HubSpot

Here at WPBeginner, we’re constantly testing tools that promise to make WordPress more powerful. When our readers started asking about HubSpot CRM, I knew it was time for an in-depth review to see how well it works with WordPress websites.

I’ve spent the last several months thoroughly testing HubSpot’s features, integration capabilities, and how well it works with WordPress. During this time, I’ve also compared it with other popular CRM platforms to see how it stacks up against the competition.

In this honest HubSpot review, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about this popular CRM – based on real testing and implementation, not just feature lists.

Whether you run a small blog or manage a large WordPress site, this HubSpot review will help you decide if it’s the right choice for you.

HubSpot Review: Why Use It In WordPress?

HubSpot is a comprehensive CRM app that integrates with all the top email service providers, so you can capture customer data and build your contacts list with ease. If you’re already using popular email marketing platforms, you’ll definitely appreciate this integration.

With HubSpot, you can also collect customer information via forms, chatbots, Facebook Messenger, and more.

This means your sales, marketing, and customer service teams can all follow up on leads effectively, track the user journey, and generally make the customer experience better.

HubSpot CRM also integrates with more than 300 apps and services, including lead generation software like OptinMonster. Because of all this, it’s a great fit for lots of different online businesses, websites, and blogs.

The core HubSpot CRM app is free and includes many powerful tools and features. However, you can remove the HubSpot branding and unlock additional tools by upgrading to the paid CRM Suite Starter plan.

HubSpot Review: The Right CRM Software For You? (My Honest Opinion)

There are a lot of CRM systems out there, but it’s not always easy to find one that’s both user-friendly and has all the features you actually need to grow your business online.

With that being said, in this HubSpot review I’ll share everything I’ve learned about this popular CRM, so you can decide whether it’s the right tool for your WordPress website.

1. Easy to Set up

HubSpot offers a limited free plan, which is great for trying out the app.

After creating my free HubSpot account, I connected their CRM to my WordPress test site using their official HubSpot plugin. The process was straightforward, but you can check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for step-by-step instructions.

Once activated, the plugin adds a handy ‘HubSpot’ menu item right in the WordPress sidebar.

I just clicked it to launch the setup wizard, which walked me through the process of connecting WordPress to my HubSpot account. It couldn’t be easier!

My Honest Review: Getting started with HubSpot is just so easy – and the fact that they have a free plan is a huge win. I particularly appreciated the setup wizard, as it provided clear instructions and helped me get up and running in no time.

2. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your business. In fact, email marketers get an average 4400 percent return on investment (ROI) for businesses in the US – that’s incredible!

That said, HubSpot has everything you need to send targeted messages and email blasts to your contacts.

If you’ve already got a list of contacts, bringing them into HubSpot is super simple. You can just upload it as a CSV, XLS, or XLSX file. I actually tried this myself with my own list, and it was seriously straightforward.

After that, you can create beautiful emails using HubSpot’s user-friendly editor. I found the drag-and-drop interface intuitive and easy to use. 

When you’re happy with how the message looks, you can send it as an email blast, use segmentation to target specific users, or schedule it for a specific date and time.

My Honest Review: HubSpot’s email marketing tools are seriously impressive and very easy to use. The fact that importing your contacts is a breeze, and then creating beautiful emails is just as simple with their editor, makes HubSpot a fantastic choice for businesses of all sizes.

3. Manage and Nurture Leads

By nurturing leads you can push them down the sales funnel and keep them engaged with your business over the long term.

HubSpot helps you manage your leads in several ways. Simply click on any contact’s name to see a record of all your interactions with that person. For example, you can see the customer journey they took before completing a registration form.

From here, you can assign the contact to a team member, send and track emails, create tasks, schedule meetings and conference calls, and more.

The ability to assign contacts to team members is particularly useful for larger teams. Plus, HubSpot will track and record these interactions automatically, so you’ll always see the latest information.

