The HubSpot Alternative: Managed Marketing
HubSpot is a CRM and marketing platform your team operates. AI for Marketing is a managed service: we run the marketing work, Jakub reviews it, and you approve it before anything goes out. If HubSpot is set up and used well, keep it; we often work inside it. This page is for the case where you pay for Marketing Hub features that nobody has time to run.
Most tools are fine. The question is who does the work.
You pay for HubSpot, but the work it was bought for keeps slipping because nobody has time to plan, produce, check and report on it.
HubSpot is set up, used and owned by someone on your team. AfM often works inside a client's existing tools.
Runs the marketing work as one managed service. Jakub reviews it, you approve it before anything goes out, and a weekly report shows what changed.
Results from past engagements
What the work has produced before.
None of these came from replacing HubSpot. Each is one client's result with its dates and qualifiers. The first three are work Jakub delivered as a consultant, all or mostly before AI for Marketing Ltd was incorporated in August 2025. Your results depend on your market, budget and starting point.
Anonymised global technology platform: $270 to $8.86 over about 11 months (Q4 2024 to Q3 2025), after moving from LinkedIn only to Meta and LinkedIn
ToastPal, over 12 months (October 2023 to October 2024)
Mumshandmade, week 12, platform-reported, during a four-month engagement (September 2024 to January 2025)
Allegiance Industries, automated lead prospecting built in 2026
Side-by-side comparison
HubSpot vs AI for Marketing
These are different things. HubSpot is software your team operates; AfM is a managed service that does the work. The rows below are the criteria that usually decide it, including where HubSpot is the stronger choice.
Replacement matrix
What stays, what changes, and what AfM takes on
This is not a rip-and-replace playbook. For each part of the work we say whether HubSpot should keep doing it, and where AfM would take the work on as part of the managed service. You make the call.
CRM and pipeline
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on CRM and pipeline.
Remains useful
Mature CRM with deal stages, reporting and a large integration ecosystem
Where HubSpot falls short
HubSpot does this well. What it cannot supply is someone to decide, check and report on the work.
What AfM does
Not a CRM product. We work with your existing CRM rather than replace it
Email and nurture
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on email and nurture.
Remains useful
Capable editor and workflow builder, if someone designs and maintains the flows
Where HubSpot falls short
HubSpot does this well. What it cannot supply is someone to decide, check and report on the work.
What AfM does
We plan, write and maintain the sequences, in HubSpot or the email tool you choose
Content and SEO
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on content and SEO.
Remains useful
AI drafting help and SEO recommendations; your team still does the work. Worth keeping where this part already works and someone owns it.
Where HubSpot falls short
HubSpot can support this, but results depend on someone configuring, monitoring and maintaining it.
What AfM does
Research, writing and on-page SEO done for you, reviewed by Jakub and approved by you
Outbound prospecting
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on outbound prospecting.
Remains useful
Focused on inbound capture through forms, pages and tracking. Worth keeping where this part already works and someone owns it.
Where HubSpot falls short
HubSpot can support this, but results depend on someone configuring, monitoring and maintaining it.
What AfM does
Prospect research and outreach can be run as part of the service, with your approval of every message
Detailed breakdown
Where each one is stronger
What you are actually paying for
HubSpot's cost rises with the hub, the tier and the number of seats. That is fair when the features are used. It is poor value when the licence pays for automation, content tools and reporting that nobody has time to set up or run. Pricing varies by plan and changes often, so check HubSpot's own pricing page for current figures. The useful question is not which tool is cheaper; it is whether the work the paid tier was bought for is actually getting done.
CRM: where HubSpot is stronger
HubSpot's CRM is one of the best known on the market: contact records, deal pipelines, reporting and hundreds of integrations. AfM is not a CRM product and does not ask you to move your CRM. If your sales team lives in HubSpot, keep it. If the only reason for a paid Marketing Hub tier is work nobody does, one option is to keep your contacts in the CRM and have us run the marketing work, then decide together whether the paid tier still earns its place.
Automation: workflows someone has to maintain
HubSpot's workflow builder is powerful, but someone has to design each branch, test it, watch it and fix it when something changes. In many small teams that person does not exist, and the workflows drift. As part of the managed service we plan, write and maintain the sequences, in HubSpot or in the email tool you choose. Jakub reviews each change, and nothing sends until you approve it.
AI features versus the work done
HubSpot's AI features help your team draft faster. AfM's AI operating system keeps your context in one place and helps produce the work; Jakub supplies the judgement, the priorities and the review. The difference is who carries the workload, not which model writes the first draft.
