Hightouch vs Census vs GrowthLoop: Which one is the best for data activation in 2024?

After thoroughly researching, testing, and using Hightouch and Census to find the best data activation and synchronization platform, here’s what I discovered.

Hightouch is a reverse extract, transform, load (reverse ETL) platform for streamlining business data flows from a data warehouse for use in data activation platforms like Salesforce or Mailchimp. It’s made to streamline data engineers’ workflows when connecting data sources and destinations. For more creative users, it also includes add-ons to derive insights and segment customer data. However, it’s not the best choice for non-technical users because it requires data engineering expertise — especially for more complex syncs.

Census is also a reverse ETL platform that syncs data sources and destinations. It positions itself as more user-friendly than Hightouch, especially when it comes to building user segments and transforming data before it’s sent forward to marketing and sales channels. But, even though it is more intuitive and easier to use, it’s still mainly made for data engineers — as soon as you want to start segmenting data with your own conditions, you need SQL knowledge.

Both platforms are great for improving data engineering efficiency, but they don't fully address the need for seamless collaboration between marketing and engineering teams. 

This is where GrowthLoop is different from reverse ETL providers. It’s a composable customer data platform (CDP) that serves as a space for marketing and engineering teams to work independently yet collaboratively. It equips your team with audience segmentation, cross-channel journey orchestration, and precise campaign performance tracking for ongoing iteration. Everyone can contribute to revenue growth, no matter their skill set and technical know-how — marketers can build audiences and customer data flows without waiting on engineering, while engineers can focus on getting data into the warehouse instead of meeting marketing needs.

In this article, we’ll compare Hightouch vs Census vs GrowthLoop based on five main categories you need to consider before choosing the best platform for you:

1. User experience

2. Data integration capabilities

3. Audience segmentation

4. Campaign management

5. Price

To give you a more comprehensive overview of how they differ, we’ll also take a look at user reviews and notable customers of each platform in the comparison summary below.

Hightouch vs Census vs GrowthLoop: Comparison Summary

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             HightouchCensusGrowthLoopPrice        ⭐⭐⭐⭐        Offers a free plan with limitations. Paid plans start at $420/mo for 25 free destinations, 2 standard destinations, and 5 active syncs per destination. The Business plan has customizable offerings and pricing.              🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐        Also has a free plan with limitations. Paid plans start at $413/mo for unlimited free destinations, 2 billable destinations, and 5 active syncs per destination. The Enterprise plan also has custom pricing.                      ⭐⭐⭐⭐        The Basic plan gives you up to 1,000,000 customer records and unlimited users, destinations, and audiences. The Growth plan offers 10,000,000 records and unlimited users, destinations, and audiences. Contact us for pricing.      User Experience        ⭐⭐⭐        UI feels utilitarian and made for data engineers. Steep learning curve for non-basic integrations. Responsive and helpful customer support.              ⭐⭐⭐⭐        UI elements feel cluttered at first, but become intuitive after a while. Good customer support.              🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐        Simple and intuitive interface for non-technical users. Low learning curve. Excellent customer support with team onboarding training.      Data Integration Capabilities        ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐        Offers 34 native data source connections and 210 destinations. Uses "Models" for data preparation, allowing custom SQL queries or visual table selection for flexible sync setup.              ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐        Supports 24 native source connections and 234 destinations. Offers Basic and Advanced Sync Engines, with a streamlined sync setup process without separate modeling steps.              ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐        Natively supports 4 major data clouds and 100 destinations. Offers a user-friendly, single-menu sync setup process and allows custom API integrations for destinations.      Audience Segmentation        ⭐⭐⭐⭐        Offers no-code audience segmentation with an add-on: Customer Studio. Visual audience builder with AND/OR conditions. Only data schema definition requires technical skills.              ⭐⭐⭐        Uses SQL-based Datasets for segments. Offers AND/OR conditions, cross-dataset filtering, and result limiting. Segments can be used for various marketing activities and analytics across supported destinations.              🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐        Offers user-friendly audience segmentation with Recipes, AI-assisted building, and Audience Discovery. Its visual Audience Builder offers six methods for creating segments, with real-time previews and advanced grouping options.      Campaign Management        ⭐⭐⭐⭐        Offers visual journey automation with a drag-and-drop builder, flexible scheduling, and AI-generated reports. Provides basic insights with segment breakdowns, performance metrics, split tests, and Campaign Intelligence.              ⭐⭐⭐        No visual journey tools but offers segment size tracking, overlap analysis with Venn diagrams, and customized metrics. Allows performance tracking over time but doesn't provide advanced campaign evaluation features.              🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐        Allows advanced journey automation with custom nodes, multivariate testing, and flexible scheduling. Offers significance testing, uplift metrics, A/B testing tools, and powerful Insights for cross-channel marketing data analysis.      Used BySpotify, Calendly, GitLab, GameStop, NBACanva, ClickUp, Apollo, Figma, LoomIndeed, Koho, Mercari, Google , NascarBest ForData engineers that need extensive integrations and flexible sync setups with visual journey automation.Teams requiring streamlined sync processes and basic segmentation capabilities.        Non-technical users who need intuitive, powerful audience segmentation and advanced campaign management tools.            Try free forever(no card required)        Try free forever(no card required)        Free demo available(no card required)      