You can also change the contact’s status based on their position in the sales funnel. For example, you can mark the status as lead, potential lead, customer, opportunity, and more. I found this especially useful for helping me visualize the sales pipeline. 

My Honest Review: Being able to track every single interaction you have with a lead and see exactly where they are in the process is a huge time-saver. That said, if you’re looking for a way to make your sales process much smoother and more efficient, then I absolutely recommend checking out HubSpot’s lead management tools.

4. Create Segmented Messages

In my experience, customers and users almost always respond better to targeted messages, compared to general email blasts. To help you convert subscribers into customers, HubSpot lets you segment your contact list based on properties in the HubSpot database.

You can then send targeted messages to these different segments. For example, a blogger might group readers based on the content categories they’re interested in, and then send them updates about those topics.

My Honest Review: HubSpot’s segmentation feature is a seriously a smart way to boost your email marketing. It makes it so easy to send personalized emails to different groups of people. And in my experience, that’s often the key to getting better results and more conversions.

5. Email Automation

Email marketing automation helps you get better results, faster, by sending emails automatically in response to different triggers.

Think about it – you can have an email automatically go out when someone replies to one of your messages, or even when they unsubscribe.

I actually tested these triggers, and they’re super useful for staying connected with your subscribers. For example, imagine if you’re an online course creator – you could send a welcome email as soon as someone joins your email list.

Even better, HubSpot lets you create automated workflows directly in the email editor, so you can use the tools and interface you’re already familiar with. It’s all incredibly intuitive and easy.

My Honest Review: The fact that you can build powerful automated workflows right inside the email editor is a huge win, in my opinion. That said, I definitely recommend digging into HubSpot’s automation options – they have the potential to make a BIG difference to your results.

6. Convenient User Management

Do you need to share your CRM with other team members? Sometimes, you might even need to give temporary access to someone outside your team, like an affiliate marketing partner. Trust me, I’ve been there.

With HubSpot CRM, it’s really easy to add new users, deactivate users who’ve moved on, and remove people from your account altogether.

Plus, you can set up specific access permissions for each user. This means you can control exactly what tools and information they can see and use, which is fantastic for improving your WordPress security.

In fact, these access permissions made me imagine a marketing agency that’s responsible for different client accounts – for that kind of business, having this level of control is absolutely essential.

My Honest Review: HubSpot’s user management features are a must-have for team collaboration and keeping things secure. In my opinion, the ability to easily give and take away access with really specific permissions is something every business needs, and HubSpot delivers.

7. Create High-Converting Forms

You know how important forms are for getting leads and turning website visitors into email subscribers, right? That said, HubSpot lets you create all sorts of forms: ones that stand alone, pop-up forms, forms you can embed right on the page, and even collected forms.

I tried out each type, and they were all really easy to customize to look exactly how I wanted.

What’s really cool is that you can put these forms on your HubSpot pages or even on other websites, like your WordPress blog. To improve the customer experience, you can even send an automated welcome email when someone completes your signup form.

HubSpot also plays nicely with many popular form builder plugins. For example, you can use WPForms HubSpot to send leads from WordPress directly to your HubSpot CRM. If you’re already using WPForms, then you’re going to love this.

My Honest Review: HubSpot’s form creation and integration options are really great. I also like how easily it connects with other WordPress plugins, such as WPForms.

8. Live Chat Widget

With live chat, customers can get instant answers without leaving your website or online marketplace.

And let me tell you, live chat can seriously boost your sales, conversion rates, and overall customer satisfaction. We actually use live chat on all our WPBeginner Pro Service pages, and it’s had a big impact on conversions – I’ve seen it firsthand.

With HubSpot, you can quickly and easily add live chat to your website. 

Now, the free chat widget does have the HubSpot branding, but in my opinion that’s a pretty reasonable trade-off. If you want to add your own branding, then you can go ahead and upgrade to their CRM Suite Starter plan.

Another option is adding a chatbot that will automatically route visitors to the right content or customer support agent, depending on how they interact with the bot.

