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If you find yourself frustrated by limits or daydreaming about tools that could make your team’s life easier, it might be time to level up your HubSpot subscription. Each step in the HubSpot journey brings new opportunities to grow, scale, and delight your customers. Still unsure? Let’s evaluate your current subscription and determine if upgrading is the right move for your business.
When to Consider Upgrading From Starter to Professional
If you’ve started your HubSpot journey with the Starter subscription, you’ve likely enjoyed its ability to centralise your customer data and execute basic marketing and sales strategies. It’s a great starting point for small businesses. However, as your business grows, so do your needs and that’s when the limitations of Starter start to surface.
Upgrading to HubSpot Professional can unlock advanced tools to help you scale your operations, streamline workflows, and supercharge your marketing and sales efforts. Let's explore some of the signs that show you've outgrown your current subscription:
1. Your Team Needs Advanced Automation
Starter provides basic automation, which is great for simple workflows. However, as your business processes become more complex, you’ll likely require advanced workflow capabilities. With Professional, you can build multi-step workflows that include branching logic, trigger-based actions, and integrations across teams, saving time and reducing manual work.
2. You Want Deeper Insights Into Your Data
Starter offers basic reporting, but when you need detailed analytics and custom dashboards to track KPIs, measure campaign ROI, or identify bottlenecks, Professional is a game-changer. It empowers you to create custom reports that provide actionable insights tailored to your unique goals.
3. You’re Focused on Scaling Your Marketing Efforts
If you’re running multiple campaigns and need features like ABM (Account-Based Marketing) tools, A/B testing, or advanced SEO recommendations, Professional gives you the firepower to take your marketing strategy to the next level. These features help you optimise and personalise your efforts for maximum impact.
4. You’re Ready to Invest in Sales Enablement
As your sales team grows, they’ll need more than the basics. Professional includes advanced sales tools like eSignature, quote templates, and playbooks that streamline the sales process. It also offers predictive lead scoring to help your team focus on the highest-quality leads.
5. You Need Enhanced Customer Support Features
If your support team is expanding, Professional equips them with tools like ticket pipelines, knowledge base, and custom feedback surveys. These features ensure a seamless support experience that keeps your customers happy and loyal.
6. You Want to Integrate with Other Business Systems
Professional opens up more integration opportunities with tools like Salesforce, eCommerce platforms, and other enterprise systems. If you’re running a multi-tool tech stack, this tier makes it easier to connect and manage your data in one place.
7. Your Team Requires Multiple Users and Permissions
As your business scales, so does your team. With Professional, you can add more users and manage advanced team permissions, ensuring the right people have access to the right data without compromising security.
Exploring HubSpot Pro: Advanced Capabilities and Advantages
If you're already using HubSpot Starter, you know the value of an easy-to-use CRM that centralises your data and helps you manage marketing, sales, and customer service tasks. But what happens when your business begins to scale? That’s where HubSpot Pro comes in. HubSpot Pro is a more advanced subscription plan tailored for growing businesses that need comprehensive marketing automation, sales tools, and customer service capabilities. It offers a more robust set of features and gives you a lot more opportunities compared to the Starter plan.
Let's compare some of the features in the table below:
| Hubs | HubSpot Starter | HubSpot Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing & Content | Basic email campaigns, forms, and templates. Ability to build website and landing pages, use AI to write blogs and generate images, basic SEO recommendations and optimisations. |
Dynamic personalisation, smart content, marketing SMS, social media, advanced automation, lead scoring, A/B testing, custom reporting and advanced analytics, tools such as Content Remix, Social Agent, Podcasts, Case Studies and Brand Voice. |
| Sales | Basic CRM and pipeline tracking, limited email health reporting, simple automation, e-signatures, conversation routing and limited currencies. | Sequences, playbooks, custom pipelines, advanced sales automation. Includes tools such as Sales Workspace, smart send times, AI Meeting Assistant, Sales Analytics, Prospecting Agent, Conversational Intelligence and Forecasting. |
| Service | Basic ticketing system for managing customer issues, limited customer feedback tools, simple live chat for support, meeting scheduler, | Help desk automation, knowledge base, shared inbox, Service analytics, teams, playbooks, custom surveys, Customer Agent, customer portal, |
| Operations | Basic user roles and limited workflow customisation, email reply tracking, HubSpot payments (U.S only) and historical sync. | Scheduled workflow triggers, bulk duplicate management, data health trends, data quality command centre, AI-powered data formatting and programmable automation. |
How to Plan Your Upgrade
Upgrading to Professional is a strategic move that requires planning. It’s a smart move that can supercharge your business, but like all big decisions, it needs a plan. Here’s how to do it right (and make the most of it).
1. Evaluate Your Needs 🚀
Before you hit that upgrade button, take a step back and look at where your current processes are falling short. Are you spending too much time on manual tasks? Do you need better reporting to track performance? Maybe your team is struggling to nurture leads efficiently or automate workflows. HubSpot Professional gives you access to advanced tools that Starter doesn’t, like automation, custom reporting, and enhanced CRM features. Take time to pinpoint exactly where these tools can make the biggest difference so you can hit the ground running.
2. Engage Your Team 👥
Upgrading works best when your whole team is on board. Speak with the people who will use the platform day-to-day, whether it’s marketing, sales, or operations. Find out what challenges they face, where processes can improve, and how new tools like workflows or lead scoring can help. By involving your team early, you’ll get buy-in across the board, which makes the transition smoother and sets everyone up for success.
3. Leverage HubSpot’s Resources 🛠️
There’s a lot to explore with HubSpot Professional, but you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. HubSpot Academy offers free courses to help you master everything from automation and campaign management to advanced reporting. Their support team is always there for quick questions and advice when you need it. Getting your team familiar with these resources early on will give them the confidence to get the most out of Professional right from day one.
4. Work with a HubSpot Partner (Like Us!) 🤝
If you really want to maximise the value of your upgrade, this is where we come in. As HubSpot partners, we’ve been through this process many times before and know exactly how to get results quickly. We can help you set up workflows, customise dashboards, and implement best practices tailored to your business. You get the tools and we help you use them in a way that works for your goals. Think of it like upgrading with a co-pilot to guide you through any tricky spots.
5. Monitor Your Results 📈
Once you’ve upgraded, it’s all about tracking your progress to make sure the investment is paying off. Start by measuring key metrics like lead conversions, sales productivity, and campaign performance. HubSpot Professional makes this easier with advanced reporting tools that let you see exactly what’s working and where you can improve. The upgrade isn’t just about having fancier tools; it’s about driving better results for your business. Keep an eye on those numbers, make tweaks as needed, and celebrate the wins along the way.
Take the Next Step
Upgrading from Starter to Professional is a natural progression for businesses ready to grow. If your current tools aren’t cutting it, Professional’s advanced capabilities can help you scale smarter, drive better results, and create a seamless experience for your customers and team. Ready to explore your options? Let’s chat! We’ll help you assess your needs, walk you through the upgrade, and ensure you’re set up for success.
