Struggling to choose between Monday.com and HubSpot? We get it, they’re two of the best CRMs on the market.
Choosing the wrong one can lead to wasted time, resources, and money trying to course correct.
I’m AJ—here to lend a hand. I’ve grown my business (over the last decade) to a successful seven-figure exit, learning what works (and doesn’t) in the process.
My goal with Small Business Bonfire (SBB) is to help you build and scale your business (with none of the same hurdles I had).
So here you are, folks, the match you’ve been waiting for—HubSpot vs. Monday.
Let’s get into it!
The SBB team and I went in-depth with Monday.com and HubSpot to pick a winner.
We tested both (over six months) in terms of the following metrics:
Pricing & Free VersionTop FeaturesCustomer ServiceIntegrationsEase of UseBest Mobile AppKnowledge and Learning CenterLimitationsWhich One We Think is Best for Small Businesses
How We Objectively Test Each Platform:
AJ’s got a knack for kick-starting businesses, putting them on autopilot, and setting them up for acquisition. Over the past decade, he’s been right in the thick of things with hundreds of small businesses, helping them with just about everything under the business sun. If you need advice on software suites and choices? AJ’s your guy.
We roll up our sleeves and dive into the top CRM features we think are pretty crucial for small businesses. Stuff like reports and analytics, options to customize your pipelines, and the ability to link up with other apps and services. We know what makes small businesses tick, so we know what features they need to get the job done.
Money matters, folks! When it comes to picking a CRM system, price is usually the deal-breaker. We give a big thumbs up if a provider charges $30 or less per user each month for their starter plan. Extra brownie points for throwing in a freebie plan or trial, options to scale up or down as needed, and the freedom to pay monthly or yearly. We’re looking for flexability for small businesses.
We all know support is mega important when you’re choosing a CRM platform. This is especially true for those smaller businesses or sales teams who can’t afford to have tech wizards on their payroll. We put our detective hats on to see if these companies offer round-the-clock support, and we looked at the different ways you can get help. We’re talking live chat (like, real-time convo), email tickets, a good old-fashioned phone call, and self-service tools (for the DIY-ers out there).
When you’re in the business of picking a CRM, integrations are like the secret sauce that takes your burger from ‘meh’ to ‘mind-blowing’. Imagine, all your favorite apps and tools, working together in perfect harmony, making your workflow smoother than a fresh tub of Nutella. When we review a CRM, we look at the integrations most SMB owners are looking for.
When you’re reviewing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, it’s essential to pay close attention to its ease of use. After all, a CRM is as beneficial as its usability. A simple, intuitive interface saves you and your team a great deal of time and headache. When we’re reviewing each CRM, this is a crucial aspect that we look for.
The importance of Mobile CRM cannot be overstated in today’s digital age. It’s essential for fostering strong customer relationships and managing business activities. Mobile access to CRM makes it possible for sales teams to update and access customer information in real time, improving efficiency and ensuring up-to-date data. Mobile CRM can have a massive impact on SMBs, so thoroughly testing it is essential for each one of our reviews.
Here’s a quick overview of how each customer relationship management (CRM) platform performed in this battle royal.
It’s important to choose a CRM that fits your budget.
So, let’s see how HubSpot and Monday fare regarding pricing.
HubSpot CRM offers a free plan in addition to three paid plans:
Free Plan – Free ForeverStarter CRM Suite – $30/MonthProfessional CRM Suite – $1,335/MonthEnterprise CRM Suite – $5,000/Month
Check out our full HubSpot pricing guide for more information!
Monday.com offers four paid plans in addition to a free plan.
These include the following:
Free – Free ForeverBasic – $10/MonthStandard – $12/Month Pro – $20/Month Enterprise – Custom pricing
AJ’s Take: Monday is a highly affordable CRM with a free plan and scalable options up to the enterprise level. Compared to HubSpot’s expensive pricing plans, Monday was a clear winner. While HubSpot’s free plan is worth mentioning, Monday comes out on top.
Monday.com and HubSpot offer powerful features, but there can be only one winner.
If you want to know which features were our favorite, then continue reading!
HubSpot Sales Hub provides powerful pipeline management capabilities to help scale your SMB.
With HubSpot’s pipeline management, you can accomplish the following (with ease):
Empower your sales team to close more dealsEasily track deals and stages with multiple pipelinesGain insights into your pipeline performance Customize every aspect of your pipelines
Here’s a look at some of the pipeline customization we were able to accomplish with HubSpot.
The pipeline dashboard had an intuitive interface, making HubSpot perfect for beginners.
