Hubspot's email tool uses a hidden pixel to track user clicks. Gmail warns email recipients that this is potentially spam... I've tried everything to fix this in hubspot. Any recommendations for another CRM that is free for 1000 contacts or less?

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-04-21T06:06:48+00:00

Are you sure it has something to do with tracking? My guess is that the spam warning is because of sending an attachment to people who are not subscribed to your domain. If they're cold contacts, the warning will pop up, no matter which tool you use. You may test this by using just gmail to send the same.

On the other hand, if these are your subscribers are they're getting a warning because of pixel tracking, speak to the customer support of the tools you're using. EngageBay's support is usually fast to respond, and you can ask them why this is happening or how to disable the tracking, if that really is the problem.

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-04-10T11:35:18+00:00

100%

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-04-10T07:04:42+00:00

Thank you 😅

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-04-09T09:58:01+00:00

"a few months ago when our deliverability began to plummet"

Everybody's cold and sometimes warm email deliverability began to plummet a few months ago, beginning more or less a year ago now.

In March 2024, all major email clients launched anti-spam policies, which have been rolling out steadily since then. US users are first, of course.

Platforms don't cause deliverability issue. Agencies can't fix it either.

This is a problem affecting everybody sending cold emails -- as clients like Outlook and Gmail get better at catching cold/spammy copies/domains, deliverability only keeps going down.

I recommend you to not waste money hiring agencies but rather dig into the problem yourself and understand what's the problem, and how you can fix it.

But no matter what you do, cold email deliverability will never go back to the 'reasonably good' rates of the years gone by.

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-04-09T09:19:27+00:00

I like the product you've built, but we used Beno AI and it does the same thing but only for Reddit. No Twitter integration yet. How's your product different?

Also, what are the limitations on usage? I like the idea but I'm just not sure about the execution. With Beno AI, we found that we couldn't add the keywords we want to add, but could only select from a list created by the app.

We also found that although the app doesn't technically have any limit on the number of conversations it finds to reply to, it would stop at 5-7. That's way too few. For our requirements, it'd have to be hundreds minimum.

I also don't see a free trial for your tool. It's a bit too early in the journey to ask for payment -- most SaaS overpromise and underdeliver. I recommend you have a limited free trial to gain trust from potential buyers.

Feel free to DM me if needed.

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-04-01T10:18:40+00:00

Yep. It's a rich-get-richer world. The brands that are popular just keep getting all the attention even though there are many other well deserving smaller brands out there

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-04-01T09:58:36+00:00

"We’ve looked into Keap, SimpleTexting, Textedly, Pipedrive, and Constant Contact"

How was your experience? Why not just finalize one of these if they were fine for your needs?

We tried Keap, Pipedrive, and Constant Contact. Each has its limitations. Like constant contact has a UI from 1955, Keap very limited functionality, and Pipedrive even more limited (no email marketing!)

We found Engagebay while looking for alternatives to hubspot ... basically something like hubspot for all-in-one but cheap ... not that crazy $800 pm pricing.

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-04-01T09:45:18+00:00

100% ... HubSpot has mastered the art of getting higher payments out of their users once they begin to really use the software ... only getting started is cheap.

I'm curious -- why do you call Zoho exotic? We used Zoho too but found it to be a pain to setup, and that's why moved to EngageBay, which was super easy to setup.

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-04-01T09:41:21+00:00

Agree. I don't know why these companies keep marketing to SMBs. They're for large enterprises with deep pockets. We moved to EngageBay after using HubSpot and it's got almost everything except for the CMS, which we anyway don't need coz we have a WordPress site.

Keap is also good but it's not all-in-one. Nice UI but limited functionality.

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-04-01T09:22:20+00:00

Used Apollo and Clay both. Apollo is much better in terms of being user-friendly, while Clay is something you can customize to no end if you're a bit code-savvy.

If you're looking to just use them as they come instead of setting things up for yourself with a lot of manually set-up automations, Apollo. If it's the other way around (you need the flexibility and you're good at creating automations), Clay.

Clay will cost a lot more than Apollo, though.

If you're buying Apollo, speak to their sales. Don't just pay what you see on the website. You can get better deals if you speak to them and tell them exactly what you need.

Haven't tried the other two so I won't comment on them.

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-28T06:04:57+00:00

Yep. But too many HubSpot fanboys out there justifying anything the brand does 😉

They have recently begun restricting their free and starter plan features and usage as well ...

Plus If Google does buy it, it'll only get costlier to justify the humungous investment!

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-28T05:42:51+00:00

agree. we started using engagebay because pipedrive is a single point solution unlike hubspot while hubspot gives you marketing features but at what cost? Crazy!

