ActiveCampaign and HubSpot overlap more than HubSpot and Mailchimp do. Both do marketing automation, both have a CRM, both aim at growing companies. Here the choice is about depth versus breadth.
Updated October 2026, because a fair amount has changed on the ActiveCampaign side since our previous version of this page.
What has changed
ActiveCampaign has restructured its plans. The old Lite, Plus, Professional and Enterprise names are gone. There are now three product lines:
- Email: Starter, Plus, Pro, Enterprise
- WhatsApp: Core, Advanced, Premium
- Email + WhatsApp: Plus, Pro, Enterprise
A second change you need to know before you start calculating: ActiveCampaign no longer publishes its prices openly. Where there used to be a rate per contact tier, there is now a request form. You get a number only after talking to sales.
That makes an honest price comparison on this page impossible, which is why there is not one. Anyone showing you a table of ActiveCampaign prices today took it from an old source.
Checked again on 22 October 2026: the ActiveCampaign pricing page still shows no figures at all, only a request form.
What we can say is what HubSpot costs. Since 1 October 2026 that depends on when you start.
New in EMEA. You no longer buy Marketing Hub but one edition for the whole platform, and you pay per seat: €100 a month for a GTM Seat on Professional. That includes 250,000 records across all objects, and marketing contacts are not counted separately. Source: the Flexible Seats-and-Credits Pricing Supplement, checked on 22 October 2026.
Already a customer. Then your contract runs on the old per-hub model, where Marketing Hub Professional started around $890 a month with 2,000 marketing contacts. HubSpot does not publish that figure in machine-readable form; it comes from matching third-party sources and was last checked on 11 October 2026.
ActiveCampaign historically sat well below both figures. Request a quote and put it next to the model that applies to you, not the other one.
Where ActiveCampaign is stronger
The automation builder. This is not a minor footnote. ActiveCampaign lets you build branches, wait conditions, splits and calculations with a granularity HubSpot does not match on Professional. If you run complex nurture flows, you feel that difference daily.
Price per contact. Historically ActiveCampaign is considerably cheaper per contact. On large lists with relatively simple needs that weighs heavily.
WhatsApp as a full channel. ActiveCampaign now sells this as its own product line. HubSpot has WhatsApp integration, but not as an equal campaign channel.
Where HubSpot is stronger
The CRM underneath. ActiveCampaign has a CRM, but it is a sales pipeline next to a marketing tool. HubSpot is built the other way round: everything hangs off the same record, including tickets, quotes and service.
Reporting through to revenue. If you want to know which campaign produced which deal, with multiple touchpoints weighted, that is standard functionality on HubSpot Professional.
Content and website. HubSpot hosts your blog and landing pages on your own domain, with attribution that carries through. ActiveCampaign has landing pages, but it is not a CMS.
Service. Tickets, knowledge base and customer portal sit in the same system. With ActiveCampaign you buy something else for that.
The comparison in one table
| ActiveCampaign | HubSpot |
|---|
| Centre of gravity | Marketing automation | CRM platform |
| Automation depth | Very high | High from Professional |
| CRM | Present, lighter | Core of the product |
| Website and blog | No | Yes, own domain |
| Service and tickets | No | Yes, own hub |
| WhatsApp as a channel | Own product line | Integration |
| Price transparency | Quote on request | Public |
| Price level | Lower per contact | Higher, more included |
How to choose
One question usually settles it: do you need a tool or a system?
If your sales runs on a handful of people with a manageable pipeline, and your pain is smarter email flows, ActiveCampaign is the better and cheaper instrument. You buy exactly what you are missing.
If your pain is that marketing, sales and service each hold their own version of the truth, a better automation builder solves nothing. Then you are buying a system, and that costs more.
A practical middle step that gets overlooked: run HubSpot's free CRM alongside ActiveCampaign. That gets your customer record in order without committing to a move. It works better than it sounds and costs nothing.
When to stay on ActiveCampaign
As a HubSpot partner we do not say this often enough, so here it is explicitly.
- Your flows are more complex than your pipeline. Advanced segmentation and branching are the heart of your marketing and your sales is simple.
- Your list is large and your budget limited. The per-contact price difference is real and compounds at tens of thousands of contacts.
- WhatsApp is a primary channel. ActiveCampaign treats it as a full channel, HubSpot as an integration.
- You have no website ambition inside the platform. A large part of what you pay extra for at HubSpot sits in content and service.
Frequently asked questions
What does ActiveCampaign cost?
ActiveCampaign no longer publishes this on its pricing page. You request a quote through the form. Historically it sat below HubSpot per contact.
Does ActiveCampaign have a CRM?
Yes, with pipelines, deals and tasks. It is lighter than HubSpot's CRM and less interwoven with marketing and service.
Is ActiveCampaign better at automation than HubSpot?
In the depth of the flow builder, yes. In what you can do with the outcome inside one platform, no.
Can I migrate from ActiveCampaign to HubSpot?
Yes. Contacts, tags, lists and deal data come across. Automations have to be rebuilt; they are not transferable, and a one-to-one copy is rarely the best setup anyway.
Can I run both?
Yes. HubSpot's free CRM alongside ActiveCampaign is a common middle step, with an integration that syncs contacts.
Other comparisons
Unsure about your choice?
In half an hour we look at your current flows, your pipeline and where things go wrong now. If that is an automation problem, we will tell you to stay on ActiveCampaign. If it is a system problem, we will work out what the move costs and returns.
Carel Schrier
