics: Any new system you implement should offer robust reporting and analytics tools so that your team can get insights into your work processes, customer behavior, and even how using your CRM is impacting performance.
• Ease of use and onboarding: Any new CRM you choose should be both easy to use and onboard, even for team members who don’t have significant technical skills. Look for a platform that’s intuitive, visual, offers drag-and-drop functionality, as well as training and onboarding support for a straightforward user experience.

7 top-rated HubSpot Smart CRM alternatives

HubSpot Smart CRM is a great system for teams that need integrated marketing and sales tools with robust automation, but it’s not the right solution for everyone. We’ll explore a few competing CRMs that include many of the benefits of HubSpot Smart CRM, but also have different selling points, like a lower price point, more features, or better usability.

In the table below, you can compare these CRMs side by side. To read the overview of each in more detail, keep reading.

1. monday CRM

Use case: Visual sales management powered by AI

Bringing a fresh approach to customer relationship management, monday CRM offers a modern solution packed with robust AI sales features. Its visual interface makes pipeline management painless, and it excels at helping teams close deals with meaningful data and customizable boards. Featuring a drag-and-drop interface, monday CRM is easy to use and quick to onboard, making it well-suited to even your least tech-savvy team members.

Best features

• Built-in AI assistant, monday sidekick, helps sales teams generate sales assets, fill in client profiles, and personalize messaging
• No-code automations can trigger actions, send reminders, and use AI  to update pipeline deals based on customer communications
• Customizable dashboards and reporting tools turn sales data into actionable insights

Pricing

• Free 14-day trial
• Plans starting from $12/seat/month

Learn more about monday CRM plans and pricing.

What users are saying

G2 rating: 4.6/5

“monday CRM offers great adaptability for any organization seeking an affordable customizable platform for customer relations management. After using HubSpot for many years, the transition to Monday CRM was long overdue. Make the Change! Monday CRM is user friendly and easy to operate.” — Ryan T.

2. Salesforce

Use case: Enterprise-grade sales automation and analytics

Salesforce remains a leading CRM platform, offering a deep feature set that can scale from small startups to large enterprises. The platform is particularly suited to larger organizations that need extensive customization, complex workflows, and robust reporting capabilities. While Salesforce has a steeper learning curve than some of the other HubSpot alternatives on this list, the benefit is that it includes powerful AI automation and analytics to help teams improve sales.

Best features

• Einstein AI provides predictive lead scoring and intelligent opportunity insights to help prioritize sales efforts
• Advanced workflow automation handles complex sales processes and approval chains automatically
• Salesforce AppExchange provides thousands of integration possibilities to connect with the business tool your team already uses

Pricing

• Free 30-day trial
• Plans starting from $25/user/month

What users are saying

G2 score: 4.4/5

“Salesforce is an infinitely adaptable platform. I’ve worked with Hubspot, Zoho, and other crm tools and Salesforce is the only one where I truly feel confident that I can deliver what my users want and need and what management is looking for.” — Lauren S.

3. Freshsales

Use case: All-in-one customer lifecycle management

Part of the Freshworks suite of products, Freshsales combines traditional CRM features with marketing automation and customer service tools. The platform makes it easy for sales teams to communicate with prospects without switching between different applications. Freshsales also incorporates AI features that help agents improve the customer experience at different touchpoints.

Best features

• Freddy AI analyzes customer behavior patterns and suggests engagement strategies
• Unified customer timeline shows all interactions across sales, marketing, and support teams
• AI email writing helps sales agents compose personalized emails that convert

Pricing

• Free 21-day trial
• Pricing starting from $9/user/month

What users are saying

G2 rating: 4.5/5

“I’ve enjoyed using Freshsales. It has an intuitive interface and essential features that make it easy to use. The platform’s pipeline and contact management have improved the way we manage our client relationships. Most of all, I like that Freshsales gives me the tools I need without overwhelming me with too much.” — Chris F. 

