Overview
When looking for a CRM, many of our clients have considered Hubspot, as it is one of the main players in the market. Both SwiftFox and Hubspot are cloud-based SaaS CRM platforms, that can have 10 or 10,000 users and enable you to undertake a range of actions with the data stored in them. As a newer player in the market, SwiftFox comes with a different philosophy to Hubspot, which is the start of where differences emerge.
This page can help you understand both platforms and help educate your choice.
Comparing Features
Setup & training
With SwiftFox, you won't need a third-party implementation partner to get set up — the SwiftFox team handle everything.
We work closely with you through onboarding: importing data, configuring customisations, setting up accounts and permissions. Once the platform is configured, we give your team a full walkthrough and train them on it. Webinars and training sessions can be recorded for people who join later, and it is all in the subscription.
HubSpot publishes its onboarding fees and they are mandatory at Professional and above — A$2,160 for Sales Hub Professional, A$4,320 for Marketing Hub Professional, rising to A$5,040 and A$10,080 at Enterprise. Buy both hubs at Professional and that is A$6,480 in year-one onboarding before a single seat.
HubSpot Academy is genuinely good and free to access before you buy. The trade-off is time: most courses run at least three hours, and working out which combination of hubs, seats and marketing contacts fits your organisation takes some doing.
Data security
SwiftFox hosts client data in Australian data centres on Microsoft Azure, so your data stays onshore. The SwiftFox team operates under Australia's only industry-legislated privacy code and is a member of the Australian Data and Insights Association.
HubSpot's position here is stronger than it gets credit for. It runs an Australian data region, and existing paid customers can migrate to another region from account settings at no charge. New accounts are assigned by signup location, and free accounts default to the US — so if residency matters, check which region you were placed in rather than assuming.
Usability
SwiftFox features a beautifully simple user experience. Uncomplicated design is powerful. You, your boss, your intern, the new hire - everyone in your organisation should know how to use, and love using SwiftFox. And you should be able to work out how to use a feature with a few clicks. SwiftFox was built from the ground up in the social media age and our future focussed design principles make it simple to navigate. As a universal CRM, once you understand how to navigate one feature – you can navigate them all!
Hubspot has created their interface to appeal for all users, regardless of how experienced you are. Therefore the basic package is relatively simple to use, however users report growing out of these features relatively quickly. There can then be a steep learning curve to subsequently customise HubSpot to their needs.
Universal CRM
SwiftFox has everything you need in one platform. This is what makes it so powerful. So marvellously simple to use. You can send emails, newsletters, coordinate events, create forms, manage your pipeline, send text messages, have phone calls, tick off your tasks, talk to your team - all from one place, and with one subscription.
Following initial set-up, organisations license SwiftFox on a subscription basis and our central development team take care of ensuring your platform is always updated and at the cutting edge of innovation.
Hubspot’s core CRM concentrates on the sales features available, while charging additional monthly costs per user to gain access to the marketing, customer service and content management systems.
AI & data innovation
SwiftFox is built by The Red Fox Group, an Australian data analytics company, so AI and analytics are not a bolt-on here. Our AI is deliberately simple: draft an email and send it when your people actually open things, see who is likely to renew or lapse, spot who will donate or buy before you ask.
It is included. There are no credits to buy, no consumption meter running in the background, and no separate AI licence.
HubSpot's AI is called Breeze and it runs on HubSpot Credits at US$0.01 each. Professional includes 3,000 credits a month for the whole portal. Since April 2026 the agents are priced on outcomes — 50 credits per resolved customer conversation, 100 per recommended lead — which is a fairer model than the flat monthly charge it replaced.
3,000 credits is about 60 resolved conversations a month across your entire organisation. Useful, but worth sizing against your actual volume before you budget on it.
New features roadmap
SwiftFox takes care of everything. As a SaaS platform, our team has a long-term development pipeline where we are continuously rolling out new features accessed by all our users. Clients can always submit suggestions for the product roadmap and then work one-on-one with our team to see them delivered.
Hubspot has a roadmap in the form of a presentation for each branch of HubSpot. In order for a suggestion to HubSpot to be made, any user can submit to the ideas board and using a voting system, ideas can then be reviewed, trialled and delivered.