What is Hightouch?

"Unlock your data's full potential with seamless activation"

Tejas Manohar, Kashish Gupta, and Josh Curl were former Segment employees who identified a gap where businesses had robust data analytics capabilities but struggled to leverage this data in their day-to-day operations. Hightouch emerged in 2018 from the need to operationalize the vast amounts of data stored in data warehouses.

One of Hightouch’s core functionalities is data syncing, allowing seamless data transfer from data warehouses like Snowflake, Redshift, and BigQuery to hundreds of CRMs, marketing platforms, and other SaaS applications. Its reverse ETL technology offers more benefits than traditional ETL, enabling real-time data synchronization and ensuring the most up-to-date information is available across all destinations. Hightouch also offers paid add-ons for building audience segments and journeys from customer data. In addition, it provides essential measurement and reporting features for marketers to assess their campaign performance.

The ideal audience for Hightouch is businesses that need a reverse ETL for data syncing plus an environment where marketers can activate data with the help of engineering teams.

What is Census?

"Transform data into actionable insights instantly"

Boris Jabes and Sean Lynch were frustrated by how hard it was to get an accurate and complete picture of a customer, with each department having a different perspective. So, they founded a company, Census, in 2018 as a source of truth about customers that everyone could share.

Census’ primary feature is the ability to seamlessly sync data from data warehouses to various SaaS applications and analytics tools. It supports bi-directional data syncing through reverse ETL, ensuring data consistency across all systems. It offers an accessible workflow for non-technical users, but it isn’t the best choice for marketers since it doesn’t include marketing tools like journeys and campaign evaluation. However, it offers extremely fast sync times thanks to its Live Sync feature, which uses data streams to reduce latency to single-digit seconds.

Census is best for data teams that need a user-friendly platform for transforming data and building segments before sending it to destinations.

What is GrowthLoop?

"Marketing with data-driven precision"

Chris Sell and David Joosten are former Google employees who were frustrated by the need to go through the data engineering team whenever they wanted to access customer data for marketing purposes. Their solution was GrowthLoop, a composable CDP that strategically unifies teams and data to accelerate revenue growth.

GrowthLoop allows marketers to build intelligent customer segments and orchestrate cross-channel journeys without SQL or technical expertise. It lets users build highly targeted and personalized marketing campaigns and provides experimentation tools like A/B tests and significance testing that help measure the success of activated data. In addition, its AI helper, Marve, automates audience segmentation and customer journeys without the need for code or data team support so non-technical users can independently activate data.

GrowthLoop is tailored so marketers don’t need engineering help to activate customer data for marketing campaigns. On the other hand, it helps data professionals focus on maintaining data in the warehouse instead of pulling lists for marketing.

Hightouch vs Census vs GrowthLoop: User experience

Hightouch and Census are better suited for technical users, while GrowthLoop is more accessible to marketers and non-technical users.

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UI intuitiveness

Hightouch’s UI displays a lot of information. Census’ UI is cluttered at first but becomes intuitive after a while. GrowthLoop’s UI is easy to comprehend, even for non-technical users.

Hightouch’s interface is clean and clear — it tries to fit the entire menu on the screen, so users don't have to search for features. As a result, the UI elements are smaller and harder to interact with.

It makes features easier to find but the drawback is that the UI can quickly get cluttered when working with a lot of data and complex workflows.

