HubSpot Starter is the paid entry tier of HubSpot CRM, priced per seat since the 2024 pricing change. It is worth buying when you have more leads than you can track by hand. It is not worth buying to fix a lead shortage, because a CRM organizes demand rather than creating it.
Key Takeaways
- Pricing is now per seat. HubSpot dropped the old contact-tier bundles in 2024, so any article quoting a flat monthly figure is out of date.
- Always check the live pricing page. HubSpot changes rates and runs promotions frequently.
- The free CRM is genuinely usable. Many small businesses never need to upgrade.
- Starter is worth it for branding removal, simple automation, and real deal flow. Below that you are paying for a tidier interface.
- A CRM does not create leads. If nobody is finding you, the money belongs in search, not software.
In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the benefits of Hubspot’s marketing and sales starter plans and how they can help your business achieve its growth goals. As a HubSpot partner, we set these plans up for clients regularly.
What is HubSpot?
Before we dive into the benefits of Hubspot’s starter plans, let’s first understand what Hubspot is and what it offers.
Hubspot is a customer relationship management tool that provides businesses with a range of tools to help them attract, engage, and delight customers. The suite includes a range of solutions, including:
- Marketing Hub: A set of tools to help businesses attract, engage, and convert leads into customers.
- Sales Hub: A set of tools to help sales teams manage their leads, deals, and pipeline more efficiently.
Hubspot’s solutions are designed to work seamlessly together, providing businesses with a complete suite of tools to help them grow and succeed.
What does the Starter Marketing Hub do?
The marketing hub is one of the core components of Hubspot Starter. It is designed to help you create, manage, and optimize your marketing campaigns. You can use it to track and analyze your marketing performance.
One of the most significant benefits of the marketing hub is its ability to create a personalized experience for your customers. It allows you to segment your audience based on their interests and behaviors, so you can deliver targeted content that resonates with them. This can help you increase your conversion rates and build stronger relationships with your customers.
What does the Starter Sales Hub do?
The sales hub is another critical component of Hubspot Starter. It helps you manage your sales processes more efficiently. You can use it to create a sales pipeline that reflects your sales process.
One of the most significant benefits of the sales hub is its ability to prioritize your sales activities. It allows you to focus on the most promising leads and close deals more quickly. You can also use it to collaborate with your team so everyone is on the same page.
What is included in the Starter plans?
Hubspot’s marketing and sales starter plans are designed specifically for small businesses that are just starting with inbound marketing and sales. These plans offer a range of features and tools that help businesses attract, engage, and convert leads into customers more effectively.
The marketing starter plan includes tools like:
- Lead capture forms: Create custom forms to capture leads on your website.
- Email marketing: Send up to 2,000 emails per month to your leads and subscribers.
- Marketing automation: Automate your lead nurturing and follow-up processes using creative email templates.
- Analytics: Monitor your website’s performance and track your marketing efforts.
The sales starter plan, on the other hand, includes tools like:
- Contact management: Keep track of all your leads and customers in one place.
- Deal tracking: Manage your sales pipeline more efficiently and close more deals.
- Email tracking: Track and log all your email interactions with leads and customers.
- Meeting scheduling: Schedule meetings with leads and customers right from your inbox.
Both the marketing and sales starter plans offer a wide range of other features and tools as well, making it easy for small businesses to get started with inbound marketing and sales.
What are the benefits?
Now that we know what Hubspot’s marketing and sales starter plans offer let’s take a closer look at some of the benefits of using these plans for your business.
1. All-in-one solution
One of the biggest benefits of using Hubspot’s starter plans is that they offer an all-in-one solution for businesses. Rather than having to invest in multiple tools and platforms to manage your marketing and sales efforts, Hubspot provides a single platform that handles everything from lead capture to deal closing.
This not only saves businesses time and money but also makes it easier to manage all your marketing and sales efforts in one place.
2. Easy to use
Another benefit of Hubspot’s starter plans is that they are easy to use and require no technical knowledge or experience. The platform is designed with small businesses in mind and offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to get started with inbound marketing and sales.
Additionally, Hubspot offers a range of resources and support to help businesses get up and running quickly, including a knowledge base, video tutorials, and a customer support team.
3. Scalable
As your business grows, your marketing and sales needs will also change. The good news is that Hubspot’s starter plans are scalable, meaning you can easily upgrade to more advanced plans as your business evolves.
This makes it easy for small businesses to start with the starter plans and then upgrade to more advanced plans as their needs grow without switching to a completely different platform.
4. Data-driven
Finally, Hubspot’s starter plans are data-driven, meaning they provide businesses with the insights and analytics they need to make informed marketing and sales decisions.
With features like website analytics, lead tracking, and deal tracking, businesses can monitor their performance and make data-driven decisions to improve their marketing and sales efforts.
How much does HubSpot Starter cost?
HubSpot moved to seat-based pricing in 2024, so the old contact-tier bundles described in older articles no longer exist. The Starter Customer Platform is now priced per seat and covers all the hubs at Starter level, and HubSpot frequently runs promotional rates for new customers. Those numbers change often, so check the current pricing page rather than trusting a figure quoted in any article, including this one.
You can upgrade to the Professional and Enterprise packages for advanced features. If you want to take it for a test drive, Hubspot’s free version is great.
Is HubSpot Starter actually right for your business?
Often the free CRM is enough, and that is worth saying out loud before anyone spends money. HubSpot free tier handles contacts, deals, and basic email for a small team indefinitely. Plenty of businesses never need more.
Starter earns its cost when you want the HubSpot branding off your forms and emails, need simple automation beyond a welcome message, or have enough deal flow that manual tracking is losing you work. Below that threshold you are paying for a tidier interface.
There is a bigger trap here, and it catches a lot of small businesses. A CRM organizes leads. It does not create them. If your problem is that not enough people are finding you, a CRM will simply give you a tidier view of an empty pipeline, and the money belongs in SEO, local SEO, or PPC instead. Buy the CRM when you have leads to lose track of.
It also only works if the forms feeding it exist and function, which is a web design question. A CRM connected to a site nobody converts on is an expensive spreadsheet.
Conclusion
Hubspot’s marketing and sales starter plans offer a range of benefits for small businesses looking to get started with inbound marketing and sales. With an all-in-one solution, ease of use, scalability, and data-driven insights, these plans can help businesses attract, engage, and convert leads into customers more effectively.
If you’re a small business owner looking to grow your business, Hubspot’s marketing and sales starter plans are definitely worth considering.
