Zoho CRM vs Hubspot: Which One Should You Choose in 2022?

In the software world, there are two main types of programs: those that are built to be used less, and those that are built to do more.

Zoho CRM is the first type. It automates workflows, processes, campaigns, customer journeys, and more so that you can focus less on software and more on relationships.

HubSpot Sales Hub is the second type. It’s an all-in-one sales CRM that helps teams supercharge their sales process by eliminating friction.

Automated email sequences, a high-powered mobile app, and sales automation enable sales reps to exceed their goals, while deal tracking, robust analytics, and conversation intelligence help managers coach their team to keep them on track.

Both tools offer a wide range of features and benefits, but which one is right for your business?

I’m Kate, and in this article, I compare Zoho CRM vs HubSpot based on pricing, features, pros, and cons.

Zoho CRM vs HubSpot Overview

• Both Zoho CRM and HubSpot offer free trials.

• HubSpot and Zoho are both cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM).

• They’re both in my top 10, which means they can certainly support your business operations.

Ease of Use

Zoho CRM and HubSpot are two of the most popular sales management software and CRM software on the market.

Thousands of users have reviewed both Zoho CRM and HubSpot Sales Hub on Capterra, and Zoho CRM has an average rating of 4.1 stars while HubSpot has an average rating of 4.4 stars.

When it comes to ease of use, I rank Zoho CRM as slightly less user-friendly than HubSpot Sales Hub.

However, Zoho CRM offers a wide range of features and customization options that may make it worth the extra effort for some users.

Ultimately, the best CRM software for your business will depend on your specific needs and preferences.

What Is Zoho CRM?

Zoho CRM is a cloud-based sales management platform that consolidates your sales, marketing, and support activities in one CRM platform.

The system is designed to help you sell more effectively by combining modules that simplify lead tracking, account management, inventory control, CRM, and other functions.

With all your business data compiled in one spot, you can direct your attention to solving real-world problems, and let Zoho do the heavy lifting.

Best Features of Zoho CRM

1. Lead Management

Lead management is the process through which sales-ready leads are converted into deals, by qualifying, analyzing, and nurturing incoming leads from multiple channels.

You can use Zoho’s lead capture system to automatically score leads, identify those that are most likely to convert, and provide you with detailed contact information for follow-up.

2. Contact Management

Zoho CRM’s multichannel communication capabilities will turn your customers into brand ambassadors by always exceeding their expectations.

Your customers and prospects can reach out to you in many ways- from Twitter @mentions, live chats on your website, calls, emails, and all communication that comes through your CRM.

3. Sales Process Builder

The Sales Process Builder in Zoho CRM enables you to build sales processes that are both scalable and repeatable.

As your sales team expands, you’ll want to make sure that the processes you’ve established can scale and that the same level of care is given to the right consumers and leads.

Zoho CRM’s Blueprint ensures that everyone on your team follows the correct procedure, even if you’re not watching.

I suggest you make use of this feature to design your sales process and set up actions for each step, track and optimize it.

4. Workflow Automation

Zoho CRM’s workflow automation is a game-changer for sales and marketing teams.

Automating routine tasks frees up your team’s time so they can focus on more important things, like closing deals.

And because Zia Intelligence combs through your data to identify patterns, you can be sure that the workflows it suggests are tailored specifically to your business.

Whether you deploy them immediately or edit them as needed, Zoho CRM’s workflow automation is sure to help your business run more smoothly.

5. Sales Forecasting

Zoho CRM’s sales forecasting capability lets you estimate revenue and set goals for your team using critical data such as the number of deals in the pipeline, quotas met during the previous fiscal year, and those making the most progress toward their objectives.

Using real-time data, you can easily find areas where your team is slacking and work to correct the issues.

Management can obtain a clear picture of their pipeline with “Best case” and “Committed” deals, resulting in real and achievable targets.

Managers and revenue leaders, on the other hand, get a clear picture of the company’s position and can change their objectives in response to the performance.

With this feature, you can make sure that your team is always on track to hit its targets.

6. Marketing Automation

Zoho includes many marketing tools to automate your marketing processes and help you generate more leads.

With Zoho CRM, you can create and track email campaigns, landing pages, web forms, and social media campaigns from one platform.

You can also use the built-in CRM tools to segment your contacts into groups so that you can target them with relevant content.

Zoho CRM Pricing

Zoho pricing plans are categorized into four: Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate.

The pricing is based on per user per month and billed annually.

The Standard plan costs $14/user/month, the Professional plan costs $23/user/month, the Enterprise plan costs $40/user/month, and the pricing for Ultimate is $52/user/month.

There is also a free trial for first-time users, which allows them to explore the features of Zoho CRM for free for 15 days.

Zoho CRM Pros and Cons

What I like about Zoho CRM

• It’s one of the top sales CRMs for small businesses.

• 15-day free trial.

• It provides you with test data, so you can quickly set up the basics to start playing out around with the software.

• The analytics feature is extremely user-friendly and makes it easy to visualize data with graphs and charts.

• It supports 28 languages.

• Zoho CRM helps you automate repetitive tasks.

• GDPR and HIPPA compliant.

• It integrates with more than 100 apps including Google Workspace, Office 365, LinkedIn, Zendesk, etc.

What I don’t like about Zoho CRM

• It has a great number of features, so it can be overwhelming for the regular user.

What Is HubSpot Sales Hub?

Sales Hub is a powerful sales tool that helps sales teams eliminate friction by bringing all your tools and data together on one easy-to-use CRM platform.