Ongoing support
SwiftFox has the help you would expect — guides, in-platform training, videos, live webinars, the SwiftFox Academy. But we are also local, and we have a phone. Get stuck and you can talk to someone who can jump on a video call and sort it out. Support is included, not a percentage of your licence.
HubSpot includes support at every paid tier at no extra charge — chat and email from Starter, phone from Professional — and there is no paid support plan to buy. That is a genuine strength and better than most of the enterprise platforms here.
One gate to know about: since March 2024 a person needs an assigned Core, Sales or Service seat to get chat, email or phone support. Colleagues on free view-only seats cannot raise a ticket.
SwiftFox: What does it do?
SwiftFox is campaign and membership software for organisations that talk to their people at scale. Store contacts, send emails and texts, make calls, run events, build forms, manage memberships, accreditations and awards, track cases and visits, run projects and pipelines, take payments and reconcile them to Xero, publish a member portal — and see every interaction against the one profile.
SwiftFox AI reads that history and tells you what to do with it: who is likely to renew, who is drifting, who will donate, who will show up. Automations then handle the follow-up so your team doesn't have to.
One subscription. Everyone in your organisation gets an account. No per-user fees.
Hubspot
: What does it do?
HubSpot is a CRM platform with access to various software, integrations and resources for marketing, sales, content management and customer service.
HubSpot’s integrated platform competes against Salesforce and other big players, and therefore has a strong focus on sales.
However, HubSpot’s feature set is simpler than its main competitors, and therefore is a good option for start-up companies and small businesses.
An Overview of SwiftFox Users
SwiftFox is campaign and membership software for organisations that talk to their people at scale. Store contacts, send emails and texts, make calls, run events, build forms, manage memberships, accreditations and awards, track cases and visits, run projects and pipelines, take payments and reconcile them to Xero, publish a member portal — and see every interaction against the one profile.
SwiftFox AI reads that history and tells you what to do with it: who is likely to renew, who is drifting, who will donate, who will show up. Automations then handle the follow-up so your team doesn't have to.
One subscription. Everyone in your organisation gets an account. No per-user fees.
An Overview of
Hubspot
Users
HubSpot is a CRM platform with access to various software, integrations and resources for marketing, sales, content management and customer service.
HubSpot’s integrated platform competes against Salesforce and other big players, and therefore has a strong focus on sales.
However, HubSpot’s feature set is simpler than its main competitors, and therefore is a good option for start-up companies and small businesses.
Pricing
SwiftFox charges one subscription for your whole organisation. Everyone gets an account — the ops manager, the intern, the board member who logs in twice a year.
That is a deliberate choice. When licences are rationed, people work around the CRM instead of in it: spreadsheets appear, lists get emailed around, and the 360-degree view you bought the system for quietly stops being true. Per-user pricing also punishes you for growing.
HubSpot changed how it charges in March 2024. There are now Core Seats, paid Sales and Service Seats, and free unlimited view-only seats — and it dropped its seat minimums. That last change was a real improvement, and if you last looked at HubSpot before 2024, look again.
Sales Hub Professional is A$140 per seat per month billed annually, with a mandatory A$2,160 onboarding fee. For 50 seats that is A$86,160 in year one. Marketing Hub Professional is a separate A$1,241 a month with its own A$4,320 onboarding, which takes it to A$105,372.
Where HubSpot gets expensive for organisations like yours is the stacking: seats, then a second hub for marketing, then marketing contacts above the 2,000 included, then extra Core Seats at A$72 a month. Each is reasonable on its own. Together they add up quickly.
Time to join SwiftFox? Making the jump is easy!
Get in touch and learn how easy it is to switch to SwiftFox, our team is available to help you every step of the way.
We don’t just tell you to export your data from your old system and figure it out yourself, we sit down and plan with you the most efficient migration process with minimal disruption.
And then a dedicated SwiftFox team member will take care of the transition, including help with set up and data importing if required. No third-party implementation provider required, just us!
SwiftFox and Hubspot Integration
We also know there are times when one part of your organisation may need Hubspot, while SwiftFox meets different requirements. That’s why we also offer a fast integration with Hubspot, powered by Zapier. Integration takes minutes to set up with our SwiftFox and Hubspot templates, and your data will start syncing immediately. This makes it possible for different teams in your organisation to use both platforms.