We added some of our affiliate marketing deals to HubSpot to really test this feature out (over six months).
Here’s how it looked once we had every put in.
The best part is that this feature is 100% free to take advantage of.
So, if you want to empower your sales teams, increase sales performance, and take your CRM game to the next level, our money is on HubSpot.
If you’ve ever tried to get your entire team in a meeting simultaneously, you probably understand how frustrating scheduling can be.
Luckily, HubSpot takes the stress out of scheduling with its meeting-scheduling capabilities.
Here’s how it works:
Connect your calendar to HubSpotCreate a meeting link and customize availability for external partiesShare the link with external parties and watch as they schedule a meeting in secondsNo back-and-forth, no wasted time. Just simple scheduling.
Check out a company meeting we were able to schedule for Small Business Bonfire with just a few clicks!
The meeting went off without a hitch, and we could even send out reminders 15 minutes beforehand (so everyone was on the same page).
Plus, with HubSpot’s free version, you can schedule unlimited meetings without any additional cost. It’s useful features like this that make HubSpot one of the most competitive CRMs on the market.
Managing your customer tickets can be tricky without the right tools.
That’s where HubSpot comes in to save the day as your dedicated customer success manager.
The CRM solution offers a fantastic (100% free) ticket managing solution courtesy of HubSpot Service Hub.
This feature is easy to use, allowing you to easily accomplish the following:
Create, edit, and manage support tickets with easeUse automation to route tickets to the appropriate team member Keep track of ticket statuses and prioritize urgent issues
Here’s a look at our customer ticket dashboard for context.
In addition to being user-friendly, it’s also highly customizable.
Check out this sneak peek into the customization of our ticket dashboard with HubSpot.
What’s great about HubSpot’s built-in multichannel support is that it automatically creates tickets from the following channels:
Live chatChatbotsEmailPhone
This means you can centralize all your customer communication in one place, saving you time and headaches.
Understanding how your customers feel about your product or service is crucial to any business.
HubSpot makes it easy to gather feedback with its customer survey feature, available on the Professional and Enterprise level plans.
With HubSpot, you can create the following survey types:
CustomCustomer supportCustomer satisfaction Customer loyalty
HubSpot’s customer surveys allowed us to do the following:
Easily create surveys using pre-made templates or customize our ownSend surveys to customers through email, chat, or website pop-ups Analyze responses in real-time and track customer satisfaction over time
It was like having a crystal ball into what was working and what wasn’t for SBB.
Our takeaway: HubSpot’s customer surveys offer a simple and effective way to gather valuable feedback from your customers.
If you want to improve your customer relationships, we recommend upgrading your plan to check out this feature.
HubSpot lets you connect with your customers in real time through its live chat feature, available on all plans.
We tested this feature over six months and found it extremely effective in reducing response time and improving customer satisfaction.
Here’s how HubSpot’s live chat feature works:
Customize your chat widget to match your brandEngage with customers through live chat or bot conversationsRoute chats to the appropriate team member for quick resolution
Seeing all our different conversations in one place was great, and the automated responses made our lives a lot easier.
Here’s a quick look at our customization process for our Bonfire Chat widget.
We especially liked the ability to easily add our logo, customize our colors, and create custom messages.
The fact that this feature is free to use is the icing on the cake! If you’re serious about customer engagement, give HubSpot a try!
If we told you that you could create powerful web pages without coding experience (and without spending a dime), you’d probably tell us we were crazy.
But with HubSpot, it’s all possible!
We started testing this feature (over six months) by creating several web pages.
Here’s a quick look at one that we were able to create (in just a few minutes).
We especially loved HubSpot’s helpful templates (pictured below) that allowed us to quickly and easily create professional-looking pages.
Plus, all these pages were seamlessly integrated into our CRM system so we could easily track page views and conversions.
That’s not all, though! HubSpot also offers detailed SEO recommendations and A/B testing for your pages to help improve your online presence.
The bottom line: With all these features, it’s no wonder why HubSpot is considered one of the best CRMs for SMBs.
Email marketing is the cornerstone of a successful business, and HubSpot’s email marketing tools (via HubSpot Marketing Hub) are top-notch.
With its easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor, creating beautiful emails has never been so simple.
Plus, with its segmentation capabilities, you can personalize your email marketing campaigns to target specific audiences.
Let’s walk you through our experience.
For starters, we were given a set of extremely helpful email templates to choose from (screenshot below).
These templates are beginner-friendly, allowing anyone to create professional-looking emails in minutes.
Once our template was selected, we could easily customize the design and content to fit our brand.
