ActiveCampaign vs. HubSpot: Which one should you pick?

Discover the key differences between ActiveCampaign and HubSpot in our comparison. Find out which marketing automation tool best suits your business needs.

Choosing between ActiveCampaign and HubSpot for marketing automation can be hard.

Both tools excel in email marketing, CRM, and customer experience management. Wondering which one fits your needs?

This comparison will answer your questions and help you decide. Read on to discover the best option for you.

ActiveCampaign vs. HubSpot: At a Glance

Criteria	ActiveCampaign	HubSpot	Winner
SMB Guide’s Rating	8.2/10	8.4/10	HubSpot
Marketing Automation Capabilities	Advanced automation	Comprehensive automation tools	HubSpot
Email Builder	Flexible, powerful	Intuitive and versatile	HubSpot
Personalization & Customization	Highly customizable	Highly customizable	Tie
Campaign Performance Tracking	Detailed metrics	In-depth tracking tools	HubSpot
Email Deliverability	✅	✅	Tie
List Management	Dynamic segmentation	Easy-to-use tools	Tie
A/B Testing	✅	✅	HubSpot
Advanced Reporting & Insights	In-depth insights	Advanced analytics	HubSpot
Compliance & Security	✅	✅	Tie
User Experience and User Interface	Professional interface	Seamless user experience	HubSpot
Integrations and Compatibility	950+ integrations	Broad compatibility	ActiveCampaign
Customer Support	24/7 live support	Excellent customer service	HubSpot
Pricing	$15/mo – $1,169/mo	Free – $3,600/mo	HubSpot
Scalability	✅	✅	Tie

ActiveCampaign: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

ActiveCampaign is a widely used marketing automation platform renowned for its comprehensive features that help businesses optimize their marketing efforts.

Key features include:

• Email marketing
• Marketing automation
• CRM tools
• Omnichannel marketing
• Audience management
• Analytics and reporting
• Site tracking and integrations

Pros & Cons

Pricing

• Starter: Starts at $15/mo
• Plus: Starts at $49/mo
• Pro: Starts at $79/mo
• Enterprise: Starts at $145/mo

HubSpot: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

HubSpot Marketing Automation is a comprehensive suite of tools designed to help businesses automate their marketing processes, improve efficiency, and drive growth.

Key features include:

• Email automation
• Landing page builder
• Campaign management
• Ad tracking
• Content management
• Drip campaigns
• Omni-channel marketing automation
• Workflow automation

Pros & Cons

Pricing

• Free: $0 (limited tools and features)
• Starter: $15/month/seat (includes 1,000 marketing contacts)
• Professional: $800/month (includes three seats and 2,000 marketing contacts.) Additional seats are $45/month/each

Marketing Automation Capabilities

Both platforms make email marketing and automated workflows easy. They also have built-in CRM tools, including behavioral targeting, conditional logic, and lead scoring.

While both tools offer strong marketing automation capabilities, HubSpot stands out for its more intuitive workflow builder, deeper CRM integration, and comprehensive analytics and reporting tools.

HubSpot is a slightly better choice if you’re looking for a more holistic and user-friendly solution.

Marketing automation isn’t included in the free version of HubSpot, however.

✅ Winner: HubSpot

Email Builder

Both ActiveCampaign and HubSpot offer similar features here, including pre-built templates, customization and personalization options, drag-and-drop builders, and the option to custom-build with HTML.

Both allow for mobile-optimized emails and are easy to use.

HubSpot edges ActiveCampaign slightly because of its highly intuitive interface, seamless integration with its comprehensive tool suite, and advanced personalization capabilities.

It’s more versatile and effective for creating highly customized email campaigns.

✅ Winner: HubSpot

Personalization & Customization

Both ActiveCampaign and HubSpot offer strong personalization and customization features. 

ActiveCampaign excels in dynamic content, conditional content blocks, and detailed segmentation, making it highly effective for nuanced targeting and personalized communication.

It’s better for businesses looking for depth in dynamic content and conditional logic.

HubSpot provides powerful smart content tools, seamless integration with its CRM, and comprehensive data utilization for personalized marketing across various channels.

It’s better for anyone looking for a more integrated approach with CRM and marketing hub functionalities for a holistic personalization strategy.

✅ Winner: Tie

Campaign Performance Tracking

Both platforms offer solid campaign performance tracking capabilities, but HubSpot stands out here because of its comprehensive dashboard, advanced customer reporting, and seamless CRM integration.

These mean you’ll get a more holistic and in-depth view of campaign performance for better optimization and more strategic decisions.

HubSpot also has an edge in multi-touch attribution and funnel analysis, making it even easier to connect marketing efforts directly to sales outcomes.

It’s the better option if you’re looking to maximize campaign efficiency and effectiveness.

✅ Winner: HubSpot

Email Deliverability

Both ActiveCampaign and HubSpot offer excellent email deliverability, supported by industry-standard practices and tools.

They ensure high deliverability rates through:

• Strong relationships with Internet service providers
• Adherence to authentication protocols
• Comprehensive spam testing tools
• Effective IP warming processes
• Emphasis on list hygiene and compliance with global regulations

✅ Winner: Tie

List Management

Both tools offer stellar list management features, including advanced segmentation, automated updates, and effective list hygiene. 

ActiveCampaign excels with its flexible tagging system, custom fields, and seamless integrations with automation workflows. It’s better if you need detailed and dynamic segmentation.

HubSpot stands out with its smart lists, deep CRM integration, and comprehensive behavioral tracking. It’s better for you if you want a more unified approach to contact management and segmentation.

✅ Winner: Tie

A/B Testing

HubSpot offers additional support for split-testing landing pages and multivariate testing for more comprehensive optimization across the entire marketing funnel.

