Monthly pricing looks small until you add it up. This blog lays out a 3-year cost example for a 5-person B2B team using HubSpot's and Salesforce's public list prices, with every assumption shown.
The assumptions
Example calculation. 5 users; 36 months; list prices from each company's public pricing page, checked October 30, 2026; no discounts, taxes, add-ons, extra credits, integrations or consultant fees.
The comparison
| Option | Upfront | Per month (5 users) | 3-year subscription | 3-year total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot Sales Hub Professional | $1,500 onboarding | $500 | $18,000 | $19,500 |
| Salesforce Pro Suite | $0 listed | $500 | $18,000 | $18,000 |
| Salesforce Sales Cloud Core | $0 listed | $975 | $35,100 | $35,100 |
Formula for the subscriptions: price per user × 5 users × 36 months, plus any listed one-time fee.
What the table shows
Per-seat pricing never stops. Each month on HubSpot or Salesforce adds another $500 to $975 for this team. Year three costs as much as year one.
Growth costs more. A sixth user adds another full seat price every month.
Every HSGA custom CRM includes 10 team logins with two-step sign-in, with more at no extra charge.
Price isn't the only cost
Fit. A platform built for every industry has to be configured for yours. With a custom CRM, your stages, quote fields, reorder cycles and follow-up rules are designed in from the start.
Time to value. Big-brand CRMs can be switched on quickly in their default form, but fitting them to a B2B quoting or bidding process takes configuration, and HubSpot lists a required onboarding fee on its Professional and Enterprise plans. HSGA builds your custom CRM in 2 to 4 weeks.
Adoption. A CRM only grows revenue if your team uses it. A system that matches how your team already works is easier to adopt.
Your data. With HSGA, your data stays yours. We don't sell or share it.
When HubSpot or Salesforce is the better choice
If you have a larger sales team, need a big marketplace of third-party apps, plan to add many users quickly, or have an in-house admin, a big-brand CRM may be the right call. Plenty of companies run them well.
When custom CRMs are the better choice
Custom CRMs tend to win for B2B businesses under $3M in revenue with 3 to 20 people who sell through quotes, bids, RFQs, reorders or service contracts, don't have a CRM admin, and want a system built around how they sell, in weeks.
Questions to ask before you choose
- What will this cost in year three, with the team we'll have then?
- Who will set it up to match how we quote, bid or reorder?
- How long until my team is using it every day?
- What happens to my data if we leave?
Sources
- HubSpot, Sales Hub pricing: https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/sales (checked Oct 30, 2026).
- Salesforce, Sales Cloud pricing: https://www.salesforce.com/sales/pricing/ (checked Oct 30, 2026).