Compare HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce for small businesses. Implementation, pricing, ROI for companies under 50 employees.
HubSpot vs Pipedrive vs Salesforce: Small Business CRM Comparison
Choosing a CRM for your small business is not about finding the "best" CRM. It's about finding the right CRM for your specific sales motion, team sophistication, and growth trajectory.
After implementing CRMs for 40+ small businesses, I've learned that the wrong CRM choice costs companies 6-12 months of productivity. Sales reps ignore the system, data quality deteriorates, and leadership has no visibility into pipeline health. The right CRM becomes your revenue operations backbone.
This guide compares HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce specifically for small businesses under 50 employees. We'll cut through vendor marketing and focus on what actually matters: ease of adoption, time to value, and real-world ROI.
Quick Comparison Overview
| Feature |
HubSpot |
Pipedrive |
Salesforce |
| Best For |
Inbound marketing + sales, content-driven companies |
Straightforward B2B sales, outbound teams |
Complex sales processes, eventual enterprise growth |
| Starting Price |
Free (limited), $15/user/month |
$14/user/month (annual) |
$25/user/month |
| Implementation Time |
2-4 weeks |
1-2 weeks |
6-12 weeks |
| Learning Curve |
Easy |
Very Easy |
Steep |
| Marketing Features |
Excellent (built-in) |
Basic (add-ons) |
Good (via Marketing Cloud, expensive) |
| Customization |
Moderate |
Limited |
Extensive |
| Reporting |
Excellent |
Good |
Excellent |
| Mobile App |
Excellent |
Excellent |
Good |
| Support Quality |
Good |
Excellent |
Varies (depends on tier) |
HubSpot: The Inbound Marketing CRM
HubSpot started as a marketing automation platform and evolved into a full CRM. This origin story matters because HubSpot excels when your sales process is tied to marketing activities: content downloads, email nurture sequences, and website behavior tracking.
What HubSpot Does Best
Free CRM That's Actually Useful
HubSpot's free CRM is genuinely functional, not a trial. You get unlimited users, contacts, and basic CRM features. For bootstrapped startups, this is incredible value. Many companies use free HubSpot for 1-2 years before upgrading.
Marketing and Sales Integration
HubSpot's killer feature is unified marketing and sales data. See exactly which blog posts a prospect read, which emails they opened, and which pages they visited before becoming a lead. This context makes sales conversations more relevant.
Email Tracking and Sequences
Built-in email tracking shows when prospects open emails and click links. Email sequences let you automate follow-up series while maintaining personalization. Sales reps love seeing real-time open notifications.
Content Management System
HubSpot includes a website CMS. For companies building content-driven businesses, having your website, blog, landing pages, and CRM in one platform eliminates integration headaches.
Workflows and Automation
Visual workflow builder automates lead assignment, follow-up tasks, and data enrichment. Non-technical users can build sophisticated automation without coding.
Reporting and Dashboards
HubSpot's reporting is excellent. Pre-built dashboards for sales activity, pipeline health, and revenue forecasting. Custom reports are intuitive to build.
Where HubSpot Falls Short
Expensive at Scale
HubSpot's pricing escalates quickly. The free tier is great, but useful features require Sales Hub Professional ($90/user/month) or Enterprise ($150/user/month). For a 20-person sales team, that's $21,600-36,000 annually.
Contact Tier Pricing
HubSpot charges based on contacts in your database, not just users. If you have 50,000 contacts, you jump pricing tiers even if you only have 5 sales reps. This model punishes companies with large prospect databases.
Limited Customization
You can't fundamentally change how HubSpot works. Custom objects exist but are limited compared to Salesforce. If your sales process is unique, you might hit customization walls.
Sales-First Teams Feel Constrained
If you're running a pure outbound sales motion without significant inbound marketing, HubSpot feels bloated. You're paying for marketing features you don't use.
Deal Stage Limitations
HubSpot's pipeline management is good but not great. You can't easily customize probability weightings, and multi-currency support is limited on lower tiers.
Best Use Cases for HubSpot
B2B SaaS Companies with Inbound Motion
SaaS companies generating leads through content marketing, SEO, and product-led growth thrive with HubSpot. The marketing-sales integration is purpose-built for this model.
