HubSpot vs Instantly

When it comes to email outreach and customer relationship management, choosing the right tool can make all the difference. HubSpot and Instantly are two popular platforms that serve different purposes but share a common goal: helping businesses connect with leads and grow. HubSpot is a robust CRM that offers a full suite of sales, marketing, and customer service tools, while Instantly is designed specifically for cold email outreach and lead generation. In this blog, we'll compare HubSpot and Instantly to help you decide which platform best suits your business needs, whether you're seeking a comprehensive CRM or a focused email outreach tool. Additionally, we'll introduce folk, a popular alternative, offering unique advantages with its all-in-one nature.

What is HubSpot?

HubSpot CRM is a user-friendly, scalable platform offering integrated tools for managing sales, marketing, customer service, and operations efficiently.

Key features of HubSpot

• Marketing hub: Includes email marketing, ad tracking, landing pages, and lead generation tools.
• Sales hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting.
• Service hub: Offers customer service tools like ticketing, live chat, and knowledge bases.
• Operations hub: Syncs and automates business processes across different systems.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize leads with predictive scoring to improve sales efficiency.
  

What is Instantly?

Instantly is a newer player in the market that focuses on automation and email outreach, helping teams send high-volume personalized emails and track responses. Instantly CRM is geared more toward businesses looking to maximize lead generation and email outreach campaigns, often used by outbound sales teams and marketers.

Key features of Instantly

• Email outreach automation: One of Instantly’s standout features is the ability to automate and send thousands of personalized cold emails at scale.
• Advanced email warm-up: Instantly ensures that your emails land in inboxes rather than spam by providing email warming and reputation management tools.
• AI-based insights: Use AI-powered analytics to gain insights into the success of your outreach and optimize future campaigns.
• Multi-account management: Run multiple email accounts and campaigns seamlessly from one dashboard.
• Performance tracking: Track open rates, click rates, and other key metrics to measure campaign performance in real time.
• Integrations: Instantly CRM integrates with tools like Zapier, Google Sheets, and other productivity apps to help streamline workflows.

HubSpot vs. Instantly: Feature Comparison

Let's break down the key features of two CRM software solutions and take a closer look at their sales automation, email marketing tools, and contact management.

1. Sales pipeline management

HubSpot's pipeline management feature provides a visual overview of deals, allowing users to track the progress of sales opportunities, customize stages, and automate tasks for a more efficient sales process. Instantly doesn't have a clear kanban of all your deals. You can view your leads' status with the email campaigns, and there isn't a clear pipeline management view.

2. Ease of use

HubSpot is known for its intuitive interface, making it user-friendly for businesses of all sizes. Instantly, on the other hand, focuses on simplicity in its cold outreach features, which may appeal to users seeking straightforward, efficient email marketing solutions.

3. Contact enrichment

HubSpot's Breeze Intelligence enriches contact data by auto-filling known information, simplifying data collection. This feature streamlines user interactions and enhances data accuracy, making it a robust tool for marketers looking to optimize lead management.

4. Outreach

HubSpot offers a flexible email marketing tool with drag-and-drop design, A/B testing, and personalization features. Instantly excels in cold outreach, supporting unlimited email addresses and rotation for high deliverability, ideal for large-scale campaigns with detailed performance tracking.

5. Automation

HubSpot provides comprehensive automation across marketing, sales, and service, automating lead nurturing and email campaigns. Instantly specializes in automating email outreach, with personalized bulk emails and adaptive follow-ups based on engagement, optimizing campaign effectiveness.

6. Integration

HubSpot's App Marketplace boasts over 1,500 integrations, ensuring seamless connectivity with various tools. Instantly integrates through Zapier, connecting with essential productivity and marketing apps, although this feature is exclusive to their Hypergrowth plan.

7. Artificial Intelligence

HubSpot leverages AI for tasks like lead scoring and email personalization, enhancing sales and marketing efficiency. Instantly uses AI to optimize email outreach, adjusting campaigns based on engagement metrics for improved targeting and results.

Price and plans comparison

Let's take a closer look at the price and plans of both HubSpot and Instantly.

HubSpot prices

Prices and plans for the sales hub on an annual subscription are as follows.

• Starter: $20 per user, per month.
• Professional: $100 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $150 per user, per month.

Instantly prices

Instantly offers a few types of plans depending on whether or not you're after its CRM product, leads generator, or outreach campaign product. Their CRM price plan comes as either a monthly or annual subscription. Their yearly subscription plan is as follows.

• Growth CRM: Starts from $37.90 per user, per month.
• Hyper CRM: Starts from $77.60 per user, per month.

Introducing folk CRM: the best alternative to HubSpot and Instantly

Looking for an affordable alternative? We recommend folk. There is a reason why folk is a multiple award-winning CRM platform loved for its easy-to-use, plug-and-play CRM system.

Key features

• Ease of use and customization: Easily customize the pipelines, dashboards, automation, email sequences, so that you can use it across your sales cycle and pipeline management – and other business functions such as recruitment, marketing, and more.
• Social media integration: Import people and companies from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, and X within a click thanks to folk’s Google Chrome extension.
• Contact sync from Gmail and Outlook: Full email sync enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• Find email addresses in a click: Contact enrichment powered by Apollo, and Dropcontact so you can fill in missing data points with 1-click.
• Email sequences: Send email sequences with reminders if your leads don’t reply to your first emails. It includes an AI integration allowing you to personalize email at scale.

Price and plans

folk has a 14-day free trial. After that, there are affordable monthly or annual subscription plans. The annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $80 per user, per month.

HubSpot vs. Instantly: What's the verdict?

Both HubSpot and Instantly offer robust features tailored to different business needs. HubSpot excels in providing a comprehensive suite for marketing, sales, and customer service, ideal for businesses looking for an all-in-one platform. Instantly, on the other hand, shines with its focus on email outreach and automation, perfect for teams prioritizing lead generation through email campaigns. However, for companies seeking a more personalized approach to relationship management, folk offers a flexible alternative, blending ease of use with customization. Try folk today, free.