4. Pipedrive

Use case: Sales pipeline optimization and deal tracking

Pipedrive built its reputation by focusing on the sales pipeline, creating a CRM that feels natural for salespeople. The software’s visual pipeline view makes it incredibly easy to see where every opportunity stands and what actions need to be taken next. It’s particularly popular with small to medium-sized sales teams that want a straightforward tool that helps them close more deals without unnecessary complexity.

Best features

• Visual deal pipeline with drag-and-drop functionality to simply update deal stages
• AI-powered sales assistant analyzes team performance and makes recommendations to close more deals
• AI workflow automations streamlines repetitive tasks like prospecting, lead qualification, and customer communications

Pricing

• Free 14-day trial
• Plans starting from $14/seat/month

What users are saying

G2 rating: 4.3/5

“After moving from HubSpot, what struck me most about Pipedrive is that it actually feels like it was built for sales teams. HubSpot, often felt bloated, with too much focus on marketing automation, email journeys, and “do-it-all” functionality. Pipedrive, on the other hand, keeps things clear, fast, and focused: pipelines, deals, follow-ups, and closing revenue.” — Verified user

5. Zoho CRM

Use case: Comprehensive business suite integration

Whether or not your company is already using other Zoho products, Zoho CRM is a great standalone solution that allows teams to create complex business processes without custom development. There are integrated AI features that help sales agents close more deals every step of the way. Zoho CRM is surprisingly sophisticated for the price point, yet still has a simple enough learning curve while leaving room for growth as your business scales.

Best features

• Zia AI assistant provides predictive analytics and suggests the best times to contact leads
• Lead enrichment tools keep data clean, delete duplicates, and enrich leads with contextual information
• AI forecasting offers revenue predictions and helps teams identify high-value deals

Pricing

• Free 15-day trial
• Pricing starts from $14/user/month

What users are saying

G2 rating: 4.1/5

“Zoho CRM provides a centralised platform to manage leads, contacts, and client interactions in a much more structured way compared to spreadsheets. The automation features are especially helpful for follow-ups and reminders, which reduces manual work.” — Calvin L.

6. Insightly

Use case: Straightforward CRM with basic AI features

Insightly is a modern CRM used by many small to medium businesses. The platform helps teams grow sustainably thanks to its tools that allow users to manage leads, automate workflows, and close deals faster. Insightly is also a great option for teams who want to blend CRM functionality with project management, as users can convert opportunities into new projects.

Best features

• Lead management allows teams to capture contact data and prioritize leads based on set criteria
• Business workflow and process automation help teams scale faster by handling repetitive tasks
• Basic built-in AI assists with custom email replies and email summaries to speed up processes

Pricing

• Free 14-day trial
• Plans starting from $29/user/month

What users are saying

G2 rating: 4.2/5

“Insightly is so easy to use. We group potential customers in opportunities where you can view them all and make visible notes without having to click into each organisation, this way you can see who has bought and who hasn’t.” — Verified user

7. Nutshell CRM

Use case: Simple AI-led pipeline management

Nutshell positions itself as a CRM with sales, marketing, and engagement all wrapped up in one software. It includes AI features to help users automate sales, manage pipelines and contacts, and generate sales content. The platform is known for its simplicity and ease of adoption rather than feature complexity, but that makes it a well-suited CRM for small businesses that need a solution their team can easily adopt.

Best features

• AI agents help sales teams complete manual tasks to work more efficiently and increase productivity
• Built-in email marketing lets teams nurture prospects directly from their CRM database
• Reporting and analytics tools allow users to track, view, and forecast sales and team performance

Pricing

• Free 14-day trial
• Pricing starts from $13/user/month

What users are saying

G2 rating: 4.3/5

“Nutshell is a company made of truly empathetic and worried people. They’ll be kind to you, try to understand you, and be candid and true. After using other providers like Hubspot, I can tell Nutshell is different. It is easy to set up, easier to use and has a strong customer support. I use it almost every day.” — Lucas D.

