Affinity vs HubSpot (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, we pick HubSpot: it is first in our ranking of CRM tools, and it grades higher too, 3.2 against 1.6.
Checked Oct 4, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
HubSpot grades higher on value for money, the free plan, features and ease of use. They get the same grade on platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Affinity
Relationship-intelligence CRM for investment and deal teams
HubSpot
Free CRM at the center of a marketing, sales and service suite
Which one is for you
Pick Affinity if
- Fits if you run an investment or advisory firm and track relationships across a team
- Works for teams that want contacts logged from email automatically
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you are small: $2,000 per user a year is the floor
- Skip it if you want a free try, because none is listed
- Watch out: Notetaker, AI Chat and the MCP server start on Scale at $2,300; enrichment on Advanced
- Watch out: API calls are capped at 100,000 a month on Scale and Advanced, and extra seats and implementation are add-ons
Pick HubSpot if
- Fits if there are one or two of you with under 1,000 contacts and you want to pay nothing
- Works for teams that want sales, marketing and support on the same customer record
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you're past 1,000 contacts or 2 users and won't pay, because that's where free stops
- Pricey if you need sequences and custom workflows: Sales Hub Professional is $90 a seat plus $1,500 up front
- Not for you if you want one plain price: it's bundles, hubs, seat types and credits that don't roll over
- Watch out: the $7 Starter offer is for new customers against a $20 list price, and another page says from $15
- Tight if you sell on the road, as reviewers say the phone app does less than the website and there's no desktop app
How we grade them
| 1.6GPAAffinityWeak | 3.2GPAHubSpotVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | D$2,000 per user a year is about $167 a month, well above the $99 where the dearest tenth of CRM tools starts and the $25 middle. | CStarter lists at $20 a seat, mid-pack for the CRMs here, and new customers get it from $7. Then it jumps: Sales Hub Professional is $90 a seat plus a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee, when Zoho CRM starts at $14 a user. Mid-priced at the bottom, dear at the top. |
| Free plan and trial | FNo free plan and no trial are listed on the pricing page, which sells every tier through sales. | BFree with no end date for 2 users and 1,000 contacts, with deal pipelines, email tracking, live chat, a meeting link and dashboards. But 1,000 contacts is a wall you'll hit, and HubSpot's logo sits on your chat and marketing emails. |
| Features | CAutomatic activity capture, relationship intelligence, deal pipelines, AI Chat, enrichment and an API. The listing's gap: Notetaker, AI Chat and the MCP server start on Scale, and enrichment on Advanced. | AThe CRM job, then marketing, service and content tools all reading from the same customer record; no other CRM here covers all four. Email tracking, calling, workflows, dashboards, an AI assistant and more than 2,000 integrations. Much of it is locked to paid tiers. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. Connecting email, calendar and data sources is part of rolling it out. | A4.7 from about 15,700 App Store ratings, the highest score among the CRMs here with that many ratings. It runs in a browser with nothing to install, and adding a contact fills in the company details for you. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb plus browser extension, with Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Zoom, Teams and Salesforce connections and an API. | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with a Chrome extension for Gmail and an add-in for Outlook, but no desktop app. More than 2,000 integrations and an API, the longest list in this category. |
| Best for | relationship intelligence for investment teams | small businesses starting with a free CRM |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Affinity and HubSpot. How we grade
Price against what you get
Affinity starts at $166.67 a month when paid by the year for each person and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. HubSpot starts at $20 a month for each person and scores 3.7.
HubSpot scores higher and starts $146.67 a month lower. Of the other CRM tools on the chart, 39 score higher than Affinity for less, and none scores higher than HubSpot for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Affinity also covers meeting notes, AI agents and reports.
- HubSpot also covers booking links, marketing automation and workflow automation.
At a glance
| Affinity | HubSpot | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free plan |
| Starts at | $2,000 per user / year, billed annually | $20 per seat / month for Starter (new customers: from $7, billed annually) |
| Free plan | None | Free tools for up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts with no expiry date: contact management, deal pipelines, tasks, email tracking, live chat, a meeting link and reporting dashboards. Live chat and marketing emails carry HubSpot branding. |
| Free trial | None listed | 14-day free trial of HubSpot's paid sales tools; the free tools themselves do not expire |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Affinity | HubSpot, Inc. |
| Price read from | affinity.co | hubspot.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 4, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Affinity
- Every tier is quoted through sales, and the page lists no free plan or trial.
- Notetaker, AI Chat, Ascend agents and the MCP server start on Scale; enrichment and automations start on Advanced.
- API calls, including MCP queries, are capped at 100,000 a month on Scale and Advanced; Enterprise is unlimited.
- Collaborator and sync-only seats, and dedicated implementation support, are add-ons.
HubSpot
- The free tools stop at 2 users and 1,000 contacts, and free live chat and marketing emails carry HubSpot branding.
- Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise each require a one-time onboarding fee ($1,500 and $3,500) on top of the seat price.
- Paid tiers are split across a Starter bundle, Smart CRM and separate hubs, so the total depends on which products and how many seats you buy.
- The $7 Starter price is a limited-time offer for new customers against a $20 list price, and HubSpot's CRM product page shows a different new-customer price, from $15 per seat.
