Thought HubSpot was too expensive for your business? Think again…

Have you ever looked into HubSpot, got excited about everything it could do for your business, and then quietly closed the browser tab when you saw the price?

If so, you're probably not alone.

For a long time, HubSpot has been one of those platforms that businesses love the idea of. A single place to manage customer relationships, track leads, run marketing campaigns, automate processes and actually understand what's happening across sales and marketing. What's not to like? Well, the main problem, especially for small and medium-sized businesses, has always been the price!

For many businesses, the cost of accessing the functionality they really needed was hard to justify, especially when budgets were tight and other priorities competed for investment.

But there is now some good news. HubSpot has changed the way it charges for its software, and if you've previously ruled it out, we think it's worth another look.

So, what's actually changed?

In October 2026, HubSpot introduced a new, more flexible pricing model for new customers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Previously, buying HubSpot involved navigating its various Hubs - Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub and so on, each with their own pricing structures and subscription tiers.

So, depending on what you wanted to achieve, you could find yourself needing several products, and the costs could quickly become undoable.

Now, instead of paying for separate Hubs, businesses can choose a platform edition (Starter, Professional or Enterprise), pay for the individual seats their team needs and use credits for certain activities, including marketing emails, automation and AI-powered features.

In other words, there's more flexibility to build a setup around what your business actually needs.

And for smaller businesses, that's potentially a big deal. It's not just about paying less - it's really about getting more value.

Small business example

For example, if you’re running a small business, you might be generating enquiries through your website, sending the occasional email campaign, managing a growing list of prospects and trying to keep track of who's following up with whom.

At the moment, you might be using a spreadsheet for customer information, an email marketing platform for campaigns and perhaps another system for managing your sales pipeline. And they all do their jobs reasonably well.

But they don't necessarily talk to each other. Reporting involves pulling information from different places, and there's always that one spreadsheet that nobody is entirely sure is up to date.

You know a proper CRM would help, but you've convinced yourself that HubSpot is something to consider when the business is a bit bigger.

But now, that has potentially changed.

With HubSpot's new pricing structure, smaller businesses have a more flexible route into a connected sales and marketing platform, without necessarily taking on the level of investment that might previously have put them off.

And when you factor in the cost of all those separate subscriptions, not to mention the time spent managing them, the numbers might start looking quite different.

How much could HubSpot's new pricing save a small business?

Let's put some numbers against it.

Imagine you're a small business with three people. One looks after marketing, another manages sales, and the third keeps everything running smoothly behind the scenes.

You want to manage your customer database, track sales opportunities, send a monthly newsletter to 500 contacts and automate some of those repetitive tasks that nobody really enjoys doing. Nothing particularly extravagant.

Previously, accessing Marketing Hub Professional alongside Sales Hub Professional would have cost around £779 per month. Under HubSpot's new pricing model, you could potentially achieve what you need with two Professional Go-To-Market or GTM seats (for sales and marketing) and one Professional Ops seat (for reporting and automation).

Here's how the numbers stack up.

HubSpot pricing comparison: Three-person business

That's a potential saving of £573 a month, or £6,876 a year. Nearly 74%!

Under the new pricing model, those two Professional GTM users can access Professional-level functionality across sales, marketing and customer service, rather than needing separate Professional subscriptions for each Hub.

Of course, it's not quite a like-for-like comparison. The packages, permissions and usage rules have changed, and additional costs may apply depending on your requirements. But it does illustrate the difference the new pricing model could make.

Professional-level HubSpot functionality that previously felt financially out of reach could now be a realistic option for a three-person business.

Pricing note: This is an illustrative comparison using published UK prices for the previous Hub-based packages and indicative UK seat prices for the new model. Figures assume annual billing, exclude VAT, onboarding and additional usage, and are not a guaranteed quotation. 

A system that can grow with you

One of the challenges for smaller businesses is finding technology that works for where they are now, without needing to replace everything when they grow.

You don't necessarily need complex workflows, sophisticated reporting or every AI feature under the sun when you're just starting to get your sales and marketing processes organised.

What you probably do need is a reliable place to manage your contacts, track opportunities, understand your pipeline and make sure potential customers aren't slipping through the cracks.

Then, as your business grows, your requirements change. You might want to introduce automated lead nurturing, more advanced reporting or better visibility across your sales and marketing activities.

HubSpot's new pricing model makes it easier to start with the functionality you need and build on that as your business develops. Which makes far more sense than paying for a whole collection of features that nobody has the time, or the need, to use.

One thing worth keeping an eye on

Now, before everyone rushes off to sign up, there's something worth mentioning.

The new pricing structure doesn't automatically mean HubSpot will be cheaper for every business.

Some activities, including marketing email sends, workflow actions and AI features, now consume HubSpot credits. Each paid edition includes an allowance, but additional usage can mean additional costs.

If you're running high-volume email campaigns or lots of automation, you'll want to understand what that looks like before committing.

But that's really the point. Rather than making a decision based purely on the headline subscription price, businesses need to understand how they'll actually use the platform and what value they'll get from it.

And frankly, we'd recommend doing that with any CRM, regardless of how it's priced. The cheapest system isn't necessarily the best investment if it doesn't do what you need. Equally, there's no point paying for sophisticated technology that your team barely touches.

Revisit that decision

We speak to businesses that have considered HubSpot in the past but decided it was simply too expensive for what they needed. And until recently, that may have been a perfectly reasonable decision. But software changes, pricing changes and, perhaps most importantly, businesses change too.

What didn't make commercial sense two years ago might make a lot more sense today.

The opportunity here isn't simply to get access to HubSpot for less money. It's to rethink how your business manages its customers, sales and marketing, and whether bringing everything together could save time, improve visibility and help you grow.

A good CRM shouldn't just be another monthly subscription. It should make your business easier to run. And if HubSpot's new pricing brings that within reach of more small businesses, we think that's something worth talking about.

At Disruptive Thinking, we work with businesses to make sure their CRM, sales and marketing systems are actually helping them achieve something, rather than just adding another layer of complexity.

If you've looked at HubSpot in the past and decided it wasn't financially viable, we'd be happy to help you revisit the numbers, explore what's changed and work out whether it now makes sense for your business. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Drop us a line at team@hellodisruptive.com and let's have a chat. No obligation, no complicated sales pitch. Just a sensible conversation about what your business actually needs.