⚡ Quick Verdict:
- Pricing: HubSpot paid plans start at $15/seat/month. ClickUp paid plans start at $7/user/month. Both keep a free plan.
- Best for: HubSpot suits sales and marketing teams that need customer relationship management. ClickUp suits teams that manage projects and tasks.
- Key difference: HubSpot is a CRM platform with Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub. ClickUp is a project management platform.
- Our pick: ClickUp, based on its 4.3 rating and cheaper paid plans for growing teams.
These two tools are not really competitors.
HubSpot tracks people. ClickUp tracks work.
Yet small businesses compare them every day.
Both promise one place to run your business operations.
Both hand you a strong free plan to start with.
This full HubSpot vs ClickUp comparison shows which one your team actually needs.
Overview
One of these is CRM software. The other is project management software.
This comparison covers pricing, core features, and ease of use.
We reviewed documentation, pricing pages, and public user reviews for both tools.
Our writers also spent hands-on time inside each platform.
Those notes appear in the “What Our Team Noticed” sections below.
By the end, you will know which one fits your team.
What is HubSpot?
HubSpot is a customer relationship management platform built for sales and marketing teams.
HubSpot CRM stores your contact records and tracks every deal in real time.
The company sells connected “hubs” that share one contact database.
HubSpot Marketing Hub handles inbound marketing, email marketing, and landing pages.
Sales Hub covers sales pipeline management, email tracking, and quotes.
Service Hub adds tickets, live chat, and customer success workflows.
That hub exists to protect the customer experience after the sale.
HubSpot’s free CRM supports one million contacts and unlimited users.
That free version is why most small businesses try it first.
HubSpot
A free CRM that holds one million contacts. Add Marketing Hub or Sales Hub when your team grows.
HubSpot Pricing
Here is what HubSpot offers across its plans in 2026.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tools | $0/month | Contact management and basic email marketing |
| Marketing Hub Starter | $15/seat/month | Small teams running first campaigns |
| Starter Customer Platform | $15/seat/month | Sales, marketing, and support in one starter plan |
| Marketing Hub Professional | $800/seat/month | Larger marketing teams needing custom reports |
Pricing verified July 2026.
Free trial: The free tools never expire. Paid tiers offer trials on request, so no card is needed to start.
Money-back guarantee: HubSpot does not publish a blanket refund window. Annual contracts run to term.
📌 Note: The Starter plan includes 1,000 marketing contacts. Each extra thousand adds $50 per month. Paid plans are billed annually even on monthly billing.
⚠️ Pricing conflict: Third-party sources list a Professional plan at $1,080/month and enterprise plans at $4,000/month. Our database records Marketing Hub Professional at $800/seat/month, and we use that figure here. Check the quote HubSpot sends your company before you sign.
Key Benefits of HubSpot
Here is what makes HubSpot’s CRM worth a look:
- A real free CRM: The free plan holds one million contacts with unlimited users. It also includes one deal pipeline for one team.
- Marketing tools included free: Free features cover email marketing, landing pages, forms, and website pages. Email tracking is capped by daily limits.
- Universal inbox: Live chat, chatbots, team email, and Facebook Messenger land in one shared view. Your support team replies without switching apps.
- 500+ business apps: HubSpot connects to Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and hundreds of other services.
- HubSpot Academy: Free courses and certifications teach inbound marketing and the sales process. Reviewers rate this library highly.
- Data that grows with you: Custom properties and custom objects shape records around your business. Breeze AI now drafts emails and enriches contact data.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer set up a free HubSpot account and imported a contact list. Here is what stood out from that hands-on time:
The walkthrough below covers the same setup on video.
HubSpot Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Free plan supports one million contacts and unlimited users
- Marketing, sales, and service data sit in one contact record
- Integrates with over 500 business apps
- HubSpot Academy makes onboarding easier for new users
❌ Cons
- Costs climb fast once you mix and match hubs
- The free version has no live support, only email support and articles
- Advanced features carry a steep learning curve
- Customization feels rigid next to developer-focused rivals
What is ClickUp?
ClickUp is project management software that keeps work in one workspace.
Teams plan, assign tasks, and track progress without hopping between apps.
A multi-level hierarchy holds Spaces, Folders, Lists, Tasks, and Subtasks.
You can view tasks as a list, kanban board, calendar, or timeline.
Gantt charts map dependencies across complex projects.
Docs, chat, and whiteboards handle team communication inside the same tool.
ClickUp Brain is the built-in AI assistant for summaries and updates.
ClickUp’s features run deep, which is why the interface looks busy.
The free forever plan allows an unlimited number of members.
Our ClickUp review video below walks through the workspace in action.