Service Businesses Building Thought Leadership
Consulting firms, agencies, and professional services using content to generate leads benefit from HubSpot's unified marketing and sales platform.
Companies Wanting All-in-One Platform
If you want CRM, marketing automation, email, landing pages, and basic website hosting in one platform, HubSpot eliminates integration complexity.
Teams Under 15 People on Tight Budgets
The free HubSpot CRM is perfect for early-stage companies. Use it free until you hit 15-20 employees, then evaluate if you need paid features.
Pipedrive: The Sales-First CRM
Pipedrive was built by salespeople for salespeople. It has one job: help sales reps manage deals through a pipeline. Everything else is secondary. This focus is both its strength and limitation.
What Pipedrive Does Best
Visual Pipeline Management
Pipedrive's core interface is a visual pipeline with deals as cards moving through stages. It's intuitive and instantly understandable. New reps are productive within hours, not days.
Activity-Based Selling
Pipedrive emphasizes activities (calls, meetings, emails) over just deal value. The system reminds reps of next actions, ensuring no deals stagnate. This activity focus improves rep discipline.
Mobile-First Design
Pipedrive's mobile app is excellent. Sales reps in the field can update deals, log calls, and check pipeline from their phone without frustration. The UX is genuinely mobile-optimized, not just responsive web.
Sales Assistant (AI Features)
AI-powered Sales Assistant suggests next actions based on deal patterns. It identifies deals requiring attention and recommends optimal contact times based on historical data.
Straightforward Pricing
Pipedrive's pricing is transparent and predictable. No surprise contact-based fees. You know exactly what you'll pay as you add users.
Excellent Support
Pipedrive's customer support is consistently rated highest among CRMs. Fast response times, helpful agents, and extensive self-service documentation.
Quick Implementation
Most small businesses are fully operational in Pipedrive within 1-2 weeks. The learning curve is minimal, and the system doesn't require extensive configuration.
Where Pipedrive Falls Short
Limited Marketing Features
Pipedrive is sales-focused. Marketing features are basic or require add-ons. If you need sophisticated marketing automation, you're integrating with external tools (Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign).
Basic Reporting
Reporting is functional but not advanced. You get standard sales reports (pipeline, forecast, activities), but custom reporting and complex analytics require higher tiers or exports to spreadsheets.
Customization Limitations
Pipedrive is opinionated about sales processes. You can customize fields and stages, but you can't fundamentally reshape the system. Complex sales organizations hit walls.
Integration Ecosystem Smaller
Pipedrive has 300+ integrations, but fewer native integrations than HubSpot or Salesforce. Many connections require Zapier, adding cost and complexity.
Account-Based Selling Limitations
Pipedrive is deal-centric, not account-centric. If you sell to multiple stakeholders within large accounts, managing those relationships in Pipedrive is clunky.
Limited Multi-Team Support
Pipedrive works well for single sales teams. If you have multiple product lines, each with different sales processes, managing multiple pipelines gets messy.
Best Use Cases for Pipedrive
B2B Companies with Straightforward Sales
Companies with clear sales stages (Prospecting → Qualification → Proposal → Negotiation → Closed) and deal cycles under 90 days excel with Pipedrive.
Outbound Sales Teams
If your revenue comes from cold outreach, not inbound marketing, Pipedrive's activity-based approach keeps reps accountable and pipelines moving.
Field Sales Organizations
Sales teams on the road benefit from Pipedrive's mobile-first design. Updating the CRM doesn't require returning to the office and logging into a desktop.
Companies Prioritizing Adoption
If your team has failed to adopt previous CRMs, Pipedrive's simplicity drives adoption. Better to have complete data in a simple system than incomplete data in a sophisticated one.
Small Businesses (5-25 employees)
Pipedrive's sweet spot is small sales teams needing a clean, effective CRM without complexity or high costs.
Salesforce: The Enterprise CRM
Salesforce is the 800-pound gorilla of CRM. It's incredibly powerful, infinitely customizable, and completely overwhelming for most small businesses. But for certain small businesses with enterprise aspirations, it's the right choice from day one.
What Salesforce Does Best
Unlimited Customization
Salesforce is a platform, not just a CRM. Custom objects, custom apps, custom everything. If you can imagine a business process, Salesforce can support it.
