Zoho vs HubSpot

HubSpot is uniquely dedicated to ease-of-use and simplicity for admins, reps, and managers. This way, you spend less time (and money) getting your CRM system to work the way you want it to. HubSpot customers have the freedom to organize and administer their CRM without the need to hire a dedicated admin. Need a more sophisticated approach? Use custom objects to architect your CRM in a flexible, intuitive way for your business, and seamlessly import crucial 3rd party data into your CRM. We made our pricing suitable for businesses without an unlimited budget.

Compared to a seamless and complete solution, Zoho requires additional effort to set up initially and recurring maintenance to avoid major pitfalls (source). One G2 user writes, “Glitchy programming, especially with third-party integrations. Sometimes haphazard programming allowing for some customizations, yet missing others. Support does not pay attention to details and takes several explanations to receive needed support. Support can also take days or more to resolve.” (source)

HubSpot features an elegant user experience that's optimized for the things customer people do every day. By combining powerful features with intuitive UX, HubSpot is loved by admins and end-users alike. And it’s why HubSpot is consistently ranked the most user-friendly CRM and B2B software (source), with rep adoption often cited as a key benefit among HubSpot users. As a result, customers making the switch to HubSpot often see an improvement in their data quality. When paired with HubSpot’s powerful reporting and automation features, high-quality data gives admins greater visibility into the overall health of their business. 

Zoho does not provide the same quality of support to its customers that HubSpot does, and HubSpot's support is included (See G2 ratings of support here). For better support coverage and responsiveness, Zoho customers will pay 20-25% of their annual contract. This means not only do they need to pay for a feature that is essential to the smooth operation of the product, but that the price tag will increase as their business grows and expands. HubSpot's approach to customer support places the success of our users at the center of everything we do - so we take a keen interest in making sure that business get the most out of the product as possible. That's why we focus heavily on the onboarding experience, HubSpot Academy, and the core Customer Success team that we run in-house rather than outsourced.

HubSpot CRM platform and supporting Sales, Marketing, Content Management & Service Hubs have all been built by HubSpot from the ground up. The result is a unified and consistent user experience where data, reporting, and individual tools are all similar and work in concert with each other. That’s why all Hubs, tools, and integrations connect seamlessly. It’s all powered by the same database, so everyone in your organization — Marketing Sales, Service, and Operations teams — is working off the same system of record. This provides a smoother handoff between teams and results in a more delightful experience for your customers. With carefully crafted products and a thriving ecosystem of integrations, HubSpot works to align your data, channels, and teams around a single source of truth. Every interaction is seamlessly synced to the contact’s timeline so your whole team has a clear understanding of the person, not just the persona. With this level of alignment and data, your team can create a more personalized and remarkable customer experience — helping you grow better.

While Zoho has largely developed its products in-house, many combinations require additional connections or integrations to sync across different applications For example, connecting Zoho Desk and Marketing to the CRM requires establishing synchronization rules and connection as you would for a third party service or marketing solution (source). While these features and tools are united under a single brand, the underlying infrastructure is disparate — leaving your data, channels, and teams vulnerable to a disjointed experience. This can add friction that slows your team down and disrupts your ability to create exceptional customer experiences.

HubSpot doesn't sacrifice power for usability. Customize it to meet your business needs without adding complexity — and scale up gracefully, without months of custom dev work. HubSpot offers a flexible data structure for your CRM with custom objects, so custom implementations are a breeze. You can stay agile as you scale, adapting easily to whatever the world throws at you.

Gartner reviewers give Zoho CRM lower ratings across the board (source), but face specific challenges when it comes to integration and deployment. Despite being developed largely in-house, Zoho has been slower to innovate on features that would ease these pain points -- like out of the box data connectivity between applications. Zoho has an expansive suite of products to help customize your tech stack but this can also introduce more friction into existing processing. More friction means more time spent on basic configuration, potentially holding you back from optimizing your processes.

With HubSpot, you get access to everything you need, plus anything you want. Tap into HubSpot’s expansive network of over 700 integrations and thousands of certified solutions partners to help you provide an exceptional end-to-end customer experience. Say hello to the HubSpot Ecosystem. You've created an amazing business, and now, you don't have to grow it alone.

While a low-cost CRM platform like Zoho might seem like a safe bet, Zoho lacks the ecosystem to service all of its global customers and broad product line, leaving many businesses with limited support. Going it alone also creates buggy processes and less-than-reliable reporting (source). And as soon as your strategy shifts, you are once again at the mercy of the technical masterminds who set things up.

HubSpot is invested in your success from day one. Our world-class support and customer success teams are available to all customers– with phone and email support at no extra charge for Pro and Enterprise customers– and you won’t pay more for it as you grow. HubSpot Academy, consistently ranked as one of the top online learning platforms in the world (source), is also available for free right at your fingertips. 

G2 not only rates HubSpot higher than Zoho for “Quality of Support”, but also on “Ease of Doing Business With” and “Product Direction” — plus, HubSpot triples Zoho in favorable reviews (source). Zoho users who lack strong support mechanisms must be more self-sufficient to realize value from their product, creating friction that makes the partnership between user and provider less positive. This should give businesses pause in evaluating the long-term viability of the solution.