Updated March 26, 2024
HubSpot’s pricing model is changing. As of March 5, 2024, HubSpot is using an updated pricing model for all hubs that is based on seats. This was not a “spur of the moment” decision. HubSpot has been researching ways to enhance its subscription model to improve the price-to-value ratio of HubSpot while making it scalable and reasonably priced for businesses of all sizes.
The question is: What does this pricing model update mean for you?
Let’s go over some FAQs about the new pricing model to help you understand the change and how it might affect you whether you’re a current HubSpot customer or someone who is considering migrating to the HubSpot platform after the new pricing model takes effect:
HubSpot’s pricing model is changing to better reflect how users benefit from their HubSpot implementation. This will give HubSpot more resources to invest into innovating the platform to further enhance the ROI that HubSpot users see from the platform.
This change will also help to lower the barrier to entry to HubSpot and make it easier for new businesses to leverage the platform. The old model made hubs prohibitively expensive for some companies that have fewer employees. By changing to a seat-based pricing model, more organizations can have affordable access to key HubSpot features.
New customers will be able to “pay as they grow” instead of having to anticipate all of their HubSpot needs at the time they sign a deal. For example, you could start with a Starter account with seven Core Seats to allow all seven of the people who need edit access to your HubSpot platform to do their work. Later, if you added another new employee, you could purchase an additional Core Seat for just $15/month.
This helps keep the price in line with the value that you derive from using HubSpot.
The transition occurred on March 5, 2024.
There are several key differences between the Hub-based subscription model that was previously used and the new seat-based pricing model:
This change is designed to lower the barrier to entry for many users, as the previous model had a large price gap between Starter and Professional or Enterprise accounts. For example, if a subscription would have been $500/month and have five paid seats, the new model would make the cost $100/month per seat.
So, if your organization has two users who need seats, your price on the new model would be $200/month instead of $500/month—saving $300/month.
The two new seat types being introduced are called the “Core Seat” and the “View-Only Seat.”
Starter account subscriptions are now being simplified to use a single seat type (the Core Seat) instead of multiple seat types. This includes features of the Sales Hub and Service Hub, which would previously require two different kinds of seats (a Sales Seat and a Service Seat).
Instead of having to juggle what the base fees are for individual hubs and having to buy multiple seats for those users who fill multiple roles or who work closely with both sales and service departments, now customers just have to consider how many seats they need in total.
Free tools users will now have a maximum limit of five edit seats in the free tools and unlimited view-only users. Since the vast majority of current Free Tools users have fewer than five active users, this change should not have a significant impact on most HubSpot Free Tools subscribers.
Not immediately. Existing HubSpot customers will be “grandfathered in” on a legacy plan and will be given time to make the switch to the new pricing model.
No. Existing customers will not see a change to the MRR of their bill prior to contract renewal. At their renewal date, existing customers will not see a change of more than 5% to their bill.
Yes. There will be a “Free Smart CRM” subscription available for new users looking to try out HubSpot.
The new pricing model introduces new seat types into HubSpot. Here’s an overview of the different types of seats that will be available and what they give access to:
You can add a registered HubSpot partner to your HubSpot portal using a “Partner Seat” instead of one of your Core Seats. This means that you don’t have to pay for your HubSpot Partner Agency to access your HubSpot portal and tools.
However, you can only assign the Partner Seat type to a registered HubSpot partner. The option will not appear for a non-partner. You can find HubSpot partner agencies on the HubSpot Partner Directory.
The cost for each type of seat is as follows:
The base prices for each type of Hub are:
So, say you wanted to have a CRM Suite Professional subscription with eight Core Seats, three Sales Seats, and three Service Seats. Your base price would be $1,200/month and include three Core Seats and one each of the Sales and Service Seats. In this case, you would need to purchase an additional five Core Seats at $50/seat ($250 total) and two each of the Sales Seats at $100/seat ($200 total) and Service Seats at $100/seat ($200 total). With this in mind, your cost would be $1,850/month for this setup.
The new version of the HubSpot pricing page will have a pricing calculator that you can use to get an estimate of your costs for the hubs and seats you want to have.
No. HubSpot’s pricing model does not rely on hidden costs—you can see the cost of every Hub or Seat on the pricing page and even check the pricing with a publicly available pricing calculator. There is no need to get a “personalized quote” that adds up hidden fees not displayed on the pricing page.
HubSpot Smart CRM is included with any Hub purchase at the same subscription tier as that Hub. For example, if you have a Marketing Hub Professional subscription, that would come with the Smart CRM Professional package. If you had a Sales Hub Enterprise subscription, that would come with Smart CRM Enterprise.
There are no seat minimums on Starter HubSpot subscriptions. You simply pay per seat for these. Professional and Enterprise subscriptions come with some Core Seats included. The CRM Suite Professional and Enterprise subscription tiers also come with one each of Sales and Service Seats in addition to Core Seats.
The answer depends on what your role is. If you are working in a supervisory role and only need to see what your teams are doing, then a View-Only Seat with view permissions to the tools those teams work with should be sufficient.
However, if you need to make edits in any of the Hubs that your teams are using, then you would need the same permissions and seat types as those team members.
For example, to access any tools not in the Sales Hub or the Service Hub, you would need a Core Seat and access to that hub's tools.
If your team is using Sales Hub tools, then you would need a paid Sales Seat and edit permissions for the Sales tools. If your team is using the Service Hub and you need to make edits, then you would need a paid Service Seat and access to the Sales Hub tools you want to edit.
As noted by HubSpot in their Product and Service Catalog entry on seat types: "Sales Seat functionality also includes Core Seat access to your purchased Marketing Hub, CMS Hub, and Operations Hubs subscription(s)" and the same goes for a paid Service Seat.
So, you only need to have a Sales Seat or a Service Seat to access all of the same tools as you could with a Core Seat. You don't need to have both a Core Seat and a paid Sales or Service Seat.
If you need access to edit both Sales Hub and Service Hub tools, on the other hand, you would then require both a paid Sales Seat and a paid Service Seat.
Reach out to a team of experienced HubSpot partners for more information about the new pricing model and how it may affect the way you use HubSpot!