I tested out the chatbot feature, and it’s super effective for handling those common questions. Just imagine an online store using a chatbot to answer questions about shipping or returns – that could free up so much time for your support team.

My Honest Review: What’s really great about HubSpot’s live chat and chatbot features, is how easy they are to set up.

Plus, they’ve got some clever automation that can really streamline how you handle customer interactions. If you’re looking for ways to offer instant support and even handle common questions automatically, these tools are definitely worth checking out.

9. Facebook Messenger Integration

According to our marketing statistics, Facebook has over 2.9 billion monthly active users. This is a huge potential audience, and we all understand the importance of meeting customers where they are.

That said, Facebook Messenger is an important way to grow your audience and engage with existing customers. 

HubSpot actually integrates with Facebook Messenger, which means you can set up a bot to reply to messages instantly. For example, you might create a bot that greets the user and asks what they need help with.

What’s really handy is that you can manage all your Facebook messages right inside your HubSpot account. No need to jump between different live chat apps or dashboards – everything’s in one place. I found this centralization incredibly convenient.

HubSpot will even capture the person’s contact information automatically and create reports on your Messenger conversations.

I was really impressed with how detailed these reports are. For example, you can see how fast your team is responding, who’s chatting the most, and how many conversations are happening. This kind of data is so valuable for figuring out how to improve your customer service.

My Honest Review: HubSpot’s Facebook Messenger integration is a really powerful way to manage your customer chats and collect some seriously useful information.

10. Convenient Shared Inbox

We all know how tricky it can be to keep track of messages coming in from different places, which is why I’m such a big fan of HubSpot’s shared inbox. Here, you can track and view communications across all your channels including live chat, Facebook Messenger, chatbots, and more.

What’s also super useful is that you can connect your team’s general email addresses to this shared inbox and reply to all those messages right from the same dashboard.

Think about a support team dealing with questions from email, chat, and social media – this centralized inbox would be a total lifesaver for them.

Another clever feature is the ability to turn emails into support tickets. This way, your customer service team never miss an incoming question or support request.

My Honest Review: If you’re looking for a better way to handle all your customer conversations, HubSpot’s shared inbox is seriously worth checking out.

The fact that you can see all your messages in one easy-to-manage place, and even turn those emails into trackable support tickets, can give your customer support team a big advantage over the competition.

11. Create Beautiful Landing Pages

Basically, a landing page is a specific page you create for a particular ad, email, social media post, or marketing campaign. When people click through from those sources, this is the first page they land on (hence the name!)

Now, if you’re running any kind of marketing or advertising campaign, HubSpot has this really easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor that lets you create some great-looking landing pages. If you’re not a design expert, then you’ll really appreciate how simple this is to use.

My Honest Review: HubSpot’s landing page builder is a standout tool. The drag-and-drop is really easy to use, so you can create nice-looking pages without having to write a single line of code. Plus, every landing page automatically looks great on any phone or tablet, so you’ll reach everyone.

12. Supports Multiple Languages

Do you want to appeal to a wider audience?

You can translate content on a HubSpot page into 3 languages. Then, you can add a simple language switcher so your visitors can pick the language they want to read. I tried this out, and it was really easy to use.

Even better, HubSpot groups all those different language versions together in your dashboard, making them much easier to manage. In this way, you can create multilingual content and connect with people all over the world, with ease.

My Honest Review: HubSpot’s multi-language features are a great way to start reaching an international audience, even though it’s limited to 3 languages right now.

13. Website Traffic Analytics

As a website owner, it’s important to monitor how your content is performing. This allows you to identify your top-performing blog posts, landing pages, and other content. With this information, you can plan what to create next and even generate new blog post ideas.

HubSpot CRM lets you really dig into your content performance with detailed filters like bounce rate and average time on page. I find numbers like this super helpful for understanding what my readers actually like.

