Is Hubspot worthwhile?

[Seabrook]

Hello all,

I'm sure it's been asked before, but is Hubspot any good? I've been marketed to by them, and do read their ebooks on occasion, however I don't know how I feel about one system that does everything. But the reviews seem good?

All insights appreciated.

William

[David-Kley]

Have you tried the demo? Does it seem like it will work for you?

One of the reasons why many people would think several times before taking the plunge is the high cost associated with Hubspot. They charge minimum of $ 200 a month and that too for a maximum of 500 visitors a month and less than 100 contacts.

Personally, I think they charge way more than they should. However, I am not sure about the cost they incur to maintain the whole platform and remain profitable. But it normally doesn’t concern us as consumers.

No matter if a solution takes 1 million to develop and maintain or just takes 100$, what we look forward to is an affordable marketing solution.

But the price you are paying Hubspot is the price for convenience. You are lazy to use 3 or 4 different services. You want everything in one place and make it much easier for you. Now you need to pay the price for that!

Consider going in for Hubspot if

• You can afford the amount you need to Pay Hubspot each month (200 $ to several thousand dollars a month depending on your business requirements)
• You want a solution that will walk you through each and every step
• Your time is extremely valuable to you (Each hour you waste managing multiple services is going to cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars)
• After trying the demo, you are absolutely convinced that the system is going to work for you

Don’t go for Hubspot Inbound Marketing platform if

• You don’t have the money for it. They even have a 12 month contract and no backing out
• You are willing to use 3-4 third party applications instead of just getting everything from a single website (If you are using WordPress, you can to an extend get everything done from the same website)
• You think this is some magic tool. No, you have to work hard just as in any other platform to create engaging content. There are no guarantees that your business will succeed with Hubspot. It’s up to you and how you use the platform
• You want advanced data. You can’t get raw and detailed data you’d get from using third party tools such as Google Analytics. This tool is aimed at small business owners who are non tech savvy
• You would want to build a branded site. It’s difficult to customize and make your site look nice
• You thought all help was free. No. Even group coaching will cost you 300$. Any expert help will cost you several dollars per hour
• You want complete control over your site. Even though Hubspot says they will provide an option to export data easily, I don’t see it anywhere to move my CMS if I chose to do so. Besides, any tracking, analytics is all gone if you switch from Hubspot to a new provider. I recently was helping one of my clients move from Hubspot to WordPress and it was a pain (since they had so many landing pages and blog posts)
• You are looking for cutting edge tools exclusive to Hubspot. It’s not there. You will find that Hubspot is simply many marketing applications bundled and integrated nicely into one platform

Full article here: Hubspot Yes or No

[Seabrook]

Thank you very much David-Kley.

You've summarised what I already was thinking - mainly that it is a nice tool for people who want a convenient work environment.

The reason why I've been looking into Hubspot, is that I've been marketed to by them quite heavily - and I didn't know if I was missing something. I don't like the idea of one system controlling everything - as it doesn't allow for best in class.

Thanks again.

William

[David-Kley]

No problem. It's mainly for people who want an "all-in-one" that does most things very well, but none of them great

You can always get more accurate data from programs specific for that one thing, but then you have to manage and analyze multiple tools. Personal prefence really.

[TWSI]

The company I work for has just invested in Hubspot to market our own company to begin with.  I will let you know how we get on with it.  I originally took the call from a guy trying to sell it to us as I requested a free trial.  I ended up telling him that it wasn't right for our business as creating automated landing pages for ourselves and our clients would actually take work away from us.  We mainly build websites and landing pages you see.  I felt like he was effectively trying to take our clients onto their platform and we would see a few crumbs of commission.  I also said we have access to all the data they provided using multiple online software.  So I declined.

Our owner/manager has recently bought into it thinking that inbound marketing is the future or marketing and  I would have to agree, it is why I signed up for the trial in the first place (Once all of the technical aspects of SEO have been taken care of, it then becomes more of a marketing role). However, I did think it was something that we could manage ourselves as David has said "use 3-4 third party applications instead".  This can be quite time consuming when your client list starts to stack up.

I am still skeptical as it still requires a lot of hard work and money.  It's not like they create any of the content for you.  I will let you know the progress we have made with it in a couple of months.  If you don't hear anything from me.....I doubt it will have been very successful

PS. I hope this all makes sense I typed it very quickly