AppExchange Ecosystem
Over 5,000 third-party apps extend Salesforce functionality. Need industry-specific features? There's probably an app for that. This ecosystem is unmatched.
Advanced Reporting and Analytics
Salesforce reporting is incredibly sophisticated. Custom report types, complex formulas, role-based access to data, and Einstein Analytics for AI-powered insights.
Multi-Team Support
Salesforce handles complex organizational structures elegantly. Multiple product lines, different sales processes, regional teams, and partner channels all coexist cleanly.
Account-Based Selling
Salesforce's account hierarchy (Accounts → Contacts → Opportunities) perfectly supports enterprise B2B selling with multiple stakeholders and decision-makers.
Scalability
Start with 5 users, grow to 500 users, and Salesforce scales smoothly. You won't outgrow it. For companies expecting rapid growth, this future-proofing matters.
Process Automation
Flow Builder enables sophisticated business process automation. Approval workflows, data validation, and cross-object updates all configurable without coding.
Where Salesforce Falls Short
Overwhelming Complexity
Salesforce is complex. New users face a steep learning curve. Sales reps accustomed to simple tools rebel against Salesforce's intimidating interface.
High Implementation Costs
Salesforce implementation for small businesses takes 6-12 weeks minimum. Many companies hire Salesforce consultants at $150-250/hour, adding $10k-30k in implementation costs.
Expensive Pricing
Salesforce starts at $25/user/month, but useful features require Professional ($80/user/month) or Enterprise ($165/user/month). For a 15-person team, that's $14,400-29,700 annually.
Requires Ongoing Administration
Salesforce isn't "set and forget." You need a Salesforce administrator (internal or fractional) to maintain customizations, manage users, and optimize workflows. Budget 10-20 hours monthly.
Poor Out-of-Box Experience
Vanilla Salesforce is clunky. It requires customization to become useful. Small businesses often struggle for months before Salesforce starts delivering value.
Limited Marketing Features
Salesforce's CRM doesn't include marketing automation. Marketing Cloud is a separate product costing $1,250+ monthly. Most small businesses integrate with other marketing tools.
Best Use Cases for Salesforce
Small Businesses Planning Enterprise Growth
If you're a 20-person company planning to become a 200-person company in 3 years, starting with Salesforce prevents painful migrations later. The upfront investment pays off.
Complex B2B Sales Processes
Companies with long sales cycles (6+ months), multiple stakeholders, and complex approval processes benefit from Salesforce's sophistication.
Companies Needing Deep Customization
If your sales process is unique and you need custom workflows, objects, and business logic, Salesforce's platform capabilities justify the complexity.
Portfolio Companies of Private Equity Firms
PE-backed companies often standardize on Salesforce across portfolio companies, enabling roll-up reporting and shared best practices.
Regulated Industries
Healthcare, financial services, and other regulated industries benefit from Salesforce's robust security, compliance certifications, and audit trails.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Contact and Lead Management
HubSpot: Unified contact database with automatic enrichment from public sources. Contacts and companies linked automatically. Lead scoring built-in on Professional tier.
Pipedrive: Straightforward contact and organization management. Manual entry or import. Limited automatic enrichment. Focus on deal-associated contacts.
Salesforce: Separate Lead and Contact objects (leads convert to contacts). Robust data model supporting complex account hierarchies. Powerful but confusing for small teams.
Winner: HubSpot for ease of use, Salesforce for complexity needs.
Email Integration
HubSpot: Excellent email integration. Track opens/clicks, send from CRM, log emails automatically. Email sequences for automated follow-up.
Pipedrive: Good email integration. Email sync, tracking, and templates. Email campaigns available on higher tiers.
Salesforce: Basic email integration requires third-party tools (Cirrus Insight, Groove) or Salesforce Inbox add-on. Native email functionality is weak.
Winner: HubSpot significantly.
Pipeline and Deal Management
HubSpot: Visual pipeline with customizable stages. Multiple pipelines for different product lines. Weighted forecasting on Professional tier.
Pipedrive: Best-in-class visual pipeline. Intuitive drag-and-drop. Activity reminders ensure deals don't stagnate. Rotting deals feature identifies stalled opportunities.
Salesforce: Sophisticated opportunity management with complex forecasting, probability weighting, and multi-currency support. Powerful but requires configuration.
