6 Best HubSpot Alternatives Tested in 2026
HubSpot scores 3.0 out of 10 for pricing value in our ratings, the lowest score of the 42 platforms on this site. That number is not about the $20 Starter seat, which is competitive. It is about the step after it. Professional lists at $890 per month and carries a one-time onboarding fee of $3,000 that is not optional, and there is no tier in between. The jump from the plan most small teams start on to the plan they get pushed onto is 44.5x, and the first year of Professional costs $13,680 before a single contact is imported.
We priced six alternatives against HubSpot’s current list pricing and scored them against our own category ratings, ranked by overall score, and matched each one to the specific kind of HubSpot user it wins for. This is not a “top 50” listicle. Every platform below wins on one axis we can name, and we name it. One section of this page argues that you should stay.
Why look for a HubSpot alternative in 2026
Three things drive people off HubSpot, and only one of them is the headline price.
The bill has two meters, not one. Starter is priced per seat at $20 per month on monthly billing ($15 on annual), and it includes 1,000 marketing contacts. Both numbers move independently. A three-person team is already at $60 per month before contact overage, and marketing contacts are billed in their own tiers on top. Most platforms on this page meter one thing. HubSpot meters two, and the interaction is what surprises people at renewal.
The step up is a cliff, not a slope. Professional is $890 per month billed monthly, $800 billed annually, and includes 3 seats and 2,000 contacts. Onboarding is a mandatory $3,000 for Professional and $7,000 for Enterprise, charged once. The features people actually leave for — unrestricted workflow automation, custom reporting, removal of HubSpot branding — sit above that line. A team that needs one of them pays for all of it.
Deliverability is our own reservation. We rate HubSpot 5.5 out of 10 on deliverability, which puts it in our Low band, below every alternative on this page except GoHighLevel. That is not a pricing argument and it does not go away by downgrading.
What HubSpot keeps, and what nothing here replaces cheaply: a genuinely free CRM for up to 2 users, an automation engine we score at 8.5, and an API and MCP surface we score at 9.0. If you are on Free or Starter and you use HubSpot as a CRM first and an email tool second, the honest answer is on this page too, in the migration section.
6 HubSpot alternatives at a glance
Ranked by our overall score. Every platform listed has a full review on SMTPedia, so every score below is a real measurement rather than a number invented for this comparison.
| Platform | Score | Starting $ | Free plan | Best for | MCP | Deliverability | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | 7.7 | $9/mo | Yes — 300/day, to 100k contacts | The Starter user who wants CRM plus email without seat pricing | Yes | Medium | Value 8.5 vs 3.0, support 8.0 vs 7.0; automation 6.0 vs 8.5 |
| MailerLite | 7.4 | $12/mo | Yes — 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails | Teams that only ever used HubSpot to send campaigns | Partial | High | Deliverability 8.0 vs 5.5, ease 8.0 vs 6.0; no CRM at all |
| Klaviyo | 7.3 | $20/mo | Yes — 250 profiles, 500 emails | Ecommerce stores whose customer data lives in orders | Yes | High | Automation 9.5 vs 8.5, deliverability 8.0 vs 5.5; value 3.5 vs 3.0, barely better |
| ActiveCampaign | 7.2 | $19/mo | No — 14-day trial | Teams that bought HubSpot for the workflows and use nothing else | Yes | High | Automation 9.5 vs 8.5, deliverability 8.5 vs 5.5, value 5.0 vs 3.0 |
| Customer.io | 7.1 | $100/mo | No — 14-day trial | Product-led SaaS where engineers own the lifecycle messaging | Yes | Medium | Automation 9.0 vs 8.5, API 9.0 vs 9.0; costs 5x more at entry |
| GoHighLevel | 6.3 | $97/mo | No — 14-day trial | Agencies reselling marketing under their own brand | Yes | Low | Unlimited contacts and users; deliverability 5.0 vs 5.5 and ease 4.5 vs 6.0, both worse |
Scores are SMTPedia overall ratings out of 10, measured per platform and not adjusted for this comparison. Deliverability is derived from our deliverability rating: High is 8.0 and above, Medium is 6.0 to 7.9, Low is below 6.0 — HubSpot itself sits at 5.5, in the Low band. Starting prices are monthly list prices, not annualised or promotional rates, and they do not all meter the same thing: Brevo counts emails sent, MailerLite counts subscribers, Klaviyo counts active profiles, ActiveCampaign counts contacts, Customer.io counts identified profiles, and GoHighLevel counts sub-accounts. Verified 16 September 2026.
