CRM & Sales* Otto’s Pick

Keap

CRM and marketing automation for service-based businesses

What it does

Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) is an all-in-one CRM, marketing automation, invoicing, and appointment booking platform for small businesses. The pitch: instead of buying HubSpot + Calendly + Stripe + a separate marketing automation tool, you get one platform. In practice, it is a mid-market tool priced above where solo founders can justify it, but well-suited to established small businesses (5-30 employees) that already have revenue and want to consolidate 4-6 subscriptions into one. Infusionsoft was famously hard to use; Keap has cleaned it up but it still has a learning curve.

Free tier

Starts at

$249/mo

Setup

hard

Key features

CRMMarketing AutomationEmail MarketingAppointmentsInvoicingLanding Pages

Integrates with

QuickBooks, Gmail, Zapier, WordPress, Stripe

Who this fits

Established small service businesses (medspa, coach, financial advisor, home services) doing $500k-$5M/yr
Coaches, consultants, and course creators with a book of business who need CRM + email + invoicing in one tool
Trades businesses (HVAC, plumbing, electrical) with strong customer LTV and referral-driven growth
Real estate teams running long-tail nurture campaigns for buyer/seller databases
Any business currently paying HubSpot + Calendly + Stripe + Mailchimp separately and wanting one login
Businesses with 2-10 users where a $299/mo consolidated bill beats 4 subscriptions totaling $500+/mo

Who it does NOT fit

Solo founders under $10k/mo revenue ($299/mo entry is too much before product-market fit)
Startups and SaaS teams (Keap is not designed for tech-first workflows; HubSpot or Close win)
Any business that only needs CRM without marketing automation (Pipedrive, Close, or HubSpot Free)
Cost-conscious teams (Keap is expensive compared to the best-of-breed alternative stack for small businesses)
Teams that don't invest in the required implementation services (Keap without setup services fails)
B2B enterprise sales teams (Salesforce, HubSpot Sales Hub, or Close fit better)

Pricing

Keap simplified to a single unified plan in 2024-25. No more Lite/Pro/Max tiers. - **Keap**: $299/mo (billed annually at $2,988/yr) or monthly billing at a modest premium. Includes 2 user licenses, all features (CRM, marketing automation, invoicing, appointments, forms, landing pages, sales pipeline). - **Additional users**: $39/user/mo beyond the included 2. - **Contact limits**: variable and quoted. Base plan includes ~1,500 contacts [VERIFY current threshold]; overages priced case-by-case. - **Text marketing add-on**: tiered from included (500 messages) up to $279/mo (25,000 messages). - **Required implementation services**: separate, paid, one-time. Ranges from ~$500 basic setup to $2,000+ for full migration and coaching. Do not skip this. Users who try to self-onboard Keap fail. Realistic year-one all-in cost for a 5-user business: $299 base + $117 for 3 extra users + $1,000 implementation = ~$5,000 in year one. Year two drops to $4,992 without the setup fee.

Real gotchas

**Skipped implementation**: 90% of Keap failures are users who wanted to self-onboard to save $500. The tool is not designed for self-serve.
**Team never uses it**: Same failure mode as any CRM. If the owner does not enforce logging activity, the team stays in spreadsheets.
**Growth past 20 users**: Keap's UX starts to feel dated with larger teams. Migrate to HubSpot Growth Suite or Close + a dedicated marketing automation tool.
**B2B outbound requirements**: Keap has no dialer, no sequences designed for cold outbound. Sales team that grows into outbound needs Close, Salesloft, or Outreach.
**Reliance on the built-in landing page builder**: It works but is aesthetically limited. Serious CRO teams still need Leadpages or Unbounce.

Integrations that matter

- **Stripe, PayPal, WePay** - native payment collection - **QuickBooks Online, Xero** - invoice sync to accounting - **Zapier + Make** - covers the long tail - **Google Workspace, Outlook** - email and calendar sync - **Shopify, WooCommerce** - ecommerce contact and order sync - **Zoom** - meeting scheduling integration - **Native landing page builder** - avoids needing Leadpages or Unbounce for basic pages - **Native SMS marketing** - avoids a separate Twilio or SimpleTexting subscription - **Facebook Lead Ads** - direct sync of Meta form submissions

Otto’s take on this tool

> Example: "For your 5-person medspa doing $80k/mo and juggling MindBody + Mailchimp + Square + Calendly, Keap at $299/mo (plus $117 for your 3 extra staff) replaces all of that. Automated appointment reminders, birthday campaigns to your database, invoicing, and a sales pipeline for consultation follow-up all live in one tool. Budget $1,000 for the implementation package; Keap without setup services is a graveyard. Total year-one cost around $5,000, replacing about $4,800 of your current spread across 4 subscriptions."

Affiliate disclosure: if you sign up through the link above, Ottomately may earn a referral commission at no cost to you. We only feature tools we have actually used or vetted through our recommendation engine.Partnership: 25-30% recurring via Direct.

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