Looking for an easy-to-use landing page builder with plenty of awesome features? Unbounce and HubSpot are both great choices – but what is the right solution for you!
That depends on what your B2B business objectives are. Let’s compare-and-contrast between the two to see which landing page builder is right for you.
Why Are Landing Page Builders Important?
A landing page is a great way to show your business’s brand, sensibility and personality – after all, first impressions matter a lot (know that 94% of first impressions of a website are design-related)
Naturally, you want a landing page builder that can deliver on that promise. It’s no wonder that 43.6% of marketers report generating leads as the top priority for their landing pages.
Ease of Use
However, a landing page builder only works if it can be set up. The easier it is for your team to set one up, the quicker you can start testing, optimizing, and working toward your page conversion goals. So when it comes to ease of use, which is better?
The case for Unbounce
Unbounce is known for its intuitive drag-and-drop builder, making it easy for users to create custom landing pages without needing any coding skills to start. It's designed to be user-friendly and efficient.
The case for HubSpot
HubSpot’s landing page builder, meanwhile, is also pretty user-friendly. However, it might have a steeper learning curve compared to Unbounce due to the platform's broader range of features and functionalities. That said, if you are already on HubSpot, then that wide assortment won’t be as intimidating as they would be familiar.
What Macro Thinks
Depends….if you are already using HubSpot, then getting to know their landing page builder should come as a cinch. Otherwise, for completely new users, you can’t get a better, more intuitive introduction to landing page builders than Unbounce.
Customization
Next, let’s take a look at another important aspect of landing page builders – customization. Beyond following the best practices, how you set up and present your business’s landing page is up to what you choose to prioritize. So, how do HubSpot and Unbounce fare in this area?
The Case for Unbounce
Indeed, Unbounce enables a high level of customization for landing pages, so if you have the technical knowledge in your team, you can end up creating some pretty unique designs and experiences that can make your business stand out with incredible applications of UX and UI.
The Case for HubSpot
Now looking at HubSpot, we see that they offer plenty of customization options in their landing page builder. What’s especially nice is, thanks to the access to the HubSpot CRM, you can create personalized content based on any piece of information you’ve gathered on your customers. This can make swapping out and updating content for new campaigns and clients quick and intuitive.
What Macro Thinks
As plentiful as HubSpot’s offerings may seem, they may nonetheless seem more limited compared to Unbounce, particularly for users who require highly specialized or complex designs.
Templates
Speaking of ease of use and customization, a good landing page builder should come with, at minimum, a multitude of templates to choose from.
Templates are especially handy if your team doesn’t have much design experience (though don’t let a lack of design experience discourage you – you can always work with a natural extension of your team to fill any gaps in content and design). Between HubSpot and Unbounce, we’re looking for a great variety of templates that are easy to use and customize.
The Case for Unbounce
Unbounce proudly proclaims it has “over 100 high-converting landing page templates”, each focused on a different and specific use case. With so much to choose from, it can feel a bit intimidating at first, which is why we love their useful Templates Helper feature. It’s essentially working with a chatbot to determine what kind of template best fits what you’re looking for.
The Case for HubSpot
Unsurprisingly, HubSpot also talks a big game when it comes to templates, and backs it up with over 300 templates to choose from. (Though, keep in mind that less than half of these templates are free.) HubSpot also gives you a free preview of what their templates look like, just like Unbounce does, though interestingly enough HubSpot also provides a tablet view in addition to mobile and desktop, something that Unbounce doesn’t do. It’s a small thing, but may be the difference maker!
What Macro Thinks
This category, more than other, really comes down to your personal preference. There are so many templates to choose from, and just by quantity alone HubSpot is more likely to have something that fits your needs. Still, it’s worth going through both template libraries to see what inspires you.
Integrations
It’s unlikely you’re just looking for a landing page builder by itself. More likely, it’s part of a multi-touch approach made possible by working with many digital marketing tools and platforms.
The Case for Unbounce
This is where you may struggle if you choose to go to Unbounce, since its primary focus is on landing page creation. That said, just looking at the app market for Unbounce we can see that Unbounce can work well with Google Analytics, Salesforce, and more (34 apps, 21 integrations available in total).
The Case for HubSpot
HubSpot, on the other hand, has the advantage of being, well, HubSpot! What else can you say; it’s a comprehensive, multi-growth stack that offers a suite of tools beyond landing page creation. That means support for CRM, email marketing, social media management, and other marketing automation tools. While its landing page builder is robust, it's just one component of the larger HubSpot ecosystem.
