If you’re ok with being very restricted with what your site/blog will look like, HS is probably easier to just write and click “post”. But if you do care, and you’re willing to learn even just a little bit, you’ll probably want to look at WP. I’m non-technical and use WP every day for a CMS and blog, and it’s been really easy to pick up.

The reason that I decided to chime in is that I work for Spectate; we’re an alternative to HubSpot that doesn’t require any particular CMS and we integrate with WordPress. Sorry I’m late to the party! spectate.com

I definitely see WordPress less and less as simply a publishing platform, but more and more as a development platform or a starting point from which to build and add on to based on whatever the business need is.

http://www.hubspot.com/services/colleen-coyne/

Good information about continuing education for your customers.

Question – some people have other needs and decide to migrate, some wish backup, some have other needs entirely and yet no data export is available. Is there any good reason why you don’t provide exportable data to your clients so that they have if for several purposes including:
1. backup
2. exit needs
3. re-use in other applications

Most major systems offer this type of data portability, but not Hubspot that I can see/find.

Aside: FWIW Colleen, your picture on your hubspot profile page is jammed up against your text paragraph in my browser. Easy fix if you wish I’d be happy to send the css to you or a screenshot to show what I am referring to.

First, thanks for being a HubSpot customer! I have been with the company for several years now and we certainly appreciate your business.

I want you to know that we are committed to providing ongoing education for our customers beyond your initial consulting or group training. Are you aware of “Content Camp”? (http://camp.hubspot.com/) – This is a series of weekly webinars specifically for HubSpot customers and there is no added cost. You can check out the details on the site, but I think you’ll find it helpful. Happy lead gen!

Another angle is that after a certain amount of self-paced learning clients reach a state of omniscience and shed the training wheels.

For me, hubspot is a combination of tools, and methodologies, that unless you are a inbound marketing expert, and a web developer, you may have difficulty finding elsewhere. My gripe about hubspot is that they do give you enough rope to hang yourself, because the $250 a month only includes self paced training and a group webinar. If you don’t follow the methods, you are basically spending $250 a month for a process that will fail. If you go with Hubspot, you need to commit to the process and methods and complete the on-boarding process.

Different question, why sign up for a service that locks in your data and causes you to have to hire a service like us. Granted we do a lot of other moves like mt (moveable type) where the data is not locked in because we can do it faster and we do it often vs a client doing it once so we have advantages, but why not select something that gives you your data when/if you want it?

That is the point for this example. It is true that in some cases clients are not using HubSpot because they don’t understand it. In other cases it is because they are busy running their business. Either way people soon realize that paying handsomely for something not being used is a waste of money and source of frustration in any economic time. In some cases a business owner can pay for someone to do it for them (professional services), rather than paying for the ability to do it all themselves (HubSpot). And in some cases a business owner will simply not do the “doing” no matter whether it is expensive or free to do it.

There are also those who sign up with HubSpot, learn a lot, understand the value and feel they can fly on their own using other tools that are available in the market place.

If you’re not going to use the capabilities that Hubspot is designed to deliver – an integrated online marketing platform – then you shouldn’t be using it.

If all you need is a CMS or blogging platform then there is a lot of choice / alternatives out there, WordPress being one of the best open source alternatives for sure

However if you understand the value of lead generation and nurturing (versus having a website and blogging) and need to measure you’re results, move quickly and without hassle, all of which is really a business driven application then you need to look at alternatives like HubSpot.

His first remedial step is to move from HubSpot to WordPress. After the migration, the second step will likely be to reallocate the monthly expense to pay for marketing services like link building, article marketing, keyword research, creating more and then syndicating his quality content to more locations on the web and possibly redesigning his blog and website to bring it up to standard.

Is that a clearer insight into one person’s experience?

@SEOWrangler – very interesting comments (see below). I’m not quite sure what you are saying here – love to get some insight.

“I spoke with a business owner today who is a current HubSpot client, wants the services and generally “gets marketing”. However, he found that even paying $500 a month was insufficient motivation to turn his attention from paying customers to marketing his business. With this realization firmly in his grasp, he now simply wants to pay for what he can reasonably use in a given month. So, his choice to use only a small portion of the resources available diminished the value he was getting and forced a decision.”

… they go through the following: launch a lesser priced solution then don’t see results then come back and ask for more advice and SEO services then eventually decide to go with HubSpot …

We’ll just as happily move WordPress to Hubspot as the other way around. We have significantly improved our methods which makes for quicker moves with less little issues arising from conversions.

Glad you like the conversation, the business model and your compliments. How did you find us? I can’t help thinking that I just saw Mike on Tuesday.
Oh, and your engagement was one day after our wedding date. Congratulations!!!

I love this open conversation. I think you are seeing a lot of people move to WP because it is so much better than the other open source CMS platforms. Also, it is the easiest to use.

Love you business model. I hope you thrive. You provide a great service and have a very spart approach.

When I wrote this piece we had moved a few HubSpotters onto WordPress but not to MovableType or Blogger or any other platform.

Our current offerings focus on moving to WordPress. If folks are moving somewhere besides WordPress we want to know about it and adapt.

I agree that the default install of WordPress on it’s own does not provide the same level of services that HubSpot offers. WordPress can provide a foundation for a website and blog. Plugins, consulting and additional external services may be used as necessary to provide a well rounded publishing and marketing platform.

I spoke with a business owner today who is a current HubSpot client, wants the services and generally “gets marketing”. However, he found that even paying $500 a month was insufficient motivation to turn his attention from paying customers to marketing his business. With this realization firmly in his grasp, he now simply wants to pay for what he can reasonably use in a given month. So, his choice to use only a small portion of the resources available diminished the value he was getting and forced a decision.

This issue has nothing to do with HubSpot or WordPress but everything to do with why some folks move from a fee based platform to a free platform.

We want to be sure that we are prepared to serve folks no matter where they choose to move.

As for HubSpot’s success, there is no question that they are growing. I was at their new larger offices on Tuesday. What a place! A banner on the wall, a gift from their former land-lord according to Mike Volpe, showed an impressive growth curve representing new hires.

I certainly hope that they continue to attract new business. And I hope that BlogWranglers continues to grow and find better ways to serve our clients no matter whether they want to move.

HubSpot and WordPress are not comparable. The analytics and SEO tools thatHubSpot provides are really cheap compared to buying them separately. You would need to buy Compete.com, SEOmoz and several other services to boost WordPress into the realm of HubSpot.

I get a lot of push back from clients who think HubSpot is expensive at $250/mo. Then they go through the following: launch a lesser priced solution then don’t see results then come back and ask for more advice and SEO services then eventually decide to go with HubSpot or a $7K/mo SEO package that includes all the services necessary to get high SERP rankings.

HubSpot is fantastically successful for a good reason: great staff, amazing customer service and solid technology. I have never seen them provide a slow load on web pages. And they do offer ways to integrate custom software (if you upgrade to their $9k and $25k programs).

Overall, you get what you pay for. If you have a lot of time and expertise and willingness to work hard — then go with WordPress. If you are a small business that needs fast results with minimal time — go with HubSpot.