Customer.io vs HubSpot Marketing Hub

by Gralio Feb 26, 2025

Customer.io and HubSpot Marketing Hub are both powerful marketing platforms, but they cater to different needs. Customer.io excels at personalized, automated messaging across multiple channels, while HubSpot offers a broader suite of marketing tools, including inbound marketing and SEO. Choose Customer.io if your priority is targeted communication and complex campaign automation. Opt for HubSpot if you need a more comprehensive marketing solution that covers a wider range of functionalities.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 5332 reviews and 60 websites, saving 1 day, 6 hours, 7 minutes of reading.

Customer.io

Website LinkedIn Twitter

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Website LinkedIn Twitter

About

Customer.io is a customer engagement platform that helps mid-sized and larger companies improve their customer relationships through personalized messaging. Using data you already have, you can create automated email, SMS, and in-app messages. Customer.io also features robust data management tools and a visual workflow builder for designing complex campaigns. Companies use Customer.io to increase engagement, reduce churn, and improve customer lifetime value.

HubSpot Marketing Hub is a comprehensive marketing platform designed for businesses of all sizes. It offers a suite of tools including email marketing, marketing automation, social media management, analytics, and SEO optimization, all within a single platform. This helps businesses streamline their marketing efforts, improve efficiency, and track results. Its focus on inbound marketing and lead generation makes it a popular choice for businesses looking to attract and convert leads into customers. HubSpot Marketing Hub integrates seamlessly with HubSpot's CRM platform for enhanced sales and marketing alignment.

Summary

Main difference

Customer.io is better for you if you need a powerful, multi-channel messaging platform with a strong focus on personalized automated campaigns. HubSpot Marketing Hub is better for you if you prefer an all-in-one marketing platform with a wider range of features, including inbound marketing, SEO, and social media management.

Relative strengths of Customer.io (compared to HubSpot Marketing Hub)

Superior multi-channel messaging capabilities (email, SMS, in-app, push, Slack, webhooks).
Robust visual workflow builder for complex automated campaigns.
Stronger focus on personalized messaging and individual customer journeys.

Relative weaknesses of Customer.io (compared to HubSpot Marketing Hub)

Less comprehensive feature set compared to HubSpot (lacking SEO, social media management).
Steeper learning curve for non-technical users, especially for segmentation.
Pricing can be complex and potentially higher for growing contact lists.

What companies are using Customer.io and HubSpot Marketing Hub?

No data

Who is using Customer.io and HubSpot Marketing Hub?

Justin Ashby

Head of Marketing at Glyphic

John Short

CEO at Compound Growth Marketing

Who should use Customer.io VS. HubSpot Marketing Hub

Customer.io is a powerful customer engagement platform enabling personalized messaging across various channels. Users praise its robust workflow builder and excellent customer support. However, some find the segmentation and email template editor challenging. Ideal for mid-sized and larger B2C companies seeking advanced marketing automation.

HubSpot Marketing Hub is a user-friendly platform ideal for businesses of all sizes seeking to streamline marketing efforts and boost lead generation. Users praise its intuitive interface, robust analytics, and integrations. However, some find the pricing model complex and the free version limited. Consider HubSpot if you prioritize inbound marketing and need a comprehensive solution, but be prepared for potential costs.

Best for mid-sized to enterprise-level companies.
Ideal for B2C businesses in e-commerce, SaaS, and other digital marketing-heavy industries.

Best fit for small, medium, and large businesses.
Suitable for various industries, including Healthcare, Finance, E-commerce, Retail, and more.

Customer.io and HubSpot Marketing Hub features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Workflows and Bot Builders

Partially supported

Customer.io supports automated campaigns through workflows, but not bot builders directly. Bot integration is possible via third-party tools.

Supported

HubSpot Marketing Hub offers workflows and bot builders for automated campaigns.
Visual workflow builder

Supported

Customer.io offers a visual workflow builder with a drag-and-drop interface.

Supported

HubSpot Marketing Hub has a visual workflow builder with drag and drop interface.
Multi-channel messaging

Supported

Customer.io supports multi-channel messaging, including email, push, in-app, SMS, Slack, and webhooks.

Partially supported

HubSpot supports email, social media, and SMS. Push notifications are for mobile only.
Campaign tracking

Supported

Customer.io supports campaign tracking via its event and link tracking features.

Supported

HubSpot Marketing Hub supports campaign tracking, enabling users to track the performance of their marketing campaigns.
Drip Campaigns

Supported

Customer.io supports automated drip campaigns with personalized content for lead nurturing and onboarding.

Supported

HubSpot Marketing Hub supports drip campaigns, allowing users to automate and send pre-defined sequences of emails to nurture leads or onboard users with personalized content, though full functionality may require a subscription higher than the Starter plan.
Workflow Automation

Partially supported

Customer.io primarily focuses on marketing workflows, but integration with tools like Make might enable sales workflow automation.

Supported

HubSpot Marketing Hub supports workflow automation for sales workflows and tasks to reduce manual effort and improve efficiency.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

No data

No data
Customer Service

No data

No data
Ease of Use

No data

No data
Reliability and Performance

No data

No data
Ease of Implementation

No data

No data
Scalability

No data

No data

Customer.io and HubSpot Marketing Hub Pricing

Customer.io offers three pricing plans: Essentials, Premium, and Enterprise. The Essentials plan is designed for small companies, the Premium plan is for rapidly growing companies, and the Enterprise plan is for companies scaling globally. Customer.io also offers a startup program that includes one free year of messaging and data integration for eligible companies.

