HubSpot alternatives for small teams doing AI-first marketing
6 tools compared on price, what they cover and where each falls short. Facts read from each vendor's own site on September 29, 2026.
In brief
This page covers the marketing-content side of HubSpot, not the CRM. If a small team mainly needs research, copy, creative and posting, MITPO, Holo, Blaze and Okara cover that from far less than HubSpot Professional; Metricool and Buffer add scheduling. None of them is a CRM.
Last reviewed
Which HubSpot alternative to pick
- Best for research and creative without a CRM: MITPO, free to start.
- Best for ads, email and social in one app: Holo, $20 a month, no free trial.
- Best for a weekly posting rhythm: Blaze, or Metricool for reports across many brands.
- Stay with HubSpot if you need contacts, lead scoring, email automation and reporting in one system.
Facts verified September 29, 2026 from each vendor's own site
Disclosure. MITPO publishes this page and is one of the tools ranked. Every price and limit below comes from the vendor's own website, checked September 29, 2026. Where a rival is the better fit, we say so.
Common reasons to move on from HubSpot
HubSpot is a strong product for the right buyer. These are the situations where readers tell us it stops fitting.
Onboarding fees
Professional and Enterprise need a $3,000 or $7,000 onboarding fee on top of the monthly price.
AI agents sit on higher plans
The content, campaign and nurture agents are beta features on Professional and up, and draw on monthly HubSpot Credits.
You may not need the CRM
The price includes a CRM and email sending. A small team focused on content and creative may pay for a system it does not use.
What the cheapest paid plan costs
Bars are drawn to scale. The basis differs by tool (per seat, per channel, per brand), so read the label next to each number.
- Buffer$5/channel/mo annual
- MITPO$15/mo annual
- HubSpot$20/seat/mo
- Holo$20/mo
- Metricool$20/mo annual
- Blaze$79/mo
- Okara$108/mo annual
Which tool does which job
A filled circle means the vendor lists the capability on its own site. A dash means we could not confirm it, not that it is missing.
| Job | HubSpot | MITPO | Holo | Blaze | Okara | Metricool | Buffer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor research | Partly | Yes | Partly | Not confirmed | Partly | Partly | Not confirmed |
| Copywriting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Partly |
| Brand voice | Partly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Partly |
| Image creation | Partly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Video creation | Not confirmed | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Publish to social | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Calendar and queues | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SEO keyword data | Partly | No | Partly | Not confirmed | Yes | No | No |
6 HubSpot alternatives, best fit first
Ranked for a solo founder or a team of up to about ten. If you are larger, or your job is narrower, the order changes.
- 01
MITPO
Competitor research, positioning, copy, images and video from one brief, with no CRM to manage and a free start; there is no live HubSpot connection yet.
- From
- From $15/mo annual. Free plan: 100 credits at signup, yours to keep, no card.
- Best for
- Solo founders and lean teams who want research, copy, creative and publishing without stitching four tools together
- Watch for
- No SEO keyword or backlink database, CRM or email-sending platform; publishes to LinkedIn, Facebook and X today (Instagram coming soon) with a lighter calendar than a dedicated scheduler
- 02
Holo
Makes Meta ads, social posts, emails and SEO blogs from your website, and exports emails to Klaviyo and Mailchimp.
Read the full comparison →- From
- From $20/mo. No free plan and no free trial; refunds within 7 days if no credits were used.
- Best for
- Founders and small ecommerce brands who want ads, social posts, emails and blogs from one tool
- Watch for
- No free trial, and its own pages disagree on credit rollover and expiry
- 03
Blaze
Auto-posts a weekly batch of content and connects to Mailchimp, WordPress and Google Business Profile; an optional done-for-you team costs $999 a month.
Read the full comparison →- From
- From $79/mo. No free plan; 7-day free trial, no card.
- Best for
- Small businesses that want a steady, mostly automatic weekly posting rhythm, or a team to run marketing for them
- Watch for
- Credit costs differ between its pricing page and its help centre, and approve-before-posting needs the $149 Growth plan
- 04
Okara
A daily queue of SEO, AI-search and social work drafted for your approval; the free plan covers strategy documents only.
Read the full comparison →- From
- From $108/mo annual. Free plan: strategy documents and 5 credits once, no card.
- Best for
- Founders and small teams with a website who want a daily SEO, AI-search and social content queue
- Watch for
- Articles, LinkedIn and video need Pro at $249/mo, and video clips cost 60 to 120 credits each
- 05
Metricool
Scheduling and reports across many brands from $20 a month billed yearly, with a free plan that never expires.
Read the full comparison →- From
- From $20/mo annual. Free plan with no expiry, 1 brand and 20 posts a month, no card.
- Best for
- Freelancers, agencies and small teams who schedule across many brands and report on results
- Watch for
- The free plan excludes LinkedIn and X, and its AI is text only
- 06
Buffer
A simple scheduler with a free plan for three channels and a free AI assistant, if social publishing is the piece you miss.
Read the full comparison →- From
- From $5/channel/mo annual. Free plan for 3 channels, no card; 14-day trial of paid plans.
- Best for
- Creators, small businesses and agencies who already know what to post and want a dependable scheduler
- Watch for
- Social scope only, so no competitor research or campaign planning, and cost grows with each channel
Stay with HubSpot, or move?
Keep HubSpot when
- You need a CRM with email, landing pages and reporting in one system
- You rely on lead scoring and contact-level automation
- HubSpot Free or Starter already covers what you do
Look elsewhere when
- You are paying for Professional mainly for content and social
- You do not want a $3,000 onboarding fee
- You want competitor research and creative in the same tool as the copy
- You want to start free and add a CRM later
For content, creative and posting, yes: MITPO, Holo and Blaze start between $15 and $79 a month. For a CRM with email automation and lead scoring, no tool on this page replaces it; HubSpot itself has a free plan and a $20-per-seat Starter.
No. None of the tools ranked here is a CRM. If you need one, keep HubSpot Free for contacts and use a tool from this list for research, copy and creative.
Free for up to two users, then Starter at $20 per seat a month at list. Professional starts around $800 a month with a required $3,000 onboarding fee, and Enterprise around $3,600 with $7,000 onboarding.
Yes, as two tools side by side. MITPO does not have a live HubSpot connection yet, so you move copy and creative across by hand.
Holo writes emails and exports them to Klaviyo and Mailchimp, and Blaze connects to Mailchimp. Neither sends email itself in the way HubSpot does.
See if MITPO fits where HubSpot does not
Start free with 100 credits, no card. Run one real campaign brief and judge the result.