HubSpot CRM is the core of HubSpot’s AI-powered customer platform, bringing contact, company, deal, and activity data together in a single, cloud-based system. Launched in 2014 as an extension of HubSpot’s inbound marketing tools, the CRM has grown into the central Smart CRM that powers dedicated hubs for marketing, sales, service, content, data, and commerce. It is designed to be intuitive enough for small teams to adopt quickly while scaling to support sophisticated multi-team go-to-market motions.
HubSpot, Inc. was founded in 2006 by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company focuses on inbound marketing and CRM software and has expanded from its original marketing automation product into a full customer platform used by more than 258,000 companies in over 135 countries. HubSpot reported 8,246 employees in 2024 and operates as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker HUBS.
Within HubSpot’s platform, HubSpot CRM (also referred to as Smart CRM) provides core functionality such as contact and company management, deal and pipeline tracking, tasks, email integration, meeting scheduling, live chat, and reporting. Paid Sales Hub tiers add advanced features like sequences, conversation intelligence, forecasting, custom objects, granular permissions, and revenue reporting. A generous free plan, combined with tiered upgrades and an extensive integration marketplace, makes HubSpot CRM especially attractive to startups, SMBs, and mid-market organizations looking to consolidate tools.
In recent years HubSpot has invested heavily in AI with its Breeze AI agents and Smart CRM enhancements, positioning the platform as an “AI-first customer platform” for scaling companies. Combined with more than 2,000 marketplace integrations, a large partner ecosystem, and free education via HubSpot Academy, HubSpot CRM occupies a strong competitive position against vendors like Salesforce, Zoho, Pipedrive, and Freshsales in the CRM market.