Best Hightouch Alternatives in 2026
Hightouch has positioned itself as the composable CDP, combining reverse ETL with audience management and identity resolution. But the pricing can climb quickly, and some teams want a simpler reverse ETL tool or a different approach to data activation entirely.
At a Glance
| Tool | Price | Best For | Key Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Free tier, paid from $500/mo | Teams wanting straightforward reverse ETL without CDP overhead | Focused reverse ETL tool. Simpler and more targeted than Hightouch. |
| RudderStack | Open-source, cloud from $500/mo | Engineering-heavy teams wanting a unified customer data pipeline | Event streaming, warehouse-first architecture, and reverse ETL in one platform |
| Segment (by Twilio) | $120/mo+ | Teams wanting a traditional CDP with event tracking and identity resolution | The original CDP. Event tracking, identity resolution, and destination syncing in one platform. |
| mParticle | Custom pricing, typically $50K+/year | Large companies needing enterprise-grade customer data infrastructure | Enterprise CDP built for high-volume, multi-platform data collection and activation |
| Lytics | Custom pricing | Marketing teams wanting audience building and activation without warehouse dependency | CDP designed for marketers. No warehouse required. Built-in ML for audience scoring. |
1. Census
Coverage & Capabilities
Core reverse ETL with strong warehouse support and 200+ destinations. Live Syncs for real-time data activation. Less feature bloat than Hightouch. Doesn't try to be a CDP.
The best alternative if you want reverse ETL and nothing more. Census does one thing well. If you don't need audience management or identity resolution, it's cleaner and more focused than Hightouch.
2. RudderStack
Coverage & Capabilities
Open-source core with SDKs for event tracking, data warehousing, and reverse ETL. More of an engineering tool than a marketing tool. Requires technical resources to set up and maintain.
Pick RudderStack if your engineering team wants to own the full customer data pipeline. It's more complex than Hightouch but gives you event collection, warehousing, and activation in one system.
3. Segment (by Twilio)
Coverage & Capabilities
300+ integrations. Real-time event streaming, identity resolution, and audience segmentation. Protocols for data governance. Acquired by Twilio. More expensive than Hightouch at scale but more mature as a CDP.
If you want a traditional CDP rather than a composable one, Segment is the established choice. You're paying more and giving up the warehouse-first approach, but you get a proven, mature platform.
4. mParticle
Coverage & Capabilities
Enterprise-grade CDP with real-time data collection, identity resolution, audience management, and compliance tools. Built for scale. Used heavily in media, retail, and financial services. Requires significant investment in both cost and implementation.
An enterprise play. If you're processing billions of events across mobile, web, and OTT platforms, mParticle handles that scale. For most companies, it's overkill and overpriced compared to Hightouch.
5. Lytics
Coverage & Capabilities
Mid-market CDP with built-in machine learning for behavioral scoring and audience segmentation. Doesn't require a data warehouse, which is a key difference from Hightouch's warehouse-first model. Best for marketing teams that don't have a mature data warehouse.
Consider Lytics if you don't have a data warehouse yet or your marketing team needs to work independently from data engineering. It's a different philosophy than Hightouch's composable approach.
How We Chose These Alternatives
We evaluated these alternatives based on reverse ETL capabilities, CDP features, pricing, and integration depth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest Hightouch alternative?
Census offers a free tier for basic reverse ETL. Segment starts at $120/mo for its free-tier equivalent. RudderStack's open-source version is free to self-host if you have the engineering resources.
Hightouch vs Census — which should I pick?
Hightouch if you want composable CDP features like audience management, identity resolution, and journey orchestration on top of reverse ETL. Census if you want focused, reliable reverse ETL without the extra complexity. Census is simpler; Hightouch is more feature-rich.
Do I need a composable CDP like Hightouch?
Only if you have a mature data warehouse and want to build audiences and activate data directly from it. If you're still setting up your warehouse or your marketing team needs a self-serve tool, a traditional CDP like Segment might be a better starting point.