The departures and arrivals in these interviews describe the same platform from opposite ends. Companies arriving from Salesforce, Marketo, Pardot, Eloqua and Marketing Cloud describe HubSpot as easier, cheaper and more consolidated than what they left. The largest group of leavers went to an enterprise marketing cloud, and several of those moves were driven by organizational requirements rather than dissatisfaction with HubSpot itself: acquisitions, platform consolidation, compliance requirements and Salesforce alignment. The complaints that recur among its lower raters are about fit — consumer marketers who describe it as better suited to B2B, rigidity for larger or more complex programs, integrations — and a pricing model they describe as heavy on upselling. For the CRM side of the same decision, see Salesforce CRM alternatives; for marketing automation, Marketo alternatives and Pardot alternatives.
The alternatives, by destination category
Every destination buyers name, grouped by the type of platform they moved to. Nine went to an enterprise marketing cloud, six to another CRM, three to a consumer messaging platform, and two moved a single job — the website or support.
What lower-rating HubSpot buyers complain about
That some consumer marketers find it better suited to B2B. A buyer rating it 3 for a direct-to-consumer business says “it's hard to segment to pull behavior. Klaviyo is built for those things, HubSpot is not.” Another, at 6: “I don't feel that it's very well adept to the e-commerce or B2C brands.” A third, at 5, says that with its SMS tool “we can't send even images or media.”
That the pricing is built to upsell. “I feel like you're nickel and dimed,” says a buyer rating it 3. Another, also at 3 and now leaving, describes a platform “where everything you click on is an upgrade path.” A buyer at 5 calls its billing model “designed to extract money from the client versus value out of the tool.”
That some larger or more complex programs find it rigid. “The best thing and the worst thing about HubSpot is like it's very regimented,” says a buyer rating it 5. Another, also at 5: “It is designed for smaller organizations and does not scale well with larger or more complex organizations.”
And integrations. A buyer rating it 3 says “you're responsible for setting up all of your third-party connections,” and the buyer who called it designed for smaller organizations points to “a limited set of connectors.”
Where buyers go
Twenty companies here have left HubSpot or are leaving it. Nine went to an enterprise marketing cloud, six to another CRM or one they built, three to Braze or Klaviyo, one to WordPress for its website and one to Gorgias for support. A few more have HubSpot on a list to sunset but have not moved.
Enterprise marketing clouds
Two moved for compliance. A financial-services company’s instance was ruled out of standards because “sending emails through the platform were considered not compliant,” and a healthcare organization migrated when “HubSpot was not willing to sign a BAA at that time.” Others moved to consolidate: a nonprofit chose Marketing Cloud “to sunset some of these smaller platforms that we had like HubSpot.” A media company that tried HubSpot and Braze landed on Marketing Cloud because “it works well with Salesforce.”
An industrial manufacturer is moving after an acquisition because “we're required to come off of legacy platforms” — and its buyer rates HubSpot 8. A software company left because “HubSpot's integration with Salesforce seemed to continue to break,” adding that “it seemed like HubSpot really just wanted you to use HubSpot CRM, not your Salesforce CRM.” A third moved several years ago.
A software company “consolidated all our Marketing Automation platforms on Eloqua just recently,” HubSpot among them.
Another CRM
A healthcare company is moving an acquired business off HubSpot “because the company decided to move their B2B operation to Salesforce.”
No head-to-head published yet
A building-products manufacturer: “HubSpot has been offboarded and Microsoft Dynamics has been onboarded.”
No head-to-head published yet
A wholesale business rating HubSpot 3 is moving to Odoo’s CRM. A hospitality company, also at 3, is replacing it with Revinate, a hospitality-specific platform: “we are replacing them.” A small real-estate team chose ActiveCampaign because “HubSpot was a little bit too much for what we need,” and thinks it may return. And a furniture brand “basically rebuilt our own version of HubSpot that's tailored to us.” Revinate rates around 7 and ActiveCampaign around 8; Odoo is rated by too few buyers to publish a figure.
No head-to-head published yet
Consumer messaging platforms
A financial-services company rating HubSpot 5 is replacing it as its email platform: “It's very expensive, and I feel like from what I understand, Braze has a lot of features and functionality that are far better than HubSpot, and it's less expensive.” A multi-brand consumer goods group is consolidating every brand onto Braze, with HubSpot among the platforms retired.
No head-to-head published yet
A sporting-goods brand moved its email “from HubSpot, which is primarily a B2B platform to Klaviyo, which is a little bit more cutting edge and innovative.”
No head-to-head published yet
Website and support
“One of the reasons we're leaving HubSpot is they don't have a pre-prod site.” Earlier, the same company called HubSpot’s CMS “too expensive and not flexible enough for our needs.”
