DriftHubSpot Service HubDrift vs HubSpot Service Hub

Drift vs HubSpot Service Hub: $2,500 against $75 a month

A conversational marketing platform against a CRM-based help desk: HubSpot Service Hub is $2,425 a month cheaper for five people. The six differences, what five people pay on each, and a third option.

By Khalid Nouri, founder of SellioPricing check dates are listed with each vendor below

Try the third optionSellio pricing

No credit card. Live in minutes.

The short answer

Pick Drift if you want a sales chatbot that qualifies visitors and books meetings, not a support inbox. Pick HubSpot Service Hub if your sales and marketing already live in HubSpot and support should share the CRM. For five people, HubSpot Service Hub is $2,425 a month cheaper than Drift ($2,500 a month on Drift against $75 on HubSpot Service Hub), before AI. Sellio Mini, at $45 for the workspace, is $30 under HubSpot Service Hub. Drift and HubSpot Service Hub both include website chat in the price; only HubSpot Service Hub has email. Neither Drift nor HubSpot Service Hub includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. Below, a third option for a team of two to ten that wants what Drift and HubSpot Service Hub sell here at one price.

At a glanceDriftDriftHubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub
Built aroundSales conversations · a marketing tool, not a help deskThe CRM record · help desk on top of HubSpot
Entry planFrom $2,500/mo · Premium, yearly contract$15/seat/mo · Starter, yearly
Chat in the priceFrom $2,500/mo · one contract for the whole team$0 · Free tools: chat with HubSpot branding
AI agentBy contract · part of the Salesloft platform$9 per 1,000 credits · 50 credits per resolution
Copilot for agentsBy contractBreeze · in the plans
Free planNone · sales-led, no trialYes · 2 users, branded chat

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    DriftDrift

    As a chat with a website visitor that Drift tries to qualify and route to a sales rep or a meeting. HubSpot Service Hub raises a ticket where Drift keeps a conversation.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    As a ticket on the CRM contact, with every marketing and sales touch beside it. Drift has no ticket queue behind its conversations.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    DriftDrift

    There are no support seats: one annual contract from $2,500 a month covers the revenue team. $2,500 for five people, against $75 on HubSpot Service Hub.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    Starter is $15 a seat; Professional is $90 with a $1,500 onboarding fee, and that is where routing and SLAs start. $75 for five people, against $2,500 on Drift.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    DriftDrift

    AI chat and qualification are part of the Salesloft platform and priced in the contract. HubSpot Service Hub meters AI ($9 per 1,000 credits) above the seats as well.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    Customer Agent costs 50 credits per resolved conversation, and credits are $9 per 1,000, so about $0.45 a resolution. Drift meters AI (by contract) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    DriftDrift

    Website chat, email sequences and meeting booking; no WhatsApp, Instagram or ticket queue. HubSpot Service Hub adds email, which Drift lacks.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    Chat, email and Messenger on the lower plans; WhatsApp and calling on Professional; no Telegram. email is here and not on Drift.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    DriftDrift

    Account-based marketing, playbooks, meeting booking and Salesloft's sales engagement suite. HubSpot Service Hub is a CRM-based help desk instead.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    The rest of HubSpot: marketing, sales, CMS and the shared CRM. Drift is a conversational marketing platform instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    DriftDrift

    Weeks: a sales-led onboarding with playbooks and routing, and Salesloft has said the product is winding down. HubSpot Service Hub is an afternoon on Starter.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    An afternoon on Starter; Professional comes with a paid onboarding. Drift is weeks.

Sources: Drift pricing · HubSpot Service Hub pricing. Each vendor’s own comparison of the other is linked so you can weigh both sides against ours.

What each one looks like

A look at the agent workspace. Interfaces can vary by plan and product version.

The Drift conversation view: a visitor chat with routing to a rep and a meeting booker
DriftDrift. The Drift conversation view: a visitor chat with routing to a rep and a meeting booker
The HubSpot help desk workspace: the ticket with the CRM contact and its timeline
HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub. The HubSpot help desk workspace: the ticket with the CRM contact and its timeline

Pricing references: Drift pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06; needs verification); HubSpot Service Hub pricing page (recorded 2026-09-13). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

Drift, HubSpot Service Hub and Sellio, side by side

Fifteen things a support team checks. A dash means the product does part of it or charges extra for it.

FeatureDriftDriftHubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service HubSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Annual platform contract from $2,500/mo.
Per seat; onboarding fees; AI by credits
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
Sales-led only.
2 users, HubSpot branding
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
The core of the product, aimed at lead capture.
All plans
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
Sales email sequences; not a support inbox.
All plans
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Not a channel.
Professional and up
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Not a channel.
Messenger only
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not a channel.
Not offered
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack notifications for sales alerts.
Slack and Teams notifications
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
AI for qualification and booking rather than support answers.
Customer Agent
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
By contract.
50 credits per resolution, $9 per 1,000
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Routes to reps.
Creates a ticket
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
No ticketing.
On the CRM record
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Playbooks for lead routing.
Professional and up
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Pipeline and conversion reporting; no CSAT.
Reports; advanced on Professional
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile.
Browser and mobile
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Drift if

  • You want a sales chatbot that qualifies visitors and books meetings, not a support inbox.
  • You already run Salesloft and want chat inside the same platform.
  • Time to the first reply is weeks here and an afternoon on Starter on HubSpot Service Hub.
  • Its pricing model suits you better than HubSpot Service Hub's: drift's pricing page redirects to Salesloft. Published figures come from third-party summaries and Salesloft's own materials; Salesloft has announced the product is being wound down.

