EngageBay: the two-year price you are shown first, and the contract that never mentions it

EngageBay opens on its biennial rate, quotes it in the starts-at teaser, and sells a term its own terms of service do not describe. What it costs, where it beats HubSpot, and the clause to get in writing first.

About this guide

Published by StackOnSale. Publisher: Emmanuel Grenier. Guide updated: 2026-09-18.

Research based on official vendor pages, not a hands-on review.

StackOnSale may earn a commission through disclosed affiliate links on the site. This does not decide which tool fits your needs.

The short answer

EngageBay shows its two-year price first. On the All-in-One suite, per user per month, Basic is $14.99 billed monthly, $13.79 billed yearly and $12.74 on the two-year term; on Growth, the two-year term saves roughly $55 a year per user over yearly billing.

Its terms of service do not describe a two-year term, and its free plan covers up to 15 users, 250 contacts and 1,000 branded emails. On a tool you have not used yet, the yearly term is the better choice; ask for the renewal rate in writing before committing to two years.

What it actually costs, on all three terms

EngageBay is one of the few vendors in this catalogue that publishes a two-year price, so its pricing page has three columns instead of the usual two. On the All-in-One suite, per user per month: Basic is $14.99 monthly, $13.79 yearly, $12.74 on the biennial term. Growth is $64.99, $59.79 and $55.24. Pro is $119.99, $110.39 and $101.99. The page labels the discounts itself, 8% off for yearly and 15% off for two years. We read these prices, limits and labels again on November 4, 2026, along with sections 3(A), 3(E) and 5(A) of the terms of service quoted below: none had changed since September 18.

The limits that actually force an upgrade are contacts and branded emails, and they move together: 250 contacts and 1,000 emails free, then 500 and 3,000 on Basic, 5,000 and 25,000 on Growth, 10,000 and 50,000 on Pro. Those two numbers are easy to confuse because they sit beside each other on the card, and the larger one is the emails.

Above Pro there is no published price at all, only an invitation to book a call.

The two-year price is the one you are shown first

Open the pricing page and the biennial tab is already selected. Not monthly, not yearly: the two-year rate is the default pane, so the first number a visitor sees is the one that carries the longest commitment.

The same figure travels. The starts-at teaser at the top of the page, All-in-One from $12.74, is the biennial rate, not a monthly one. So is the equivalent teaser on the Marketing and Sales pages.

None of this is hidden. The tabs are right there and the discount labels are honest. It is simply worth knowing that the cheapest number on the page is attached to the heaviest term, and that it is the one presented to you by default.

The contract does not describe a two-year term

This is the part worth reading before you commit. EngageBay's terms of service, section 3(A), say your card will be charged in advance on a recurring monthly or yearly basis depending on which service you selected. A biennial term is not contemplated anywhere in the agreement.

Section 3(E) says prices are subject to change on thirty days notice, and that the notice may be given by posting the change to the EngageBay website. So the two-year rate is a rate the vendor can revise, with notice you would have to go looking for.

And the clause that matters most if it goes wrong, section 3(A) again: a full refund is available only if you cancel within three days of payment, 50% within the first month, and no refund at all once the annual plan has been active more than two months. The same section then says the refund policy does not apply to any special pricing plans or discounts. The 8% and 15% rates are discounts off the monthly price. Whether that sentence removes the refund right from anyone who took them is not defined anywhere we could find, and we are not going to guess at it. It is a fair question to put to EngageBay in writing before signing for two years.

One more, section 5(A): an email or phone request to cancel is explicitly not a cancellation. You have to cancel inside the account.

What reviewers say, and where it lines up with the contract

EngageBay is well reviewed. Trustpilot shows 4.8 from more than a thousand reviews, G2 4.6 from around 750, Capterra 4.6 from around 900. The criticisms below are the minority themes, not the verdict.

The one worth reading is billing. Trustpilot's own summary notes reviewers describing difficulty reaching the billing department, and the individual complaints describe selecting do-not-renew, asking a representative on chat to cancel, being charged for a full year anyway, and being offered 50%.

We report that as what reviewers wrote rather than as established fact. What is verifiable is that the 50% figure matches the refund schedule in section 3(A) exactly, and that section 5(A) says a chat or phone request does not count as cancelling. The complaint and the contract describe the same mechanism.

The other two recurring themes are milder and common to the category: reporting is thinner than buyers expect from a full CRM, and the interface takes a while to learn because there is a great deal in it.

