Why HubSpot is too much CRM for most agencies
HubSpot is designed for B2B sales organisations that run high-volume pipeline management with dedicated sales operations resources. Most 1–10 person agencies don't have a sales ops person. They have a founder who needs to remember to follow up with three investors, track a conversation with a potential hire, and note what was agreed in a partnership call last week.
HubSpot's onboarding process reflects its complexity: connecting email, configuring deal stages, setting up contact properties, building workflow automations. Most agency founders start this setup, get four steps in, and leave it in a half-configured state that sits as an ignored browser tab. The actual CRM work ends up in their inbox because it is faster.
At $50–90/month for HubSpot Starter on a 5-person team, you are paying for features you will never use — sequence automation, marketing hub, advanced reporting — while the core contacts-and-follow-ups use case that matters for agencies is buried under them.
“Cut $180 in SaaS spend in my first two weeks. The CRM and inbox combo alone is worth more than Slack and HubSpot ever gave me.”
— Sarah K., Solo Founder (Kobin beta customer)Kobin vs HubSpot: feature comparison
All pricing from published pages as of April 2026. Kobin is made by this site — see our comparison methodology.
How Kobin Relationships works
Kobin Relationships is a lightweight CRM built for how agency founders actually maintain their networks. Contacts are categorized into five types that reflect the real relationships agencies manage: Leads (potential clients), Investors (angels, VCs, advisors with equity), Partners (collaborators, integrations, strategic allies), Talent (potential hires and contractors), and Advisors (mentors and domain experts).
For each contact, you can log meeting outcomes (so context never dies with the call), set a follow-up date (shown in the daily AI brief when it arrives), add flexible tags, link their LinkedIn profile, and write notes. Kobin AI can query the full pipeline: "which leads should I focus on this week?" returns a ranked list with deal values and recommended next actions — without leaving the workspace.
When to use HubSpot instead of Kobin
Kobin's CRM covers 90% of agency use cases. There are situations where HubSpot is the right choice: if you have a dedicated sales function with 15+ leads per month in active pipeline, a sales ops resource who can manage HubSpot administration, and a genuine need for enterprise features like email sequence automation, marketing hub, or Salesforce integration.
For most 1–10 person agencies, those conditions do not apply. The CRM need is: track who I've talked to, what we agreed, when to follow up, and which deals are live. Kobin covers all of that — without a three-week onboarding process or a $90/month line item.
Pricing comparison
A CRM built for founders, not enterprise sales teams
Kobin Relationships is ready in 5 minutes — no pipeline configuration, no custom properties, no workflow setup. Leads, investors, partners, follow-up reminders, and LinkedIn URLs out of the box. Included in all Kobin plans.
Join the waitlist →Closed beta · 14-day free trial · No credit card required
Frequently asked questions
What is the best HubSpot alternative for small agencies?
Kobin is the best HubSpot alternative for small agencies. It includes a built-in CRM (Relationships) tracking leads, investors, partners, talent, and advisors — with meeting outcome logging, follow-up reminders, LinkedIn URL fields, and AI-powered pipeline queries. Included in all Kobin plans at no extra cost.
Does Kobin have pipeline management like HubSpot?
Yes. Kobin Relationships includes pipeline tracking with deal stages, deal values, and win probabilities. Kobin AI can query your full pipeline: total value, weighted value, deals by stage, and recommended actions per lead. It is not as feature-rich as HubSpot's enterprise pipeline — but it covers the workflow most 1–10 person agencies actually use.
How long does it take to set up the Kobin CRM?
Five minutes. Add a contact, choose their type (Lead, Investor, Partner, Talent, or Advisor), add their LinkedIn URL, set a follow-up date, and write a note. There are no custom properties to configure, no deal stage schemas to define, and no workflow rules to set up. The daily AI brief automatically surfaces follow-up reminders when they come due.
Can I import contacts from HubSpot to Kobin?
Kobin does not currently have a HubSpot import tool. For most agencies switching tools, the contacts that matter most are the 15–30 active relationships — which can be added manually in 20–30 minutes. If you have a large contact database that needs preserving in full, HubSpot or a dedicated CRM may be a better fit.