You can also learn more about your audience by viewing traffic by source, topic, device type, location, and more. For a marketing agency diving into a client’s website traffic, you can just picture how valuable this level of detail would be.

Sometimes you may need to share your data with people who don’t have access to HubSpot CRM. For example, if you run a WordPress development agency then you might need to share information with your clients.

You might even want to take this data and use it in another program, such as a CRM app. The good news is that you can easily export your HubSpot data as a CSV, XLS, or XLSX file. I’ve definitely been in situations where this would have been incredibly useful.

By the way, we have a tutorial on how to setup HubSpot analytics in WordPress if you want step-by-step instructions.

My Honest Review: HubSpot’s analytics and reporting provide a truly comprehensive yet user-friendly way to understand your data.

14. Reports, Analytics, and Tracking

HubSpot provides detailed information on your marketing, sales, and customer service performance. What’s cool is that the HubSpot reporting dashboard is also completely customizable, so you can combine different reports or even hide data you want to keep private.

I found this customization super useful for creating reports that showed exactly what I needed.

HubSpot can also track the actions that users are taking on your website or online store, including the pages they visit, and the forms they submit.

Imagine an online store being able to see precisely what shoppers are putting in their carts. That information is absolutely invaluable for understanding customer interest and boosting sales

You can also identify prospects that are highly engaged and ready to convert.

Going further, you can track which contact responded to each email, and get real time notifications when an email is opened or clicked. This is a great way to focus on the most promising leads and make your outreach more personal.

My Honest Review: The fact that you can customize your dashboard and get notifications in real-time makes HubSpot a seriously powerful tool when it comes to making smart decisions based on real data.

15. SEO Recommendations

If you’re serious about increasing your website traffic, then you absolutely need to work on your SEO. After all, SEO is the key to attracting those free, organic clicks from search engines.

If your content isn’t optimized for SEO, then Google and other search engines won’t know how to show it to people, and you’ll miss out on potential visitors.

What’s great is that HubSpot has a dedicated SEO page where it gives you specific advice on how to optimize your content for search engines.

I tried this out, and the recommendations were really helpful and easy to understand. If you’re just starting out with SEO, then this kind of guidance is invaluable.

HubSpot can even scan all the live pages on your site, including content that’s not even hosted on HubSpot itself. This is a huge bonus if you’re managing more than one website.

You can also get recommendations for a specific page, which is perfect for optimizing your site’s most important pages.

My Honest Review: HubSpot’s SEO recommendations are a really valuable resource for helping you climb those search engine rankings. The fact that it can look at all your pages (even ones not on HubSpot!) and give you specific advice for each page makes it a powerful tool for any website owner.

16. Cookie Tracking Tools

Do you collect or process data relating to individuals in the EU?

GDPR is a EU law that states you must get consent before placing cookies on a visitor’s computer. Instead of using a separate cookie plugin, HubSpot allows you to add cookie banners in WordPress, so you can ask visitors for permission to use cookies.

I tested this out, and it was pretty straightforward to set up. If you have visitors from the EU, this built-in feature is going to be really useful.

HubSpot also lets you create up to 100 different consent banners. Even better, you can set them up with different rules based on where your visitors are coming from, what language they speak, and even choose from different banner designs.

If you decide to upgrade to HubSpot’s paid CRM Suite Starter plan, you can even remove the HubSpot branding from your cookie banners. In my opinion, this gives your banner a much more professional look.

My Honest Review: If you’re looking for an easy way to deal with GDPR cookie consent, HubSpot’s built-in feature is seriously convenient. It just makes handling those regulations so much simpler.

17. Manage Your Online Ads

Do you run Google, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn ads? I know how much time it can take to juggle ads across all those different platforms, and HubSpot actually offers a way to simplify things.

Rather than wasting time switching between all your ad accounts, you can connect them to HubSpot and then manage all your ads from the same location.

HubSpot also supports ad retargeting, so you can show Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn ads to people who have already visited your website, blog, or online marketplace.