Plans

See full Pricing page

HubSpot Marketing Hub offers different plans, including Professional and Enterprise. Pricing is not directly disclosed on the page and requires contacting sales. There is no mention of a free plan or free trial.

See full Pricing page

Customer.io and HubSpot Marketing Hub review insights

Users love

Excellent customer support, highly responsive and helpful.
Powerful workflow builder for creating complex, automated campaigns.
Seamless integration with Segment and other data platforms.
Flexible and efficient data segmentation capabilities.
Comprehensive email, SMS, and in-app messaging features.

User-friendly interface consistently praised for its ease of use.
The platform offers robust analytics and reporting features, providing valuable insights into marketing performance.
Excellent training resources and a very active user community.
HubSpot Marketing Hub integrates seamlessly with a wide range of other marketing and sales tools.

Users dislike

Difficult to create segments for non-technical users.
Email template editor is limited and requires HTML knowledge for advanced customization.
Occasional syncing issues with integrated platforms.
Limited ability to customize the email editor and preview.
Some reporting features could be more robust and user-friendly.

The "free" version is extremely limited and most core features require paid access.
Contacts are expensive, and billing can increase rapidly with no warning as you add new contacts.
Some users report slow loading times and occasional glitches or bugs.
Email templates can be difficult to customize beyond basic edits.

Customer.io and HubSpot Marketing Hub Ratings

Glassdoor

4.0/5

(37)

Glassdoor

4.0/5

(3550)

Company health

Employee growth

20% increase in the last year

15% increase in the last year

Web traffic

9% increase in the last quarter

10% decrease in the last quarter

Financing

November 2021 - $10M

July 2012 - $101M

How customizable are email templates in each platform?

Customer.io email templates offer limited customization and require HTML knowledge for advanced edits, a point of contention for some users. HubSpot's email templates are also noted as difficult to customize beyond basic edits.

Which product best integrates with existing CRM systems?

HubSpot Marketing Hub best integrates with existing CRM systems, especially if the existing CRM is HubSpot's CRM, as it offers seamless integration. While Customer.io integrates with other platforms, HubSpot's direct integration with its own CRM provides a more unified experience.

What are the advantages of Customer.io?

Customer.io excels in personalized, multi-channel messaging including email, SMS, in-app, and push notifications, making it ideal for targeted campaigns. Its visual workflow builder simplifies complex automation setup. Customer.io is praised for its excellent customer support and seamless integrations with data platforms like Segment. This makes it a strong choice for companies prioritizing targeted communication and data-driven marketing automation.

What are the disadvantages of Customer.io?

Customer.io has some drawbacks based on user reviews. Creating specific segments of customers can be challenging for non-technical users. The email template editor is limited, requiring HTML knowledge for advanced customization. There have been reports of occasional syncing problems with other integrated platforms. Finally, some users find certain reporting features to be less robust and user-friendly than desired.

Alternatives to Customer.io and HubSpot Marketing Hub

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation platform designed for businesses of all sizes. It helps you create personalized customer journeys across various channels like email, SMS, and ads. You can automate repetitive tasks, track customer behavior, and improve your marketing campaigns with its CRM and sales automation features. ActiveCampaign integrates with over 900 popular business tools and offers a wide range of pre-built templates and automation recipes to streamline your marketing efforts.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is a marketing automation platform for mid-sized to large businesses. It helps marketing and sales teams work together to find and convert leads into customers. The platform offers tools for email marketing, lead management, and reporting. What makes it unique is its integration with Salesforce's CRM, providing a complete view of each customer. This integration, combined with AI-powered insights and automation, enables businesses to target the right prospects, personalize customer interactions, and ultimately drive more sales.

Mailchimp All-in-One Marketing Platform

Mailchimp is a popular marketing platform designed to help growing businesses of all sizes. It enables you to create, send, and analyze email and advertising campaigns. With features like pre-designed templates, landing page creation, marketing automation, and data analytics, it provides a comprehensive toolkit to manage your marketing efforts. Mailchimp emphasizes data-driven insights to optimize campaigns and aims to drive sales through personalized customer interactions across multiple channels, including email, social media, and text messages.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Suite

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Suite is a comprehensive platform designed to help you manage all aspects of your marketing. It allows you to connect data, automate tasks, personalize customer interactions, and track your success. This suite is particularly beneficial for growing businesses looking for a scalable solution that can expand alongside them. It promises to simplify marketing efforts, enhance customer relationships, and ultimately drive business growth.

Braze

Braze is a comprehensive customer engagement platform designed to help businesses build lasting relationships with their customers. It allows you to collect and utilize data from all your sources to create personalized messaging across multiple channels like email, SMS, and push notifications. Braze empowers you to move beyond one-off campaigns and create dynamic, personalized customer journeys that adapt in real time. It also offers AI-powered features to optimize your marketing efforts and predict customer behavior. Braze is trusted by leading brands across various industries and is recognized as a leader in customer engagement platforms.

Later

Later is a social media management platform designed to streamline your online presence. It allows you to schedule posts across various platforms like Instagram and TikTok, analyze performance data, and even turn posts into shoppable links. Later aims to save you time and help you understand what content resonates with your audience. They offer different plans, including a free trial, to fit various needs.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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