Census feels more user-friendly than Hightouch. It has the same approach, trying to fit as much as possible on the same screen.

Unlike Hightouch, which uses different menus for each stage when setting up syncs, Census tries to fit the entire setup process on one screen. This makes the UI feel cluttered at first but becomes intuitive after using it for a while because you can access anything you need on one screen.

‍GrowthLoop has the most intuitive and approachable user interface. It uses large fonts, icons, and buttons that are easy to identify and click.

The UI is clear and intuitive from the first go, but the interactive elements aren’t as clearly visually defined as with Hightouch and Census, because the contrast isn’t pushed to the max.

To make the onboarding process easier, GrowthLoop explains exactly what you need to set up before using each of the data manipulation tools it offers. This is so you can grasp it quickly, no matter your technical expertise.

Moreover, it hides details like database connections inside organization settings, only showing the tools that allow you to manipulate data. This helps avoid overloading non-technical users with irrelevant information while still ensuring maximum functionality for data engineers.

Learning curve

All three platforms offer extensive documentation on data sources and destinations. But Hightouch and Census assume you have SQL knowledge, while GrowthLoop is simplified and expects no prior knowledge.

Hightouch's knowledge base provides extensive documentation and tutorials for all its features. It also includes specific setup guides for each data source and destination. However, it assumes you know some SQL, making its documentation tailored specifically for data engineers.

‍Census offers better SQL code references in its documentation than Hightouch but doesn't properly describe how to set up data sources and destinations.

On the other hand, GrowthLoop’s documentation contains many images and simple step-by-step instructions, so even a non-engineer can set up databases on their own.

Alongside the extensive documentation on all supported data sources and destinations, GrowthLoop includes video guides and explanations for each feature within the app.

Customer support

All three platforms offer extensive support across multiple channels, but only GrowthLoop offers hands-on onboarding.

Hightouch’s custom Business plan offers multiple support channels for interacting with users and addressing issues, including:

• Email and Intercom support

• Shared Slack workspace

• Onboarding

• Dedicated services

• Dedicated solutions architect

However, all of them are available only on the Business plan. According to customer reviews on G2, the customer support team is very responsive, knowledgeable, and helpful.

Census offers the same support channels as Hightouch but also includes live chat, a product roadmap partner, and a customer account manager. With the exception of live chat, these channels are only available on the Enterprise plan.

The support team has generally favorable reviews on G2, with many users praising their helpfulness.

GrowthLoop’s support team stands out with the hands-on setup and access services it provides. It also offers onboarding training sessions for your team. You can contact the customer support team by email or Slack and, if you’re on the Enterprise plan, you get a dedicated solutions architect and data engineering support. 

Many G2 reviews describe the GrowthLoop team as a “joy to work with,” and pivotal for success in setup, optimization, and testing. It has also received praise for its prompt and helpful responses.

  Winner: Unlike Hightouch and Census, GrowthLoop offers hands-on setup and team onboarding training sessions on all pricing plans. It also has a lower learning curve and a better user interface for beginners.   But don't take my word for it, try GrowthLoop’s onboarding process yourself here!     Winner: Unlike Hightouch and Census, GrowthLoop offers hands-on setup and team onboarding training sessions on all pricing plans. It also has a lower learning curve and a better user interface for beginners.   But don't take my word for it, try GrowthLoop’s onboarding process yourself here!  

Hightouch vs Census vs GrowthLoop: Connections and Data Integration

Hightouch, Census, and GrowthLoop all support hundreds of sources and destinations with minor differences.

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Sources

Hightouch supports 34 native database connections and Census supports 24. While GrowthLoop only supports 4 source connections, it seamlessly integrates data from 150+ sources into your data warehouse using GrowthLoop Ingest. This empowers users to create a single source of truth, rather than persisting the silo problem.

Hightouch offers native connections with up to 34 data sources, including data warehouses, spreadsheet software, business intelligence tools, and raw file storage. These connections also include plain SQL databases, such as:

• MySQL

• PostgreSQL

• SQL Server

Connecting a data source varies in complexity depending on the kind of product you’re integrating. 

For example, connecting to Google Sheets is very easy — you simply log in to your source account and authorize it. Meanwhile, connecting to an SQL database like MySQL is very complicated for non-technical users because it requires knowledge of networking concepts like IP addresses, ports, and SSH tunneling.

