In this ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot marketing automation comparison we’ll discuss the unique value proposition each delivers to its target market. Marketing automation platforms help simplify the process of converting unknown website visitors to known contacts and automates nurturing through email and social touches to provide sales teams with a constant flow of highly qualified sales leads and ecommerce with more sales
Marketing automation often includes CRM creating a contiguous marketing-sales funnel rather than two disparate processes. If you are not yet familiar with the concept of Content Marketing don’t put the cart before the horse. SEOMOz created a pillar of resources for content marketing education that will help you climb the curve quickly.
Table of Contents
- What is ActiveCampaign?
- What is HubSpot?
- Platform Features Comparison: ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot
- Cost Comparison: ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot
- Customers: Active Campaign vs HubSpot
- Platform Reviews: ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot
- Demonstration Videos
- Finding A True HubSpot Alternative
- Conclusion: ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot
What is ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign combines various aspects of small business marketing into an integrated and user-friendly platform. With the tool, you can seamlessly create beautiful and engaging emails, use social media marketing, find out more information about your contacts, and apply marketing automation technology that previously is unreachable for small businesses. ActiveCampaign integrates with tools that complete Inbound Marketing automation like landing pages and blogging platform.
What is HubSpot?
HubSpot is an end-to-end inbound marketing automation platform that automates content marketing for the SMB market although leaning toward the higher end of that market. HubSpot was one of the first marketing software companies that forecast the rise of content marketing as the engine of growth that its become today. HubSpot has expanded well beyond marketing automation into the more expansive ‘Growth’ and ‘Services Management’.
What features does HubSpot have that ActiveCampaign doesn’t?
HubSpot’s vision (and product development budget) is expansive and, as a result, its product contains more functionality than ActiveCampaign’s. HubSpot currently includes a CMS, blogging platform, landing page creator,social media manager and service interaction manager among many other bells and whistles, all within its native platform.
ActiveCampaign’s platform strategy is to integrate its email marketing automation and sales automation platform into best-of-breed solutions for landing pages (like LeadPages or Unbounce) and blogging platforms (like WordPress) where its forms are embedded for acquiring contact information that converts visitors to known leads.
Key Difference: ActiveCampaign requires a 3rd party addition to create landing pages and a blog, which serve a key role in the inbound marketing practice. Using a 3rd party integration can limit reporting visibility or at least make it more cumbersome to extract meaningful reports. HubSpot is a single platform which simplifies management, reporting and speed to execute.
|  | |
| Email Marketing Tools |
Yes |
Yes |
| Automation and Workflows |
Yes |
Yes |
| Ease of Use |
9 |
10 |
| Form Builder |
Yes |
Yes |
| Anonymous Contact Tracking |
No |
Yes |
| Anonymous Contact ID |
No |
No |
| Landing Page Designer |
No |
Yes |
| Dynamic Landing Page Content |
No |
Yes |
| Blog Publishing Platform |
No |
Yes |
| Social Media Management |
No |
Yes |
| Social Media Automation Triggers |
No |
No |
| Lead Scoring |
Yes |
Yes |
| CRM |
Yes |
Yes |
| Reporting |
6 |
8 |
What’s the cost difference for ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot?
When considering ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot the differences in functionality reflect almost directly on the subscription price for each product. Let’s compare HubSpot Pro with ActiveCampaign’s Enterprise subscription which is the closest functional comparison of all subscriptions, I think.
Key Difference: HubSpot contracts are annual and payments are annualized upfront. That can eliminate HubSpot from many budgets immediately considering an investment of just under $20,000 to acquire HubSpot Pro.
ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot Cost Comparison
The cost difference is stark. ActiveCampaign is a fraction of the cost of HubSpot even when comparing its most expensive subscription to HubSpot’s least expensive. Unlike HubSpot, ActiveCampaign offers monthly pricing, which is not shown below. There are extra costs required for ActiveCampaign to compete with HubSpot functionally including a landing page builder like LeadPages (starting at $25/month) and a blogging platform like WordPress (business plans starting at $50/month). While this amalgamation of tools approximates the equivalent functionality as HubSpot marketing hub it lacks in reporting transparency.
|
| |
| Monthly Subscription Cost |
$1,250 |
$399 |
| Subscription Contract / Payment Terms |
Annual / Upfront |
Annual / Annual |
| Monthly Pricing / Terms Available |
No |
Yes |
| Total Upfront Startup Cost |
$18,000 |
$2,748 |
| Annual Cost |
$15,000 |
$4,788 |
| Contacts Included |
10,000 |
10,000 |
ActiveCampaign Customer Examples:
You’ll find the most visibly recognizable brands running HubSpot because of its functional breadth and dominant position as the market leader for inbound marketing automation. That doesn’t mean that ActiveCampaign doesn’t have great brands on it’s platform, just less recognizable. Here are a few examples for each:
Codal is a data-driven UX designer.
ThriveThemes builds conversion-focused WordPress templates.
HubSpot Customer Examples
Insinkerator makes and markets food disposal and kitchen gadgets worldwide.
NP Group is an international recruiting organization that solves hiring challenges for a list of notable clients.
ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot Reviews
| | |
| TrustRadius Customer Reviews |
8.3 / 10 |
8.5 / 10 |
| MarTech Customer Reviews |
4.1 / 5 |
4 / 5 |
ActiveCampaign Feature Demonstration
HubSpot Feature Demonstration
There is value to investing in a comprehensive marketing systems, although it comes at an expensive premium with HubSpot.
I enjoyed my experience with HubSpot and with a specialized team focusing on Strategy, Automation and Content, it could be a force to reckon with.
Both platforms do what they’re designed for very well. It’s up to you to decide which platform matches both your vision and your budget.
Are there any HubSpot-equivalent alternatives for small and mid-sized businesses?
Yes. Many companies are looking for the comprehensive functionality of HubSpot with a more affordable price tag. While ActiveCampaign fits the bill for the lower price tag, it’s unable to compete functionally.
SharpSpring solves both the Functionality and Cost. You can read our SharpSpring vs HubSpot comparison for a detailed analysis. SharpSpring offers a very competitive set of marketing automation tools are a (literal) fraction of the cost. Unlike HubSpot, SharpSpring sells primarily through agencies lowering its own cost of sales and marketing which translates to a more competitive/attractive pricing structure.
Interested in seeing a demo of SharpSpring? TFC is a SharpSpring agency based in Philadelphia and Denver.
Conclusion: For what type of organization is ActiveCampaign better than HubSpot?
There are a few use cases where ActiveCampaign is the clear best fit:
- Companies that have big marketing budget constraints but still want to invest in an inbound marketing strategy.
- Companies with a requirement for high email volumes. Where HubSpot has a limit within its plan, ActiveCampaign has no such limits.
- Startups with pre-Series A funding
When comparing ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot context matters most. As a director of marketing and sales for software and services companies I’ve had access to a number of marketing and CRM platforms. Some good, some great, some questionable. Early stage startups are likely a better fit for ActiveCampaign with its quicker setup and basic reporting. The downside being some extra time spent on managing an inbound marketing platform built from multiple vendors and lack or loss of complex reporting transparency.
Good luck and connect with me on Twitter!