The pipeline is fine. The problem is everything around it. Pipedrive runs the deal board beautifully, and then the team opens a separate tool for email marketing, another for the website forms, and a third for customer support. Each tool has its own contact list, and none of them agree. That is the moment most small sales teams start asking how to switch from Pipedrive to HubSpot, and it is a fair question.
Pipedrive is a sales-first CRM built around a visual pipeline, and it does that one job better than almost anything at its price. HubSpot is a wider platform that sells sales, marketing and service as separate hubs on one shared contact record, and it does the joined-up job better than Pipedrive ever will. A team of three sellers who only need a pipeline should stay on Pipedrive. A team that wants the website form, the email sequence and the support ticket on the same contact record should move to HubSpot.
The switch is not about which tool is better in general. It is about which shape the business has grown into. Pipedrive charges per seat and keeps the bill simple. HubSpot starts free for two users, then charges per seat, and adds a one-time onboarding fee on the Professional and Enterprise plans that changes the first-year math completely. For a team that runs marketing and sales together, the gap is real. For a team that only chases deals, HubSpot can feel heavy, and this guide says so plainly.
This guide walks through how to switch from Pipedrive to HubSpot in seven steps, with a checklist, a cost comparison, and a clear account of what transfers, what does not, and what to test before cancelling Pipedrive. Follow the steps in order, run both tools side by side for two weeks, and the move will be boring in the best way. Skip the steps, cancel early, and workflows, email history and custom fields can vanish without a trace.
The Price Gap That Starts the Conversation
Cost is the reason most teams switch, and the numbers explain why. Pipedrive has no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Lite costs 14 dollars a seat a month billed annually, or 24 dollars billed monthly, and covers the pipeline, leads, calendar sync and AI-built reports.
Growth costs 39 dollars a seat a month billed annually, or 49 dollars monthly, and adds email sync, 50 active automations, sequences and a forecast view. Premium costs 59 dollars a seat a month billed annually, or 79 dollars monthly, and adds AI email tools, lead scoring and Smart Docs. Ultimate costs 79 dollars a seat a month billed annually, or 99 dollars monthly, and adds LeadBooster and project tools. There is no onboarding fee at any tier.
HubSpot Free costs nothing for up to two users, with 1,000 contacts, deal tracking and email tracking. Sales Hub Starter lists at 20 dollars a seat a month, with a limited-time new-customer offer of 7 dollars billed annually or 10 dollars billed monthly, and adds 50 workflows, 15 pipelines and 500 calling minutes. Professional costs 90 dollars a seat a month billed annually, or 100 dollars billed monthly, plus a required one-time onboarding fee of 1,500 dollars, and adds sequences, forecasting and 300 workflows. Enterprise costs 150 dollars a seat a month billed annually, plus a required 3,500 dollar onboarding fee, and adds 15 pipelines and 1,000 workflows.
A team of five on Pipedrive Growth pays about 195 dollars a month on annual billing. The same five on HubSpot Starter at the list price pay about 100 dollars a month, a saving of about 95 dollars a month, or about 1,140 dollars a year. The same five on HubSpot Professional pay about 450 dollars a month plus the 1,500 dollar onboarding fee, so the first year costs far more than Pipedrive Growth, and the saving only appears if the team actually uses the forecasting and the workflows.
The free plan tells the same story. Pipedrive has no free plan, so every seat costs money from day one. HubSpot Free lets two people run the whole CRM without paying anything, and a team of two can run on it for months before paying a dollar. A team that wants to test HubSpot with real deals can do it free, which makes the trial cheap and the decision easy.
