HUBS vs FRSH Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
HUBS (HubSpot) and FRSH (Freshworks) are both SaaS CRM and customer engagement platforms targeting SMB and mid-market businesses — HubSpot is the dominant U.S./global marketing + sales + service platform with inbound marketing leadership, freemium-driven viral growth, and multi-Hub cross-sell potential, while Freshworks is a globally diversified customer support (Freshdesk) and CRM (Freshsales) platform with particular strength in international and emerging markets offering competitive pricing against Zendesk and Salesforce.
HUBS vs FRSH is comprehensive SMB marketing/sales/service platform with freemium flywheel and upmarket expansion (HubSpot's multi-Hub cross-sell, inbound marketing thought leadership, and product-led growth compounding ARR — Salesforce competitive pressure as it moves upmarket and AI transformation of marketing/sales workflows) versus globally diversified customer support and CRM platform with international emerging market strength (Freshworks's Freshdesk/Freshservice/Freshsales portfolio, competitive pricing, and international market penetration — net retention challenges, Zendesk competition, and AI-native customer support disruption risk).
FRSH holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. FRSH has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+28.73% vs -46.37%), though HUBS has the better forward P/E setup (15.70x vs 15.87x for FRSH). On fundamentals, HUBS is growing revenue faster (19.80%), while FRSH maintains the higher operating margin (5.53%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for FRSH (+8.77%) than for HUBS (-7.67%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want SMB/mid-market CRM platform exposure through HubSpot's comprehensive multi-Hub ecosystem where the freemium CRM drives viral top-of-funnel acquisition and multi-product adoption creates high switching costs and NRR expansion
- Value HubSpot's inbound marketing thought leadership (HubSpot Academy, certifications, content) as creating durable brand preference among marketing and sales professionals that drives organic customer acquisition
- Believe HubSpot's upmarket expansion (targeting $50K-$500K ACV deals) can sustain revenue growth into larger customer segments while maintaining SMB roots that generate high-volume, lower-ACV recurring revenue
- Want globally diversified CRM/customer support platform exposure with particular strength in international markets (India, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Europe) where HubSpot and Salesforce have less penetration
- Value Freshworks's competitive pricing strategy that positions Freshdesk, Freshsales, and Freshservice as cost-effective alternatives to Zendesk, Salesforce, and ServiceNow for mid-size businesses unwilling to pay incumbent platform premiums
- Accept near-term NRR and growth normalization challenges as Freshworks invests in AI features (Freddy AI) and Freshservice ITSM expansion to drive the next phase of ARR growth
| Metric | HUBS | FRSH |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 42.9 | 24.2 |
| AI ranki | #691 | #3235 |
| Latest closei | $238.91 | $14.25 |
| 1M returni | -1.26% | +12.56% |
| 3M returni | +6.39% | +30.14% |
| 6M returni | +7.14% | +69.24% |
| 1Y returni | -46.37% | +28.73% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | HUBS | FRSH |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $5.52K (-44.8%) started 2025-10-16 | $12.87K (+28.7%) started 2025-10-15 |
| 5Y ago | $2.98K (-70.2%) started 2021-10-18 | $3.44K (-65.6%) started 2021-10-15 |
| 10Y ago | $46.39K (+363.9%) started 2016-10-17 | $3K (-70.0%) started 2021-09-22 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | HUBS | FRSH |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $13.34B | $3.45B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 92.44 | 20.99 |
| Forward P/Ei | 15.70 | 15.87 |
| Price/Salesi | 11.26 | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 3.45 | 3.19 |
| Analyst targeti | $240.69 | $14.38 |
| Target upsidei | -7.67% | +8.77% |
| Metric | HUBS | FRSH |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 19.80% | 16.00% |
| Earnings growthi | 968.10% | N/A |
| EPS growthi | +968.10% | N/A |
| FCF margini | +19.33% | +28.85% |
| Operating margini | 4.87% | 5.53% |
| Profit margini | 4.26% | 20.49% |
| ROIC proxyi | 7.89% | 19.70% |
| Return on equityi | 7.89% | 19.70% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | N/A |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | N/A |
| Betai | 1.17 | 0.86 |
| Debt/equityi | 14.30 | 3.86 |
| Current ratioi | 1.38 | 1.69 |
| Quick ratioi | 1.11 | 1.51 |
Over the past year, HUBS and FRSH have moved strongly in the same direction (correlation of 0.74), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | HUBS | FRSH |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -44.79% | +28.73% |
