Out on the search for the best marketing automation and CRM platform to supercharge your business growth? HubSpot and SharpSpring are the two perfect choices. However, as we look closely, both hugely vary in their capabilities and features, with two complete user experiences and strengths to empower your marketing efforts.
In this dedicated article, we will explore these fantastic tools and present an in-depth analysis that will let you decide which one's the best for your business.
Quick hint; it's HubSpot, obviously!
Here’s why...
HubSpot is an all-in-one platform that allows you to build websites, manage social media, level up your email marketing, and manage your customer relationships all in one! It also excels in inbound marketing strategies, with robust lead generation and nurturing capabilities.
It has a straightforward user interface coupled with extensive integration abilities and comprehensive analytics. The massive library of free educational content and proactive community support is just the cherry on top.
No wonder why more than 150k+ businesses around the world trust HubSpot!
On the other hand, SharpSpring is a cheaper alternative with decent marketing automation abilities and a robust lead management service. However, it’s nowhere close to HubSpot when we look at the number of tools and data it offers.
Now let's get into the nitty-gritty and find out why marketers and businesses with budgets recommend HubSpot over SharpSpring to empower their marketing campaigns.
Let’s start with the basics:
HubSpot and SharpSpring are both marketing automation and CRM platforms. However, there are some significant differences between both that need to be considered as you choose.
Let's have a brief look at them:
HubSpot is an all-in-one CRM suite with a comprehensive set of tools that cover marketing, sales, customer service, and more. It allows you to build websites, create content, manage your social media, and help you with email marketing.
On the other hand, SharpSpring primarily focuses on automation and lead management. Its core features include lead tracking and nurturing, providing detailed analytics, and launching targeted marketing campaigns.
HubSpot offers you a wide range of integrations with third-party tools and platforms, allowing you to take the CRM's overall functionality to the next level. Plus, it offers tons of customization as well.
While SharpSpring does allow integrations, it focuses more on customizations. It allows you to customize the interface, branding and reporting to align with your overall goals and brand.
HubSpot has a unique set of features that cater to the needs of both small and large businesses. It suits every business looking for an all-in-one marketing platform focused on inbound marketing.
On the other hand, SharpSpring mainly targets SMBs and marketing agencies just looking for a platform with basic marketing automation and lead management capabilities.
Now that we have the basics sorted out, let's dive a bit deeper and see what we found out after comparing both of the tools, feature by feature:
HubSpot and SharpSpring are both advanced tools with some serious learning curves. Therefore we'll present our comparison based purely on how easily navigable and organized the two platforms are.
Let's start!
HubSpot has a very user-friendly and intuitive design that makes navigation through gigantic features a breeze. What we loved most about HubSpot was the thoroughly organized user interface.
As you navigate through the platform, all the features are organized into five separate categories, or "hubs," as they call them. Those include:
When you need to access a particular feature, you just enter the related "hub," and you will find the particular feature right there. Plus, if you have any questions, there's a chance it might be covered in the extensive knowledge already available on HubSpot's blog.
Otherwise, you can always access the community center to seek help from certified HubSpot partners. For immediate response, you always have the option to contact customer support. However, whether you're gonna reach them via email, chat, or phone support depends on your subscription level.
There's also tons of free educational content available in HubSpot's Academy that helps you use the product suite to its full potential. The best thing? You don't even have to buy the product for that. Just enter your email, log into the academy, and voila!
Don't get me wrong, SharpSpring's user interface is just as good as HubSpot’s, but it's not as organized. However, once you get past the learning curve, you'll learn that you'll love many great things about SharpSpring.
To begin with, it is very crisp and detailed, with a lot of customization that allows you to view information and metrics that are more important to you. You can arrange widgets, charts, and reports based on your preference, allowing for a more tailored experience.
SharpSpring also offers one of the best knowledge bases on the internet- almost on par with HubSpot. There's tons of information in the form of articles, blog posts, FAQs, and videos you can refer to as you use the platform.
The customer response is also solid, providing quick assistance with your problems. SharpSpring also has a massive community of users sharing general tips and tricks to optimize your experience as a user over time.
Both suites are great for ease of use and overall functionality. However, we must give it to HubSpot for their effort in organizing all the features.
That's one of the factors that make both of these tools differ hugely from each other. Just a hint, HubSpot is much more advanced than SharpSpring!
Here's why:
HubSpot is known for its email marketing and the amount of automation it brings to your overall email marketing campaigns.
Creating an email campaign with HubSpot marketing is super simple- so simple anyone could do it! As you sign up for your subscription, you get a bunch of email templates to choose from, including:
All the templates contain a general description to give you an idea of which one's best for the type of email you need to send. You can then edit it with the drag-and-drop editor and add content like buttons, videos, images, etc., to make it more personalized.
The follow-up automation is another thing marketers love about the platform. It allows you to create and manage automated email campaigns, set up workflows, track and analyze campaign performance, and shoot personalized messages based on customer behavior and preferences through drip campaigns.
You can also integrate it with other HubSpot tools like CRM and sales automation to create a cohesive marketing and sales ecosystem.
Unlike HubSpot, SharpSpring isn't a hardcore email marketing tool. Still, it does have some cool features to look up to. For instance, one thing we love about SharpSpring is the drag-and-drop email and landing page editor. It makes things super easy.
