Is free really free?

[KCelecia]

I use HubSpot for my W2 job and I have a side business where I'd like to use the CRM. I see that there is a free version. What are the "gotchas" Is free really free? When does free become a monthly bill?

Thanks Ken

[TomM2 · Accepted solution]

It's definitely free, but free-mium. So you'll see a lot of limitations with the free version, it's great for a growing business though. Some of the main limitations I've seen with users coming into the free version are: 

• Limited styling options for emails, forms, CMS assets etc. 
• Limited to 10 custom contact properties (fields).
• No real automation
• Limited in sales tools (such as meetings). 

The pricing is pretty fair in my opinion, you don't have to go from free to thousands a month like a lot of other CRM/Automation tools, you can start out with a starter account which is about €20-40 a month. 

[TomM2 · Accepted solution]

Hey @MariaAlvarez I would generally advise opening a new post with a new question like this, as it could be likely responding to an older post might get missed. 

But to answer your question, yes you can use your own domain for your website, even with HubSpot free. You'll just need to follow this guide to connect your domain to HubSpot so you can publish your site on it. 

[Upstart]

I have been a HubSpot user for nearly ten years. During that time I have experienced a constant issue with my (and my users') inbox disconnecting. Every time it happens, HubSpot blames my email host and they blame HubSpot. I spend tens of hours with customer support and am unable to work. This latest episode, last week, went from Sunday to Sunday. HubSpot's new thing is to make the user send a HAR file, which is time consuming and a pain in the **bleep**. It didn't do any good. The customer support is virtually non-existent and no one knows why this happens. I use two other CRM's for other businesses and the inboxes NEVER have disconnected once. With HubSpot it is a constant worry. How they cannot figure this out is beyond me but I have gone from being HubSpot's biggest fan to ready to leave to a new system.

[Upstart]

So, now, due to greed, HubSpot has changed it's FREE FOREVER plan to ensure that the free plan is useless. A new user can no longer send and receive emails through the system (connect inbox) unless they are on a paid plan. That is the MAIN FUNCTIONALITY of a CRM! This is short-sighted and, again, greedy. My model was to hire new users, start them on the free plan, then after they reached a certain level, graduate them to paid. For me to have to pay for every new user, many of whom are part-time, is not going to work for me. I have gone from being a HubSpot evangelist to ready to pack my bags and leave.

[Upstart]

The free version used to be a great deal. I used a hybrid paid/free model for years where I would pay for my core seat and one other, but then bring in new users on the free plan and as they grew, gradually add more paying users. Now they have made the free plan useless (no email templates, no sending/receiving of emails through the system and other limitations such as number of contacts). It is frankly greedy and short-sighted. I had big plans to use the system in 2025 and now can no longer do so.

[TomM2]

Hey @Upstart you should get up to 5 sales email templates with free, and you can still send sales emails from the HubSpot UI. 

You can also get up to 2000 marketing email sends per month on free accounts. 

Are you seeing those features blocked off on your free account? 

[Upstart]

1. I have no idea what UI is. We want to connect the inbox and send and
receive so that activity is recorded, we can respond to client emails
directly through the system, etc. Can't do that anymore. Terrible.
2. Limited to 200 contacts? I have new users adding 200 in a couple of days.
3. We don't want to send marketing emails. We want to send direct,
one-on-one emails and establish relationships with clients.

Again, the original model was so much smarter because it allowed us to
add users without upfront cost and then "graduate" them into paying
seats. We cannot do that anymore. And, yes, technically you can say it
is "free forever" but when you change the definition of "free" so
drastically, it really comes across as a complete lie.

[GiantFocal · Accepted solution]

The free version is completely free and does not limit the data storage, allowing you to save up to 1,000,000 contacts. However, it has some limitations compared to the paid subscription.

Here are the specific key feature limitations that apply to the free CRM:

• 1 shared inbox
• List segmentation: 10 active lists and 1,000 static lists
• 1 automated email automation
• Limited form feature with no custom styling
• Limited to 200 notifications per month
• 1 ticket pipeline if you're using the ticketing system
• 10 custom properties in total (used in forms)
• Up to 5 email canned snippets
• Up to 3 dashboards, each with 10 reports per dashboard

If you can operate within these limitations, you can continue using the free CRM.

Best regards,

Abraham @ GiantFocal

[RecoDeDon]

Hi @GiantFocal ,

as you can see the limitations you mentioned with up to 1000000 contacts ("allowing you to save up to 1,000,000 contacts") is wrong. Please check our Screenshot. Maybe I might be wrong. In this case I would be very happy if you let us know how we can increase this limit from 1000 Contacts up to 1000000 Contacts because this was also the reason why we signed up for Hubspot in the first place.

Please if there is any option to have a hubspot account with up to 1 Mio Contacts for free, let us know so we can also open such an account instead. Thanks!

[TomM2 · Accepted solution]

It's definitely free, but free-mium. So you'll see a lot of limitations with the free version, it's great for a growing business though. Some of the main limitations I've seen with users coming into the free version are: 

• Limited styling options for emails, forms, CMS assets etc. 
• Limited to 10 custom contact properties (fields).
• No real automation
• Limited in sales tools (such as meetings). 

The pricing is pretty fair in my opinion, you don't have to go from free to thousands a month like a lot of other CRM/Automation tools, you can start out with a starter account which is about €20-40 a month. 

[kvlschaefer]

Hi @KCelecia,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community! 

It's permanently free, there are just a number of limitations within the free account.

You can find more details about the HubSpot free features here: Start growing today with HubSpot's free tools.

I also wanted to share our pricing catalog which has an overview of the features for each subscription level, including free. 

Hope this helps! 

Best,

Kristen

[MariaAlvarez]

Im going to build a free website with Hubspot,but the people in the chat bot are not helping me with the following question...I own the domain but how it will be displayed in the url once the website is live? this is the free version , so will it show something in the url refering to hubspot? can you please show me a couple of live websites , free version, so I can see the urls? many thanks in advance for your time , Maria

[TomM2 · Accepted solution]

Hey @MariaAlvarez I would generally advise opening a new post with a new question like this, as it could be likely responding to an older post might get missed. 

But to answer your question, yes you can use your own domain for your website, even with HubSpot free. You'll just need to follow this guide to connect your domain to HubSpot so you can publish your site on it.