HubSpot alternatives for agencies: 7 options compared

Why agencies look beyond HubSpot

HubSpot's own published pricing starts gently. Sales Hub Starter and Marketing Hub Starter are $9 per seat per month on annual billing. The jump comes at Professional. Sales Hub Professional is $90 per seat per month plus a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee. Marketing Hub Professional is $800 a month for 3 core seats and 2,000 marketing contacts, plus a one-time $3,000 onboarding fee, and each extra seat costs $45 a month.

For one business with a sales team, that can be money well spent. For an agency the costs add up differently. Your own team needs seats, each client usually has its own HubSpot account and subscription, and clients log in to HubSpot, not to anything with your name on it. You manage the software relationship without owning it.

HubSpot does have a programme for agencies. Solutions Partner membership starts at $400 a month (or the same amount in software spend), partners earn 20% commission for three years on deals they bring, and they can waive onboarding fees for clients. That is a good deal if you sell HubSpot services. It is a referral model, though: you earn a share of HubSpot's price instead of selling your own product at your own price.

The four jobs an agency CRM has to do

Most lists rank tools by how many features they have. It is more useful to ask which of these four jobs you need done.

1. Run your own pipeline. Leads, proposals, deals and renewals for the agency itself. Nearly every tool here does this well.
2. Keep client accounts separate. Each client's contacts, deals and automations live in their own space, so data never mixes and an account can be handed over or closed cleanly.
3. Carry your brand. Clients see your name, logo and domain on the login page and in system emails, not the vendor's.
4. Let you resell. You set the price, bill the client yourself and keep the margin, instead of earning a referral fee.

If you only need the first job, buy a simple sales CRM and stop there. If you want software to become recurring revenue, jobs two to four matter far more than any single feature. Our guide on how to resell a CRM to clients covers packaging and pricing in more detail.

The seven options at a glance

Prices are for the lowest published plan at the time of writing, on annual billing where the vendor offers it. The plans do not all include the same things, so read the notes on each tool before you compare.

GoHighLevel: the all-in-one built for agencies

GoHighLevel is the tool most agencies weigh against HubSpot, because it was designed around agencies from the start. Starter is $97 a month with 3 client sub-accounts, Unlimited is $297 with unlimited sub-accounts, and Agency Pro is $497. Agency Pro adds SaaS mode, which creates sub-accounts automatically when clients sign up and lets you rebill phone, email and most add-ons with your own markup. You can white-label the web app and connect your own domains for funnels and websites. A white-label mobile app costs another $497 a month unless you are on the custom-priced Enterprise plan.

Each sub-account gets a CRM with pipelines, funnels, websites, calendars, email and SMS. Phone, SMS and some third-party services are charged on usage on top of the plan, so build that into your client prices. The downside is depth: there is a lot to learn and configure before your first client goes live. We compare the two directly in GoHighLevel vs HubSpot for agencies.

Best for: marketing agencies that run ads, funnels and SMS follow-up for local businesses and want to sell the whole stack under their own brand.

ActiveCampaign: email automation with per-account branding

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing and automation platform first. At 1,000 contacts on annual billing, Starter is $15 a month, Plus $49, Pro $79 and Enterprise $145, with 1, 1, 3 and 5 users. Prices rise as the contact list grows. Deal pipelines are not part of the base plans: they come as a paid CRM add-on on Plus and above.

The agency side is stronger than many people expect. ActiveCampaign runs branded and white-label agency partner programmes where you buy discounted accounts, bill clients yourself and handle first-line support. White-labelling is set per account. On its small business plans you can use a custom domain, swap the logo and remove ActiveCampaign references, and Enterprise adds full restyling with your own CSS. Each client sits in its own account, which keeps data apart but means templates and automation recipes have to be imported into each one.

Best for: agencies whose main service is email marketing and automation, and who want each client account to carry the agency's brand.

