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CRM Comparison: AscendixRE vs HubSpot
March 15, 2024
9 min
Numerous real estate professionals choose HubSpot to manage their real estate deals due to the CRM’s convenience, flexibility, and the added benefit of a fully free version. This complimentary version proves sufficient for basic CRM operations, like maintaining a client database.
Conversely, AscendixRE stands out as a CRM explicitly designed for commercial real estate (CRE), featuring tailor-made functionalities. As it operates on the Salesforce platform, our comparison naturally delves into the dynamics of Salesforce (SF) versus HubSpot at certain junctures.
Nevertheless, our primary goal is to comprehensively assess these two CRMs, examining their value for the price (or lack thereof in HubSpot’s free version case). To achieve this, we scrutinize both CRMs across various criteria, including:
- Ease of use: can you use it without onboarding and additional assistance from the support team?
- Company’s size: to what brokerages serve both CRM solutions?
- Features set for commercial real estate: what industry-specific functionality does it have?
- Integrations: how many does a CRM solution have?
- Price: what pricing bundles offer both CRM solutions?
- Support: do you get help when you need it?
Brief Overview of Both Solutions
AscendixRE CRM
AscendixRE Home Page
AscendixRE CRM is developed and supported by the Ascendix team that has been on the CRM consulting market since 1996.
AscendixRE is built on the Salesforce platform and offers industry-specific features tailored to the needs of commercial real estate brokers and teams. AscendixRE provides tools for managing properties, leases, listings, and contacts, along with features for deal tracking, pipeline management, and reporting.
In addition to CRM functionality, the platform offers 3 added Modules:
- Ascendix Search – advanced search tool with mapping component for all record types;
- Composer – flexible publication tool to generate CRE marketing collaterals;
- MarketSpace – designed to publish listings online and close deals in secure collaboration rooms.
More about AscendixRE CRM you can explore by watching the video below.
HubSpot
HubSpot CRM homepage
Founded in 2006 in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot caters to numerous sectors, including real estate. Its versatility makes HubSpot a generic but still very solid solution.
HubSpot for real estate functions as contact management software and a marketing platform. Specifically, you can manage contacts, track emails, access email templates, utilize lead analytics, and integrate your HubSpot CRM database with your email apps.
The HubSpot platform itself consists of 6 hubs focused on different business needs:
- Marketing Hub
- Sales Hub
- Service Hub
- CMS Hub
- Operations Hub
- Commerce Hub
Every hub includes specific software, tools, or CRM that have different specializations and feature sets.
AscendixRE vs HubSpot: Comparison Based on 6 Criteria
The selected criteria for this comparison largely align with common criteria used to review the best real estate CRM software solutions. These are:
- Ease of use
- Company’s size
- Features set for commercial real estate
- Integrations
- Price
- Support
Criteria #1. Ease of use
AscendixRE: AscendixRE isn’t an “entry-level” but a user-friendly CRM designed for commercial real estate professionals. Clients familiar with Salesforce will find it straightforward to navigate. Clients that aren’t familiar with Salesforce will be empowered by drag-and-drop functionalities, built-in workflows, and commercial real estate features that minimize the learning curve.
If any questions occur, Ascendix has a helping center where users can find important information and guidance. Also, the Ascendix team provides comprehensive onboarding and support.
“[AscendixRE] is easy to use and very intuitive. It allows me to quickly access the information I need and keep track of my deals.” – David Noble, Vice President of Market Research, Hanna Langholz Wilson Ellis
HubSpot: While HubSpot offers a robust CRM platform with user-friendly design, its ease of use for commercial real estate brokers might be less intuitive compared to AscendixRE, a solution specifically designed for the CRE industry. Here’s a breakdown:
- General-Purpose Design: HubSpot caters to a broader audience across various industries. While offering real estate-related features, the interface and functionalities might not be as immediately familiar or relevant to CRE brokers compared to a specialized CRM.
- Learning Curve: HubSpot’s broader scope can lead to a steeper learning curve for brokers unfamiliar with its terminology and functionalities designed for other sectors.
- Customization Needs: Commercial real estate professionals might require additional customization to adapt the platform to their specific workflows and data needs
Summing Up
For commercial real estate brokers prioritizing a user-friendly experience with built-in industry-specific functionalities, AscendixRE might be a more suitable choice due to its streamlined interface and CRE-centric features. However, HubSpot can be a viable option for brokers comfortable with a broader platform and willing to invest time in customization to adapt it to their specific CRE needs.
