# ActiveCampaign vs Adobe Marketo Engage: which do AI models recommend for marketing automation, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, Marketing automation and campaign management. Two of twelve models named ActiveCampaign first on the direct prompt; zero named Adobe Marketo Engage. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/marketing/marketing-automation/activecampaign-vs-adobe-marketo-engage/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | 13% | #3 of 11 | 5% | 56 | 12 of 12 |
| Adobe Marketo Engage | 4% | #4 of 11 | 45% | 44 | 11 of 12 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Qwen 3.7 Flash: activecampaign first (first choices: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: Brevo, Customer.io, MarketBetter, Ortto)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: activecampaign first (first choices: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither first, one named (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither first, one named (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise) (alternatives: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: Act-On, ActiveCampaign, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither first, one named (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither first, one named (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: Act-On, ActiveCampaign, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- Mistral Small: neither first, one named (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: 6sense, ActiveCampaign, Customer.io, Demandbase, Klaviyo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither first, one named (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: ActiveCampaign, MarketBetter, Ortto)
- Kimi K2: neither first, one named (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- MiniMax M2.5: neither first, one named (first choices: HubSpot Marketing Hub) (alternatives: Act-On, ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Braze, Iterable, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)

## What the models said about ActiveCampaign

- "ActiveCampaign — Billing surprises & cancellation horror stories ... Avoid if: You have messy/inactive lists" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Choose ActiveCampaign if you are a growing B2B or hybrid company that wants powerful "if-this-then-that" automation without paying enterprise prices." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "ActiveCampaign is recommended for most small businesses due to its visual workflow builder, built-in CRM, and consistently top-tier deliverability" (Claude Haiku 4.5, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "two dominant leaders ... choosing between HubSpot (for unified growth) and ActiveCampaign (for deep workflow flexibility)" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, direct prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Adobe Marketo Engage

- "Approach with Extra Caution (Especially for SMBs or Beginners): Adobe Marketo Engage ... Steep learning curve, outdated/non-intuitive UI ... expensive pricing" (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Risk Score: 66/100 (High Risk)... Best avoided if: You lack dedicated technical expertise or have limited budget" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "comes down to HubSpot (speed and usability) vs. Marketo (power and B2B sophistication)" (Kimi K2, scale prompt, first choice)
- "I'd generally recommend Adobe Marketo Engage as the best default choice." (GPT-5.4 mini, paraphrase prompt, first choice)
- "Marketo wins for enterprise complexity" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, comparative prompt, first choice)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve 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.