Two of the most complex platforms that incorporate email marketing are HubSpot and Keap. If you are considering one of these tools as a solution to automate your email campaigns, read this Keap vs HubSpot comparison and discover which software offers more capabilities.
Written by Ria du Plessis - Digital Marketing Expert Updated 9/2/2021 |
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Score | 8.3/10 | 8.3/10 |
Summary | Keap is the former Infusionsoft. This powerful marketing automation tool offers numerous templates for different needs. | HubSpot is a powerful all-in-one marketing platform with built-in CRM that offers excellent automation and reporting features. |
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Cons |
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Key Features |
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Pricing |
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Support |
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Ease of Use |
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Best fit for | Small, growing companies | Medium-big companies |
Email templates are one of the main features you might be looking for in your prospect email marketing platforms.
One of the highlights of this platform is its rich library of flexible and good-looking email templates. You can find the right template for your business whether you’re focused on selling a new product or announcing an event. Keap also offers numerous customization options, as well as the chance to create new templates from scratch. It is possible to style the email body text, include links, or merge fields. Overall, the email creation process is intuitive and can take as little as 10 minutes.
HubSpot can provide you with tons of professionally designed email templates for various purposes such as welcome emails, invitations, newsletters, reengagement emails, follow-ups, etc. The email editor is very flexible and allows you to change almost every aspect of these templates such as text, buttons, layout, etc.
You can personalize your emails based on different criteria the platform automatically gathers from contacts such as their location, their lifecycle, or the list they belong to.
Winner
Both platforms offer excellent templates and customization options.
Landing pages offer an excellent environment where you can gather new leads and promote your business.
Keap helps you create beautiful landing pages with little effort. The intuitive drag-and-drop landing page builder is easy to use even if you’ve got limited technical skills. The platform offers a good array of landing page templates that can ease your work. They all have a responsive format, can be previewed for mobile or desktop devices, and are customizable.
HubSpot also provides numerous landing page options, starting with its mobile-optimized easy-to-use templates. To personalize these pages’ look, you can change their colors to match your design, their banner image, CTAs, layout, content, forms, or icons. A useful page preview option is also available, as well as the possibility to track your pages’ engagement through different reports. The platform even offers custom SEO suggestions.
Winner
HubSot offers more complex options.
Automated workflows are a must, especially if you plan on upgrading your email marketing strategy and interact more with customers.
One of Keap’s core features is automation. This platform allows you to automate almost any marketing process, as well as your sales. In terms of email marketing, Keap allows you to build workflows that automatically deliver messages to customers based on triggers.
You can schedule these email sequences at specific times (e.g.: several days after a new sign-up or after a purchase) or you can have them delivered based on users’ actions (e.g. a recent purchase, a booked appointment, an opened email, or an abandoned cart). The platform also allows you to tag customers automatically.
HubSpot doesn’t lag behind when it comes to automating your email campaigns. This platform allows you to build complex workflows based on different triggers. You can start an email sequence once a new lead submits a form, clicks on a link from a previous email, views a product, or an ad. You will be able to do as many triggers as you want to and branch off your sequences in an unlimited number of ways. Time-based triggers are also available if you want to reengage customers who haven’t interacted with your email messages in the past 30 days, for example. It’s also useful to add goals for your workflows and track their progress.
Winner
Both platforms offer outstanding automation features.
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This platform offers A/B split testing tools that are easy to access. You can split-test the following elements: subject lines, the overall email design, call to action buttons, any part of your email’s content. Keap also offers preview tests and an auto spam checking feature that helps you realize if your emails are able to get past spam filters, a feature that contributes to good deliverability rates. Keap also features an intelligent send feature that’s powered by algorithms and aims to improve your delivery times.
HubSpot offers similar A/B testing features. Once a campaign is set up, the platform allows you to test different versions to discover the most engaging one. You can focus your A/B tests on different elements such as subject lines, email content, images, call to actions. You can even test landing pages.
Winner
Keap offers more options.
List segmentation is an important part of a robust email marketing strategy. It allows you to send more personalized and persuasive emails.
Being centered on customer relationship management, Keap offers numerous useful segmentation features. This platform helps you build different contact lists based on common criteria such as customer behavior or how your contacts interacted with your previous campaigns. You can create as many lists as you want and further divide your audience into smaller groups.
HubSpot allows you to segment your list into different sub-categories based on numerous criteria including age, location, lifecycle, behavior, etc. The lists are automatically updated and contacts are added or removed based on the data that changes in the platform’s CRM.
