A Middle Ground

HubSpot has always been a great Marketing option for SMBs. When I worked with the Microsoft team on the early development of what was then called Dynamics 365 Marketing, HubSpot was a huge inspiration and target.

Many startups are drawn to HubSpot, partly because of its Freemium model but mostly because HubSpot spends 46% of its revenue marketing to startups and SMBs in general.

Meanwhile, Dynamics 365 Marketing, now called Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, has been making some inroads. However, Microsoft decided to push its option upmarket towards enterprise, which has led some SMBs to consider HubSpot as an alternative.

For an SMB that has built out its technology on Microsoft's cloud, this is a disappointment. In their goal to eliminate silos, this decision creates a new one.

Also, SMB does not stand for "Simple Mediocre Business"; most are far from it. Many are looking for applications that can be customized, share data, and talk to each other, which is why so many have opted for the Microsoft cloud.

The Power Platform has been a key component for SMBs due to its flexibility and relatively low cost. Building robust applications with Dataverse as the hub for as little as $5/user has a lot of appeal.

Customizing HubSpot beyond a few basic things will require their Custom Objects capability, which is part of their Enterprise tier. Upgrading to Enterprise means paying for all Enterprise features, even if you only need custom objects. This is not financially realistic for most SMBs, something they often discover later in their journey. I know, because I hear from them often.

Fortunately, HubSpot has a pretty robust API. For some, a viable "middle ground" is to use HubSpot for what it was originally created for and does well, which is Marketing, and use RapidStart CRM for sales, service, etc. The first 10 users of RapidStart CRM are free and can run on a $5 Per App License.

This approach leverages the best of both worlds. You can find many marketing professionals who are familiar with HubSpot. Using RapidStart Apps for the CRM side brings these processes back into the Microsoft cloud where you are already engaged with your customers with many products. Built on Dataverse and the Power Platform, RapidStart apps are fully customizable and extendable to meet any business requirements you may have, and they can be directly integrated with HubSpot marketing at a fraction of the cost.

Again, if you are not using Microsoft cloud solutions, like if you are standardized on Google, and eventual cost increases are not a huge issue, HubSpot may well be your best bet.