EspoCRM vs HubSpot CRM
Both are alternatives to Salesforce. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as HubSpot CRM vs EspoCRM — same comparison, one verdict.
EspoCRM
TOP PICKA complete CRM that a small team can run without a specialist.
EspoCRM covers what most companies actually use a CRM for: accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, activities, email integration, reporting and a workflow engine, with an entity manager that lets you add custom fields and objects through the interface rather than through code. AGPL-3.0, PHP and MySQL, installs on modest hardware. Around 3.2k stars — a smaller number than the flashier entries here, and a slightly misleading one, because this is a mature product with a long deployment history rather than a new arrival.
HubSpot CRM
Free for unlimited users — the honest hosted answer for small teams.
HubSpot's core CRM is free for unlimited users with unlimited contacts, and for a small sales team that is frequently the right answer rather than a compromise. Contacts, deals, pipeline, email tracking and meeting scheduling all work without payment. Listed here because refusing to name it would be dishonest: a five-person company choosing between a $105,000 Salesforce contract and self-hosting a server very often wants neither. The catch is the upgrade path — Marketing and Sales Hub pricing escalates steeply, and the free CRM is designed to make those adjacent products feel necessary.
Side by side
| EspoCRM | HubSpot CRM | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 90 | 30 |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Local-first | Yes | No |
| License | AGPL-3.0 (core; some extensions are commercial) | Proprietary (hosted service; free core tier) |
| Pricing | Free and open source to self-host. Some advanced extensions are paid. | Core CRM free for unlimited users. Sales, Marketing and Service Hubs are paid and escalate steeply. |
EspoCRM is Macrostack's recommended Salesforce alternative, so it's our pick here.
EspoCRM
Strengths
- +Covers the CRM job most companies actually have, completely
- +Customisable through the UI — no developer needed for fields and objects
- +Light PHP/MySQL stack that runs on a small VPS
- +Mature and stable, with years of production use
Trade-offs
- −Interface is functional rather than beautiful
- −Some advanced extensions are commercial add-ons
- −Nothing resembling AppExchange
- −No CPQ or complex territory management
HubSpot CRM
Strengths
- +Genuinely free for unlimited users on the core CRM
- +Nothing to host, patch or back up
- +Excellent onboarding — a small team is productive in an afternoon
- +Large integration marketplace
Trade-offs
- −Proprietary and hosted; your customer data lives with the vendor
- −The free tier is a funnel — adjacent Hubs escalate sharply in price
- −Export is possible but the surrounding automation does not travel
- −No self-host option at any price
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Facts verified 2026-08-03. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.