Keap Alternatives

Why look for a Keap alternative

Keap — the product formerly known as Infusionsoft — has twenty-plus years of small-business automation behind it, and its campaign builder remains one of the most capable automation engines in the small-business category. I've watched established service businesses run their entire follow-up machine on it. But the reasons people leave are unusually concrete.

The first is the entry price. At time of writing, Keap sells essentially one plan at $299 per month on monthly billing (about $249 per month on annual prepay), covering 2 users and roughly 1,500 contacts. Extra users run around $39 per month, and the price climbs with your contact count. For a small business with 5,000 contacts and four people, the bill is already several times what Pipedrive, Freshsales, or ActiveCampaign would cost.

The second is the buying experience. Implementation fees and contact-tier jumps mean the number on the pricing page is a floor, not a quote — a pattern the small-business community has complained about for years, and it hasn't fully gone away despite the move to flat-rate pricing in 2024.

The third is pace. Keap was acquired by Thryv in 2024, and while the product continues, buyers reasonably ask where it's heading. I don't think Keap is going anywhere soon — the customer base is large and loyal — but a tool you plan to run for five years deserves a clear product roadmap, and that has gotten harder to read. The interface carries its Infusionsoft heritage, the reporting is functional rather than insightful, and new-feature momentum is slower than the category's front-runners.

The alternatives compared

I compared these on what you get per dollar at small-business scale, automation depth versus Keap's campaign builder, how pricing behaves as contacts and users grow, and fit for the two main Keap constituencies: service businesses and small sales-and-marketing teams. Prices are as verified at time of writing.

HoneyBook

HoneyBook is a client-flow platform for creatives and service businesses — proposals, contracts, invoices, scheduling, and payments in one path. Pricing at time of writing runs roughly $29 to $79 per month. Switch if your Keap usage is mostly client administration: for half the entry price or less, HoneyBook gives you better client-facing documents and payment collection, and it's built for exactly the solo-to-small service business Keap courts.

Stay if deep marketing automation is the engine of your business. HoneyBook's workflows handle client stages well but don't match Keap's campaign builder for branching nurture logic across long sales cycles. Also note HoneyBook serves only the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia — outside those markets it isn't an option at all.

GoHighLevel

GoHighLevel is the everything-suite: CRM, funnels, websites, email, SMS, call tracking, booking, and reputation management with unlimited users and unlimited contacts — $97 per month Starter (3 sub-accounts), $297 Unlimited, $497 Agency Pro at time of writing, plus usage charges for phone, email, and AI. Switch if contact-based pricing is what's pushing you off Keap: HighLevel never charges by contact, and its feature list covers nearly everything Keap does plus funnels and ad management.

Stay if you want a tool your non-technical team can run without setup projects. HighLevel's density is its downside, and its usage fees move around with volume — two things Keap's simpler, flatter model handles better.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign pairs one of the best marketing automation builders on the market with a built-in sales CRM. Pricing at time of writing is contact-tiered and starts in the tens of dollars per month for 1,000 contacts at the entry level — a fraction of Keap's floor — with the price rising with contacts and sends. Switch if automation is the reason you're on Keap: ActiveCampaign's builder is at least as capable, its segmentation is stronger, and the deliverability tooling is more transparent.

Stay if you want CRM, invoicing, appointments, and payments in one small-business package — ActiveCampaign's commerce and sales features are lighter, and you'd be assembling a small stack.

Dex

Dex is a personal CRM: contacts, notes, and follow-up reminders synced from LinkedIn, Gmail, and your calendar. Pricing at time of writing: $12 per month Premium, $20 Professional, $40 per user per month Team. Switch if you're a solo operator whose real need is staying in touch with people — Dex costs less per year than Keap costs per month, and its relationship nudges do the one job well instead of ten jobs halfway.

