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Understanding HubSpot seat types

Whether you are on a HubSpot Starter, Professional, or Enterprise tier, you might be wondering how to assign access to your team.

HubSpot uses a unified "seat-based" pricing model, meaning every user accessing your account must be assigned a specific type of seat. This seat dictates exactly what features and tools they can use, with the power of those tools scaling based on your subscription tier.

A handy tip to remember before we dive in: regardless of which seat type a user is assigned, all seats have the ability to log emails into the CRM.

Here is a definitive guide to the differences in capabilities for each seat type, helping you figure out who needs what.

Seats in HubSpot

1. View-only seat: The "look, but don't touch" pass

This seat is entirely free, and you can have an unlimited number of them on any tier. It allows users to log into your HubSpot portal and see what is happening without the risk of them changing data or requiring a paid license.

  • Capabilities: Users can view CRM records (Contacts, Companies, Deals, Tickets), read notes, and look at reports and dashboards.

  • Limitations: They cannot edit, create, delete, or modify anything. They cannot send emails through HubSpot, move deals to new stages, or interact with customers.

  • Who Needs It:

    • C-Suite & Executives: The CEO or CFO who just wants to check the revenue forecast dashboard or overall business health.

    • External Stakeholders/Board Members: People who need visibility into reporting but do not do any day-to-day work in the system.

    • Legal or Finance Teams: Those who just need to view deal stages or signed quotes for billing purposes.

2. Core seat: the "standard operations & marketing" pass

The Core Seat is the foundational paid seat. Buying a Hub (like Marketing, CMS, or Operations) at any tier grants a certain number of Core Seats. A Core Seat gives a user full, standard editing access to the Smart CRM and the foundational tools of whichever Hubs you pay for, but omits the specialised tools meant for frontline sales or support reps.

  • Capabilities:

    • Full ability to create, edit, and manage CRM records (Contacts, Deals, Tickets). On Enterprise, this includes Custom Objects.

    • Can send standard 1:1 tracked emails and make standard calls.

    • Can build and manage reports, dashboards, lists, and workflows (workflow complexity depends on whether you are on Starter, Pro, or Enterprise).

    • Full access to Marketing Hub, Content/CMS Hub, and Operations Hub features at your purchased tier.

  • Limitations: Cannot use specialised Sales or Service features like automated outreach sequences, playbooks, advanced forecasting, or the dedicated Help Desk workspace. Crucially, Core Seats usually cannot access or use the full library of Sales email templates or text snippets designed for quick outreach.

  • Who Needs It:

    • Marketing Teams: They need to build campaigns, write emails, and manage the website, but they aren't actively cold-calling or closing deals.

    • System Admins & RevOps: They build workflows, manage data, and set up the CRM, but don't sell directly.

    • Sales Managers/Directors: If they only oversee the team, pull reports, and check deal stages (but do not personally prospect or manage their own pipeline with automation).

3. Sales Hub seat: the "frontline revenue" pass

A Sales Seat includes everything in a Core Seat, plus it unlocks all the revenue-generating features of your Sales Hub subscription.

  • Additional Capabilities Unlocked (Scaling by Tier):

    • Starter: Unlocks basic email scheduling, simple calling, and conversation routing.

    • Professional: Unlocks Sequences (automated, multi-step personalised email and task outreach), advanced calling with coaching tools, Playbooks (interactive guides for discovery calls), and team forecasting.

    • Enterprise: Unlocks advanced Conversation Intelligence, predictive lead scoring, custom object routing, and highly advanced hierarchical forecasting.

    • Full Template & Snippet Access: Unrestricted use of pre-written sales templates and quick-reply snippets across all tiers.

  • Who Needs It:

    • Account Executives (AEs): Reps actively managing a pipeline, negotiating, and closing deals.

    • Sales Development Reps (SDRs / BDRs): Reps doing heavy outbound prospecting using Sequences and calling tools.

    • Working Sales Managers: Managers who maintain their own book of business or actively co-sell using playbooks and forecasting tools.

4. Service Hub seat

The "Customer Success & Support" Pass

Like the Sales Seat, a Service Seat includes everything in a Core Seat, but unlocks all the customer retention and support features of your Service Hub subscription.

  • Additional Capabilities Unlocked (Scaling by Tier):

    • Starter: Unlocks basic ticketing, shared team inbox routing, and simple email templates.

    • Professional: Unlocks the omni-channel Help Desk Workspace, SLAs (Service Level Agreements) to set automated timers for rep responses, Advanced Ticket Routing, Customer Feedback Surveys (NPS, CSAT), and Service Playbooks.

    • Enterprise: Unlocks advanced skills-based routing, recurring revenue tracking, and highly customisable team management features for large contact centres.

  • Who Needs It:

    • Customer Support Reps: Agents handling inbound customer issues, IT tickets, or working out of the Help Desk.

    • Customer Success Managers (CSMs): Staff responsible for onboarding, monitoring account health, and gathering customer feedback.

5. Commerce Hub Seat: the "Quoting & Billing" Pass

With recent updates to HubSpot's pricing, advanced Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) functionality now requires a dedicated Commerce Hub seat. A Commerce Seat includes everything in a Core Seat, but unlocks the dedicated quoting and billing features of Commerce Hub Professional or Enterprise.

  • Additional Capabilities Unlocked:

    • Creating, editing, and sending advanced quotes (users with only a Core Seat can view quotes, but cannot create or approve them).

    • Setting up tiered pricing and custom product libraries.

    • Managing quote approvals and advanced quote-based workflows.

    • Accessing built-in e-signature limits for contract execution.

  • Who Needs It:

    • Sales Reps & AEs: Anyone who needs to generate polished quotes or contracts directly out of the CRM to close a deal.

    • Finance & Billing Teams: Staff responsible for configuring the product library, approving custom discounts, and managing subscription payments.

 

Partner seats (working with Refuel)

If you are working with a HubSpot Partner agency like us here at Refuel, you don't need to worry about buying us a seat! We are granted dedicated Partner Seats so we can access and manage your portal. These are completely free and do not take up any of your paid seat limits.

 

Quick Decision Matrix

To quickly decide who needs what, ask yourself this simple question about the employee: "What is their primary job inside HubSpot?"

  1. "Just looking at reports and metrics." → View-Only Seat (Free)

  2. "Marketing, fixing data, building workflows, or managing the website." → Core Seat

  3. "Sending automated cold outreach, doing discovery calls, and managing a sales quota." → Sales Hub Seat

  4. "Working in a shared inbox, resolving customer tickets, and managing SLA timers." → Service Hub Seat

Note: stacking seats

Please note that some of your team may need more than one seat. For example:

  • An Account Manager actively selling renewals using Sequences AND managing support escalations via the Help Desk may need both a Sales and a Service seat.
  • An Account Executive who prospects with sequences AND generates advanced quotes may need both a Sales and a Commerce seat.