HubSpot vs Insightly: The Total Cost Comparison Nobody Else Shows You
Your team just hit 10 people and the HubSpot vs Insightly debate has started. Someone says "HubSpot," someone else says "Insightly is cheaper," and now you're staring at two pricing pages designed to confuse you. Let's cut through it.
30-Second Verdict
HubSpot wins for most SMBs. Richer free tier, deeper ecosystem, better customer service score. It's the safer bet.
Insightly wins for professional services firms that need to hand off a closed deal directly into a project - that Opportunity-to-Project workflow is genuinely unique.
Pricing Breakdown
Stop comparing features. Compare total cost of ownership. That's where these two diverge dramatically.
HubSpot Sales Hub
| Tier | Annual price | Monthly price | Onboarding fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 (2 seats) | $0 | None |
| Starter | $9/seat/mo | $15/seat/mo | None |
| Professional | $90/seat/mo | $100/seat/mo | $1,500 |
| Enterprise | $150/seat/mo | $150/seat/mo | $3,500 |
HubSpot Sales Hub has two seat types: Sales Seats get full Sales Hub access, Core Seats get limited access at a lower cost. On Professional and Enterprise, mixing these controls spend. We've run the math for 10-person teams and the blended cost drops significantly when only four or five reps need full Sales Seats.
One thing to know: HubSpot restructured its seat-based pricing model recently, and existing customers found the transition confusing. The Starter-to-Professional jump ($9 to $90/seat) is a 10x increase that catches growing teams off guard. Budget for it early.
Insightly CRM
| Tier | Price (annual billing) |
|---|---|
| Plus | $29/user/mo |
| Professional | $49/user/mo |
| Enterprise | $99/user/mo |
Looks cheaper, right? Now add the extras nobody mentions. Marketing Automation runs $99-$999/mo on top of CRM. AppConnect, their integration platform, starts at $249/mo with a mandatory $3,000 setup fee. And if you want decent support, premium support costs an extra 20% surcharge - roughly $3,000+/year.
Here's what that looks like for a 10-person team on annual billing:
- Insightly CRM Professional: 10 x $49 = $490/mo
- Insightly Marketing Automation (Professional): $499/mo
- Insightly AppConnect (25k tasks): $249/mo + $3,000 required setup
That's $1,238/mo plus the $3,000 setup before you add anything else.
For comparison, HubSpot Sales Hub Professional at 10 seats is $900/mo on annual billing plus a $1,500 onboarding fee. Cheaper, and you get automation included.
Feature Comparison
Automation & Workflows
HubSpot includes automation starting at Starter ($9/seat/mo). Insightly gates workflow automation, lead assignment, and routing behind Professional ($49/user/mo). Here's the thing: Insightly Plus at $29 is a contact database, not a real CRM. If you need automation - and you do - you're paying $49 minimum.
Project Management
This is Insightly's signature move. When an Opportunity hits "Closed Won," you can convert it directly into a Project, carrying over linked contacts, organizations, custom fields, and task templates. It's a sales-to-delivery handoff that no other mainstream CRM offers natively, and for consulting firms, agencies, and IT services companies, it eliminates an entire category of manual work and dropped-ball moments that plague the handoff between sales and delivery teams.
HubSpot doesn't include native project management in Sales Hub. You'd need Asana, Monday.com, or similar - plus the integration work to connect them.
AI Capabilities
HubSpot's Breeze AI and agents support prospecting, customer service, and data tasks across hubs. Insightly added AI-generated email summaries and replies via its Copilot, with queries capped at 75 on Professional and 100 on Enterprise. Neither moves the needle yet. We've seen teams get more value from a well-built workflow than from either AI feature.
Integrations
HubSpot wins decisively. Over 2,000 marketplace apps versus Insightly's roughly 200 pre-built integrations. Insightly's integration count is a mess across sources - their own blog says "200+ pre-built integrations," other sources describe 500+ connectors via AppConnect, and some comparison sites claim 2,000+.
The practical reality: about 200 pre-built integrations, with more available through AppConnect at $249/mo plus a $3,000 setup fee. Insightly has added native DocuSign and Unbounce integrations, which signals investment in closing the gap, but HubSpot's marketplace still dwarfs it.