| CAGRi | -44.85% | +28.75% | |
| Volatilityi | 73.71% | 49.23% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.50 | 0.67 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.67 | 0.94 | |
| Max drawdowni | 65.57% | 48.81% | |
| Current drawdowni | 51.69% | 0.00% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 44.59% | 19.82% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 47.74% | 24.92% | |
| Max daily dropi | 19.10% | 16.38% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 27.02% | 22.91% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -70.25% | -65.62% |
| CAGRi | -21.56% | -19.23% | |
| Volatilityi | 57.51% | 57.98% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.21 | -0.16 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.30 | -0.22 | |
| Max drawdowni | 80.02% | 86.31% | |
| Current drawdowni | 71.96% | 71.64% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 45.77% | 68.67% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 49.50% | 69.68% | |
| Max daily dropi | 19.10% | 19.62% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 27.02% | 28.50% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +363.90% | -70.03% |
| CAGRi | +16.59% | -21.18% | |
| Volatilityi | 52.25% | 57.78% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.47 | -0.20 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.68 | -0.29 | |
| Max drawdowni | 80.02% | 86.31% | |
| Current drawdowni | 71.96% | 71.64% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 27.18% | 67.92% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 36.01% | 69.23% | |
| Max daily dropi | 19.10% | 19.62% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 28.86% | 28.50% |
| Category | HUBS | FRSH |
|---|---|---|
| Company | HubSpot, Inc. | Freshworks Inc. |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Software - Application | Software - Application |
| Core business | HubSpot is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) and go-to-market platform primarily serving small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) and mid-market companies. HubSpot's platform is organized into 'Hubs': Marketing Hub (email marketing, social media, SEO tools, landing pages, marketing automation workflows, ad management); Sales Hub (CRM, deal pipeline, email sequences, calling, meeting scheduling); Service Hub (customer support ticketing, knowledge base, customer feedback); Content Hub (CMS for website and blog management); Operations Hub (data sync, automation, analytics); and Commerce Hub (payments, invoicing, quotes). HubSpot pioneered 'inbound marketing' (attracting customers through content and SEO rather than outbound advertising) and educates SMB marketers and salespeople through HubSpot Academy and free CRM tools that drive product-led growth. | Freshworks provides cloud-based customer engagement and employee experience software to businesses globally. Freshworks's primary products include: Freshdesk (customer support ticketing system and helpdesk — manages support tickets across email, chat, phone, and social media); Freshsales (CRM and sales automation — contact management, deal tracking, AI-powered lead scoring); Freshservice (IT service management — ITSM for internal IT helpdesk, asset management, service catalog); and Freshchat (customer messaging and chatbot platform). Freshworks serves approximately 65,000+ businesses globally with particular strength in emerging markets (India, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Latin America) and internationally (Europe). Freshworks went public on NASDAQ in September 2021, one of the largest SaaS IPOs of that year. Freshworks is headquartered in San Mateo, California with engineering operations in Chennai, India. |
| Investor focus | Investors track HubSpot's ARR growth, number of customers, average revenue per customer (ARC), platform multi-Hub adoption (cross-sell penetration), and net revenue retention (expansion within existing customers as they add more Hubs or upgrade tiers). | Investors track Freshworks's ARR growth, customer count (particularly customers above $5,000 ARR threshold), net revenue retention, profitability trajectory, and whether Freshworks can sustain growth against Zendesk (customer support) and Salesforce/HubSpot (CRM) competition. |
- Freemium and product-led growth model with free CRM drives massive top-of-funnel acquisition — HubSpot's free CRM and limited free versions of its Hubs attract millions of small business users who discover value and upgrade to paid tiers; this viral growth reduces paid customer acquisition costs relative to direct sales models