Against HubSpot's free plan, the seat count is the whole argument

This is the comparison most people are really making, and it turns on one number that is easy to miss.

HubSpot's free CRM is free for up to two users. EngageBay's free tier is free for up to fifteen, and it covers marketing, CRM, sales and the help desk at no cost, with 250 contacts and 1,000 branded emails.

If you are one or two people, HubSpot free is a serious product and the better known one. At five people it stops being free, and that is the moment EngageBay's proposition exists for.

What you give up is branding on the free tier either way, and depth of reporting.

Against HubSpot's paid plans, the seven dollars is a promotion

HubSpot's Starter Customer Platform is advertised at $7 per seat per month against a struck-through $20. The banner underneath says new customers only. In September the page added that the discount had no set end date and could be discontinued at any time; read on October 23, 2026, that sentence is gone, and the banner now reads "Save up to 65% on Starter" with "Select offers available for a limited time." Either way the page gives no end date. The standing rate is $20.

So the honest comparison is $20 per seat against EngageBay Growth at $59.79 yearly, and at that point you are comparing what each includes rather than the headline. Starter comes with 1,000 marketing contacts.

The figure to keep in view is what happens if you outgrow Starter. Marketing Hub Professional starts at $800 a month, includes three seats, and carries a required one-time onboarding fee of $3,000. Enterprise starts at $3,600 a month with a required $7,000 onboarding fee. EngageBay publishes no onboarding fee at any tier and advertises free onboarding sessions and free migration.

That gap is the real argument for a tool like EngageBay, and it only appears at the third step, not the first.

The alternatives that are actually in this price band

Zoho CRM is free forever for three users, then $14 per user per month billed annually, $20 monthly. Its pricing page opens on the annual figure.

Freshsales has no free plan on its pricing page, starting at $9 per user per month billed annually or $11 monthly, with branded documents as a $19 per user add-on.

Brevo prices by email volume rather than by contacts or seats, which changes the comparison entirely: free at up to 300 emails a day, then $9 a month monthly or $8.08 on the yearly term.

ActiveCampaign prices by contact tier and shows only annual billing on its page, starting at $15 a month at a thousand contacts.

None of these is a drop-in replacement for the others. The useful question is which limit you will hit first, seats, contacts or emails, because each of these vendors charges on a different one.

Where EngageBay's own pages disagree with each other

Three inconsistencies we found on the same day, worth knowing because they affect what you think you are buying. A fourth, read on November 4, 2026: the All-in-One page's browser title says "Free to $99/Month", while the Pro card on that page shows $101.99 on the biennial term and $119.99 monthly.

The contact footnote at the bottom of all three paid pages says the Pro plan includes up to 10,000 contacts. That is correct on the All-in-One page. On the Marketing and Sales pages, Pro is printed as 5,000 contacts on the card itself. Same footnote, two different products.

The Service page advertises All-in-One from $10.79 and Marketing from $9.35. The other three pages advertise $12.74 and $11.04. Same products, same day, different starts-at figures on the vendor's own site.

And on the monthly tab, the Basic card is captioned per user per month, paid yearly, while every other card on the same pane says per user per month. The price is the monthly one; the caption is wrong.

None of these is a trap. They are the ordinary drift of a pricing page maintained in several places, and they are the reason we quote the page we read and the date we read it rather than a number someone remembered.

Questions

Is the two-year term worth taking?

It saves about seven percentage points over the yearly rate, roughly $55 a year per user on Growth, in exchange for a second year you cannot leave. On a tool you have not lived with yet, the yearly term is the better trade. The two-year rate also sits outside what the terms of service describe.

Is EngageBay free plan really free?

Yes, and unusually generously: up to fifteen users, 250 contacts, 1,000 branded emails, covering marketing, CRM, sales and help desk. The cap that bites first is contacts, not seats.

Is it cheaper than HubSpot?

At one or two users, no, because HubSpot free covers that. From about five users up, yes, and the gap widens sharply if you would otherwise need HubSpot Professional, which starts at $800 a month plus a required $3,000 onboarding fee.

How do I cancel?

Inside the account, under your account name, plans, then cancel. EngageBay's terms state explicitly that an email or phone request is not a cancellation, and that is the mechanism behind most of the billing complaints we read.

Will my discount hold at renewal?

EngageBay makes no published promise either way. The word renew does not appear in its terms of service, and section 3(E) reserves the right to change prices on thirty days notice. Ask for the renewal rate in writing before committing to two years.

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