HighLevel vs. HubSpot: Which is Better?

If you’re choosing a CRM and marketing automation platform for a startup or growing business, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered both HighLevel and HubSpot.

At first glance, HighLevel can be incredibly attractive. It combines CRM, email marketing, SMS, automation, landing pages, calendars, pipelines, reputation management and other capabilities into one platform. For marketing agencies in particular, HighLevel offers another compelling feature: the ability to package and resell the platform under the agency’s own brand.

HubSpot takes a somewhat different approach. While it also combines CRM, marketing, sales, service, content and automation capabilities, HubSpot is generally designed around the idea that the business itself owns and operates its customer platform.

Neither approach is inherently better.

The more important question is:

Which platform fits the business you’re building—not just the business you have today?

What is HighLevel?

HighLevel is an all-in-one sales and marketing platform originally built with marketing agencies in mind.

It brings together tools that a small business might otherwise purchase from several vendors, including CRM, marketing automation, email, SMS, appointment scheduling, forms, funnels, websites, sales pipelines and reputation management.

That consolidation can be a major advantage.

A small service business, for example, could potentially manage much of its customer acquisition process inside HighLevel:

Ad → Landing Page → Form → Automated Text → Appointment → Sales Pipeline → Follow-Up → Customer

For businesses with relatively straightforward sales processes, that can be both powerful and cost effective.

HighLevel has also grown considerably. The company reports exceeding 60,000 customers in 2023 and managing billions of leads through the platform by 2024.

What is HubSpot?

HubSpot is a customer platform built around its CRM.

Its products extend across marketing, sales, customer service, content, commerce, data management and automation.

HubSpot reports more than 299,000 customers across more than 135 countries as of 2026.

For smaller businesses, HubSpot can start relatively simply. But one of its biggest advantages is the ability to support increasingly sophisticated business processes as an organization grows.

A company might begin by using HubSpot for contacts, forms and email marketing, then eventually add sales pipelines, lead scoring, automation, customer service, attribution, custom objects, advanced reporting and integrations with other business systems.

That scalability is one of the major differences to consider when comparing HubSpot and HighLevel.

HighLevel Pros and Cons

Advantages of HighLevel

1. A lot of functionality in one platform

HighLevel can potentially replace several individual marketing and sales tools. That can simplify the technology stack and reduce software expenses.

2. Strong lead-generation automation

HighLevel is particularly well suited to businesses where the primary objective is generating inquiries and converting them into appointments.

3. SMS and communications capabilities

For businesses that rely heavily on text messaging, phone calls and rapid lead follow-up, HighLevel offers compelling functionality.

4. Agency-friendly architecture

HighLevel was built heavily around agencies managing multiple clients. Agencies can create separate sub-accounts and deploy repeatable systems across those accounts.

5. White-label capabilities

Agencies can package HighLevel as their own software product, including offering recurring SaaS plans to clients.

Potential disadvantages of HighLevel

1. Your technology may become closely tied to your agency

This is especially important when using a white-labeled HighLevel implementation.

The business may not simply be hiring an agency to manage marketing. The agency may also be providing the underlying system responsible for customer records, automation, forms, calendars, pipelines and communications.

That relationship can create significant switching costs.

2. Complex organizations may eventually need more sophisticated CRM architecture

HighLevel can support substantial automation, but growing organizations often develop requirements involving multiple departments, complex permissions, sophisticated reporting, custom data models, integrations and revenue operations processes.

At some point, the question becomes less about marketing automation and more about managing customer data across the organization.

3. Migration deserves consideration before implementation

HighLevel does provide mechanisms for transferring sub-accounts between agencies. However, HighLevel's own documentation notes that not everything transfers automatically. Certain authentication connections, advertising integrations, Stripe settings, email infrastructure and other configurations may need to be reconnected or rebuilt.

Moving from HighLevel to an entirely different CRM introduces another layer of complexity.

HubSpot Pros and Cons

Advantages of HubSpot

1. The CRM can grow with the organization

HubSpot can serve a small company while also supporting much more sophisticated sales, marketing and service operations later.

2. Stronger cross-functional capabilities

Marketing, Sales, Customer Service and Operations teams can work from the same customer data rather than treating the CRM primarily as a lead-generation tool.