Imagine an online store showing ads to people who added items to their cart but didn’t buy – that’s a powerful way to boost sales!

My Honest Review: If you’re dealing with online ads, then HubSpot’s ad management tools can seriously simplify things. Plus, its powerful retargeting capabilities can help you get better results from your campaigns. That’s a win-win, in my opinion.

18. Accept Payments Online

If you upgrade to a paid plan, then you’ll get access to HubSpot’s payment processing tool. This allows you to accept credit card payments online.

For ACH payments, you’ll pay 0.5% of the transaction amount, and a 2.9% fee for card transactions. These rates are pretty competitive with other payment processors out there.

Just be aware this service is only available to US customers who also have a US bank account, and is subject to underwriting approval. Our readers based in the US will definitely want to take note of this.

To make it easier to sell online, you can also create payment links and then add those URLs to your sales pages, social media posts, email newsletters, and more. Imagine a freelancer sending a payment link to a client in an email – it makes getting paid so much simpler!

And if you do accept payments online, you can send and keep track of your invoices right from your HubSpot account. It’s super simple.

My Honest Review: If you’re looking for an integrated payment solution, I definitely recommend checking these features out – especially if you’re in the US and have a US bank account.

19. Android and iOS Mobile Apps

With HubSpot, you can work from any location thanks to the mobile app, which is available for iOS and Android.

You can actually do a lot right from your phone or tablet: view and edit your records, make calls, handle your marketing emails, post on social media, and even check your inbox.

Do you have a remote team or employees who travel a lot? Then I know you’ll definitely appreciate this flexibility.

My Honest Review: I was surprised by how many of HubSpot’s key features you can access right from your phone or tablet. If you’re always on the move or part of a remote team, HubSpot’s mobile app is seriously worth checking out

20. A Ton of Integrations

HubSpot comes packed with a ton of tools to help you capture leads, track contacts, and manage your customer relationships more effectively – I’ve been really impressed with just how much it can do!

But what’s also really cool is that HubSpot plays well with over 100 popular marketing tools, must-have WordPress plugins, and apps. This wide range of integrations is a huge win if you’re already relying on a bunch of different tools.

To get started, you can capture leads even when the user abandons a form, by using HubSpot with WPForms. I tried this out, and it’s a fantastic way to recover leads you might have otherwise lost. If you’re a WPForms user, you’re going to love this (and if you’re not using WPForms, then you can check out our detailed WPForms review for more info).

Even though HubSpot CRM has its own built-in live chat, it also works seamlessly with other popular chat software. For example, you can use LiveChat‘s powerful targeting rules to create more personalized campaigns.

You can even connect HubSpot with business phone services like RingCentral. This integration is ideal if your business relies heavily on phone calls.

My Honest Review: I’m really impressed by how well HubSpot plays with others. Its ability to connect with the tools, plugins, and apps you’re already using makes it incredibly flexible.

HubSpot Review: Community and Professional Support

HubSpot CRM is designed to provide a central dashboard where you can manage all your customer support, sales, and marketing activities.

Personally, I’ve found this central dashboard incredibly helpful for keeping everything organized and making my workflow much smoother. However, we all know that sometimes you just need a little extra guidance or have a specific question you need answering.

That’s where HubSpot’s extensive free online resources come in. You can access them anytime, day or night, and they include a really detailed knowledge base plus comprehensive video tutorials.

I used these quite a bit when writing this detailed HubSpot review and found them to be super helpful.

There’s also a company blog where you’ll find advice and best practices for marketers, such as how to do an SEO audit. If you’re always looking to expand your marketing knowledge, then this blog is a fantastic resource.

Prefer to get one-on-one help directly from the experts? If you upgrade to the CRM Suite Starter plan then you’ll also get access to email and in-app chat support.

Basically, HubSpot’s support resources are top-notch, whether you’re diving into their knowledge base and videos, exploring their blog, or reaching out directly through email or chat as a paid user.

