Leaving HubSpot? Here's how Pipedrive, Attio, Folk, and Capsule stack up — none of them try to be marketing-suite-plus-CRM-plus-service-hub. They're focused CRMs that don't punish you with $100/seat upgrade walls.
Pipedrive if pipeline-first sales workflow is your shape ($14/user). Attio if you want a modern AI-native CRM with a developer-friendly API ($29/user Plus). Folk if relationship-focused outreach matters more than deal pipelines ($24/user). Capsule if simple and cheap is the priority ($21/user Starter, free for 2 users). HubSpot still wins if you genuinely need the bundled marketing + sales + service hubs in one tool.
One row per dimension, the values side-by-side. The olive dot marks the clear winner for that dimension when there is one — most rows are a wash, and that’s the point.
The incumbent. Free CRM bundled with marketing/sales/service hubs. Generous free tier but the upgrade wall at $100/seat Pro is the deciding factor — once you outgrow free, the bill scales fast.
Pipeline-first CRM built for sales teams. $14/user Lite is the cheapest credible CRM in this set with real features. Mature visual pipeline, strong mobile, fair pricing.
Modern AI-native CRM with relational data model. Developer-friendly API, custom objects, real-time multiplayer. $29/user Plus (annual) — premium pricing for premium product.
Relationship-focused CRM. Contact-centric rather than deal-centric — built for agencies, recruiters, investors who care more about networks than pipelines.
Simple and affordable. Free for 2 users / 250 contacts. Starter $21/user. Mature 2009 product without modern bells but with reliable basics done well.
Three receipts, three scales. The line items are the same; the prices move. Every number is from the public May 2026 pricing page — we round to the nearest dollar but don’t invent.
Common pitfalls visible in public docs and community discussion. None of these will stop you shipping; all of them will cost you an afternoon if you don’t know about them.
HubSpot's free CRM and $9-20 Starter tiers are genuinely generous. The problem is the jump to Pro ($100/seat) — for a 10-person team that's $1000/mo. Most companies that migrate off HubSpot do so at this threshold, where the marketing + sales + service hub bundling no longer justifies the bill vs focused alternatives like Pipedrive ($59) or Capsule ($38).
HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional includes 2,000 marketing contacts. Additional contacts cost $250/month per additional 5,000. For a growing email list, this scales aggressively. The Starter Suite price you see advertised is just the seat cost; total spend is dominated by marketing contact volume.
Pipedrive rebranded its tiers in July 2025: Essential → Lite ($14), Advanced → Growth ($39), Professional → Premium ($49), Enterprise → Ultimate ($79). Older articles and comparisons use the previous names. Pricing is similar but plan structure shifted; verify against pipedrive.com/pricing directly.
Attio does not offer month-to-month billing on Plus, Pro, or Enterprise tiers. You commit annually upfront. The Free tier is the only month-to-month option (which doesn't bill). This locks in the cost decision but the annual rates are 20-40% cheaper than equivalent month-to-month CRMs.
Folk doesn't offer a free freemium plan like HubSpot, Attio, or Capsule. The 14-day free trial gives full access but you must subscribe to a paid plan ($24/user Standard annual minimum) to continue. For solo or tiny teams wanting permanently-free CRM, Folk isn't the fit.
Capsule's interface and feature set reflect a 2009 product that's evolved incrementally. It's stable, mature, and does the basics very well — but lacks the AI assistance, real-time enrichment, and modern UX of Attio or Folk. Pick it for reliability over modernity.
Editorial framing only — we have not migrated either way ourselves. What follows is the pattern visible in public post-mortems, GitHub issue threads, and conference talks. Take it as observed-pattern, not lived experience.
The most common migration when HubSpot's $100/seat Pro tier becomes the dominant infrastructure cost. Pattern: export HubSpot contacts/companies/deals as CSV, import into Pipedrive (built-in HubSpot importer handles most fields). Email integration reconnects via OAuth. Plan 1-2 weeks for non-trivial workspaces.
The harder part is replacing HubSpot's marketing email and forms. Most Pipedrive migrants pair with Mailchimp/Beehiiv ($10-20/mo) for email and Tally/Typeform ($25/mo) for forms — total stack still cheaper than HubSpot Pro at 10 users.
Migration triggered by wanting a more modern, AI-native, developer-friendly CRM. Attio has a built-in HubSpot importer that handles contacts, companies, deals, and custom fields. Plan 1-2 weeks for non-trivial workspaces, plus 1-2 weeks redesigning workflows to leverage Attio's relational model.
Migration usually goes well because Attio's data model is richer than HubSpot's — most teams don't reimport everything, they use migration as an excuse to clean up data. The annual-billing commitment is the bigger decision point.
Migration triggered by extreme budget consciousness. Capsule Growth at $38/user is roughly 38% of HubSpot Pro at $100/user, so a 10-person team saves $620/mo. Pattern: CSV export from HubSpot, CSV import to Capsule. Capsule's importer handles standard fields cleanly.
Plan 1 week for a non-trivial migration. The tradeoff: Capsule lacks modern features (no AI, simpler automation, dated UI), so this migration is for teams where the cost savings are the primary motivation. If you need modern features without HubSpot's price tag, Pipedrive or Attio are usually better fits.