TL;DR
Keap's 2026 unified plan costs $299/month (or about $249/month billed annually) for just 2 user licenses and 1,500 contacts, plus a mandatory $500 one-time implementation fee — costs that sit alongside its modest 3.8-3.9/5 G2 rating from around 30 reviews. HubSpot Marketing Hub undercuts that with a genuine free tier (2,000 marketing emails/month) and a $7/month per-seat Starter plan, though Professional jumps steeply to $800/month for just 3 seats and 2,000 contacts.
ActiveCampaign has no free plan (14-day trial only) but posts the strongest satisfaction scores of the three, at 4.4-4.5/5 across roughly 14,600 G2 reviews. Keap's differentiator is 20+ years of pre-built automation recipes plus built-in invoicing and phone support, which reviewers call both a strength and a cost concern given the required paid onboarding.
Best Keap Alternatives for 2026: How Keap, HubSpot, and ActiveCampaign Actually Compare
Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) has spent two decades selling itself as the CRM-plus-automation platform for small businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets but aren't ready for enterprise software. In October 2024, Thryv Holdings acquired Keap for $80 million in cash, folding it into Thryv's broader small-business SaaS portfolio — a deal that has since changed how Keap is packaged, priced, and reviewed online (its G2 listing now runs under the "Thryv Keap" brand) (Thryv Holdings acquisition announcement).
If you're evaluating Keap in 2026, two things have changed since most of the "alternatives" roundups still circulating online were written: Keap dropped its old Pro/Max tier structure for a single unified plan, and the CRM-automation category has consolidated around a handful of platforms that are genuinely comparable on price and feature depth. This piece compares real, current data for Keap against two of its most-cited competitors, HubSpot Marketing Hub and ActiveCampaign, using vendor pricing pages and G2 review data rather than recycled marketing copy.
Product Overview
Direct answer: Keap is a combined CRM and marketing/sales automation platform built specifically for small businesses and solo operators — think consultants, coaches, and small service firms — who want pipeline management, email/text campaigns, invoicing, and appointment booking in one tool without stitching together separate apps. Its differentiator has always been depth of pre-built automation "recipes" refined over 20+ years, plus phone support and a mandatory paid onboarding package, which reviewers consistently flag as both a strength (faster time-to-value) and a cost concern (Keap G2 reviews).
HubSpot Marketing Hub is the marketing arm of HubSpot's broader CRM platform (Marketing, Sales, Service, and Content Hubs share one underlying database). It's built for teams that want to start free and scale into enterprise-grade marketing automation, reporting, and personalization without switching platforms, though the jump from Starter to Professional pricing is steep (HubSpot Marketing Hub pricing).
ActiveCampaign positions itself as a customer-experience automation platform — email marketing and workflow automation first, with CRM, landing pages, and lead scoring layered in at higher tiers. It's popular with marketing-led teams that want sophisticated segmentation and automation logic without HubSpot's price jump, though contact-based pricing means costs scale quickly as a list grows.
Quick Answer
- If you're a solo operator or small service business wanting invoicing and booking bundled with CRM → Keap, because it's built specifically for that segment with pre-built automation recipes and native invoicing, despite the $299/month unified plan and required $500 onboarding fee.
- If you're starting on a tight budget and want to scale later → HubSpot Marketing Hub, because it offers a genuinely free tier and a $7/month per-seat Starter plan before the steep jump to $800/month Professional.
- If automation depth and customer satisfaction matter more than price → ActiveCampaign, because it posts the highest G2 rating of the three (4.4-4.5/5 across ~14,600 reviews) and includes unlimited automation actions from its Plus tier.
- If you're wary of required paid onboarding costs → avoid Keap, because its unified plan carries a mandatory $500 implementation package that HubSpot and ActiveCampaign don't require.
Feature Comparison Matrix
| Feature | Keap | HubSpot Marketing Hub | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native CRM | Yes, core to the product | Yes, free CRM included at every tier | CRM/pipeline included from the Plus tier up |
| Email marketing | Yes | Yes | Yes, ActiveCampaign's original core product |
| Marketing automation / workflows | Yes, deep template library | Yes, automated actions capped by tier (10 on Starter, unlimited on Professional+) | Yes, unlimited automation actions from Plus up |
| Landing pages / forms | Yes | Yes | Yes, from Plus tier |
| SMS / text marketing | Yes, tiered add-on (500 messages included, scaling to 25,000) | Add-on | Available on select plans |
| Invoicing / payments | Yes, built in (Keap Pay or third-party) | No native invoicing | No native invoicing |
| Free plan | No | Yes (limited, HubSpot-branded) | No (14-day trial only) |
| Required paid onboarding | Yes, $500 implementation package | No | No |
| G2 rating (approx.) | ~3.8–3.9/5 (~30 reviews) | ~4.4/5 (~13,300 reviews) | ~4.4–4.5/5 (~14,600 reviews) |
Sources: Keap pricing, Keap G2, HubSpot Marketing Hub pricing, HubSpot Marketing Hub G2, ActiveCampaign pricing, ActiveCampaign G2.
Pricing Comparison
Direct answer: Keap moved to a single unified plan in 2026: $299/month billed monthly, or $2,988/year (about $249/month effective) billed annually. That includes 2 user licenses (additional users are $39/month each), 1,500 contacts, and Tier 1 messaging (500 email/text sends, 100 voice minutes). All customers also pay a required $500 one-time implementation package for onboarding and data migration (Keap pricing).
HubSpot Marketing Hub starts with a genuinely free tier (2,000 marketing emails/month, HubSpot branding, up to 2 users). Starter is $7/month per seat with 1,000 marketing contacts included. Professional jumps to $800/month for 3 core seats and 2,000 marketing contacts (additional seats $45/month), and Enterprise is $3,600/month for 5 seats and 10,000 marketing contacts (additional seats $75/month) (HubSpot Marketing Hub pricing).
ActiveCampaign publishes four tiers — Starter, Plus, Professional, and Enterprise — priced against a base contact count (commonly cited around 1,000 contacts) and scaling from roughly $15/month at the low end past $49 and $79 to $145+/month for Enterprise, with costs rising steeply as contact volume grows since the model is contact-based rather than flat-rate (ActiveCampaign pricing).
The practical takeaway: Keap's entry price ($249–299/month) sits well above HubSpot's free-to-Starter range and above ActiveCampaign's Starter/Plus tiers, but below HubSpot Professional. Keap bundles CRM, invoicing, and automation into one flat price with no free tier; HubSpot and ActiveCampaign both let you start free or cheap and pay more as contact volume and feature needs grow.
Who Should Choose What
- Choose Keap if you're a small service business (consultants, coaches, local service providers) that wants CRM, invoicing/payments, appointment booking, and marketing automation in a single tool with hands-on onboarding, and you don't mind a flat, higher entry price with no free tier.
- Choose HubSpot Marketing Hub if you want to start free or cheap, expect to eventually need sales and service tools on the same CRM record, and are prepared for a steep price jump once you outgrow the Starter tier.
- Choose ActiveCampaign if email marketing sophistication and workflow automation are your priority over built-in invoicing/payments, and you want to control costs by keeping your contact list lean, since pricing scales directly with list size.
