Testing out a CRM before you buy? Smart move. Keap’s 14-day free trial gives you a peek inside their platform—but there are some catches worth knowing upfront.
Keap keeps things simple now: one plan, everything included. You’re looking at $249 a month if you pay annually, or $299 month-to-month. No feature tiers to navigate. Everyone gets the same access to CRM tools, email marketing, automation, landing pages, payment processing—the works.
But here’s the thing. New users have to buy a $500 implementation package upfront. It covers onboarding, automation setup, data migration, and some strategic coaching. Not optional. So yeah, factor that into your budget before you commit.
Keap tries to do it all—CRM, marketing automation, sales workflows, customer service tools. The idea is you automate the repetitive stuff so you can focus on actually running your business. Works best for small teams drowning in manual follow-ups and scattered spreadsheets.
You get contact tagging and segmentation, automated email sequences, visual sales pipelines, e-commerce tools with cart integration, appointment booking. Plus it connects to over 5,000 other apps through Zapier and their marketplace—Gmail, QuickBooks, Shopify, you name it.
The trial lasts 14 days. No credit card needed to start, which is nice. You get access to most of what paying customers see—enough to build workflows, test automations, poke around the interface.
The goal here is letting you see if the platform actually fits how you work. Not just browsing screenshots on their site, but actually using it. That said, there are some limits baked in to stop spammers from abusing free accounts.
You can import contacts from CSV files or Gmail, organize them with tags and custom fields, score leads automatically, and track every interaction. Pretty much what you’d expect from a decent CRM. Nothing’s locked behind the paywall here.
The contact profiles hold everything—purchase history, email opens, behavioral data. Segmentation tools let you slice your list however makes sense: by location, engagement level, or whatever custom rules you dream up.
Keap gives you pre-built workflows you can tweak to match your business. Set up welcome sequences, abandoned cart emails, post-purchase follow-ups—the usual suspects. You can test triggers based on what people do: opened an email? Clicked a link? Visited your site?
The visual builder makes it easier to see how everything connects. And honestly, watching a well-built automation do its thing? Kind of satisfying.
You can customize your sales stages, drag contacts between them, and see the whole pipeline at a glance. Every contact keeps their full history, so you’re not guessing where you left off last time.
The reporting shows you where deals are getting stuck. Plus you can set reminders so leads don’t just… disappear into the void.
Okay, this is where things get trickier.
You can only send 25 emails total during the trial. Not 25 per day—25 period. Payment processing is completely turned off. And you can’t send or receive any text messages.
That 25-email cap is rough. You can’t really test deliverability, run a proper broadcast, or see how automation performs at scale. If you’re an e-commerce business, the payment lockout means you can’t test the full checkout experience. And the SMS block? That’s a major feature you’re just taking their word on.
Remember that $500 implementation package? Yeah, that’s mandatory. Whether you need handholding or not.
The base plan includes 500 texts and 100 voice minutes monthly. Want more? Starts at $24/month for higher tiers. Go over your limit? That’s $0.015 per text and $0.01 per voice minute. Those charges add up faster than you’d think.
And each extra user beyond the two included? Another $39 a month. Your contact list grows past 1,500? Pricing scales up—though good luck finding exact numbers without talking to sales.
If the trial limits feel too tight—or the price tag too steep—there are other options worth considering.
Sender’s free plan never expires. You get 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails every month. All features included. No credit card.
Let that sink in. Keap gives you 25 emails for two weeks. Sender gives you 15,000 emails a month, forever. That’s a 600x difference—and it’s permanent, not a trial.
The free tier includes unlimited automations, abandoned cart recovery, and automatic list management. Email templates, form builders, analytics—all there. SMS works too if you buy credits separately.
And when you’re ready to upgrade? Plans start at $7 a month. Not $249. Seven dollars.
Keap Free Trial
Sender Free Plan
How Long
14 days
Forever
Subscribers
Unclear
2,500
Emails
25 total
15,000/month
Automations
Limited
Unlimited
SMS
Blocked
Yes (with credits)
Credit Card
Not needed
Not needed
Payments
Unavailable
Available
After Trial
$249+/month
Free (scale from $7/month)
Sender’s pricing is transparent. No forced implementation fees. The interface is clean and doesn’t require three training sessions to figure out. And that free plan? Actually free. Not “free for 14 days then we hope you forget to cancel.”
Here’s the thing though—Keap and Sender aren’t exactly solving the same problem. Keap’s built for businesses that need heavy-duty CRM features, detailed pipeline management, integrated invoicing. If that’s you, and budget isn’t tight, Keap might still make sense.
But if you’re mostly focused on email marketing with solid automation? Sender’s the better call. Especially if you’re just starting out or running lean.
Go with Keap if: You need robust sales pipeline tools, don’t mind the higher price, and want everything under one roof.
Go with Sender if: Email marketing is your priority, you want generous free features, and you’d rather scale costs gradually as you grow.
All the features your business needs to
acquire high-quality leads, grow sales, and maximize revenue from campaigns
using one simple dashboard.