Lead generation: inbound capture and outbound research
HubSpot captures inbound leads well through forms, landing pages and tracking. It does not go and find prospects for you. Outbound research and outreach can be run as part of the managed service, with your approval of the target list and every message. For a dated example of the underlying work: in 2026 Jakub built an automated prospecting system for Allegiance Industries. The client described the change as no longer "being limited at around 100 new leads per day" and estimates it saves them $9,000 to $10,000 a year.
Where your work lives
Whatever you decide about HubSpot, the work we ship (pages, campaigns, creative, tracking) lives in your own accounts and stays yours. If you keep HubSpot, the workflows and emails we build stay in your HubSpot account. If you later move tools, HubSpot lets you export your data.
Honest assessment
Should you stop paying for HubSpot?
Often the honest answer is no: keep HubSpot and have the work in it done. These are the signs either way.
The work is the bottleneck, not the tool.
- You pay for a Marketing Hub tier whose automation, content or reporting features nobody has time to set up or run
- Your emails, content and campaigns keep slipping because the person meant to run them is also doing three other jobs
- You want outbound prospecting alongside the inbound leads HubSpot already captures
- You want one person accountable for the marketing work and a weekly report on what changed
It works, and someone owns it.
- Your team uses HubSpot daily, the workflows are maintained and the reporting is read. Keep it, and ask us only about the gaps
- Your sales team depends on HubSpot's CRM and pipeline. We work alongside it, not instead of it
- You have a HubSpot admin or marketer with the time to run it and you want to keep the work in house
Who does what
What AfM manages, what Jakub reviews, what you approve
You buy managed work and measurable improvement, not software. You never have to log in to our system or run it.
The marketing work HubSpot was bought for: email and nurture sequences, content and SEO, landing pages, campaigns and, where it fits, outbound prospecting. We work in your HubSpot account if you keep it.
Jakub reviews every piece of work before you see it: the plan, the copy, the campaign settings and the numbers in the report. The system keeps your context and helps produce the work; the judgement and the priorities are his.
Nothing goes out without your approval. You approve the first fixes, every campaign, email and page before it goes live, and any change to the tools you pay for.
Nothing for the free breakdown. If you go ahead, we ask on the call for a user on your HubSpot account with the permissions the agreed work needs, plus read-only analytics, and nothing more.
A starting point recorded when we begin (for example qualified leads, cost per lead, email engagement and revenue from marketing, whichever apply), then a weekly report showing what we shipped and how those numbers moved.
If you go ahead
How it starts
Free written breakdown
It starts from your website and everything publicly visible, plus any numbers you choose to share. No logins needed. It shows what we found, where it came from, what would still need private access to confirm, and the first thing we would fix, including whether HubSpot is worth keeping.
A short call, if you want one
A free 15-minute call to agree what AfM would manage. One monthly fee for the managed service; we confirm the number on a call once we have seen what needs doing. You sign one proposal before we start; after that it rolls monthly, with no lock-in, and you can cancel any time.
Access, only once you decide to go ahead
Nothing for the free breakdown. If you go ahead, we ask on the call for a user on your HubSpot account with the permissions the agreed work needs, plus read-only analytics, and nothing more. We change nothing until you approve the first fix.
First fixes, reviewed and approved
Jakub reviews each piece of work before it reaches you, and you approve it before it goes live. First fixes go live within days of payment and access, once you approve them.
Decide what happens to HubSpot
HubSpot stays, is downgraded or is cancelled only when you decide, and only once the work it was meant to support is running without it. Keeping it is often the right answer.
Frequently asked
Questions, answered straight
Related pages
Mailchimp Alternative
When to keep Mailchimp, and when to have your email work run for you.
ActiveCampaign Alternative
When to keep ActiveCampaign, and when to hand over the nurture and outreach work.
Your marketing, run for you
Prospecting, outreach, content, ads and pages actively managed and improved.
How it works
The free breakdown first, then we fix it and run it. You approve everything.
AI Marketing: The Complete Guide
An overview of where AI helps in marketing work, and where it does not.
AI Marketing Automation Guide
How AI changes the repetitive parts of marketing work.
Not sure whether to keep HubSpot?
Ask for a free written breakdown. It starts from your website and what is publicly visible, plus anything you choose to share, and needs no logins. It shows what we found, what would still need private access to confirm, and the first thing we would fix, including whether HubSpot should stay.
Book your free breakdown