Criteria #2. Company’s size
HubSpot: HubSpot can be suitable for commercial real estate brokerages of varying sizes, but it tends to be more commonly adopted by small to medium-sized firms rather than large enterprises.
HubSpot's user-friendly interface and affordable pricing plans make it particularly appealing to small brokerages with limited resources. These firms may find HubSpot's features sufficient for their needs without the complexity or cost associated with larger CRM solutions. | Medium-sized brokerages may also benefit from HubSpot's scalability and versatility. They can leverage HubSpot's robust features to manage their contacts, campaigns, and analytics effectively, while still maintaining flexibility as their business grows. | Larger brokerages with complex operations and specialized requirements may find that HubSpot lacks the advanced functionalities needed to fully meet their needs, leading them to seek out more enterprise-level CRM solutions. |
AscendixRE CRM: AscendixRE CRM is well-suited for commercial real estate brokerages of all sizes, including small, medium, and large firms. Here’s how AscendixRE can cater to each:
AscendixRE offers scalable solutions that are accessible and manageable for small brokerages. With its user-friendly interface and customizable features, small firms can easily adapt AscendixRE to their specific needs without overwhelming complexity. Additionally, AscendixRE's pricing plans are flexible, making it affordable for smaller budgets. | Medium-sized brokerages may also benefit from HubSpot's scalability and versatility. They can leverage HubSpot's robust features to manage their contacts, campaigns, and analytics effectively, while still maintaining flexibility as their business grows. | AscendixRE is equipped to meet the needs of large enterprises with extensive portfolios and complex workflows. Its scalability and customization options allow large brokerages to tailor AscendixRE to their specific requirements, whether it's integrating with other systems, implementing advanced reporting and analytics, or accommodating unique business processes. Moreover, AscendixRE's dedicated support team ensures that large enterprises receive the assistance they need to maximize the platform's potential. |
Summing Up
Both AscendixRE and HubSpot serve brokerages of all sizes, but HubSpot’s generic approach may be better suited for smaller to mid-sized companies rather than large enterprises.
Criteria #3. Features Set for Commercial Real Estate
AscendixRE: AscendixRE CRM was initially designed to cover the needs of commercial real estate. Since 2007 it has been regularly modified and upgraded with industry-specific features and functionalities.
In terms of marketing automation, AscendixRE team has recently presented an advanced integration with Mailchimp and works thoroughly on the upcoming Accelerator Package for Drip Marketing.
HubSpot: While HubSpot offers robust CRM capabilities, its features set is primarily focused on marketing automation and contact management.
CRE brokers often require specialized tools for property management, lease tracking, deal pipelines, and property valuation, which may not be fully addressed by a generic HubSpot CRM solution.
HubSpot has decent basic analyzing/reporting/dashboarding/forecasting functionality even on free plan. However, if you need more CRE-specific, like custom analytic tools or dashboards, you should look for paid tools.
While HubSpot offers basic contact and company management, managing properties requires upgrading to a more expensive plan.
Summing Up
HubSpot for real estate isn’t the best option. AscendixRE features set is more natural to commercial real estate, making it a more sophisticated fit.
Benefit from Industry-Tailored CRM
Book AscendixRE CRM demo to see how it works.
Criteria #4. Integrations with Third-Party Tools
AscendixRE: Because AscendixRE is a Salesforce-based solution, it offers 5000+ integrations to clients (6 Native Integrations). Using Salesforce APIs, it is easy to set up integrations from AppExchange to AscendixRE CRM. More details about API access and other available integrations are in the table below.
HubSpot: Offers a wide range of integrations across various business applications presented in the table below.
Summing Up
HubSpot has numerous integrations, but it may require additional configuration for CRE-specific tools compared to AscendixRE pre-built integrations.
For example, HubSpot integration with Outlook is very far from seamless. Some clients mentioned they ran into several issues trying to get the Sales Extension for Outlook. Because the integration doesn’t work well, users can’t use any of the nifty sales tools (sequences, snippets, templates) in the desktop / interface.
At the same time, AscendixRE has a smoother integration with Outlook that helps to create new contacts, leads, accounts right in the inbox.
Criteria #5. Pricing
AscendixRE: AscendixRE price consists of 3 pricing plans based on the number of users and features, making it cost-effective for smaller brokerages and mid-sized brokerages.