ActiveCampaign provides excellent A/B testing within automation workflows, making it highly effective for refining email performance and automated journeys.

Both deliver valuable split testing tools, but HubSpot offers a broader range of testing options.

It offers broader integration with its suite of marketing tools, which makes it a more versatile choice for anyone looking to optimize multiple aspects of their marketing strategy.

✅ Winner: HubSpot

Advanced Reporting & Insights

HubSpot excels with its multi-touch revenue attribution, behavioral analytics, and funnel analysis. These give you a more holistic and detailed view of your marketing performance, customer journeys, and sales outcomes.

Creating complex customer reports and using forecasting tools for even better reporting capabilities is also possible.

ActiveCampaign offers strong reporting tools, especially for email and automation performance, revenue attribution, and customer journey analytics.

It’s effective if you’re focused on email marketing and automated workflows, but lacks some of the broader, integrated insights HubSpot offers.

✅ Winner: HubSpot

Compliance and Security

ActiveCampaign and HubSpot offer strong compliance and security features, ensuring data protection and adherence to global standards.

HubSpot gets the edge here because of its additional compliance certifications (SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001) and routine security audits, reassuring that it has a solid security framework.

That said, ActiveCampaign is still a highly secure option, particularly for HIPAA compliance and adherence to the Privacy Shield Framework.

✅ Winner: HubSpot

User Interface and User Experience

Both tools offer great user interfaces and user experiences. The HubSpot platform is extremely user-friendly, seamlessly integrates with its other tools, and offers extensive training resources.

Ultimately, while many options and tools exist, some people may find it overwhelming. It is a more comprehensive platform for many users.

ActiveCampaign provides robust customization and powerful tools that are highly effective. However, it may require a more significant initial investment in training and setup.

It’s a strong choice for users who want a customizable, detailed marketing platform and are willing to invest the time to learn it.

✅ Winner: HubSpot

Integrations and Compatibility

ActiveCampaign and HubSpot offer extensive third-party integrations with API access and an ecommerce focus to make it easier to automate customer journeys.

ActiveCampaign has mobile apps available for Android and iOS devices. The HubSpot CRM is accessible via mobile apps for both Android and iOS as well.

Both platforms are accessible from any device with an internet connection.

✅ Winner: ActiveCampaign

Customer Support

Both platforms offer extensive customer support options, including live chat, email, and phone support.

Phone support is limited to higher-tier plans with ActiveCampaign. 24/7 support is available on Enterprise plans for both HubSpot and ActiveCampaign.

Dedicated account managers are available on higher-tier ActiveCampagin plans, but all offer onboarding services.

Webinars and training are also available. Extensive help centers and a community forum are available for both.

HubSpot wins here because of the HubSpot Academy, which includes training resources and certifications marketing professionals can use to improve their skills since many businesses use HubSpot.

✅ Winner: HubSpot

Pricing

HubSpot offers a free plan, but it is limited and doesn’t even include automation. Both paid plans start at $15/month, but HubSpot charges by the seat, so you’ll pay more than you would for ActiveCampaignif you need more than one user.

Ultimately, ActiveCampaign is ideal for small to mid-size businesses looking for an affordable, flexible solution that scales with growth. HubSpot is better for organizations needing an all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer service platform.

While it comes at a higher price point, the extensive features and integrated ecosystem justify the investment for larger businesses seeking comprehensive capabilities.

To decide, consider your budget, business size, and specific feature needs to choose the platform that best aligns with your goals.

✅ Winner: HubSpot

Scalability

ActiveCampaign is an excellent choice for businesses prioritizing scalable pricing and advanced automation capabilities.

It suits companies looking for flexible integration options and a robust API to support custom solutions as they grow.

HubSpot is ideal for organizations looking for an all-in-one platform with enterprise-level functionality.

Its comprehensive toolset and advanced features make it ideal for large businesses or those aiming for substantial growth in multiple operational areas.

✅ Winner: Tie

Standout Features of ActiveCampaign

Predictive sending

Predictive sending uses machine learning to determine the optimal time to send emails to each individual contact. This feature analyzes past behavior and engagement patterns to predict when a recipient will most likely open and interact with an email.

It’s an advanced feature that enhances email marketing effectiveness by increasing open rates and engagement rates through personalized timing.

Advanced split testing for automations

While HubSpot offers split testing for emails and landing pages, it does not provide the same level of split testing for entire automation workflows.

This capability helps you optimize complex automation strategies more effectively.

Standout Features of HubSpot

Customizable CRM

HubSpot offers a fully customizable CRM that integrates seamlessly with its marketing, sales, and service tools. You can tailor pipelines, custom properties, and deal stages to match your specific business processes.

While ActiveCampaign includes CRM functionalities, it lacks the extensive customization options available in HubSpot. With HubSpot, you can create a system that precisely fits your workflow to enhance efficiency and the user experience.

Content management system (CMS)

HubSpot’s CMS Hub is a robust content management system that lets you easily build and manage websites, landing pages, and blogs. It includes features like drag-and-drop editors, SEO recommendations, and adaptive testing.

ActiveCampaign does not offer a built-in CMS. it does not include tools for creating and optimizing web content for an integrated digital marketing and content management approach.

ActiveCampaign vs. HubSpot: SMB Guide’s Verdict

Our overall winner is HubSpot, by a hair. Your choice between ActiveCampaign and HubSpot largely depends on your specific needs.

Choose ActiveCampaign if you focus on powerful email marketing and automation at a more budget-friendly price.

Choose HubSpot if you need a comprehensive, customizable CRM and a wide array of integrated tools for various business functions.