Brevo
Brevo
Better for: the HubSpot Starter user whose bill is growing because of seats and contacts, not sending
Brevo is the only platform on this page that meters emails sent rather than people stored. Contacts are a ceiling, not a counter: the free plan holds up to 100,000 of them and charges nothing, capped at 300 sends per day. That inverts HubSpot’s model exactly. A business with a 40,000-name list that mails it once a month is paying HubSpot for 40,000 marketing contacts and paying Brevo for 40,000 emails, which is the $29 band. The CRM is included at every level, including free, and it is not seat-metered the way HubSpot’s paid seats are.
| Axis | HubSpot | Brevo |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing value (our score) | 3.0 | 8.5 |
| Entry price | $20/seat/mo | $9/mo, no seat multiplier |
| What the bill counts | Seats and marketing contacts | Emails sent |
| Free tier | 2 users, CRM included | 300/day, up to 100k contacts |
| Automation (our score) | 8.5 | 6.0 |
| Support (our score) | 7.0 | 8.0 |
Medium
1 to 2 weeks
Contacts and lists import cleanly. CRM deals and pipelines map roughly but custom objects do not. Workflows are rebuilt by hand.
$9/mo
Starter, from 5,000 emails per month
Standard is $18/mo and Professional $499/mo from 150,000 emails with 10 seats. Annual billing takes 10% off. The free tier is permanent, not a trial.
Brevo pricing breakdown
We have no affiliate relationship with Brevo. Both links are our own pages.
MailerLite
MailerLite
Better for: the team that bought HubSpot for marketing and has only ever used the email editor
This is the most common HubSpot profile we see and the one where the saving is largest, because it is paying CRM prices for a newsletter. MailerLite has no CRM, no deal pipeline and no sales tooling, and that is the entire point: $12 per month at 500 subscribers, $19 at 1,000, $49 at 5,000. It also scores highest of any platform here on ease of use, at 8.0, and it is one of only three on this page in our High deliverability band.
| Axis | HubSpot | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|
| Deliverability (our score) | 5.5 — Low band | 8.0 — High band |
| Ease of use (our score) | 6.0 | 8.0 |
| Price at 1,000 contacts | $20/seat/mo, 1 seat | $19/mo, seats included |
| Pricing value (our score) | 3.0 | 8.0 |
| CRM and sales pipeline | Included, free tier too | None |
| Automation (our score) | 8.5 | 6.0 |
Easy
2 to 4 days
Subscribers and segments import from CSV without loss. Templates are rebuilt. Nothing to map on the CRM side because there is no CRM side.
$12/mo
Comfort, 500 subscribers
$19 at 1,000 subscribers, $33 at 2,500, $49 at 5,000, $89 at 10,000. Annual billing takes 10% off. Free tier is 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails per month.
Read our MailerLite review
The first link is an affiliate link. It costs you nothing and does not change our score, which is measured the same way for platforms that pay us nothing.
Klaviyo
Klaviyo
Better for: ecommerce stores whose most useful customer field is what the customer bought
HubSpot’s data model is a contact with properties. Klaviyo’s is a profile with an order history, and every segment, flow and report is built on that difference. Abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase sequences and predicted lifetime value are native rather than assembled from custom properties and workflow branches. If your store runs on Shopify or WooCommerce, this is the only platform on this page that treats revenue attribution as the default view rather than a report you configure.
| Axis | HubSpot | Klaviyo |
|---|---|---|
| Automation (our score) | 8.5 | 9.5 |
| Deliverability (our score) | 5.5 — Low band | 8.0 — High band |
| API and MCP (our score) | 9.0 | 9.5 |
| Entry price | $20/seat/mo | $20/mo at 500 profiles |
| Pricing value (our score) | 3.0 | 3.5 |
| Annual discount | Yes, $15/seat/mo | None — monthly billing only |
Medium
1 to 3 weeks
Store integration is near-instant and backfills order history. Contact properties map to profile properties. HubSpot workflows do not convert and every flow is rebuilt.
$20/mo
Email plan, 251 to 500 active profiles
$30 at 1,000 profiles and $150 at 10,000. SMS is billed separately. Free tier is 250 active profiles and 500 emails per month.
Read our Klaviyo review
The first link is an affiliate link. It costs you nothing and does not change our score, which is why Klaviyo carries a critical warning above it.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign
Better for: the team that was going to pay $890 for Professional purely to unlock workflows
This is the single clearest swap on the page. ActiveCampaign beats HubSpot on the exact axis that drives the upgrade — automation 9.5 against 8.5 — and beats it on deliverability, 8.5 against 5.5, which is the widest deliverability gap here. Starter is $19 per month on monthly billing ($15 annual) for 1,000 contacts and one seat, with Plus at $59. Against Professional at $890 plus $3,000 onboarding, the first year costs $228 against $13,680. There is a CRM, though it is a sales CRM rather than HubSpot’s full platform, and pricing value scores 5.0 against HubSpot’s 3.0 rather than anything spectacular.