It’s simple, and it includes a free CRM. One of its greatest features is that you can connect everything in your sales process from start to finish.

Also, it’s flexible enough to build your company on HubSpot exactly as it appears in real life without spending months of time customizing it.

HubSpot is designed to help companies grow by empowering them to run their business better. With applications for marketing, sales, content management, and customer service, HubSpot makes it easy for businesses to scale without sacrificing quality or efficiency.

Best Features of HubSpot

1. Email Templates

Sales Hub allows your team to turn their best sales emails into templates that can be customized and shared with the rest of the team.

Imagine for a second that you have a long list of templates. How do you know which one you should be using? Just take a look at the dashboard to see all your templates’ open and click rates, and you’ll quickly figure out which ones you should keep or stop using.

This is a simple yet powerful feature, and definitely one of my favorites.

2. Email Marketing

This is a feature that I find quite useful too because you don’t need to be a designer to use it. You just need to use the drag-and-drop editor to create professional and optimized emails.

Since it’s part of the HubSpot ecosystem, the customer data comes from the HubSpot CRM, so no need to manually input it.

Also, it’s available for free as part of the Marketing Hub. However, if you want additional features, you can pay for the premium plans.

3. Call Tracking

Sales teams use call tracking to follow up on inbound or outbound calls with potential customers.

Modern call tracking on HubSpot uses artificial intelligence to make intelligent recordings of sales calls and offers key insights from the conversation for later analysis.

And it’s very easy to use. You can easily create, manage, and record calls using your desktop browser.

4. Quotes

Your prospects place a premium on speed and efficiency in the sales process. So, to help ensure your product is top-of-mind, send quotes as soon as they request them.

You can even create good-looking quotes with your brand colors and logo in a matter of seconds.

And all the tools you need are in one place. There is no need to waste time switching between software solutions.

5. Sales Automation

Keep your sales process running like a well-oiled machine by automating key tasks and adding personal touches.

I personally see the tasks section of this feature as a calendar. You’ll know what’s due today, overdue, and upcoming.

By setting up personalized emails and follow-up tasks, you’ll make sure you’re always top of mind for potential customers.

6. Marketing Automation

HubSpot’s marketing automation tool allows you to cut through the clutter by driving marketing campaigns, powered by customer data in real-time.

You can access this feature for free, but you’ll unlock more tools if you upgrade to a paid edition of Marketing Hub.

HubSpot Pricing

HubSpot offers a free plan and three premium plans:

• Starter: $45/month

• Professional: $450/month

• Enterprise: $1,200/month

HubSpot Pros and Cons

What I like about HubSpot

• I like that the HubSpot ecosystem helps you keep your brand, messaging, and interactions with your customers organized and consistent.

• HubSpot easily integrates with G-Suite, also called Google Workspace (Gmail, Calendar).

• Hubspot’s sales and marketing modules complement each other very well.

• HubSpot Academy offers online courses that are 100% free and cover marketing, sales, and service topics.

• Obtaining answers to your questions is easy with over 85,000 people in the HubSpot community.

• Programming follow-up emails and tasks ahead with email sequences makes it easy to reach out to a larger audience.

What I don’t like about HubSpot

• I found the onboarding process a bit overwhelming. There were too many options to click on and look at.

Why Should I Use Zoho CRM?

The Zoho ecosystem of smart solutions gives your company’s marketing, sales, and support employees the information they need to interact with your consumers at every stage of the purchase process.

Your business will be able to manage and execute complex business processes across departments, regions, and verticals with Zoho CRM’s scalable backend architecture, comprehensive feature coverage, and world-class security measures.

Why Should I Choose HubSpot?

HubSpot is an all-inclusive platform that gives you all the tools you need to manage your inbound marketing, sales, and CRM.

With HubSpot, you can save time and money by having all of your team’s data in one central location. And because it’s cloud-based, you can access your data from anywhere.

HubSpot also offers a free plan and a free CRM, so you can try it out before you commit to a paid subscription.

Lastly, and in my opinion, most importantly, HubSpot offers unlimited storage and insights, so you don’t have to worry about hitting a storage cap.

Zoho CRM and HubSpot Alternatives

I ranked and reviewed the best sales management software tools on the market in a previous article.

That list includes:

• Salesforce Sales Cloud

• Monday

• Pipedrive

• Others

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Lead Management?

Lead Management is the process of tracking and nurturing sales leads until they are ready to buy. Its goal is to shorten the sales cycle and convert leads.

Is there a better CRM than HubSpot?

Before selecting CRM software, it’s important to clearly define what your team needs. What are the tasks that are consuming most of their time? What needs to be automated?

Here is the link to the article where I walk you through the steps you should follow if you are a manager and want to know how to start the sales process automation.

Once you go through those steps, then you can take a look at this other article where I rank and review the best sales management software tools.

Having said that, overall, there are other CRM platforms and sales management software tools out there that rank higher than HubSpot, such as Salesforce Sales Cloud, Monday, and Pipedrive.

Which CRM is better HubSpot or Salesforce?

I wrote an article where I ranked and reviewed the best sales management software tools on the market. In that article, I rank Salesforce Sales Cloud as the world’s #1 CRM platform and best sales management software tool.

What is better Zoho or HubSpot?

Both Zoho and HubSpot are great CRM software solutions. However, HubSpot is better for companies that are looking for an all-in-one solution, while Zoho is better for companies that need more customization options.

However, if I had to pick one, I’d go with HubSpot because I’m a visual person and value an appealing and simple graphic interface. Also, HubSpot offers better support and the ability to quickly start the sales process automation to make your team’s life easier and help them become more productive.