Why Businesses Are Leaving Keap in 2026
Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) built its reputation as the go-to CRM and marketing automation platform for small businesses. But things changed significantly in October 2024 when Thryv Holdings acquired Keap, leaving thousands of customers uncertain about the platform's future direction. Add to that Keap's steep pricing, a notoriously steep learning curve, and setup fees that can run $500 or more, and it's no surprise that businesses are actively hunting for alternatives.
The good news: the market in 2026 is packed with capable replacements — many of which are cheaper, easier to use, and more feature-rich in specific areas. This guide breaks down the 9 best Keap alternatives with real pricing, honest differentiators, and clear recommendations based on your business type. If you're also evaluating your full funnel stack, see our reviews of Kartra and GoHighLevel for broader all-in-one comparisons.
Quick Comparison: Keap vs. Top Alternatives
| Platform | Best For | Starting Price | Free Plan/Trial | CRM Included | Marketing Automation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keap | SMB CRM + automation | $299/mo | 14-day trial | Yes | Yes |
| ActiveCampaign | Marketing automation | $15/mo | 30-day trial | Yes | Yes (best-in-class) |
| HubSpot | All-in-one CRM platform | $20/mo | Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| EngageBay | Sales and marketing teams | $12.74/mo | Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Pipedrive | Specialized sales CRM | $14/mo | 14-day trial | Yes | Limited |
| GetResponse | Email marketing automation | $13.30/mo | Free plan | Basic | Yes |
| Brevo | Value for money | $12/mo | Free plan | Basic | Yes |
| Zoho CRM | Lead management | $14/mo | 15-day trial | Yes | Yes |
| Freshsales | Closing deals | $9/mo | Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| MailerLite | Selling digital products | $9/mo | Free plan | No | Yes |
The 9 Best Keap Alternatives Reviewed
1. ActiveCampaign — Best Overall Keap Alternative
Starting price: $15/month | Free 30-day trial
ActiveCampaign is the most direct Keap replacement for businesses that need serious marketing automation without the complexity tax. Where Keap charges $299/month and buries users in configuration, ActiveCampaign starts at $15/month and gets you running within hours.
What makes it better than Keap in practice:
- Automation builder: Visual drag-and-drop automation flows that are genuinely intuitive — not the "advanced degree required" experience Keap is infamous for
- CRM included from day one: Deals, pipelines, and contact scoring built into all plans, not locked behind expensive tiers
- Advanced segmentation on the Lite plan: Behavioral triggers, site tracking, and conditional content available immediately
- No setup fees: Keap historically charged $500+ in onboarding fees; ActiveCampaign offers free migration assistance
- 500+ integrations including Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe, and Zapier
What Keap still does better: Built-in e-commerce cart and quote management without third-party tools. ActiveCampaign requires Shopify or WooCommerce for full e-commerce functionality.
Ideal for: Service businesses, agencies, and coaches migrating from Keap who want equivalent automation at 1/20th the price.
2. HubSpot — Best for Growing Teams Needing a True CRM Hub
Starting price: $20/month (Starter) | Permanent free plan available
HubSpot is one of the most popular Keap alternatives because it genuinely replicates the "everything in one place" promise — and then exceeds it. The free CRM tier alone includes contact management, deal pipelines, email sync, sales activity tracking, and business goals, making it ideal for teams not ready to commit financially.
- All-in-one scope: CRM, sales sequences, marketing emails, customer service ticketing, and web design tools in a single platform
- Email sync and sales forecasting on paid plans — features Keap lacks natively
- Integrations: Native connections to Microsoft 365, Mailchimp, GSuite, Salesforce, and 1,000+ app marketplace
- Marketing Hub Starter at $20/month gives you ad management, list segmentation, and email automation
Limitation to know: HubSpot's Sales Analytics is less detailed than Keap's for tracking deal attribution. Enterprise plans scale to $1,200+/month, so growth costs can escalate significantly.
Ideal for: B2B companies with dedicated marketing and sales teams who need CRM as the foundation of their entire operations stack.
3. EngageBay — Best Budget-Friendly All-in-One
Starting price: $12.74/month | Free plan available
EngageBay is built specifically for small businesses that want Keap's feature set without Keap's price. It combines marketing automation, CRM, sales pipeline management, live chat, and helpdesk into one platform — all for under $13/month to start.
- Marketing Bay + Sales Bay + Service Bay: Three modules you can use separately or together
- Email sequences, web forms, and landing pages included in the free plan
- Lead scoring and contact segmentation built into paid tiers
- 360-degree contact view showing every interaction across email, calls, and social
What to watch: EngageBay's automation builder is solid but less sophisticated than ActiveCampaign's. For complex, multi-branch automation workflows, you'll hit limitations faster.
