HubSpot active lists segment contacts based on specific past email interactions such as opens or clicks, showing who has already engaged. In contrast, TES (Thalox Engagement Score) uses AI to analyze overall contact activity and predict who is most likely to engage with future email campaigns.
But to answer this question fully, you first must understand what an active list in HubSpot is and which possibilities you must set for different parameters. We lend the following explanation from HubSpot:
What is an active list in HubSpot?
“Active lists automatically update their members based on their criteria. Records will join the list when they meet the criteria and leave the list when they no longer meet the criteria.
Examples of when active lists should be used include:
- sending unique marketing emails based on each contact’s behavior and properties. If you send out a regular newsletter, an active list automatically manages the continually changing list of subscribers.
- placing outbound calls to contacts based on behavior and property values.
- grouping your contacts by lifecycle stage to continually identify behavior and properties for contacts in each stage.
- segmenting records based on properties that change frequently over time, such as HubSpot score.
In the list itself, you can filter the list based on email activity such as:
On an individual email level:
- Contact clicked a link in the email
- Contact marked email as spam
- Contact opened Email
- …
OR
On a contact level:
- Last marketing email clicked date
- Marketing emails clicked
- Marketing emails opened
- …
In total, there are endless possibilities of combination BUT it will still be an estimation by a human being which is time-consuming and only looking into the past. This is NO prediction.
What is TES?
thalox is an audience segmentation tool for HubSpot that analyzes the past behavior of an individual contact. thalox looks into the fields of this contact to predict, based on AI, the likelihood that a contact is engaging with your next email campaign. The results are categorized into four segments + thalox gives an individual score – the TES.
thalox and its AI parameters are updated whenever you run a new prediction because data and customer behavior are changing every time.
Learn how to get the best of thalox here.
Updated March 2026
How does TES predict future email engagement compared to HubSpot active lists?
TES looks at a contact’s entire behavior history and applies AI models to calculate the likelihood of engagement with upcoming emails. Active lists only track historical actions and do not provide predictive insights.
When should I use HubSpot active lists versus TES for email campaigns?
Use active lists when you want to segment contacts based on specific past actions. Use TES when you want a predictive, AI-driven approach to target contacts most likely to engage in the future, saving time and increasing campaign effectiveness.
Can TES replace HubSpot active lists, or should they be used together?
TES does not replace active lists; instead, it complements them. Active lists are great for segmentation based on past behavior, while TES adds a predictive layer to prioritize contacts likely to engage in future campaigns. Using both together gives a more complete view of engagement.
