Same-subcategory comparison

Act-OnvsMarketing Hub

Compare buyer fit, pricing, capability depth, and purchase constraints within one buying category. A higher score is not a universal winner.

Comparison summary

How to choose

These conclusions apply to this subcategory and the buyer conditions shown here. They do not make one product universally better.

Act-On

Consider when

Midsize and enterprise lifecycle-marketing teams that want a broad automation suite rather than a single-channel tool.
Demand-generation and marketing-operations teams that need nurturing, segmentation, scoring, multichannel campaigns and attribution.

Check before choosing

Buyers that require month-to-month purchasing with no annual commitment.

Full profile

Marketing Hub

Consider when

Marketing teams that want CRM-connected lead generation, nurturing, segmentation, automation, campaigns and reporting in one product.
Small businesses that want a permanent free entry point and a staged upgrade path.

Check before choosing

Teams that must remain on Free or Starter but require the native HubSpot-Salesforce integration.
Teams that must remain on Professional or lower but require Marketing Hub's current multi-touch revenue attribution and customer journey analytics.

Full profile

Dimension	Act-On	Marketing Hub
Pricing and trial	Professional $900 USD · per subscription · per month · Professional US 2,500-active-contact starting-price state · starting at · one-year commitment · Observed current US calculator state at 2,500 active contacts per month. Act-On states that displayed pricing is an anticipated starting figure and actual pricing varies with add-ons, configuration, implementation, and contact needs. Enterprise Requires quote · Enterprise US quote state · custom quote · one-year commitment · Current Enterprise edition sold through a sales quote. The pricing FAQ states that Act-On contracts require a year-long commitment or longer. Professional has an observed USD 900/month starting state at 2,500 active contacts/month. Enterprise is quote-based. Both current editions are subject to Act-On's required annual contract. The pricing FAQ says actual price varies with selected add-ons, configuration and implementation. The current agreement states that, unless an order form says otherwise, subscriptions renew for successive 12-month terms with a 5% fee increase. Deterministic implementation, add-on and invoice-schedule amounts were not publicly established in the reviewed sources. Full profile	Free $0 USD · per account · per month · Marketing Hub Free current US state · Current Marketing Hub Free plan; up to two users and no credit card required. Starter $20 USD · per seat · per month · Marketing Hub Starter catalog baseline · starting at · Current non-promotional catalog baseline for new Marketing Hub Starter customers; includes 1,000 marketing contacts. Professional $890 USD · per month · Marketing Hub Professional catalog baseline · starting at · Current catalog baseline for Marketing Hub Professional; includes three Core Seats and 2,000 marketing contacts. Required onboarding is separate. Enterprise $3600 USD · per month · Marketing Hub Enterprise current annual-billed baseline · starting at · billed annually · Current Marketing Hub Enterprise baseline; includes five Core Seats and 10,000 marketing contacts. Required onboarding is separate. Stable catalog baselines retained here are Starter USD 20/month per seat, Professional USD 890/month including three Core Seats, and Enterprise USD 3,600/month including five Core Seats and billed annually. Starter includes 1,000 marketing contacts; Professional includes 2,000; Enterprise includes 10,000. Professional requires USD 3,000 one-time onboarding and Enterprise requires USD 7,000 one-time onboarding. The live pricing page also exposes reduced/promotional values, but its current Starter display differs from the exact product page and the Professional reduced amount was not unambiguously bound to a machine-readable billing state in this run, so those reduced amounts are not modeled as offers. Full profile
Best for	Midsize and enterprise lifecycle-marketing teams that want a broad automation suite rather than a single-channel tool. Demand-generation and marketing-operations teams that need nurturing, segmentation, scoring, multichannel campaigns and attribution. Salesforce and other CRM-centric organizations that need bidirectional marketing-sales data flows.	Marketing teams that want CRM-connected lead generation, nurturing, segmentation, automation, campaigns and reporting in one product. Small businesses that want a permanent free entry point and a staged upgrade path. Mid-market demand-generation and marketing-operations teams that need omni-channel automation, ABM, Salesforce sync and higher campaign scale.
Not for	Buyers that require month-to-month purchasing with no annual commitment.	Teams that must remain on Free or Starter but require the native HubSpot-Salesforce integration. Teams that must remain on Professional or lower but require Marketing Hub's current multi-touch revenue attribution and customer journey analytics.
Source check	99/100	98/100
Key features	Lifecycle marketing automation and automated engagement programs. Lead scoring, behavioral and demographic segmentation, and targeted messaging. Email, SMS, web, social, event and direct-mail campaign orchestration. Landing pages, forms, templates, web visitor tracking and reporting dashboards. CRM integrations including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, SugarCRM and NetSuite.	Lead capture, marketing email, forms, ads, social media and CRM-connected campaign management. Marketing automation from basic actions in Free/Starter to omni-channel automation in Professional and Enterprise. CRM audience segmentation with plan-dependent active/static segment limits. Lead scoring, personalization and campaign reporting. Account-based marketing tools in Professional and Enterprise.
Cons	The public Professional amount is tied to a specific active-contact calculator state and should not be treated as the price for every contact volume. Enterprise pricing is quote-based. An annual contract is required.	Current official pages expose different Starter promotional values, so the stable USD 20 catalog baseline is safer for deterministic cost modeling than a temporary promotional amount. Professional and Enterprise require paid onboarding, adding USD 3,000 and USD 7,000 respectively. Marketing-contact growth can increase subscription cost, and exceeding a purchased tier can trigger immediate billing.
Category buying score	82	83Higher category-fit score
Rank	#5	#4
Context	Marketing & SEO / Marketing Automation Software	Marketing & SEO / Marketing Automation Software
Campaign orchestration depth	87Automated engagement programs and lifecycle campaigns support multistep marketing operations; buyers should align their required CRM and advanced capabilities with Professional add-ons or Enterprise inclusions.	84Email automation expands from one action in Free to ten actions in Starter, while Professional and Enterprise include omni-channel automation; choose the edition whose journey and channel scope fits the campaign design.
Segmentation and personalization	85Behavioral and demographic segmentation, targeted messaging, and AI audience features support audience-specific programs; fit depends on the buyer's contact data and chosen edition.	85CRM segmentation and personalization are supported, with stated segment limits of 50 active and 1,000 static in Starter, 1,200 of each in Professional, and 2,000 of each in Enterprise; match the edition to audience complexity.
Lead lifecycle management	83Lead scoring, nurturing, and account-based scoring support qualification and lifecycle work; CRM integration and ABM are Professional add-ons and included in Enterprise.	84Lead capture, scoring, nurturing, and qualification are supported, while the contact allowance varies by plan and additional marketing-contact tiers can add cost; verify the audience volume and qualification workflow before choosing a tier.
Revenue and campaign analytics	76Analytics and dashboards support campaign monitoring, while Data Studio is an add-on in Professional and included in Enterprise; buyers should confirm the reporting and attribution views required for pipeline decisions.	82Campaign reporting is included across the product and Enterprise adds multi-touch revenue attribution and journey analytics; buyers needing those attribution functions should select Enterprise and confirm its reporting limits and commercial scope.
Cross-channel activation	82Email, SMS, web, social, events, and direct mail can be coordinated, with SMS available as an add-on and channel-specific workflows to validate before launch.	83Marketing email, forms, ads, and social activity are supported, with omni-channel automation in Professional and Enterprise and SMS available through supported add-ons; confirm the channels and entitlements required for each campaign.
Data governance and sync	72Named CRM connections and marketing-sales data flows support CRM-connected operations, but buyers should validate their required field mappings, synchronization behavior, and deduplication process.	80CRM-connected marketing data and audience segmentation support campaign targeting, and contact tiers define a cost boundary; confirm how the team's CRM sync, field governance, and deduplication requirements are handled in its configured workflow.
Deliverability and compliance safeguards	84Subscription and opt-out controls, GDPR and CCPA protections, and SMS consent handling support compliance-oriented campaigns; SMS is separately licensed and buyers should confirm applicable channel safeguards.	83Email subscription controls are available from Starter upward, and supported Professional or Enterprise SMS add-ons require explicit consent; confirm edition and add-on eligibility and apply the required consent process to each channel.
Full profile	Full profile	Full profile