Plus, it allows you to virtually optimize every aspect of the email or newsletter virtually, creating dynamic forms and emails to engage your leads. However, If you need something for email blasting that is also great at overall automation, this wouldn't be it.
Both have great email editors. But the choice is clear if we were to go for a robust email marketing tool that is also a great marketing automation solution. It's HubSpot.
Regarding CRM features, both HubSpot and SharpSpring stand out as robust marketing automation tools, offering an array of impressive features worth exploring. While it's impossible to cover every detail, let's provide a concise overview of the standout features in each platform:
Both suites have a great CRM with tons of valuable features, but HubSpot takes it when it comes to overall functionality. Plus, it provides free lifetime access to their CRM platform, so that’s a plus.
SharpSpring and HubSpot are both highly customizable marketing automation platforms. The only difference is HubSpot focuses on marketing and sales functionalities, and SharpSpring focuses on automation and leads nurturing.
HubSpot lets you create custom fields for contact properties, deal stages, contacts, quotes, and products. It also allows you to tailor your data collection and segment it per your unique business needs. Moreover, you can also create custom email templates to reach out to leads in different stages of the pipeline.
SharpSpring provides you with essential customization tools for creating dynamic content, personalized emails, and landing pages. You also get a visual form styler that allows you to customize your fields and see the changes in real time before finalizing the overall design. However, it's not as versatile as HubSpot.
Both are good, but Hubspot has more customization options compared to SharpSpring.
HubSpot reporting features are praised by online users due to their comprehensive nature and super-friendly interface. It racks a lot of data and metrics across various areas like marketing, sales, and customer interactions.
You also get useful metrics about website traffic, lead generation, email performance, social media engagement, etc. Besides, HubSpot is always on the run to improve its reporting based on consumer feedback.
SharpSpring does have some seriously good reporting features. However, it tends to narrow down its focus mainly on marketing automation and lead generation.
While it does provide some excellent metrics within its specific areas of focus, It doesn't have the same breadth of details across multiple areas of marketing as HubSpot. In other words, it isn't as comprehensive.
Both HubSpot and SharpSpring have detailed reporting. However, HubSpot covers a more comprehensive set of metrics. HubSpot beats SharpSpring here as well!
Integration options come at the top when discussing key features that differentiate HubSpot and SharpSpring. Here’s why!
HubSpot has over a thousand integration options across categories like sales, HR productivity, e-commerce, billing, invoice, etc.
However, some users report problems connecting to Salesforce. While the problem is not persistent to qualify as a proper problem, it definitely is there. Some popular HubSpot integrations include:
Is the integration you need to be listed on HubSpot's list of integrations? You can always find out by searching HubSpot's App Marketplace.
SharpSpring lacks native integrations. Most of its integration is through apps like Zapier. It doesn't even integrate basic tools like Gmail, Facebook Ads, and Google Ads. However, it does have API access, which means you can always build most of the integrations for yourself when needed.
HubSpot wins for its extensive native integration options and API access.
HubSpot does have excellent customer support service across multiple channels like chat, phone, or Gmail. However, there's a catch. All the support options are available only if you are on a paid plan.
No "real" customer support is available for those using the free plan. They'll have to seek help from the already existing helpful content available on free HubSpot resources, which, in my opinion, is sufficient most of the time.
SharpSpring's customer support is downright amazing. Anyone can access SharpSpring's support team anytime and expect a helpful response within 1-hour duration on working days.
Live chat, community form, support tickets, you can choose any to reach out to SharpSpring's customer support team, no matter which subscription plan you're using. There are no "tiers" for solving issues, and that's what I love about SharpSpring.
Despite all the shortcomings compared to HubSpot, SharpSpring is easily the winner with its unlimited support for all users.
Pricing is quite a tricky thing. You don't always want to go for a cheap option. Instead, you want something that provides maximum value to your budget. Building on the aforementioned context, let's see how both SharpSpring and HubSpot pit against each other:
HubSpot allows free access to basic tools like:
However, if you need more out of the CRM suite, you can go for any of the below-given paid plans:
HubSpot also offers a 10% discount on paying upfront. You can access some of the CRM and marketing automation tools for free.
The Lead Gen and CRM pricing starts at $449/mo. This starter package is particularly designed for a small business, with tons of features to help you nurture leads and increase your overall conversions. You can also get a custom package and pricing if you run an enterprise or a marketing agency.
Well, this one's quite difficult. HubSpot is a complete software with many free tools and many budget options for businesses of different sizes.
On the other hand, SharpSpring provides maximum value while keeping their plans at the cheapest...almost at a fraction of what you will pay for HubSpot.
However, we must give it to HubSpot as it caters to the needs of all businesses, unlike SharpSpring, which mainly caters to SMBs.
When it comes to automation solutions, there’s no way anyone comes close to HubSpot- it’s the ultimate winner no matter what other suite you compare it to.
There are two reasons for that.
First, HubSpot has some serious utility for the price with its vast arsenal of marketing tools. Second, it’s a complete CRM software that caters to the needs of both small and large businesses as long as they can afford the tool.
While you can always use SharpSpring to get things running as a startup, HubSpot is the most complete marketing automation tool with much more to offer than just the basics. And that’s why HubSpot is our ultimate winner!
Irina is a Founder at ONSAAS, Growth Lead at Aura, and a SaaS marketing consultant. She helps companies to grow their revenue with SEO and inbound marketing. In her spare time, Irina entertains her cat Persie and collects airline miles.
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