Pipedrive vs HubSpot at a Glance
| Feature | Pipedrive | HubSpot |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per seat, four flat tiers | Free CRM, per seat paid hubs |
| Free plan | 14-day trial only | Free for up to 2 users, 1,000 contacts |
| Entry paid price | Lite 14 dollars a seat a month annual | Starter 20 dollars a seat a month list, 7 dollars promo |
| Mid plan | Growth 39 dollars a seat a month annual | Professional 90 dollars a seat a month annual |
| Top plan | Ultimate 79 dollars a seat a month annual | Enterprise 150 dollars a seat a month annual |
| Onboarding fee | None | 1,500 dollars Professional, 3,500 dollars Enterprise |
| Pipelines | Multiple on all plans | 1 on Starter, 15 on Enterprise |
| Email sequences | Growth and up | Starter and up |
| Forecasting | Growth and up | Professional and up |
| Marketing hub | Not offered | Separate hub, sold on top |
| Service hub | Not offered | Separate hub, sold on top |
| Automations | 50 active on Growth | 50 workflows on Starter, 300 on Professional |
| Integrations | 400 plus in the marketplace | More than 2,000 in the marketplace |
HubSpot bundles more into the platform, and that bundling is the point of the switch. Marketing, sales and service share one contact record, so a lead from a website form, a deal in the pipeline and a support ticket all sit in the same place. Pipedrive stays simpler and cheaper, with a pipeline that a new seller learns in an afternoon, and that simplicity is worth real money to a team that only sells. Check which side of that trade your business sits on before you move.
The Trade-Offs Nobody Mentions First
A switch guide that only lists the savings is not honest, so this section states the trade plainly. Pipedrive is a focused sales tool. HubSpot is a platform that tries to cover the whole customer journey, and the difference shows in the daily work. A seller who opens Pipedrive, works the pipeline and closes it will find HubSpot busier, with more menus, more hubs and more settings to learn. The first week in HubSpot feels slower, even when the bill is lower, and a seller who hates setup will feel that friction daily.
A team that already pays for an email tool, a form tool and a support desk will not miss the simplicity, because HubSpot replaces three subscriptions at once. The question is not which tool is better. The question is whether the business wants one deep pipeline or one shared customer record, and learning how to switch from Pipedrive to HubSpot starts with answering that question honestly.
The onboarding fee deserves a second look, because it decides the first-year saving for teams that need forecasting. HubSpot Professional costs 90 dollars a seat a month plus a required 1,500 dollar onboarding fee, so a team of five pays 5,400 dollars in seats plus 1,500 dollars in onboarding in year one. Pipedrive Growth for the same five costs 2,340 dollars in year one with no fee. Count the onboarding fee before deciding, and the math will make the choice. A team that needs forecasting should price the fee into the comparison before moving.
The seat model also changes the bill. Pipedrive charges for every seat on the account, assigned or not, so trimming seats before the renewal matters. HubSpot Free covers two users, so a two-person business can run the CRM free indefinitely, but the third person starts the paid bill. A team that grows from two to three sellers should check both totals, because the jump from free to paid lands all at once.
How to Switch from Pipedrive to HubSpot in 7 Steps
This is the full process for how to switch from Pipedrive to HubSpot without losing the deals that matter. Do the steps in order, and do not cancel Pipedrive until step 7.
Step 1. Audit the Pipedrive account before touching anything
Open Pipedrive and list every pipeline, every stage, every deal, every contact, every custom field, every workflow automation and every integration. Export the deals, contacts and activities as CSV files, and note the renewal date and the contract terms, because Pipedrive fees are non-refundable and plans auto-renew. Pay special attention to workflow automations, email sequences and custom fields, because the importer does not move those cleanly. This audit takes an afternoon and prevents the most common switch failure, which is discovering a workflow only after it was deleted.
Step 2. Set up HubSpot and map the pipeline first
Create the HubSpot account, choose the plan that matches the team size, and decide the pipeline map before importing anything. Pipedrive pipelines become HubSpot deal pipelines, and Pipedrive stages become HubSpot deal stages, your choice during the import. Map stages one by one if your team uses stages as workflow steps like qualified, proposal and negotiation. Do not import yet. A clean pipeline map decided on paper saves a week of reorganising later.
