Salesforce vs. HubSpot: Cosa ne pensano gli utenti reali?

Un confronto tra i CRM in base a 7 criteri basati su valutazioni e recensioni di piccole e medie imprese

Salesforce vs HubSpot

Volete prendere una decisione informata tra HubSpot e Salesforce?

You may have already checked the comparisons written by the vendors themselves or by the lonely blogger/analyst out there, but you’re probably still wondering: Cosa pensano gli utenti reali? 🤔

You could go out and read through the hundreds of reviews on websites like G2 or Capterra… but if you’re instead looking to get a quick yet comprehensive summary, we’ve got you covered here.

We’ve read through all the user reviews, structured all the feedback along 7 different criteria and laid it out for you below, complete with ratings per criterion. ⭐

Metodologia e fonti

Il confronto che segue è interamente basato sulle recensioni degli utenti che sono:

La nostra metodologia consiste nelle seguenti fasi:

  1. Leggete tutte le recensioni per estrarre gli snippet chiave delle recensioni.
  2. Strutturare gli snippet di revisione secondo 7 criteri diversi (vedi sotto)
  3. Riassumete questi frammenti in un formato di testo leggibile per voi.
  4. Estrarre il punteggio delle recensioni degli utenti per ogni criterio da G2 (quando possibile).

The selected criteria for this comparison largely align with those used by G2 to review software products. We’ve added additional “integrations” and “pricing” criteria, plus we merged the “quality of support” and “ease of doing business with” criteria into one.

The structure we’re using for the Salesforce vs. HubSpot comparison looks as follows:

    1. Facilità d'uso: si può effettivamente usare?
    2. Facilità di gestione: quanto è facile tenerlo aggiornato?
    3. Facilità di configurazione: cosa serve per iniziare?
    4. Risponde ai requisiti: fa ciò che dovrebbe fare?
    5. Integrazioni: è possibile integrarlo nel modo previsto?
    6. Assistenza: ricevete aiuto quando ne avete bisogno?
    7. Prezzi: quanto costa?
    8. Final verdict: Salesforce vs. HubSpot – which CRM is best?

We understand that you’re looking to compare our major competitors HubSpot and Salesforce, but do forgive us for mentioning our competing product, Salesflare, along the way because:

  • If you’re up for a better CRM option in any way, you’ll see that real users consistently give Salesflare higher review ratings than Salesforce and HubSpot on all criteria.
  • And if you’re not up for a better alternative, you can still enjoy the fruits of our deep CRM expertise and just read on below to figure out which CRM is best for you!

Enjoy 😁

Facilità d'uso: si può usare davvero?

An absolutely essential question to ask when choosing the right CRM for your small business is: will your team use the software? After all, if they don’t use the CRM, it’s relatively useless to even buy and implement one.

Questo è il primo criterio in cui possiamo individuare una grande differenza tra HubSpot e Salesforce.

I recensori di HubSpot sono generalmente favorevoli alla sua facilità d'uso, anche se le opinioni sono un po' contrastanti:

  • “HubSpot is straightforward” (HubSpot)
  • “Too much clutter and too much going on” (HubSpot)
  • “It’s user friendly” (HubSpot)
  • “A bit busy” (HubSpot)
  • “Relatively intuitive” (HubSpot)
  • “Multiple UX flows do not make sense” (HubSpot)

In breve, se da un lato HubSpot è relativamente facile da usare, dall'altro sembra soffrire un po' della sua crescente complessità.

Il feedback su Salesforce per quanto riguarda la facilità d'uso è tuttavia assolutamente brutale.

Ecco alcune citazioni tratte dalle recensioni di Salesforce che riassumono la tendenza generale:

  • “It’s hard to navigate and clunky” (Salesforce)
  • “What seems simple is not. The very large complexity of the whole environment is astonishing” (Salesforce)
  • “Overwhelming and confusing to get used to” (Salesforce)
  • “Search in a million different places to find things” (Salesforce)

Now why would the biggest CRM player in the market build a CRM that people don’t like to use? 🤔

The main reason for this is that Salesforce is generally bought by executives at enterprises, who value the usefulness of the system for the organization above how easy it is for their teams to use. Or said otherwise: Salesforce’s CRM is built for management, not for sales people.

HubSpot, invece, è costruito principalmente per le aziende di medie dimensioni, dove l'usabilità è più importante per i decisori nella scelta del software giusto.

