Marketing automation and campaign management · September 2026 Edition
HubSpot Marketing Hub vs ActiveCampaign
Eleven of twelve models named HubSpot Marketing Hub first on the direct prompt; two named ActiveCampaign. Both were named by all twelve models and HubSpot Marketing Hub carries 57 labels and ActiveCampaign 56, so the shares are not directly comparable.
By HubSpot, Cambridge, United States, founded 2006. Named in fifteen categories this edition.
Chicago, United States, founded 2003. Named in ten categories this edition.
First-choice share55%13%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate19%5%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#3A position in a field of 11; printed, not drawn.
Labels5756A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, HubSpot Marketing Hub reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement was named alongside these two in nine of the twelve direct answers. HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Brevo · Brevo vs ActiveCampaign
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; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the marketing automation and campaign management page.
By framing
How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
HubSpot Marketing HubFirst choices, of twelve modelsActiveCampaign
Direct112
Paraphrase111
Comparative76
Budget-constrained034 against HubSpot Marketing Hub
Scale-constrained40
Negative027 against HubSpot Marketing Hub · 3 against ActiveCampaign
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.
The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where HubSpot Marketing Hub and ActiveCampaign stood in it.
Both were the first choice
2 of 12 modelsThe answer named them together, and the judge labeled each a first choice.Qwen 3.7 FlashActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub alternatives: Brevo, Customer.io, MarketBetter, Ortto
GLM 4.7 FlashXActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot Marketing Hub first, ActiveCampaign an alternative
9 of 12 modelsActiveCampaign was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Claude Haiku 4.5HubSpot Marketing Hub alternatives: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Gemini 3.5 FlashHubSpot Marketing Hub alternatives: Act-On, ActiveCampaign, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Perplexity SonarHubSpot Marketing Hub alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Grok 4.1 FastHubSpot Marketing Hub alternatives: Act-On, ActiveCampaign, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Mistral SmallHubSpot Marketing Hub alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
DeepSeek V4 FlashHubSpot Marketing Hub alternatives: 6sense, ActiveCampaign, Customer.io, Demandbase, Klaviyo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Llama 4 MaverickHubSpot Marketing Hub alternatives: ActiveCampaign, MarketBetter, Ortto
Kimi K2HubSpot Marketing Hub alternatives: ActiveCampaign, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
MiniMax M2.5HubSpot Marketing Hub alternatives: Act-On, ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Braze, Iterable, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Neither was named
1 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.GPT-5.4 miniHubSpot Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise alternatives: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
ActiveCampaign leads by twenty-five points.
ActiveCampaign51%#1 of 10HubSpot Marketing Hub25%#2 of 10Mid-marketThe figures above
The order flips: HubSpot Marketing Hub leads at mid-market.
HubSpot Marketing Hub55%#1 of 11ActiveCampaign13%#3 of 11Enterprise
HubSpot Marketing Hub leads by fifteen points.
HubSpot Marketing Hub15%#3 of 9ActiveCampaign0%#9 of 9What the models said about HubSpot Marketing Hub
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.
“HubSpot — Pricing escalation & contract lock-in ... Avoid if: You're a small business on the Starter/Free tier expecting to scale cheaply” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“platforms that should be avoided or approached with caution. Some of the platforms mentioned include Zoho CRM, Salesforce, and HubSpot.” Llama 4 Maverick · negative prompt · hard negative
“HubSpot starts at $20/month but jumps to ~$890/month for advanced automation. Avoid platforms with dramatic price jumps.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · hard negative
“HubSpot Marketing Hub is the best marketing automation platform for mid-market B2B teams needing all-in-one CRM + automation with sales alignment.” Llama 4 Maverick · paraphrase prompt · first choice
What the models said about ActiveCampaign
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of four in this category shown.
“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
Also compared
Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.