We scanned 5,958 Australian dental clinic websites to see which chat platforms clinics actually use. HubSpot is the free-CRM option — solid, clean, and surprisingly common in Australian dentistry. Here's the honest breakdown of what free actually gets you.
What HubSpot is
HubSpot's chat is part of its free CRM: a clean widget, a shared inbox, and basic bots, with a generous free tier. It's a popular no-cost choice — and the second most common widget we found on Australian dental sites.
- Free tier — chat widget + CRM for free
- Shared inbox — chat, email and social in one place
- CRM context — every chat linked to the patient record
- Upgrade path — paid tiers add bots, automation and analytics
What it really costs
Sticker price is only half the story. Here's the honest cost picture for a dental clinic:
- Platform: free tier includes chat + CRM — genuinely $0 to start.
- Upgrades: paid tiers add advanced bots, automation and reporting — roughly US$15-100/mo (about A$21-A$143) depending on seat count and hub.
- Your real cost: configuring the free CRM properly takes a few hours, and the after-hours AI features live on paid tiers.
- Hidden cost: an unanswered after-hours message is a patient who books somewhere else - and you cannot see how many you lose.
How to install it yourself (and where it goes wrong)
- Create a free HubSpot account and set up your CRM basics (contacts, pipelines).
- Build your chat widget with the pre-chat form and routing rules.
- Connect your shared inbox and add your team members.
- Paste the snippet into your site (or use the integration for common builders).
- Test a full visitor journey on mobile — and re-check your speed score after the widget goes live.
The honest truth: anyone can paste in a snippet in ten minutes. The hard part is everything after it - who answers at 9pm, whether the enquiry is captured with a name and number, and whether it becomes a booked appointment. That is the difference between a widget and a system that fills your chair.
HubSpot vs the closest alternative
The gap
HubSpot will hold the conversation. It will not book the patient.
HubSpot's free chat and CRM are genuinely good, and patient context on every conversation is a real advantage. The automation that answers after hours, though, lives on the paid tiers - and the phone still rings out.
HubSpot on its own
- Free chat plus CRM, with patient context on every conversation
- Clean interface and the easiest learning curve of the group
- Bots, automation and reporting live on paid tiers (~US$15-100/mo, about A$21-A$143)
- After-hours AI costs extra
- Not dental-specific
- No Google reviews or review requests, no missed-call text-back
- No booking, no reminders, no social posting
The LocalDentists.au system
- Answers at 8pm, on Saturday, and on Easter Sunday
- Missed-call text-back - every unanswered call gets a text in seconds
- Chat, calls, reviews and social comments in one inbox
- Booking links and reminders built in
- Every enquiry lands in a pipeline, with reporting you can read
- Published price: A$249/month first location, A$149 each additional
- Month-to-month, no lock-in, setup and migration included
- Australian business - direct support from the people who set it up
The market: who actually uses HubSpot
HubSpot appears on 185 of the 5,925 we could check — #3 by adoption. Here's the full picture:
Chat widget adoption — the platforms we name
Source: LocalDentists.au automated scan, August 2026. Bar length relative to "no widget" (the largest group). Platform names are the ones we can resolve; the scan detects vendors we choose not to name, so an omission here is deliberate, not a detection gap.
Pros & cons
What's good
- Genuinely free chat + CRM
- Clean, modern interface
- Patient context on every conversation
- Easy to upgrade as you grow
What's not
- Full power lives in paid HubSpot tiers
- Bots and automation limited on the free plan
- Not dental-specific
- Can get pricey if you climb the tiers
Who HubSpot is for (and who should look elsewhere)
| Good fit for | Maybe not |
|---|---|
| Practices already in the HubSpot ecosystem, or those wanting free chat with CRM context | Clinics wanting AI after-hours answering without paying for HubSpot's paid tiers |
What the LocalDentists.au system costs
| What | What it covers | Price |
|---|---|---|
| The CRM - first location | After-hours chat, missed-call text-back, review requests, social posting on nine networks with comment and DM management, CRM pipeline - plus setup, migration and front-desk training | A$249 / month |
| Each additional location | Own phone number, Google profile, pipeline and reporting - your team switches between sites from one login | A$149 / month |
| Managed service | Optional, per location: up to 25 review replies, 8 social posts written and scheduled, comments and DMs answered within one business day, 30-minute performance call | +A$300 / month |
| Managed Plus | For busy, multi-chair sites: up to 60 review replies, 16 social posts, same-business-day inbox, fortnightly call | +A$600 / month |
Published, not quote-only. Month-to-month. Add-ons: SMS bundle (1,000 messages) A$49 · AI voice receptionist A$199 · content pack, eight written posts a month A$149.
Frequently asked questions
- Is HubSpot chat really free?
- Yes — the chat widget and basic CRM are free. Paid tiers unlock advanced bots, automation and analytics.
- Can HubSpot answer after hours?
- On the free tier, limited. Paid tiers add chatbots that can capture details and qualify enquiries.
- Does HubSpot integrate with dental software?
- Via its app marketplace and APIs — but not natively with dental PMS platforms.
- Will HubSpot slow my website down?
- No - the widget itself is light. The cost is unanswered enquiries, not load time: someone still has to answer, and our scan shows most clinics have nobody watching after hours.
- Is HubSpot a good fit for a single-location dental clinic?
- Yes, especially if you already use HubSpot — the free CRM context is a genuine bonus. Just be aware the after-hours AI features live on paid tiers.
The Pause Clause: we run after-hours for 30 days
We add the LocalDentists.au system to your site for a month and let it handle the after-hours enquiries, missed calls and bookings. Whatever you use today keeps running exactly as it is - nothing gets cancelled, and your front desk keeps working the way it does now.
- Live across the whole clinic for 30 days, not a test in the corner of the site
- One inbox for chat, calls, reviews and social - nothing new to learn
- You pay the normal price - A$249/month for the first location, month-to-month, nothing to cancel
- Not better after 30 days? Cancel and walk away - no exit fee, no contract to unwind, and we hand you everything it handled
Data in this article comes from LocalDentists.au's automated scan of 5,958 Australian dental clinic websites (August 2026). Pricing was researched from public vendor sources and is indicative only. We are an independent directory — we don't receive commissions from any chat platform, and this review is not sponsored.