Conclusione

If you’re looking for the more easy-to-use CRM of HubSpot and Salesforce, go with HubSpot.

When checking the G2 ratings for “ease of use”, HubSpot gets 4.30/5 while Salesforce is rated 4.05/5. You’ll see throughout this comparison that these G2 ratings usually land in the 4-5/5 range, i.e. a score close to 4 is a relatively bad score.

Now, if you’re looking for a really easy-to-use CRM for your small or medium-sized business, don’t limit yourself to these two and have a look at Salesflare instead. It gets a G2 score of 4.75/5. ✨

Facilità di gestione: quanto è facile tenerlo aggiornato?

L'utilizzo effettivo del software CRM è ovviamente la chiave per un'implementazione di successo e per cogliere tutti i vantaggi che ne derivano. Esiste tuttavia un ostacolo fondamentale per il successo del CRM: la facilità con cui è possibile mantenerlo aggiornato.

That’s where most CRMs fall short. They expect you to keep the whole system up to date manually, tracking every interaction, every little detail about a customer, and every person you meet along the sales process.

Sales people just don’t have the time and the discipline to take care of all this, so most CRMs that are implemented get used superficially… or not at all. And this is regardless of how easy these systems are to use and to navigate.

Leggendo le recensioni di HubSpot e Salesforce, possiamo notare che questa è una grande opportunità di miglioramento per entrambi i CRM. Ecco alcune citazioni che lo dimostrano:

  • “Very manual” (HubSpot)
  • “Lot of time to record everything you do (Salesforce)
  • “Requires a lot of clicks to get things done” (Salesforce)
  • “Hard to keep track of everything” (Hubspot)

Now, despite the general trend we can identify, HubSpot is still much easier to keep up to date than Salesforce based on the reviews as well as on our own experience with both systems. It also synchronizes some more data out of the box (with Salesforce, you even have to pay for an additional package to sync your email inbox). Altogether, this makes HubSpot the clear winner on this criterion. 🏆

Conclusione

Both Salesforce and HubSpot can be relatively tedious to keep up to date, but if you’re looking for the better option, you’d better choose HubSpot.

Anche le valutazioni di G2 propendono per HubSpot, con un 4,30/5 per HubSpot e 4,00/5 per Salesforce (anche in questo caso all'estremo inferiore del consueto intervallo 4-5/5).

If you’re, however, looking for a CRM that practically keeps itself up to date (wouldn’t your team love that?), then Salesflare is a much better option. It gets a whopping 4.75/5 G2 score for “ease of administration”.

Facilità di configurazione: cosa occorre per iniziare?

I dati di cui disponiamo in Salesflare sul successo dei nostri clienti mostrano chiaramente che coloro che si configurano meglio con il loro CRM nelle prime settimane tendono ad avere un successo significativamente maggiore con il loro CRM e a ottenere risultati di vendita migliori nel lungo periodo.

Said otherwise: the better you organize yourself, the better your sales results will be. 📈

HubSpot e Salesforce sono molto diversi sotto questo aspetto. Mentre solo un numero limitato di recensori si lamenta del fatto che l'impostazione di HubSpot è stata una sofferenza, un gran numero di utenti di Salesforce sembra avere problemi al riguardo:

  • “Hard to configure” (Salesforce)
  • “Too heavy to set up” (Salesforce)
  • “Long roll out” (Salesforce)
  • “Difficult admin UI” (Salesforce)

This is, again, because Salesforce is built for enterprises and is generally implemented by an implementation partner of theirs. While it does offer the possibility to try it out and get set up without anyone’s help, this is not generally recommended.

HubSpot on the other hand is built for mid-sized companies who have a greater need for an out-of-the-box solution. This does not mean they don’t have implementation partners. After all, if you go beyond the CRM and Sales Hub, setting up HubSpot can become more of a pain. It does however mean that the option has been created to take care of it all yourself.

Conclusione

Comparing HubSpot with Salesforce by the criterion of “ease of setup”, HubSpot is the obvious winner.

Le valutazioni su G2 sono relativamente basse per entrambe le piattaforme: HubSpot si trova vicino alla parte inferiore della solita fascia 4-5/5 con 4,15/5, mentre Salesforce si trova a un punteggio ancora più basso 3,75/5.

The #1 easiest-to-setup CRM as rated by real users on G2 is Salesflare, getting a 4.75/5 score. Needless to say, we’re very proud of that feat!

Soddisfa i requisiti: fa ciò che deve fare?