Key features
Affinity
- Automatic activity capture
- Email and calendar sync creates records and logs interactions without manual entry, with sync policies set by admins at team level.
- Relationship intelligence
- A relationship graph and strength score show the warmest path to any contact, and Scale adds inferred connections beyond direct email history.
- Deal pipeline management
- Pipelines with unlimited smart lists for people, organizations and opportunities, plus reporting and analytics.
- AI Chat, Notetaker and Ascend
- Scale and above include conversational access to the pipeline, meeting capture and follow-up, and agents built for private capital.
- Data enrichment
- Affinity's own enrichment is in every plan. Advanced adds PitchBook, Dealroom and Crunchbase data, and PitchBook needs its own subscription.
- Hosted MCP server and API
- The MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants use Affinity data, and API access is capped at 100,000 calls a month below Enterprise.
HubSpot
- Free CRM tools
- Contact management, deal pipelines, task and activity tracking, CRM import and reporting dashboards are free for up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts, with no expiry date.
- Sales email and meeting tools
- Email tracking, templates and a meeting scheduler work inside HubSpot or from the inbox, through a Chrome extension for Gmail and an Office 365 add-in for Outlook.
- Workflows and sales automation
- Workflows automate follow-ups and record updates. Sales Hub Professional allows up to 300 fully customizable workflows; lower tiers have fewer triggers and actions.
- Breeze AI and HubSpot Credits
- Breeze Assistant answers questions from CRM data, and agents run on HubSpot Credits. Paid tiers include 500, 3,000 or 5,000 credits a month, and unused credits do not roll over.
- Calling and conversation tools
- Calls can be placed and logged from the CRM, with a monthly allowance of calling minutes that grows by tier. Sales Hub Professional adds call transcription and playbooks.
- Connected hubs and integrations
- The CRM shares one customer database with HubSpot's marketing, service, content and data hubs, and HubSpot lists more than 2,000 integrations.
Plans
Affinity
Essential$2,000
per user / year, billed annually
Automatic email and calendar capture, relationship scoring, firmwide interaction history, deal pipeline tracking and Affinity Labs early access. Sold through sales.
Scale$2,300
per user / year, billed annually
Everything in Essential, plus Notetaker, AI Chat, Ascend agents, the hosted MCP server and inferred network connections. 100,000 API calls a month.
Advanced$2,700
per user / year, billed annually
Everything in Scale, plus enrichment from PitchBook, Dealroom and Crunchbase, company growth insights, packaged integrations and workflow automations.
EnterpriseCustom
Everything in Advanced, plus fund-level permissions, enterprise SSO, custom data retention and unlimited API access.
HubSpot
Free Tools$0
Up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts, with contact management, deal pipelines, live chat and reporting dashboards. No credit card required.
Starter$20
per seat / month; new customers from $7, billed annually
A bundle of the Starter editions of the marketing, sales, service, content and data hubs. Removes HubSpot branding and includes 500 HubSpot Credits.
Smart CRM Professional$45
per seat / month, annual commitment ($50 billed monthly)
CRM-only tier with up to 100 pipelines, 100 custom reports, 75 dashboards and 3,000 HubSpot Credits.
Smart CRM Enterprise$75
per seat / month
CRM-only tier with up to 350 pipelines, 500 custom reports, 200 calculated properties and 5,000 HubSpot Credits.
Sales Hub Professional$90
per seat / month, annual commitment ($100 billed monthly)
Sales Hub only: up to 300 customizable workflows, call transcription and playbooks. A one-time $1,500 onboarding fee is required.
Sales Hub Enterprise$150
per seat / month
Sales Hub only: adds forecasting across team hierarchies and more advanced automation. A one-time $3,500 onboarding fee is required.
Ways to pay less
Affinity
No public discounts listed.
HubSpot
- Other savings
New-customer Starter offer: from $7 per seat
For a limited time, new customers pay $7 per seat a month billed annually, or $10 billed monthly, instead of the $20 list price for Starter. HubSpot gives no end date.
- Annual discount
Lower seat price with an annual commitment
Sales Hub Professional is $90 per seat a month on an annual commitment versus $100 paid monthly. Smart CRM Professional is $45 versus $50.
- Startups
HubSpot for Startups: up to 90% off
Startups with pre-seed to Series A funding can get 90% off in year one, 50% in year two and 25% in year three. Others tied to an approved partner get 30%, then 15%. Professional and Enterprise products only.
- Nonprofit
40% off for eligible nonprofits
New customers registered as nonprofits in North America, Australia or New Zealand get 40% off Professional and Enterprise products on a one-year contract. Starter is excluded.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Affinity or HubSpot?
As of Nov 12, 2026, HubSpot is cheaper to start with: $20 a month for each person, against $166.67 a month when paid by the year for each person for Affinity. Affinity starts at $2,000 per user / year, billed annually, and HubSpot starts at $20 per seat / month for Starter (new customers: from $7, billed annually).
Which has a free plan, Affinity or HubSpot?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only HubSpot has a free plan. Affinity does not.
Which platforms do Affinity and HubSpot run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only HubSpot lists iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app and a browser extension. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.