/EMAIL-MARKETING-TOOLS · CHALLENGERS · UPDATED AUGUST 2026
We pay for HubSpot and ActiveCampaign. Here's what we'd switch to.
The old guard of CRM and email earned its reputation — and prices its plans like you have a department to bill. A new generation of tools is winning by doing what the incumbents won't: honest pricing, built-in growth mechanics, and interfaces one person can actually run. These four are the switch candidates on our own test bench.
INCUMBENTS PAID FOR OUT OF POCKET · PRICES CHECKED 2026-08 · SCORES PROVISIONAL DURING THE SWITCH TEST
What the old guard actually costs a team of one
HubSpot's marketing side starts friendly at $15/month for 1,000 contacts, then climbs toward roughly $205/month by 5,000 contacts (checked Aug 2026) — because you pay for contacts stored, whether you email them or not. ActiveCampaign follows the same contact-count ladder. Both are excellent software. Both are priced for teams that aren't you.
The pattern to notice: every challenger below breaks the contact-count ladder somewhere — per-email pricing, generous free tiers, or revenue tools that pay for the subscription.
The short version
- Closest all-in-one switch: Brevo — email + automation + CRM, priced per email sent.
- Smallest budget: MailerLite — real automation from $0.
- Audience is the business: beehiiv — the newsletter platform that helps you grow and earn.
- Just the CRM, done right: Attio — free for a team of one.
Some links below are affiliate links: if you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It funds the testing budget and never changes a verdict — affiliate policy.
| Tool | Best for | From | Our score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BrevoBest overall switch | All-in-one replacement | €0 (paid from ~$9/mo) | Visit site → | |
| MailerLiteBest on a budget | Budget automation | $0 (paid from ~$12/mo) | Visit site → | |
| beehiivBest for newsletters | Newsletter-first growth | $0 (Scale from ~$43/mo) | Visit site → | |
| AttioBest modern CRM | The CRM itself | $0 (Plus from $29/seat) | Visit site → |
Prices checked 2026-08. Scores are provisional — the full 90-day test article publishes here soon.
Brevo
Best overall switchBrevo is the closest thing to "HubSpot, priced like it's 2026": email campaigns, marketing automation, transactional email and a built-in CRM in one product. The structural difference is the pricing axis — you pay for emails sent, not contacts stored. A 20,000-contact list you email once a month costs a fraction of what any contact-priced incumbent charges for the same behavior.
Pricing (checked 2026-08): a free plan with unlimited contacts, the CRM and basic automation; paid plans from roughly $9–39/month depending on send volume.
What works
- +Per-email pricing breaks the contact-count ladder — the single biggest saving vs the incumbents
- +CRM, automation and transactional email in one login
- +Free plan is a real product, not a demo
What broke
- −Daily send cap on the free plan (fine for automations, tight for big blasts)
- −Automation builder is capable but less deep than ActiveCampaign's
- −The interface covers a lot of ground — expect a day of orientation
MailerLite
Best on a budgetMailerLite is what email software looks like when a product team optimizes for one person doing everything: clean editor, straightforward automations, landing pages and pop-ups — and the automations ship on the free plan instead of being the upsell.
Pricing (checked 2026-08): free to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails/month including automation; paid from about $12/month at 500 subscribers, rising gently (~$49/month at 5,000 — compare that with the incumbent ladder above).
What works
- +The gentlest price curve in the category as your list grows
- +Automation, landing pages and pop-ups included on the free plan
- +Clean enough that email stops feeling like software administration
What broke
- −No built-in CRM — pair it with Attio if you track deals
- −Advanced segmentation and reporting are thinner than ActiveCampaign's
- −Approval process for new accounts can take a day
beehiiv
Best for newslettersbeehiiv is the clearest example of a challenger doing what the old guard structurally can't: it treats your newsletter as a business, not a broadcast channel. A built-in referral program, an ad network, paid subscriptions and cross-promotion tools mean the platform participates in growing and monetizing your audience — HubSpot will never send you readers.
Pricing (checked 2026-08): free up to 2,500 subscribers with a website and publishing tools; the Scale plan from about $43/month (annual) adds monetization and automations.
What works
- +Growth mechanics built in: referrals, recommendations, ad network
- +Monetization (paid subs, ads) can make the tool self-funding
- +Free tier to 2,500 subscribers is the most generous serious offer around
What broke
- −Newsletter-first: weak fit for ecommerce flows or classic drip funnels
- −No CRM and limited non-newsletter automation
- −Costs step up meaningfully once you need Scale features
Attio
Best modern CRMAttio is what people mean when they say a CRM should feel like a modern product: fast, flexible data model, spreadsheet-clean interface. For a team of one the headline is the free tier — up to 3 seats and 50,000 records with pipelines and email sync. That's not a crippled demo; it's a working CRM for exactly your size.
Pricing (checked 2026-08): free for up to 3 seats / 50k records; Plus from $29/seat/month (annual). Worth knowing: Attio is moving upmarket and its higher tiers climb steeply — the free-and-Plus zone is where the solo value lives.
What works
- +A genuinely usable free CRM for a one-person operation
- +Flexible objects and relations without consultant-grade setup
- +The nicest interface in the category, by some distance
What broke
- −No marketing automation — it's a CRM, pair it with MailerLite or Brevo
- −Fewer integrations than the incumbents, and no strong mobile story
- −Upper tiers price like the enterprise product it's becoming
How to choose in 30 seconds
You want one tool that does it all → Brevo.
You want automation for the least money → MailerLite.
Your newsletter is the business → beehiiv.
You only need the CRM → Attio (free), email elsewhere.
The full switch stack we're testing → Attio (free) + MailerLite (~$12/mo): a complete CRM-plus-email setup for less than a tenth of an incumbent bill — it slots straight into the €97/month one-person department.
Also on the bench, unranked until we've used them properly: Loops (product email for SaaS), Bento (indie all-in-one with flat pricing), and folk (lightweight relationship CRM). Everything in this category lives on the Email, CRM & Automation shelf.
Questions we actually get
Why not just stay on HubSpot's free plan?→
The free plan is genuinely useful — until you need automation, remove-branding, or more than the basics; that's the moment the ladder starts, and it climbs fast (from $15/month at 1,000 contacts toward roughly $205/month by 5,000 on the marketing side, checked Aug 2026). The challengers on this page keep the useful features at prices that grow gently.
Which one is the closest one-for-one HubSpot replacement?→
Brevo — it's the only one on this list with email, automation, and a CRM in one product, and it charges per email sent rather than per contact stored, which is exactly where incumbent pricing hurts a growing list.
Can I combine them?→
Yes, and for a team of one it's often the best setup: Attio's free tier as the CRM plus MailerLite or beehiiv for email costs less than a single incumbent seat — and each piece is the best tool for its job.
Are these scores final?→
No — they're provisional. We pay for HubSpot and ActiveCampaign today and are running the challengers through our standard test (same campaign, same sequences, real sends) as switch candidates. This page updates with the full results, and scores can move in either direction.
Follow the switch test
We're running the challengers against our own HubSpot and ActiveCampaign accounts — same campaign, same sequences. Results land in the letter first.
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