Marketing Automation with Everything Under One Roof
HubSpot includes landing pages, CRM, social media manager, calendar integration, pro-sales tools, blogging, email marketing, and a service interaction manager all within a single platform.
ActiveCampaign has most of the same features, however, relies on integrating landing pages and blogging with 3rd party solutions.
There are pros and cons to having increased functionality within one platform. Being able to use a single tool for all your CRM and marketing automation needs is helpful because you can log into one place.
The ability to get meaningful results from reporting features is less cumbersome and faster when using one platform as opposed to one that uses 3rd-party integrations.
Design Features
You can design landing pages, calls-to-action, emails, and forms in HubSpot. However, the user interface in their design manager is not very intuitive and requires some technical knowledge.
If you want to use one of their templates for your own design, it is much easier than if you’re looking to make changes or create your own.
ActiveCampaign doesn’t include a landing page creator. You must integrate with a 3rd party service. However, for emails, their design feature is easier to use for non-technical users.
You can use one of their templates, start from scratch, or import the code for one you have created on another platform.
HubSpot’s system doesn’t work well with imported code whereas ActiveCampaign plays nicer with your code.
Email Marketing Automation
We have already discussed above the design features for emails with both platforms. As far as the ability to automate your email marketing, they are very similar.
One of the main differences is that ActiveCampaign has a better workflow process. It is easier to segment your lists by branching off into “Yes/No” conditions.
File Manager/Media Dashboard
HubSpot has a file manager where you can store, images, videos, PDFs, and any other file type you need to have access to for your marketing.
ActiveCampaign does not. This can make sharing images and files with others on your team rather tricky.
Social Media Management
HubSpot has a robust social media manager. You can schedule posts and monitor engagement. If you use spreadsheets to create a social media post calendar, HubSpot provides the ability to upload the sheets to its platform easily.
ActiveCampaign does not have any social media management features.
Campaign Management
Running campaigns in HubSpot is one of its strong points. The reason is that they have every tool you need under one roof.
So, you can link everything in your campaign within this single platform. You can segment your efforts based on how each campaign performs.
Performance
Ben Marcoux, a Roofing Lead Generation Expert, reports that ActiveCampaign works seamlessly with all the other tools he uses.
He also shares that if there is no direct integration available, he can create one using Zapier. Ben says he has never run into any technical issue preventing him from doing what he needs.
Carah Counts, Digital Marketing Strategist at CareATC, Inc. finds HubSpot a little slow at times. She attributes this to all the new features they have added to their platform.
However, she also states that most of the time, the platform is very fast. Carah also points out that because the majority of API integrations work in the background, she has never had any trouble with lag.
Implementation
No matter what tool you choose, there will be a learning curve. Setting up email marketing in ActiveCampaign is relatively simple and yields effective results.
Because HubSpot is such a multi-faceted feature-rich platform, the learning curve is rather long. Many suggest devoting time to learn the platform to make it easier to use. They do, however, have an excellent support team via email, live chat, and phone.
Marketing Automation Cost Comparison
HubSpot is more expensive than ActiveCampaign in general. Also, if you are looking for monthly prices, you won’t find them with HubSpot, but it is an option with ActiveCampaign.
If you are looking for the same functionality for ActiveCampaign that HubSpot offers, you will need to pay for a landing page builder and a blogging platform.
ActiveCampaign’s pricing plans are easier to understand because they have fewer options. HubSpot’s pricing can be a little more complicated.
For both platforms, the cost depends upon the size of your contact list. The more contacts you have, the higher the price.
Here is a summary of ActiveCampaign’s pricing structure. Click on the image below to learn more about how the prices for each option go up as you increase the number of contacts.
Below is a summary of HubSpot’s platform and pricing options. Click on the image to switch between platforms and number of contacts.
Which is Best for You?
There is no one or right answer. It all depends on your needs and what you are looking to do. Based on the features discussed above, you might prefer ActiveCampaign if:
Your focus is on email marketing
Being able to segment your lists is something you need
Cost is a factor, and you need a CRM with marketing tools for your team
You need advanced marketing automation on a tight budget
HubSpot might be a better option for you if:
You don’t have strict budgetary restrictions
Tying inbound marketing into your CRM is important to you
A CRM is all you need because it is free with HubSpot
Your conversions are high value, and you spend a lot of time working with individual contacts
Both ActiveCampaign and HubSpot offer powerful marketing automation and CRM features. Both are established companies with good reputations.
They have a lot of similar features, so neither one is the right choice and the other the wrong choice. The answer is still it depends.
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SiteGround is one of the most popular web hosting services available on the market today. It’s a safe and reliable way to host your website in 2019.
More than 2 million active domains are hosted with SiteGround.
One of the reasons why this service is so popular is because they offer hosting options and plans suitable for a wide range of websites and businesses.
Small personal websites, business websites, and large ecommerce sites alike can all use SiteGround.
For those of you who are looking to find a hosting provider for your new website, SiteGround is definitely a top option for you to consider.
It’s also a great choice for anyone who wants to switch hosting providers for their existing website since SiteGround has plans with a free site transfer. But we’ll talk about this in greater detail as we continue.