Here’s a look at a quick follow-up email we created with HubSpot.
The final verdict: With HubSpot’s email marketing campaigns, we saw a significant increase in our open and click-through rates, leading to higher engagement from our audience.
If you’re serious about scaling your business, you’ll need to automate your processes.
That’s where HubSpot’s sales, service, and marketing automation capabilities come in.
HubSpot provides many resources to help everyone from beginners to automation experts.
For example, they offer a ton of helpful pre-made templates (shown below) so you can start automating tedious tasks (no coding knowledge necessary).
Here are some of the custom automations we were able to create using HubSpot:
Contact capitalization & grammar correctionAutomatically assigning deals to usersRoute tickets based on priorityLead follow-up and lead scoringAutomated email campaigns based on customer actions
Here’s a quick glimpse into our custom automation creation process.
Final Thoughts: Automate tasks with ease using HubSpot! The CRM platform offers a range of automation options that can save any SMB time and effort.
Below are some of the best features that Monday.com has to offer.
At Small Business Bonfire, we believe in making data-driven decisions.
That’s why we love Monday.com’s sales dashboard feature (available with Monday Sales CRM).
It allows you to track your team’s progress, deals won, and revenue generated (all in one place).
The visual representation of data is easy to understand and helps us stay motivated to reach our goals.
Just look at our SBB sales dashboard (with our sales funnel chart front and center).
We were able to fully customize our dashboard (during our six months of testing), allowing for an easy and personalized experience.
We liked that we could track our team’s progress (with activity statistics), making it easier to identify areas for improvement.
Here’s an example of a sales dashboard we customized to show the following:
Sales pipeline chartForecasted revenue Monthly revenue goal
We thought it was awesome that we could switch our view up on the fly (from list to chart), depending on what we wanted to see.
The verdict: If you want a bird’s eye view of your sales process, Monday’s sales dashboard is a safe bet.
Scaling a business is no small feat; it requires the ability to juggle various daily activities effectively.
That’s where Monday.com’s task management feature shines.
It’s user-friendly and color-coded, making it easy to differentiate tasks and track their progress at a glance.
We added typical onboarding tasks to our dashboard during our testing phase at Small Business Bonfire.
This allowed us to do the following:
Prioritize tasks at a glanceAssign tasks with just a clickSegment tasks into categoriesTrack progress to completion
The task management feature’s beauty lies in its simplicity—just click directly on the dashboard to add or customize your tasks.
Here’s a snapshot of our task management dashboard (during our testing) to give you an idea of how easy and intuitive the process is.
Our two cents: Monday.com’s task management is some of the best we’ve seen (and we’ve seen a lot). This feature is free to use, so if you’re struggling to get organized, check it out today!
Managing leads effectively is key to any successful business.
With Monday.com, we found the lead management process intuitive and efficient.
During our six-month testing period, we were particularly impressed by the following features:
Lead generation: Monday.com’s lead generation capabilities are commendable. The platform lets you easily capture information from various sources (like your website, LinkedIn, etc.) and store it in one location. This single unified view helps streamline the process of managing new leads.Prospecting: Monday.com shines when it comes to prospecting. The CRM offers a visual sales pipeline where you can visually track the status of your leads. This makes it easy to monitor potential opportunities and ensure that no prospect falls through the cracks.Lead scoring: Monday.com enables businesses to prioritize their leads using a lead scoring system. This feature allows you to rank your leads based on their interaction with your business and their potential to convert. We found this particularly useful in helping us focus our efforts on the most promising leads.
In a nutshell, Monday.com’s lead management capabilities proved robust and valuable in our six-month trial, offering crucial support for lead generation, effective prospecting, and strategic lead scoring.
Another standout feature of Monday.com is its pipeline management capabilities.
During our testing period, we were impressed by the visual representation of our sales pipeline, allowing us to easily track and manage deals at every stage.
Furthermore, Monday.com offers a variety of customization options for your pipeline view, making it easy to tailor it to your specific business needs.
We added our affiliate marketing deals to Monday.com to really test out its capabilities.
Check out our pipeline, which was:
Color-coded for simplicityEasily customizableInteractive (you can click on each deal to access more information)
Here’s how our pipeline looked (for a better perspective).
We also liked the ability to easily import data from Excel. This eliminates the opportunity cost of switching to Monday from another CRM.
Here’s a quick snapshot of the import process in action.
Monday.com’s pipeline management features proved efficient, user-friendly, and highly customizable—perfect for keeping tabs on deals and making informed decisions.
In today’s fast-paced business world, automation is key.