Census offers 24 native source connections for data warehouses, SQL servers, spreadsheets, and other data sources.

When connecting some data sources like Snowflake and AWS Redshift, you can choose one of two Sync Engines:

• Basic Sync Engine - Easier to set up and suitable for non-technical users, but with slower performance.

• Advanced Sync Engine - Complicated to set up, requires technical skills, offers faster performance and read/write access to sources.

GrowthLoop sits directly on top of your data cloud so you can create syncs, segments, and journeys. It works with the data directly in place without transfers or copying, meaning you won’t get duplicate data clogging up your database.

It natively works with four data clouds:

• Redshift

• BigQuery

• Snowflake

• Databricks

And don’t worry if you don’t have prior setup experience; the support team can help you out.

If you don’t have much data in your warehouse, GrowthLoop allows you to build Ingestion data pipelines from more than 300 connections through Fivetran (including business apps like Salesforce, ActiveCampaign, Asana, ClickUp, and many more).

The advantage of using Ingestion to enrich your warehouse data from business apps and then pulling it from your warehouse (instead of directly pulling data from your business apps), is that you avoid siloed data problems. You don’t get duplicate data or dispersed data across 10 different apps, it’s all where it should be — your data warehouse! And you can still use it in GrowthLoop to power your Marketing campaigns.

This is a direct advantage of GrowthLoop’s composable nature.

Furthermore, GrowthLoop can track events from your apps and websites and import them directly into your data cloud.

Destinations

Hightouch offers 210 destinations, Census 234, and GrowthLoop 100. Growthloop’s sync setup process is the most user-friendly for engineers.

Hightouch offers over 210 destinations, with 11 coming soon. The setup is pretty much the same as source connections but with an extra step.

After you connect a source and destination, you can set up Syncs between them. To set one up, you first need a “Model,” which tells Hightouch how to order and organize data before sending it forward. This can be done in one of three ways: write a custom SQL query, visually select premade tables, or import one from dbt, Looker, or Sigma.

The Sync creation process can be either easy or complicated, depending on the type of source, destination, and model you’re working with.

Census supports 234 destinations with 71 coming soon.

Unlike Hightouch, you don’t have a separate  “Models” step to set up syncs. Instead, you set everything up in the Syncs tab in one seamless process. The drawback with Census’s approach is that it doesn’t give you as much data customizability for syncing as Hightouch.

Like with Hightouch, the setup complexity depends on the platform you’re integrating, but Census offers extensive documentation on all supported destinations.

Then there’s GrowthLoop. It offers 100 data integrations, including Salesforce, Mailchimp, Google Ads, and other major marketing and sales platforms. Moreover, if you can’t find your desired integration, the developers can support it within two weeks of request.

Compared to Census and Hightouch, GrowthLoop’s sync setup process happens in a single menu tab and is more straightforward — you only need to select your dataset table and destination and map the table fields. The process is similar to what you can do with Census — its primary purpose is to keep your data up to date between your warehouse and activation platforms.

GrowthLoop also lets you create custom data destination integrations using your custom endpoint APIs.

       Note: In this section, we used two terms — "models" and "datasets" — to describe the three platforms' data preparation toolset. As you might have noticed, all three use these terms differently, so let's clear this up before going forward:    Data preparation for syncing (covered in this section):         Hightouch calls its syncing data preparation toolset "Models." It allows you to visually select premade tables or use custom SQL to prepare your data for syncing.     GrowthLoop uses the term "Datasets" for the same concept. It allows you to visually map table fields to prepare data for syncing.     Census doesn't have a separate tab or toolset for syncing data preparation. Instead, it offers basic visual modeling options within the sync setup process.        Data modeling for audience building:         Hightouch calls this concept "Data Schemas." It allows visual and SQL-based data modeling specifically for audience building.     GrowthLoop uses "Models" for this purpose and allows for SQL-based data modeling.     Census refers to this toolset as "Datasets." Like GrowthLoop, it uses SQL for building data models used in audience segmentation.        