🏆 Winner: ClickUp
Tasks, docs, goals, and time tracking in one workspace. The free plan covers unlimited users.
ClickUp Pricing
ClickUp plans stay simple. One free tier and three paid plans.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Solo workers and smaller teams |
| Unlimited | $7/user/month | Growing teams that need unlimited storage |
| Business | $12/user/month | Teams needing advanced automation and goals |
| Enterprise | Custom | Large companies needing single sign on |
Pricing verified July 2026.
Free trial: A 15-day free trial covers the paid plans. The free tier itself is completely free with no card required.
Money-back guarantee: ClickUp offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on every paid plan.
📌 Note: Prices are charged per user and drop when billed annually. Upgrades apply to your entire workspace, so every team member moves up together.
⚠️ Warning: The free plan caps custom fields at 100 uses. Guest access, single sign on, live onboarding training, and some other features sit on higher tiers.
Key Benefits of ClickUp
Here is what ClickUp includes that rival tools often charge extra for:
- One workspace for everything: Tasks, docs, calendars, and chat live together. That cuts tool switching and helps teams save time.
- Views for every workflow: List, Board, Calendar, Gantt, and Timeline share the same data. Each person picks the layout they prefer.
- Built-in time tracking: Native timers, manual logging, and workload views support resource management and billable hours.
- Automation without code: Over 100 pre-built rules handle repeat work. Custom rules cover the rest.
- 1,000+ integrations: Slack, Google Drive, and Zoom connect directly. API access opens the rest of your tech stack.
- Goals and dashboards: Measurable goals link to tasks. Custom dashboards track KPIs, team capacity, and project health.
The next block breaks down those benefits in more detail.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer built a real content calendar inside ClickUp over several days. Here is what stood out during that setup:
ClickUp Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Free forever plan allows unlimited users
- Paid plans start at $7 per user per month
- Time tracking, goals, and dashboards are built in
- Connects with over 1,000 tools including Google Drive
❌ Cons
- The interface overwhelms new users at first
- Reporting tools are scattered and hard to find
- Time tracking feels clunky compared with dedicated timers
- No phone support, and live chat starts with a bot
Feature Comparison
These platforms overlap less than the marketing pages suggest. We lined up ten areas where buyers ask for a direct answer.
| Feature | HubSpot | ClickUp |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Paid Price | $15/seat/month | $7/user/month |
| Free Plan | ✅ 1M contacts | ✅ Unlimited users |
| Contact Management | ✅ | ❌ |
| Task & Project Views | ❌ | ✅ Gantt, Kanban, Calendar |
| Email Marketing | ✅ | ❌ |
| Time Tracking | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI Assistant | ✅ Breeze | ✅ ClickUp Brain |
| Integrations | 500+ business apps | 1,000+ tools |
| Phone Support | Paid tiers only | ❌ |
| Best For | Customer relationships | Managing projects |
1. Core Platform Purpose
HubSpot: Everything orbits the contact record. Marketing, sales, and service teams share one view of each customer. That design suits companies chasing new customers and repeat revenue.
ClickUp: Everything orbits the task. Work is broken into Spaces, Lists, and Subtasks with owners and a due date. It fits teams shipping deliverables, not teams closing deals.
2. Contact Management vs Task Management
HubSpot: Contact management is the core job here. Records hold emails, calls, notes, and deal stage. Custom properties and custom objects let you model your own data.
ClickUp: Task management is the core job. You create new tasks, assign tasks to a team member, and watch them move across a kanban board.
⚠️ Warning: ClickUp can hold client records in a custom list. It is not a CRM platform, so pipeline reporting stays manual.
3. AI Assistant
HubSpot: The Breeze AI suite drafts emails and enriches records. It targets repetitive work inside marketing and sales, such as follow-ups and data cleanup.
ClickUp: ClickUp Brain answers questions about your own workspace. It summarizes threads, writes updates, and reports on workloads and time spent.
4. Automation and Workflows
HubSpot: Workflows drive lead nurturing, deal rotation, and internal alerts. Marketing automation is the strongest reason to pay for Marketing Hub.
ClickUp: Over 100 pre-built rules move tasks, change status, and post updates. Custom rules cover the odd cases without any code.
5. Time Tracking and Resource Management
HubSpot: There is no native timer for billable hours. Time-based reporting covers deal cycles and email activity instead.
ClickUp: Native timers and manual logging sit on each task. Workload views flag who is overbooked before burnout hits.
⚠️ Warning: Reviewers report that ClickUp’s timers feel cumbersome. Agencies billing by the hour should test the workflow first.