Pick HubSpot Service Hub if

  • Your sales and marketing already live in HubSpot and support should share the CRM.
  • You want an AI agent priced per resolution at under a dollar.
  • Five people cost $2,425 a month less than on Drift ($75 against $2,500), before AI.
  • You need email in the price, which Drift does not include outright.

The third option: Sellio

  • You are two to ten people on Drift or HubSpot Service Hub who answer chat, messaging and email, and want to compare workspace pricing with $2,500 a month on Drift against $75 on HubSpot Service Hub for five people.
  • You want the AI bill known before the month starts: Drift meters AI (by contract) above the seats, HubSpot Service Hub meters AI ($9 per 1,000 credits) above the seats; Sellio includes a credit and lets you cap it.
  • You need Telegram and native Windows and macOS apps, which neither Drift nor HubSpot Service Hub includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Drift: $2,500 a month for five (one annual contract, from $2,500 a month); it does not print a per-seat rate to extend to two or ten. HubSpot Service Hub on Starter: $30, $75 and $150 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $2,455 less than Drift and $30 less than HubSpot Service Hub for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $55 under HubSpot Service Hub.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Drift is a conversational marketing platform built around sales conversations; HubSpot Service Hub is a CRM-based help desk built around the CRM record. Only HubSpot Service Hub has a free plan (2 users, branded chat); Drift offers no trial. Drift and HubSpot Service Hub both include website chat in the price; only HubSpot Service Hub has email. Neither Drift nor HubSpot Service Hub includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. Drift (by contract) and HubSpot Service Hub ($9 per 1,000 credits) both meter AI above the seats. HubSpot Service Hub has tickets and Drift does not, and neither Drift nor HubSpot Service Hub ships a desktop app. Drift is weeks; HubSpot Service Hub is an afternoon on Starter.

What each price leaves out

Drift: AI features are part of the Salesloft platform and priced by contract. HubSpot Service Hub: HubSpot Credits at $9 per 1,000; Customer Agent uses 50 credits per resolved conversation. Beside Drift's by contract and HubSpot Service Hub's $9 per 1,000 credits, Sellio includes an AI credit with each paid plan. Usage consumes that credit; additional credits cost extra, and you can set a spending cap.

How these figures were read

Drift does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Drift's pricing page redirects to Salesloft. Published figures come from third-party summaries and Salesloft's own materials; Salesloft has announced the product is being wound down.), so they are marked unverified here beside HubSpot Service Hub's, and Drift's pricing page should be checked before you decide.

How to decide in an afternoon

  1. Step 1

    Count agents and channels

    Anyone who replies is a seat. List the channels customers actually use.

    5 people reply5 seats
    Website chat61%
    WhatsApp27%
    Email12%
  2. Step 2

    Price the AI you would use

    Estimate monthly conversations the AI could close, then apply each vendor's per-resolution or per-session rate.

    1,200 conversations × 40% AI closes480
    DriftDriftSee vendorNot quoted
    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub$0.45$212
    Sellio$0.05$19

    Illustrative AI-only estimate; vendor units differ. Pack billing is rounded up. Sellio assumes Mini’s $5 credit and $0.05 per conversation.

  3. Step 3

    Trial the shortlist

    Check each vendor’s trial, free plan or demo terms. Where access is available, test one real channel before committing.

    DriftDrift · None; sales-led contracts
    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub · Free tools, no trial clock
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

    Confirm trial access and limits, then evaluate one real channel on each.

Continue your research

FAQ

Drift vs HubSpot Service Hub: the questions people ask

Drift is a conversational marketing platform built around sales conversations; HubSpot Service Hub is a CRM-based help desk built around the CRM record. HubSpot Service Hub has tickets and Drift does not, and neither Drift nor HubSpot Service Hub ships a desktop app.

  • Entry plan: Drift From $2,500/mo (Premium, yearly contract); HubSpot Service Hub $15/seat/mo (Starter, yearly).
  • Chat in the price: Drift From $2,500/mo (one contract for the whole team); HubSpot Service Hub $0 (Free tools: chat with HubSpot branding).
  • Sellio: WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither Drift nor HubSpot Service Hub has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Drift and HubSpot Service Hub rows is on the shared inbox page.

Still have a question? Contact us or browse the docs.

Or the third option: one price, every channel.

Sellio puts website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and email in one inbox with tickets and an AI agent, for $45 to $295 a month per workspace.

Get startedRead the docs

No credit card required