By Alpit Patel and the aibrevo team · October 22, 2026 · 5 min read
ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot: Is ActiveCampaign a CRM, and What It Costs
ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation platform with a CRM attached: deals, pipelines and lead scoring sit behind a Pipelines add-on on Plus and above. HubSpot has a free CRM and a sales-first Sales Hub, but its Marketing Hub Professional costs far more in year one.
Key takeaways
- ActiveCampaign's pricing page lists Starter, Plus, Pro and Enterprise, each priced on 1,000 contacts; deal records, account records and lead scoring come from a Pipelines add-on that is not available on Starter (checked Oct 22, 2026).
- ActiveCampaign's own comparison page, dated February 2026, lists $15, $49, $79 and $145 a month for 1,000 contacts; the live pricing page we read showed no dollar figures, so confirm the current price at checkout.
- HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional is $800 a month on an annual commitment ($890 monthly) with 2,000 marketing contacts, 3 seats and a required $3,000 one-time onboarding fee: $12,600 in year one.
- ActiveCampaign Pro at $79 a month is $948 over a year before the Pipelines add-on, whose price is not shown on the pages we could read.
- HubSpot's free CRM covers up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts at $0, which makes it the cheaper way to test CRM needs if marketing automation is not the priority.
ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation platform with CRM features attached, not a pipeline-first CRM. Every plan has contact profiles, tags and custom fields; deal records, account records and lead scoring require a Pipelines add-on on Plus, Pro or Enterprise. HubSpot is a CRM first, with a free tier for up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts. In year one, HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional costs about $12,600 against $948 for ActiveCampaign Pro before add-ons (vendor pages, checked Oct 22, 2026).
Is ActiveCampaign a CRM?
Partly. ActiveCampaign’s pricing page lists a CRM layer in each plan, but the sales objects sit behind an add-on:
| CRM feature | Starter | Plus | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contact profiles, tags, custom fields | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Lists | Up to 5 | Included | Included | Included |
| Sales automation | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Pipelines add-on (deal records, account records, lead scoring) | Not included | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
| Premium CRM integrations (Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics) | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| User seats | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Email sends per month (at 1,000 contacts) | 10,000 | 10,000 | 12,000 | 15,000 |
The ActiveCampaign help center confirms the Pipelines enhanced CRM add-on is available on Plus, Professional and Enterprise and not on Starter, and that you need a base plan first. ActiveCampaign’s own comparison page says its Sales CRM supports “unlimited pipelines,” which is a vendor claim. So the answer to “is ActiveCampaign a CRM” is yes for email-led sales and for storing contacts, and yes with an add-on for deals.
How much does ActiveCampaign cost against HubSpot?
ActiveCampaign’s live pricing page showed no dollar amounts in the text we could read, only “Billed yearly for 1,000 contacts.” ActiveCampaign’s own comparison page, which states “Comparison data accurate as of February 2026,” lists Starter at $15, Plus at $49, Pro at $79 and Enterprise at $145 a month for 1,000 contacts. Its FAQ cites a different HubSpot Starter price than its body does, so treat that page as a vendor’s marketing comparison and confirm current prices on both sites.
HubSpot’s Marketing Hub page lists:
- Starter at $7 or $20 per seat per month (the page does not label which is annual), 1,000 marketing contacts.
- Professional at $800 a month on annual commitment or $890 monthly, 2,000 marketing contacts, 3 core seats included, and a required one-time onboarding fee of $3,000.
- Enterprise at $3,600 a month, 10,000 marketing contacts, 5 core seats, and a required $7,000 onboarding fee.
The comparison is lopsided on purpose, and it favors ActiveCampaign on price. The two products are priced on different axes: ActiveCampaign by contacts, HubSpot by hub, seat and contact tier. A fair comparison needs the Pipelines add-on price for ActiveCampaign and your real contact count for both. HubSpot’s free CRM is the right baseline if marketing automation is not the driver.
When does ActiveCampaign win?
ActiveCampaign wins when the sales process is mostly email and automation: a coaching business, an ecommerce brand or an agency that nurtures leads through sequences, tags and scoring, and hands a few of them to a person. Its low entry price, Starter at $15 on its own comparison page, and the contacts-based model fit that. Sales automation arrives on Plus and the deal objects arrive with the add-on.
It is a poorer fit when several reps work deals daily and managers want forecasting, since deals are an add-on and its sales depth is not described on the pages we read. For that case compare a sales-first tool, such as in HubSpot vs Pipedrive.
When does HubSpot win?
HubSpot wins when you want a free place to start, when sales and marketing share one record, or when you expect to add hubs. Sales Hub Starter lists up to 50 workflows and up to 15 pipelines; Professional lists up to 300 workflows and default and custom forecasting (HubSpot Sales Hub pricing page, checked Oct 22, 2026). The cost of that breadth is the onboarding fees on Professional and Enterprise and a price page where several figures are not labelled annual or monthly. Read how to choose a CRM before you commit to a hub bundle, and look at the CRM integrations guide to confirm your existing tools connect.
What does switching cost?
Contacts, tags, custom fields and deals export cleanly in principle; automations, campaigns and scoring rules do not transfer between platforms, so budget for rebuilding them. HubSpot’s marketing contact allowances (1,000, 2,000 and 10,000 by hub tier) mean a large ActiveCampaign list can cost more to hold than it did, since the page says overages bring additional monthly fees by volume and gives no figures. The HubSpot migration guide and the CRM migration guide cover mapping and cutover.
When to get help
If your list has outgrown ActiveCampaign’s deal add-on, or HubSpot’s quote looks heavy against your actual use, a short call can price your real contact count, seats and automations on both before you sign. aibrevo implements HubSpot; ActiveCampaign is quoted per project, and moving from it into HubSpot or another of the eight platforms is the usual request. Book a short call or send a message, and see the HubSpot service page.
Sources
- ActiveCampaign pricing page: activecampaign.com/pricing, checked Oct 22, 2026.
- ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot comparison (vendor page, data as of February 2026): activecampaign.com/compare/hubspot, checked Oct 22, 2026.
- ActiveCampaign help center, plans overview: help.activecampaign.com, as surfaced in search on Oct 22, 2026 (direct fetch returned 403).
- HubSpot Marketing Hub pricing: hubspot.com/pricing/marketing, checked Oct 22, 2026.
- HubSpot Sales Hub pricing: hubspot.com/pricing/sales, checked Oct 22, 2026.
- HubSpot CRM pricing (free tier): hubspot.com/pricing/crm, checked Oct 22, 2026.