Easily streamline sales and marketing workflows with monday CRM 

For a platform that combines sales and marketing tools like HubSpot Smart CRM, but also offers a simple interface and endless customization, monday CRM makes for a strong alternative. With straightforward drag-and-drop functionality, visual boards, robust AI features, and features that support both campaign management and sales processes, monday CRM might just be your best choice.

With powerful AI features, monday CRM doesn’t just help teams complete processes; it provides intelligent insights and quick automations that allow businesses to grow without scaling resources. Compared to HubSpot Smart CRM, monday CRM offers an intuitive platform that can be implemented quickly, along with plans and prices that offer great value.

Let’s take a closer look at some of monday CRM’s top features that make it a strong competitor.

Sales insights and predictive analytics

With monday CRM, sales and marketing teams can use AI to get meaningful insights into customer behavior and preferences, team performance, and deal progress. Packed with features for predictive analytics and sales forecasting, monday CRM provides meaningful data that helps teams close more deals, refine marketing campaigns, and better understand their customers.

AI marketing campaign management

Marketing teams can rely on monday CRM’s AI tools to create smart campaign content, including personalized emails, automated campaign messages, and tailored content that resonates with customers. Marketing experts can use the platform to learn more about what customers want and keep them engaged with relevant marketing material delivered at the best time.

AI sales automations and workflows

Sales agents can create custom sales automations to make it simpler to track leads and close more deals. Thanks to the system’s AI, monday CRM users can easily build custom workflows to send automated follow-ups to hot leads, generate reports on sales progress, and streamline processes like approvals to speed up complex deals.

Simple lead and pipeline management

Make the most of every lead and deal with monday CRM’s pipeline and lead management features. Sales agents can leave all the heavy lifting to AI as the platform automatically sorts, scores, enriches, and routes new prospects, and moves deals throughout various pipeline stages based on communications, deadlines, or status updates.

How to migrate from HubSpot Smart CRM to monday CRM

Switching CRMs might feel overwhelming, but monday CRM’s support team is on call to help guide you through the process. Here are a few straightforward steps you can take to make the transition as smooth as possible:

1. Export your HubSpot data: Start by downloading your contacts, deals, and company data from HubSpot’s export tools. Make sure to grab any custom fields or properties you may have created along the way.
2. Set up your monday CRM account: Create and customize your workspace or start with a template and invite your team members to join. Use onboarding and training materials to familiarize yourself with the system.
3. Design your sales pipeline: Map out your deal stages in monday CRM to match your current sales process. The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to customize stages and add any specific fields you need.
4. Import your data: Upload your exported HubSpot data to monday CRM by importing CSV or Excel. The platform will help you match fields, merge duplicate contacts, and clean up any formatting issues during the process.
5. Recreate your automations: Set up your key workflows using monday CRM’s no-code automation tools. Focus on your most important processes first, like lead assignments and follow-up reminders.
6. Train your team: Give everyone a walkthrough of monday CRM and let them practice different workflows. You should keep your HubSpot Smart CRM account open until all data is transferred and your team is onboarded and trained.
7. Go live and monitor: Once you’re confident all your data and workflows have been transferred and your team is confident with the new system, you can close your old HubSpot Smart CRM account and go live with monday CRM. Keep an eye on how things are running for the first few weeks, and don’t hesitate to reach out to monday’s support team if you hit any snags.

Start on the right foot by choosing the best CRM

If you’re considering HubSpot Smart CRM alternatives, then you likely already know that selecting the best software for your team isn’t a simple task. Whether you’re choosing your company’s first-ever CRM or you’re looking to swap from existing software, you want to pick a CRM that can grow alongside your team.

A solution like monday CRM provides all the features you need to scale, without feeling too clunky or overbearing. Plus, the built-in AI and automation capabilities can help sales and marketing teams land more leads and close more deals in less time.