This post compares Lumea Direct and HubSpot for an SEO agency, with prices checked on September 28, 2026. Michael Gleed wrote it. He runs his own SEO agency on Lumea Direct, the software he built for the business side.
HubSpot is a CRM built to win customers. It tracks contacts, deals, and marketing email. Lumea runs what happens after the client signs. It holds the monthly SEO work, the hours behind it, and the profit on each client. Your busiest client might be your worst client, and a CRM won’t tell you which one it is.
What Is HubSpot Built For?
HubSpot is a customer platform built for sales, marketing, and service teams. Its CRM holds contacts, companies, and deals, and its hubs add email marketing, automation, and a help desk. Sales Hub Professional is $90 per seat a month billed yearly, plus a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee.
The free CRM covers up to 2 users. Sales Hub Starter starts at $7 per seat a month. Every paid plan is priced by the seat, so the bill grows with each person you add.
HubSpot also has a projects object on every plan. A project holds tasks, owners, and pipeline stages. HubSpot’s guide to projects doesn’t list time tracking, and the time tracking apps in its marketplace come from other companies. Recurring packages and pace by client month are yours to build.
What Is Lumea Direct Built For?
Lumea Direct is SEO agency management software. It runs the client month. Service tiers, topical maps, deliverables, time, pay periods, client reports, and profit per client sit in one account. Plans are priced by client count, from $143 a month, with unlimited seats.
Lumea doesn’t track rankings or send marketing email. Semrush or Ahrefs stays for research, and your email tool stays for campaigns. Here’s the full tour of Lumea’s SEO agency management software.
How Do Lumea and HubSpot Compare Side by Side?
HubSpot plans around deals, and Lumea plans around client months. The table lines the two up on 9 points. HubSpot’s price comes from its own page, checked September 28, 2026.
| HubSpot | Lumea Direct | |
| Built for | Winning customers: sales, marketing, and service | Running the SEO agency after the client signs |
| Unit of work | A deal or a contact | A client month |
| Sales pipeline | Yes, the core of the CRM | Yes, a Pipeline for prospects |
| Topical maps | Not built in | Imported and pushed into months |
| Monthly deliverables | Projects and tasks you build by hand | Package tiers fill each month, with an owner on every item |
| Time tracking and pay periods | Through marketplace apps from other companies | Built in, tied to each client |
| Profit per client | Deal revenue, with no cost of team hours | Client profit column in Reports |
| Client SEO report | Built for your own marketing, not client SEO | Built in, with Search Console numbers |
| Price | Sales Hub Professional $90 per seat a month, billed yearly, plus $1,500 onboarding | From $143 a month by client count, unlimited seats |
Source: HubSpot’s Sales Hub pricing page and Lumea Direct’s plans, checked September 28, 2026. Prices change, so confirm on the linked page before you buy.
The overlap is the pipeline. Both hold the businesses you’re trying to win, with contacts and notes on each one. Once the contract signs, the SEO work lives in Lumea.
Pick by the question you need answered. HubSpot answers who’s in the pipeline and which emails got opened. Lumea answers where each client stands this month and which clients make money.
Can HubSpot Track Monthly SEO Deliverables?
HubSpot can hold SEO tasks, but you build every one by hand. A project there has tasks, owners, and stages, with no service tiers or topical maps built in. Lumea fills each client’s month from its package. Planning takes about 10 minutes per client, down from 30 to 40.
The Deliverables page shows every client’s month on one screen. Each client gets a percent done, a pace line, and an owner on every item. By the 10th, you’ll know who’s on pace, who’s behind, and who has nothing done. Your team sees the same month by client or by person. See how SEO project management works in Lumea.
Screen: roster-pace-loop.mp4, framed, caption “Example data from the Northline Digital demo agency.”
Does HubSpot Show Hours and Profit Per Client?
HubSpot shows deal revenue, with no built-in way to put team hours against a client’s fee. Lumea ties every logged hour to a client. Take the monthly fee plus one-time fees, then subtract client costs and the cost of logged time. What’s left is client profit.
Here’s what it shows, with example data from the Northline Digital demo agency. Bayside Chiropractic and Miller Physical Therapy both pay $1,200 a month. Bayside took 30.8 hours and left $521 in client profit. Miller took 7 hours and left $1,027. Per hour of team time, Miller brought in $171 and Bayside brought in $39.
