Head to head
HubSpot vs Zendesk for a small team
HubSpot is a CRM with a service hub; Zendesk is a help desk. For a team that sells and supports, HubSpot keeps the deals and the tickets on one record, while Zendesk needs a separate CRM and email tool beside it.
HubSpot and Zendesk, need by need
| What a small team needs | HubSpot | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts, companies and a deals pipeline | Yes, in every paid hub: contacts, companies and deal pipelines (15 pipelines on Starter, 100 on Professional). [A1] | Not on Zendesk’s pricing page. Sell, its CRM, retires August 31, 2027. [B1][B2] |
| Support email as cases in a shared queue | Tickets and a help desk inbox in Service Hub. [A1] | Yes, on every plan. [B1] |
| Knowledge articles and a public help center | Service Hub Professional and up: one knowledge base with 2,000 articles. Not on Starter. [A1] | Suite Team and up. [B1] |
| Calls in the browser, with recording and transfer | Calls in the browser with recording, on HubSpot numbers: 500 minutes a month for the account on Starter, 3,000 on Professional; more at $50 per 1,000. [A1][A2] | Suite Team and up: calls in the browser, recording, hold and warm transfer. Numbers and minutes are charged by use: $1 a month for a US number, $0.016 a minute answered in the browser, $0.003 a minute to record. [B1][B3] |
| A phone menu for callers | Professional and up. A menu branch rings one person only if that person holds an Enterprise seat. [A1][A3] | Suite Professional and up. [B1] |
| Marketing email to about 2,000 people | Marketing Hub, a separate hub: Starter includes 1,000 marketing contacts, $50 a month for each 1,000 more. [A1] | Not on Zendesk’s pricing page. [B1] |
| Automation | Workflows: 50 on Starter, 300 on Professional. [A1] | Automations and triggers on every plan. [B1] |
| Roles and who sees what | Permission templates on Starter and Professional; custom permission sets on Enterprise. [A1] | Custom agent roles on Enterprise. [B1] |
| An API and webhooks | Yes, with daily limits by edition. [A4] | Yes. [B1] |
What five and ten people would pay
A team that sells, answers support email with a knowledge base, takes calls with a phone menu and sends marketing email to 2,000 people. List prices, per month, paid yearly, in US dollars, before tax.
| What the team buys | 5 people | 10 people |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot: Service Hub Professional for every person (tickets, the knowledge base, calling with a phone menu and the CRM’s deals), Marketing Hub Starter for email, and room for 2,000 marketing contacts. | ||
| Service Hub Professional, $100 a seat [A1] | $500 | $1,000 |
| Marketing Hub Starter, one seat [A1] | $20 | $20 |
| 1,000 more marketing contacts on Starter [A1] | $50 | $50 |
| HubSpot, about (and $1,500 required onboarding for Service Hub Professional) | $570 | $1,070 |
| Zendesk: Zendesk Suite Professional for every person (tickets, the help center and calling with a phone menu), with Pipedrive — Zendesk’s named partner — for the CRM and its Campaigns add-on for marketing email to 2,000 people. | ||
| Zendesk Suite Professional, $115 an agent [B1] | $575 | $1,150 |
| Pipedrive Lite, $14 a seat, for the CRM [B4] | $70 | $140 |
| Pipedrive Campaigns, 2,000 subscribers [B4] | $20 | $20 |
| Zendesk, about | $665 | $1,310 |
HubSpot: HubSpot’s catalog list prices. HubSpot’s catalog prices every Core Seat at the highest edition in an account, so the Marketing Hub seat may be $50 rather than $20. Minutes past the account’s 3,000 a month, and taxes, are not included. HubSpot’s pricing page draws its prices with a script and was not read; on October 11, 2026 it showed Service Hub Professional at $90 a seat paid yearly.
Zendesk: Leaves out numbers, call minutes and recording minutes, which Zendesk charges by use, and taxes. Pipedrive Lite has no email sync or automations; its Growth plan adds them for $25 more a seat.
For a team of 3 people or fewer, ContactRoll Free costs nothing: 1,000 contacts, one pipeline, one support address, calling through your own Twilio account, and 500 marketing emails a month (Free’s limits). HubSpot’s free tools are for up to 2 users, with 2,000 marketing email sends a month that carry HubSpot’s branding. (HubSpot’s pricing page, read .) Zendesk has no free plan; it offers a 14-day free trial. (Zendesk’s pricing page, read .)
Which suits your team
HubSpot suits a team when
- You want the CRM, tickets, a knowledge base and calling with 3,000 minutes a month in one product.
- Your team will use HubSpot’s marketing hub and its AI agents.
Zendesk suits a team when
- Support is most of your work, and you want a mature phone system, phone trees and a large marketplace.
- You already use a separate CRM, or will use Pipedrive, Zendesk’s named partner.
Where ContactRoll fits
ContactRoll is one product for a small team’s sales, support, calls and marketing email, with one record of each customer. On Plus, at $59 a person a month paid yearly, five people come to $295 and ten to $590, with calls billed by Twilio to your own account, with no markup. Contacts exported from HubSpot or Zendesk and saved as a CSV file import into ContactRoll, which shows what each row will do before it writes anything.
A HubSpot alternative for small teams · A Zendesk alternative for small teams · Pricing
Questions
Is HubSpot or Zendesk better for customer support?
Both have tickets, a knowledge base, calling and a phone menu on their middle plans. Zendesk’s phone system has more features for a busy support line; HubSpot keeps support on the same record as sales and marketing.
Which costs less for five people?
For the team on this page, HubSpot’s seats with Marketing Hub come to less a month than Zendesk Suite Professional with Pipedrive beside it, but HubSpot also asks a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee, and Zendesk charges numbers and minutes by use.
Sources
Each figure above, with the page it was read from and the date. Prices change, so check each vendor’s own pages before deciding. Each product named here is a trademark of its owner, named only to say which product is described.
HubSpot (A)
- HubSpot, Product and Services Catalog: products: https://legal.hubspot.com/hubspot-product-and-services-catalog/products, read 2026-10-14.
- HubSpot, Product and Services Catalog: add-ons: https://legal.hubspot.com/hubspot-product-and-services-catalog/add-ons, read 2026-10-14.
- HubSpot Knowledge Base, set up interactive voice response: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/calling/set-up-interactive-voice-response, read 2026-10-14.
- HubSpot, Product and Services Catalog: technical limits: https://legal.hubspot.com/hubspot-product-and-services-catalog/technical-limits, read 2026-10-14.
- HubSpot, Product and Services Catalog: https://legal.hubspot.com/hubspot-product-and-services-catalog, read 2026-10-14.
- HubSpot, App Marketplace: https://ecosystem.hubspot.com/marketplace, read 2026-10-14.
- HubSpot Knowledge Base, export records: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/import-and-export/export-records, read 2026-10-14.
Zendesk (B)
- Zendesk, pricing: https://www.zendesk.com/pricing/, read 2026-10-14.
- Zendesk Help, announcing the retiring of Zendesk Sell: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9591462550042-Announcing-the-retiring-of-Zendesk-Sell, read 2026-10-14.
- Zendesk Help, Zendesk Talk number availability and pricing: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846483482-Zendesk-Talk-number-availability-and-pricing, read 2026-10-14.
- Pipedrive, pricing (its page data, in US dollars): https://www.pipedrive.com/es/pricing, read 2026-10-14.
- Zendesk Help, exporting ticket, user or organization data: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886165402-Exporting-ticket-user-or-organization-data-from-your-account, read 2026-10-14.