Freshsales x Hubspot: Which CRM excels at WhatsApp integration?

When WhatsApp propels your sales strategy, choosing the right CRM can mean the difference between sealing a deal and losing a lead. In the comparison of Freshsales vs Hubspot, you'll find features like instant chat access, effortless message logging, AI-driven follow-ups, and intuitive drag-and-drop workflows; however, each platform offers unique advantages in customization, pricing transparency, and pipeline complexity. Meanwhile, a revolutionary newcomer is subtly transforming the expectations of true WhatsApp integration.

Why WhatsApp CRM Integration Matters

Linking WhatsApp directly to your CRM creates a seamless connection between conversations and revenue. With automated contact syncing and message logging, there's no need for manual data entry or the risk of losing leads—every interaction is transformed into an actionable record.

• Accelerate response times by triggering follow-ups and reminders immediately when a customer engages.
• Enhance engagement through personalized, template-based outreach that feels uniquely crafted.
• Optimize workflows with a single unified dashboard for chats, contacts, and campaign analytics.

When your team has visibility into every WhatsApp message alongside emails, calls, and deals, they can focus less on context-hunting and more on closing deals—turning casual conversations into reliable conversions.

What is Freshsales?

Freshsales integrates AI into your sales workflow by automatically capturing leads from websites, emails, and phone calls. Its smart workflows efficiently score and prioritize prospects, enabling sales reps to target the most promising opportunities. With built-in email, phone, and chat capabilities, tool-switching is a thing of the past, while behavior-based segmentation allows for hyper-personalized outreach. The outcome? Deals progress through your pipeline more swiftly and with significantly less manual effort.

Thanks to its WhatsApp Business integration, you can promptly address customer inquiries and offer 24/7 support from a single workspace, enhancing both customer satisfaction and team productivity.

What is Hubspot?

HubSpot offers a free CRM that consolidates all your contacts, deals, and tasks into a user-friendly interface—no credit card required. It provides features like live chat, email tracking, meeting scheduling, and ticketing tools right from the start. With powerful integrations to Marketing Hub and Service Hub, you can effortlessly automate handoffs between teams. Since it's part of HubSpot's ecosystem, upgrading to paid plans for more advanced automation or reporting is seamless. HubSpot's WhatsApp integration allows you to send and receive messages directly within the shared inbox, automate template-based notifications through workflows, and facilitate two-way customer conversations at scale.

Feature comparison of Freshsales and Hubspot

Two-Way Messaging

Freshsales, part of the Freshworks Suite, offers seamless integration with the WhatsApp Business API via Freshchat or Freshdesk. Messages are organized as support tickets or conversations within the CRM interface, allowing sales and support agents to respond directly. This feature is perfect for service workflows, though it has some limitations for outbound sales applications.

HubSpot's native WhatsApp integration, available in Professional and Enterprise Service Hub plans, brings two-way messaging straight into your shared conversations inbox. Agents can respond to customer inquiries using text, images, or videos—all within HubSpot. Incoming messages automatically create a new thread linked to the appropriate contact, company, deal, or ticket record. Outbound template or custom messages initiate 24-hour sessions to facilitate ongoing communication. You will have complete visibility into session limits and conversation counts, helping you adhere to your monthly quotas without any surprises. Additionally, workflows can trigger business-initiated template messages for re-engagement or reminders, logging each interaction as a timeline event.

Template Management

Freshsales lacks built-in WhatsApp template management, requiring users to depend on third-party integrations like TimelinesAI or Interakt for creating and managing templates. Consequently, the processes of template approval and reuse take place outside the platform.

In contrast, HubSpot’s WhatsApp integration, available on the Professional and Enterprise Service Hub, features a synchronized template manager directly within your CRM. Once you connect your WhatsApp Business account, every approved template from Meta is automatically synced to HubSpot’s CRM under the Templates > WhatsApp tab, where you can conveniently filter by status (Ready to use, Needs personalization, Rejected), language, and category (promotional, transactional, OTP).

Automated Responses & Chatbots

Freshchat enables seamless sending and receiving of media, including images, documents, videos, and voice notes, over WhatsApp. All exchanged files are automatically stored in the contact or ticket history, providing teams with complete conversation context.

