Freshworks Inc. vs HubSpot, Inc.: Strategic Comparison

This in-depth comparison examines Freshworks Inc. and HubSpot, Inc. across revenue, market value, business model, competitive positioning, and long-term growth strategy. Whether you are researching Freshworks Inc. on its own, evaluating HubSpot, Inc., or weighing the two companies side by side, the breakdown below highlights where each company leads and where the gap between Freshworks Inc. and HubSpot, Inc. is widest.

On the headline numbers, Freshworks Inc. reports annual revenue of $838.8M against $3.1B for HubSpot, Inc., while their respective market capitalizations stand at $3.3B and $11.0B. Freshworks Inc. is headquartered in United States and HubSpot, Inc. operates from United States, and those different home markets shape how each company competes.

Freshworks Inc.: Freshworks is one of the best-known software companies founded in India. It started as a cheaper, simpler alternative to Zendesk, then expanded into IT service management with Freshservice, which is now its largest growth engine. The company is headquartered in San Mateo, California, while much of its product and engineering work happens in Chennai and Bengaluru.

HubSpot, Inc.: HubSpot is a Cambridge, Massachusetts software company that coined and popularized the term 'inbound marketing'. Its founders argued that businesses should attract buyers with blogs, search, and social content instead of buying their attention. HubSpot built the software to run that playbook and then expanded it into a full CRM covering marketing, sales, customer service, websites, data, and payments. Today it describes itself as an agentic customer platform for scaling businesses, competing most directly with Salesforce in the mid-market.

Freshworks Inc. and HubSpot, Inc. pursue distinct approaches to generating revenue, and understanding how each company operates is the foundation of any fair comparison between Freshworks Inc. and HubSpot, Inc..

Freshworks Inc. business model: Freshworks sells subscriptions, mostly priced per agent or per user, across tiered plans (Growth, Pro, Enterprise). Revenue comes from two segments: employee experience (Freshservice for IT service management, IT asset management via the 2024 Device42 acquisition, and service management for HR and facilities) and customer experience (Freshdesk ticketing, Freshchat messaging and Freshsales CRM). Freddy AI copilot and AI agent features are sold as paid add-ons. Small customers often start with free trials or self-serve plans; larger mid-market and enterprise deals go through a direct sales team and channel partners. Growth comes from adding seats, upgrading tiers and cross-selling Freshservice to Freshdesk customers.

HubSpot, Inc. business model: HubSpot sells subscriptions to its customer platform. A free CRM and free tiers of each hub bring businesses in at no cost; paying customers then move up through Starter, Professional, and Enterprise editions, add hubs, and buy seats and AI credits. Subscription revenue was $3.06 billion of the $3.13 billion total in fiscal 2025, with professional services (onboarding and training) making up the remaining $67.3 million. Average subscription revenue per customer was about $11,800 in Q2 2026. A network of solutions partners (agencies and consultancies) resells, implements, and services much of the base, which keeps HubSpot's own services business small.

The durability of a company's moat often decides long-term winners. Here is how the competitive advantages of Freshworks Inc. stack up against those of HubSpot, Inc..

Freshworks Inc. competitive advantage: Freshworks' main advantage is a lower total cost of ownership: Freshservice and Freshdesk are designed to be configured by in-house admins in weeks rather than through multi-month integrator projects common with ServiceNow or Salesforce. A large engineering base in India keeps R&D costs lower than Silicon Valley peers, and a shared platform lets one vendor cover IT, HR and customer support desks.

HubSpot, Inc. competitive advantage: HubSpot's edge is ease of use on a single data model. Marketing, sales, service, content, and commerce records sit in one Smart CRM, so a mid-market company can run its go-to-market stack without the consultants and integration work that Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365 often require. The free CRM keeps the top of the funnel full, HubSpot Academy and the annual conference built a large professional community, and its partner network handles implementation at scale. That combination gives HubSpot unusually efficient reach into businesses with roughly 10 to 2,000 employees.

Future prospects matter as much as current results. The growth strategies below explain how Freshworks Inc. and HubSpot, Inc. each plan to expand from here.

Freshworks Inc. growth strategy: Under Dennis Woodside, Freshworks narrowed its focus to service software. It pushes Freshservice upmarket into mid-sized and larger enterprises, cross-sells IT asset management, sells Freddy AI add-ons into the installed base, and relies more on partners and resellers. In 2024 it de-emphasized standalone sales and marketing CRM products to concentrate investment on IT and customer service.

HubSpot, Inc. growth strategy: HubSpot is pursuing three growth paths. First, moving upmarket with Enterprise editions, custom objects, and data tools so larger customers consolidate on HubSpot. Second, selling more hubs and seats to its installed base of more than 306,000 customers. Third, monetizing AI through Breeze agents (customer service, prospecting, data, and content agents) and usage-based credits. HubSpot also keeps buying audience: HubSpot Media, built around The Hustle and the My First Million podcast, added creator-led Starter Story in February 2026.

A closer look at the financial trajectory of Freshworks Inc. and HubSpot, Inc. rounds out the comparison.

Freshworks Inc.: Freshworks grew revenue from $172.4 million in 2019 to $838.8 million in 2025. Losses peaked at a $232 million net loss in 2022, then narrowed as the company cut costs and slowed hiring. In 2025 it posted GAAP operating income of $13.2 million (versus a $138.6 million loss in 2024), non-GAAP operating income of $178.0 million, and $242.4 million in operating cash flow; GAAP net income of about $184 million was boosted by a fourth-quarter tax benefit. Cash and marketable securities were $843.7 million at year-end 2025. In Q2 2026 revenue rose 16% to $237.4 million with a 24% non-GAAP operating margin.

HubSpot, Inc.: HubSpot spent its first 18 years trading losses for growth: GAAP net losses ran from $39.7 million in 2017 to $164.5 million in 2023. The turn came in 2024 with $4.6 million of net income on $2.63 billion of revenue, followed by $45.9 million on $3.13 billion in 2025. In Q2 2026 revenue reached $911.7 million (up 20% as reported, 17% in constant currency), subscription revenue was $894.0 million, and non-GAAP operating margin improved to 20.3%. Full-year 2026 guidance calls for roughly $3.68 billion of revenue and about a 21% non-GAAP operating margin.