Now does each CRM meet its customers’ requirements?

This is a rather vague question to answer if you don’t identify first what these requirements usually are, so we’ve done that. 👇

In base alla nostra analisi di tutte le recensioni di Salesforce e HubSpot che abbiamo letto, i seguenti requisiti vengono citati più spesso:

  1. Seguire meglio i lead di vendita
  2. Integrazione con la casella di posta elettronica (per il tracciamento delle email, la sincronizzazione delle email e le sequenze di email)
  3. Reporting sui risultati e sulle attività di vendita

Now, let’s zoom in on each of the 3 basic requirements to compare Salesforce vs. HubSpot.

1. Seguire i contatti

Sebbene entrambi i sistemi siano stati costruiti allo scopo di seguire e gestire i lead, HubSpot fa un lavoro migliore in questo senso.

There aren’t many reviews that complain about HubSpot’s capabilities in this area, while there are many reviews that state that in Salesforce it’s “difficult to navigate and manage all your contacts” and a “pain to perform simple tasks”.

Tuttavia, sembra che sia Salesforce che HubSpot siano afflitti da interruzioni e lentezze che rendono difficile affidarsi ai CRM per il follow-up quotidiano dei lead:

  • “Website goes down several times a week” (HubSpot)
  • “Makes me feel like I’m in middle school with the dial-up internet” (Salesforce)
  • “Down for a long time, the tasks and contacts would sporadically not work” (HubSpot)

People also report that when this happens, support isn’t really helpful, but more on that later.

2. Integrazione delle e-mail

L'e-mail è ancora il canale di comunicazione #1 per le vendite B2B, mentre LinkedIn e le telefonate sono rispettivamente al secondo e al terzo posto.

That’s why a proper email integration is a major CRM requirement for most small and medium-sized businesses.

Quando si parla di integrazione delle e-mail, le aziende cercano tre cose principali: una buona sincronizzazione delle e-mail, un pratico monitoraggio delle e-mail e la possibilità di inviare sequenze di e-mail.

Additional handy features we won’t cover here include: an email sidebar, automated email signature sync, integrated web tracking, auto-created contacts, and some other power features. Depending on your email provider, you can get a full breakdown of these features for Google / Gmail users and features for Microsoft Outlook users in our dedicated articles on the topic. 💌

Sincronizzazione e-mail

Essentially, people expect their emails to show up in the CRM, so they don’t have to paste them in there manually. And they want to be able to send emails from the CRM as well.

Getting this functionality in Salesforce requires you to purchase an additional Salesforce Inbox package, for which you’ll pay extra, while it’s included in any HubSpot plan.

Ecco alcuni frammenti di recensioni che parlano di questa integrazione e-mail, sia positive che negative:

  • “Like the ability to interact via email and tag my colleagues directly” (HubSpot)
  • “Attachments and email communications end up tied to deals where they don’t belong – it is a disaster” (HubSpot)
  • “Can send emails directly from the deal page” (HubSpot)
  • “Some emails appear, some don’t. It’s hard to understand the logic” (HubSpot)
  • “The email integration is terrible” (HubSpot)
  • “Dislike not seeing the customer’s email response in the activity feed” (HubSpot)

In breve: le persone apprezzano il fatto che la capacità sia presente, ma il modo in cui funziona sembra necessitare di qualche miglioramento.

We unfortunately couldn’t find much in reviews about Salesforce’s email integration, but that may be because it’s not a standard Salesforce feature.

Tracciamento delle e-mail

A very simple yet powerful CRM feature is the ability to track email opens and clicks, as it allows sales teams to gauge the prospect’s real time interest and follow up in a much more informed way.

Based on HubSpot reviews, it seems to be one of the top features of the CRM. Here and there, a few people mention that “own email opens are counted”, that it’s “a bit limited” and “doesn’t track cold outreach”, but the overall vibe is very positive in most reviews. 👍

For Salesforce, it’s – like for email sync – part of the paid Salesforce Inbox package and only mentioned sporadically in user reviews.

Sequenze di e-mail

Where in the past this used to be separate software, most major sales CRMs nowadays allow sending email sequences: i.e. the ability to send personalized emails at scale to your contacts from your own inbox and follow up automatically, usually as long as you don’t get a reply or the sequence ends.

In base alle recensioni degli utenti e ad alcune ricerche aggiuntive, l'invio di sequenze di e-mail da Salesforce richiede ancora oggi l'acquisto di un software aggiuntivo.

