Most people choosing a HubSpot partner compare the wrong things. They compare hourly rates, certifications and headcount, when what decides the outcome is who actually sits in the project and how much experience that person has with your type of business.

Here is a straight walkthrough of the three most common partner types, what they cost in the Nordics and when to choose which.

What does a large HubSpot agency cost and what do you get for the money?

Expect SEK 1,500 to 2,500 per hour, an implementation of SEK 250,000 to 800,000 and ongoing retainers from SEK 50,000 per month.

The large agency sells security. Many consultants, documented processes, a project manager who keeps the rhythm and an organization that remains if someone quits. That is not worth nothing. If you are a company with a thousand employees, a procurement department and requirements for supplier redundancy, it is often the only way.

But you also pay for overhead, a sales team and premises. And the classic problem remains: senior people sell, juniors deliver. You meet the strategist in the pitch and a 26-year-old in the sprint meeting. It is not meant unkindly, it is simply the agency's business model. The margin sits in the difference between what you pay and what the consultant costs.

Choose a large agency when you have a broad scope spanning campaigns, content, web, design and technology at the same time, and when you need volume in hours over a long period.

What is a senior network and what does it cost?

Expect SEK 1,300 to 1,800 per hour, an implementation of SEK 100,000 to 300,000 and ongoing work from SEK 15,000 to 40,000 per month.

A senior network is a handful of experienced specialists working together under the same brand, but without the agency's suit. No sales organization, no junior bench that has to be kept busy, no office rent on Avenyn. The person you talk to in the first meeting is the same person who builds.

In practice this often means a lower hourly rate than the large agency and a higher seniority level at the same time. It sounds too good to be true, but the math is simple. We remove the middle layer.

The downside should be said plainly. A network does not have unlimited capacity. If you need fifteen people running on three parallel tracks from next week, we are not the ones to call. And you do not get the same formal supplier structure that a procurement department sometimes requires.

Choose a senior network when the quality of the thinking matters more than the size of the team. That is, in principle, always when it comes to RevOps, CRM architecture, integrations and the kind of work where a wrong decision in week two costs you a year.

When is a freelancer enough?

Expect SEK 800 to 1,200 per hour and SEK 25,000 to 75,000 for a smaller setup.

A good freelancer is cheap and fast. If you need to get a Marketing Hub Starter running, build a few forms, set up a simple pipeline and get going with email sends, there is no reason to pay agency prices for it.

There are two risks. One is bandwidth. If your freelancer gets sick, takes on a bigger assignment or simply gets tired, you stand still. The other is breadth. A freelancer is usually really sharp at one thing. If they are good at automation, they are rarely as good at data modeling, and the other way around. HubSpot projects tend to swell into adjacent disciplines about three weeks in.

Choose a freelancer when the scope is limited, when you have in-house expertise to steer the work and when you can live with a pause if the person gets busy.

What does a HubSpot implementation cost in total?

Between SEK 25,000 and 800,000 depending on partner type and complexity, plus the license cost to HubSpot, which is entirely separate.

All prices exclude VAT and refer to the Nordic market. The ranges are wide for a reason. A Sales Hub Professional for a sales team of ten is a completely different project from an Enterprise setup with a two-way integration to the ERP system, custom objects and migration of ten-year-old data from an old CRM.

What drives the cost is rarely HubSpot itself. It is your data, your integrations and how many decisions have not been made when the project starts.

How do you know you will be assigned a senior consultant?

Ask who does the work, ask for their name and ask to talk to them before you sign.

It is the single most important question in the whole procurement and it is almost never asked. If the answer is "we put together a team based on needs", you already know how it will turn out.

Also ask how many similar projects the person has delivered, what went wrong in the latest one and what they did about it. A senior consultant answers without blinking. Someone who gets uncomfortable with the question probably does not have many projects behind them.

Which partner type suits your company?

If you have fewer than fifty employees and need it thought through properly from the start, choose a senior network. If you are a large company with a broad scope and requirements for supplier structure, choose an agency. If you have a limited problem and in-house expertise, choose a freelancer.

It is not more complicated than that. What makes the choice hard is that all three say roughly the same thing in their sales meetings.

The difference only shows in week four, when someone has to make a decision about what your data model should look like and you notice whether the person across the table has done it before or is reading up on it while you talk.

We have gathered the full walkthrough of how to choose and evaluate a HubSpot partner on our pillar page on choosing a partner. There you will also find the checklist we use ourselves when we enter a procurement.

And if you already know you want senior people in the project from day one, get in touch. We say no to assignments that do not suit us, which is usually a good idea for you too.