When it comes to the best marketing software to help you manage your customer experience, there are two major players in town: HubSpot and ActiveCampaign .
HubSpot is a cloud-based CRM software (customer relationship management system) designed to help entrepreneurs align their:
Sales and Marketing Team
Facilitate the sales process
Increase ROI from inbound marketing campaigns
Likewise, ActiveCampaign combines email marketing, marketing automation capabilities, sales automation and cloud-based CRM strategies to help business owners enhance their customer experience.
While the two automation platforms share some similarities, there are significant differences between the two. That's why, in this review, we're examining what these two competitors have to offer so you can decide which (if any) software is better for your needs.
Without further farewell, let's delve into this HubSpot vs ActiveCampaign review.
HubSpot vs ActiveCampaign: Features and Pricing - Quick Overview
Above is the pricing structure for HubSpot Activecampaign based on the number of marketing contacts you have and the type of features you need.
The pricing below reflects the cost of keeping 1,000 marketing contacts on your books.
However, you'll be happy to know that both companies have a range of free tools you can use right away, which we'll also cover below.
HubSpot
free tools
One of the best things about HubSpot is the variety of free marketing, sales, and general management tools it offers, including task tracking, customer record storage, and automation.
Below we list some of the highlights:
Access customizable templates for emails, landing pages and live chat
You can send 2,000 emails per calendar month (with HubSpot branding)
You can send an automatic email for each customer form
You can sync all campaigns
Access to a customer database to store all your marketing contacts and their details
Access shared inboxes and team email accounts for enhanced collaboration
Access CRM tools including live chatbots, in-app calling, customer issue ticketing and email scheduler.
A reporting dashboard that gives you insight into your marketing performance
These features can be combined with any pricing plan you choose. Typically, any restrictions placed on these features will scale with paid plans, as follows:
Getting Started - From $45 per month: Here you get a shared team inbox for managing customer engagement, a social media reporting dashboard, and some basic automation tools.
Professional - From $800 per month: This package also comes with customer support, custom reports, and advanced marketing automation tools.
Enterprise – From $3200 per month: In addition to all of the above, you also unlock collaboration and workflow tools, as well as advanced reporting features.
No matter which pricing plan you choose, the price increases by an additional $1,000 per month for every 45 contacts.
hubspot and active motion
Activities Activities
free tools
You can access templates for emails, advertisements, forums and webinars for free. Templates are also available to your sales team, including sales forms, calendars, client lists, and reports.
While Activecampaign's free products are primarily template-based resources, it's worth noting that all Activecampaign plans offer a 14-day free trial.
Again, as we compare pricing plans , the fees below are based on 1,000 marketing contacts. Although you can add more contacts at each price point:
Lite - $30 per month: For this price, you can expect a CRM, email templates, and basic automation.
Plus - $70 per month: You also get third-party integrations, collaboration tools, and advanced reporting.
Professional - $187 per month: This also unlocks performance reporting, predictive analytics and onboarding for your team
Enterprise - $323 per month: You get all of the above, plus custom reports and customer support. You can also get your own email domain.
hubspot and active motion
HubSpot vs ActiveCampaign: Marketing Features
Now that we have a high-level email list overview of each company's capabilities, let's dive into how their marketing capabilities compare.
HubSpot Trusted
blog
HubSpot comes with a fully integrated blog manager so that users can create, optimize and publish blog content with HubSpot's CMS (more on that below). You can also schedule blog posts from the same place you manage your social media posts. From here, you can link your social accounts to your blog to automatically share content on these platforms as soon as your blog goes live.
Another great blogging feature is its SEO optimization. The blog page builder automatically generates on-page SEO suggestions for relevant keywords to help you outperform your competitors. What's more, you can use HubSpot's CMS to send automatic email notifications to your subscribers when you publish new content, so your readers never miss a post.
When it comes to email marketing, creating a HubSpot email campaign with a drag-and-drop editor is very easy to use. You can use images, columns and dividers. You can also add a call-to-action button and your own personalized branding (i.e. logo and colors).
HubSpot's Marketing Center is where you can find HubSpot's marketing tools. It operates on HubSpot's CRM platform. From HubSpot's CRM, you'll find all the marketing, sales, customer service, CMS, and operational tools discussed here. More specifically, when it comes to email, you can track outbound emails, and when you receive or send emails, it syncs with your internal customer database in HubSpot's CRM. You can then use Hubspot's reporting features to monitor your open and engagement rates to better understand what content appeals to which customers.
On top of that, you can even send automated email responses and more complex email sequences triggered by how users interact with your website. For example, based on previous interactions with your brand, you could send an email with a blog post or product they might be interested in. The CRM contains contact information, including their name, other details, and previous purchases, which you can then use to send customized emails. HubSpot can even generate the most relevant subject lines, links, products, and CTAs that customers are interested in, and schedule emails based on when they are most likely to open them.
HubSpot's email marketing platform can be used from either of your HubSpot CRM , or you can integrate it with your current email provider like Mailchimp.
hubspot and active motion
social media
HubSpot's Social Media Manager enables you to handle all your social media schedules, posts and marketing assets (i.e. images and videos) from one centralized location.
You can then schedule content and publish it directly to:
your blog
Social media manager and other tools, HubSpot, use machine learning to generate automated insights, such as recommendations on the best time to post for maximum engagement. It also links to your CRM inbox. That way, when people reply to any of your social posts, blog content, or emails, you can view and monitor them conveniently from one inbox. Finally, your social activity is also analyzed with HubSpot so you can focus on metrics like visits, lead generation, conversions, and more.
ActiveCampaign
blog
While ActiveCampaign doesn't have a dedicated blogging tool, it does offer extensive third-party integrations that can manage these for you.
E.g:
WordPress
Shopify
Squarespace
…to name a few!
Like HubSpot, ActiveCampaign also has a drag-and-drop email builder that lets you create branded custom emails. You can send your message to your target customer base or as a general broadcast to your entire audience.
You can also set up automated emails that are triggered by specific customer actions during the setup stage of your sales funnel. Done right, this makes it easier to convert interested leads into paying customers.
ActiveCampaign also comes with predictive content and sending. For unfamiliar, predictive content, adapt it to your audience. It is then sent when the recipient is most likely to interact with your email. Alternatively, emails can be scheduled in advance using third-party integrations such as WooCommerce, Zapier, and Facebook.