In HubSpot, it is one of the core features of the Sales Hub’s “Professional” plan.

Tuttavia, sembra essere anche la caratteristica di cui ci si lamenta più spesso:

  • “Cold outreach email limitations are bad” (HubSpot)
  • “Every email in a sequence needs to be a reply” (HubSpot)
  • “Cannot change the email subject on subsequent emails” (HubSpot)
  • “Can’t edit a sequence in motion” / “Hard to correct a sequence” (HubSpot)
  • “Would like more visibility into sequence metrics” (HubSpot)
  • “Only enroll 50 contacts at a time in emails” (HubSpot)

Hopefully HubSpot acts on the feedback soon, because people currently don’t seem to be too happy with how the feature is built. 😞

3. Funzionalità di reporting

Infine, il terzo requisito principale del CRM di cui parlano i recensori è la necessità di poter fare report sui dati dei clienti, sui risultati delle vendite e sulle attività.

This is a core feature you will find in both Salesforce and HubSpot. Based on our own tests with both platforms, Salesforce’s reporting capabilities are more robust, while HubSpot’s reporting is way easier to use.

When reading reviews from actual users the feedback is a little mixed, indicating that there’s still additional room for opportunity here:

  • “One of my favorite parts of this tool is the “reports” tool” (HubSpot)
  • “Can’t get some reports to work properly” (HubSpot)
  • “Reporting is cumbersome and all over the place – some reports are under one tab while others are only visible in certain places” (HubSpot)
  • “The reporting is quite comprehensive” (HubSpot)
  • “I find the reports hard to create and follow” (HubSpot)

Still, we would personally prefer using HubSpot’s reporting over Salesforce’s any day. It’s just so much easier to get started with it.

(Need some inspiration when building out sales dashboards? We’ve compiled a handy overview of sales dashboard examples.)

Conclusione

Mentre sia HubSpot che Salesforce sembrano essere in grado di soddisfare la maggior parte dei requisiti (ad eccezione delle sequenze di e-mail in Salesforce + che a volte richiedono un pacchetto aggiuntivo), il modo in cui questi requisiti vengono soddisfatti non è 100% all'altezza degli standard.

Despite that, based on the full set of feedback from user reviews, we’d again consider HubSpot the winner in this HubSpot vs. Salesforce comparison.

Sorprendentemente, tuttavia, i recensori di G2 classificano Salesforce più in alto con un punteggio di 4,40/5 contro un punteggio di 4,24/5 per HubSpot. Questo potrebbe essere dovuto a una mancanza di attenzione ai requisiti chiave da parte dei revisori, che si sono concentrati piuttosto sul selezionare il maggior numero possibile di caselle di controllo delle funzionalità.

If you’re open to an alternative that better meets the above key needs and gets higher ratings from G2 reviewers for “meets requirements”, Salesflare scores 4.65/5.

Integrazioni: è possibile integrarlo nel modo previsto?

A CRM is not used in isolation. That’s why it’s important that it integrates with other complementary software packages.

It is also one of the main selling points of both Salesforce and HubSpot. While HubSpot sells all-in-one business software, attempting to make any integrations unnecessary, the sales team at Salesforce will promise you that it’s easy to integrate Salesforce with anything. It is, after all, the market leader with the widest range of integrated products.

Both these pros also have their cons. While HubSpot reviewers complain about being “forced in their way” and needing to “upgrade and upgrade”, Salesforce reviewers consistently report that it “does not integrate with any other system nearly as well as promised” and “isn’t easy to integrate with, even though it’s possible”.

Conclusione

Se si considera la quantità di integrazioni, Salesforce è il chiaro vincitore. Se si calcola la facilità di integrazione, HubSpot ha la meglio. Quindi tutto dipende dal fatto che abbiate o meno un team di sviluppatori a vostra disposizione.

Considering the focus of this comparison on small and medium-sized businesses, we’d recommend going with HubSpot here.

Based on our research, there are no other credible, independent ratings of the integration level of both CRMs to be found that are based on real user reviews, so we won’t be able to provide you any CRM reviewer scores on this criterion.

Assistenza: ricevete aiuto quando ne avete bisogno?

In an ideal world, support isn’t needed. But more often than not, it is a critical part of your experience with a CRM product or company.

