Zendesk and HubSpot enhance collaboration between marketing experts, sales professionals, service reps and other team members to turn leads into loyal customers. But how do you know which of these customer relationship management (CRM) providers will help your business interact with potential and existing customers better?
We’ve prepared this Zendesk vs. HubSpot guide to show you which CRM is best for your business needs. You’ll see how they compare regarding features such as lead and contact management, marketing and sales automation and reporting and analytics. Also, you’ll learn about their pricing and how easy it is to use or customize them.
Zendesk vs. HubSpot: At a Glance
Zendesk Sell is a cloud-based CRM platform built to improve customer relationships and influence sales through features such as a self-service portal, knowledge base and community forums. This CRM tool combines marketing, sales and service functionality to help you track and manage leads, interact with customers and close deals more efficiently, whether over a call, chat or email.
HubSpot is known to serve businesses of different sizes, offering basic functionalities and advanced features via various plans. With features such as SEO recommendations, lead capture from forms, email marketing and social media monitoring, HubSpot CRM helps businesses generate leads, close deals and relate with customers without manual operations.
Zendesk and HubSpot use artificial intelligence (AI)-powered automation and unified dashboards to improve customer relationships and team productivity, regardless of your business size. However, HubSpot‘s interface is not as user friendly as Zendesk’s, and its combined pricing for marketing, sales and service functions is quite expensive and complex. However, it offers a generous free version, allowing you to try its features—something missing in Zendesk.
How Zendesk and HubSpot Stack Up
This table gives an overview of how Zendesk and HubSpot CRM compare in terms of their offerings.
Zendesk | HubSpot | |
---|---|---|
Starting Monthly Price | $19 per user (with annual billing) | $15 per user (with annual billing) |
Free Trial | 14 days | 14 days |
Free Plan | No | Yes |
Contact and Lead Management | Yes | Yes |
Reporting and Analytics | Analytics features only available for higher-tier plans | Yes |
Customer Service Efficiency | Yes | Yes |
Third-Party Integrations | Pre-built integrations and API enabled | Pre-built integrations and API enabled |
Ease of Use and Support | Yes | Support options vary from plan to plan |
Learn More | ||
Read Reviews |
Contact and Lead Management
Zendesk’s email sequence feature makes automating emails through each customer’s journey easy. They’ll get an introductory welcome email, followed by more, as they move from one stage to another until they reach the conversation stage, where a sales rep speaks with them. For HubSpot users, agents can view daily to-dos and engage with them apart from automating the movement of leads through the pipeline. You’ll also identify those that need attention, receive reminders about when and how to interact with them and update meeting outcomes. However, note that HubSpot contact scoring is only available on higher-tier plans.
Zendesk and HubSpot made it to our list of the best marketing CRM software and they both automate email creation and personalization, but besides capturing data via website forms for marketing purposes, HubSpot allows users to embed videos across their websites and social media channels. Its no-code email automation features also make it beginner friendly, and these features are available for free. You can also connect your HubSpot account to email providers such as Gmail and Microsoft 365. However, remember HubSpot’s email send limits, which can hamper high-volume campaigns.
Reporting and Analytics
Both CRM tools are suitable for identifying trends and gathering insights into the success of your operations to guide your interaction with customers better. However, Zendesk users get a more comprehensive range of metrics, and you can customize reports. You’ll access customer insights across multiple channels and real-time historical data, alongside the ability to customize dashboards and charts and share them with relevant team members. However, Zendesk reporting can take time to set up and be complex. Also, Zendesk CRM Analytics is only available for higher-plan subscribers.
HubSpot’s reporting and analytics tools are basic, with only five service analytics reports and dashboards available. Also, you can hardly customize them. However, they are available even to free users, with HubSpot’s free plan offering three dashboards and 10 reports per dashboard. HubSpot CRM’s paid plans provide 10 to 50 dashboards that allow 10 to 30 reports each. Its Professional and Enterprise plans offer users 100 to 500 custom reports, respectively. You’ll also find asset comparison reporting and behavioral triggers included in the reports.
Third-Party Integrations
Both Zendesk Support and HubSpot Service Hub enable smooth integration with third parties. Developers can also use API to build custom integrations for unavailable apps. However, HubSpot enables pre-built integrations with more apps and has a more extensive Application Programming Interface (API). But note that there are a few complaints about HubSpot not displaying integrated apps, requiring users to leave the hub to access them.
Zendesk Sell integrates with popular applications, including HubSpot. However, compared to HubSpot, Zendesk Marketplace offers fewer integrations.
Customer Service Efficiency
Zendesk offers a comprehensive service suite with features such as a ticketing system and workflow configuration available to desktop and mobile device users. Its customer portal also helps businesses track customer interactions and provides a self-service portal, community forums and knowledge base for your customers. Zendesk’s ticketing system is fully integrated, enabling multiple and conditional ticket forms across several channels.
Through its service hub, HubSpot enhances your business’s customer service with its automation, omnichannel messaging, SLA (service-level agreement) management and a customer portal available to desktop and mobile users. However, HubSpot’s customer portal is open only on HubSpot’s Professional and Enterprise plans.
Ease of Use and Support
Overall, Zendesk is easy to use, with its easy account setup and intuitive interface. Also, Zendesk Sell provides uniform support for its subscribers. However, we didn’t get much help from its chatbot, and some customers shared their frustration concerning its lack of in-person help. Also, a few users complained that data synchronization can be glitchy, especially for email integrations.
