Guide · UK · food and drink
HubSpot alternatives for food and drink brands
HubSpot is good software with a steep price curve. Before you sign a year at Professional, here is what else a food or drink brand can use, and what each one actually costs.
Short answer
Closest like-for-like for less: Zoho Marketing Plus (from £20 a month) with Zoho CRM (free for 3 users). Selling online through Shopify: Klaviyo. Cheapest email with SMS and WhatsApp: Brevo. Serious automation on a budget: ActiveCampaign. Trade and wholesale selling first: Pipedrive.
If the real problem is that nobody has time to run HubSpot, another tool won't fix it. That's what Ziild CMO is for (we make it).
Disclosure: We make Ziild CMO, and it's on this list. It is a different kind of answer: it does the marketing work instead of being another platform to run. If you need a CRM or a self-serve tool, one of the other six is the better choice, and we say which. All prices come from each vendor's own website.
Why food and drink brands look beyond HubSpot
HubSpot's free plan and Starter (list price $20 per seat a month, shown at $7 to new customers in October 2026) are fair value. The jump comes after that. Professional starts at $800 a month for 3 seats, needs an annual commitment, and adds a required one-time onboarding fee of $3,000.
From HubSpot's own pricing terms:
- Full automation and the social media tools start at Professional.
- Price grows with your marketing contacts, and once you pick a contact tier you can't drop to a lower one until the contract renews.
- AI features use HubSpot Credits; unused credits don't roll over.
- HubSpot doesn't see supermarket or retail stock. For a brand selling through retailers, most of the sales picture is missing.
At a glance
| Alternative | Best for | CRM | Email automation | Social | Landing pages | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ziild CMO | Getting the work done | Works alongside yours | Yes, done for you | Yes, incl. video | Yes, full sites | £1,250/mo |
| Zoho Marketing Plus | HubSpot-like breadth for less | Separate: Zoho CRM | Yes | Yes | Yes | £20/mo |
| Brevo | Cheap email, SMS, WhatsApp | Partial, sales add-on | From Standard | Not listed | 1 page, Standard | $8.08/mo |
| Klaviyo | Web-shop email and SMS | Customer profiles, no pipeline | Yes | Paid add-on | Web forms | $20/mo |
| ActiveCampaign | Automation on a budget | Pipelines add-on | Yes, Starter limited | No | From Plus | £13/mo |
| Mailchimp | Familiar and simple | Contact profiles only | Full flows from Standard | Posting; scheduling from Standard | Yes | £9.92/mo |
| Pipedrive | Trade and wholesale selling | Yes, its core | Via Campaigns add-on | No | No | €14/seat/mo |
Cheapest paid plan as shown on each vendor's site on 6 October 2026, billed yearly where stated. Currencies as displayed: £ where the vendor showed GBP, otherwise $ or €. Prices exclude VAT.
01Ziild CMOOURS
An AI marketing department for food and drink brands. It does the daily work across email, social video, recipe and brand sites and ads, reads your sales and stock data, and waits for a yes before anything goes public.
- Pick it if
- HubSpot isn't the problem; the hours to run it are. You want output every day and your marketing director approving, not operating.
- Skip it if
- You need a CRM for a sales team or a self-serve tool your team will run. Pick one of the six below.
- AI features
- Built on Claude. House rules in code: verified claims only, alcohol copy product-first, nothing sent without approval.
- Price
- Content engine £1,250 a month (one site, 20 answer pages a month, videos and posts on 3 channels). Campaigns + £750 a month. Content network of up to 5 sites £5,000 a month, all-in. Full CMO scoped per company. Ex VAT.
- Website
- ziild.co.uk
02Zoho Marketing Plus + Zoho CRM
Zoho's marketing suite (email, social, automation, landing pages, SMS, events) plus its separate sales CRM.
- Pick it if
- You want most of what HubSpot does, including social and landing pages, at a fraction of the price.
- Skip it if
- You want one simple app. CRM and marketing are separate subscriptions, and setting up several Zoho apps takes effort.
- AI features
- AI campaign planner and AI marketing assistant in Marketing Plus; Zia and AI agents in Zoho CRM.
- Price
- Marketing Plus from £20 a month billed yearly (£24 monthly): 1 marketer, 1,000 contacts. Zoho CRM free for 3 users; Standard £12 per user a month billed yearly.
- Website
- www.zoho.com/marketingplus/pricing.html
03Brevo
Email, SMS and WhatsApp marketing, priced by email volume rather than contacts, with an optional sales CRM.
- Pick it if
- You want the cheapest serious email, plus SMS or WhatsApp, and you'd rather pay by sends than by list size.
- Skip it if
- You need social or ads in the same tool, or e-commerce extras like back-in-stock emails, which start at Professional ($449 a month and up).