Ideal for: Solopreneurs and small teams switching from Keap who need breadth over depth and can't justify $299/month.
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4. Pipedrive — Best for Pure Sales Pipeline Management
Starting price: $14/month | 14-day free trial
If the reason you were using Keap was primarily to manage your sales pipeline — not automate marketing campaigns — Pipedrive is a cleaner, more specialized fit. It's built around the sales pipeline view and optimizes everything for deal progression and rep activity.
- Visual pipeline builder with drag-and-drop deal management as the core UX, not an afterthought
- Activity reminders and AI sales assistant to surface priority deals automatically
- Email integration with tracking (open and click notifications) on all plans
- Smart contact data: Auto-enriches contact profiles from public web data
- Revenue forecasting available on the Advanced plan ($29/month)
Key limitation: Pipedrive is not an email marketing platform. For broadcast campaigns or marketing automation sequences, you'd need a separate tool like ActiveCampaign integrated via Zapier.
Ideal for: Sales-led businesses with defined pipelines who find Keap's marketing features bloated and prefer a best-in-class sales tool.
5. GetResponse — Best for Webinar-Driven Sales Funnels
Starting price: $13.30/month | Free plan available
GetResponse is particularly strong for businesses that use webinars and content funnels to sell — a gap Keap doesn't fill natively. The platform combines email marketing, automation, landing pages, and a built-in webinar tool in one price.
- Built-in webinar hosting (up to 1,000 attendees on higher plans) — no Zoom integration required
- Conversion funnels: Pre-built funnel templates for lead magnets, product launches, and webinars
- Email automation with behavioral triggers including cart abandonment and purchase events
- SMS marketing available as an add-on
- E-commerce integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, and PrestaShop
What Keap does better: Keap's native e-commerce cart and invoice management is more integrated than GetResponse's e-commerce add-ons.
Ideal for: Coaches, consultants, and course creators who run webinars as a primary sales channel and want everything in one platform.
6. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) — Best Value for Email + SMS Combined
Starting price: $12/month | Free plan available (300 emails/day)
Brevo is the strongest option if your Keap use case centers on transactional emails, SMS campaigns, and basic automation — and you want to cut costs dramatically. The free plan alone sends 300 emails per day with no contact limit, which Keap doesn't offer at all.
- Email + SMS + WhatsApp marketing in a single platform with combined automation flows
- Transactional email (SMTP): Built-in transactional email infrastructure — useful for e-commerce confirmation emails without a separate Postmark or SendGrid account
- CRM pipeline view included in free and paid plans
- A/B testing and send-time optimization on paid plans
- GDPR-compliant infrastructure with EU data residency options — important for European businesses
What it lacks: Brevo's automation workflows are simpler than Keap's or ActiveCampaign's. Complex multi-step lead nurturing sequences will feel limited on Brevo's Starter plan.
Ideal for: E-commerce brands and service businesses that need reliable email + SMS delivery at low cost, without complex automation requirements.
7. Zoho CRM — Best for Lead Management at Scale
Starting price: $14/month | 15-day free trial
Zoho CRM is the most versatile Keap alternative in terms of industry fit — it works for freelancers, real estate agencies, retail businesses, and enterprise sales teams alike. Where Keap is optimized for SMB service businesses, Zoho CRM is adaptable to almost any workflow.
- Zia AI assistant: Predictive lead scoring, anomaly detection in sales trends, and best-time-to-contact suggestions
- Blueprint process management: Define exact sales processes with mandatory stages and validation rules
- Omnichannel communication: Email, phone, live chat, social media, and WhatsApp from a single contact record
- Canvas design studio: Customize the CRM interface without code — unique among Keap alternatives
- Extensive Zoho ecosystem: Connects natively with Zoho Books (accounting), Zoho Desk (support), and 40+ other Zoho apps
Ideal for: Businesses already using other Zoho products, or those with complex lead routing requirements that Keap's simpler pipeline can't handle.
8. Freshsales — Best for Teams Focused on Closing Deals
Starting price: $9/month | Free plan available
Freshsales (by Freshworks) punches above its weight for sales-focused teams. The $9/month entry price is the lowest for a full-featured CRM with built-in phone, email tracking, and AI-powered deal insights.
