HubSpot is hired to hold contacts and deals and to run marketing and sales steps on top of them. Of the lines in this section it is among the hardest to leave, because it can be the system revenue runs on. Below: the published plans, the replacement we verified, and a careful order of work.
A CRM is where the history lives. Every call note, deal stage and email thread is there, and the team has learned its screens. The cost of leaving is people relearning, and the data's shape.
Plans also grow in layers: seats, additional hubs, add-ons. Each looks small when bought and the sum is what the books show.
The system also tends to touch everything: website forms, email, reporting. That is the real lock-in, and it is why we start by listing what connects to it.
Only alternatives we have checked. An open-source project is listed with the license its repository reports, on the date shown; one whose license could not be read as a single standard id is not offered as open source. Read the license guide before running any of them.
| Alternative | Kind | License | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| EspoCRM | Open source | AGPL-3.0 | EspoCRM repositoryChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
Each feature below is what the product's own page or README says, linked to where we read it on the date shown. Pros and cons are limited to what those pages state and to what the path itself changes. We do not rank products on quality.
| Plan | Price as published | Includes | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot Free tools | $0 per month | Up to 2 users; 1,000 contacts and 1,000 records across other standard object types | HubSpot CRM pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| HubSpot Starter | Starts at $7 per month per seat | Priced per seat; billing period not stated on the page | HubSpot CRM pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
List prices as printed on the vendor's page on the checked date, in US dollars and excluding tax. The page did not say which billing period the Starter figure reflects, and a limited-time offer for new customers is left out. Prices may differ at checkout.
A CRM is the record of who you sell to, and often the system a revenue process runs on. That is why we rate this one as hard: moving it is a project, with a pilot and a parallel run, not a switch.
The cheapest first step is often a smaller plan or fewer seats. A move to self-hosted software only makes sense once you know which fields and views the team uses and which they never open.
Samples are made up and are not HubSpot's prices. Type in the figures from your own invoice or order form.
The honest yearly cost of running open-source software yourself, set against the bill it replaces, with the seat count where it stops paying.
Paid seats against seats in use: what the idle ones cost a year, and what you save by right-sizing at renewal.
Arithmetic only, not tax, accounting or legal advice. Check the figures against your own order form.
Treat it as a project: a pilot on a copy, a parallel run, then a cutover with a rollback.
List the objects in use (contacts, companies, deals, tickets), the custom fields, the lists and views people open, and every integration and form that writes in.
Mark which fields the team uses. Fields nobody has filled in for a year rarely need to move.
Export a copy and import it into a test instance. Check record counts per object, a sample of deals end to end and the links between contacts and companies.
Carry unsubscribed and do-not-contact flags with each contact and confirm they hold in the new system.
Rebuild only the sequences and automations that are in daily use. Repoint website forms and test each one with a real submission.
Run both for a short period with one team on the new system, then freeze edits in the old one, take a final export and cut over.
Keep the final export, end the subscription inside the notice window and keep the confirmation.
Run the vendor report for QuickBooks Online or Xero, then open the free audit.
General information, not legal advice. See cancelling without penalties. Last reviewed Oct 25, 2026. Product names belong to their owners and are used only to identify them.
Send us the export and see which lines are worth a second look. A connected version is planned. HubSpot is one of the lines worth a look.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
| Self-hosting, per year | Amount |
|---|---|
| Hosting, backups, tooling | 720.00 |
| Admin and restore-test time | 2,640.00 |
| Total | 3,360.00 |
| One-off set-up (not in the yearly total) | 1,200.00 |
The saving holds only if the time is real. Price the admin hours at what that person's time costs the company, not at zero.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
“In use” is your call: last sign-in in the past 30 or 90 days from the vendor's admin report. A seat for someone on leave is not idle.