Marketing Automation Tools: Pricing Comparison (2026)

HubSpot charges per "marketing contact" — only contacts you actively email or automate, not your entire CRM database. Starter ($20/mo) covers 1,000 marketing contacts but lacks multi-step workflows. Professional ($890/mo) is where real automation begins: it includes 2,000 contacts, workflow automation, A/B testing, and smart content — but requires a mandatory $3,000 onboarding fee and annual commitment. Additional contacts cost $100/mo per 5,000 on Professional. At 10,000 contacts, Professional runs ~$970/mo (base + 8K extra). Enterprise ($3,600/mo) adds predictive lead scoring, custom objects, and team partitioning. Annual billing saves 10%.

ActiveCampaign Plus charges per total contact count across four tiers. At 1,000 contacts, Plus is $49/mo (annual billing); at 10,000 contacts, it scales to $189/mo. The Plus plan adds CRM, lead scoring, and landing pages — features most B2B teams consider essential. The Pro plan ($79/mo at 1K) adds predictive sending, attribution reporting, and split automation paths. Annual billing is required for advertised rates; monthly billing adds ~25%. Contacts include all records including unsubscribed, which can inflate your tier. ActiveCampaign raised prices in 2024–2026, making it critical to audit your active vs. inactive contacts.

Marketo Engage pricing is entirely custom and negotiated directly with Adobe, starting around $895–$3,200/mo depending on database size and feature tier (Growth, Select, Prime, Ultimate). There are no self-service plans — a demo request and sales process are required for all tiers. Implementation typically costs $10,000–$50,000+ through a certified Marketo partner and takes 60–90 days. Annual contracts are standard, with typical mid-market commitments of $15,000–$100,000+/year. Cloud pricing is based on total database records (all contacts, not just those being marketed to), which leads to higher base costs than per-marketed-contact tools like HubSpot.

Pardot charges annually per number of "prospect" records across four plans: Growth ($1,250/mo, 10K prospects), Plus ($2,500/mo, 10K), Advanced ($4,000/mo, 10K), and Premium ($15,000/mo, 75K). The minimum contract covers 10,000 prospects regardless of actual list size — making it expensive even for small B2B teams. All plans require annual commitment with no monthly option. No free plan or trial is available. Professional Salesforce consulting typically adds $5,000–$20,000 in setup costs. Salesforce CRM licenses are additional ($75–$300/user/mo) if not already owned — a critical total cost consideration.

Keap uses a single all-inclusive plan where every feature is available at every contact tier. The base plan is $299/mo (monthly) or $249/mo (annual) for 1,500 contacts and 2 users. As contacts grow, Keap adds blocks at a stairstep rate: the first 1,000 extra contacts cost $36/mo, the next 2,500 cost $84/mo, the next 5,000 cost $150/mo, and the 5K–10K block adds $240/mo — putting 10,000 contacts at approximately $759/mo annually. Required implementation coaching packages start at $499. Annual billing saves 17%. Each additional user beyond the included 2 costs $39/mo.

Ontraport offers four plans based on contact count: Basic ($79/mo, 1,000 contacts), Plus ($147/mo, 2,500 contacts), Pro ($297/mo, 10,000 contacts), and Enterprise ($497/mo, 20,000 contacts). Pricing above 20,000 contacts is custom. Each additional user seat costs $46/mo on all plans. Annual billing saves approximately 15%. Extra contacts and email volume are available as add-ons ($99/mo per 100,000 contacts or emails). At 50,000 contacts, Ontraport requires custom Enterprise pricing. A 14-day free trial is available on all plans — no credit card required.

Ortto offers three paid plans: Starter ($199/mo monthly or ~$169/mo annual for 5,000 contacts), Professional ($509/mo annual for 10,000 contacts), and Business ($849/mo annual for 10,000 contacts with advanced analytics). Enterprise pricing is custom. A critical note: the Starter minimum covers 5,000 contacts — teams with under 5K contacts still pay $199/mo with no smaller entry tier. Professional and higher require annual commitment; only Starter allows month-to-month. The Professional tier unlocks A/B testing, custom reporting, and predictive analytics. Enterprise contact volumes are available at custom pricing.

HighLevel prices by account type, not contact count — making it uniquely cost-effective for high-volume contact databases. Starter ($97/mo) allows 3 sub-accounts, suitable for solo operators or small agencies. Unlimited ($297/mo) removes the sub-account cap for agencies with 4+ clients. SaaS Pro ($497/mo) adds automated client onboarding and white-label SaaS capabilities. Contacts are unlimited on every plan. Usage-based fees apply separately for SMS, phone calls, email sends, and AI features — billed via wallet credits (typically $10–$100/mo for average usage). Annual billing saves 20% across all plans.

