HubSpot is known to have the biggest slice of the pie in the sales and marketing industry. If you own a business, chances are you have come across or used some of its services before. But did you know there are some equally powerful and promising alternatives to HubSpot?
In this review, we’re going to have a showdown between HubSpot and ActiveCampaign, one of its most serious competitors.
We’ll present the two titans’ main features, their price range, target market, and much more. After reading this article, you will have a clearer picture of whether HubSpot is truly worth its hefty price tag.
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HubSpot
What Does HubSpot Offer?
Inbound marketing is at the core of HubSpot’s services. It offers four separate programs for marketing, sales, customer service, and a Content Management System (CMS) platform.
What attracts users the most is their free, feature-packed CRM platform that allows you one million contacts (more than most of its competitors), and it’s easy to integrate with Gmail, G Suite, and Outlook.
How Much Does HubSpot Cost?
HubSpot offers yearly or monthly billing for each program. If you opt for any of their paid services, be ready to splash out from $50 up to $3,200 per month, per user.
They offer bundle discounts with a 12-month commitment. Prices go from $50 up to $3,200 per month.
You can use their free CRM without having to commit to any of the paid programs.
ActiveCampaign
What Does ActiveCampaign Offer?
ActiveCampaign is an email marketing tool platform above all else. If you run an eCommerce business, you better stick with this one.
What stands out is its robust automation software through workflows and event tracking. They offer CRM services as well. The main disadvantage is that ActiveCampaign doesn’t have landing pages. If you’re looking for those, you might as well skip this platform.
How Much Does ActiveCampaign Cost?
Each pricing plan comes with the Marketing, Sales, Service and Platform, and Support features. Their deals start from $9 per month up to $229 per month for 500 contacts. Each category’s price range depends on the number of contacts and the type of features you require.
Overall, ActiveCampaign offers decent value for money, especially in terms of email automation.
How Do HubSpot and ActiveCampaign Perform at Sales and Marketing Automation?
How HubSpot Handles It
HubSpot offers great services when it comes to sales and marketing automation, but at a hefty price tag.
You’re looking at an additional $800 per month for features you’d get in ActiveCampaign’s standard plan. Another downside is that sales automation and marketing automation are two different hubs. Opting for both would cost much more.
How ActiveCampaign Handles It
With ActiveCampaign, there are no limits to what you can do in marketing and sales automation. You’ll have access to features such as site tracking, lead scoring, segmentation, CRM automation, and others. All this comes at an affordable price with no hidden costs.
How Do HubSpot and ActiveCampaign Perform at Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
How HubSpot Handles It
Probably the main reason for HubSpot’s world fame is its powerful CRM system. Small businesses can do wonders with all the free features included:
- Contact management
- Landing pages
- Website tracking activity
- Email scheduling
- Custom support form fields
- Contact website activity
And this is not even half of what you get. For the full list, check Free CRM Software | HubSpot.
How ActiveCampaign Handles It
ActiveCampaign offers CRM in their Plus, Professional, and Enterprise plans. It has three main parts: deals, pipelines, and stages. Their CRM is heavily focused on deals, so their CRM tools are placed under the Deals tab. You can do lead scoring using the segment builder to qualify leads. You can also create an unlimited number of pipelines.
How Do HubSpot and ActiveCampaign Perform in Terms of Ease-of-Use?
How HubSpot Handles It
HubSpot is known for its minimalist design and intuitive dashboards. Everything is nicely organized despite an extensive number of features on the platform. If you get stuck, you can always contact their live chat support. There’s a virtual tour of the platform for beginners as well.
How ActiveCampaign Handles It
ActiveCampaign does a great job in terms of usability. You can customize the dashboard and add only the sections you want to see, such as tasks or campaigns. One downside is that you can’t add more email addresses for the same contact, while at HubSpot you can.
HubSpot vs. ActiveCampaign: Which One Is Right for Your Business?
Small Businesses and Startups
If you are a startup on a tight budget and your main goal is CRM, go for HubSpot. But if you have an eCommerce business, it might be wise to spend a few bucks and get a top-notch email automation service with ActiveCampaign. ActiveCampaign is mainly focused on small businesses.
Medium-Sized Businesses
We could give the same advice to mid-size businesses: Go for HubSpot for full CRM experience and give ActiveCampaign a shot for a smooth email automation system.
You can probably still get around with HubSpot’s free CRM, but you should consider signing up for their Marketing Hub for more in-depth analytics.
Enterprise-Level Businesses
At this point, you would get little use out of ActiveCampaign. That is unless you run an eCommerce business with less than ten thousand contacts (the most ActiveCampaign allows for its Enterprise plan).
If you’re looking for an all-in-one marketing solution, then HubSpot is a better option for you. You should be ready to break the bank, though.
HubSpot vs. ActiveCampaign: The Moment of Truth
After reading this article, it’s probably clear that you should drop HubSpot and go for its less expensive, automation-friendly alternative.
ActiveCampaign is a clear winner for small businesses or those who run an eCommerce business whose primary goal is not CRM.
However, if your focus is CRM or you’re a big business owner, you should stick with HubSpot. Alternatively, you can check out some more affordable options that are better suited for large-scale businesses, such as Salesforce.
