HubSpot alternative
You are paying $25,000 a year for a CRM you barely use.
Most small businesses use 10 to 15% of HubSpot's features but pay for 100% of them. We build the CRM you actually need. One-time cost, you own the code, no per-seat fees that scale with your headcount.
30-minute call. Real numbers. No pitch deck.
The real cost
HubSpot pricing in 2026. It is worse than you think.
HubSpot does not make pricing easy to find. Here is what it actually costs for a small business on the Professional tier.
- $800/mo
Marketing Hub Professional
+ $3,000 onboarding fee
- $100/seat/mo
Sales Hub Professional
Minimum 5 seats
- $1,300/mo
Customer Platform Professional
6 seats included
- $15K-$25K/yr
10-person team (Professional)
And it goes up every year
- $50K-$80K/yr
Enterprise + Marketing
For features you will never use
- $45K-$75K
3-year total (10 seats)
Before price increases
Those numbers assume prices stay the same. They will not. SaaS pricing inflates at roughly 12% per year according to the Vertice SaaS pricing index. HubSpot raised prices in 2023 and again in 2024. Your $18,600 this year becomes $20,800 next year and $23,300 the year after.
Then there are the mandatory onboarding fees. $3,000 for Professional. Up to $7,000 for Enterprise. You are paying to learn software that is more complex than what you need.
The feature gap
You are paying for 300 features. You use 12.
What you actually need
- ✓Contact database
- ✓Deal and pipeline tracking
- ✓Email integration
- ✓Task reminders and follow-ups
- ✓Reporting dashboard
- ✓QuickBooks or accounting integration
What HubSpot charges you for
- ✕AI assistants
- ✕ABM tools
- ✕Custom objects
- ✕Revenue attribution
- ✕Predictive lead scoring
- ✕Conversation intelligence
You are subsidizing enterprise features you will never touch. Every dollar you spend on predictive lead scoring is a dollar that is not going toward something your business actually needs.
The math
The math over three years.
HubSpot Professional (10 seats)
Custom CRM (unlimited seats)
Custom breaks even by month 18 to 24. After that, every month is money back in your pocket. And your costs stay flat while HubSpot keeps raising prices.
What you get
What a custom CRM actually looks like.
Your pipeline, your stages
Not a 12-stage template. The 4 or 5 stages that match how you actually sell.
Fields that matter to your business
Job site address, equipment specs, insurance on file. Not generic deal fields nobody fills out.
Automatic follow-ups
Estimate sitting 3 days with no response? The system sends the reminder. You do not have to remember.
One screen for everything
Leads, jobs, invoices, follow-ups. No tab-switching, no hunting for information across five dashboards.
Connected to your tools
QuickBooks, Google Calendar, email, your estimating workflow. Data flows without manual re-entry.
You own it
No per-seat fees. No vendor lock-in. No surprise price increases. The code is yours.
Results
We have built this before.
DS Water
Field service company running on spreadsheets and manual dispatching. We built a custom operations platform that eliminated double data entry and automated scheduling.
Grit Construction
Construction company tracking jobs across spreadsheets, texts, and email. We built a single system for estimates, scheduling, and client communication.
Fix My Books
Bookkeeping firm spending half their time on intake and client onboarding. We automated the entire process from lead to active client.
Is this right for you?
Honest assessment.
This is for you if
- ✓You are paying $10,000+ per year for CRM software
- ✓You use less than 20% of the features you are paying for
- ✓You are locked into an annual contract you wish you could cancel
- ✓You want to own the system instead of renting it
Not the right fit if
- ✕You need enterprise marketing automation with 100K+ contacts
- ✕You have a team of 50+ who all need different permission levels
- ✕You are happy with HubSpot and it is working for you
Questions
Common questions about switching from HubSpot
How much does a custom CRM cost?+
$8,000 to $25,000 depending on scope. A simple contact and pipeline tracker is on the lower end. A full system with quoting, job tracking, and integrations is higher. Compare that to $18,600 per year for HubSpot Professional.
How long does it take to build?+
4 to 6 weeks. You see working software in week 1. We build in stages and adjust based on your feedback, not a 6-month waterfall project.
Can you migrate my data from HubSpot?+
Yes. Contacts, deals, notes, email history. We handle the export and import. Most migrations take 1 to 2 days.
What if I need changes later?+
You own the code. We can make changes, or your team can hire any developer to work on it. No vendor dependency, no change-request fees from a SaaS company that does not know your business.
Is this actually cheaper than HubSpot?+
Do the 3-year math. If you are paying $15K+ per year for HubSpot, a custom build at $15K to $25K plus $2K to $4K per year in support is cheaper by year 2. And the gap widens every year because your costs stay flat while HubSpot raises prices.
What about email marketing?+
We integrate with Postmark, SendGrid, or Mailchimp for transactional and marketing email. These tools are purpose-built for email and cost a fraction of what HubSpot charges. You do not need a $15K CRM to send newsletters.
Get started
Ready to stop renting your CRM?
Tell us what you need. We will show you what it costs and how long it takes. No pitch deck, just a real conversation.
HubSpot is a registered trademark of HubSpot, Inc. J9 Systems is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by HubSpot, Inc.