HubSpot Sales Hub

What it is

HubSpot Sales Hub is the sales half of the HubSpot platform: contacts and companies in a CRM, deals moving through a pipeline, email templates and tracking, calling, and automation that moves work along without someone remembering to. The free tier is real, covering up to 2 users with no credit card, one deal pipeline and up to 3 email templates.

The paid tiers are where the platform behaviour shows. Starter raises templates to 10,000 and adds 500 calling minutes and 500 HubSpot Credits. Professional adds up to 15 deal pipelines, 3,000 calling minutes, up to 1,000 workflows and 3,000 credits. Enterprise goes to 100 pipelines and 12,000 minutes.

Who it's for (and who it isn't)

It fits a business that expects to grow into a full customer platform and wants the CRM, marketing and service pieces to share one database. Starting free with two users and upgrading as the team grows is a genuine path, and it is the reason HubSpot is the default recommendation for companies that do not yet know what they need.

It is a weaker fit for a small sales team that wants a fast pipeline tool and nothing else, where lighter products such as Attio or Close do the job without the surrounding platform. It is also the wrong choice if a jump in tier would hurt: the step from Starter to Professional is $7 to $90 per seat per month plus a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee, which is a cliff rather than a step.

Pricing

HubSpot Sales Hub is freemium. Free covers up to 2 users with no credit card required. Starter is $7 per seat per month billed annually, or $20 monthly, and includes 500 HubSpot Credits. Professional is $90 per seat per month billed annually, or $100 monthly, includes 3,000 credits, and requires a one-time Professional onboarding fee of $1,500. Enterprise is $150 per seat per month with 5,000 credits and a one-time onboarding fee of $3,500.

Read the onboarding fees as part of the price, because they are mandatory at those tiers and they change the first-year total materially. Budget the tier you will be on in a year, not the one you start on.

Set it up

Official guide: Create records on the index page

1. Create a free HubSpot account. The free tools are free for up to 2 users and need no credit card. Have a spreadsheet of your contacts ready as a .csv, .xlsx or .xls file, with a header row and one contact per row, and a separate column for each detail such as First name and Email. Your free account is now ready.
2. Start the import, which copies your spreadsheet into HubSpot. Click "More", then go to Data Management > Data Integration. Click "Import data", then "Quick import (contacts only)". Click "choose a file", select your spreadsheet and click "Next". You now see a page that matches your spreadsheet columns to HubSpot fields.
3. Fix any column that is not matched by choosing a field in the dropdown menu in the HubSpot Property column. Click "Next", enter a name for the import, select the consent checkbox (read what it says before you tick it) and click "Finish import". You now see a page with the status of your import.
4. Connect your work email so your emails with contacts are saved in the CRM (customer relationship management, the database of your contacts and deals). Click the settings icon in the top bar, go to General in the left menu, and click the "Email" tab. Click "Connect email account", then "Connect your inbox", enter your address and follow the steps to log in. HubSpot now shows your inbox as connected.
5. Go to CRM > Deals, open the view type dropdown menu in the upper right and select "Board view". A stage is one step on a deal's way to being won or lost. You now see your deals as a board with one column per stage.
6. Hover over a stage, click the create button that appears, fill in the deal details and click "Create". Repeat for each deal you are working on. Each deal now sits in its stage on the board.

When this works, your contacts are in HubSpot and your current deals sit in stages on one board, so you can see where each deal stands without asking anyone.

On Starter ($7/mo/seat billed annually, $20 monthly): custom deal pipelines, so you can create a pipeline (the full set of stages a deal moves through) with your own stages. The free tools have 0 custom pipelines and use the default one.

Strengths and limitations

The strength is the on-ramp. A free CRM for two users with real functionality means you can start properly instead of postponing, and the data you enter now stays useful when you upgrade.

The limitations are cost shape and gravity. The tier jumps are steep and the onboarding fees at Professional and Enterprise are unavoidable. Credits meter parts of the platform, which is a second variable on top of seats. And once your marketing, sales and support data all live in one platform, leaving becomes a project rather than a decision, so choose it because you want the platform, not just the free CRM.