 Winner: Isn't straightforward. Hightouch leads in both native source connections (34 options and currently active destinations (199). GrowthLoop stands out for its streamlined sync process, making it potentially the easiest to use for data engineering teams already working with major data clouds. Census is somewhere in the middle in terms of ease of use and flexibility.  Click here to start integrating your platforms with GrowthLoop  Winner: Isn't straightforward. Hightouch leads in both native source connections (34 options and currently active destinations (199). GrowthLoop stands out for its streamlined sync process, making it potentially the easiest to use for data engineering teams already working with major data clouds. Census is somewhere in the middle in terms of ease of use and flexibility.  Click here to start integrating your platforms with GrowthLoop

Hightouch vs Census vs GrowthLoop: Audience Segmentation

Hightouch only supports a few data sources for segments, Census segments depend on SQL-based Datasets, while GrowthLoop offers a no-code segment builder.

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Hightouch offers no-code audience segmentation in its Customer Studio add-on, which is available on the Business plan.

You define an audience segment with a visual builder by creating what are essentialy filters (AND/OR conditions), while Hightouch creates and executes SQL queries in the background. This turns what is otherwise an engineering task into a marketing task.

The audience builder works with the following Hightouch sources:

• Snowflake

• Databricks

• Google BigQuery

• Amazon Athena

• Azure Synapse

• MS SQL Server

• PostgreSQL

• Greenplum

To create a segment, you first need to define a data schema, create an audience, and sync the source and destination. While the latter steps can easily be performed by marketers, defining a data schema requires a technical skill set.

After defining audience segments, you can use them to create journeys, A/B tests, destination rules, and priority lists.

Meanwhile, audience segments in Census are based on Datasets — the core models defined for a cloud data warehouse connection. However, creating a Dataset requires a data engineer who can code SQL or import from Sigma Workbook, Looker Studio, or a dbt Model.

Just like Hightouch, segment filters in Census use data stored in warehouses, with features like AND/OR conditions and condition groups. It also allows you to use information from other Datasets and segments you've created.

For example, you can exclude audiences that already belong to another segment in the same Dataset. Or you can create conditions based on related information in other Datasets.

Census also lets you limit the results of a segment to a defined number, either by: 

• Selecting a field to order by and sorting in ascending or descending order

• Using the lD as a field to order by and selecting audiences randomly

After creating segments in Census, you can send them to any supported ad destination or a sales tool like Salesforce. It also lets you run A/B tests, compare segments, preview members, and perform other analytics, regardless of destination.

When it comes to creating audiences, GrowthLoop prioritizes ease of use for non-technical users and allows the same kind of customization as Hightouch or Census for engineering teams.

You start by setting up a dataset or (if you need granular data control) a Model. This is still best done by someone who understands your database. After that’s set up, marketers can jump in, configure their audience segments, and set up an “Export” connection with their marketing platforms with ease. One way GrowthLoop helps with this process is with “Recipes” — templates that help you build segments based on proven segmentation strategies.

It also comes with a generative AI audience-building helper; Marve that helps you create audience segments with natural language prompts. You simply describe the kind of audience you want to work with and it uses your audience metadata, Dataset names, column names, and column descriptions to generate recommended segments in real time.

Similarly, the Audience Discovery feature constantly generates audience suggestions based on your account activity, campaign history, and the data stored in your warehouses. This way you can quickly create and test segments tailored to your team’s goals.

Then there’s the manual Audience Builder.

GrowthLoop’s standout audience-building feature is the Audience Inclusions and Exclusions that allow you to create an audience in six different ways:

1. Customer filter - Target customers using fields in your Dataset.

2. Dataset - Filter customers by fields from other Datasets.

3. Audience - Include or exclude customers that are in other audience segments.

4. Text - Add text content to describe your audience.

5. Section - Group other segment nodes into sections.

6. Heading - Add a titled header to a section node.

After defining an audience you can also go more granular with user and transaction data and build advanced audiences by grouping filters, for example:

• Sponsors that churned 2 years ago AND

• Their main contact has purchased tickets OR

• They belong to an audience that attended at least 4 events in the last 12 months.

This whole process in GrowthLoop is very visual. 

While building your audience, you get a preview of your audience size, the segment’s tracked revenue, user data breakdowns, and more. It also allows you to set up split tests and segment comparisons to find overlapping customers.

I could keep going, but why not check out this quick demo instead?

