Sales CRM · Comparison
HubSpot vs Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM: Zoho leads at 9.1; 5 users cost $70 to $195 a month
We read the pricing, trust, legal, help center and developer pages of three sales CRMs on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What 5 users with pipelines, email sync and automation cost, where sequences, SSO and HIPAA sit, and who should pick which.
On this page9 sections
On six indicators read from each vendor's public pages, Zoho CRM scores 9.1 out of 10, HubSpot Sales Hub 6.8 and Pipedrive 6.7. For our reference scenario, 5 users on the cheapest plan with more than one deal pipeline, a connected mailbox and workflow automation, billed annually, Zoho CRM Standard comes to $70 a month, HubSpot Sales Hub Starter to $100 at its list price and Pipedrive Growth to $195. Zoho stands out for how much sits on its $14 plan; HubSpot for its free CRM and low entry price; Pipedrive for SAML SSO on every plan and sales automation at $39 a seat.
Zoho CRM is in the Excellent band, HubSpot and Pipedrive in the Good band. The scores measure what the public pages commit to, not how well each product works or how many deals a team closes, and we did not sign up for any of them.
At a glance
| HubSpot Sales Hub | Pipedrive | Zoho CRM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | A free CRM that grows into Sales Hub seats | A visual pipeline with automation from Growth | A full CRM on a $14 plan |
| Free option | Free CRM for 2 users; 14-day trial | 14-day trial, no card | Free edition for 3 users; 15-day trial, no card |
| Reference scenario (5 users, annual) | $100 on Starter at list, computed | $195 on Growth, computed | $70 on Standard, computed |
| Sequences | Professional ($90 plus $1,500 onboarding) | Growth ($39) | Standard ($14) |
| Forecasting | Professional | Growth | Standard |
| Custom objects | Enterprise, through sales | Not listed | Standard (10 custom modules) |
| SAML SSO | Professional | Every plan | Through Zoho Directory |
| HIPAA BAA | Enterprise | Not offered | Standard and up, from Zoho legal |
| Score (public pages) | 6.8 Good | 6.7 Good | 9.1 Excellent |
What the public pages show
HubSpot Sales Hub starts with a free CRM for 2 users, with deals and a connected inbox. Starter lists at $20 a seat (new customers pay $7 on annual terms for a limited time) and adds 15 pipelines, record automations and calling minutes. Professional, at $90 a seat plus a required $1,500 onboarding fee, adds sequences, forecasting, full workflows and SSO; Enterprise adds custom objects and the HIPAA BAA through sales.
Pipedrive puts unlimited pipelines, SAML SSO, the API and data export on every plan. Growth, at $39 a seat on annual terms, adds two-way email sync, automations, sequences and forecasts; Premium adds custom permission sets and Ultimate the security alerts. It lists no custom objects, and its terms say it is not designed for HIPAA.
Zoho CRM puts up to 5 pipelines, email integration, workflow rules, cadences, forecasting, 10 custom modules, built-in calling, audit logs and HIPAA settings on Standard at $14 a user. Quotes and CPQ start on Professional at $23.
Strengths and things to know
HubSpot Sales Hub. Strengths: a free CRM with inbox logging; 15 pipelines and record automations on Starter; the API and EU hosting on every plan; AI credits priced in public. Things to know: sequences, forecasting and SSO need Professional and its onboarding fee; custom objects and the HIPAA BAA are on Enterprise; quotes need a Revenue Hub seat for new customers; the $7 Starter price is a limited-time offer.
Pipedrive. Strengths: SAML SSO on every plan; sequences, forecasts and automations on Growth; limits stated per plan; SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 with EU hosting for EU sign-ups. Things to know: no custom objects; not designed for HIPAA; custom permission sets start on Premium; the pricing page and plans article disagree on which plan has the audit log.
Zoho CRM. Strengths: cadences, forecasting and custom modules on the $14 plan; SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and a HIPAA path; audit logs and free backups on Standard; a free edition for 3 users. Things to know: quotes start on Professional; SSO runs through Zoho Directory; an older comparison page from 2022 still puts custom modules on Enterprise.