You're comparing HubSpot and Insightly integrations - but neither CRM verifies the contacts you import. Prospeo connects natively to HubSpot and via Zapier to Insightly, delivering 98% accurate emails refreshed every 7 days. At $0.01 per email, it costs less than a single bounced opportunity.
Stop loading your new CRM with dead data on day one.
What Users Actually Say
| Metric | HubSpot | Insightly |
|---|---|---|
| Capterra overall | 4.5/5 (4,446 reviews) | 4.0/5 (654 reviews) |
| Capterra support | 4.4 | 3.8 |
| G2 overall | 4.4/5 (13,564 reviews) | 4.2/5 (932 reviews) |
Insightly praise: Users love the CRM + project management combo and consistently call out ease of use and customization. Most Insightly G2 reviews come from small businesses (679 of 932). It's a "right-sized" CRM for teams that don't want enterprise complexity.
Insightly complaints: Support is the weak spot. Slow response times show up repeatedly on G2, and that 3.8 Capterra support score tells the story. The consensus on r/CRM is that you're mostly on your own unless you pay for premium support.
HubSpot complaints: The #1 gripe on Reddit and review sites is the Starter-to-Professional price jump. The #2 is complexity when stacking multiple Hubs - Marketing + Sales + Service together can feel like managing three different products.
The Data Problem Neither CRM Solves
Look, the CRM you choose matters less than the data going into it. Neither HubSpot nor Insightly verifies contact data. Bad emails bounce, phone numbers go stale, and your pipeline metrics become fiction. We've watched teams agonize over which CRM to pick, then load it with garbage data on day one.
Prospeo plugs into HubSpot natively and connects to Insightly via Zapier, verifying emails at 98% accuracy on a 7-day refresh cycle. The free tier gives you 75 verified emails per month - enough to audit your existing database quality and see the difference clean data makes.
If you're building lists from scratch, pair verification with data enrichment so reps aren't guessing.
You just compared total cost of ownership for two CRMs. Now consider the hidden cost neither pricing page shows: bad data. Teams using Prospeo cut bounce rates below 4% and enrich contacts with 50+ data points - no contracts, no $3,000 setup fees, no sales calls.
Clean data costs $0.01 per email. Dirty data costs your pipeline.
Final Verdict
Pick HubSpot if you're a typical SMB or growth-stage team. The free tier is genuinely useful, the ecosystem is unmatched, and customer service scores are meaningfully better.
Pick Insightly Professional if you're a professional services firm where the sales-to-delivery handoff is a core workflow. That Opportunity-to-Project conversion is worth the price of admission.
Skip both if budget is tight. Zoho CRM starts at $14/user/mo and is strong for cost-conscious teams. Pipedrive ($14/user/mo) has the best visual pipeline we've used. Freshsales ($9/user/mo) offers solid AI scoring. All three get regular love on Reddit's r/CRM.
If you're still deciding what counts as a CRM (and what doesn't), see these examples of a CRM.
FAQ
Is Insightly really cheaper than HubSpot?
At sticker price, yes. But add AppConnect ($249+/mo), marketing automation ($99-$999/mo), and premium support (+20%), and total cost often exceeds HubSpot Sales Hub Professional for a 10-person team.
Does Insightly have a free plan?
No. The cheapest tier is Plus at $29/user/mo. HubSpot offers free tools with 2 seats, making it the better option for teams testing a CRM before committing budget.
Can HubSpot handle project management?
Not natively in Sales Hub. Insightly's built-in Opportunity-to-Project handoff is unique in the CRM space and the primary reason professional services teams choose it over HubSpot.
Which CRM has better integrations?
HubSpot - 2,000+ marketplace apps versus Insightly's roughly 200 pre-built integrations. AppConnect expands Insightly's count but starts at $249/mo with a $3,000 setup fee.
How do I keep CRM data clean in either platform?
Neither HubSpot nor Insightly verifies contact data natively. Prospeo plugs into HubSpot directly and connects to Insightly via Zapier, running email verification at 98% accuracy on a 7-day refresh cycle. The free tier includes 75 verified emails per month - enough to audit your existing database quality.