With the latest info of Keap’s acquisition it’s only natural to wonder about the company’s future under Thryv Holdings. This video provides objective pricing between major platforms for businesses with up to 10,000 contacts.
Here’s the cleaned up transcript for you to follow along:
Introduction and Context
[00:00:00] – [00:00:46]
All right, everyone. Back with another video. I’m going to attempt to answer the question: Is it time to leave keep? And if so, where should you go? This is coming from my video yesterday that talked about the keep acquisition by thrive holdings. I got a lot of texts, comments, emails, just people reaching out.
Initial Disclaimers and Context
[00:00:46] – [00:01:54]
This is not a flame fest type video. I’m never going to speak ill will of Keap. In fact, I have nothing but respect. We should all be paying homage continuously to the company that started it all. They started marketing automation for small businesses. A lot of companies that we know of today wouldn’t exist if they had not paved the path.
I want to be sensitive about acquisitions like this. Just understanding how acquisitions, strategic takeovers, IPOs work from a cursory level, this is not the ideal outcome. You could look at the cost they were purchased for with respect to their revenue to understand.
Employee and Partner Impact
[00:01:54] – [00:02:41]
Everybody is impacted. I did get a comment on YouTube where I could sense some positive sentiment from the employees at keep that now with backing from thrive, they can really make some moves. That pleased me, but I also know there are some opposite feelings based on how this has taken place.
Analysis of Thryv Holdings
[00:02:41] – [00:04:30]
When I pull up thrive, the company thrive holdings that purchased Keap, not many people knew who thrive was until they purchased keep. My only cause for pause is that I have no experience with this company. I don’t know what their development capabilities are or what their app looks like on the back end.
Timeline Considerations
[00:04:30] – [00:05:20]
I don’t think you have to worry about anything anytime soon. This won’t be finalized until Q4. These things take time – it’s not like you’re going to see immediate shifts in January 2025. I don’t think we’ll start seeing major things until probably mid 2026.
Platform Comparisons and Pricing Analysis
Thrive Pricing
[00:05:20] – [00:06:30]
The closest comparison with Thryv is their essential bundle at $450/month plus $250 onboarding fee.
Keap Pricing
[00:06:30] – [00:07:32]
For 10,000 contacts with Keap, you’re looking at $441/month paid annually, or $539/month paid monthly. Some users on legacy Keap max may be at around $299.
HubSpot Pricing
[00:07:32] – [00:10:01]
Looking at starter marketing hub and sales for 10,000 contacts, you’re at $329/month paid annually, or $430/month paid monthly. With operations hub added, you’re looking at approximately $450/month.
ActiveCampaign Pricing
[00:10:01] – [00:14:20]
The pro plan with 10,000 contacts starts at a base price of $375/month. When you add in additional features, you’re looking at approximately $530-600/month.
High Level Pricing
[00:14:20] – [00:17:01]
High Level starts with a base price of $99/month. You’ll need to factor in additional email costs: $20/month for domain authentication and $34/month for increased email capacity. That puts you at approximately $135/month with unlimited contacts.
Ontraport Pricing
[00:17:01] – [00:20:24]
For the pro plan with 10,000 contacts, Ontraport comes in at $449/month paid monthly, or you can get it down to $375/month paid annually.
Large Scale Pricing (100,000+ Contacts)
[00:20:24] – [00:23:01]
When we look at larger scale operations, High Level offers flexible pricing with Amazon SES integration options. HubSpot jumps up to approximately $4,000/month. The other platforms require custom pricing for large contact databases.
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
[00:23:01] – [00:25:22]
The cost of automation has changed significantly. For databases under 10,000 contacts, High Level stands as the most cost-effective option, with Ontraport being the most competitively priced among traditional platforms. HubSpot comes in as a strong second, followed by ActiveCampaign third, and Keap fourth in terms of price value.
Consider decoupling the Sales CRM as many users don’t fully utilize the sales portions of these platforms. This journey will continue to evolve, and hopefully the space of marketing automation for small businesses will improve because of this acquisition.