Despite its comprehensive features, HubSpot CRM retains a navigable interface. However, it’s challenging managing multiple conversations simultaneously. Also, while HubSpot offers more support options than Zendesk, its support varies across plans. The free plan lacks live support; email and in-app chat support are available only to paid plan subscribers, and those not on the Professional or Enterprise plan won’t get phone support.
Cost of Zendesk vs. HubSpot
Our CRM pricing guide, HubSpot pricing and plans guide and Zendesk Sell review will give you the details about the cost of these CRM platforms. However, generally, they offer paid plans, with the higher plans providing more features than the lower tiers. Zendesk Sell users can choose from four pricing plans: Team, Growth, Professional and Enterprise. Their costs range from $19 to $169 per user per month (billed annually), and you need at least five users to create a CRM account with Zendesk. All the plans are charged on a per-user-per-month basis, and you’ll get 14 days to try their features.
HubSpot Sales Hub offers a three-tiered pricing plan: Starter, Professional and Enterprise. HubSpot also offers a limited free plan that enables unlimited users. Its paid plans range from $18 (for two users) to $1,500 per month (for 10 users) billed annually. To combine HubSpot’s marketing, sales and service hubs for your customer relationship management, you can contact the HubSpot sales team for the full pricing and product details. You’ll also get a 14-day trial of HubSpot.
Month-to-month billing plans are also available for HubSpot and Zendesk CRM, but prepare to pay between 10% to 24% extra per month.
Customer Reviews and Reputation
Most Zendesk users say the CRM software is a solid tool for customer relationship management. However, some are unhappy about the occasional platform crash and slowdown, which reduces their productivity. A few users also complained of integration issues that caused errors and delayed response times with their clients.
HubSpot CRM has a reputation for being a reliable, comprehensive suite of features that also integrate smoothly with users’ third-party apps, making it easier to manage customers. Also, its scalability is a big plus, allowing you to use essential features or scale it to handle complex processes. However, we saw complaints about how limited customization with HubSpot. Also, many users find combining its products and hubs complex and expensive.
Top Zendesk and HubSpot Alternatives
Zendesk and HubSpot are two of the best marketing CRMs, with Zendesk being the best for boosting conversions and HubSpot being the best for cross-channel lead nurturing marketing. However, HubSpot beats Zendesk for its comprehensiveness and free version offering. HubSpot CRM also made it to our list of the best CRM software for small businesses, especially for scaling startups. It’s also one of the best contact center CRM and best free CRM systems.
Still, you might prefer a few Zendesk and HubSpot alternatives, depending on your needs. The table below shows a few.
Starting Price | Free Trial or Version | Pipeline Management | Third-Party Integration | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Zendesk | $19 per user per month (billed annually) | 14 days; no free version | Yes | Pre-built integration and API |
HubSpot | $15 per user per month (billed annually) | 14 days; free version available | Yes | Pre-built integration and API |
Pipedrive | $14 per user per month (billed annually) | 14 days; no free version | Yes | Pre-built integration and API |
Zoho | $14 per user per month (billed annually) | 15 days; free version available | Yes | Pre-built integration and API |
Salesforce | $25 per user per month | 14 days; no free version available | Yes | Pre-built integration and API |
Freshsales | $9 per user per month (billed annually) | 21 days; free version available | Yes | Pre-built integration and API |
Learn more:
Top HubSpot Alternatives
HubSpot Vs. Zoho
HubSpot Vs. Salesforce
Pipedrive Vs. HubSpot
Zendesk Vs. Salesforce
Freshdesk Vs. Zendesk
Freshsales Vs. Zendesk Sell
Pipedrive CRM Vs. Salesforce
Bottom Line
While Zendesk and HubSpot are great options for automating customer relationship management, HubSpot holds a slight edge for its features. However, Zendesk outshines HubSpot for being more affordable. Also, if you’re looking for a CRM that focuses more on customer service and support, Zendesk is the better option. Businesses engaging in direct sales through multiple channels will benefit from Zendesk Sell’s offerings, too.
However, if you’re low on budget but need to move from a paper-based model to an automated solution, try HubSpot’s free version, which is suitable for small businesses that don’t require advanced CRM functionality.
Zendesk is best for:
- Small businesses looking for a centrally located hub to funnel all customers through without much complexities
- Businesses looking for a CRM with plenty of focus on customer service
HubSpot is best for:
- Businesses that need a free CRM with advanced CRM functionalities
- Businesses seeking a CRM that has pre-built social media functionality and enables robust integration with social media channels
- Marketing teams that require a CRM with no-code email automation features
We recommend using the available 14-day free trials to get a feel for which one of these two CRM tools best suits your business needs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is Zendesk better than HubSpot?
Zendesk and HubSpot have pros and cons, so either can be better for you, depending on your business needs. For example, while HubSpot boasts comprehensive customer relationship management features, Zendesk is famous for its customer service efficiency.
Is HubSpot cheaper than Zendesk?
Both Zendesk and HubSpot can get pricey as you combine products, but HubSpot is often more expensive than Zendesk, perhaps because it combines three hubs. To determine which is cheaper, highlight your needs and check out what the necessary tools will cost you. Meanwhile, remember that HubSpot allows you to benefit from its free version, whereas there’s no such option on Zendesk.
Does HubSpot integrate with Zendesk?
Yes, HubSpot allows users to integrate with Zendesk in the same way Zendesk allows a smooth integration with HubSpot.
What does Zendesk Sell do?
Zendesk Sell is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that provides better visibility of the sales process. You can connect it to Zendesk Service for even more insight into your customers’ experiences, which is just one reason why it’s important to use CRM.