HubSpot Sales Hub vs Close

These two are built around different ideas of how selling happens. HubSpot assumes the conversation starts in an inbox and a form. Close assumes it starts on the phone. Which assumption matches your team is most of this decision.

Selling by email against selling by phone

Close ships a power dialler, call recording and two-way email sync inside the product rather than as an integration you assemble. For a team that works a list by telephone, that is the difference between a CRM and a tool.

HubSpot Sales Hub scores 5 for pipeline depth against Close's 4, and 5 for integrations against Close's 4. Its mailbox integration and tracking go right down into the free tools, and it has web forms and meeting booking that Close does not match. Close answers with custom objects and single sign-on available on ordinary tiers rather than held back for enterprise, which is rarer than it sounds.

Free to begin, and the step after it

HubSpot has a free tier with a real deal pipeline, then Starter at seven dollars a seat billed annually. Close has no free plan and its trial includes only five dollars of calling credit, so evaluating it properly costs something.

Then the direction reverses. HubSpot's Professional tier is roughly thirteen times the Starter per-seat price and carries a required one-time onboarding fee of fifteen hundred dollars. Close's ladder runs nine, thirty-five, ninety-nine and one hundred and thirty-nine dollars, all four rungs published with both billing terms shown, and no onboarding fee.

Close's own catch is the dialler: calling is charged on usage on top of the seat price, so a team that calls heavily should model that separately rather than reading the seat price as the bill. Close scores 3 for value and HubSpot Sales Hub scores 3 too, and they get there by opposite routes — one cheap to start and expensive to grow, the other the reverse.

Which should you choose?

Choose Close if your team sells by phone and you want the dialler, the recording and the email sync to be one product. Choose HubSpot Sales Hub if you want to start free, your selling happens mostly in writing, or you need the deeper pipeline and the wider integration set.

If the phone matters but the usage-based calling does not appeal, Pipedrive includes calling and publishes every tier of its ladder at a fixed seat price.