Step 3. Run the Pipedrive importer on one pipeline first
Open HubSpot settings, choose Import, pick Pipedrive, and authorise the connection. Import a single small pipeline first, not the whole account. The importer brings across deals, contacts, companies and activities, and asks you to map each Pipedrive user to an existing HubSpot user. Check the imported pipeline carefully, count the deals against the Pipedrive original, open a few deals to confirm the values and dates survived, and fix the mapping before the big import. A pilot import that takes an afternoon prevents an account-wide mess.
Step 4. Import the rest and rebuild what does not transfer
Once the pilot looks clean, import the remaining pipelines in batches, checking each one as it lands. Then rebuild what the importer leaves behind. Workflow automations, email sequences and custom fields do not transfer, and must be rebuilt in HubSpot. Email history needs a separate sync, so connect the team inboxes before the import finishes. This is the largest single task in the switch, so budget a full afternoon for a normal account and do not promise a one hour migration.
Step 5. Move the team and set permissions
Invite the team to HubSpot and set access levels. Remember that HubSpot Free covers only two users, so decide who needs a paid seat and who can work as a viewer. Assign each seller to the pipelines they manage, and run a short training session on the deal board, the sequences and the reporting dashboard, because HubSpot has more views than Pipedrive and a new user can drown in options. A seller who cannot find their deals will fall back to Pipedrive, and the switch will stall.
Step 6. Run both tools side by side for two weeks
Work from HubSpot for two weeks while Pipedrive stays open and the old deals finish. Watch the deal counts daily, check that values and close dates match, and confirm the rebuilt workflows actually fire. Compare a HubSpot forecast with the Pipedrive export from step 1 to spot any gap in reporting. Fix the problems while Pipedrive is still available as a fallback, not after it is cancelled. Two quiet weeks of parallel running cost nothing and catch every problem early.
Step 7. Cancel Pipedrive and confirm the data is safe
Once two weeks of HubSpot work look clean, export the final deal data and any remaining reports from Pipedrive, then cancel the subscription before the renewal date. Confirm the cancellation email arrives, and check that no auto renewal is set. Keep the Pipedrive export files for six months, because the importer does not move everything and the old exports are the only record of workflow automations, email sequences and custom fields. The switch is done when HubSpot has run cleanly for two weeks and Pipedrive is cancelled without a surprise charge.
What Comes Across and What Stays Behind
The HubSpot Pipedrive importer moves the core work well. Deals become deals, with values, stages, close dates and owners coming across. Contacts and companies come across with their fields, and activities land on the right records. For a normal account, that covers most of what a team needs to keep selling on day one.
What does not transfer is specific, and the team should name it before starting. Workflow automations do not transfer, so list each one and rebuild it as a HubSpot workflow. Email sequences do not transfer, so note what each sequence sent and rebuild it by hand. Custom fields need remapping, and some Pipedrive field types have no direct HubSpot match. Email history needs a separate inbox sync, so connect it before the import finishes.
It is a one time copy, not a live sync. Pipedrive stays as it was, and later changes in either tool do not sync back. Check the import report afterwards, because some records can fail or duplicate. That is the full picture of how to switch from Pipedrive to HubSpot without losing the work that matters.
The Go-Live Checklist
Use this checklist before starting step 1, and do not skip a line.
- List every Pipedrive pipeline, stage, deal, contact and custom field. – Export deals, contacts and activities as CSV and save the files. – Note the Pipedrive renewal date and any contract term. – Flag workflow automations, email sequences and custom fields. – Choose the HubSpot plan by team size and forecasting needs. – Decide how Pipedrive stages map to HubSpot deal stages.
- List the Pipedrive integrations the team actually uses. – Count paid seats, because HubSpot Free covers only two users. – Plan a replacement for any Pipedrive feature HubSpot lacks. – Set a switch date in a quiet week, not during a sales push. – Tell the team the switch date and the new workflow before step 1.