3. Extensive integration ecosystem

HubSpot connects with a large ecosystem of third-party business applications.

4. Sophisticated automation and reporting

As companies mature, capabilities such as lifecycle management, lead scoring, attribution, custom reporting and data automation become increasingly valuable.

5. The business typically owns the platform

A marketing agency or consultant can be given access to HubSpot without becoming the provider of the underlying CRM itself.

Potential disadvantages of HubSpot

1. Costs can increase substantially

HubSpot can become expensive as businesses add contacts, users and higher product tiers.

2. The platform can be more than a small business needs

A five-person company with a simple appointment-driven sales process may not need the sophistication HubSpot can eventually provide.

3. Poor implementation can still create a mess

Buying HubSpot does not automatically create good revenue operations.

Bad lifecycle definitions, unnecessary properties, poorly designed workflows, inconsistent pipelines and unreliable reporting can make an expensive CRM frustrating to use.

The White-Label Question Businesses Should Ask

If your agency is offering you an all inclusive CRM and Marketing Automation Platform (MAP), find out what's powering their back-end. Is it custom built? There's a good chance your agency may be white-labeling HighLevel.

HighLevel's white-label functionality is one of its most interesting advantages for agencies.

It can also be one of the most important considerations for their clients.

Imagine hiring a marketing agency that provides you with its own branded "growth platform."

Over time, that platform begins managing your:

• Customer database
• Sales opportunities
• Email automation
• SMS communication
• Appointment calendars
• Forms
• Landing pages
• Lead routing
• Follow-up processes

After several years, you decide to leave the agency.

What happens to all of that infrastructure?

HighLevel supports transferring client sub-accounts, so being on a white-labeled HighLevel platform does not automatically mean your data is trapped.

However, a transfer may still require integrations and services to be reconnected or reconfigured. And migrating to another CRM such as HubSpot is a different project entirely.

That doesn't make HighLevel a bad choice.

It makes ownership and portability questions worth asking before implementation rather than after you've accumulated 50,000 contacts and three years of automation.

Don't Choose a CRM Based Only on What You Need Today

One of the most common mistakes startups and small businesses make is evaluating technology against today's problems.

A company with five employees asks:

"What CRM works for us right now?"

A better question is:

"What will our customer acquisition and revenue operations processes look like if this company succeeds?"

Will you eventually have multiple salespeople?

Different territories?

Sales managers?

Customer success?

More than one pipeline?

Complex reporting requirements?

Marketing attribution?

Lead scoring?

ERP or accounting integrations?

A dedicated RevOps team?

None of these questions automatically means you should choose HubSpot instead of HighLevel.

They simply change the criteria you should use to make the decision.

Get a Second Opinion Before Committing

If an agency recommends HighLevel or their own branded CRM/MAP, ask why.

A good agency should be able to explain how the platform supports your business model, sales process and long-term technology strategy.

But remember that agencies can also have a financial incentive to put clients onto their HighLevel platform. HighLevel allows agencies to package, price and sell platform access as a recurring subscription.

Again, that isn't inherently bad. The agency may genuinely be recommending the best solution.

But the person selling you the platform shouldn't necessarily be the only person evaluating whether you should buy it.

Before committing your CRM, customer data and marketing infrastructure to any platform, consider getting an independent assessment from someone who understands both marketing operations and revenue operations.

Ask them to evaluate:

• Your current sales process
• Expected growth
• Marketing channels
• Automation requirements
• Reporting requirements
• Data ownership
• Integration requirements
• Internal staffing
• CRM administration
• Migration and exit strategy

You might discover that HighLevel is exactly what your business needs.

You might discover that HubSpot makes more sense.

Or you might discover that neither is the right answer.

Don't get distracted by a long list of platform features.

The objective is to build a technology and process foundation that won't become an obstacle when your business succeeds.

Need an Independent CRM Second Opinion?

Sandpine Tech helps businesses evaluate the processes behind their marketing and sales technology and aligning that process with the right choices in technology.

If you're considering HighLevel, HubSpot or another CRM and want an independent perspective before committing, we can review your requirements, growth plans and revenue processes to help determine what your technology stack needs to support today and what it may need to support tomorrow.

A second opinion now can be considerably cheaper than a CRM migration later.