Salaried time counts at annual salary divided by 2,080 hours, so a $52,000 salary costs $25 an hour. Open Reports, then the Team tab, and read the Client profit column. Rates lock the moment an entry closes, so a raise next month never rewrites what last month cost you.
Screen: client-profit-loop.mp4, framed, caption “Example data from the Northline Digital demo agency.”
What Does HubSpot Do Well?
HubSpot does 3 jobs well, and all 3 sit before the contract. Its free CRM covers up to 2 users, so an owner can test a pipeline at no cost:
- A sales pipeline, with contacts, companies, deals, and stages
- Email marketing, from newsletters to lead nurture sequences
- Marketing automation and reports on your own campaigns
HubSpot’s reports answer how many deals closed and which emails worked. They don’t answer where a client’s SEO month stands, or what the account cost you in hours. An agency with a full sales team gets the most from HubSpot. It still needs a place to run the work.
Can You Use HubSpot and Lumea Together?
Yes, if HubSpot already runs your sales and marketing. Lumea doesn’t connect to HubSpot today, so the two run side by side. You set each client up once in Lumea when they sign.
A new client takes about 30 minutes to set up in Lumea, and the topical map import takes about 5. From there, every month starts from the plan you already built.
Lumea also has its own Pipeline for prospects. A small agency can keep sales and delivery in one account. HubSpot vs GoHighLevel is a choice between two sales and marketing tools, and Lumea runs next to either one. It takes leads for the businesses you serve from website form emails and GoHighLevel forms. When a HubSpot deal closes, add the client in Lumea and import its topical map.
What Does Each One Cost a 4-Person SEO Agency?
On Sales Hub Professional, a 4-person agency pays $360 a month billed yearly, plus $1,500 once for onboarding. Sales Hub Starter starts at $28 a month for the same 4 seats. Lumea Growth covers 4 to 8 clients for $242 a month, or about $194 billed yearly.
The two prices buy different jobs. HubSpot’s seats buy sales and marketing tools. Lumea’s plan buys the monthly work, the hours, and profit per client. Add a part-time writer and a VA, and a per-seat bill goes up twice. In Lumea, a new hire never raises the bill. See every plan on the Lumea Direct pricing page.
Who Is Lumea Direct For?
Lumea Direct is for SEO agencies on monthly retainers, from 1 client to 9 or more. Every plan includes unlimited seats and a 14-day free trial with no card:
- Starter: up to 3 clients, $143 a month
- Growth: 4 to 8 clients, $242 a month
- Unlimited: 9 or more clients, $494 a month
- Solo: one business doing its own SEO, $98 a month
It fits best when one account holds the whole month. Your team plans the deliverables, logs the hours, and sends the report in the same place.
Run the Agency Around the Monthly Work
Michael Gleed built Lumea Direct inside his own SEO agency. For years, his client facts sat across Drive, Docs, and Sheets. Now the agency runs on Lumea every day. It shows what a CRM doesn’t: where each client stands, where the hours went, and which clients make money.
Start your 14-day free trial with no card and no sales call. Not ready yet? Run your top 3 clients through the free Client Profit Calculator first. You’ll know which clients to raise, keep, or drop.
Buttons: Start free trial (/pricing/#ld-plans)
Questions About Lumea and HubSpot
Do I need a CRM for an SEO agency?
You need one place for every prospect, client, and follow-up. The Oregon Small Business Development Center Network says a CRM gathers customer information in one place. Your team can then serve customers and track sales goals. For an SEO agency, the same record should carry the client’s monthly work once they sign. Lumea’s Pipeline and client pages cover both, in one account.
Is there a HubSpot alternative for SEO agencies?
For the delivery side, yes. Lumea Direct runs the monthly SEO work, the hours, and profit per client, priced by client count. The SBA’s guide to managing your business suggests analyzing each part of a business on its own. For an agency, each client is one of those parts.
How do you track time for salaried agency staff?
Log it by client, even when pay doesn’t depend on it. The Department of Labor’s recordkeeping fact sheet requires hours records for non-exempt workers, so salaried exempt staff often skip timesheets. Skip them in your agency, and every client looks more profitable than it is. Lumea prices salaried time at salary divided by 2,080 hours.
How do you prove SEO work to a client each month?
Show the work done and the search numbers behind it. Google Search Console’s Performance report shows clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and average position. Lumea’s client report pulls those numbers and lists the month’s finished items with live links.