Comparison summary

Most material score differences

These are the stored dimension rationales returned with each score. They explain the buyer conditions behind the gap without speculating about hidden model reasoning.

Data governance and sync

8 pts

Act-On · 72/100: Named CRM connections and marketing-sales data flows support CRM-connected operations, but buyers should validate their required field mappings, synchronization behavior, and deduplication process.
Marketing Hub · 80/100: CRM-connected marketing data and audience segmentation support campaign targeting, and contact tiers define a cost boundary; confirm how the team's CRM sync, field governance, and deduplication requirements are handled in its configured workflow.

Revenue and campaign analytics

6 pts

Act-On · 76/100: Analytics and dashboards support campaign monitoring, while Data Studio is an add-on in Professional and included in Enterprise; buyers should confirm the reporting and attribution views required for pipeline decisions.
Marketing Hub · 82/100: Campaign reporting is included across the product and Enterprise adds multi-touch revenue attribution and journey analytics; buyers needing those attribution functions should select Enterprise and confirm its reporting limits and commercial scope.

Campaign orchestration depth

3 pts

Act-On · 87/100: Automated engagement programs and lifecycle campaigns support multistep marketing operations; buyers should align their required CRM and advanced capabilities with Professional add-ons or Enterprise inclusions.
Marketing Hub · 84/100: Email automation expands from one action in Free to ten actions in Starter, while Professional and Enterprise include omni-channel automation; choose the edition whose journey and channel scope fits the campaign design.

Research basis

This page uses stored product facts, official evidence, and category scoring rationales. It is not an account-based hands-on test, and third-party user ratings are not folded into the category buying score.

Act-On: Fact confidence: 99% · Fact checked: 2026-10-04
Marketing Hub: Fact confidence: 98% · Fact checked: 2026-10-03