EngageBay vs Keap
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
The short answer
Both sides assessedEngageBay compared with Keap
Both are all-in-one SMB automation suites, but Keap starts at $299 a month with a mandatory one-time implementation package from about $500, while EngageBay Growth is $64.99 per user. Keap's automation engine is deeper and its Infusionsoft lineage means a large certified partner ecosystem exists to build it for you. EngageBay is the one you buy when you intend to build it yourself and cannot justify a four-figure first month.
Keap compared with EngageBay
EngageBay copies the same list-driven all-in-one shape for $64.99 per user per month with no mandatory implementation fee, and adds a helpdesk Keap does not have. Keap is deeper on automation logic, far better on quoting, invoicing, and payments, and comes with a partner ecosystem that will build your campaigns. Buy EngageBay if you will do the work yourself and price is the deciding factor; buy Keap if the money side of the business needs to live in the same system.
Choose EngageBay if
Small businesses and agencies under roughly 25 people who want marketing automation, a CRM, and a helpdesk from one vendor on one contact database, whose triggers are forms, tags, and deal stages rather than in-product events, and whose budget for the whole stack is a few hundred dollars a month.
Choose Keap if
Established small service businesses doing between roughly $250,000 and $5 million a year, coaches, consultants, agencies, clinics, franchises, and home-services operators, who need lead capture, nurture, booking, invoicing, and payment collection in one system and can afford a real four-figure setup.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | EngageBay | Keap |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Automation | Automation |
| Starting price | $0 (Free), then $14.99 per user per month (Basic) (free plan available) | $299 per month for two users (14 days trial) |
| Pricing model | Per-user subscription with an account-level contact cap and a branded-email allowance layered on top, in four tiers, discounted 8 percent annually and 15 percent biennially. | Single plan priced by contact volume, including two user licences, with a mandatory one-time implementation package and separately metered text marketing tiers. |
| Free plan | Free covers 250 contacts and 1,000 branded emails a month, including email marketing, autoresponders, sequences, lead grabbers, one landing page, CRM, live chat, and helpdesk. | No |
| Free trial | No separate trial is needed; the free plan is the evaluation path and does not expire. | 14-day free trial with no credit card required, limited to a maximum of 25 emails and with payment and text features restricted. |
| Best for | Small businesses and agencies under roughly 25 people who want marketing automation, a CRM, and a helpdesk from one vendor on one contact database, whose triggers are forms, tags, and deal stages rather than in-product events, and whose budget for the whole stack is a few hundred dollars a month. | Established small service businesses doing between roughly $250,000 and $5 million a year, coaches, consultants, agencies, clinics, franchises, and home-services operators, who need lead capture, nurture, booking, invoicing, and payment collection in one system and can afford a real four-figure setup. |
| Setup time | A day to import contacts, connect a sending domain, and publish a first form. A week to have real workflows running if you are migrating existing sequences. The suite breadth means the temptation is to configure everything at once, which is how implementations stall. | Two to six weeks realistically, and the mandatory implementation package exists precisely because self-directed Keap setups historically stalled. Data import, domain authentication, and the first campaign are the bulk of it. |
| Learning curve | Low for anyone who has used HubSpot or Mailchimp, because the concepts map directly. The workflow canvas is the only part that needs a deliberate hour, and the main confusion is the interaction between lists, tags, and segments, which overlap more than they should. | Moderate to steep. The goal-and-sequence model is powerful but genuinely unfamiliar if you have only used linear drip builders, and tag hygiene becomes a discipline you either establish early or regret. This is the main reason a certified partner ecosystem exists. |
| Platforms | Web application, iOS and Android mobile apps, REST API, Browser-based email and landing page editors | Web application, iOS and Android apps (United States, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand), REST API, Hosted landing pages and forms |
| Compliance | GDPR tooling including consent capture and data deletion requests, CAN-SPAM compliant unsubscribe handling | GDPR tooling for consent and data requests, CAN-SPAM and TCPA-aligned messaging controls, PCI-handled payment processing through integrated providers |
| Founded | 2018 | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Wilmington, Delaware, United States, with engineering in India | Chandler, Arizona, United States |
| Ownership | Bootstrapped | Owned by Thryv Holdings (NASDAQ: THRY) since October 2024 |
Strengths and limitations
EngageBay
Strengths
- Breadth per dollar is the best in this category: marketing automation, CRM, and helpdesk on one contact record for less than most vendors charge for email alone.
- The free tier is a real product rather than a demo, including CRM, live chat, helpdesk, and capture forms at 250 contacts.