Customer.io Essentials is $100/mo and covers up to 5,000 profiles and 1 million email sends/mo. Beyond 5,000 profiles, overages are $0.009/profile/mo — at 10,000 profiles, expect $100 + $45 in overages = $145/mo. Premium ($1,000/mo billed annually) unlocks custom profile volumes, a dedicated Customer Success Manager, and premium integrations including Salesforce and data warehouse connections. The jump from Essentials to Premium is a 7x price increase, making Customer.io most cost-effective for teams under 5,000 profiles. Enterprise pricing is custom for large volumes. A 14-day free trial and startup program (up to 12 months free) are available.

Encharge offers Growth (from $99/mo monthly or $79/mo annual for 2,000 contacts) and Premium (from $159/mo monthly or $129/mo annual for 2,000 contacts) plans. Both include unlimited email sends and unlimited users — a standout value versus per-seat pricing tools. The annual pricing range is $79–$550 for Growth and $129–$879 for Premium, scaling with subscriber count. At 10,000 contacts on Growth, expect approximately $279/mo annually. Premium unlocks deep CRM integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, and Shopify. A 14-day free trial is available. For over 50,000 subscribers, custom pricing is available via their support team.

Mautic's core platform is free, open-source, and self-hostable with no contact limits, no per-seat fees, and no feature gating of any kind. The primary cost is server hosting ($20–$100/mo on AWS, DigitalOcean, or similar) plus developer/admin time for setup and ongoing maintenance (typically 4–20 hours/month). A separate SMTP provider (SendGrid, AWS SES, Mailgun) is required for email sending, adding $10–$100/mo depending on volume. Cloud-managed Mautic from certified partners (Acquia Mautic, Leuchtfeuer) starts around $150–$400/mo and handles hosting, updates, and support. Mautic 6.x (2026) added AI-powered features and a significantly improved interface.

Braze pricing is entirely custom and non-public, negotiated annually with their sales team. Contracts typically range from $60,000–$200,000/year ($5,000–$16,667/mo) for mid-market deployments, scaling to $1,000,000+/year for large enterprise. Pricing factors include monthly active users (MAUs), message volume across channels (email, SMS, push, in-app, content cards), and selected platform edition (Core, Pro, Enterprise). No self-service option exists. Implementation through a Braze Solutions Partner typically costs $20,000–$100,000+. Multi-year contracts and competing offers can achieve 20–30% below list pricing, especially when negotiating at quarter-end.

Iterable pricing is custom-quoted and not publicly disclosed. Based on buyer-reported data, the median annual contract is approximately $32,000/year ($2,667/mo), with large enterprise deployments reaching $220,000+/year. Pricing is determined by contact database size, message volume, and selected tier (Growth, Scale, Enterprise). No self-service or free trial is available — a demo and sales process are required for all tiers. Implementation costs $5,000–$20,000 through an Iterable partner. Annual billing is standard. Multi-year commitments and competitive benchmarks typically achieve 15–30% discounts from list pricing.

Attentive doesn't publish pricing and requires a sales call for a custom quote. Based on reported market data, small e-commerce brands (under 5K SMS subscribers) pay approximately $450–$650/mo for platform access plus per-message fees. Growing brands sending 50,000 SMS/month typically pay $2,500–$3,500/mo. Enterprise deployments (200K+ messages/month) range from $10,000–$15,000/mo. Attentive charges for both outbound messages and inbound replies — every customer interaction counts toward your bill. Carrier compliance fees (10DLC, A2P registration) add ongoing costs. Contracts are annual with a minimum quarterly spend commitment.

Bloomreach uses a module-based pricing model where you pay for the specific capabilities you need (email, SMS, web personalization, product recommendations, analytics) plus usage fees that decrease at volume. Total platform cost starts at approximately $50,000/year ($4,167/mo) for essential modules, scaling to $200,000+/year for full enterprise deployments. All pricing requires a custom quote from their sales team — nothing is published. Implementation requires a certified Bloomreach partner and typically costs $15,000–$50,000+ with 3–6 months of onboarding. All base plans include access to the customer data engine, standard support, and documentation.

Klaviyo prices by total active profiles — all subscribed contacts in your account, whether emailed recently or not. Email-only at 1,000 profiles is $45/mo; at 10,000 it's $150/mo; at 50,000 it's $720/mo. Adding SMS creates a combined Email + SMS plan at higher rates. As of early 2025, Klaviyo bills on all active profiles rather than just contacts emailed in a given month, which increased costs for brands with large unengaged lists. Revenue attribution is built in — every email and SMS flow shows direct revenue influenced, making ROI reporting straightforward. A free plan covers up to 250 contacts with 500 email sends/mo.