Pricing reality
Reference scenario: 5 users on the cheapest plan that includes more than one deal pipeline, a connected Gmail or Outlook mailbox and workflow automation, billed annually, at US list prices before tax, with any required onboarding fee spread over 12 months, without AI credit usage.
| Service | Plan | Monthly cost | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho CRM | Standard | $70 | Computed: 5 × $14; no add-on needed |
| HubSpot Sales Hub | Starter | $100 | Computed: 5 × $20 list price; new customers pay 5 × $7 = $35 for now |
| Pipedrive | Growth | $195 | Computed: 5 × $39; Lite ($14) has no automations or two-way email sync |
Month to month, the same seats cost $100 on Zoho, $100 on HubSpot at list ($50 at the current offer) and $245 on Pipedrive (computed). The plan you need moves the number more than the entry price. For email sequences and forecasting together, Zoho stays on Standard ($70), Pipedrive stays on Growth ($195), and HubSpot needs Professional: 5 × $90 = $450 a month plus $1,500 onboarding, $575 a month over the first year (computed).
How we scored them
Every product in this category is scored on the same six indicators, read from the vendor's own pricing, trust, legal, help center and developer pages, with fixed formulas. The overall score is the plain mean. Our methodology page explains how these scores work.
| Indicator | HubSpot Sales Hub | Pipedrive | Zoho CRM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing clarity | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| Free plan and trial | 7.5 | 3 | 8.5 |
| Price for 5 users | 7.7 | 5.5 | 8.9 |
| Sales features | 6 | 8 | 9.4 |
| Compliance and data residency | 6.3 | 7.5 | 10 |
| Admin, API and data export | 7.4 | 8.4 | 10 |
| Overall | 6.8 | 6.7 | 9.1 |
Pricing clarity loses a point for each price a page leaves out or each pair of pages that disagree: four for HubSpot, two each for Pipedrive and Zoho. Pipedrive scores 3 on the free plan item because it offers a trial but no free plan. HubSpot's lead over Pipedrive comes from its free plan and lower entry price; Pipedrive's sales features and admin controls sit on cheaper plans. Zoho's lead comes from putting cadences, forecasting, custom modules, audit logs and HIPAA settings on its $14 plan.
Also in this category
Salesforce Sales Cloud scores 5.7: custom objects, quotes and forecasting from Pro Suite at $100 a user ($500 a month for 5, computed), SSO and an audit trail in every edition, while the API, sequences and dialer cost extra below Core and its SOC and ISO scope excludes the Suites. Attio scores 6.0: the strongest free plan here, with email sync, workflows and the API for up to 3 seats and $175 a month for 5 users on Plus (computed), while sequences and custom objects need Pro and its compliance file is ISO 27001 without SOC 2.
Who should choose which
- Choose Zoho CRM if you want cadences, forecasting and custom modules for $14 a user, with SOC 2, ISO 27001 and a HIPAA path. Look elsewhere if you need quotes on the entry plan or SSO set up inside the CRM.
- Choose HubSpot Sales Hub if you want to start free with 2 users and add paid seats later, especially if you use HubSpot for marketing. Look elsewhere if you need sequences or forecasting without a $1,500 onboarding fee.
- Choose Pipedrive if you want a visual pipeline with SAML SSO on every plan and sequences and forecasts at $39 a seat. Look elsewhere if you need custom objects or handle HIPAA data.
Bottom line
From public pages alone, Zoho CRM leads at 9.1 by putting the most on its entry plan: $70 a month covers 5 users with cadences, forecasting and custom modules. HubSpot Sales Hub, 6.8, is the easiest start with its free CRM, but sequences and forecasting need Professional and its onboarding fee. Pipedrive, 6.7, costs more for 5 users at $195 a month yet includes sequences, forecasts and SSO on that plan. Compare the plan that has the sequences, forecasting, SSO or HIPAA terms you need, not the entry price.
How we checked
We read the vendors' pricing pages and plan tables, trust and security pages, legal terms, help center articles and developer docs on Oct 16, 2026. HubSpot's, Pipedrive's and Zoho's pricing pages fill in prices by script, so we read them in a browser with a US English locale, where each showed US dollars. We did not sign up, start a trial or call an API. Facts the pages did not state, such as which edition HubSpot's trial runs on, are left out rather than guessed. Every figure is on the vendors' pages as of that date or, where marked, computed from them.
