Keap vs HubSpot: Done-for-You Setup or a Free Start

The short answer: an owner-led service business that wants every enquiry followed up, booked, quoted, invoiced and paid by one system, and wants someone to build it, fits Keap: one plan from $299 a month for 2 users and 1,500 contacts, plus a required one-time implementation package shown at $500, per Keap's pricing page and its implementation page. If you would rather start free and add pieces as you grow, HubSpot's free CRM covers two users and 1,000 contacts, and its Starter tier adds email marketing and simple automation per seat.

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Keap is bought whole: the full platform, and a team that sets it up with you. HubSpot is bought in pieces: a free CRM, then hubs and seats as the business needs them. The same owner can be happy with either, depending on whether time or cash is shorter this year.

Questions to answer first:

1. What does year one cost for your team? For example, three users on Keap cost 12 x ($299 + $39) + $500 = $4,556 in the first year, with the third user at $39 a month, per the pricing FAQ. Three seats on HubSpot's Starter bundle at monthly billing cost 3 x $10 x 12 = $360, and Marketing Hub Professional costs 12 x $800 + $3,000 = $12,600, per HubSpot's Starter and Marketing Hub pages.
2. What would you hand over? Keap's package includes basic data import, up to 15 hours of migration services and up to two third-party tools integrated, per its implementation page. List your lead sources, calendars and payment tools now, so the 15 hours go on the right things.
3. How fast is follow-up today? Measure the minutes from a web enquiry to the first reply this week. That is the number an automated follow-up has to beat, on either tool.

The job, stage by stage

From Keap's pricing page and implementation page, and HubSpot's free CRM, Starter and workflows pages, read on 26 October 2026.

Bought whole, or bought in pieces

Keap's pricing page puts it bluntly: no feature-based plans, the entire platform from one starting price. That suits an owner who knows the whole journey from enquiry to paid invoice should run itself and does not want to discover a missing feature later. The cost of buying whole is the starting price: $299 a month before you have sent a campaign.

HubSpot's ladder lets you pay for what you use now. The free CRM handles contacts, deals, meetings and quotes; Starter adds email marketing and simple automation; Professional adds full workflows and a required onboarding fee. The cost of buying in pieces is that the automation an owner usually wants most, branching follow-up from a form, sits on the expensive rung.

Outside the United States

Read the footnotes if your clients are in Europe. Keap's text broadcasts and automated texts are available only in the United States, its dedicated phone line and one-to-one texts only in the United States and Canada, and its native payment processor is listed for the United States, with PayPal, Stripe and Eway for other countries, per the pricing page. For a Dutch or Belgian practice, Keap's email automation, booking and invoicing work as described; the texting tier included in the price does not.

The first-year bill, line by line, checked on 26 October 2026

In USD, from Keap's pricing page and implementation page, and HubSpot's Starter and Marketing Hub pages, checked on 26 October 2026. Keap's implementation price sits beside a struck-through $1,500, and its page invites you to ask about current promotional offers. HubSpot's Starter is $7 a seat billed annually as a new-customer offer.

A campaign drafted by AI, checked by the owner

Keap's pricing page lists an AI Automation Assistant that combines Keap's campaign templates with AI to build an entire campaign in minutes, and an AI Content Assistant for writing emails. Here is one step done that way: the owner asks for a follow-up campaign for people who submit the consultation form, and the assistant produces the sequence of emails and waits.

The human check comes before anything is switched on: the owner reads every email for claims the practice cannot make, checks each wait against how fast clients expect a reply, and sends the sequence to their own address first. In a Keap trial that test is all you can do, since the trial sends at most 25 emails and needs DKIM set up first, per the pricing FAQ.

Try before the package

Keap's trial needs no credit card but sends at most 25 emails and takes no payments or texts; HubSpot's free CRM has no end date. Build the consultation-form follow-up in both and compare which one you could maintain yourself.

Keap's FAQ defends the required package by arguing that the time and money a successful implementation saves will exceed its cost. A package required before the software has proved itself is also revenue collected up front, whatever its merits, so ask which of the 15 migration hours and two integrations you will use before you pay for them.

Choose Keap if

• Your job is running a service business where every enquiry should flow to a booking, an invoice and a payment without manual steps.
• You want a team to set it up with you, with strategy calls through the first year.
• Text marketing matters and your clients are in the United States.

Choose HubSpot if

• Your job is building a pipeline step by step, starting free and adding hubs as the business grows.
• Cash is shorter than time this year, and you can configure the first automations yourself.
• Sales or support colleagues will later need the same customer record.

Read more in the Keap entry and the HubSpot entry.

FAQ

Can I cancel Keap at any time?

Yes, but on an annual contract an early cancellation costs $299, and the request goes by phone at least 10 days before the next invoice, per the pricing FAQ.

Is Keap still its own company?

Keap's site links a page on its acquisition by Thryv, and its pricing FAQ refers to Thryv Academy for training. The product is still sold on keap.com under the Keap name.

Which HubSpot tier adds email marketing?

Starter. HubSpot's Starter bundle includes Marketing Hub Starter with 1,000 marketing contacts, email marketing and simple marketing automation, per its Starter page and Marketing Hub page.