I’ll give you a better understanding of the plans, types of hosting, and top benefits offered by SiteGround. You can use this guide to make an informed decision to determine if SiteGround is the best web hosting plan for your needs.
Benefits of Using SiteGround Web Hosting
There is plenty of upside to using SiteGround as a web hosting service. I just want to quickly highlight and explain why this platform stands out from its competitors.
High uptimes
When it comes to measuring how good a web host is, uptime is the ultimate metric. By definition, this is the amount of time that a server stays up and running.
A recent study shows that SiteGround has exceptionally high uptimes, on average, over a twelve-month stretch.
In 2018, SiteGround ranked fourth compared to other web hosts judging by average uptime. As you can see, they were just barely beat out for the third place spot by a one-thousandth percentage point.
Overall, the average uptime for the 32 shared web hosting services in the study was 99.59%. SiteGround was significantly higher than the average and near the top of the list.
High uptimes ensure that your site will nearly always be up and running around the clock.
Fast load times
Just because your site is up, it doesn’t always mean that it will be fast. But take a look at the response time for this SiteGround test website that was set up by Hosting Facts.
We already talked about the great uptime, but now you can refer to the response time column.
The average response time for the first six months of 2019 was 662 ms. That’s phenomenal. In addition to using a good web host, you should also know the other top principles that boost website loading times.
Great customer support
Hopefully, you don’t have any issues with SiteGround. But in the event that you run into a problem, have a question, or need some assistance, it’s nice to know that they provide excellent customer support.
You can access phone support as well as live chat 24/7. As I mentioned earlier, you’ll have priority support if you have a GoGeek plan. This means that you’ll be connected with the most experienced SiteGround technicians whenever you need help.
Free features
Web hosting services will always try to hit you with add-ons at an upcharge. But SiteGround throws in some great features at no extra charge.
Your membership comes with one free site migration. This can be done with their migrator plugin, which we talked about earlier. If you have the GrowBig or GoGeek plan, a SiteGround professional will do the migration for you.
SiteGround plans also come with a free CDN and free SSL certificate.
Cloudflare CDN keeps images, videos, and other large files off of your server. As a result, your server is always fast. Since SiteGround users servers all over the globe, the CDN makes sure that files are stored closer to website visitors for fast delivery.
The SSL certificate is required for all websites. It protects private information being transmitted between devices and websites. SiteGround throwing this in for free is a nice touch since you’d need to get one regardless.
Flexible
Nearly any website can be hosted on SiteGround.
It’s a great web hosting service for beginners and experienced users alike. You don’t need to be too tech-savvy to understand how the platform works and get your site hosted. But on the other hand, if you like to be more hands-on with the server and take advantage of certain features, SiteGround has plans with you in mind.
There are also enough options on SiteGround to accommodate different web hosting needs, such as shared hosting, dedicated server hosting, and cloud hosting.
They have plans suitable for a wide range of average site traffic as well. So as your website scales, you can always upgrade to a plan that will meet your needs.
Money back guarantee
SiteGround offers a 30-day money back guarantee for their shared hosting plans. This shows that they stand behind the services that are offered.
Dedicated servers and cloud hosting plans have a 14-day money back guarantee, which is still enough time to tell if you’re happy with your service.
SiteGround will also refund you if they fail to meet a 99.9% uptime rate. This is clearly written in their terms of service.
This relates back to what we talked about earlier, in terms of their high uptime rates. There’s a reason why it’s so high—SiteGround has a promise to stand behind.
Other considerations
There’s no such thing as a perfect web hosting service. While SiteGround is great, there are a few downsides that you should be made aware of before you proceed.
Setup fee
SiteGround charges a one-time setup fee for $14.95 with all of their plans. It’s not a deal breaker by any stretch, but it means you can’t just sign up for their lowest plan and be out the door for $3.95.
Renewal rates
At first glance, SiteGround’s pricing is very attractive. But those are only promotional rates.
When you renew, your rates will jump as follows:
$3.95 to $11.95 per month
$5.95 to $19.95 per month
$11.95 to $34.95 per month
The cost essentially triples across the board. So I’d recommend locking in the longest contract possible when you first sign up, which is 36 months. This will guarantee you a low rate for a while before you’re forced to renew.
Limited budget plan
For those of looking for the best cheap web hosting service, SiteGround’s StartUp plan for $3.95 per month is definitely attention-grabbing.
It’s a great choice for those of you with smaller websites, but it’s fairly limited for anyone who plans on getting more than 10,000 visitors per month. You may have to upgrade faster than you anticipated if you start with their lowest priced web hosting plan.
Compare SiteGround Web Hosting Plans
Like most web hosting services, SiteGround offers different plans for websites with varying needs. In this case, there are three tiers for most of their hosting types.
With the exception of cloud hosting and dedicated server hosting, the prices of these three plans will remain the same across the board for shared hosting, WordPress hosting, and Woocommerce hosting. We’ll dive deeper into those plans later in this guide.
For now, I’ll focus on the pricing and features of the three most popular plan options offered by SiteGround.