6. Content, Landing Pages, and Website Pages
HubSpot: Marketing tools cover blogs, landing pages, forms, and website pages. Content sits next to the contact data it generates, which is the point of inbound marketing. HubSpot’s marketing side is why most teams upgrade.
ClickUp: Docs support real time editing and nested pages. They plan content well, but they do not publish anything to the web.
7. Sales Pipeline and E-Commerce
HubSpot: The free plan includes one deal pipeline. Quotes, payments, and product libraries support online selling as your sales team scales.
ClickUp: A board can imitate a sales pipeline with status columns. There is no quoting, invoicing, or revenue reporting behind it.
8. Reporting and Analytics
HubSpot: Custom reports track campaigns, deals, and revenue attribution. Sales leaders get funnel analytics without exporting to a spreadsheet.
ClickUp: Dashboards show sprint burndown, capacity, and project health. Reviewers note the reporting menus are scattered across the app.
9. Templates and Calendar
HubSpot: Templates cover emails, sequences, and landing pages. A guided setup helps new users import data on day one.
ClickUp: Over 1,000 pre-built templates cover common workflows. The calendar layers meetings and deadlines over the same task data.
The calendar view below pulls those templates into a weekly plan.
10. Search, Notes, and Team Communication
HubSpot: The universal inbox pools live chat, team email, and Facebook Messenger. Every reply is saved on the customer record.
ClickUp: Chat, mentions, and a whiteboard feature keep discussion beside the work. These communication features cut internal email. An AI notetaker captures meetings automatically.
Enterprise search then pulls those notes back out on demand.
11. Pricing & Cost
Let’s compare the plans side by side.
| Tier | HubSpot | ClickUp |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free Tools: $0/month | Free: $0 |
| Entry Paid | Marketing Hub Starter: $15/seat/month | Unlimited: $7/user/month |
| Mid Tier | Starter Customer Platform: $15/seat/month | Business: $12/user/month |
| Top Tier | Marketing Hub Professional: $800/seat/month | Enterprise: Custom |
HubSpot: The entry price looks fair at $15 a seat. Costs jump once you add marketing contacts or move to the professional plan.
ClickUp: The unlimited plan runs $7 per user and the business plan $12. Pricing stays flat as headcount grows, which is easier to forecast.
💡 Pro Tip: Both vendors offer discounts on annual terms. HubSpot requires an annual commitment even when you pick monthly billing.
Different Scenarios
| If You Need… | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A free CRM | HubSpot | One million contacts at no cost |
| To manage projects | ClickUp | Built for tasks and deadlines |
| Lowest paid price | ClickUp | $7 versus $15 per seat |
| Email marketing | HubSpot | Campaigns and landing pages included |
| Time tracking | ClickUp | Native timers on every task |
| Beginner-friendly setup | HubSpot | Guided onboarding and free courses |
💰 Your Budget
A ten-person team pays $70 a month on ClickUp’s unlimited plan. The same team on a HubSpot Starter seat model costs $150.
🔌 Your Tech Stack
HubSpot connects to 500+ business apps and syncs with Salesforce. ClickUp connects to 1,000+ tools and adds API access on paid tiers.
📈 Your Growth Plan
If business growth depends on new customers, pick the CRM. If it depends on delivery capacity, pick the project management platform.
🎓 Your Experience Level
HubSpot is user friendly on day one but gets dense at the advanced end. ClickUp is dense on day one and gets easier fast.
🆓 Free Trials and Demos
ClickUp’s free plan gives smaller teams enough features to judge it properly. Both vendors ship new features often, so test the current build.
🛟 Support Options
Free HubSpot users get a knowledge base and community, not live help. ClickUp runs 24/7 chat and live training, though no phone support.
Switching Guide
Already running one of these? Here is what changes when you move.
🔄 Switching from HubSpot to ClickUp?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- Gantt charts, workload views, and native time tracking
- Cheaper seats, plus unlimited storage on the unlimited plan
- Docs, chat, and whiteboards for team communication
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Email marketing, landing pages, and form capture
- Deal pipeline reporting and revenue attribution
- The universal inbox that logs every customer reply
📋 How to switch:
- Export contacts and deals from HubSpot as CSV files
- Create a ClickUp workspace and set user permissions
- Import data into a client list, then rebuild stages as statuses
🔄 Switching from ClickUp to HubSpot?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- A real CRM record for every contact and company
- Email marketing, lead nurturing, and email tracking
- HubSpot Academy courses that shorten onboarding
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Task hierarchy, sprints, and dependency mapping
- Built-in timers and resource planning
- ClickUp University tutorials and template library
📋 How to switch:
- Export your ClickUp lists and custom fields to CSV
- Open a free HubSpot account and map fields to properties
- Upload contacts, then rebuild your deal pipeline stages
What Our Review Didn’t Cover
This comparison focused on small businesses and mid-size teams. We did not test enterprise plans, custom contracts, or migration at 500 seats. Sandbox environments, advanced permissions, and single sign on rollouts sit outside our scope. If you run a large company with a dedicated admin, your priorities will differ from what we covered here.