- Comprehensive multi-Hub platform creates powerful switching costs — a business using HubSpot for marketing, sales CRM, customer service, and website management has integrated workflows across all customer touchpoints in one platform; migrating requires replacing all of these simultaneously with connected alternatives
- HubSpot Academy and content marketing ecosystem creates a self-reinforcing brand authority — HubSpot educates marketers and sales professionals through courses, certifications, and content; this education positions HubSpot as the authority on inbound marketing and customer relationship management, driving organic brand preference
- Strong international market presence — Freshworks has deep penetration in India, Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Europe where its pricing structure and culturally localized products resonate with businesses that find Salesforce and Zendesk too expensive or complex
- Freshservice ITSM (IT service management) is a growing product competing with ServiceNow for SMB/mid-market ITSM — large IT service management platforms (ServiceNow, Jira Service Management) are complex for SMBs; Freshservice's usability advantage attracts IT teams wanting enterprise ITSM functionality at SMB-appropriate pricing
- Competitive pricing relative to incumbent leaders — Freshdesk vs. Zendesk, Freshsales vs. Salesforce, Freshservice vs. ServiceNow; Freshworks prices meaningfully below these incumbents while offering comparable core features, attracting cost-conscious buyers
- Salesforce's Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud compete for mid-market customers as HubSpot moves upmarket — as HubSpot targets larger customers ($50K-$500K+ ACV enterprise deals), it increasingly faces Salesforce competition that has deeper CRM functionality for complex enterprise sales processes
- AI integration is rapidly changing marketing and sales workflows — generative AI (HubSpot's Breeze AI, Salesforce's Einstein, Microsoft Copilot) is transforming how businesses write emails, analyze data, and automate customer communication; HubSpot must continuously integrate AI features to maintain product differentiation
- SMB customer segment is susceptible to economic downturns — small businesses have lower financial resilience than enterprises; in economic downturns, SMB software spend is more likely to be cut than enterprise spend
- Net revenue retention below 100% in recent periods indicates expansion challenges — if Freshworks cannot expand revenue within existing customers (through upsells, cross-sells, seat additions), customer churn and insufficient expansion creates headwinds to ARR growth
- Zendesk's privatization under KKR (2023) may allow more aggressive product development and pricing competition in the customer support market without public market earnings scrutiny
- Freshworks faces AI disruption risk in customer support — generative AI customer support tools (including those from Zendesk, HubSpot, Intercom, and startups) are automating support interactions that previously required Freshdesk's ticketing infrastructure; AI-native competitors (Intercom's Fin, Salesforce Agentforce) may reshape the customer support software market
Compare more than two at a time
This page is a fixed writeup on HUBS and FRSH. Our comparison engine is the interactive version: load up to five tickers, switch timeframes, and get the correlation, drawdown, and overlap analysis that a static page can't show.
Add three more names beside HUBS and FRSH, mixing stocks and ETFs in the same table — useful when the real question is which of a whole peer group to own.
AI score, forward P/E, analyst target upside, operating margin, and revenue growth are scored head-to-head, with a running tally of which ticker leads on how many metrics.
Volatility, Sharpe and Sortino ratios, maximum, current, and average drawdown, Ulcer Index, and worst single-day and single-week drops across every timeframe.
Pairwise daily-return correlation for every combination, so you can see whether two holdings actually diversify each other or just move together.
A scatter plot of forward P/E against return on equity, plus drawdown and 30-day rolling volatility charts, to separate what is cheap from what is merely beaten down.
For ETFs, a top-holdings comparison that exposes hidden overlap between funds. Every comparison exports to CSV for your own spreadsheet work.
Two comparisons a week are free without an account. A 14-day trial removes the limit and adds AI price forecasts, stock rankings, saved watchlists, and the intrinsic value calculator — no credit card required.
Want deeper AI forecasts?
This comparison page is public and free forever. Subscribers can unlock saved watchlists, full AI rankings, detailed forecasts, and interactive analysis tools.
Full valuation workup with AI Score, Monte Carlo forecast, and bull/bear case — free preview, premium data from $3.99.