- AI features
- AI content generator, AI send-time optimisation; Aura AI segmentation on Professional.
- Price
- Free plan, up to 300 emails a day. Starter $8.08 a month billed yearly ($9 monthly); automation from Standard at $16.17 a month billed yearly.
- Website
- www.brevo.com/pricing
04Klaviyo
E-commerce email, SMS and WhatsApp driven by your web shop's order data.
- Pick it if
- You sell direct to consumers through Shopify or similar, and want flows that run on what people actually bought.
- Skip it if
- Your sales go mainly through retailers or wholesale. There's no deal pipeline for trade accounts, and social and reviews are paid add-ons.
- AI features
- K:AI, Composer (an AI agent, paid add-on beyond a small free allowance), Customer Agent, predictive analytics.
- Price
- Free up to 250 active profiles. Email from $20 a month for 500 profiles.
- Website
- www.klaviyo.com/uk/pricing
05ActiveCampaign
Email marketing and marketing automation with a light CRM.
- Pick it if
- You need real automation (welcome series, nurture, follow-ups to trade buyers) without HubSpot's price.
- Skip it if
- You're on a tight plan: Starter allows 5 actions per automation and has no landing pages, and deal pipelines are an add-on from Plus.
- AI features
- Active Intelligence, AI automation and campaign builders, AI content and image generation, predictive sending.
- Price
- Starter from £13 a month billed yearly, at 1,000 contacts. No free plan; 14-day trial.
- Website
- www.activecampaign.com/pricing
06Mailchimp
Email marketing with landing pages, basic social posting and Google retargeting, owned by Intuit.
- Pick it if
- You're small, want a familiar tool, and need email, landing pages and simple social posting in one place.
- Skip it if
- You need automation or AI on the cheapest plan. Essentials allows 4 flow steps; the AI features start at Standard.
- AI features
- Intuit Assist (beta), generative AI features, send-time optimisation, predictive segments, product recommendations: Standard and up.
- Price
- Free under 250 contacts. Essentials from £9.92 a month; Standard from £15.26 a month.
- Website
- mailchimp.com/en-gb/pricing/marketing
07Pipedrive
A sales-pipeline CRM. Email marketing comes through the paid Campaigns add-on.
- Pick it if
- Your growth is trade and wholesale: retailers, distributors, pubs and restaurants. You need a pipeline more than a marketing suite.
- Skip it if
- You need consumer marketing. No social, no ads, no landing pages, and email marketing costs extra on top of per-seat fees.
- AI features
- AI report creation, Pipedrive Nova meeting intelligence, AI email tools on Premium.
- Price
- Lite €14 per seat a month billed yearly (€24 monthly), shown in euros. Campaigns add-on from €13.33. No free plan; 14-day trial.
- Website
- www.pipedrive.com/en/pricing
How we chose
- We started from what a food or drink brand uses HubSpot for: email, automation, social, landing pages and a CRM for trade accounts.
- We included one option for each real reason people leave: price, complexity, a Shopify-first business, or a sales-first business.
- We checked whether each tool sees sales or stock. None of the six platforms sees retail stock; only your own shop's orders.
- Every price and feature comes from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on the date at the top. We re-check monthly.
Questions people ask
Why is HubSpot so expensive?
Starter is cheap. The cost comes at Professional: from $800 a month for 3 seats on an annual commitment, plus a required $3,000 onboarding fee, and the price grows with your marketing contacts. That's where full automation and the social tools are.
What is the cheapest alternative to HubSpot?
For email: Brevo from $8.08 a month or Mailchimp from £9.92. For a CRM: Zoho CRM is free for 3 users. For HubSpot-like breadth: Zoho Marketing Plus from £20 a month.
Is HubSpot still worth it for a food or drink brand?
Yes, if you sell to trade accounts, need a pipeline, and have someone to run it. For consumer marketing at small scale, most brands use a fraction of what Professional costs.
Which HubSpot alternative is best for a Shopify food or drink brand?
Klaviyo. Its flows run on your shop's order data. Free up to 250 active profiles; email from $20 a month.
Can I keep HubSpot and use Ziild CMO too?
Ziild CMO runs on your own accounts rather than replacing your CRM. Which of your systems it connects to is part of the 15-minute scoping call.
Sources
- HubSpot Marketing Hub pricing and terms
- Zoho Marketing Plus pricing
- Zoho CRM pricing
- Brevo pricing
- Klaviyo UK pricing
- ActiveCampaign pricing
- Mailchimp UK pricing
- Mailchimp plan comparison
- Pipedrive pricing
- Pipedrive Campaigns billing
Prices change. We re-check this page every month; last check 6 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us: pasi@ziild.co.uk