- Freddy AI: Built-in AI scores contacts, suggests next best actions, and forecasts deal outcomes automatically
- Built-in phone and email: Make calls and send tracked emails directly from the CRM without integrations
- Visual deal pipeline with drag-and-drop and multiple pipeline views
- CPQ (Configure Price Quote): Create and send quotes from within Freshsales — a feature Keap users typically rely on for closing
- WhatsApp Business integration for direct messaging from contact records
Ideal for: Inside sales teams migrating from Keap who need AI-assisted deal management and built-in calling without a $299/month commitment.
9. MailerLite — Best for Creators Selling Digital Products
Starting price: $9/month | Free plan up to 1,000 subscribers
MailerLite is the leanest Keap alternative on this list, and intentionally so. It's purpose-built for creators, bloggers, and digital product sellers who need email automation, a website builder, and a built-in checkout — not a full-scale CRM.
- Built-in digital product selling: Sell ebooks, courses, and downloads directly through MailerLite without Shopify or Gumroad
- Newsletter referral program: Grow your list through subscriber referrals — unique among the alternatives on this list
- Automation sequences with behavioral triggers (joins list, clicks link, makes purchase)
- Website and landing page builder included in all plans
- Paid newsletter subscriptions via Stripe integration
What it lacks: MailerLite has no true CRM, no deal pipeline, and no lead scoring. If your Keap usage was CRM-centric, this is not a direct replacement.
Ideal for: Content creators, newsletter writers, and solopreneurs who used Keap mainly for email sequences and are overpaying for CRM features they don't use.
Migration Tips: Moving from Keap to a New Platform
Export Your Data First
Before canceling Keap, export the following from the Keap dashboard under Admin > Data Cleanup > Export:
- All contacts with custom field data (CSV format)
- Email campaign history and open/click rates
- Tags and segments (map these to your new platform's list/tag structure before importing)
- Automation campaign logic (screenshot each automation flow — rebuilding logic is easier when you can reference the original)
- E-commerce orders and customer purchase history if applicable
Platform-Specific Migration Notes
- To ActiveCampaign: ActiveCampaign offers free concierge migration for accounts above a certain size. Keap tags map directly to ActiveCampaign tags. Automation triggers, conditions, and actions are nearly 1:1 in concept, making rebuilding workflows straightforward.
- To HubSpot: Use HubSpot's free import tool. Keap custom fields require manual mapping during CSV import. HubSpot's workflow tool uses similar logic but different terminology (Enrollment triggers vs. Keap's "Start goals").
- To Zoho CRM: Zoho offers a dedicated Keap migration wizard under Settings > Data Administration > Import. Keap's CRM fields map cleanly to Zoho's standard lead and contact fields.
- To EngageBay: CSV import supports standard and custom fields. Re-create Keap tags as EngageBay lists or tags before importing contacts so segments are preserved.
Funnel and Landing Page Compatibility
If you were using Keap's landing page builder, you'll need to rebuild those pages in your new platform. For dedicated funnel-building capability alongside your new CRM, consider pairing your chosen alternative with a dedicated funnel builder. Kartra combines email, CRM, and funnel-building in one platform. GoHighLevel is popular with agencies for its white-label capability and combined CRM + funnel + SMS stack. For lighter needs, ActiveCampaign pages work well for landing pages tied directly to automation sequences.
Which Keap Alternative Should You Choose?
- You need the closest Keap replacement with better UX and pricing: ActiveCampaign at $15/month. Same automation power, no setup fees, free migration help.
- You run a B2B sales team and want a full CRM hub: HubSpot — start free, scale as needed. Best-in-class contact management and team collaboration.
- You're a solopreneur or micro-business watching every dollar: EngageBay at $12.74/month or Freshsales at $9/month. Both give you CRM + automation without Keap's price tag.
- Your primary need is email + SMS marketing: Brevo at $12/month. Multi-channel marketing at the lowest per-email cost on this list.
- You're a creator or newsletter publisher: MailerLite at $9/month. Built-in digital product sales and the cleanest email builder for content-focused businesses.
- You need advanced lead management and have a complex sales process: Zoho CRM at $14/month. Most customizable pipeline and best AI-assisted lead scoring outside of enterprise tools.
- Your agency manages multiple client CRMs: GoHighLevel — starts around $97/month but includes full white-label capability, sub-accounts, and built-in funnel tools that justify the cost for agencies managing 5+ clients.
The Keap acquisition by Thryv created a genuine window to reassess your marketing stack. Most businesses switching away will find they get more features, better support, and significantly lower costs with any of the platforms above. The switching cost is real but manageable — especially with tools like ActiveCampaign offering free migration concierge services and import wizards that handle the heavy lifting.