- AscendixRE Foundations ($79/user/mo)
This pricing plan includes 2 hours of consulting and interactive training (within a flexible time of signing up), multifamily functionality, Deal/Account/Contact management, data deduplication, and much more.
- AscendixRE Enterprise ($99/user/mo)
With this optimal plan, you get all AscendixRE CRM functionality including advanced search, geo-mapping functionality (Ascendix Search), and brochure generation tool (Composer)
- AscendixRE Unlimited ($129/user/mo)
The Unlimited plan includes all AscendixRE CRM features, Ascendix Search, Composer, and a property listings portal – MarketSpace.
Also, pricing plans cover Salesforce license and the opportunity to import accounts and contacts using original data template mapping.
HubSpot: Regarding pricing plans, HubSpot CRM for real estate doesn’t have a fixed price tag. Here’s why:
- HubSpot offers a freemium model: You can access a free tier of their CRM that includes basic contact management features. While the core product comes at no initial cost, additional features and functionalities require paid upgrades
- Pricing depends on chosen features: HubSpot charges based on the features and functionalities you choose. To access real estate-specific features (which might not be available in the free tier), you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
- Plans scale based on user count: The price also increases as the number of users in your brokerage needing access to the CRM grows.
Here’s a breakdown of the pricing structure:
- Free: For new users HubSpot offers Free CRM, where you can test the basic functionality and define the level of interface complexity. Having that, HubSpot is the only solution that offers testing a free real estate CRM package. This might be suitable for solo agents with minimal needs.
- Starter: Starts around $45 per user monthly (billed annually). Offers additional features like email marketing, lead scoring, and reporting. This might be a starting point for smaller teams.
- Professional: Starts around $500 per month, billed annually. Offers advanced automation, custom reporting, and integrations. This caters to larger teams needing more sophisticated functionalities.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for large organizations with highly specific needs.
Summing Up
The main drawback of HubSpot pricing plans are expensive customization and additional features that may incur additional costs. Many people find it catchy because certain plans can climb to thousands of dollars per month.
Criteria #6. Support
AscendixRE: AscendixRE provides dedicated concierge service, onboarding, email support, training resources, and responsive assistance to address user queries promptly.
AscendixRE Support and Service
HubSpot: HubSpot CRM offers comprehensive support options for real estate professionals, including email support, live chat, phone support, and an extensive knowledge base. Users can access HubSpot’s help center for tutorials, guides, and troubleshooting resources to assist with any inquiries or issues. Additionally, HubSpot provides dedicated customer support for paid plans.
Summing Up
Both CRM solutions offer clients extensive assistance and support, ensuring users receive assistance when needed.
What Lacks in Both Solutions for CRE?
- HubSpot doesn’t have MLS integration. For example, you may have a WordPress site with 2 MLS integrations that has HubSpot integrated to the site. The integration will be between HubSpot ans the website, but not MLS.
- HubSpot does not support some features like property tax management, virtual property tours, geolocation, and mapping which are some of the needed features for the specific real estate businesses.
- AscendixRE CRM doesn’t have a Free version. To get a demo, you need to contact the Sales team and schedule a demo call.
- Integrating with non-Salesforce systems might pose challenges, potentially limiting AscendixRE CRM flexibility for users with diverse tech stacks.
- Any limitations or issues within the Salesforce platform could directly impact AscendixRE users.
AscendixRE or HubSpot for Commercial Real Estate?
While both AscendixRE and HubSpot offer powerful CRM solutions, AscendixRE emerges as the preferred choice for commercial real estate professionals. Its industry-specific functionalities, ease of use, tailored support, and flexible pricing plans make it the ideal CRM solution for managing complex commercial real estate transactions effectively.
On the other hand, HubSpot provides a user-friendly interface, extensive integrations, and a broad range of marketing and sales tools that can benefit real estate professionals.
Ultimately, the choice between AscendixRE and HubSpot depends on factors such as the specific requirements of the brokerage, desired level of customization, and budget considerations.
If you need assistance in choosing the most suitable CRM solution for your brokerage, feel free to book a FREE CRM discovery call. We provide you with unbiased expertise and help you with CRM implementation.
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Kateryna Zhukovina , Content Marketer
Kateryna creates engaging content about Salesforce consulting, Ascendix products, and CRM best practices for the commercial real estate industry and legal services. Her articles provide readers with relevant data, stats, business tricks and overviews of new industry trends and CRM updates.
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