When I wrote my blog post about HubSpot Sales Hub, I realized that AI is definitely not the forte of the second biggest CRM in the world 🤔.

Then I asked myself why HubSpot’s AI is not great and what the alternatives are. Are we, with Breakcold, even an alternative to HubSpot if people are specifically looking for an AI CRM?

In this article, we will dive into the best 3 AI CRM alternatives to HubSpot and, most importantly, explain why HubSpot is not the best CRM at all for the AI age 🚀. You can also learn more here about the difference between traditional and new CRMs 🧠.

Why Hubspot is no longer a viable CRM for the AI World?

First, you need to understand that HubSpot turns 20 years old in 2026.

Two long decades in the CRM game, climbing the ladder step by step, congrats. But such success comes with a price: technical debt 🧱.

No matter who you are, when you are a gigantic software serving hundreds of thousands of customers, you cannot move fast without breaking existing services. Harvard professor and businessman Clayton Christensen explained this very well in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma. The bigger you are, the harder it is to innovate 📚.

HubSpot has designed its CRM over the last two decades around automation features that require users to build automation blocks, notably through CRM workflows. They cannot change their entire system overnight to become AI native without destroying their product and also breaking a whole economy of HubSpot CRM integrators, which are key to HubSpot’s growth ecosystem.

Therefore, HubSpot had to build separate products to release AI CRM features, and this is how we ended up with Breeze AI, HubSpot’s AI.

According to Reddit, user testimonials and other sources, Breeze is mostly a fad. Most AI features are what I would call "AI fluff" in the sense that they do not fundamentally help CRM users save time on core tasks. Instead, Breeze focuses on summarizing what happened with your leads and suggesting AI follow ups 🤖. In my opinion, this represents maybe 10 percent of what a true AI native CRM should do. These features help with minor tasks but do not solve the main problem of CRM usage, which is that manual data entry takes time.

That is why, at least at the time of writing this article, HubSpot is not a viable CRM for the AI world.

Alternative #1: Breakcold - The AI Native CRM for Modern SMB Sales Teams

Breakcold is not an absolute AI alternative to Hubspot, but it is in some instances.

Pros

Compared to HubSpot:

• Breakcold moves leads automatically depending on your sales activities with them. It is a true AI native CRM 🤖

• Breakcold auto creates tasks dynamically and across multiple channels such as email, phone, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Telegram ⚡️

• Breakcold records your meetings, like HubSpot, but also helps you prepare for them with AI meeting briefs that you can fully customize

• Breakcold also includes the traditional AI features like AI summaries of your leads and AI suggested emails or messages to help you save time on follow ups

Beyond the core AI part, former HubSpot customers who switched to Breakcold often mention that the UI and UX are much simpler 🎯.

One of them said:
"I used HubSpot before, so it is very pleasing to the eye that your interface has at least 3247 fewer buttons and options :)"

Another one said: "Yes, I will just add Via linkenin, Its no issue, love the CRM by the way, I was using Hubspot before, we just created 250 leads, it was like Breakhold was sent from god haha"

And finally, the CEO of Surfe, a reputable app that connects to CRM told me on LinkedIn that: "We have a few clients that switched from GSheets, Pipedrive or HubSpot to Breakcold"

Finally, when it comes to pricing, Breakcold is much more accessible than Hubspot with pricing plans starting at $29/mo.

Cons

Breakcold is not able to beat HubSpot if you are a large company 🏢.

Breakcold mainly serves SMBs and what I would call solopreneurs plus plus plus, meaning solopreneurs with virtual assistants. If you are a digital marketing agency, an early stage startup or a consultant, Breakcold is perfect for you. But if you are a Fortune 500 company, Breakcold is not a fit 🎯.

You also cannot build extremely complex automations with Breakcold. The only automations available are native to the AI. You cannot create massive decision trees like you can in HubSpot to automate everything.

Finally, like the other tools mentioned in this alternatives article, Breakcold will not have as many native integrations as HubSpot 🔌.

Alternative #2: Close - The AI CRM for Cold Callers

Close is the BEST AI alternative to Hubspot if you're into calling, especially Cold Calling.

Pros

Close, like Breakcold, has the advantage of having a unique positioning 🎯.

It is also a strong AI multi channel CRM, but it focuses more on email, calling, SMS and WhatsApp.

HubSpot does not cover WhatsApp and SMS natively, so this is a first win for Close here 📲.

But the most interesting part is on the AI side. Close is able to analyze your sales calls in depth so you can improve the performance of your sales reps. There are also integrations with ChatGPT that allow you to chat with the CRM and give it instructions to update leads. It feels very native, even though Close has been around for more than a decade and still faces technical challenges when it comes to adding AI deeply into its software 🤖.

As calling is native to Close, you do not need to pay for a third party software or add on like you would with HubSpot.

Cons

Close is not as flexible as HubSpot because it is a less complex software, which can be both good and bad ⚖️.

As explained before, Close is more than a decade old, so it relies on some workarounds to add AI into its software, such as integrations with ChatGPT and others 🤖. Fundamentally, the CRM does not update itself automatically like it does with Breakcold for example. So it is an AI alternative to HubSpot, but not a deep AI native alternative.

Close has fewer integrations than HubSpot, but the ecosystem is still massive, so this is not a major downside 🔌.

Alternative #3: Attio - The AI CRM for PLG Startups

Attio is the rising AI CRM for large teams and is becoming a serious alternative to Hubspot.

Pros

Attio is as flexible as HubSpot, with a powerful custom fields and custom objects system ⚙️.

But the best part about Attio is its CRM workflows. Compared to traditional CRMs like HubSpot, Attio allows you to add AI blocks directly into your workflows. This lets you use AI to take decisions at crucial steps of your process 🤖. For example, if you are importing leads into the CRM via a webhook, one annoying task is sorting good contacts from bad ones. With Attio, you can add an AI block responsible for ICP qualification based on rules you define. From there, only qualified leads continue through the CRM workflow.

This is not something that is possible in a traditional CRM like HubSpot.

Like Breakcold and Close, Attio also has a native built in AI note taker that allows you to record your meetings across multiple channels such as Teams, Zoom or Google Meet 🎥.

Cons

Attio can become very complex, and you might need an Attio integrator or expert to help with the setup. Otherwise, it is easy to get lost 🧭.

Attio’s AI is not native. The CRM does not update itself automatically, so you still need to deal with a heavy setup similar to HubSpot. The upside is that AI blocks can help reduce some time consuming tasks and decision making along the way 🤖.

Pricing also scales quite fast. If you want access to the best features, you need to move to the 86 dollars per month plan. On top of that, automation usage is based on credits, and those costs can add up quickly, sometimes even more than a HubSpot subscription 💸.

Are there any other viable alternatives to Hubspot with AI?

Yes, we can name Clarify, Dex, Folk or TwentyCRM, but those solutions are less mature than the ones we shared in that article 🌱.

We need to remember that HubSpot is a very big machine. Finding AI alternatives is simple, but you also need to have the CRM fundamentals fully locked in, which is not something easy to achieve 🧠.

That is why robust AI CRMs that truly replace HubSpot remain rare today 💪.