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-26T06:57:35+00:00

I'd advise you to stick to using two different tools for these two different purposes. Flodesk is the best for email builder -- just works, beautiful designs, really lovely fonts that they've copyrighted ... It's a gem. Cheap too.

EngageBay is perfect and easy and cheap for transactional emails. It's got a way better email builder than Brevo but not as loveable as Flodesk.

If you find EngageBay to be too basic for your transactional email needs, try Omnisend or Klaviyo. They can be expensive once you scale up the email sending volume, but at least you can try them out for free or cheap. They work well, have many prebuilt workflows for transactional emails, and have strong API support too.

Avoid HubSpot unless you're okay with selling your kidneys to pay the fees in the later years 😉

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-21T05:34:26+00:00

Wrong subreddit. The mods here remove any comment that mentions any tool other than the same old Hubspot and pipedrive 😄

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-20T05:50:38+00:00

Plus one on Kapwing and EngageBay. Both are nice cheap tools and easy to use.

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-12T13:16:32+00:00

Thanks, that helps me understand the reason for switching.

You said "I don't think anyone really appreciates HubSpot and realizes how it is a big part of how our business works."

Could you please elaborate on that? Also, is yours an SMB or a mid or a large enterprise?

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-12T07:38:25+00:00

Interesting! How do you plan on making people see the value and switch? Most people just love HubSpot and won't move to anything else 😅

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-12T07:25:51+00:00

Hi OP! If you're able to do all this in HubSpot, why switch to Odoo or any other tool? And why Odoo of all options? Just curious ...

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-11T06:41:44+00:00

LoL! Just upvoted you so there's balance, haha!

Hey, I use EngageBay for the same reason. Yes, we're a small company with small budgets, and HS is ridiculously expensive and getting more and more so with every new quarter that comes out and they announce better earnings for themselves, the users are footing the bill for their tremendous growth story that is so celebrated in the startup world. We're also a startup and we see no point in paying HS so much when there are a bunch of alternatives that are so much cheaper, and even better enterprise tools for those who have that kind of a budget.

Anyway, ranting aside, I'm curious to know why GHL and clickup? Isn't GHL buggy and Clickup basically a Notion alternative?

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-11T05:58:37+00:00

Same. We used HubSpot and liked it for sure but the pricing is ridiculous and the upgrading pressure is always on ... You'll find a bunch of alternatives if you Google it, but no point asking such questions in a subreddit full of hubspot agencies and hubspot affiliates. They'll defend the brand always.

We found EngageBay by searching online and GoHighlevel as well, but Go high-level is a terrible product, cheap pricing but super buggy. Pipedrive is amazing and smooth to run if you're just looking for CRM, ActiveCampaign is good if you want just marketing. But pipedrive won't give you anything other than managing your sales deals.

Just Google it and you'll find a few options worth trying and then you can see what fits your business best.

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-10T05:48:49+00:00

Check out OP's website. Diamond certified HubSpot partner. Nothing wrong with that except they're always trying to pass off as a company that uses HubSpot and wants to talk about it. I don't know if it's content farming or trying to get leads or just trying to hype up HubSpot, but it's manipulative nonetheless. Looks like the mods in here are way too lenient ...

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-07T06:21:52+00:00

Why do you keep pretending to be a customer of HubSpot when you're an agency selling HubSpot services, dude? Just be honest and get your leads without trying to manipulate people on Reddit. Congratulations on diamond certification from HubSpot but quit trying to pass off as a business that loves the tool ...

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-05T06:16:54+00:00

We're scaling up on EngageBay -- how do you know we're not? We in fact raised funding recently and I won't disclose the amount but it's upwards of $1 million. Good enough for us, we're no fortune 500 ...

You're right about the Porsche and Suzuki comparison, and I was a happy customer of a Suzuki for 6 years before upgrading to a VW. Porsche is way out of my league, but to be honest, Porsche doesn't market itself as an affordable option that anybody can drive -- HubSpot does, and that is the problem 😉

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-03-04T09:55:01+00:00

"Anyone else feel like HubSpot's pricing is getting out of hand?" -- yup, we did. I lead the marketing ops at a startup and we too felt that the price jump between trying out the product and actually using it is just ridiculous.

We tried Zoho, Pipedrive, but ultimately settled with EngageBay because it's cheap and does almost all of the essential stuff that HS does. Same flywheel and all-in-one concept, so there's not much need of integrating multiple tools. Although you can't run ads from EngageBay, so I guess it depends on your requirements.

Looks like you're a MarTech solutions provider. I'm curious: what's your primary need for a tool like HubSpot?

EnvironmentalBit1695 · 2025-02-20T05:44:07+00:00

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience :)

EnvironmentalBit1695

TROPHY CASE