With HubSpot’s WhatsApp integration on Service Hub Professional and Enterprise, you can set up workflows to send automated messages—such as welcome sequences, abandoned cart reminders, and delivery updates—directly as WhatsApp template notifications.

Although HubSpot lacks a native chatbot builder for WhatsApp, you can integrate external chatbot platforms through Zapier or respond.io, seamlessly funneling conversation flows into HubSpot’s shared inbox and customer records. This allows a chatbot to qualify leads or address common inquiries, escalating to a live agent when necessary, all within your existing workflow.

Multimedia Support (Images, Videos, Files)

Freshchat enables users to send and receive various media types, including images, documents, videos, and voice notes, via WhatsApp. All exchanged files are automatically archived in the contact or ticket history, providing teams with complete conversation context.

HubSpot’s native WhatsApp integration, available in Service Hub Professional and Enterprise, allows users to send and receive media attachments—such as images, videos, audio, stickers, and documents up to 15 MB—directly from the conversations inbox or contact record.

Incoming media messages generate timeline events that showcase thumbnails and download links, allowing sales and support teams to view or forward assets seamlessly without needing to switch apps.

Contact & Lead Synchronization

With integrations such as TimelinesAI or Albato, Freshsales can automatically create or update contacts, leads, or deals when WhatsApp conversations begin. While a manual setup is necessary, the synchronization becomes reliable once configured.

HubSpot offers a native WhatsApp integration (available on Professional and Enterprise Service Hub) that automatically syncs each new WhatsApp conversation to the respective contact record in your CRM, allowing for the creation or updating of contacts based on their phone number.

Upon connecting your WhatsApp Business account, only new messages will trigger this synchronization (historical chats remain within WhatsApp), and every incoming thread generates a new timeline event linked to the corresponding contact or associated deal. For channels that require lead capture, such as click-to-WhatsApp ads, you can automate contact creation from form submissions and continue the conversation via WhatsApp, all seamlessly tracked in HubSpot.

Workflow Triggers & Notifications

Freshsales offers trigger-based actions through Freshworks Automations or external platforms like Zapier and Make. While Freshsales doesn't natively support WhatsApp integration, you can still send follow-ups, update records, or create tasks based on WhatsApp activity.

On the other hand, HubSpot’s Service Hub connects with WhatsApp through certified partners, allowing you to capture events such as new messages, template sends, or delivery failures directly in its workflow engine. This capability enables you to implement downstream automations—like transforming high-priority conversations into deals or support tickets and sending alerts to your team—ensuring that every WhatsApp interaction is turned into an actionable signal within your CRM.

folk CRM: The Best CRM Connected to WhatsApp

If your sales team uses WhatsApp to engage leads and close deals, folk CRM's integration with WhatsApp is a game-changer.

With folk’s WhatsApp CRM, every conversation is automatically synced and logged into your CRM—eliminating the need for manual copy-pasting or the risk of lost messages. You’ll have complete visibility into your team’s WhatsApp interactions with leads and customers, ensuring you always grasp the context of each deal. Whether it’s a follow-up or a critical decision point, all the information you need is right at your fingertips.

However, folk is more than just WhatsApp.
It seamlessly integrates with Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn, Google Meet, Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and more—allowing you to manage emails, meetings, and social interactions from a single platform. Import contacts from any channel and manage them efficiently within folk.

What truly sets folk apart is its AI agents, which supercharge your sales process by automating workflows, uncovering deal insights, and enhancing productivity—freeing your team from administrative tasks so they can focus on closing deals.
Are you ready to transform your sales operations and drive results?

Conclusion

Both Freshsales and HubSpot present robust WhatsApp CRM integrations, with Freshsales excelling in AI lead management and HubSpot thriving in user-friendly automation tools. Freshsales automates lead capture and enhances customer interactions, while HubSpot's seamless communication capabilities and template management streamline workflows effectively.

However, if you seek a CRM that truly integrates WhatsApp into your sales strategy with intuitive ease, folk stands out as a superior alternative. It not only syncs conversations effortlessly but also connects with various platforms and employs AI to enhance productivity, allowing your team to focus on closing deals.

Start your 14-day free trial or book a demo today.