Winner
Both platforms offer powerful segmentation.
Discover the plans you can purchase from Keap vs HubSpot.
Keap offers three pricing plans and a 14-days free trial: Lite, Pro, and Max. For a minimum number of 500 contacts and 1 user the prices are $56/month, $112/month, and $140 respectively. Besides the email marketing suite, the plans also include a CRM, and other marketing and sales features.
HubSpot’s cheapest plan starts at $50 per month for 1,000 contacts with the Starter plan. The Professional plan costs $800 per month and for the Enterprise plan, you have to pay $3,200 per month. There is also a 14-days free trial and different discounts if you pay for an entire year.
Winner
Both platforms are more expensive than standalone email marketing tools, however, Keap’s higher plans are cheaper than HubSpot’s.
Let’s move on and talk about how easy it is to use these two platforms.
Overall, Keap is relatively easy to use, especially if you mainly focus on its email marketing features. One of the areas where it stands out for usability is automation. This platform makes it easy to build workflows and get an eagle-eye-view on their structure and performance.
Given its complexity and multitude of features, HubSpot has a steeper learning curve, especially if you start drilling into its in-depth reporting. One thing that eases navigation is the fact that the platform is pretty well-organized and all the features have straightforward names.
Winner
Keap seems easier to use.
Reports
Reporting is another essential capability any modern email marketing platform should provide. Here are the main reports you can get with Keap vs Hubspot.
Keap offers all the basic campaign reports you might need in order to understand how many contacts have opened your emails, how many clicked on your links, or have failed to read your messages. Engagement, sales, email deliverability, and different marketing reports are available.
HubSpot allows you to customize the numerous reports it offers. There are more than 20 custom reports with the average plan and 500 custom reports with the highest tier. This platform can track all the aspects related to your campaigns’ performance: open rates, heat maps, click maps, spam, bounces, etc. Sales reports such as forecast and deal pipeline analytics, as well as social media reports are also available.
Winner
HubSpot is more advanced.
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Integrations help you streamline marketing processes by managing multiple accounts from one tool only.
Keap offers hundreds of integrations, well-divided into several categories such as eCommerce, landing pages/forms, lead generation, etc. Some of its most popular integrations include Zapier, AppointmentCore, BigCommerce, Bonjoro, Instapage, Leadpages, Optinmonster, Outlook.
HubSpot offers more than 100 integrations with major marketing, content management, or social media third parties. Some of its most popular integrations include WordPress, Zapier, SurveyMonkey, Facebook, Mailchimp, Slack, Salesforce.
Winner
Keap provides more integrations.
Support options are always important when you purchase new software as you might have different questions.
Keap offers outstanding customer support. A contact phone number is clearly displayed on their website. Live chat support is available 24/7 and there are also different email addresses for different departments, and a community, and a Facebook user group.
HubSpot offers a useful sticky help button you can access at all times from your dashboard. Live chat, email, and phone support are available, however, not on a 24/7 basis. The platform also features an extensive knowledge base.
Winner
Keap offers more generous options.
Let’s see who is the target audience of these platforms.
Keap can be a good choice for startups that are looking for an all-in-one tool that offers reliable email marketing features but also the possibility to host their contacts on the same platform. Bigger companies also count on the platform’s pro plan that helps streamline sales. Keap is also suitable for anyone who is looking for an intuitive platform and excellent email templates.
HubSpot’s powerful CRM, automation, and reporting tools make it ideal for businesses that want an all-in-one platform and the ability to make data-driven decisions and have a large number of contacts. However, given its price point, it is usually the choice of medium-large companies.
Here is an overview of the main pros and cons of these platforms.
Keap is an excellent tool that offers plenty of other features besides email marketing tools such as templates and workflows, however, it is a bit pricey, especially for small companies with a growing contact list.
HubSPot offers advanced list management and segmentation features, numerous design options, and excellent automation, however, it is one of the priciest tools on the market and it might not be a good choice if you’re only looking for email marketing features.
These are 2 alternatives that are also worth considering.
This is a more affordable alternative that also offers a CRM, SMS marketing, landing pages, good segmentation features, and plenty more.
This platform offers a straightforward dashboard, powerful integrations, an intuitive automation builder, and granular contact interactions.
HubSpot was the winner in most rounds and we also consider it the final winner, due to its complexity and multiple automation, reporting, and design features.
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