A CRM system is the foundation of how your teams manage relationships, track opportunities, and deliver great customer experiences. With so many platforms available, finding the right one for your business often comes down to how well it aligns with your goals, structure, and existing technology stack.
Two of the most popular choices — Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (Dynamics 365 CE) and HubSpot — both help businesses improve sales, marketing, and service performance. But their approaches differ significantly. In this blog, we’ll be breaking down how they compare across key areas and which is right for your business.
Target audience and industries
Dynamics 365 CE caters to a wide range of businesses, from small organisations looking to strengthen customer relationships to large enterprises managing complex, multi-department processes. Its breadth of functionality and scalability make it suitable for industries with specific or regulated workflows.
HubSpot, on the other hand, is often favoured by small to mid-sized businesses with straightforward customer experience requirements. It’s particularly popular with companies that place marketing at the centre of their growth strategy, offering a clear, guided structure for sales and marketing teams.
Functionality and integrations
Both Dynamics 365 CE and HubSpot deliver essential CRM capabilities, but the scope and depth of their features differ.
Dynamics 365 CE spans the full customer lifecycle, supporting sales, service, field operations, analytics, and project delivery. Each module can work independently or together as part of the wider Dynamics platform, offering enterprise-level depth and extensibility.
- Sales – Lead and opportunity management, pipeline visibility, forecasting, quoting, AI-guided selling, and configurable workflows for complex sales processes.
- Customer service – Case management, omnichannel support, AI-assisted routing and knowledge recommendations, self-service portals, and insight-driven service analytics.
- Field service – Work order management, resource scheduling, asset tracking, remote assistance, automated reminders, and post-service surveys.
- Customer insights – Campaign and journey management, email and SMS marketing, landing pages and forms, event planning, customer segmentation, behavioural insights, and marketing performance analytics.
- Project operations – Project planning, resource management, forecasting, time and expense tracking, and financial visibility for predictable, profitable project delivery.
Dynamics 365 CE sits at the centre of a hyperconnected business. It works seamlessly with Business Central, the finance side of Dynamics 365, linking CRM with accounting, operations, and project management. It also integrates across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, including Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive, to streamline collaboration and communication.
The Microsoft Power Platform further extends its capabilities, enabling businesses to automate workflows, build custom apps tailored to their processes, and generate advanced analytics and dashboards with Power BI. Third-party applications built on the Power Platform integrate directly into Dynamics 365 CE, appearing within the same interface, using the same lists, views, and data structures as native modules. This means users can access and act on information from multiple systems without switching platforms. Beyond Microsoft tools, Dynamics 365 CE also connects with a wide range of third-party applications, allowing the CRM to adapt to existing systems and scale as business needs evolve.
This depth of functionality makes Dynamics 365 CE highly adaptable and particularly well suited to organisations with multi-stage sales cycles or more complex operational requirements.
HubSpot provides a marketing-led CRM platform covering marketing, sales, service, content, and commerce. It’s important to note that not all features are available on every plan, with more advanced functionality reserved for higher tiers.
- CRM – Contact, company, and deal management with activity tracking, pipeline views, and standard automation.
- Marketing – Email marketing, SEO, social publishing, landing pages, forms, lead nurturing, campaign management, and marketing automation.
- Sales – Deal pipelines, meeting scheduling, quotes, playbooks, task automation, and AI-assisted content creation.
- Service – Ticketing, shared inbox, customer feedback tools, knowledge base, SLAs, and live chat/chatbots.
- Content – Tools for building and managing websites, blogs, landing pages, and personalised content.
- Data – Data sync, workflow automation, data cleansing, attribution reporting, and performance dashboards.
- Commerce – Payment collection, invoicing, subscription billing, and quote-to-cash capabilities.
HubSpot’s Sales and Service Hubs offer solid functionality, however its deepest native capabilities remain in inbound marketing, making it a popular choice with marketing teams. Functionality can also be extended through the hundreds of pre-built integrations and extensions available in its App Marketplace. Its integrations may be less flexible for complex enterprise environments compared to Microsoft’s interconnected ecosystem.
Deployment and implementation
Dynamics 365 CE is cloud-based, offering businesses secure, scalable, and accessible solutions from anywhere. Implementation times vary depending on size and complexity, from around 3–6 months for smaller businesses to 9–18 months for larger businesses with more complex requirements. In some cases, businesses with straightforward processes can be up and running in as little as a month using an out-of-the-box configuration.
HubSpot is a cloud-only platform with typically faster deployment times, averaging 2–3 months. It’s designed to get teams up and running quickly, though deeper configuration or customisation may extend timelines.
Scalability
As part of the wider Dynamics 365 platform, CE is designed to grow with your business. Its modular structure allows you to start with core CRM capabilities and expand into other areas, like finance, supply chain, or operations, as your organisation evolves. Built on Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure, it can handle large datasets and complex workflows, and be used across multiple areas of a business, making it suitable for both small teams and global enterprises.
HubSpot also scales effectively, with tiered plans that add features and users as your business grows. While it can support growth, the system is primarily geared toward marketing and sales functions, and scaling beyond those areas may require additional integrations or higher-tier plans.
Customisation
Dynamics 365 CE offers extensive customisation options. Its modular nature allows businesses to choose only the apps and capabilities they need — such as Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, or Field Service. Beyond selecting modules, you can tailor fields, workflows, dashboards, and build custom applications through the Power Platform, giving your teams the flexibility to adapt the CRM to your unique processes.
HubSpot, by contrast, is designed as a more plug-and-play solution. While higher-tier plans allow for custom fields, objects, and workflows, any substantial changes typically require developer support. This ensures ease of use but can limit flexibility for businesses with highly specific or complex processes.
User experience
HubSpot is widely praised for its intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easy for teams to adopt quickly.
Dynamics 365 CE, while modern and cohesive within the Microsoft environment, can have a steeper learning curve, especially during the setup and configuration phase. However, the trade-off is greater control and adaptability over the long term.
Pricing
Both platforms use a subscription-based model, allowing businesses to pay for the modules they need.
HubSpot generally offers a lower starting cost, ideal for businesses wanting to get started quickly. However, costs can rise as you scale — particularly if you add more contacts, users, or advanced features.
Dynamics 365 typically starts at a higher price point, but offers greater long-term value for businesses that need deep integrations, robust analytics, and scalability across departments.
Which CRM is right for you?
Ultimately, the best CRM for your business depends on your objectives, structure, and, strategy.
HubSpot may be appealing for smaller teams or businesses looking for a simple, all-in-one CRM with built-in marketing tools and minimal setup overhead.
If your organisation has unique processes, complex sales cycles, or a need to connect CRM data across the business, Dynamics 365 CE provides a scalable platform that grows with you. By seamlessly linking your customer data with Microsoft 365 and other business functions, it helps your teams work smarter, stay aligned, and make informed decisions across sales, marketing, service, and operations.
Curious about how Dynamics could improve your business operations? Whether you want advice or a deeper dive into our Dynamics solutions, contact us on 03300 245447 or email info@techsol.co.uk.