Stay if you need email campaigns, landing pages, or automation. Dex has none of it; it's a relationship notebook, not a marketing platform.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is the pipeline-first sales CRM: visual stages, activity-based selling, email sync, and automation from $14 per seat per month billed annually on Lite, $39 Growth, up to $79 Ultimate at time of writing, with marketing features in add-ons (Campaigns from $13.33 per month). Switch if selling is the job and marketing is a newsletter — for a small sales team, Pipedrive costs a quarter of Keap and manages deals far better.

Stay if the automation engine is your business's spine. Pipedrive's automations handle sales tasks well but can't replicate Keap's long-form nurture campaigns without the Campaigns add-on, which is lighter than Keap's builder.

Salesflare

Salesflare is a B2B CRM that fills in its own data from email and calendar activity. Pricing at time of writing: $29 per user per month billed annually on Growth, $49 Pro, $99 Enterprise (5-user minimum). Switch if you're a small B2B team selling relationships rather than running funnels — Salesflare's automatic logging saves hours per month and its pipeline views are clean.

Stay if marketing automation drives your revenue. Salesflare deliberately ships no campaign builder; Keap's automation is the far stronger engine for nurture-heavy businesses.

Dubsado

Dubsado is a client-management platform for creatives and service professionals: proposals, contracts, invoicing, scheduling, and automated workflows. Pricing at time of writing: $335 per year on Starter, $525 per year on Premier — under $45 per month either way — with a 21-day full trial and extra users from $25 per month. Switch if you're in a creative or professional-services trade: Dubsado's branded documents and workflow automation deliver most of what service businesses used Keap for, at roughly a seventh of the annual cost.

Stay if large-scale email marketing and list segmentation are central. Dubsado's email is client-communication oriented, not broadcast-marketing oriented.

HubSpot

HubSpot's free CRM is the most generous starting package in the category: contact management, deals, forms, live chat, and basic service tools at no cost. Starter runs from $7 per seat per month promotional pricing (list around $20) at time of writing; Professional tiers jump to several hundred dollars per month and up. Switch if you want to start free and grow into a platform with an enormous integration ecosystem — HubSpot's app marketplace and educational resources dwarf Keap's.

Stay if you'd rather pay one predictable mid-size bill than walk HubSpot's tier ladder. Keap at $299 per month with automation included is genuinely cheaper than HubSpot Professional for a small team, and its contact-based scaling is simpler to forecast than HubSpot's per-seat, per-hub, per-contact model.

How to choose

Identify what you actually use Keap for. If it's client documents and payments, HoneyBook or Dubsado replace it for less than a quarter of the price. If it's marketing automation, ActiveCampaign is the direct swap — same muscle, lower entry price. If it's a sales pipeline, Pipedrive or Salesflare. If you want the whole suite and unlimited contacts, GoHighLevel. If you want to start free and scale into a big ecosystem, HubSpot. And if your use is really just personal follow-up discipline, Dex costs less per year than Keap per month. Whatever you pick, model the price at your real contact count and user count — that's where Keap comparisons usually flip.

FAQ

Why did Keap's pricing change? In 2024 Keap dropped per-user pricing for a flat-rate model based mainly on contact volume, and the company was acquired by Thryv. At time of writing that means roughly $299 per month monthly (about $249 per month on annual prepay) for 2 users and around 1,500 contacts, with extra users and contact tiers costing more.

**Does Keap still offer a free trial or a free plan?

There is no free plan — that has been consistent across my checks. Trial terms vary (some resellers and listing sites advertise extended trials), so confirm what's currently offered directly with Keap before assuming a long test window.

What is the cheapest alternative to Keap?** Dubsado for client-management use cases (from about $28 per month equivalent billed annually) and ActiveCampaign for automation-first use (entry tiers in the tens of dollars per month for 1,000 contacts). Both undercut Keap's floor price by a wide margin at time of writing.

Is GoHighLevel a good Keap alternative? For agencies and businesses that want marketing, funnels, and CRM with unlimited contacts, yes — it's the most common switch in this category. The trade-offs are interface density and usage-based charges for phone, email, and AI.