Monday.com recognizes this and provides a range of workflow automation options to streamline any SMB’s operations.
Like HubSpot, Monday offers many helpful automation templates to help beginners create powerful workflows.
Here’s how the automation templates looked on our end.
In addition to using the templates to create many different automations (over six months), we also created plenty of custom automation.
Check out how simplified the process is (screenshot below).
Instead of having complicated code and sequences of triggers, conditions, and actions, Monday.com keeps it simple with “If/Then” statements that are effortless to set up and manage.
Here are some of the automation sequences we created while using Monday.com:
Email notifications for when a lead reaches a certain score or stage in the pipelineTask creation and assignment when a new lead was added to the CRMAutomated follow-up emails based on specific actions or inaction from leadsNotified sales reps when deals moved stages in the pipeline
Our takeaway: With Monday.com’s workflow automation, we saved valuable time and resources while ensuring that important tasks and processes were never overlooked.
Monday.com is one of the best project management tools in the game (in addition to being a powerful CRM.)
The project management capabilities of Monday.com allow you to easily accomplish the following:
Create and delegate tasksIncrease productivity with checklists and deadlinesSet and track deadlines for project deliveryTrack progress and foster team collaboration on each phase of the projectsVisualize projects through Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and other customizable views
We started testing this project management tool by adding an SBB project—rolling out our newsletter.
Check out our project management dashboard, where we could easily view our progress on each task in each project phase.
With Monday.com, managing projects is incredibly easy.
In fact, we think Monday.com offers some of the best project management capabilities in the game (and we’ve tested quite a few)!
With Monday.com, we found that resource management capabilities were equally impressive to its other features.
Here’s how we used Monday.com to manage our resources:
Resource allocation: Monday.com offers a visual representation of your team’s workload, making it easy to assign tasks and balance workloads accordingly.Time tracking: With the time tracking feature, you can easily monitor the time spent on each task and project. This helps with accurate billing and resource allocation in the future.Resource availability: Monday.com’s resource management dashboard provides a clear overview of your team’s availability, making it easy to see who is free to take on new tasks and who may be overloaded.Resource scheduling: The platform also offers a Gantt chart view where you can easily plan and schedule tasks for your team members, ensuring efficient use of resources.
Like everything else the platform offers, we found Monday.com’s resource management capabilities intuitive, user-friendly, and effective in optimizing our team’s productivity.
AJ’s Take: This one was incredibly close, and we think Monday.com deserves an honorable mention for its powerful project management capabilities, streamlined automation, and great pipeline management. However, HubSpot takes the cake with its enterprise-level marketing, service, and sales features.
After testing, we compiled a thorough list of our favorite CRMs for Small Businesses. Check it out now! The list might surprise you.
If your CRM doesn’t have great support, you’ll have a frustrated team on your hands.
Let’s see how the two platforms compare regarding customer support.
We’ll look at the following metrics:
Availability Knowledge baseTraining Responsive support
Let’s see how HubSpot does in the following categories:
Availability: HubSpot offers email, live chat, and phone support 24/7. They were always available when we needed them (over six months).Knowledge base: HubSpot offers extensive documentation, guides, and resources (with videos) for every feature of the platform. We found it incredibly easy to find answers and solutions on our own.Training: HubSpot offers some very helpful training resources with HubSpot Academy. These resources cover everything from inbound marketing to sales and customer service.Responsive support: The longest we had to wait for a response from HubSpot customer service was about 30 minutes.
So, how does Monday.com handle customer service?
Let’s take a look at the following metrics:
Availability: Monday.com offers 24/7 live chat, phone, and email technical support. They were available any time we needed them.Knowledge base: Monday offers a helpful knowledge base with how-to guides, tutorials, and FAQs.Training: Monday.com offers a range of training resources, such as webinars, video tutorials, and written articles. They also have an online community forum for users to share tips and ask questions. Responsive support: We found Monday.com’s customer service team to be highly responsive.
AJ’s Take: Both platforms offer excellent customer service with 24/7 availability, helpful knowledge bases, and comprehensive training resources! This one is a good old-fashioned tie.
Both HubSpot and Monday.com offer tons of integrations! Let’s compare.
HubSpot offers some of the best integrations in the game!
Some of our favorites include:
Slack MailChimpZoomZapierAsanaGoogle Calendar
HubSpot offers just about every integration under the sun, which means if you need it, chances are HubSpot has it.
It’s also got a fantastic integration with Zapier for any third-party applications you need.
Monday.com boasts an equally impressive array of integrations, both native and third-party.
