Overview

The real cost depends on how you use it

That is because the real cost can depend on things like:

• which HubSpot package you need
• how many users you have
• how many marketing contacts you want to market to
• how many emails you send
• whether you need extra WhatsApp capacity
• onboarding
• add-ons
• credits
• integrations
• customisation
• custom reporting
• implementation support
• and the amount of time your team spends managing the system

For this article, the HubSpot figures are based on the pricing assumptions used in our comparison tool as at July 2026.

01 · Headline price

1. Start with the headline HubSpot price

For Marketing Hub Professional, the pricing basis used in our calculator is:

That package includes:

• 3 Core Seats
• 2,000 marketing contacts
• 20,000 marketing email sends per month under the standard allowance used in our comparison
• 1,000 WhatsApp messages per month in the assumptions used by our calculator

02 · Onboarding

2. Add the onboarding cost

One of the biggest first-year costs is onboarding.

For Marketing Hub Professional, the pricing basis in our calculator includes:

That means the first year can cost significantly more than simply multiplying the monthly subscription by 12.

For a small business, that matters. A monthly figure can look manageable until the onboarding charge is added.

So before comparing CRMs, make sure you compare:

not just the headline monthly figure.

03 · Users

3. Add extra users if you need them

The Marketing Hub Professional comparison in our calculator includes 3 seats as standard.

If you need more than that, additional Core Seats are priced in the calculator at:

That may not sound enormous on its own.

But if your team grows from 3 users to 6, 8 or 10, the monthly cost starts to move quickly.

04 · Marketing contacts

4. Marketing contacts can become a major cost driver

HubSpot separates ordinary contacts from marketing contacts.

Marketing contacts are the people you actively market to through HubSpot.

The Professional comparison we use starts with: 2,000 marketing contacts

That may be fine for a small database. But if your list grows, the cost of your marketing-contact tier can increase too.

This is particularly important if you have:

• old customers
• historic enquiries
• imported prospect data
• exhibition contacts
• newsletter subscribers
• dormant leads
• multiple segmented lists

The wrong setup can mean you end up paying to market to far more people than you actually need.

05 · Email limits

5. Check the email limits too

HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional does not mean unlimited email.

The comparison tool uses a standard allowance of: 20,000 emails per month

That is based on the 2,000-marketing-contact tier and a 10x email-send allowance.

That sounds like a lot. But email volume can disappear surprisingly quickly.

For example, if you have 2,000 marketing contacts and send:

• one newsletter
• one nurture email
• one follow-up email
• one promotional campaign

that is already:

Add automated emails, form follow-ups, customer updates and other campaigns, and the total can grow quickly.

06 · WhatsApp and usage

6. Check WhatsApp and usage limits

If WhatsApp is part of your customer communication process, check the limits carefully too.

The comparison calculator assumes: 1,000 WhatsApp messages per month included and then models additional cost for higher usage.

Again, this is where a feature that looks included can become more expensive once usage starts to grow.

07 · Customisation

7. What about customisation, implementation and reporting costs?

The subscription is only part of the picture.

HubSpot can be heavily customised, which is useful when a business has genuinely grown into more complex sales, marketing and operational requirements.

We know businesses that have outgrown popcorn and moved to HubSpot because they were ready for that extra complexity.

The feedback we have heard from some of those businesses is that the move can come with significant customisation and implementation costs.

In some cases, businesses have told us they have faced costs of:

That can include:

• custom pipelines
• workflow design
• bespoke automation
• custom reporting and dashboards
• custom properties
• data migration
• integration setup
• permissions
• consultancy or partner support
• training and implementation

Custom reporting is particularly important.

Once a business wants dashboards and reports built around its own KPIs, sales stages or management structure, it can move beyond simple out-of-the-box setup and require specialist work.

That does not mean HubSpot is the wrong choice.

If your business genuinely needs that level of sophistication, the investment may be justified.

But it does mean you should understand the cost of making HubSpot fit the business, not just the cost of buying the licence.

Ask before you upgrade

08 · Other costs

8. Look at the other costs around the subscription

There are several other costs that are easy to overlook when you focus on the headline price.

