Phone systems with HubSpot: HubSpot calling, 3CX, placetel, sipgate and Aircall compared

Is HubSpot calling enough on its own?

HubSpot calling is built in from Starter. Reps call from the contact, the call logs itself with its outcome, and HubSpot can record and transcribe it. HubSpot calling runs on Twilio, which also stores the recordings.

There are two kinds of numbers, and they behave differently:

Minutes are shared by the whole account, not given per user: 500 a month on Starter, 3,000 on Professional, 12,000 on Enterprise. They reset on the 1st of the month. “Call from phone” uses twice the minutes, because HubSpot places two calls. When the minutes run out, the call button stays grey until the 1st. Calls through another provider’s app use no HubSpot minutes.

HubSpot calling is enough when a small team calls out from HubSpot, has Sales Hub Professional seats and wants transcripts on the record. It falls short where you need a phone system: a main number with a menu and ring groups for many people, desk phones, fax, mobile SIM cards, or calls to countries HubSpot doesn’t cover. HubSpot’s numbers can’t send text messages in Germany, Austria or Switzerland either; its SMS add-ons work with US numbers only.

Caller ID needs a test in Austria and Switzerland. According to HubSpot’s help, Austrian operators block incoming international calls that show an Austrian number. Swiss carriers block or anonymise Swiss landline numbers shown as caller ID from abroad, and since 1 July 2026 mobile numbers too. Call a phone in each country before your reps rely on the number.

HubSpot calling, 3CX, placetel, sipgate and Aircall compared

The two tables compare HubSpot calling, 3CX, placetel, sipgate and Aircall from the buyer’s side. Prices are list prices per month without VAT, as each vendor shows them on 5 October 2026.

Click-to-call works in all five: in HubSpot’s calling window for HubSpot and Aircall, through a browser extension for 3CX and placetel, and through a button that hands the number to the sipgate App. Each of the five has a mobile app. 3CX, placetel and Aircall log on their side, so a call from any of their phones or apps logs. sipgate logs what goes through the sipgate App, HubSpot what goes through HubSpot. A call from a personal mobile number logs nowhere. Third-party apps can’t place calls from custom object records.

Which phone system for which team?

Our view, from the projects we see. Start from how your team phones today. The feature lists come second.

Why calls end up on the wrong record, or on none

A phone system finds the contact by the caller’s number. If the number in HubSpot is written differently from the number the phone network delivers, there’s no match. Then the call isn’t logged at all, or it lands on a new, empty contact. A number written two ways is the most common reason calls “go missing”.

So before you connect anything, store every number with its country code: +49 221 98819878, not 0221 98819878. Export the phone and mobile columns, fix them in a spreadsheet and import them back with the record ID. Then decide whether unknown callers may create contacts. If they may, someone has to merge those contacts every week. Our guide on duplicates in HubSpot shows how.

Also check who a call belongs to. 3CX and Aircall set the call’s owner by matching the user’s email address in both systems. If the addresses differ, calls log without an owner or with the contact owner instead of the person who called.

Call recordings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: where they’re stored and what to set

In Germany and Switzerland, recording a call without the other person’s consent is a criminal offence, and in all three countries data protection law applies. HubSpot itself says the GDPR generally needs every party’s consent. What follows is what the software does and where you set it. Whether and how you record is for your data protection officer or lawyer to decide.

• HubSpot records by default. New accounts record every call. You can exempt inbound or outbound calls by direction, number, user or region, or switch recording off. A custom consent message plays to inbound callers on HubSpot numbers; on outbound calls the rep has to ask.
• Callers hang up at the announcement. Many inbound callers in Germany end the call as soon as they hear it. Decide whether you record inbound calls at all before you go live.
• Recordings sit in different places. HubSpot keeps them with Twilio and plays them on the record. Aircall puts a link in the call note. 3CX keeps them in 3CX. placetel sends them only with its paid recording option. sipgate sends a note and an AI summary, not the audio.
• Transcripts need the right seat. HubSpot only transcribes recordings by users with a Sales or Service seat on Professional or Enterprise.
• Your own staff are recorded too. Where you have a works council, involve it before you switch recording or call analytics on.

One change from 31 August 2026: meetings recorded with HubSpot’s notetaker or Zoom, Teams and Google Meet no longer create a call record as well. Call reports may show fewer calls from that date. That’s the duplicates going away, not your team calling less.

How to set up calling in HubSpot, step by step

Do the HubSpot side first, whichever phone system you use. The settings are under Settings > Calling > Call Setup.

1. Step 01

   Clean up the phone numbers

   Every contact and company number with its country code, as described above. Do this first; it decides whether the rest works.
2. Step 02

   Decide on HubSpot’s own calling

   If you use another provider, consider switching HubSpot calling off under Call Configurations, so reps don’t place some calls one way and some the other. Existing calls stay on the records.
3. Step 03

   Set call outcomes and make them required

   Keep the list short: connected, no answer, left voicemail, wrong number, meeting booked. Then switch on “Make call outcome required”. It applies to outbound calls from the HubSpot browser and to calls logged by hand, not to inbound, mobile or imported calls.

   

4. Step 04

   Set recording

   Decide per direction and region with your data protection officer, then set the exemptions. For inbound calls on HubSpot numbers, write your own consent message instead of the default.
5. Step 05

   Install the provider’s app

   Connect the phone system with a HubSpot Super Admin account. The next two sections show sipgate and placetel. For 3CX follow its HubSpot guide, for Aircall its help article.

