HubSpot Marketing Hub and Marketo Engage are two standout platforms that made our recent list of the best marketing automation platforms. Marketo was named our pick for Best for Enterprise and HubSpot was named Best for Business Growth.
Both were included on our list because of their all-in-one marketing automation solutions. But, today’s post is going to put these two head-to-head for those considering these options and wondering which is best for their company.
Read on to explore the key differences in terms of features, ease of use, pricing, customizations/integrations, and a look at who each solution is best suited for.
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Before we dive into the details, it’s important to understand how we’ll be comparing these two in this post. Both Marketo and HubSpot offer an entire line of products and have a massive amount of capabilities. Marketo is a part of the Adobe suite of software, while HubSpot Marketing Hub is part of the HubSpot platform. For the purpose of this comparison, we’ll be focused on the marketing automation capabilities of each – HubSpot’s Marketing Hub and Marketo Engage.
One of the best ways to find out the real deal about the software you’re considering is to talk to actual users. So, to understand the true experiences folks are having with HubSpot and Marketo, we’ll inject their comments throughout the post to help reinforce the points.
HubSpot Marketing Hub Reviews: Users Reveal the Pros and Cons
Key Points:
Both HubSpot and Marketo provide a suite of features that support essential marketing functions, including lead management, email marketing, automation workflows, and reporting.
While each platform offers some unique capabilities and strengths, their shared foundation is designed to empower marketers to drive engagement, nurture leads, and achieve their marketing goals.
Outside of these foundational features, both HubSpot and Marketo offer additional advanced features in their higher-priced tiers. Here are a few of the standout features of each:
See all of HubSpot’s features here.
See all of Marketo’s features here.
Users love the available features for both HubSpot and Marketo. However, with various available product tiers, it’s important to research each product’s feature set to ensure you get what you need.
“The wide array of features from lead capture to email marketing to ads really allows us a lot of flexibility. We have HubSpot as our one primary piece of tech in our tech stack now, and that makes my life so much easier.” – HubSpot User
“Undoubtedly Marketo offers the best content personalization features that I have been able to use, including multichannel interaction within the platform, we can always optimize our services with this tool.” – Marketo User
When it comes to user interface and ease of use, both Marketo and HubSpot offer distinct experiences tailored to different user preferences and levels of comfort with technology.
HubSpot: HubSpot is known for its ease of use, making it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise. The fact that it’s all completely by design is what helps HubSpot stand out. Let’s take a moment to dig in a little further on this.
To deliver an outstanding customer experience, HubSpot believes you need five core elements:
What sets HubSpot apart from the pack in the marketing automation market is the way in which every HubSpot product has been strategically built around these 5 elements. This leads to easier adoption since all products are built on the same platform and similar, continuous improvement from HubSpot since as improvements are made, they are then carried out through the rest of the products. And because everything is connected, it leads to a more unified customer experience.
Marketo: In contrast, Marketo presents a less intuitive interface, potentially posing a steeper learning curve for users who are new to marketing automation. While Marketo’s basic functions are designed to be easy, navigating its advanced features may demand additional familiarity with the platform.
“The ease of usage, that is the user interface is pretty smooth and is relatively easier to master in a short span of time. Also, this tool is pretty efficient in terms of sending out massive volumes of emails.” – Marketo User
“HubSpot has a fantastic UI, better than other tools. I find it to be very clean and clear. It’s a great tool and a must-have for every Marketing company” – HubSpot User
Key Points:
Let’s take a look at the pricing of these two solutions.
HubSpot’s pricing structure is designed to cater to businesses of all sizes. With a tiered and flexible model, it allows users to choose a plan that aligns with their budget and needs.
Plan Tiers include:
The availability of a free tier and the affordability of the Starter tier at $20/month/user, makes HubSpot accessible to startups and small businesses, providing essential tools to kickstart their marketing efforts.
See HubSpot Marketing Hub Pricing Here.
Marketo’s pricing is not publicly listed on its pricing page. Instead, folks are encouraged to contact Marketo’s sales team directly for custom pricing.
For comparison purposes – plans are roughly in the $800 – $3,000 per month range depending on the size of your database and desired features, according to some sources online.
Marketo Engage is available in four different packaging options, including:
Each of these packages varies in number of users, features, and more. A unique aspect of Marketo is that many of the premium features are available as add-ons at any tier.
Users of both platforms cite high cost as a challenge, but in both cases admit that you get what you pay for and the high costs are often realized in ROI.
“I want to share one thing that I dislike about it and that is Marketo is a little bit expensive compared to other tools but I must say that it is worth it.” – Marketo User
“While HubSpot offers a plethora of features that streamline our operations, the cost escalates notably with the need for more advanced functionalities. This is particularly evident as we expand our customer base and require more extensive usage of their services. The tiered pricing model, although flexible, can lead to unexpectedly high expenses as we scale up our activities.” -HubSpot User
Key Points:
Of course, both HubSpot Marketing Hub and Marketo Engage seamlessly integrate with the rest of their software suites – Adobe Experience Cloud and HubSpot.
Marketo Engage connects to Experience Manager Assets, Audience Manager, Target, Analytics, Workfront, Real-Time CDP, and Advertising.
HubSpot Marketing Hub connects to Sales Hub, Commerce Hub, Service Hub, Content Hub, and Operations Hub.
Both also offer an entire marketplace with thousands of available apps. We recommend determining which apps you’ll need and then searching HubSpot Marketplace and Marketo Marketplace
“What I appreciate most about HubSpot Marketing Hub is its comprehensive integration capabilities. It allows us to seamlessly merge all our marketing channels into a single, unified platform. This integration has significantly streamlined our marketing processes, making it easier to manage everything from email campaigns to social media, SEO, and content management. The user-friendly interface and robust analytics tools have been instrumental in enhancing our decision-making process, providing us with clear insights to optimize our strategies. Moreover, its automation features have saved us considerable time, allowing our team to focus more on creative and strategic tasks rather than getting bogged down in routine operations.” – HubSpot User
“We love Marketo for its integration and CRM options, they allow us advanced mobile marketing, thanks to Leads management and sales flows our website design and development have been growing over time, offering solutions to our customers. Our content management system has also improved since the implementation of Marketo and its use in our facilitates.” – Marketo User
Key Points:
While HubSpot is favored by SMBs and startups for its accessibility and user-friendly interface, Marketo is geared toward larger enterprises with intricate marketing needs. The choice between the two depends on the size of your organization, your budget, and the complexity of your marketing strategies.
In our experience using both platforms, HubSpot is like a Mac to Marketo’s PC. With HubSpot, you get a sleek user interface and a tool that’s easy to use at the cost of some customizability. With Marketo, you get an enormous amount of control over the platform, but at the cost of usability.
At the end of the day, HubSpot and Marketo are both powerful pieces of software that do essentially the same thing, help you automate your marketing and manage your contacts, just in different ways. The decision comes down to which is right for your business.
At Growth Spurt, we’re big fans of HubSpot and recommend it over Marketo in most scenarios.
We’ve seen companies reduce the time it takes to onboard new marketing employees by up to 3 months by switching from Marketo to HubSpot due to the shallower learning curve of HubSpot. That alone makes it worth it.
However, if you’re a large enterprise or have standardized on the Adobe suite, there may be benefits that make Marketo Engage a better fit for you.
Is Hubspot Marketing Hub Right for Your Business? Find out here