No head-to-head published yet
A wellness brand broke apart its HubSpot setup and moved support to Gorgias: HubSpot “was so expensive, and it's primarily a B2B software. And we're D2C.”
No head-to-head published yet
Read across the groups, organizational requirements explain several of the moves into enterprise marketing clouds — an acquisition, a group standard, a compliance rule, a Salesforce-first data model — and one of those leavers rates HubSpot 8. Product-specific dissatisfaction appears across several of the other departures: buyers cite cost and upselling, B2C or industry fit, integrations, and missing capabilities such as a pre-production site.
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Nineteen companies here describe moving onto HubSpot, against 20 moving off. Several platforms appear on both sides of that traffic. Six came from Salesforce products (the CRM, Marketing Cloud or Pardot), three from Marketo, two from Eloqua, two from Klaviyo, three from smaller email tools — Act-On, Mailchimp and Constant Contact — one from a CMS and one from an ERP; one did not say where from.
From a heavier suite, for cost and capability. A software company leaving Marketing Cloud says “the price increase was just a little too astronomical, and I don't think it was offering all the capabilities and the features that HubSpot had.”
From several tools into one. A real-estate group dropping Mailchimp says “We're trying to get HubSpot to handle email marketing, SMS, lead management, everything.”
From older marketing automation, for usability. A healthcare services company moving off Eloqua calls it powerful but complex, and says “I'm looking forward to a simpler platform for my people.”
Counted side by side, the same platforms appear in both directions: Salesforce products, Marketo, Eloqua and Klaviyo each lose companies to HubSpot and gain companies from it here.
When does staying on HubSpot make sense?
Positive buyers emphasize ease, consolidation, cost relative to heavier suites and the pace of new features. Other buyers describe switching costs that can keep them in place even when satisfaction is lower.
Ease of use for the people doing the work. “It's definitely very easy to use,” says a buyer rating it 9 whose content authors “are able to create pages on their own, publish them.”
Consolidation and cost against heavier suites. A buyer rating it 9 who moved from Salesforce says “HubSpot came in at the right price point versus Salesforce for sure.” Another, also at 9, says “you can spend a lot less and get a lot more if you switch to HubSpot,” having made the case on “replacing three tools with one.”
The pace of its AI features. A buyer rating it 10, moving off Eloqua, says “HubSpot is deploying AI experimentation faster than Eloqua.”
But switching costs cut both ways. Some stay without enthusiasm: “we will be rolling over contracts without really being happy with it,” says a buyer rating it 6. Another, at 7, says templates written in HubSpot’s “own custom scripting language” are part of what keeps switching costs high.
Our read — ours, not a buyer’s — is that HubSpot appears on both sides of consolidation decisions. Some companies leave it while standardizing on a larger suite; others move onto it while replacing multiple tools with one.
Common questions
Why do companies leave HubSpot?
The reasons vary. Of 20 departures here, nine went to an enterprise marketing cloud; seven of those moves involved consolidation, compliance, acquisition requirements or Salesforce alignment or integration. Product-specific complaints elsewhere include cost and upselling, B2C or industry fit, rigidity in larger or more complex programs, integrations and missing capabilities.
What do companies replace HubSpot with?
Of 20 departures here, nine went to an enterprise marketing cloud (Salesforce Marketing Cloud five, Marketo three, Eloqua one), six to another CRM (Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Odoo, Revinate, ActiveCampaign, or one the company built itself), three to consumer messaging platforms (Braze two, Klaviyo one), one to WordPress for its website and one to Gorgias for support.
Is HubSpot good for B2C or ecommerce brands?
Several lower-rating B2C and ecommerce buyers are critical of the fit, describing HubSpot as better suited to B2B — hard to segment on shopping behavior, with limited SMS — and two consumer brands moved their email to Braze or Klaviyo, while two others moved theirs from Klaviyo onto HubSpot. Several buyers running both B2B and B2C lines keep HubSpot for B2B and a consumer platform alongside it.
Is HubSpot cheaper than Salesforce?
Buyers moving from Salesforce describe it as the cheaper option — one says it came in at the right price point versus Salesforce. Its lower-rating buyers, though, describe a pricing model built to upsell, and several departures cite cost. These interviews do not establish total cost of ownership across the two.
Why do companies move to HubSpot?
Nineteen companies here describe moving onto HubSpot, nearly matching the 20 moving off. Buyers arriving from heavier suites cite cost and capability, others consolidate several tools into HubSpot, and buyers leaving older marketing-automation platforms cite usability. Salesforce products, Marketo, Eloqua and Klaviyo all appear on both sides of the migration traffic in these interviews.
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