Setting up the sipgate HubSpot integration

sipgate connects through the sipgate App, its softphone for desktop, browser and mobile. Logging calls to HubSpot needs the sipgate App Premium for each user who should log; the basic app only reads contacts.

1. Step 01

   Open the integrations in the sipgate App

   In the sipgate App, choose HubSpot from the integrations list.

   

2. Step 02

   Set the default country code

   Pick Germany (+49), Austria or Switzerland. Numbers stored in HubSpot without a country code are read with it. Then click “Connect to HubSpot”.

   

3. Step 03

   Approve the access in HubSpot

   Choose the HubSpot account and approve. The app reads and writes contacts, companies and deals, and reads users.

   

4. Step 04

   Choose where calls log

   Contacts always; open deals of the contact and companies if you tick them. A note logs with every call, the AI summary optionally. One number may sit on only one record, so keep the main number on the company and direct numbers on the contacts.

   

Setting up the placetel HubSpot integration

placetel’s HubSpot app is made by PhoneMondo and booked in the placetel AppStore. The first month is free. After that the app costs €7.90 per user a month until you cancel, with a month’s notice to the end of a month.

1. Step 01

   Book the HubSpot app in the AppStore

   In the placetel web portal, open AppStore > HubSpot and start the free month. Pick how many users get it; they must exist as placetel users first.

   

2. Step 02

   Link the PhoneMondo account and connect HubSpot

   On the confirmation page, link your account to PhoneMondo. PhoneMondo opens; install its add-on for HubSpot and connect your HubSpot account. The app reads and writes contacts and companies, and reads deals.

   

3. Step 03

   Check the logging settings

   “Log calls in HubSpot” is on by default. “Also log calls without linked dataset” is off: calls from numbers that match no record are then not logged. Recordings only come across if you book placetel’s call recording option.

   

4. Step 04

   Install the browser extension

   Click-to-call from HubSpot needs PhoneMondo’s extension for Chrome or Firefox on each computer.

How to check that calls really log

Integrations break quietly. A changed password, an expired token or a new number, and calls stop logging for days before anyone notices. Check three things after go-live and then every week.

1. Step 01

   The call on the record

   Make a test call to a known contact and open the contact. The call shows with its outcome, direction and duration, and a missed call shows as missed.

   

2. Step 02

   The recording and the notes

   Open the call. Check the outcome, the notes and whether the recording plays, or where the link leads.

   

3. Step 03

   The call list and one report

   In CRM > Calls, add the call outcome column and look for calls without one. Then build one report: calls by outcome, or calls per rep per week. A rep whose count drops to zero is your alarm.

   

   

For the reports a sales lead needs every week, see our guide to sales dashboards in HubSpot.

What to test in a trial before you buy

Plan a week for the trial. Phone numbers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are tied to a business and a location, so every provider checks you first. placetel asks for address proof per area code before its test numbers can call. sipgate asks for a commercial register extract, and Aircall for a company document before it activates the account. HubSpot reviews your business before a HubSpot number works.

Then run these situations with two reps and real calls:

• An outbound call from a contact, a company and a deal. Does it log on the record you called from?
• An inbound call from a known number and from an unknown one. What happens to the unknown caller?
• A missed call and a voicemail. Do they show on the contact, and in the inbox if you need them there?
• A call from the mobile app, away from the desk. Does it log?
• A call to a phone in Austria or Switzerland. Does your number show as caller ID?
• A transfer to a colleague, and a contact whose owner changes. Who owns the call afterwards?
• The outcome. Is it set, and can a workflow use it? Aircall, for one, counts an outbound call that reaches voicemail as connected.
• The recording and transcript, in German. Where do they open, and who can listen?
• The count. Does the provider’s call count for a day match HubSpot’s?
• Support. Who answers when logging stops: the phone provider, the app’s maker or HubSpot?

Last, add up the real cost per user: the phone plan, the HubSpot add-on or premium app, and the HubSpot seats your callers need. Our guide on HubSpot seats explains which seat calls.

Mistakes we see with phone systems and HubSpot

• Numbers in five formats. 0221, +49 221, +49 (0)221, 0049 221 and the same with spaces. The phone system can’t match them, and the calls disappear.
• Every unknown caller becomes a contact. After a month the CRM holds hundreds of contacts named after phone numbers.
• Outcomes that aren’t required. Without them, call reports show activity but not what came of it.
• Nobody checks the logging. The integration stops after a password change, and a week of calls is missing from the pipeline review.
• Calls from personal mobiles. They never reach HubSpot. If reps call from their own phone, give them the provider’s app.
• Two ways to call. HubSpot calling stays on next to the new provider, and calls end up split between two tools.
• Recording switched on without a decision. HubSpot records by default. Callers hang up at the announcement, and nobody agreed it with the data protection officer.

Calls that log themselves are what gets a sales team to trust the CRM. Our guide on HubSpot adoption covers the rest. If your team calls through Microsoft Teams Phone, the Teams guide shows how those calls log.

How we connect phone systems and HubSpot

We start with how calls flow today and where they get lost. The provider comes last.

1. Step 01

   Map the calls

   Who calls whom, from which number and device, and what has to land in HubSpot: outcomes, recordings, missed calls.
2. Step 02

   Clean the numbers

   Every number in international format, duplicates merged, one number per record.
3. Step 03

   Choose and test

   Two candidates at most, tested with the checklist above, with two of your reps.
4. Step 04

   Set it up

   Outcomes, recording rules with your data protection officer, the app for each user, and the old way of calling switched off.
5. Step 05

   Keep it running

   One report that shows calls per rep per week, and a person who looks at it.

Frequently asked questions