Zoho CRM: a capable pipeline on a small budget

Zoho CRM is free for up to 3 users. Paid editions are $14 (Standard), $23 (Professional), $40 (Enterprise) and $52 (Ultimate) per user per month on annual billing, and roughly $20 to $65 on monthly billing. For that money you get a deep CRM with automation, custom modules and links to the wider Zoho suite.

For the agency's own pipeline it is hard to beat on price. Reselling is a different story. Zoho's partner page lists reseller, consulting and affiliate tracks but no white-label option, so clients use Zoho under Zoho's name, each in their own Zoho account. That suits agencies that sell implementation and training as a service, rather than software as their own product.

Best for: agencies that want a cheap, serious CRM for their own sales, and consultancies that set up Zoho for clients.

Pipedrive: the simplest sales pipeline

Pipedrive is built around a visual deal pipeline that you drag deals across. Plans run from $14 per seat on Lite, through $39 on Growth, to $79 on Ultimate, per month on annual billing. Monthly billing costs more. It is quick to set up and keeps a small agency disciplined about follow-ups, proposals and renewals.

It is not built for client work. There are no client sub-accounts, and its solution provider partnership (Authorized, Gold and Platinum tiers) offers a discount on list price or a commission for reselling Pipedrive alongside your consulting. The partner page says nothing about rebranding, so plan on clients seeing Pipedrive.

Best for: tracking the agency's own new business. Pair it with something else if you also want to give clients a login.

SuiteDash: client portal, CRM and invoicing at a flat price

SuiteDash prices by plan, not by seat. Start is $19 a month, Thrive $49 and Pinnacle $99, and every plan includes unlimited CRM contacts, staff and client portals, plus white-label branding and email marketing. Deal stage pipelines start on Thrive. Pinnacle adds the full automation toolkit, onboarding flows, a course system and support tickets, and SuiteDash's own documentation lists the white-label custom domain with Pinnacle. There is also a lifetime option paid upfront.

For reselling, its partner programme lets you sell the platform under your own brand at wholesale prices of $14, $34 or $69 per customer account per month. The downside is breadth: with 27 built-in toolkits, setup takes time, and it is more of a client operations tool than a marketing automation engine.

Best for: service agencies that want clients to log in for files, invoices, projects and messages, at a predictable flat price.

Vendasta: a marketplace for selling to local businesses

Vendasta works on a monthly minimum spend rather than a fixed fee. Starter is a $99 minimum with no contract, 1 seat and a client portal co-branded with Vendasta. Professional is $499 on a 12-month contract with 5 seats and a white-label client portal. Premium is $999 on a 12-month contract with 10 seats and multi-location features. Every plan includes unlimited client accounts and client users, a client CRM, workflow automations and a unified inbox.

Purchases of qualifying Vendasta products count towards the minimum, so an agency that sells enough can bring its platform fee down to $0. Third-party marketplace purchases do not count, and unused amounts do not roll over. The catch for small agencies is that the white-label portal needs the $499 plan and a year's commitment.

Best for: agencies that want to sell a catalogue of digital products to many local businesses and have the volume to cover the minimum.

WebNewBiz: websites and a CRM under your brand

WebNewBiz is our own platform, so keep that in mind as you read this section. It starts from the website: describe a client's business in plain language, the AI drafts the pages, layout and copy, and you refine it by chatting with the AI Copilot. The AI CRM sits in the same account. It reads and scores leads, tracks deals, tasks and bookings, sends invoices that chase themselves and connects to your own email. Website enquiries land in the CRM automatically, store buyers become contacts, and an AI funnel builder drafts multi-step funnels from a description or one of 26 templates.

For agencies, the dashboard carries your name, logo, colours and favicon on your own domain, such as app.youragency.com, and clients see your brand on the login page, invites, emails and invoice PDFs. You create client accounts, put each on a plan with limits, and either log in as the client to do the work or let them self-serve. You sell your own packages (recurring, one-off or free, with an optional setup fee, in several currencies) from your own storefront page, and payments go to your own Stripe or PayPal account. The details are on our white-label CRM for agencies page.