These can include:

• extra seats
• higher marketing-contact tiers
• email-volume limits
• WhatsApp usage
• HubSpot Credits
• add-ons
• extra Hubs
• integrations
• storage or capacity
• implementation help
• consultancy
• customisation
• custom reporting
• training

I would not describe all of these as hidden costs because many are published.

But they are easy to overlook when you focus on the headline subscription.

09 · Time

9. Then add the cost that never appears on the invoice

There is another cost that small businesses often ignore: time

How much time will somebody spend:

• building workflows
• managing properties
• cleaning data
• maintaining reports
• checking integrations
• sorting permissions
• training users
• fixing setup issues
• helping people understand the system

That time has a real business cost.

If one member of a five-person team becomes the unofficial HubSpot administrator, that is capacity being taken away from sales, marketing or customer work.

Your numbers

What would HubSpot actually cost your business?

This is where the numbers become useful.

Instead of trying to work everything out manually, use our HubSpot vs popcorn comparison calculator.

It lets you compare:

• team size
• monthly email volume
• WhatsApp usage
• monthly software cost
• first-year cost including onboarding

The calculator shows popcorn and HubSpot side by side.

Savings

What are small businesses actually saving?

Based on small businesses that have used our HubSpot vs popcorn comparison tool, the average saving identified is:

Your own figure will depend on:

• number of users
• email volume
• marketing contacts
• WhatsApp usage
• HubSpot setup
• features required

So the purpose of the calculator is not to tell every business it will save the same amount.

It is to help you understand your own numbers.

Value

Compare cost against what you actually need

This is the most important part.

For many small businesses, that means:

• CRM
• contact management
• deal management
• follow-ups
• email marketing
• forms
• landing pages
• automation
• website tracking
• lead nurturing
• Hot Prospects
• WhatsApp

If those are the things your business genuinely needs, compare the cost of getting them through popcorn with the cost of moving further up the HubSpot stack.

The point is not that popcorn and HubSpot are identical. They are not.

Your stack

You do not necessarily need one giant platform

There is also another way to think about the cost.

A growing business does not necessarily need one system to do everything.

You can divide the business into three connected areas:

You can choose specialist systems for each area and connect them using integrations where appropriate.

That can still give you a joined-up customer journey:

without forcing every process into one large platform.

For a small business, this can often be:

• more cost-effective
• easier to use
• easier to change later
• better suited to the people actually using the software

It also gives you flexibility.

If your operations needs change, you can change the operations system.

If your finance needs change, you can change the finance platform.

If your pre-sales needs change, you can change the CRM.

You do not have to replace the whole technology stack at once.

popcorn pricing

What does popcorn cost?

For comparison, popcorn CRM pricing starts from:

Paid plans include the core CRM, sales and marketing functionality rather than requiring the business to keep moving through multiple feature tiers.

That includes things such as:

• CRM
• sales pipeline
• deal management
• reminders
• email marketing
• forms
• landing pages
• automation
• website tracking
• Hot Prospects
• WhatsApp
• dashboards
• UK phone support
• free onboarding

Again, the point is not simply that one number is lower than another.

The real question

The real cost question is about value

HubSpot can be excellent value if your business genuinely uses the breadth of the platform.

Summary

Quick checklist: how much will HubSpot really cost you?

Before committing, check:

• What is the monthly subscription?
• Is onboarding required?
• How many seats are included?
• What will extra users cost?
• How many marketing contacts are included?
• How quickly could we move into a higher contact tier?
• What is the monthly email-send allowance?
• How many emails will we actually send?
• What WhatsApp limits apply?
• Will we need credits?
• Will we need other Hubs?
• Are there add-ons we will need?
• Will we need custom reporting?
• Will we need external consultancy?
• Will we need bespoke integrations?
• Could implementation and customisation run to £20,000+?
• What integrations will we pay for?
• How much internal admin time will the platform require?
• What will the total cost look like in 12 months?
• What will it look like in 24 months?
• Are we paying for functionality we will actually use?

Then compare that number with the alternatives.

Frequently asked questions