Winner: Pipedrive for simplicity, Salesforce for sophistication.
Reporting and Analytics
HubSpot: Excellent pre-built dashboards. Custom report builder is intuitive. Attribution reporting shows which marketing activities drive revenue.
Pipedrive: Standard sales reports (pipeline, forecast, activities, conversions). Functional but not sophisticated. Insights feature (Professional tier) adds AI-powered analytics.
Salesforce: Industry-leading reporting. Custom report types, complex formulas, scheduled reports, and Einstein Analytics. Steeper learning curve but unmatched power.
Winner: Salesforce for power, HubSpot for ease of use.
Automation
HubSpot: Visual workflow builder. Automate lead assignment, task creation, email sequences, and data updates. Very accessible to non-technical users.
Pipedrive: Workflow automation on Professional tier. Automate actions based on deal stage changes, activities, or custom triggers. More limited than HubSpot or Salesforce.
Salesforce: Process Builder and Flow Builder enable sophisticated automation. Complex business logic, approval processes, and cross-object workflows. Requires technical skill.
Winner: HubSpot for ease, Salesforce for power.
Mobile Experience
HubSpot: Excellent mobile app. Full CRM functionality, email tracking, and task management on mobile. Intuitive interface.
Pipedrive: Best-in-class mobile app. Specifically designed for field sales. Updating deals, logging activities, and checking pipeline is seamless.
Salesforce: Functional mobile app but clunky. The mobile experience reflects Salesforce's complexity. Works but isn't delightful.
Winner: Pipedrive, followed closely by HubSpot.
Integration Ecosystem
HubSpot: 1,000+ integrations. Excellent native integrations with Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Zoom, and major marketing tools.
Pipedrive: 300+ integrations. Good coverage of essential tools but fewer native integrations than competitors. Relies more on Zapier.
Salesforce: 5,000+ AppExchange apps. Unmatched ecosystem. Enterprise-grade integrations with every major business system.
Winner: Salesforce for breadth, HubSpot for out-of-box integrations.
Pricing Deep Dive
HubSpot Pricing
Free CRM: Unlimited users and contacts, basic CRM features, limited email, simple reporting.
Sales Hub Starter: $15/user/month (2 users minimum) - Email tracking, templates, meeting scheduling, 1,000 documents.
Sales Hub Professional: $90/user/month (5 users minimum) - Sequences, workflow automation, forecasting, custom reporting, 10,000 contacts included.
Sales Hub Enterprise: $150/user/month (10 users minimum) - Predictive lead scoring, custom objects, playbooks, unlimited contacts.
Real Cost for 15-person sales team:
- Free: $0 (limited features)
- Starter: $2,700/year (too limited for most)
- Professional: $16,200/year (where most small businesses land)
- Enterprise: $27,000/year (overkill for most small businesses)
Hidden Costs: Contact database limits on Professional tier force upgrades. Marketing Hub if you want full marketing automation.
Pipedrive Pricing
Essential: $14/user/month (billed annually) - Basic CRM, pipeline, email integration, 3,000 open deals.
Advanced: $29/user/month - Email sync, workflows, automation, email templates, unlimited open deals.
Professional: $49/user/month - Sales Assistant AI, advanced reporting, revenue forecast, unlimited reports.
Power: $64/user/month - Project planning, unlimited reports, unlimited dashboards, additional permissions.
Enterprise: $99/user/month - Enhanced security, unlimited custom fields, call recording.
Real Cost for 15-person sales team:
- Essential: $2,520/year (good starting point)
- Advanced: $5,220/year (where most businesses land)
- Professional: $8,820/year (for teams needing AI and forecasting)
Hidden Costs: LeadBooster add-on for advanced lead generation ($39/month), Campaigns add-on for email marketing ($16/month/user).
Salesforce Pricing
Essentials: $25/user/month (up to 10 users) - Basic CRM, account/contact/opportunity management, mobile app.
Professional: $80/user/month - Full CRM, forecasting, API access, mass email, Salesforce Inbox.
Enterprise: $165/user/month - Advanced customization, workflow automation, advanced permissions, sandboxes.
Unlimited: $330/user/month - 24/7 support, unlimited custom apps, configuration services.
