HubSpot vs Pipedrive vs Salesforce
A side-by-side look at HubSpot, Pipedrive and Salesforce for filmmakers: what each one can do, what it costs, and where they actually differ.
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Free CRM and sales pipeline for tracking leads, clients and production deals
- Price
- Free CRM (up to 2 users); paid Starter from $7-20/seat/mo; Marketing Pro from $800/mo
- Learning
- Moderate
- Best for
- A production company tracking inbound client inquiries and proposal stages
-
Visual sales CRM for deal pipelines, with a native MCP server for ChatGPT and Claude
- Price
- From $14/user/mo on annual billing (Lite)
- Learning
- Easy
- Best for
- Production companies and post houses tracking client pitches and bids through a pipeline
-
Enterprise CRM with Agentforce AI agents. Only useful to a film business that runs sales, client or talent pipelines at scale.
- Price
- From $25/user/mo (Starter Suite); Sales Cloud Core $195, Advanced $395, Max $550 per user/mo billed annually; Agentforce add-on from $125/user/mo
- Learning
- Steep
- Best for
- Agencies or production groups with a sales team tracking brand-partner or sponsorship deals
Feature by feature
HubSpot vs Pipedrive vs Salesforce: capabilities
| HubSpot | Pipedrive | Salesforce | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free CRM (up to 2 users); paid Starter from $7-20/seat/mo; Marketing Pro from $800/mo | From $14/user/mo on annual billing (Lite) | From $25/user/mo (Starter Suite); Sales Cloud Core $195, Advanced $395, Max $550 per user/mo billed annually; Agentforce add-on from $125/user/mo |
| Node / flow builder | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI agent | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Chat assistant | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Team collaboration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Voice / TTS | No | No | Partial |
| Public API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Not confirmed | Yes | Yes |
| Free tier | Yes | No | Partial |
| Commercial use | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Yes |
Each column comes from that tool's own researched page. "Not confirmed" means the vendor doesn't say.
Plans
Pricing compared
HubSpot
| Marketing Hub Free | $0monthly |
|---|---|
| Marketing Hub Starter | $7 or $20 per seat (page shows both)monthly |
| Marketing Hub Professional | $800 (page also shows $890)monthly |
| Marketing Hub Enterprise | $3,600monthly |
| Sales Hub Professional | $90 per seat (page also shows $100)monthly |
| Sales Hub Enterprise | $150 per seatmonthly |
Pipedrive
| Lite | $14/user/mo (annual)annual or monthly |
|---|---|
| Growth | $39/user/mo (annual)annual or monthly |
| Premium | $59/user/mo (annual)annual or monthly |
| Ultimate | $79/user/mo (annual)annual or monthly |
Salesforce
| Starter Suite | $25monthly or annually |
|---|---|
| Pro Suite | $100annually |
| Sales Core | $195annually |
| Sales Advanced | $395annually |
| Sales Max | $550annually |
| Agentforce add-on (Sales) | from $125per user per month |
The verdict
Which one should you pick?
HubSpot
Pick it for
- A production company tracking inbound client inquiries and proposal stages
- An agency managing producer, director and client contacts across projects
- Sending follow-up email sequences to festival, brand and distributor leads
Stands out
- A free CRM with no trial clock: useful on its own for a small team, unlike Salesforce, which only offers a trial.
- Marketing, sales and service hubs share one contact record, so a film inquiry, the proposal email and the invoice follow-up live in one timeline.
Watch out
- Costs rise fast: Marketing Pro starts at $800/mo plus onboarding fees
- Seat, contact and credit limits add up; overage is easy to hit
Pipedrive
Pick it for
- Production companies and post houses tracking client pitches and bids through a pipeline
- Freelance directors, DPs and producers managing a small list of brand and agency leads
- Commercial and branded-content agencies with a 3 to 10 person sales team
Stands out
- Official MCP server included on every plan, so a Claude or ChatGPT user can work the pipeline from a chat without a middleware tool
- Pipeline and activity model is simpler than HubSpot or Salesforce, and the learning curve is low for a small team
Watch out
- No free plan; HubSpot offers a free tier for up to 2 users
- Agentic AI and Pulse are beta or closed beta, and most AI output is suggestions or drafts that a human approves
Salesforce
Pick it for
- Agencies or production groups with a sales team tracking brand-partner or sponsorship deals
- Large talent or client-management operations with many account owners and approval steps
- Teams that want an AI agent to act on CRM records, not just summarise them
Stands out
- Deepest customization in the CRM market: custom objects, fields and automation without code via Flow Builder.
- AppExchange marketplace with thousands of listed apps and partner implementations.
Watch out
- Expensive: list prices climb to $550 per user per month before Agentforce
- Agentforce is a separate, metered add-on, so the true cost is hard to forecast
Each column comes from that tool's own researched page, checked against vendor pricing and changelog pages (oldest check: ). Sources are listed on each tool's page.
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