Some of our favorites include:
JiraGitLabSlackMailChimpZapierCanvaGoogle Docs
Monday.com is the first platform we’ve tested to give HubSpot a run for its money.
Just like HubSpot, Monday.com offers just about every integration you could need.
AJ’s Take: This one is a clear tie. Both platforms offer fantastic integration capabilities, so you can’t go wrong with either.
Both HubSpot and Monday.com are user-friendly platforms with intuitive interfaces.
However, after testing both extensively, we found that one platform stood out above the other in terms of ease of use.
HubSpot’s interface is so intuitive that even beginners can smoothly navigate the platform.
The dashboard is straightforward, with all essential features clearly labeled and easily accessible.
The learning curve is minimal, as HubSpot offers many guides, video tutorials, and a highly responsive customer support team to help you get started.
This ease of use extends to all areas of the CRM, from setting up campaigns and automating workflows to analyzing metrics and making data-driven decisions.
Like HubSpot, Monday.com excels in its user interface.
The software is intuitively designed, making navigating easy for users of all experience levels. The clean and organized dashboard layout presents complex project data in a simple, digestible format.
Most features are just a click away, eliminating the need to navigate convoluted menus.
The onboarding process is smooth, with ample resources and guides to help you get started. Regarding ease of use and user-friendly design, Monday.com is a strong contender in the CRM space.
AJ’s Take: Both platforms are incredibly user-friendly, so it’s a tie. However, if you’re looking for the most intuitive interface, HubSpot takes the cake.
We live in a highly mobile world, so having a CRM with a functional and user-friendly mobile app is crucial.
Let’s see how Monday.com and HubSpot fare in this category.
HubSpot offers a great mobile app that’s available for both iOS and Android devices.
The app allows you to access all the essential CRM features on the go, including:
Contact managementTicket managementDeal managementEmail marketingTask managementActivity feedMeeting links
We felt empowered by having our CRM data at our fingertips, no matter where we were.
Like HubSpot, Monday.com offers a sleek and user-friendly mobile app for iOS and Android devices.
The app gives you full access to the platform’s features, including:
Project managementContact managementNotificationsTools to manage teamsInbox
We found the app to be incredibly useful, particularly for teams that are constantly on the go.
AJ’s Take: Both apps offer excellent mobile capabilities, but if we had to pick one, it would be HubSpot. There are more powerful features a better UI, and the app feels more responsive overall.
One of the essential aspects of any CRM platform is its knowledge center.
So now, let’s see how these two platforms compare in this regard.
HubSpot’s knowledge center offers a comprehensive collection of guides, tutorials, and articles on virtually every aspect of the platform.
The knowledge center is a valuable resource for both new and experienced users, offering insights on everything from basic setup to advanced automation techniques.
Monday.com also offers a robust knowledge center with many articles, tutorials, and resources to help users get the most out of their CRM tool.
The knowledge center is constantly updated with new content, covering everything from basic setup and configuration to more complex features like automation and integrations.
One aspect of Monday.com that we loved was the ability to quickly search for any information throughout the entire CRM.
This left us confident that we could find the answers we needed whenever we had a question (or were stuck on something).
AJ’s Take: Both platforms offer fantastic knowledge centers that are easily accessible and provide valuable resources for users. It’s another tie in this category.
Even the best CRMs have flaws, and HubSpot and Monday.com are no exception.
Let’s look at a few limitations of all-in-one CRM:
Expensive pricing: HubSpot’s all-in-one CRM can be pricier for small businesses or startups, with its more expensive plan costing a whopping $5,000/month. Limited CMS customization: While HubSpot offers a built-in CMS, it’s not as customizable as other CMS solutions.
Monday.com is fantastic, but it’s not (quite) perfect.
Here is a limitation of Monday.com:
The free plan is limited: Monday.com offers a free plan, but is quite limited in features and capabilities.
AJ’s Take: Both platforms have limitations, but Monday.com gets the (slight) edge here. While HubSpot offers more pricing and a robust CMS, Monday.com’s free plan is more restrictive than HubSpot’s. Overall, it comes down to personal preference and specific needs for your business.
And the winner is—drumroll please—both!
We declare this matchup a tie because both platforms are best in class for what they do.
If you want an all-in-one juggernaut of sales, marketing, and service—go with HubSpot.
If you want to manage projects, foster teamwork, and get organized on a budget, we recommend Monday.com.
Both platforms are free forever, so give them a try today!
The post HubSpot Vs. Monday.com 2023: Best CRM for SMBs? appeared first on Small Business Bonfire.
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