Final Verdict
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| 💰 Pricing | ClickUp |
| 🚀 Core Features | Tie (different jobs) |
| ⏱️ Time Tracking | ClickUp |
| 📣 Marketing and Email | HubSpot |
| 👶 Ease of Use | HubSpot |
| 🔌 Integrations | ClickUp |
| 🤖 AI Assistant | ClickUp |
| 🏆 Overall Winner | ClickUp |
🏆 WINNER: CLICKUP
ClickUp takes 4 of 7 categories and holds the higher 4.3 rating.
Best for: Agencies juggling multiple projects, product teams running sprints, and smaller businesses that need one place to manage tasks.
The scorecard hides the real answer, so read it carefully. ClickUp wins on price, breadth, and daily project work.
HubSpot wins the moment your problem is customer relationships. Nothing in ClickUp will nurture relationships or send a campaign.
HubSpot CRM reviews on G2 average about 4.4 out of 5, and reviewers give it a high score for ease of use. That reputation is earned, but the cost curve is steep after the free version.
If you must pick one piece of business software today, choose by the work in front of you. Teams that manage projects should start with ClickUp. Teams chasing customers should start with HubSpot’s free CRM.
Plenty of companies end up running both, and that combination costs less than most people expect.
More of HubSpot Compared
Buyers hunting for the best CRM shortlist these names too. Here is how HubSpot lands against those crm tools:
HubSpot wins on: Faster setup for a small business, a free tier that scales to a million contacts, and marketing tools included in the same login.
Salesforce wins on: Deeper customization for developers, stronger enterprise governance, and a partner network built for complex sales processes.
HubSpot vs Pipedrive
HubSpot wins on: Free features for marketing, service tickets alongside deals, and reporting that ties campaigns to revenue.
Pipedrive wins on: A cheaper entry seat, a sharper focus on sales pipeline management, and less clutter for a small sales team.
HubSpot vs ActiveCampaign
HubSpot wins on: A stronger free CRM, content hosting for website pages, and a training library that speeds up new hires.
ActiveCampaign wins on: Lower cost per contact, finer email automation branching, and pricing that does not jump between hubs.
HubSpot vs Keap
HubSpot wins on: A free entry point, a larger app marketplace, and reporting depth for sales leaders.
Keap wins on: Built-in invoicing, simpler automation for solo operators, and phone-first onboarding help.
The video below runs through more HubSpot alternatives in detail.
More of ClickUp Compared
Here is how ClickUp lands against the other project management tools on most shortlists:
ClickUp vs Asana
ClickUp wins on: Native time tracking, a free plan without a member cap, and more views on cheaper tiers.
Asana wins on: A calmer interface, faster onboarding for non-technical staff, and steadier performance on very large boards.
ClickUp vs Monday.com
ClickUp wins on: Better value per seat, docs and whiteboards in the base product, and deeper task hierarchy for complex tasks.
Monday.com wins on: A gentler learning curve, cleaner visual boards, and smoother handover to non-project staff.
ClickUp vs Trello
ClickUp wins on: Gantt and workload views, goal tracking, and reporting that Trello handles only through add-ons.
Trello wins on: Instant setup, a board anyone understands in a minute, and lighter load for a single simple project.
ClickUp wins on: Real task management with dependencies, built-in timers, and automation rules that fire without setup work.
Notion wins on: Free-form documents, a friendlier wiki structure, and a database model teams can shape however they like.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is HubSpot CRM best for?
It suits marketing teams and sales teams that want contact management, email marketing, and deal tracking in one place. Small businesses gain the most from the free tier.
Is HubSpot CRM really free?
Yes. The free tools cost $0 per month and cover a million contacts with unlimited users. Live support and higher sending limits require a paid plan.
What is ClickUp used for?
Teams use it to plan work, assign owners, and track deadlines across multiple projects. It also handles docs, goals, and time tracking in the same workspace.
Is ClickUp really free forever?
Yes. ClickUp’s free plan costs nothing and allows unlimited members. Limits apply to custom fields and some advanced features, but tasks stay unlimited.
What are the disadvantages of HubSpot?
Paid tiers get expensive fast, essential features sit behind higher plans, and customization is rigid next to Salesforce or Zoho CRM. Advanced tools also take time to learn.
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