Salesforce AELA vs. HubSpot Credits: Two Incompatible Post-Seat Pricing Bets Diverge in Real Time

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After testing per-conversation and consumption-style pricing, Salesforce landed on AELA (Agentic Enterprise License Agreement) — a seat-based commitment wrapper with fair-use consumption metering — because enterprise buyers demanded budget predictability. HubSpot went the opposite direction with pure credits (100 credits = ~$1/agent action), decoupling revenue entirely from headcount. Both are positioning against each other: AELA favors large-enterprise stability, Credits favors SMB/mid-market flexibility — and whichever model dominates will set the pricing contract for the next decade of SaaS.