Short answer: The best HubSpot alternative for a UK small business that takes calls, books visits and sends invoices is a service CRM priced per business in pounds. Unavoidable CRM costs £29 a month with an AI receptionist, jobs, quotes and invoices included. HubSpot remains stronger for marketing-led teams.
HubSpot is an excellent product, and plenty of small firms start on its free tools. The question usually comes later, when you notice that the phone still rings out while you are on a job, that jobs and invoices live in another app, and that each new user adds another seat to the bill. This guide sets out the differences fairly, using each company’s own published information, checked on 22 October 2026.
Most people looking for a HubSpot alternative are not unhappy with HubSpot itself. They have found that it was built for a different kind of business.
| Unavoidable CRM | HubSpot | |
|---|---|---|
| Free option | 14-day free trial, every feature, no card | Free tools for up to 2 users, no card |
| Entry paid plan | Solo £29 a month per business, 1 user, 1,000 contacts | Starter Customer Platform listed at $20 a seat a month, with a limited-time new-customer offer from $10 monthly or $7 a month billed annually |
| Small team | Team £149 a month, 5 users, 10,000 contacts | Charged per seat, so five people means five seats |
| Currency shown | Pounds sterling | US dollars on the pages we read |
| Features by plan | Every feature on every plan | More features on Professional and Enterprise, priced separately |
| Contract | Monthly, cancel any time; 20% off yearly | Pay monthly or pay annually options on Starter |
HubSpot figures are from HubSpot’s pricing page and its Starter product page, read on 22 October 2026. Unavoidable CRM figures are from our pricing page on the same day. HubSpot changes its offers often, so check the live page before you decide.
A service business needs the phone answered and the job run, from first call to paid invoice, in one place. That is the gap most owners notice.
To be fair, HubSpot does things we do not try to match. Its email marketing is very strong, especially on higher tiers, and it connects to more than 2,000 apps. If your pipeline is fed by campaigns and content, that matters.
For a team of five, Unavoidable CRM Team is £149 a month with every feature, plus usage at provider cost. On HubSpot, five people need five Starter seats, so the bill is five times the per-seat price shown on the day, and the AI receptionist, jobs and invoicing would still need other tools.
Our usage costs are worth stating plainly, because they sit on top of the plan price. On the pricing page, a UK text costs 4p to 5p to send, AI receptionist time is 10p to 15p a minute and a UK number is about £2.65 a month. A busy month costs more than a quiet one, but you pay the provider’s price with no markup.
Choose HubSpot if you are a sales or marketing-led team that needs advanced email automation, landing pages, deep reporting or a large integration marketplace. Choose Unavoidable CRM if your work starts with a phone call, involves a visit or appointment and ends with an invoice, and you want one price in pounds that covers the whole team. Our side-by-side HubSpot comparison goes into more detail, and if you are weighing several platforms, see our GoHighLevel alternative guide and how to choose a CRM for a small UK service business.
The simplest test is a real fortnight. Run your actual calls, quotes and invoices through a 14-day trial and count how many enquiries would otherwise have slipped away.
HubSpot has free tools for up to two users with no card needed, according to its own pricing page. Paid features start on the Starter plan, which is charged per seat. The free tools are a fair way to try a CRM, but they do not answer your phone or run jobs.
Yes. Export your contacts from HubSpot as a CSV file and import them into Unavoidable CRM, then check the fields have mapped correctly. A free 15-minute setup call is available if you would like help.
Yes. Solo is £29 a month, Team is £149 a month for five users and Agency is £399 a month, with every feature on every plan. Texts, calls and AI receptionist minutes are paid to the providers at their price, with no markup.
HubSpot is the stronger choice if your growth comes from marketing: email campaigns, landing pages, ads tracking and deep reporting. It also has a very large app marketplace. If most of your work starts with a phone call and ends with an invoice, a service business CRM is usually a closer fit.
More reading: all Unavoidable CRM features, pricing and the rest of the Unavoidable CRM blog.
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