Hubspot vs Keap
Features, use cases, pros and cons, and pricing side by side — and which one to pick.
Best for: Small businesses that want one platform instead of five disconnected tools, Startups organizing contacts and pipelines on the free CRM from day one
Read the full Hubspot reviewBest for: Service businesses — coaches, consultants, agencies — that convert through multi-touch nurture rather than one-off transactions., Appointment-driven operations such as salons, clinics, tutors, and home services, where automated reminders and rebooking directly protect revenue.
Read the full Keap reviewCommission may apply at no extra cost
Hubspot vs Keap: features compared
Compare key features side by side
Feature Comparison Summary
Which should you choose?
Choose Hubspot if
- You need 2,000+ integrations, including Gmail, Slack, and Shopify
- You want AI agents handling support tickets and prospecting
Choose Keap if
- You prefer one-time payment or usage-based billing options
- You're willing to talk with Keap's team to confirm fit
Hubspot vs Keap: pros and cons
Hubspot
HubSpot puts marketing, sales, and service on one platform with a shared CRM, a genuinely free plan, and AI agents that handle routine work. It's not cheap past the entry tier — onboarding fees and usage-based credits stack up. Overall, it's a strong pick for teams that want everything connected and can plan for the real cost.
Pros
- The genuinely free plan covers up to 2 users with 2,000 branded email sends per month, live chat, forms, and 10 dashboards — no credit card required to start.
- The Smart CRM gives marketing, sales, and service teams one shared customer record, and HubSpot reports customers see 129% more leads and close 36% more deals after one year.
- AI agents do concrete work, not just chat — the Customer Agent resolves up to 65% of inquiries automatically, while the Prospecting Agent sources contacts and the Data Agent answers custom customer questions.
Cons
- Onboarding fees hit hard on higher tiers — a mandatory one-time $3,000 fee on Professional and $7,000 on Enterprise, neither included in the base price.
- Costs stack in three directions at once — per-seat fees, usage-based HubSpot Credits ($9 per 1,000 when billed annually), and add-ons — so your real monthly bill can differ a lot from the advertised plan price.
- The free tier keeps HubSpot branding on all your emails and live chat, and Starter caps you at 1,000 marketing contacts with email sends limited to 5x your contact tier per month.
Keap
Keap bundles CRM, email and SMS automation, scheduling, and payments into one system built for follow-up-heavy service businesses. Campaign Builder handles genuinely multi-step workflows, though mastering it takes weeks and costs climb as your contact list grows. Overall, it's a strong pick for owner-led teams that will actually invest in automation.
Pros
- Campaign Builder supports genuinely multi-step, behavior-triggered automation — SMS, internal tasks, tagging, and staff notifications inside one workflow, not just autoresponders.
- CRM, email, SMS, scheduling, invoicing, and payments share a single contact database, eliminating the sync tools and data gaps of a multi-vendor stack.
- Appointment reminders and pipeline task automation directly reduce no-shows and stalled deals, which is where small businesses measurably lose money.
Cons
- Campaign Builder is powerful but has a real learning curve — expect days to launch a first campaign and weeks before branching logic feels comfortable.
- Pricing scales with contact count and users, so costs climb meaningfully as your database grows — a real consideration for list-heavy businesses.
- There is no permanent free tier, so evaluation happens inside the trial window or after committing to a paid plan.
Hubspot and Keap in detail
Hubspot
HubSpot is a customer platform that connects marketing, sales, and customer service around shared data. It includes a free CRM plus separate hubs for marketing, sales, service, content, data, and revenue. Teams of all sizes use it, from startups on the Starter bundle to enterprises like Unipart. HubSpot says more than 299,000 customers worldwide run on the platform.
Standout features
- One connected platform for every team
- AI agents that work around the clock
- A hub for every job
- Plays nicely with your existing tools
- Start free, add help when you need it
Use cases
- Startups Getting Organized From Day One
- Marketing Teams Generating and Automating Leads
- Sales Teams Building Pipeline Faster
- Support Teams Scaling With AI
Keap
Keap is a customer relationship management and marketing automation platform aimed at small businesses, typically teams without dedicated IT or marketing staff. Its core is the Campaign Builder, a visual editor where you assemble multi-step, trigger-based workflows that send emails and texts, create tasks, move contacts through pipelines, and collect payments. Around that sit contact management with tagging, lead capture forms and landing pages, appointment booking with automated reminders, invoicing, and reporting dashboards. The design assumption is follow-up-heavy selling: leads get nurtured over days or weeks until they book, buy, or opt out.
Standout features
- Campaign Builder and lifecycle automation
- CRM and sales pipeline management
- Email and SMS marketing
- Appointments, payments, and invoicing
- Lead capture, reporting, and mobile access
Use cases
- Automated lead nurture for service businesses
- No-show reduction for appointment-based businesses
- Pipeline discipline for small sales teams
- Recurring billing and payment follow-up
Pricing compared
List prices from each vendor's pricing page, before taxes and add-ons. Costs are per month.
| Pricing compared | Hubspot | Keap |
|---|---|---|
| From (cheapest paid plan) | $20/mo Starter · per user | $24/mo Text Marketing Tier 2 |
| Free plan | Yes Up to 2 users; HubSpot branding on emails and chat; 2,000 email sends per calendar month | No |
| Free trial | 28 days | Not stated |
| Money-back guarantee | Not stated | Not stated |
| Annual billing savings | Up to 65% | — |
| Pricing model | Per-user and flat plans | Flat price |
| Cost for 1 user | FreeCheaper Free plan, billed monthly | $24/mo Text Marketing Tier 2 plan, billed monthly |
| Cost for 5 users | $100/mo Starter plan, billed monthly | $24/mo Text Marketing Tier 2 plan, billed monthly · price per account (user limit not stated) |
| Cost for 10 users | $200/mo Starter plan, billed monthly | $24/mo Text Marketing Tier 2 plan, billed monthly · price per account (user limit not stated) |
| Cost for 25 users | $500/mo Starter plan, billed monthly | $24/mo Text Marketing Tier 2 plan, billed monthly · price per account (user limit not stated) |
| Plans | 5 | 8 |
| Prices checked | Prices not verified yet — see the vendor page. | Checked Oct 13, 2026 |
| Price history | No tracked prices yet | Tracking prices since Oct 1, 2026. No price change detected yet. |
- Cheapest plan that fits each team size. Per-user plans are multiplied by the number of users (respecting stated minimums and seat packs). Plans that include some users cost their base price plus the extra-user price for each user beyond those included. Flat-priced plans with no stated user limit are counted as one licence per user.
Cheaper for your team size
For 1 user (billed monthly), Hubspot costs $0/mo vs Keap at $24/mo.
- Only Hubspot has a free plan.
Computed from published list prices on the dates shown. Excludes taxes, add-ons and promotions.