Real Cost for 15-person sales team:
- Essentials: Not available (10 user limit)
- Professional: $14,400/year (minimum viable tier)
- Enterprise: $29,700/year (where most serious users land)
Hidden Costs: Implementation ($10k-30k), ongoing admin (10-20 hours/month), AppExchange apps ($5-50/user/month), Marketing Cloud if needed ($1,250+/month).
Implementation Timeline and Costs
HubSpot Implementation
Timeline: 2-4 weeks
- Week 1: Account setup, import contacts, configure deal stages
- Week 2: Email integration, workflows, reporting dashboards
- Week 3: Team training and pilot
- Week 4: Refinement and full rollout
Internal Time: 20-40 hours for admin/operations lead
External Costs: $2,500-7,500 for HubSpot partner (optional but recommended)
Training: 2-4 hours per user
Success Factors: Clean data before import, start with basic workflows then expand, invest in email template design.
Pipedrive Implementation
Timeline: 1-2 weeks
- Week 1: Account setup, import contacts/deals, configure pipeline stages, email integration
- Week 2: Training, mobile app setup, workflow automation
Internal Time: 10-20 hours for admin/operations lead
External Costs: $0-2,500 (most companies DIY Pipedrive)
Training: 1-2 hours per user
Success Factors: Pipedrive's simplicity enables fast implementation. Map your existing sales stages before setup. Focus on activity discipline.
Salesforce Implementation
Timeline: 6-12 weeks
- Week 1-2: Requirements gathering and process documentation
- Week 3-4: Salesforce configuration (objects, fields, page layouts)
- Week 5-6: Workflow and automation setup
- Week 7-8: Data migration and cleanup
- Week 9-10: Testing and refinement
- Week 11-12: Training and rollout
Internal Time: 40-80 hours for operations/admin lead
External Costs: $10,000-30,000 for Salesforce consultant
Training: 8-12 hours per user including ongoing learning
Success Factors: Hire experienced Salesforce consultant, don't over-customize initially, budget for ongoing administration.
Data Migration Considerations
Migrating to HubSpot
From Spreadsheets: HubSpot's import tool handles CSV files well. Map columns to HubSpot properties. Plan for 10-20 hours cleaning data.
From Other CRMs: HubSpot offers migration services ($1,000-3,000 depending on complexity). Most migrations take 1-2 weeks.
Common Issues: Duplicate contacts, inconsistent data formats, custom fields requiring mapping.
Migrating to Pipedrive
From Spreadsheets: Clean CSV import process. Pipedrive's interface makes mapping intuitive. Plan for 5-10 hours.
From Other CRMs: Pipedrive doesn't offer official migration services, but the process is straightforward. Export from old CRM, clean data, import to Pipedrive.
Common Issues: Deal stage mapping, activity history preservation, custom field limitations.
Migrating to Salesforce
From Any Source: Salesforce consultants handle migration. Expect 2-4 weeks for data cleaning, mapping, and import. Higher data quality standards required.
From Other CRMs: Salesforce partners specialize in migrations. Budget $3,000-10,000 depending on data volume and complexity.
Common Issues: Salesforce's Lead vs Contact model confuses migrations, custom object requirements, data validation rules.
Real-World Examples
Marketing Agency (22 employees) - Chose HubSpot
A content marketing agency generating 80% of leads through inbound content chose HubSpot Sales Hub Professional.
Why HubSpot Won: The agency already used HubSpot Marketing for blog, landing pages, and email marketing. Adding Sales Hub unified all client data. Sales reps see exactly which content prospects engaged with before sales calls.
Implementation: 3 weeks DIY implementation. Hired HubSpot partner for $4,500 to optimize workflows and reporting.
Results:
- 40% improvement in lead-to-customer conversion (better context in sales conversations)
- 6 hours weekly saved on reporting (automated dashboards)
- Eliminated ActiveCampaign ($149/month) and scheduling tool ($120/month)
Annual Cost: $16,200 (Sales Hub Professional) + $4,500 (one-time setup) = $20,700 first year, $16,200 ongoing.
Distribution Company (18 employees) - Chose Pipedrive
A B2B distribution company with field sales reps chose Pipedrive Advanced plan.
Why Pipedrive Won: Previous CRM (Zoho) had 40% adoption. Sales reps hated complexity. Pipedrive's mobile app and simplicity drove 95% adoption within 2 weeks.