- Contact caps are generous relative to price, and Pro's 50,000-contact allowance is priced where contact-metered competitors charge several times more.
- Bringing your own sending provider is supported and documented, which decouples your volume economics from EngageBay's plan allowances.
Limitations
- No product event stream and no real-time segmentation engine, so behaviour-triggered lifecycle messaging in the modern sense is not achievable here.
- The per-user meter combined with account-level contact caps produces awkward pricing for teams with many light users or very large lists.
- The visual automation builder starts at Growth, four and a half times the advertised entry price.
- Deliverability tooling is minimal: no seed testing, no inbox placement reporting, and no dedicated IP story on self-serve plans.
Keap
Strengths
- The goal-based campaign canvas remains one of the best automation models for small businesses, handling branching, re-entry, and goal exits more gracefully than most step-list builders.
- Quotes, invoices, subscriptions, and payment collection are native, so revenue is a first-class automation trigger rather than something you infer from a webhook.
- Appointment booking and a dedicated business phone number are included, removing two subscriptions most small businesses otherwise carry.
- Twenty-plus years of accumulated campaign templates, a large app marketplace, and a certified partner ecosystem that can build the thing for you.
Limitations
- Mandatory implementation services with an unpublished price undermine the self-serve promise and put the true entry cost close to four figures.
- No product event stream, no real-time segmentation engine, and no warehouse or reverse ETL connector, so this is a dead end for product-led lifecycle messaging.
- The email and landing page builders are dated, and output quality is well behind Ortto, Drip, or Bento.
- Business texting is United States only, which quietly removes a headline feature for international buyers.
Pricing compared
EngageBay
Per-user subscription with an account-level contact cap and a branded-email allowance layered on top, in four tiers, discounted 8 percent annually and 15 percent biennially.
- Free$0
- Basic$14.99
- Growth$64.99
- Pro$119.99
Modelled at 5,000 contacts with two seats, Growth costs about $130 a month for automation, email, landing pages, forms, CRM, and helpdesk together, which no single-purpose competitor comes close to on breadth per dollar. Modelled at 50,000 contacts with two seats, Pro is about $240 a month, and the comparison against HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional at $800 plus a $3,000 onboarding fee is not close. The catch is the per-seat multiplier: add a sixth user and EngageBay stops being the cheap option, because you are paying full price again for someone who logs in twice a week. Buy it small.
Keap
Single plan priced by contact volume, including two user licences, with a mandatory one-time implementation package and separately metered text marketing tiers.
- Keap$299
- Additional users$39
- Implementation (mandatory)From about $500
Judged as marketing automation alone, Keap is expensive: $299 a month plus a mandatory implementation package buys you a list-driven campaign builder that EngageBay approximates for $65 a seat and that Ortto beats on data capability. Judged as the operating system for a service business, the arithmetic changes, because Keap also replaces the scheduler, the quoting tool, the invoicing tool, and the payment follow-up spreadsheet, and the goal-based campaign model is genuinely better than most competitors at handling the branching a real sales process produces. The mandatory implementation fee is the part most buyers resent and the part that most reliably determines whether the subscription gets used. If you are going to buy Keap, buy it because you want the money side too. If you only want emails, this is the wrong invoice.
Editorial verdict on each
EngageBay
Best ValueEngageBay is the correct answer to a narrow but very common question: how does a business with fewer than 25 people get marketing automation, a CRM, and a helpdesk on one database without spending four figures a month. It is not the best tool in any single one of those categories and it never claims to be. What it is, is coherent, cheap, self-serve, and bootstrapped by a company with no reason to reprice you. Buy the Growth plan, not the $14.99 headline, because that is where the automation builder lives. Do not buy it if your lifecycle triggers are product events rather than form fills, because that architecture simply does not exist here, and no amount of price advantage compensates for a trigger you cannot fire.
Read the full EngageBay profileKeap
Keap is a serious product with an unfriendly front door. The goal-based campaign builder is still one of the best small-business automation models ever shipped, the native quoting, invoicing, and payment layer is something no event-driven lifecycle platform will ever match, and the partner ecosystem means you can hire someone who has built this exact campaign forty times. Against that: $299 a month, a mandatory implementation package with an unpublished price, a $299 early termination fee, dated builders, US-only texting, and zero capability to act on product events. Buy Keap if you run a service business where the money and the marketing should live in one system and you are prepared to invest properly in setup. Do not buy it as an email tool, and do not buy it for a SaaS product, because in both cases you would be paying a premium for the parts you cannot use.
Read the full Keap profileEngageBay profile last reviewed 2026-08-22; Keap last reviewed 2026-08-22. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.