Our agency has been using basic email tools and Excel sheets to manage clients, but we’re starting to get more business and need something better. I’ve been researching different platforms and narrowed it down to HubSpot and ActiveCampaign. Both seem popular with agencies but HubSpot costs way more money.
I’m curious what other agency owners think about these two options. Is HubSpot worth the extra money or does ActiveCampaign work just as well? What features do you actually use the most? Would love to hear from people who have tried both or switched from one to the other.
ActiveCampaign was great until we started juggling multiple clients at once. Their email automation and segmentation are solid, but client management? Total afterthought. We couldn’t keep client communications straight and tracking project status was a mess. HubSpot’s marketing hub changed everything. Now I can see a client’s entire journey - first contact to project delivery - in one place. Made our team way more efficient. Their custom properties and deal stages actually work for agencies. Yeah, it’s pricier upfront, but we made that back in three months just from better retention and upsells. Here’s what people don’t tell you about the learning curve: ActiveCampaign took our team two weeks to figure out. HubSpot? Two months before everyone was comfortable with what we were paying for.
hubspot’s free tier is solid for starting out - that’s what we used. their sales pipeline beats activecampaign by miles. activecampaign feels like an email tool pretending to be a crm, while hubspot built theirs specifically for sales teams.
Been through this exact headache myself. Both platforms are decent but here’s the thing - you’ll end up wanting to connect them to 10 other tools anyway. Email schedulers, proposal software, invoicing, project management, social media tools.
That’s where things get expensive and messy real quick. Each integration costs extra money and breaks constantly.
I ditched the whole CRM debate and built my own agency workflow with automation instead. Connected email marketing, lead tracking, client onboarding, and reporting all in one flow. No monthly CRM fees eating into margins.
The beauty is you can pull data from anywhere - your website forms, social media, even spreadsheets if you still have those lying around. Then push it wherever you need it to go.
Costs way less than either HubSpot or ActiveCampaign once you factor in all the add-ons agencies actually need. Plus you control everything instead of being stuck with whatever features they decide to give you.
Check out Latenode for building this kind of setup: https://latenode.com
I faced this same choice two years ago when we hit 15 clients. Went with ActiveCampaign first - way cheaper and we were bootstrapping hard. It crushed email campaigns and basic automation, plus their support was great. We outgrew it fast though. Clients wanted detailed attribution reports and ActiveCampaign’s felt weak. Deal management got messy as we scaled too. Switched to HubSpot after 18 months. Migration sucked but totally worth it. Started with their free tier and added paid features as we grew. HubSpot’s integrations blow ActiveCampaign out of the water, especially for agencies juggling multiple tools. Go ActiveCampaign if you’re strapped for cash, but plan to jump to HubSpot once you hit 20+ clients or need real reporting.
We used HubSpot’s free version for almost a year before upgrading. What surprised me most? Client retention shot up once we automated lead scoring and follow-ups. ActiveCampaign does email well, but HubSpot’s contact timeline became a game-changer for client meetings. I could instantly pull up every interaction, proposal, and project milestone - made us look way more professional. The reporting helped us figure out which marketing channels brought in our best clients. Start with HubSpot’s free tools and only upgrade when you actually need specific features. Most agencies don’t use half the advanced stuff anyway. You’ll probably find the free version covers 80% of what you need while growing.