Salesforce vs HubSpot vs Dynamics 365: which CRM to choose
If your sales team needs a CRM, Salesforce, HubSpot and Dynamics 365 are three common alternatives to compare. All three are good; the question is which one your team will use every day.
A CRM manages customer relationships and the sales process: contacts, opportunities, follow-up and sales forecasts. A badly chosen CRM shows when the team is still tracking its customers in spreadsheets.
A disclosure before we continue: Cyrrus doesn't resell licenses or take commissions from any vendor. That's why we can compare without preferences.
What is the difference between Salesforce, HubSpot and Dynamics 365?
Salesforce offers broad functional depth and an extensive ecosystem of apps and specialists, with plans that scale from small teams to large corporations. HubSpot stands out for ease of use and for integrating sales and marketing on the same platform, with a free plan to get started. Dynamics 365 Sales is the natural option for companies that already work in Microsoft 365, given its integration with Outlook, Teams and Excel.
| CRM | Plans and list price | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Salesforce Sales Cloud | Free Suite US$0; Starter Suite US$25; Pro Suite US$100; Core US$195; Advanced US$395; Max US$550 per user/month | From Pro Suite up, annual billing; AI and analytics add-ons are extra |
| HubSpot Sales Hub | Free plan for up to 2 users; Starter, Professional and Enterprise per seat | Professional requires a one-time US$1,500 onboarding and Enterprise US$3,500; HubSpot runs frequent promotions |
| Dynamics 365 Sales | Professional US$65; Enterprise US$105; Premium US$150 per user/month | Annual billing; integrates with Microsoft 365 |
Prices quoted are list prices in US dollars published by each vendor, checked in October 2026. They change often and can vary by country, currency and negotiation.
Choosing a CRM?
We build the evaluation around your real sales process to choose the CRM your sales team will actually use.
- Sales process map and requirements
- Independent comparison, no commissions
When does Salesforce make sense?
It makes sense when the sales process is complex —several business lines, long sales cycles, detailed forecasting, quoting— or when the company expects strong growth and needs a system that scales. Its broad ecosystem makes integrations and specialists easy to find, but cost rises quickly as you move up plans and add add-ons.
When does HubSpot make sense?
It makes sense when the priority is fast team adoption, when sales and marketing must work from the same contact base, or when the company wants to start free and grow in stages. When budgeting, include the mandatory onboarding on the Professional and Enterprise plans.
When does Dynamics 365 Sales make sense?
It makes sense when the company already lives in Microsoft 365 and wants the CRM inside Outlook and Teams, or when it uses Dynamics 365 Business Central as its ERP and wants a single Microsoft platform for sales and operations.
What changes if your company has more than 100 employees?
The question changes: it stops being which tool has the better features and becomes what it costs, and what risk it carries, to run it for five years. At this size, beyond the license you must budget for implementation, integration with the ERP and other systems, customer data quality, and adoption by sales, service and finance. A CRM that doesn't integrate with billing and receivables forces manual reconciliation, and the forecast that reaches the board stops being reliable. Switching CRM later is possible, but it means migrating data, rebuilding integrations and retraining the whole team, so decide with the multi-year total cost on the table. For that calculation, see what it costs to implement an enterprise system and how it compares with the license.
| Your situation | Reasonable starting point | What to validate before deciding |
|---|---|---|
| You already work in Microsoft 365 or use Business Central as your ERP | Dynamics 365 Sales | Real integration with your ERP and consolidated Microsoft licensing |
| Complex sales process: several business lines, quoting, long cycles | Salesforce | Add-on costs, availability of specialists and governance of the configuration |
| Sales and marketing must share one base and fast adoption is the goal | HubSpot | Plan customization limits and cost as users and contacts grow |
| Your current ERP offers no standard integration with any CRM | Define the integration first, then choose the CRM | Who maintains the integration and what happens at each ERP upgrade |
| Limited budget and a need to test before committing | HubSpot (free plan) or Salesforce Starter, in stages | That the pilot uses your real data and process, with real salespeople |
This table is a starting point for the conversation, not a verdict: the right decision depends on your current systems, your sales process and your internal capacity to sustain the change.
Get sales to use it
We support implementation and adoption so the CRM becomes the team's daily tool, not another parallel system.
- Implementation project management
- Role-based training and usage tracking
How do you choose the right CRM?
Start with your sales process, not the tool: how a lead comes in, how it's qualified, how many stages the sale has, what leadership needs to see. With that written down, ask each vendor for a demo using your own data and process, and test the system with two or three real salespeople before deciding. The CRM the team finds useful in the trial is the one it will use.
How we can help
At Cyrrus we run CRM selection around your real sales process, comparing Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics 365 and other alternatives with no vendor commissions. And we support implementation and adoption so the CRM becomes the team's daily tool.
If you're choosing a CRM, request a free diagnostic session with our team.
30 years in strategy and IT: Oracle consultant, IT leader at PepsiCo Latin America, Covidien and Coremar, and founder of Cyrrus in 2017. MBA, Universidad del Norte.
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