Implementation: 1.5 weeks DIY. Operations manager spent 15 hours on setup, data import, and training.
Results:
- 95% adoption (from 40% with previous CRM)
- Average deal cycle reduced from 47 to 38 days (better activity discipline)
- Sales managers gained visibility into pipeline health
Annual Cost: $5,220 (Advanced plan for 15 users) + $468 (LeadBooster add-on) = $5,688.
SaaS Startup (12 employees, PE-backed) - Chose Salesforce
A Series A SaaS company backed by private equity chose Salesforce Professional edition.
Why Salesforce Won: PE firm required Salesforce across portfolio for roll-up reporting. Company plans to grow from 12 to 60 employees in 18 months. Salesforce avoids future migration.
Implementation: 10 weeks with Salesforce consultant ($18,000). Built custom opportunity stages, account hierarchies, and forecasting reports.
Results:
- Unified reporting with PE portfolio companies
- Sophisticated forecasting enables board-level revenue planning
- Integration with NetSuite (accounting) provides financial visibility
Annual Cost: $11,520 (Professional for 12 users) + $18,000 (one-time implementation) = $29,520 first year, $11,520 ongoing.
Challenge: Learning curve steep. Took 3 months before team felt comfortable. Required ongoing admin support (5 hours weekly).
Decision Framework
Choose HubSpot If:
- You generate significant leads through inbound marketing (content, SEO, ads)
- You want unified marketing and sales data in one platform
- You're a B2B SaaS, consulting, or content-driven business
- You have budget for Professional tier ($90/user/month)
- You value ease of use with moderate customization
- You want excellent reporting without technical complexity
Choose Pipedrive If:
- You run outbound sales or field sales operations
- You prioritize CRM adoption over sophistication
- You have a straightforward B2B sales process
- You want predictable, affordable pricing
- You need excellent mobile CRM experience
- You're a small team (5-25 people) without complex needs
Choose Salesforce If:
- You plan to grow from small business to enterprise quickly
- You have complex sales processes with long cycles
- You need extensive customization and custom objects
- You have budget for Professional/Enterprise tier and implementation costs
- You can dedicate ongoing admin resources (internal or fractional)
- Your parent company or PE firm standardizes on Salesforce
The Verdict
For most small businesses under 50 employees, Pipedrive offers the best balance of simplicity, adoption, and cost. It does one thing well: helps sales teams manage deals through a pipeline.
For companies with strong inbound marketing motion, HubSpot is worth the premium pricing. The marketing-sales integration provides context that genuinely improves conversion rates.
For small businesses with enterprise aspirations or complex sales processes, Salesforce is a long-term investment that pays off as you scale, despite painful early stages.
The biggest mistake: Choosing based on features rather than adoption. The best CRM is the one your team actually uses consistently. A simple system with complete data beats a sophisticated system with 40% adoption.
Start with trials:
- Set up all three with your actual sales process
- Import 100 real contacts and 20 real deals
- Have 3-5 sales reps use each for one week
- Which one do they naturally use? That's your answer.
Your CRM choice should be driven by your team's behavior, not feature checklists.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I start with a simple CRM and migrate to Salesforce later?
Yes, but it's painful. Budget 40-80 hours for migration plus $5k-15k in consultant fees. If you're confident you'll need Salesforce within 2 years, start there despite the pain.
Which CRM has the best mobile app for field sales?
Pipedrive by a significant margin. It's built for salespeople in the field. HubSpot is second. Salesforce mobile is functional but clunky.
Do I need to hire a CRM administrator?
For Pipedrive: No. For HubSpot: No, but helpful for advanced workflows. For Salesforce: Yes, budget 10-20 hours monthly or hire fractional admin.
Which integrates best with QuickBooks/Xero for accounting?
All three integrate with major accounting platforms. Salesforce has the most robust native integration. HubSpot and Pipedrive work well via Zapier or native connectors.
Can these CRMs handle multiple currencies and international sales?
HubSpot: Yes, on Professional tier and above. Pipedrive: Yes, built-in. Salesforce: Excellent multi-currency support on all tiers.
What's the real cost of ownership over 3 years?
Pipedrive: $17k-26k. HubSpot: $49k-81k. Salesforce: $53k-89k (including implementation and admin). Calculate based on your team size and tier needs.