StartUp
As the name implies, the SiteGround StartUp plan is ideal for new websites. With rates starting at $3.95 per month, this plan is suitable for websites with less than 10,000 monthly visits.
You can only host one website with the StartUp plan, and it comes with 10 GB of web space. Other top features include:
Free site builder
Free SSL and HTTPS
Free email accounts
Free CloudFlare CDN
It’s a basic plan, but definitely appropriate for new websites that are starting from scratch. For those of you who want more features and better performance, you’ll need to upgrade. You’ll also outgrow the StartUp plan as your traffic increases (which is a good thing).
GrowBig
The GrowBig plan starts at $5.95 per month. This is ideal for medium-sized websites averaging up to 25,000 monthly visits. GrowBig has 20 GB of web space and can host an unlimited number of sites.
Unlike the StartUp plan, GrowBig has enhanced caching ability. The SiteGround Supercacher has three levels.
Level 1 — Static content caching
Level 2 — Dynamic data caching
Level 3 — Database queries caching
StartUp only caches at the first level, but GrowBig caches on all three levels.
If you sign up for the middle-tier plan offered by SiteGround, you’ll also get free on-demand backups, a free site transfer, as well as a staging feature for WordPress and Joomla sites. I’d say that the GrowBig plan will be suitable for most of you who are reading this guide.
GoGeek
GoGeek can accommodate up to 100,000 monthly visits and has 30 GB of web space. Obviously, this plan is made for bigger websites with high volumes of traffic.
Rates for GoGeek start at $11.95 per month, but the plan comes with all of the bells and whistles. In addition to everything that’s available in the GrowBig plan, GoGeek offers:
Advanced priority support (expedited customer service to the most experienced agents)
PCI compliant servers (necessary for those of you who process payments online)
Git pre-installed (for creating repositories on your site)
The name for this plan was inspired by technology geeks. So it’s made for those of you who want more control of your site. If you don’t understand some of the tech lingo that’s being mentioned in the GoGeek plan, it’s probably not for you. The only other reason why you’d need to upgrade to GoGeek is if you’re getting tons of monthly site traffic.
WordPress hosting
SiteGround offers hosting options specifically designed for WordPress users. This will save you time since you won’t need to manually download, install, and configure WordPress.
With SiteGround, you can take advantage of their automated process that’s as simple as clicking a button. This plan also makes it easier for you to customize your WordPress site by choosing a theme, picking your site functionalities, and installing marketing tools.
The WordPress Starter Kit from SiteGround is a great added feature for new WordPress sites. You don’t need any technical knowledge or experience to set this up.
If you have an existing WordPress site, SiteGround offers a free WordPress transfer. The SiteGround Migrator plugin takes care of everything for you. This is a secure way to transfer your site.
Alternatively, if you have a GrowBig or GoGeek plan, you can get your WordPress site migrated by one of the experts at SiteGround. This is a free service for one website before rates start at $30 per site.
WooCommerce hosting
SiteGround also has hosting options for ecommerce shops using WooCommerce.
The quick install and integration with WooCommerce is an easy way for you to create a professional theme for your online store. You can get the site up and running in minutes.
Just migrate your WooCommerce site using the migrator plugin. Just like WordPress hosting, WooCommerce migrations done by a SiteGround expert is free for one website if you’re on the GrowBig or GoGeek plan. Then you’ll have to pay $30 per each additional site.
If you have WooCommerce, you’re going to need to the GoGeek plan anyways, since that comes standard with PCI compliant servers.
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting is a new way to host websites. The process uses multiple remote servers and is a great option for those of you who have websites that have outgrown the shared hosting plans.
With cloud hosting, SiteGround gives you guaranteed resources to meet your needs. Your own RAM and CPU won’t be shared with any other websites.
It’s also easy for you to scale your website with this type of web hosting.
You can upgrade your RAM, CPU, and disk space on-demand at any time. You don’t need to get approval to do this, and it happens without any website downtime.
Rather than always doing this manually, you can set up automatic scaling with SiteGround. It will adjust your CPU and RAM to meet the needs of unexpected traffic surges, but you still have control of all the parameters.
There are four plans for SiteGround Cloud hosting. As you can see from the image above, the plans range from $80 to $240 per month. So there’s definitely plenty of options to choose from.
I’d say that the business plan will likely be a suitable choice for most of you who are using a cloud hosting service for the first time.
Dedicated servers
For those of you who don’t want to use cloud hosting or shared hosting, SiteGround offers dedicated server options as well.
This is perfect if you don’t want any restrictions in terms of the software you use on your website. You’ll also be able to make changes directly to your server if you go with this route.
All servers are managed by the experts at SiteGround. They also offer software designed to boost the performance of your server and provide added functionality.
You can also choose the location of your data center.
United States
Europe
Asia-Pacific
There are three dedicated server plans offered by SiteGround:
Entry Server
Power Server
Super Power Server
These plans start at $269 per month, $349 per month, and $729 per month, respectively.
Conclusion
I’ll get straight to the point—I would definitely recommend SiteGround for web hosting.
This platform offers a wide range of hosting types and plans to accommodate the needs of nearly any website, large or small. SiteGround stacks up well compared to its competitors in terms of features and performance.