HubSpot Review: Pricing and Plans

If you’re on the hunt for free tools to grow your business, you’ll be happy to know that HubSpot offers a lot of their marketing, sales, and customer support features completely free. I was genuinely impressed with just how much you can get without paying a cent.

However, you can also upgrade to the CRM Suite Starter for $20 per month. This removes the HubSpot branding from your forms, the Facebook Messenger integration, live chat widget, cookie banners, and landing pages.

When you consider the extra features and the option to add your own branding, it’s a pretty reasonable price.

With the free plan, you’re limited to 1 email and 1 form automation. However, the paid plan gives you 10 automated email actions and 10 automated form actions.

Similarly, the free plan lets you create 10 active email lists and 1,000 static lists, while the CRM Suite Starter raises that limit to 100 active lists and 1,000 static lists. In my opinion, having that extra list capacity is essential as you start to scale up your email marketing.

When it comes to email tracking, the CRM Suite Starter plan gives you unlimited email open and click notifications, while the free plan limits you to 200 notifications per month.

I know just how valuable email tracking data is for understanding what’s working, and those unlimited notifications in the paid plan are a major plus. If you rely heavily on email marketing, then you’ll definitely appreciate this.

HubSpot Review: My Honest Opinion (& Firsthand Experience)

After looking at the features, support, and pricing, I’m confident that HubSpot is a really great CRM. What really stands out is their free plan, which includes a ton of advanced features that can seriously optimize every part of your marketing strategy.

I was genuinely impressed with just how much functionality you get without you having to spend a cent. This makes HubSpot CRM a great choice for startups, small business websites, or even bloggers who are looking to start making money online.

However, the CRM Suite Starter removes many of the restrictions placed on the free tool. This makes it a better choice for bigger businesses or any website that has a larger email list. I know how crucial it is to have room to grow, and the Starter plan definitely offers that flexibility.

The CRM Suite Starter also allows you to remove the HubSpot branding from its various tools. With that in mind, I also recommend Suite Starter to anyone who wants to build their personal brand, or businesses looking to make a strong first impression with potential customers.

My honest opinion? Overall, HubSpot CRM is a powerful and versatile platform that offers excellent value. No matter whether you’re on their free plan or decide to go with a paid option, it’s a tool that has the potential to truly help you grow.

FAQs: HubSpot CRM and Its Integration with WordPress

Managing customer relationships effectively is essential for any business, so it’s important to choose the right CRM. 

Still wondering whether HubSpot is the best CRM for your needs? To help you decide, here’s the answers to some frequently asked questions.

What makes HubSpot CRM a good choice for WordPress sites?

HubSpot CRM integrates smoothly with WordPress and also works well with many must have WordPress plugins. In particular, it connects to form builders like WPForms so you can send leads directly to your CRM.

Want to learn more about WPForms? Then head over to our in-depth WPForms review. 

Can I track user activity on my WordPress site with HubSpot?

Yes, HubSpot has advanced analytics so you can monitor user interactions, such as page visits and form submissions. You can then use this insight to improve your customer engagement, optimize your sales funnel, and generally enhance the visitor experience. 

Does HubSpot offer email marketing features that integrate with WordPress?

Yes! HubSpot provides powerful email marketing tools that integrate seamlessly with WordPress. This means you can create targeted emails and automate your communication, which can have a big impact on your results.  

Is HubSpot free, or do I need to pay for its features?

HubSpot offers a free CRM that includes a range of features suitable for small businesses and bloggers. However, upgrading to a paid plan unlocks more advanced tools and removes the HubSpot branding.

How does HubSpot handle GDPR compliance with WordPress?

HubSpot provides tools to manage GDPR compliance, such as cookie tracking and consent banners. This helps you to collect and manage user data responsibly.

I hope this HubSpot review helped you decide whether it’s the right CRM software for you. You can also check out our guide on how to create an email newsletter, or see our expert pick of the best web push notification software.

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