What the Switch Saves in Real Money
The saving depends on team size and plan, because the two tools charge different rates for similar work. A team of five on Pipedrive Growth pays about 195 dollars a month on annual billing. The same five on HubSpot Starter at the list price pay about 100 dollars a month, a saving of about 95 dollars a month or 1,140 dollars a year. The same five on HubSpot Starter at the new-customer offer of 7 dollars a seat pay about 35 dollars a month, a saving of about 160 dollars a month, though the offer price does not last forever.
A team of five on Pipedrive Premium pays about 295 dollars a month on annual billing. The same five on HubSpot Professional pay about 450 dollars a month plus the 1,500 dollar onboarding fee, so Professional costs more, not less, in year one. The saving only appears when the team uses the marketing and service hubs that Pipedrive cannot offer, because those hubs replace separate subscriptions.
The saving shrinks when the team adds hubs or many seats. Each HubSpot hub is sold separately, so a team that adds Marketing Hub Starter on top of Sales Hub Starter pays twice. A team that runs free on HubSpot, with two users and 1,000 contacts, saves the whole Pipedrive bill. Count the hubs and the seats, run the two totals, and the answer will be clear. For most teams without heavy forecasting needs, Starter saves money once the team outgrows Pipedrive Lite.
Run the same math for your own team before you commit to how to switch from Pipedrive to HubSpot, because the totals decide the plan.
Your First Two Weeks in HubSpot
The parallel run only helps if the team tests the right things, so set the tests before the first HubSpot deal is assigned. Create deals across every pipeline the team uses, including one with a sequence, one with a custom field, and one with an attached quote, and confirm each one shows the right owner and the right close date. Then compare the HubSpot deal counts against the Pipedrive export from step 1, checking totals by pipeline and by owner. That test plan is the part of the switch that most teams skip, and it is the part that catches the problems while Pipedrive is still available as a fallback.
Test the workflows and the reports next, because those are the processes that break quietly. Trigger one rebuilt workflow and confirm it fires, open the deal board and the forecast for the same pipeline, and have a second seller confirm they see the same deals. Also test a deal that needs a recurring task, since recurrence must be rebuilt by hand and trips up teams that rely on it. A test that covers deals, workflows, reports and recurrence in the first week leaves the second week for fixing what failed, which is exactly how a quiet switch is supposed to work.
Five Mistakes That Stall the Move
The first mistake is cancelling Pipedrive before the HubSpot import is checked. A team that cancels on day one loses the workflows, the email sequences and the custom fields in one move, and the rebuild takes days instead of hours. Keep Pipedrive until step 7, and the switch stays boring. The second mistake is importing the whole account at once without a pilot. A mapping error on stages repeats across every pipeline, and fixing it after the fact costs more than the pilot ever did.
The third mistake is forgetting the onboarding fee math. A team that moves to Professional for forecasting pays 1,500 dollars before the first deal closes, and a team that moves to Enterprise pays 3,500 dollars. Count the fee before choosing a plan. The fourth mistake is skipping the two week parallel run. A team that switches overnight discovers the workflow gaps during a live sales push, when fixing them costs the most. Two quiet weeks of parallel running cost nothing and catch every problem early.
The fifth mistake is underestimating the manual rebuild. Workflows, email sequences and custom fields do not transfer, and a team that budgets an hour for the rebuild will run out of time. Budget an afternoon, rebuild the top workflows first, and leave the long tail of old sequences behind. The switch is a good time to clean the account, not a reason to move every old automation into the new tool.
Life After the Switch
The first month after the move is when the saving becomes real, and it is also when the new habits form. Set a weekly review in HubSpot, one hour where the team checks overdue deals, clears the inbox and updates the forecast, because a platform with more hubs needs a steadier rhythm than Pipedrive did. Tune the rebuilt workflows after two weeks, not on day one, because the first fortnight shows which rules fire too often and which never fire at all. The work of learning how to switch from Pipedrive to HubSpot does not end on cancel day. It ends when the team stops opening the old tool out of habit, and that usually takes a full month.
