One of the most critical decisions for a business is where to host its website, and a CMS or content management system is a crucial component. Some companies with an internal IT team prefer to self-host their CMS because they require higher-level security or business integrations. However, a growing trend is towards using a SaaS (software as a service) CMS because you can leverage a shared hosting platform with hosting benefits like security, a content delivery network for images, fast servers, customer support, etc.
WordPress has long been the CMS leader for business websites, but now there are more options to consider, like Webflow, Squarespace, Spotify, Bigcommerce, and the HubSpot CMS. This article will introduce you to the HubSpot CMS and how its features compare to WordPress.
HubSpot CMS Examples
It is often helpful to look at how others have used the HubSpot CMS for their websites or landing pages. Below are some places to find examples.
HubSpot CMS Pricing
Below are the pricing options currently available. I recommend the professional plan if your marketing budget has room to cover $360/month and you are serious about online marketing,
| Plan Type | Would Be A Good Fit If… | Main Features | Monthly Cost |
| Free | Trying out the CMS to see if it is a good fit for your business. The Free version is limited and has HubSpot branding so it is best used in limited form prior to upgrading to one of the higher plans | Up to 25 website pages. Does not include dynamic content. Includes HubSpot branding. 20 Simple Landing Page Templates with HubSpot branding | Free |
| Starter | 1-10 employees | 50 web pages. Does not include dynamic content. Remove HubSpot branding on website pages but not landing pages. URL Redirects 20 Simple Landing Page Templates with HubSpot branding | $23/month |
| Professional | 10-200 employees | CRM Personalization Password Pages CTA Fields Content Staging 10,000 Coded Landing Page Templates without HubSpot branding | $360/month |
| Enterprise | 200-2,000 employees | Custom Objects Memberships Multiple Root Domains | $1,200/month |
Is HubSpot CMS worth it?
HubSpot doesn’t make sense for micro or solo businesses unless you have the revenue to cover the expense. But if you have a larger team and need to invest in creating a marketing machine it is a perfect solution. Below in my opinion are use cases for using HubSpot CMS vs WordPress + HS plugin. Here is another good list of HubSpot CMS benefits.
- You have more money than time. Will one new customer easily cover the cost of HubSpot?
- Your marketing and sales organization has more than 5 people and you are generating a lot of marketing assets.
- You don’t have access to an in-house developer or agency retainer to maintain your site.
HubSpot CMS Decision Tree Checklist
- Is your site primarily public-facing content, and does nothing need to be private or require high levels of secure access?
- Do you have a global team of marketing and sales?
- Do you need to translate content?
- Do you need the ability to create hundreds of landing pages and email campaigns?
- Do you have a developer to maintain your WordPress site hosting and security regularly?
- Would you like to split-test web pages to optimize lead generation?
- Do you see the benefit of having one login for your marketing and sales efforts?
- Would you like to use personalized pages with CRM data to increase conversions?
- Do you see the value of having access to a support team to ask questions when things are not working?
- The WordPress editing experience is clunky and confusing using third-party page builder plugins?
If you answer yes to many of the questions above, I would consider HubSpot CMS.
Summary and Recommendation
Both WordPress and HubSpot CMS are great options for building a business website. Any CMS will make building and managing a website a lot easier. Before you decide, I suggest you write down a list of all of the needs and all of the nice to have. Try and identify deal-breakers.
One deal breaker I have seen others face is the server control issue. If you need complete control of the server, you are best to use WordPress. If you are a business with 50+ employees and want an easy-to-use website and work autonomously from your IT department, I would give HubSpot CMS a look.
Do you need help choosing a CMS? Contact me