Winner: GrowthLoop's audience-building toolset is more accessible to both marketers and data engineers than Hightouch or Census' while being on par in terms of functionality.  Want to build segments for your marketing platforms? Click here to get started! Winner: GrowthLoop's audience-building toolset is more accessible to both marketers and data engineers than Hightouch or Census' while being on par in terms of functionality.  Want to build segments for your marketing platforms? Click here to get started!

Hightouch vs Census vs GrowthLoop: Campaign Management

Hightouch offers journeys and AI-generated reports. Census offers segment reports but not journeys. GrowthLoop offers journeys, reports, and audience experimentation tools.

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Journeys

Choose Hightouch for basic journey automation. Pick GrowthLoop for advanced experimentation, custom process integration, flexible scheduling, and deeper analytics. Census doesn’t offer visual journeys.

Note: A journey is an automated sequence of steps that a customer goes through, triggered by specific actions or conditions. Think of it like a flowchart where each step can be an action (like sending the prospect to an email automation platform where they’re added to a campaign), a waiting period, or a decision point.

Here's how it works in Hightouch: You start by defining who enters the journey by defining an audience data schema. This works the same way as Audience data schemas and could include new signups, customers who haven't purchased in 30 days, or any other group you define. Once someone enters the journey and the conditions are met, they move through the steps you've laid out.

For example, you might set up a journey that looks like this:

1. A new customer signs up (entering the journey)

2. Add them to Mailchimp’s welcome email sequence mailing list

3. Wait for 3 days

4. If they haven't made a purchase, move them to a sequence that sends a discount code

5. If they have made a purchase, add them to a "loyal customer" mailing list

Hightouch's Journey features also offer flexibility for marketers.

You can create complex decision trees with their drag-and-drop journey builder, trigger actions in various tools (like email platforms or ad networks), and even update your database — all automatically and based on real-time customer behavior. Here are the building blocks you have to build journeys:

• Start - Used to configure the journey audience, enter conditions, and exit and re-entry conditions.

• Time delay - Pause the journey execution for a specified period.

• Segment - Split customers using filters based on available data.

• Hold until - Pause the journey execution until the customer performs a specified action or the specified duration has elapsed.

• Send to destination - Trigger campaigns, update records, send users to ad platforms, and execute other actions.

Journeys run on a schedule you set—typically every hour—and, during each run, Hightouch checks where each customer is in their journey, runs journey syncs, and moves them to the next appropriate step.

One key feature is the ability to hold customers at a certain point until they take a specific action. For instance, you could pause a journey until a customer views a particular product page, then immediately follow up with a personalized offer.

With Journeys, you're essentially creating a system that can respond to each customer's actions in a personalized way, guiding them through their unique experience at scale.

       Note: Hightouch only offers journeys as part of their Customer Studio package if you're on the enterprise plan: "Business."    GrowthLoop offers customer journeys as a standalone add-on for all plans and takes them a step further than Hightouch with enhanced flexibility, deeper customization, and more robust analytics capabilties.    

GrowthLoop's journey builder expands on the flowchart model with a visual canvas that supports a wider range of node types.

Beyond the standard action and wait steps, GrowthLoop introduces Experiment Nodes for advanced A/B testing scenarios. These allow you to split your audience into multiple groups (not just two like Hightouch), enabling continuous multivariate tests within a single journey.

Where GrowthLoop truly shines is in its Custom Nodes feature.

This allows you to integrate your own internal processes directly into the journey. For instance, you could incorporate a model that predicts a customer's likelihood to purchase, and then use that prediction to determine the next best action in real-time. This level of customization enables highly sophisticated, data-driven decision-making within your journeys.

Similar to Hightouch’s evaluation schedules, GrowthLoop offers three scheduling options for more precise control over when and how your journeys execute: 

1. One Time for single-run campaigns.

2. Always On for continuous operation.

3. Recurring Scheduled for custom timing.

GrowthLoop also provides granular control over journey re-entry. You can specify not just if customers can re-enter a journey, but also how long they must wait before doing so.

Then there’s GrowthLoop’s Live Viewer feature; providing a real-time view of where customers are in their journeys.

The Activity Tracker offers detailed logs of every processed step, making troubleshooting and optimization much easier. GrowthLoop can also write journey state data back to your data warehouse, allowing for deeper analysis using SQL queries. This means you can perform advanced analytics on your journeys and get insights for continuous improvement.

Census doesn’t offer built-in visual journeys.