Not surprisingly, the quality of support is something that is very often mentioned in user reviews. Here are a few snippets that summarize well what we’ve been reading overall:

  • “Accessible support team (HubSpot)
  • “Service and support don’t know what they’re doing” (HubSpot)
  • “They are not able to do anything about the issues at hand – even if they are critical (HubSpot)
  • “If you need help with anything, you can forget to try to get help from support” (Salesforce)
  • “Customer service is really terrible” (Salesforce)

If we’d have to summarize everything we read in our own words:

  • HubSpot support is accessible, though often the support staff is not being really knowledgeable or helpful 🤷
  • L'assistenza Salesforce è relativamente inaccessibile e impiega molto tempo per risolvere i problemi.

Detto altrimenti: mentre HubSpot può avere difficoltà a fornire un'assistenza di alta qualità, Salesforce richiede praticamente di assumere dei consulenti se si desidera un aiuto adeguato.

Conclusione

The clear winner when it comes to delivering quality support is HubSpot, although it seems to be more of an “in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king” situation. As in: it’s better to give low or medium quality support than almost none at all.

Within the usual 4-5/5 range of G2 ratings, this translates into a 4.25/5 “quality of support” score for HubSpot and 4.1/5 for Salesforce.

Se ritenete importante un buon supporto, potete optare per Salesflare come CRM alternativo, che ottiene un punteggio di 4,85/5 dai suoi utenti per la qualità del supporto.

Prezzi: quanto costa?

Infine, ma non meno importante, qual è il confronto tra i prezzi di HubSpot e Salesforce?

Purtroppo questa è la domanda più complicata a cui rispondere, perché tutto dipende da:

  • Cosa serve
  • Quanti contatti avete
  • How many pipelines, reports, custom properties, custom objects, …
  • E un'infinità di altre cose

If there’s anything reviewers are frustrated by, it’s the pricing of HubSpot and Salesforce (not just the initial pricing, but also how it scales quickly):

  • “Pricing as you scale contacts is pretty crazy” (HubSpot)
  • “It is very expensive once you start using it and need additional functionality” (HubSpot)
  • “The pricing is a little harsh on the SMBs out there” (HubSpot)
  • “WAAAAAAY too expensive for what you get” (Salesforce)
  • “License fees are out of control when you exceed the default number of custom objects” (Salesforce)

To make a simple comparison possible, based on the requirements outlined above, we’ve estimated that you’ll probably need each CRM’s Pro(fessional) plan. And when opting for the monthly Pro plan with 5 users, this amounts to:

  • $500/month with HubSpot (you’ll need CRM + Sales Hub)
  • $375/month with Salesforce (Sales Cloud excl. Salesforce Inbox; adding this will probably get you to a total of around $500/month as well; although if you lock yourself into a multi-year contract you’re likely to get this for free)

Note that these are just starting prices and that they can very quickly increase if you hit any of the CRM’s standard limitations. 💸

Conclusione

Per quanto riguarda i prezzi, Salesforce e HubSpot si collocano intorno allo stesso livello.

On the monthly Pro plan with 5 users, both CRMs usually start at around $500 per month including email integration. This is already on the very high end of the CRM pricing spectrum and it only gets more expensive from there, which you’ll probably only discover when you’re already locked into the software.

As a comparison, an alternative CRM like Salesflare will only set you back $275 per month (that’s about 45% less expensive) and comes without hidden upgrades.

Final verdict: HubSpot vs. Salesforce – which CRM is best for small businesses?

While you’ll probably need to go with Salesforce if you’re a large enterprise, HubSpot is the better choice for small and medium-sized businesses, including startups.

Come sopra descritto, sulla base delle recensioni di utenti reali, HubSpot ottiene un punteggio superiore a Salesforce su praticamente tutti i 7 criteri, tranne (forse) il prezzo. È il chiaro vincitore tra i due.

If you’re however open to discovering a significantly better rated CRM at a much lower price, do not miss the chance to check out Salesflare as well. 👈

Try Salesflare for free

Here’s a final comparison between HubSpot and Salesforce, plus Salesflare for reference.

Tabella di confronto HubSpot vs Salesforce vs Salesflare

Note again that the mentioned prices are merely starting prices for Salesforce and HubSpot (posing built-in limitations on many levels) and if you want an email integration or send email sequences with Salesforce, you’ll already find yourself buying extra packages or software.

Want to dig deeper into the differences? Just ask our team using the chat on salesflare.com. We’re here to help 😄

provare Salesflare

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Jeroen Corthout
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