The honest limits: WebNewBiz is younger and smaller than GoHighLevel, with a much smaller app ecosystem and community. Agency pricing is not published, so you have to ask. Texting is two-way SMS from a business number on the top plan, not high-volume SMS marketing, so if SMS campaigns are your core service, GoHighLevel is the better fit. On the public plans the CRM starts at Growth ($79 a month, 3,000 contacts, 3 team members), and an AI first draft still needs the client's own photos and facts.

Best for: web design agencies and freelancers who sell websites and want the CRM, store and funnels in the same branded client account. If websites are your main product, see our white-label website builder for agencies.

When HubSpot is still the right choice

Leaving is not always the answer. Stay with HubSpot, or become a Solutions Partner, when:

• Your clients are mid-sized companies with sales teams that already use HubSpot and want to keep it.
• You sell strategy, setup and content around HubSpot, so commission and waived onboarding fees are worth more to you than a branded product.
• You would rather not handle client billing and first-line software support yourself.

In those cases a cheaper tool would cost more in friction than it saves in fees.

How to choose in an afternoon

1. Pick your jobs. If you only need your own pipeline, look at Pipedrive or Zoho CRM. If you need all four jobs, look at GoHighLevel, SuiteDash, Vendasta or WebNewBiz. Email-led agencies should look closely at ActiveCampaign.
2. Price it at your real size. Count seats, clients and contacts for the next 12 months. Price both annual and monthly billing, and add usage fees for SMS, calls and email where they apply.
3. Read the contract. Check minimum terms (Vendasta's white-label plans run 12 months), cancellation rules and how a client's contacts and content can be exported if they leave.
4. Decide who bills and who supports. Reselling means the client pays you and calls you. Check that payments go into your own account and that you can log in as the client to fix things.
5. Test with one real client. Most tools here offer a trial or a cheap first month. Build one client account end to end before moving everyone over.

If you run a marketing agency, our roundup of the best CRM for marketing agencies looks at the same question from the marketing side.

Quick answers

What is the best HubSpot alternative for agencies?

It depends on the job. GoHighLevel suits marketing agencies that sell funnels and SMS as their own software. SuiteDash suits service agencies that want a branded client portal at a flat price. Pipedrive or Zoho CRM suit an agency's own sales pipeline. WebNewBiz suits agencies that sell websites and want the CRM in the same branded client account.

Can an agency white-label HubSpot?

HubSpot does not advertise a white-label option. Its Solutions Partner programme is built around commission and services: partners earn 20% commission for three years on deals they bring and can waive onboarding fees, but clients use HubSpot under HubSpot's name.

What is the cheapest HubSpot alternative for a small agency?

For your own pipeline, Zoho CRM is free for up to 3 users with paid plans from $14 per user a month, and Pipedrive starts at $14 per seat. For branded client accounts, SuiteDash starts at $19 a month and GoHighLevel at $97 a month.

How much does HubSpot cost an agency?

At the time of writing, Starter seats are $9 a month on annual billing. Sales Hub Professional is $90 per seat a month plus a $1,500 onboarding fee, and Marketing Hub Professional is $800 a month for 3 seats plus a $3,000 onboarding fee. Solutions Partner membership starts at $400 a month or the same in software spend.

How much does WebNewBiz cost for agencies?

White-label agency pricing is not published, so you get a quote by talking to the team. The public plans start at $9 a month, the CRM is included from Growth at $79 a month, and every plan costs $1 for the first month.

Related guides

• HubSpot Solutions Partner Program vs white-label reselling: which should a small agency build on?
• Zoho CRM vs GoHighLevel for agencies
• Vendasta vs HubSpot for agencies: an honest comparison

Where to go from here

If you build websites for clients and want to resell them with a CRM under your own name, the most useful next step is to talk to us about white-label. Agency pricing is not published, so a short conversation about your client numbers is how you get real figures, and there is no pressure to sign anything.

If you would rather see the product first, read how our AI website builder works, or try the free AI Website Preview, which designs a homepage from one sentence. You can also start for $1 on a standard plan and build a test client site yourself.