👉 In a nutshell, GrowthLoop and Hightouch offer similar Journey building tools. With Hightouch, you’re limited to a few pre-built nodes. Meanwhile, GrowthLoop’s Journeys are slightly more advanced overall, with features like custom journey nodes.

Measurement and reporting

All three platforms offer segment reports, but GrowthLoop also includes campaign evaluation.

Hightouch offers basic segment Breakdowns. These reports use pie charts, bar charts, and tables to show the distribution of specific characteristics of a selected audience.

For more powerful operational analytics, the Performance feature lets you define metrics that determine success and measure your audience against them. It tracks the selected metrics over time and lets you compare multiple audiences on the same metric.

For example, if you’re an insurance agency, you could segment audiences based on their account type and send targeted educational material email campaigns. Once you determine the account type with the best ROI, use that as criteria to build an audience segment to reach out to via phone.

Performance also offers split tests, allowing you to compare split groups in a segment and determine a winner based on preset metrics.

Hightouch also offers Campaign Intelligence — an AI-powered copilot that generates campaign insights using natural language prompts. It can create charts, show metric stats, and answer follow-up questions about the generated content.

Census tracks the size of your audience segments over time. This feature, combined with segment limits, allows you to control the number of customers in your segments for more effective targeting. The Activity tab shows a graph of your segments and updates itself to reflect changes to the segment parameters.

It also includes an Overlap tab, which compares your segment with other predefined segments and displays the results in a Venn diagram.

In addition to these reports, Census lets you create customized metrics and track segment performance over time.

Hightouch and Census tell you how your segments perform over time, but they don’t provide the insights to decide whether to scrap a campaign or continue. 

That’s why GrowthLoop offers Significance Testing. 

This feature helps you determine if the performance difference between a treatment and control group is meaningful. It uses two default tests for campaign evaluation:

• t-test/z-test - Compares two sample averages when evaluating normally distributed metrics.

• Mann-Whitney U test - Compares two samples that are not normally distributed.

After evaluating your campaigns, you can visualize the difference between the treatment and control groups as a calculated Uplift metric to understand whether your campaign targeting improved performance or had no effect.

If your campaigns are successful, the graph should show a positive increase over time, allowing you to optimize your campaign strategy or double down on the successful audience.

Unlike Hightouch and Census, GrowthLoop offers campaign evaluation tools based on A/B testing. It provides several evaluation metrics based on your warehouse data and gives you the option to normalize the results by segment size.

Then there’s GrowthLoop’s Insights — an extra set of powerful visualization tools made for marketing teams to get insights from data across marketing channels.

   Winner: GrowthLoop offers the same campaign management tools as Hightouch and Census but triumps with more experimentation tools, journey customizations, report types, and campaign insights.    Get started with GrowthLoop's marketing campaigns here!<    Winner: GrowthLoop offers the same campaign management tools as Hightouch and Census but triumps with more experimentation tools, journey customizations, report types, and campaign insights.    Get started with GrowthLoop's marketing campaigns here!<

Hightouch vs Census vs GrowthLoop: Pricing

Hightouch and Census offer similar pricing structures, but Census offers more value for money. GrowthLoop offers customizable plans.

                               HightouchCensusGrowthLoop⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Hightouch offers three pricing plans, including a free plan

Hightouch pricing starts with a Starter plan that gets you five user seats, 30-day free trials of additional destinations, 25 free syncs to lite destinations, and unlimited data sources. It also provides basic security, extensions, and observability.

You can opt for the free Starter plan, which gets you one standard destination, a workspace, and two active syncs. Meanwhile, the $420/mo Starter plan offers two standard destinations, two workspaces, and five active syncs per destination.

Hightouch's Business plan lets you pay for what you need from a selection of products, such as:

• Reverse ETL

• Customer Studio

• Hightouch Events

• Identity Resolution

• Campaign Intelligence

It also offers unlimited user seats, premium extensions, enterprise security, and advanced observability. However, you must contact Hightouch's sales team for a price quote.

Census’ plans offer more value than Hightouch's.

Census’ pricing model is very similar to Hightouch's. It offers a free plan, a Professional plan, and an Enterprise plan. However, the free plan provides one billable destination, two active syncs, two workspaces, and unlimited free destinations. 

The $413/mo Professional plan offers the same features as the free plan, but includes two billable destinations — you can get two more destinations for an additional $200/mo. It also offers two workspaces and live chat support.

