Keap vs Shape

Keap focuses its strength on email-based lead capture and nurturing workflows. It offers powerful personalization within these standard communication channels. Shape features an award-winning integrated phone system for calls, text, and MMS messages. It includes essential tools like inbound call routing and local presence dialing features. Shape also requires secure email delivery via compliant SMTP servers, ensuring message integrity and maximizing delivery rates. Keap relies more on generalized email delivery, which users can struggle with. For sales teams whose primary work is on the phone, Shape provides crucial infrastructure that Keap lacks.

Keap requires users to self-implement their complex automation workflows and manage data hygiene. Shape includes an Expert Onboarding Plan with every plan, often saving teams significant setup time. Shape's support team handles data import and system implementation for you. This expert implementation drastically reduces the initial learning curve and time-to-value for Shape users. Keap offers coaching, but not the hands-on data migration support Shape provides. If you fear data migration or complex initial configuration, Shape provides a much smoother path to launch.

Keap’s inherent power is in segmenting contacts and tracking lead status through custom workflows. It relies on user-defined triggers. Shape instantly identifies promising leads using built-in detection tools and intelligence. The Shape Engage plan includes AI lead scoring to prioritize prospects. AI lead scoring allows Shape users to focus sales efforts on high-value interactions immediately. Keap requires users to manually define 'hot' leads through tag placement. This intelligence boost means Shape teams waste less time and maximize daily efficiency across the pipeline.

Keap’s exact plan prices are not publicly stated; users report vague billing and price increases after signing up. The billing complaints are a major friction point with Keap's service. Shape also uses an opaque, quote-based model across its three tiers: Professional, Engage, and Enterprise. Pricing is structured per seat. Since both systems require contacting sales for pricing, transparency is low overall. However, the negative user sentiment surrounding Keap's billing suggests higher long-term cost unpredictability compared to Shape.

Keap is explicitly built and marketed toward small businesses and growth-focused teams. Its features support generating more leads and predictable sales for small scale. Shape offers three distinct tiers: Professional, Engage, and a specialized Enterprise plan. The Enterprise plan targets highly complex, large-scale organizations. This structured tiered approach means Shape is designed to grow beyond the small business segment Keap solely focuses on. If you project massive growth and may need advanced services later, Shape is engineered for that evolution.

Keap is renowned for its powerful automation engine tailored to complex sales and marketing processes. Users save time automating repetitive tasks. Shape uses automation heavily for consistent, automated follow-up sequences across texting and email CRMs. Keap’s automation tools are complex and powerful, supporting highly personalized, multi-stage workflows. Shape prioritizes outreach completion. If your primary goal is building complicated marketing funnels, Keap provides deeper foundational tools.

Keap users frequently cite slow support response times, inability to fix issues, and difficulty canceling subscriptions. This is a recurring complaint. Shape includes 'Professional Support' and handles the full system implementation via support staff. While Shape’s SLA is unknown, their commitment to providing expert, hands-on onboarding suggests a higher baseline for support quality. Given Keap’s reported support issues, Shape offers a safer choice regarding reliable customer service.

Keap users report issues like duplicate emails, reliability concerns, and tag proliferation causing data hygiene problems. Performance can be uneven. Shape uses compliant SMTP servers for authenticated and secure email delivery, minimizing issues. Shape also enforces data quality maintenance and provides a dedicated texting CRM for measureable, reliable bi-directional communication. If consistent, reliable message delivery across all channels is critical, Shape has a stronger technical focus on infrastructure.