Are you considering HubSpot Service Hub for your business?
Before making a big decision, like selecting a help desk software solution, buyers often want to hear from others about their experience. If you’re at this stage in your buying process, this article will help you make an informed choice.
We’ve combed the web, searched review sites, and more to discover the pros and cons most commonly reported by users of Service Hub. We’ve categorized the insights below along with user quotes, providing you with an unfiltered view of how users genuinely feel.
What are the Pros of HubSpot Service Hub?
Pro: Comes with HubSpot CRM
One of the top-reported benefits of HubSpot Service Hub by users is that it comes with HubSpot CRM. That means you can have a complete record of your customer’s history with your company across every touchpoint. This can help you deliver more personalized, consistent, and efficient customer service, which can positively impact customer retention and loyalty.
According to HubSpot, when you pair these two tools together, “you can ensure that your sales reps can see a complete picture of a contact when looking to reach out and make contact.” You wouldn’t want your salesperson to try and upsell a customer with an open complaint!
Similarly, your customer service team can see all of the sales and marketing communications a customer has received to zero in on what their customer service request is in regards to.
Check out our “Why HubSpot” article for more on the power of HubSpot’s integrated platform.
User Review 1:
“We were already using the CRM features of Hubspot and liked the idea of combining with our service desk. We automatically create tickets from chats, which makes dropping the ball on tickets harder to do.” (Source: Capterra)
User Review 2:
“The fact that you can add your Support desk to the CRM and see everything in one place is priceless. Honestly, that is the 1 thing that made us go for it. Before we had to rely on jumping from one platform to another and on many API integrations. We may have lost some bells and whistles that we enjoyed before, but the overall impact is positive. We manage: Chat, tickets, feature request, bugs and help emails from the same place. Before was a bit of a nightmare.” (Source: Software Advice)
Pro: User-Friendly
Nobody likes to struggle using a tool. It can be frustrating and time-consuming to try and hunt and peck through a clunky interface. With an easy-to-use interface, users can begin leveraging the tool more quickly and easily.
HubSpot is known for its user-friendly interface. Check out these user reviews praising the intuitive interface.
User Review 1:
“HubSpot Service Hub is generally user-friendly and simple to use. There are numerous short films and lessons available to help with questions. These significantly reduce the amount of time spent communicating with a support team. However, the support team is outstanding and always available when I need them. They far surpassed my expectations.” (Source: TechRadar)
User Review 2:
“The ease of use is huge! I love how easy it is to provide great support to our customers through the inbox and knowledge center. Hubspot is a huge part of our business and teams across the board, but my team uses it daily!” (Source: G2)
Pro: Extensive Feature Set for Customer Service
HubSpot Service Hub is equipped with conversational tools, a shared inbox, help desk automation, knowledge base functionality, customer surveys, reporting, a customer portal, playbooks, and more.
Here’s what users said about this pro:
User Review 1:
“HubSpot’s Service Hub has been my go-to option for making sure no customer falls between the cracks. The extensive feature set they provide makes it straightforward to manage my Customer Success operations. My team members can collaborate with a consistent voice due to their universal inbox, live chat, and bots.” (Source: Getapp)
User Review 2:
HubSpot [Service Hub] had many integrations we needed to connect to our CRM, and the cost was just right from them VS the others. We had to look at all the features, and HubSpot CRM just had way more than the others and more bang for your buck. So the Service Hub was just a bonus with their CRM tools.” (TrustRadius)
What are the Cons of HubSpot Service Hub?
Con: Limits on Users
While HubSpot Service Hub brings a bunch of features and controls to the table, one notable drawback users report is the limitation on the number of users.
To clarify – HubSpot’s standard packages include a set number of users based on the subscription tier (Starter: 2 users, Professional: 5 users, and Enterprise: 10 users).
You can add users for an additional charge, also based on your subscription tier (Starter: $9/month/user, Professional: $90/month/users, and Enterprise: $120/month/user). See HubSpot’s Service Hub pricing for more details.
Here’s why users view this as a con, as articulated in their reviews.
User Review 1:
“Service Hub comes with one of the longest lists of features available for free and standard accounts, as well as one of the most comprehensive sets of controls, actions, and information for managing tickets we’ve seen. But there are limits on the number of users available for each plan, and not all support methods are made available to each plan level.” (Source: TechRadar)
User Review 2:
“As the size of your team grows, you’ll need to buy more seats to keep everyone on the same platform. It would be fantastic if purchasing the platform didn’t restrict you to a specific amount of seats.” (Source: Capterra)
Con: Not Flexible/Customizable Enough
Some users report that HubSpot Service Hub doesn’t offer the flexibility and customizations they need. For some, this may restrict their ability to tailor the service experience to their specific needs.
As one user mentions, some customizations may be possible with the help of a developer or HubSpot Partner Agency.
User Review 1:
“I want to have more autonomy with creating the layout of our service hub page. We have additional needs / uses that we would like to include in the service hub but the way that the categories/articles are tiered and the limited layout options holds us back from creating the full experience we want to make for our customers.” (Source: G2)
User Review 2:
“Lack of easy customization— Wish there was more flexibility for the look of the knowledge base, more types of chat bots (we had to pay someone to make ours the way we wanted it).” (Source: GetApp)
Con: Expensive Compared to Other Solutions
HubSpot Service Hub pricing depends on the plan and features you choose. HubSpot Service Hub offers four plans:
- Free – Free
- Starter – $18/month
- Professional – $450/month
- Enterprise – $1,200/month
Click here for the most accurate pricing from HubSpot.
Each plan has an expanding list of features. As you make your way up the tiers, you gain access to more advanced features and your subscription goes up. Some users find the higher tiers or adding additional licenses to be prohibitively expensive.
Here’s what users said about this con:
User Review 1:
“Pay per seat instead of pay per team. As we get more and more members, it can be a bit pricy” (Source: Capterra)
User Review 2:
“The pricing is expensive and you must upgrade to get further features.” (Source: Capterra)
Conclusion
We hope this snapshot of the pros and cons of the HubSpot Service Hub as reported by real users was helpful to you in your search for the right help desk solution for your business.
At Growth Spurt, we’re big fans of the HubSpot platform and are happy to recommend Service Hub to you.
While you may find cheaper options, there’s tremendous value in standardizing on the HubSpot platform and layering Service Hub with HubSpot’s other products, like Marketing Hub and Sales Hub.
Having all of your customer data in a single place will transform your business into a customer-centric machine, built to delight your customers with every interaction.