What Macro Thinks
Both Unbounce and HubSpot offer integrations with other tools and platforms. However, HubSpot's integration capabilities may be more extensive due to its reputation as an all-in-one marketing platform. It seamlessly integrates with its CRM, email marketing, and other marketing automation tools. And the marketplace for HubSpot is absolutely massive, with over 1,400 possible apps ready for integration.
One thing to consider if you can’t come to a decision – Unbounce and HubSpot can work with each other!
Testing capabilities
An important strategy for conversion rate optimization is A/B testing. Landing page builders should typically offer built-in features for running A/B tests, which allows marketers to deploy two different versions of a page and determine which one performs best.
The Case for HubSpot
HubSpot provides A/B testing for any user with a Marketing Hub or CMS Hub subscription (note they also have to be either Professional or Enterprise level). HubSpot has a support page and blog that can help users run through the ins and outs.
The Case for Unbounce
Unbounce offers unlimited A/B testing on almost all of its plans (more on that later). For users new to A/B testing, Unbounce provides a glossary resource and a dedicated blog for A/B testing, though it should be noted that the last post was in 2016 – an epoch in B2B marketing!
What Macro Thinks
While both provide A/B testing, we note that while Unbounce has more resources on A/B testing, HubSpot’s resources are generally more up-to-date. Coupled with HubSpot’s level of support, we’re leaning toward HubSpot as the winner here.
Staying ahead of the game with AI
What else can we compare? How about the innovation factor? If you’re forward-minded and want to make sure your business is on top of what’s cutting edge, then this is a key category for you. And of course, there’s no hotter topic of discussion right now than AI.
The Case for HubSpot
HubSpot now has a feature where you can build landing pages using generative AI (something we discussed in one of our recent blogs diving into the latest applications of AI by HubSpot). Called Campaign Assistant, this tool can reduce the time taken to generate a landing page from hours to minutes; only the topic, tone of voice, and call-to-action are needed as prompts.
The Case for Unbounce
As for Unbounce? As it turns out, they have released their own AI landing page generator as well! Theirs is known as Smart Builder, and it only asks for the page type and purpose before recommending a template that you are free to edit almost instantly.
What Macro Thinks
We’re still in the early days of what we can do with AI, but it’s good to see both companies are putting their money where their mouth is and not just riding trends. Both AI tools are intuitive and easy to use, to the point this is essentially a tie – it may just come down to your preferences in the other categories!
Pricing
Let’s not forget about pricing! When considering the return-on-investment (ROI) on a landing page builder, we should weigh the cost against the value of generating new leads and building brand awareness
Landing page builders should also save you time and resources normally dedicated to development, since the pages are created by marketing teams rather than developers. With that in mind, let’s see what Unbounce and HubSpot offer in their pricing plans.
The Case for Unbounce
Unbounce offers flexibility in their pricing, with tiered plans based on the number of conversions and unique visitors. Additional features such as A/B testing and dynamic text replacement available in higher-tier plans, and their highest tier offers concierge support.
The Case for HubSpot
HubSpot's pricing is based on the features and tools you need, with different plans available for CRM, Marketing Hub (which includes landing pages), Sales Hub, Service Hub, and more. What the final pricing is can vary quite a bit depending on the scale of your marketing needs.
What Macro Thinks
It really depends on the extent to which you will be using a landing page builder, and with other tools. If you’re going to make use of the features and tools that HubSpot will offer, then it makes sense to go with HubSpot.
But if you’re primarily focused on just the landing page builder, then Unbounce’s cheaper plans are a good pick – just be careful, if you want to be able to do A/B testing and dynamic text replacement, their cheapest tier will not have those options!
Other factors to consider
What else is there to know? You can consider how these landing page builders are rated in the B2B community. HubSpot boasts that their landing page builder is among the highest rated on G2, being recognized in Fall 2023 for Best Usability, Momentum Leader, Best Results, Best Relationship, and Most Implementable.
That said, Unbounce is rated just as high, albeit with less reviews – which makes sense when it focuses on just one area compared to HubSpot’s ubiquity across all channels of B2B marketing. This may be the case where increased popularity increases the rewards!
The Final Decision
Ultimately, the choice between Unbounce and HubSpot depends on your specific needs and preferences.
- If you're primarily focused on creating and optimizing landing pages and prefer a dedicated platform for that purpose, Unbounce might be the better choice.
- However, if you're looking for a more comprehensive marketing solution with integrated CRM and automation capabilities, HubSpot could be the way to go.
And don’t forget, you can always use both: Utilize the Unbounce landing page builder integrated with HubSpot’s breadth of features and support.
If you’re still not sure, we at Macro are happy to talk with you to figure out which one is better for your business. Just book a free consultation with us!