Medium
1 to 2 weeks
Clean the list before importing, not after. Contacts and tags import well; workflows are rebuilt by hand and take the bulk of the time.
$19/mo
Starter, 1,000 contacts, 1 seat
Plus is $59/mo. Annual billing takes about 20% off. No free plan.
Read our ActiveCampaign review
The first link is an affiliate link. It costs you nothing and does not change our score.
Two more, for narrower cases
Both beat HubSpot on a nameable axis, but each wins for one specific kind of company rather than for HubSpot users generally. Full detail is in our reviews.
For product-led SaaS whose triggers are events in their own application. Automation 9.0 against HubSpot’s 8.5, API and MCP 9.0, level with it. Essentials includes 5,000 identified profiles and one million emails, so it beats HubSpot heavily on cost per send and loses heavily on cost per seat. What you give up: everything a marketing team touches — no CRM, no pipeline, no landing pages, and an interface that assumes Liquid templating and data schemas. Pricing value 4.0. No free plan, 14-day trial without a card. If nobody on your team writes code, the trial will tell you so in a day.
For agencies reselling marketing to clients under their own brand. The only platform here priced by sub-account, with unlimited contacts and unlimited users on every tier: $97 for 3 sub-accounts, $297 for unlimited, $497 for Agency Pro. Automation 8.0. What you give up, and do not make this trade blind: it is the only platform on this page worse than HubSpot on deliverability — 5.0 against 5.5, both in our Low band — plus ease 4.5 against 6.0 and support 5.0 against 7.0. Unlimited contacts on a platform you cannot reliably deliver from is not a saving. For a single business rather than an agency, there is no argument for this move.
HubSpot alternatives: common questions
What is the cheapest HubSpot alternative that keeps a real CRM?
Brevo, at $9 per month, and its CRM is included on the free plan as well. It is the only platform on this page that gives you contact records, deals and a pipeline without a seat charge. The trade is automation depth: we score Brevo 6.0 against HubSpot’s 8.5. ActiveCampaign at $19 has a sales CRM and much stronger automation, so if the CRM you need is a sales CRM rather than a full platform, that is the better $10.
Why does HubSpot end up costing so much more than its starting price suggests?
Two meters and one cliff. The bill counts seats and marketing contacts separately, so a team of three on Starter is at $60 per month before any contact overage. Then the features most people upgrade for — unrestricted workflows, custom reporting, removing HubSpot branding — all sit on Professional at $890 per month with a mandatory one-time onboarding fee of $3,000, and there is no tier in between. That is a 44.5x step, and a first year of $13,680. It is the reason we score HubSpot 3.0 on pricing value, the lowest of the 42 platforms we rate.
Does anything here actually match HubSpot’s automation?
Two beat it and one matches it. Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign both score 9.5 against HubSpot’s 8.5, and Customer.io scores 9.0. The other three are below: GoHighLevel 8.0, Brevo 6.0, MailerLite 6.0. If workflows are the reason you are on HubSpot, ActiveCampaign is the swap that costs least — $19 per month against $890 — and it also happens to be the biggest deliverability upgrade on this page, 8.5 against 5.5.
Is HubSpot’s free plan still worth staying on?
Yes, and we say so on a page about leaving. The free tier includes the CRM for up to 2 users, and no alternative here offers a CRM that good at zero cost — Brevo’s free plan is the closest and its CRM is thinner. Klaviyo and MailerLite have no CRM at all, and ActiveCampaign, Customer.io and GoHighLevel have no free plan, only 14-day trials. Our reservation is about what happens when you outgrow it, not about the free tier itself.
Which of these has the best deliverability?
ActiveCampaign, at 8.5, followed by MailerLite and Klaviyo at 8.0 — the three in our High band. Brevo is 7.5 and Customer.io 7.0, both Medium. GoHighLevel at 5.0 is the only one worse than HubSpot’s 5.5, and both sit in our Low band. This matters more than the pricing tables above: a workflow that fires perfectly into a spam folder has not fired.
Do these platforms meter the same thing HubSpot does?
None of them do, which is why comparing entry prices directly is misleading. HubSpot counts seats and marketing contacts. Brevo counts emails sent and treats contacts as a ceiling — up to 100,000 on the free plan. MailerLite counts subscribers. Klaviyo counts active profiles, meaning everyone you could contact rather than everyone you do. ActiveCampaign counts contacts, and since November 2025 new accounts are billed on unsubscribes and bounces too. Customer.io counts identified profiles and bundles a million emails. GoHighLevel counts sub-accounts and meters neither contacts nor users. Work out what your own bill is driven by before you compare two numbers that look alike.
This review follows our email infrastructure testing methodology. We disclose affiliate relationships in our editorial independence policy.
