HubSpot vs. Marketo: Which is Better?
Sparta vs Athens: Which was the greatest empire? Back in the day, these two famous city-states were bitter rivals for dominance over the Greek Archipelago.
Sparta was known for its military and, well, spartan culture with its fierce warriors and advanced fighting strategy.
On the other hand, Athens was inherently different. Military service was optional, Athenian culture was based on its rich philosophy, arts, literature, architecture and sports. It also had the first known form of people-elected government (voters didn’t include women or slaves).
Both of these mighty empires vied for control over the Greek archipelago for the better part of three decades.
What does this have to do with marketing automation software? Well, in many ways, Marketo and HubSpot are not unlike Sparta and Athens. Both companies have different strategic paradigms. One is similar to that of ancient Athens and the other is similar to that of Sparta.
Can you guess which is which? To make it easier for you to guess, let’s take a look at both platforms and try to determine:
HubSpot vs. Marketo: which is the marketing automation platform to rule them all?
HubSpot vs. Marketo: Which Capabilities Should You Expect?
Our basis for a comparison between the two is a list of capabilities for enterprise companies.
| Features | Marketo | Hubspot |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | ||
| CRM | Marketo was built with a focus on Salesforce CRM users, and to this day the majority of Marketo B2B customers come from the Salesforce user base. However, there are additional integrations available, with Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, SugarCRM and others |
Built-in |
| Email tracking | Email reporting on campaigns | Full tracking including replies |
| Meeting Scheduler | Integrations available with TimeTrade, Chilipiper, Calendly and others | Built-in tool integrated with Google Calendar or Office 365 calendar |
| Deal/opportunity tracking | Available | Available |
| Customer Success | ||
| Bot creation | Integration available with Chatkit | Built-in |
| Live Chat | Integrations available with PingPilot, Salesmsg and others | Built-in |
| Transactional emails | Available | Available |
| Marketing | ||
| Ad campaign management | Audience segmentation for ads available.
Integrations with such platforms as Metadata and Adroll |
Available for Google, Facebook and Instagram ads |
| Landing page creation | Available | Available |
| Forms | Available | Available |
| Project management | Integrations available with Trello and others | Built-in |
| Email templates | Available | Available |
| Landing page templates | Available | Available |
| Social Media Management | Integrations available with Oktopost and others | Built-in social component, as well as integrations with Oktopost and others |
| Employee Advocacy | Integrations available with Oktopost and others | Integration available with Oktopost and others |
| Content Management System (CMS) | Integrations available with Ektron, Elcom, Kapost and others | Built-in |
| A/B Testing | Available for emails and web pages and forms | Available for emails and web pages and forms |
| Automation | ||
| Email automation | Available | Available |
| Flows / Drip campaigns | Available | Available |
| Reporting | ||
| Dashboards | Available | Available |
| Attribution models | Available | Available |
| Traffic analysis | Web page activity analytics available | Web analytics dashboard available |
| Technical | ||
| REST API | Robust and highly customizable API | Excellent API but lacking some form functionality |
| SOAP API | √ | x |
| API documentation | Available | Available |
| Community | Marketing Nation Community | HubSpot Community |
| Out of the box integrations | Available | Available |
| SSO | Available | Available |
| Event based triggers | Available as part of smart campaigns | Available |
Who is Marketo Enterprise Best Suited for?
If marketing automation is the battleground, Marketo is the mighty soldier you want on your side.
Like the great Spartan army, Marketo was built with a utilitarian purpose in mind: to perform complex marketing tasks. For this reason, many large organizations have a clear preference for Marketo. Just like a skillful soldier, it’s agile, adaptable and knows how to collaborate with others (via integrations) to get the job done.
In essence, Marketo is a marketing platform built for well established and strategic marketing departments, who have already built their MarTech stack and are now looking for a marketing automation platform to tie it all in.
Marketo has robust APIs, that ensure it integrates easily with multiple marketing tools to maximize their joint potential. This is important for marketers who are firm believers in customization and already know which workflows and tools have been effective for them.
Who is Hubspot Enterprise Best Suited for?
Ancient Athens owes its greatness to a lot more than its capabilities on the battlefield.
Similarly, Hubspot’s rise to marketing automation power comes from a lot more than just being a great marketing automation solution. Hubspot pioneered, some say invented, inbound marketing and the marketing culture that developed from it. They owe their success to not only providing a great solution but to building a brand that has become synonymous with inbound marketing.
As part of this holistic approach, Hubspot’s Enterprise solution is best suited for marketers looking for an all-in-one marketing automation platform. Unlike Marketo’s platform strategy, Hubspot provides all the marketing tools an inbound marketer needs as part of Hubspot.
For companies seeking to manage all their marketing (and sales) activities in one place, HubSpot is the right choice. It’s an out-of-the-box solution for B2B marketers looking for an easy setup and comprehensive capabilities, without investing time in elaborate integrations.
Naturally, as an enterprise solution, HubSpot does have a developed eco-system of partners and integrations, such as the interesting Google Sheets integration.
That being said, HubSpot is best suited for marketers looking to take a full advantage of everything the platform has to offer. Whichever task you’re looking to complete – you’re guaranteed to find a tool for it inside the platform.
So Which Marketing Automation Platform Should You Choose?
Athens and Sparta had two very distinct cultures. Sparta won the Peloponnesian war against Athens because it had a robust military culture, intent on winning. Athens, on the other hand, had a cultural richness and focused on developing its politics and arts.
Marketo and HubSpot are also very different marketing automation platforms, each with its own advantages and its own strategy. The choice between both platforms is a classical all-in-one vs. best-in-breed decision.
Marketo is better suited to B2B marketers who already have an established MarTech stack and expect to be able to customize their platform. HubSpot, on the other hand, is a better fit for marketers looking for an out-of-the-box platform, with comprehensive features for every need.
If you’re trying to decide which platform to buy, define first your needs and the nature of your marketing operations. Once those are clear to you, it will be easy to determine which platform you need to implement: Marketo or HubSpot.
