HubSpot is a marketing and sales CRM for any industry. Its strength is demand: marketing automation, email campaigns, landing pages and lead nurture, with a free CRM tier. Quotes and invoices sit in its paid tiers, and field scheduling and job forms come from marketplace apps. It has no DNO or MCS features.
Payaca is built for solar, heat pump, battery and EV charger install businesses, and for the part of the job that starts when the customer says yes: the DNO application through ENA Connect, MCS documentation, the install team's field app, invoicing and payments, on one system with the CRM. Here's how they compare.
The short answer
Choose Payaca when the constraint is everything after a customer says yes: DNO applications, MCS documentation, the field team and the invoice. Keep HubSpot for marketing if demand is the constraint, alongside Payaca if you like.
- Payaca is best for install businesses whose bottleneck is delivery: scheduling engineers, tracking grid applications, getting compliance evidence off site.
- HubSpot is best for businesses whose bottleneck is demand, and who want serious marketing automation, content and lead nurture in one platform.
- Payaca publishes its pricing: Growth, the standard plan for established install businesses, is £1,199/month. Current plans and eligibility are on the pricing page. HubSpot publishes per-seat tiers, the cost rises with contacts and hubs as well as users, and its Professional and Enterprise tiers add a required one-off onboarding fee.
Looking at this yourself?
We'll show you your own jobs in Payaca, side by side with how you run them in HubSpot today. Book a demo
Feature comparison
| Feature | Payaca | HubSpot |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | One system for clean tech install businesses, from the enquiry to the paid invoice | Marketing and sales CRM for any industry |
| Industry focus | Built for solar, heat pumps, batteries, EV chargers | Generic: works for any B2B or B2C business |
| DNO applications | ENA Connect integration for G98/G99 submissions | Not available: no DNO support |
| MCS compliance | MCS certificates and documentation generated from the job | Not available: no MCS features |
| Design tool integration | Design in Payaca with Glow (limited release), or import from EasyPV, Heatpunk and OpenSolar | No solar or heat pump design integrations |
| Job management | Projects through survey, install, commissioning and handover, with stage automations and rules that stop a job moving on until the work is done | Deals, tickets and tasks, not built around multi-stage installation jobs |
| Field team mobile app | Field app that works fully offline: schedule, checklists, photos, time logs, and documents and signatures captured on site | CRM mobile app for contacts, deals and tasks. Field scheduling and job forms come from marketplace apps |
| Marketing automation | Automated email and SMS follow-ups on the job, not a marketing suite | Marketing tools: email campaigns, landing pages, lead nurture and website visitor tracking (paid tiers) |
| Quoting & proposals | Multi-option proposals with equipment specs. The customer picks options, signs and pays the deposit in one flow | Quotes with e-signatures and payment collection, with AI quote building on paid tiers |
| Invoicing | Invoices and staged payment schedules from the job, card and bank payments, two-way Xero and QuickBooks sync | Invoices and payment links in its revenue tools, with HubSpot payments or Stripe |
| AI | Agent Dave AI assistant built in, plus an MCP server for Claude and Cursor | Breeze AI and AI agents for marketing, sales and customer service |
Primary purpose
One system for clean tech install businesses, from the enquiry to the paid invoice
Marketing and sales CRM for any industry
Industry focus
Built for solar, heat pumps, batteries, EV chargers
Generic: works for any B2B or B2C business
DNO applications
ENA Connect integration for G98/G99 submissions
Not available: no DNO support
MCS compliance
MCS certificates and documentation generated from the job
Not available: no MCS features
Design tool integration
Design in Payaca with Glow (limited release), or import from EasyPV, Heatpunk and OpenSolar
No solar or heat pump design integrations
Job management
Projects through survey, install, commissioning and handover, with stage automations and rules that stop a job moving on until the work is done
Deals, tickets and tasks, not built around multi-stage installation jobs
Field team mobile app
Field app that works fully offline: schedule, checklists, photos, time logs, and documents and signatures captured on site
CRM mobile app for contacts, deals and tasks. Field scheduling and job forms come from marketplace apps
Marketing automation
Automated email and SMS follow-ups on the job, not a marketing suite
Marketing tools: email campaigns, landing pages, lead nurture and website visitor tracking (paid tiers)
Quoting & proposals
Multi-option proposals with equipment specs. The customer picks options, signs and pays the deposit in one flow
Quotes with e-signatures and payment collection, with AI quote building on paid tiers
Invoicing
Invoices and staged payment schedules from the job, card and bank payments, two-way Xero and QuickBooks sync
Invoices and payment links in its revenue tools, with HubSpot payments or Stripe
AI
Agent Dave AI assistant built in, plus an MCP server for Claude and Cursor
Breeze AI and AI agents for marketing, sales and customer service
See it in Payaca
The real product, on our demo accounts.
Operations & scheduling
Schedule your field team on a map and track every job. More on Operations & scheduling
The whole job in 100 seconds
Switching from HubSpot
Export your contacts, companies and deals from HubSpot as CSV. We load them through our import tooling as customers, contacts and projects, with each open deal placed at the right stage of your Payaca pipeline and its notes carried across.
You don't have to drop HubSpot. Some businesses keep it for marketing and connect it to Payaca through our open API or Zapier, so campaigns and lead nurture stay in HubSpot and the job runs in Payaca from the first sales call.
Growth and above include guided onboarding: we map your workflow, migrate your data and train your team, for a one-off £1,500.
Which is right for you?
Choose Payaca if
- You run a solar, heat pump or EV charger business
- You need operations and field team tools
- You have compliance requirements (DNO, MCS)
- You want one system for the whole business
Consider HubSpot if
- Marketing automation is your priority
- You don't run installations, just sales and leads
- You have other tools for operations
- You want to keep HubSpot for marketing and run everything after the sale in Payaca
Questions
Can I use HubSpot for my solar installation business?
You can use HubSpot for lead capture and marketing, but it isn't built for the job after the sale. There are no DNO applications, no MCS compliance and no installation workflow, and a field team app means adding a marketplace app. Most install businesses end up adding several tools to run the work.
What does HubSpot do well?
HubSpot is built for marketing: automation, email campaigns, landing pages and tracking website visitors, with a free CRM tier. If marketing is your constraint, HubSpot is strong. Running installation operations is not what it was designed for.
Should I use HubSpot for marketing and Payaca for operations?
This can work well. Use HubSpot to generate and nurture leads, then manage them in Payaca once they're sales-qualified. Payaca's open API and Zapier integration connect the two.
Is the HubSpot free CRM enough for a small install business?
The free CRM handles basic contact management, but you'll quickly need quoting, scheduling, compliance and invoicing. Quotes and invoices sit in HubSpot's paid tiers, and scheduling engineers, DNO applications and MCS paperwork need other tools. Payaca includes all of it for install businesses in one platform.
How much does HubSpot cost for a full solution?
HubSpot prices per seat, and its Professional and Enterprise tiers add a required one-off onboarding fee. For a team of any size that cost rises with every user, and you'd still need separate tools for scheduling, compliance and field work. Compare the total cost, not just the CRM subscription.
Can I migrate from HubSpot to Payaca?
Yes. Contacts, companies, open deals and notes come across from a HubSpot export. The section above sets out what moves and how. Book a demo to scope yours.
Competitor details are based on their public information as of 29 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.