ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot Marketing Hub

by Gralio Feb 03, 2025

ActiveCampaign and HubSpot Marketing Hub are both powerful marketing automation platforms, but they cater to different needs. ActiveCampaign excels in sales automation and integrations, while HubSpot offers a more comprehensive suite of marketing tools with advanced analytics and CRM capabilities.

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About

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.
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
ActiveCampaign is better for you if you need a cost-effective marketing automation platform with a wide range of integrations and a focus on sales automation. HubSpot Marketing Hub is better for you if you prioritize a comprehensive marketing platform with advanced analytics, seamless CRM integration, and a focus on inbound marketing.

Relative strengths of ActiveCampaign (compared to HubSpot Marketing Hub)

  • Strong sales automation features coupled with CRM.

  • Wide range of integrations (900+).

  • Cost-effective for smaller budgets.

Relative weaknesses of ActiveCampaign (compared to HubSpot Marketing Hub)

  • Less comprehensive analytics than HubSpot.

  • Simpler CRM compared to HubSpot.

  • Can be slow and glitchy at times.

Who is using ActiveCampaign and HubSpot Marketing Hub?

Who should use ActiveCampaign VS. HubSpot Marketing Hub

ActiveCampaign is a powerful marketing automation platform perfect for businesses aiming to personalize customer journeys. Users praise its ease of use and comprehensive features, especially for email automation and campaign tracking. However, some find the UI glitchy and loading times slow. It's ideal for those wanting robust automation but be aware of potential performance issues.

HubSpot Marketing Hub is a user-friendly platform ideal for businesses of all sizes seeking to streamline their marketing efforts. It offers robust analytics and reporting, seamless integrations, and excellent training resources. Users praise its ease of use and comprehensive features, while some note the limited free version and contact pricing.

  • Best for small to medium-sized businesses seeking robust marketing automation.

  • Ideal for various sectors, including E-commerce, Healthcare, and Finance.

  • Best for small, mid-sized, and large businesses.

  • Ideal for various sectors, including Healthcare, Finance, E-commerce, Retail, and more.

ActiveCampaign 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

    ActiveCampaign supports workflows and can integrate with bot platforms like BotStar via Zapier.

    Supported

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

  • Email and Form Automation
    Supported

    ActiveCampaign offers robust email and form automation, streamlining repetitive tasks.

    Supported

    HubSpot Marketing Hub supports email and form automation, streamlining workflows and saving time.

  • Multi-Channel Campaigns
    Partially supported

    ActiveCampaign supports email, SMS and social media, but not in-product marketing.

    Supported

    HubSpot Marketing Hub supports multi-channel campaigns, including SMS and social media.

  • Drip Campaigns
    Supported

    ActiveCampaign supports the automation and sending of pre-defined sequences of emails to nurture leads or onboard users with personalized content.

    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
    Supported

    ActiveCampaign supports workflow automation to automate sales workflows and tasks to reduce manual effort and improve efficiency.

    Supported

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

Qualities

  • Value and Pricing Transparency
    -0.28
    Neutral sentiment
    -0.63
    Rather negative sentiment
  • Customer Service
    +0.42
    Rather positive sentiment
    +0.61
    Rather positive sentiment
  • Ease of Use
    +0.65
    Rather positive sentiment
    +0.81
    Strongly positive sentiment
  • Reliability and Performance
    +0.21
    Neutral sentiment
    +0.31
    Rather positive sentiment
  • Ease of Implementation
    +0.21
    Neutral sentiment
    +0.12
    Neutral sentiment
  • Scalability
    +0.12
    Neutral sentiment
    +0.36
    Rather positive sentiment

ActiveCampaign and HubSpot Marketing Hub Pricing

ActiveCampaign offers four main pricing tiers: Starter, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise. Each tier offers a different set of features and contact limits. Add-ons are available to enhance CRM capabilities and add SMS marketing.
Plans

User sentiment

Neutral
-0.28

See full Pricing page

HubSpot offers two Marketing Hub plans: Professional and Enterprise. To get pricing details, you need to contact their sales team.
Plans

User sentiment

Rather negative
-0.57

See full Pricing page

ActiveCampaign and HubSpot Marketing Hub review insights

9782 reviews analysed from and

Users love

  • Easy to use and has all the features I need.
  • Campaigns get tracked and I know what works and what not.
  • Automations are easy to build.
  • My business is working while I am lying on my sofa.
  • 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

  • The UI can be a bit glitchy.
  • It can be slow to load, I tend to have several browser tabs open to avoid losing time with the pages loading.
  • Prices for Brazil are expensive, there could be regional or student discounts.
  • Support in your own language would be nice.
  • 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.

ActiveCampaign and HubSpot Marketing Hub Ratings

  • G2
    4.5/5
    (2486)
  • Capterra
    4.6/5
    (2388)
  • Glassdoor
    3.6/5
    (444)
  • G2
    4.4/5
    (2526)
  • Capterra
    4.5/5
    (2401)
  • Glassdoor
    4.0/5
    (3550)

Company health

Employee growth

4% increase in the last year
15% increase in the last year

Web traffic

11% decrease in the last quarter
10% decrease in the last quarter

Financing

January 2021 - $360M
July 2012 - $101M

How do ActiveCampaign's pre-built automation recipes compare to HubSpot's workflow customization options?

ActiveCampaign emphasizes its wide array of pre-built automation recipes, making it easier for users to quickly implement common automation tasks. HubSpot, while offering pre-built workflows, focuses more on its workflow customization options, allowing for highly tailored and complex automations. This makes HubSpot potentially more suitable for businesses with intricate automation needs, while ActiveCampaign better serves users looking for quick and easy setup.

Which platform, ActiveCampaign or HubSpot, better integrates with existing sales and CRM tools?

HubSpot, with its native CRM and tight integrations within its platform, offers better integration with sales and CRM tools compared to ActiveCampaign. While ActiveCampaign integrates with a large number of third-party tools, HubSpot's built-in alignment between its marketing hub and CRM provides a more seamless experience for managing and sharing data between sales and marketing teams.

What are the advantages of ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign offers a broader range of pre-built automation recipes and integrations (900+) compared to HubSpot, making it easier to connect with various tools and automate complex workflows. ActiveCampaign also incorporates CRM and sales automation features within its core offering, providing a more integrated approach to managing customer interactions throughout the sales cycle, whereas HubSpot's CRM is a separate product. This can be particularly advantageous for sales-focused organizations looking for a unified platform. Additionally, user reviews suggest ActiveCampaign is easier to use for building automations.

What are the disadvantages of ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign users have reported a somewhat glitchy and slow-loading UI. Pricing can be a concern, particularly for users in certain regions due to a lack of regional or student discounts. Finally, while ActiveCampaign offers extensive integrations, some users desire support in languages other than English.

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Page co-authored by
MK
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.

TT
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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