Are you planning to start using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system? In the very basic sense, a CRM manages all strategies and activities used to interact with customers. CRM helps in building and maintaining customer relations. This, in turn, creates loyalty and increases retention.
While a CRM can do wonders for your business, it’s not easy to select the right product. Just search online and you’ll find dozens of good CRM solutions. There are hundreds of options and it’s easy to be confused.
Let us make things easier for you. We’ll select the two top two options: ActiveCampaign and Hubspot, and compare them both. This way, you’ll get a better understanding of which option does what. And you’ll be able to make an informed decision.
Let’s begin.
What is Hubspot?
Started in 2006, Hubspot began with the observation that businesses do not quickly adapt to the changing requirements of their clients. To bridge this gap, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah invented Hubspot.
Hubspot is user-friendly, feature-rich, powerful, and helps users get relevant and personalized results. The aim of Hubspot is to transform the businesses and make the industry more inbound.
What is ActiveCampaign?
In the world of CRM, ActiveCampaign is the most user-friendly marketing platform that’s designed with small and mid-level businesses in mind. If you want to create eye-catching campaigns and attractive marketing strategies, this platform can be the best for you.
From alluring email marketing drives to customer retention to many other aspects, ActiveCampaign can do it all. In particular, the visual campaign creator is very useful in making targeted email campaigns. The ads are based on customized user interactions. The software also records all interactions and assists in closing deals.
In addition, the software can also integrate more than 700 services and applications. These range from accountancy to content management system to every other aspect of marketing and business optimization.
How much do they cost?
Hubspot offers a number of pricing schemes depending.
The lowest version of Hubspot is free to use. However, the Hubspot Marketing Suite offers three distinct modes. These are based on different needs such as the scale of operations and other aspects. You can also try it for free in the beginning.
ActiveCampaign has 4 paid modules. Setup is free but it costs money to go above a set number of contacts.
HUBSPOT PRICING |
ACTIVECAMPAIGN PRICING |
Basic – $200/month (Billed Yearly)
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Lite Module – $15/mo (monthly) or $9/mo (yearly)
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Pro – $800/month (Billed Yearly)
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Plus Module – $70/mo (monthly) or $55/mo (yearly)
In addition to all features of Lite plan, this one has:
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Enterprise – $2,400/month (Billed Yearly)
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Professional Module – $159/mo (monthly) or $129/mo (yearly)
In addition to features of Plus Module, it offers:
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| In addition to the above, Hubspot also offers a Sale’s Basic module. This free version is useful but does not have as many features as the Pro version. Here is the list:
HubSpot Sales Basics – Free
HubSpot Sales Pro – $50/user/month
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Enterprise Module– $279/mo (monthly) or $229/mo (yearly)
In addition to features of Professional Module, this offers:
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| You can also get an add-on for all features for a one-time cost of $200. |
The Best Features of Both
Email Automation
Both platforms offer very similar services in this area which include excellent and customizable email templates. However, ActiveCampaign does offer some better features than Hubspot. For example, you can leave notes under relevant automation series as well as ‘yes or no’ automation considerations.
Blogging Integration
In this area, Hubspot is the clear winner because it facilitates direct blogging from its website. Thus, it enables SEO and marketing to be directly integrated into the blogs.
Campaign Reporting
Once more, Hubspot offers better features here by generating social network source reports within 10 seconds. ActiveCampaign instead offers setting up website analytics and free conversion tracking through Google Analytics which makes the process slower.
Social Media
For 3rd party app integration, both the platforms offer excellent integration features.
Also, in social media management, Hubspot wins because of its range of 0features like report generation, post scheduling, engagement monitoring etc. You can also create and upload a post spreadsheet which Hubspot will then use to automatically schedule posts. However, you must follow their template for this to happen.
Comparison Table: Hubspot vs Activecampaign
| Software | Hubspot | ActiveCampaign |
| Audience | Best for small businesses | Best for small to mid-level businesses |
| Pros |
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| Cons |
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| Highlights | Bulk social media posting
Bi-directional CRM syncing Create invoices Lead segmentation and scoring Web activity tracking Mobile app Personalize web content Sales reports Social CRM Event management Real-time sales alerts Predictive analytics Split testing SMS marketing |
Lead segmentation and scoring
Social CRM Web activity tracking SMS marketing Personalize web content Lead segmentation and scoring Web activity tracking SMS marketing Personalized web content Create invoices Create membership sites Bulk social media posting Sales report Split testing Bi-direction CRM syncing Event management |
On the whole, both Hubspot and ActiveCampaign are great options for CRM. While Hubspot is certainly more diverse, it is also considerably more expensive. So, the question boils down to how much of an investment you are willing to make in your marketing campaigns.
Conclusion: Which Should You Choose?
Analogically, you could say that the difference between them is the same as that between a digital and atomic clock. While ActiveCampaign, the digital clock, offers relatively accurate reading, it cannot match up to Hubspot, the atomic clock.
Normally, you should consider going for ActiveCampaign when just starting out your business. During this time, it is unlikely that you will have more than the basic threshold for contacts in the app. Also, ActiveCampaign is much easier to use and gets the job done with minimum fuss. So, it is a good place to start. If you have lesser than 3,000 web traffic per month, then ActiveCampaign is great for you.
However, as your business grows, you will come to feel that ActiveCampaign is just not cutting it after a while. In that case, it is probably time to switch over to HubSpot. By now, you must have your revenue streams sorted as well. So, it should not cost you a lot to operate the software effectively.
ActiveCampaign is great for starting. It handles central issues like email marketing and CRM easily. You can just use WordPress to make up for its lack of blogging options. Do the same with Google Analytics and Buffer. Nevertheless, Hubspot’s impressive functionalities will make you want to try it at least once.
So consider all the aspects, choose wisely and get the best out of your CRM.
My final top pick: Hubspot — If you want to grow your company, you need to invest in the right tools. I believe that Hubspot is an excellent CRM that you will love. Why not try a free 30-day trial today to find out for yourself?
