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Hubspot Competitors | Internet Marketing Systems 2016

Posted by Doug Kirk  Apr 2, 2012 4:39:00 PM

hubspot competitors(Post updated March 2016) Curious about Hubspot competitors and how internet marketing systems compare?  What about Hubsot vs. Eloqua, Marketo and Pardot? What are the key differences between these internet marketing systems?  This comparison chart analyzes each across 10 key features including blogging, CMS, SEO, lead nurturing, price, ease of use and analytics.  Each feature is ranked (0 = Not at All to 4 = Awesome) for a best possible score of 40 points.  Quick summary points below:

  • Lead nurturing.  While Hubspot has lead nurturing capabilities it’s not as sophisticated as its competitors.  Marketo, Eloqua and Pardot almost exclusively specialize on lead nurturing.   This is what happens once someone converts on your website.  Eloqua has a slick social sign on tool for landing pages.  For Hubspot, everyone who submits a form receives a set "nurturing sequence" – there’s not much customizing for a specific lead.   Eloqua, Marketo and Pardot can dynamically lead nurture based on an end user’s onsite actions.  This is an area where Hubspot is investing heavily to catch up.
  • SEO and lead acquisition.  Eloqua, Marketo and Pardot, Hubspot’s main competitors, have basically no solution for acquiring leads.  Their focus is strictly on what happens once a user converts into a lead.  Hubspot is really an “all in one” marketing system that aims to provide a complete end to end internet marketing system.  This means tools to find leads and convert them to sales.  They do this primarily through nifty integration of SEO tools and a blogging platform.  
  • Price.  Hubspot pricing is far less expensive than its competitors.  Marketo, Eloqua and to a lesser extent Pardot primarily target larger enterprises with significant marketing budgets than can afford $15,000 to $25,000 per year on marketing software.
  • Integration.  All of the Hubspot competitors integrate with an existing CMS such as Wordpress seamlessly.  Hubspot, however, goes a step further and has a full CMS solution (called COS - for content optimization system) for any website.  Eloqua, Marketo and Pardot do not have this option.  As a result everything must co- exist with existing technologies.  This can cause more “hidden cost” development expense.     
  • Ease of use.   Nothing is ever “easy” when it comes to web development and online marketing systems as a whole.  However, Hubspot’s interface, learning and support exceed the competition.  As full scale enterprise solutions, Eloqua and Marketo are slightly more postioned for an end-user to have marketing and technology teams that can work to successfully implement the technology and ongoing management.  Hubspot aims to be, and to some extent accomplishes, a much easier solution that requires less technological expertise.

Dharmesh Shah, one of the founders of Hubspot, made an apt analogy relative to Hubspot and its competitors.  In his opinion Hubspot basically “competes” with these other internet marketing systems only in the manner an iPhone competes with a digital camera.  He opines “sure the iPhone has a camera, but that's not the only reason someone buys an iPhone.  If you’re a serious photographer you go for a "pro" option and buy a camera with specific functionality such as SLR technology.  Yet for many people, the camera in the iPhone works just fine and they appreciate the “other” things an iPhone can do.”  That sums up Hubspot relative to its competitors.

Download the all-in-one internet marketing system software reviews and Hubspot competitor chart (updated as of March 2016) from Optimize 3.0.

marketing automation comparison chart

Topics: hubspot, inbound marketing, Hubspot Competitors