Revisit the plan choice after 90 days. A team that started on Starter may find it needs Professional for the forecasting or the workflow cap, and a team that started on Professional may find it can drop the Marketing Hub add-on it never used. Count the seats again too, because HubSpot bills per seat, and a seller who left the team should come off the plan. The switch saves money once. The habits save it every month after.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to switch from Pipedrive to HubSpot?
Most small teams finish the switch in one to two weeks. The setup takes an afternoon, the pilot import and the manual rebuild take another afternoon, and the two week parallel run catches the problems while Pipedrive is still available. A team with many pipelines or heavy workflow automation should budget three weeks. Do not promise a one day switch, because the manual rebuild and the parallel run are what make the move safe.
Will I lose my deals when I switch from Pipedrive to HubSpot?
Deals, contacts, companies and activities transfer through the native Pipedrive importer, so export each pipeline first and run a pilot import on one pipeline to confirm the mapping. Workflow automations, email sequences and custom fields do not transfer, so flag them in the audit and rebuild them by hand. Keep Pipedrive running until the HubSpot import is checked, and no deal will be lost.
Is HubSpot really cheaper than Pipedrive?
For most teams that need more than a pipeline, yes, at the entry tier. HubSpot Starter at the list price costs 20 dollars a seat a month against 39 dollars for Pipedrive Growth, so a team of five saves about 95 dollars a month. At the mid tier, HubSpot Professional at 90 dollars a seat plus the 1,500 dollar onboarding fee costs more than Pipedrive Growth, so a team that only needs forecasting should stay on Pipedrive Growth. Count the hubs and the onboarding fee before deciding.
Does HubSpot have the same pipeline as Pipedrive?
HubSpot has more pipeline options than Pipedrive, including up to 15 pipelines on Enterprise, but pipelines do not transfer, so the team rebuilds its stages by hand. Pipedrive stages map to HubSpot deal stages during import, so the structure survives even though the saved views do not. Pick the two or three pipelines the team actually uses and rebuild those first.
Can I keep my Pipedrive automations when I switch?
No, workflow automations do not transfer. Pipedrive workflow rules must be rebuilt as HubSpot workflows, and HubSpot caps workflows at 50 on Starter and 300 on Professional. List the automations the team actually uses, rebuild the top ones first, and count monthly runs before choosing a plan. A team with heavy automation should check the cap against its real volume.
The Call
Switch to HubSpot if the team runs marketing and sales together, if the team is paying for Pipedrive plus a separate email tool and a separate form tool, or if the team wants one shared contact record across sales, marketing and service. A team of two to twenty people will save money at the entry tier, get a free CRM that Pipedrive does not offer, and lose nothing it actually uses, as long as the audit flags the workflows and the sequences first. For those teams, learning how to switch from Pipedrive to HubSpot is worth an afternoon, and the saving repeats every month.
Stay on Pipedrive if the team only needs a pipeline, if the team is on Growth at 39 dollars a seat a month and does not need forecasting, or if the team is mid sales push and cannot afford a week of parallel running. A team that values pipeline simplicity over platform breadth will feel HubSpot as noise, and a team with few deals can find Pipedrive Lite cheaper than HubSpot Starter at list price. Stay also if the contract renewal is close and the team is mid launch. A switch during a launch costs more in chaos than it saves in subscription fees.
The decision rule is simple. Count the pipelines, count the people, list the tools the team actually opens every week, and run the two totals with hubs and onboarding included. If HubSpot covers the weekly workflow and costs less, switch in a quiet week and follow the seven steps. If Pipedrive covers a weekly workflow that HubSpot cannot match, stay and renegotiate the Pipedrive plan instead. The right tool is the one that matches the work, not the one with the lower headline price.