You can opt for the Enterprise plan, which offers unlimited workspaces and user syncs, the Audience Hub, enterprise connectors, and real-time Live Syncs. You must contact the support team to set up a demo and custom pricing to purchase this plan.

GrowthLoop unlocks core features on all plans

GrowthLoop offers three pricing plans: Basic, Growth, and Enterprise. The higher plans increase limits on the number of users, downstream destinations, and customer records, but all plans offer the same core features, such as:

• Audience Builder

• Uplift Measurement

• Experimentation Engine

• Free access, setup, and training for your team

                               BasicGrowthEnterprise1,000,000 customer recordsThree usersTwo destinations10,000,000 customer recordsFive usersThree destinations10,000,000+ customer recordsCustom usersCustom destinations

The Enterprise plan includes additional features like data governance, write access to the data cloud, and application firewall.

  Winner: Census offers the same pricing plans as Hightouch at a similar cost. But, it offers more value in each plan. GrowthLoop does not restrict features based on pricing plan, aside from some enterprise tools.   Contact us for a demo and pricing!   Winner: Census offers the same pricing plans as Hightouch at a similar cost. But, it offers more value in each plan. GrowthLoop does not restrict features based on pricing plan, aside from some enterprise tools.   Contact us for a demo and pricing!

Hightouch vs Census vs GrowthLoop: Pros & Cons

Census is for engineers; Hightouch works for both engineers and marketers; GrowthLoop provides a platform for engineers and marketers to both collaborate and work independently.

                                                                                                                                                                       Hightouch Pros                    Hightouch Cons                    ✅ Advanced insights and reporting                    ❌ Less value for money than competitors                    ✅ AI-generated reports                    ❌ Requires SQL coding to set up datasets                    ✅ Lots of data sources and destinations                    ❌ Steep learning curve for non-technical users                    ✅ Responsive customer support                    ❌ Marketing features only on Enterprise plan        

                                                                                                                                       Census ProsCensus Cons✅ Great value for money❌ Requires technical skills✅ Audience segment limits❌ No customer journeys✅ Customized segment metrics❌ No generative AI tools✅ Custom calculated data fields❌ UI isn't very intuitive for beginners

                                                                                                                                                                                               GrowthLoop Pros                    GrowthLoop Cons                    ✅ Simple and intuitive UI                    ❌ Pricing information isn’t open to the public                    ✅ Excellent customer support                    ❌ Not the best option for purely technical teams                    ✅ No-code Dataset builder                                        ✅ Lots of integrations                                        ✅ AI-assisted campaign management                            

Final Verdict: Census vs Hightouch vs GrowthLoop

                                                               HightouchCensusGrowthLoopBest for:Data engineers that need extensive integrations and flexible sync setups with visual journey automation.Best for:Teams requiring streamlined sync processes and basic segmentation capabilities.Best for:Non-technical users who need intuitive, powerful audience segmentation and advanced campaign management tools.

Hightouch and Census feel like very similar tools. They offer a similar feature set and their pricing is identical. However, Hightouch is better for data engineers who want to build complex data synchronization workflows. Meanwhile, Census offers a more user-friendly interface for setting up fast syncs between data sources and destinations, but it requires SQL knowledge to create audience segments.

If you’re a marketer and both tools sound too complicated for your use case, GrowthLoop is your best choice.

It focuses on advanced marketing functionalities, such as intelligent customer segmentation and predictive analytics. And, if you’re a data engineer, using GrowthLoop in your organization means you’re spending less time managing audience data for the marketing team since they can do it themselves.

Use Hightouch if:

• You’re a data engineer with technical skills. 

• Your business data is stored in SQL databases.

• You want to build complex data activation workflows.

Click here to get started with Hightouch!

Use Census if:

• You don’t need campaign management tools.

• You need real-time live data syncs across several business tools.

• You need bi-directional data syncing to ensure consistency on all platforms.

Click here to get started with Census!

Use GrowthLoop if:

• You want to create all marketing segments and campaigns in a single data platform.

• You want a team of data experts at arm's length to play a guiding role in driving success.

• You’re a marketer with no coding skills and want to set up dataflows without an engineer’s help.

• You’re part of an organization looking to unify your data strategy and access across business teams.

Click here to get started with GrowthLoop!