# HubSpot Marketing Hub vs ActiveCampaign: which do AI models recommend for email marketing, October 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, Email marketing platforms. Twelve of fourteen models named HubSpot Marketing Hub first on the direct prompt; five named ActiveCampaign. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/marketing/email-marketing/hubspot-marketing-hub-vs-activecampaign/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | 35% | #1 of 14 | 8% | 52 | 14 of 14 |
| ActiveCampaign | 28% | #2 of 14 | 11% | 56 | 14 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Mistral Small: both first (first choices: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub)
- Kimi K2: both first (first choices: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: both first (first choices: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: Adobe Marketo Engage)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: hubspot marketing hub first (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Brevo, GetResponse)
- GPT-5.4 mini: hubspot marketing hub first (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: hubspot marketing hub first (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- Perplexity Sonar: hubspot marketing hub first (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Outreach, Salesloft, ZoomInfo Marketing)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: hubspot marketing hub first (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: hubspot marketing hub first (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: hubspot marketing hub first (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, SharpSpring)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: hubspot marketing hub first (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Klaviyo)
- GPT-6 Luna: hubspot marketing hub first (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- Llama 4 Maverick: activecampaign first (first choices: ActiveCampaign) (alternatives: Dotdigital, Salesforce Email Marketing)
- MiniMax M2.5: activecampaign first (first choices: ActiveCampaign) (alternatives: HubSpot Marketing Hub, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)

## What the models said about HubSpot Marketing Hub

- "Recommending HubSpot to small businesses is irresponsible, and for everyone except B2B companies doing £1M+ in revenue, it's a trap." (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "HubSpot and Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Avoid if you only need email marketing)" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "If you're a B2B company with a complex sales cycle, HubSpot remains the most complete option — with caveats. ... Best for B2B Winner: HubSpot with significant cost caveats." (Muse Glimmer 30B, direct prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about ActiveCampaign

- "some tools look affordable at small list sizes but leave the budget bracket quickly as subscriber counts rise, including Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, and Constant Contact" (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt, soft negative)
- "ActiveCampaign - known for its robust email automation and lightweight CRM functionality, making it popular among mid-sized B2B teams." (Llama 4 Maverick, direct prompt, first choice)
- "For most mid-market B2B companies, ActiveCampaign provides the best balance of automation depth, ease of use, and pricing." (MiniMax M2.5, direct prompt, first choice)
- "If your priority is advanced automation and a robust all-in-one platform, ActiveCampaign is often the best choice." (Mistral Small, direct prompt, first choice)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.