ActiveCampaign

Pricing and budget

ActiveCampaign is a mid-range solution there’s no free plan (beyond a trial) and its costs rise as your contact list grows. At first glance, it’s more affordable than enterprise platforms like HubSpot, especially given the rich features included. However, you need to budget for growth: as you add subscribers, the monthly fee increases “like a tax on your progress”. For small teams with limited funds, simpler tools or those with free tiers might be tempting, but ActiveCampaign’s value lies in its capabilities. Ensure the ROI from its automation and CRM features will justify the expense over cheaper, less powerful alternatives.

Automation needs vs simplicity

Consider how advanced your email marketing and lead nurturing needs are. ActiveCampaign is widely regarded as one of the most powerful marketing automation tools available, allowing virtually any workflow you can imagine. If you plan complex, multi-step campaigns with triggers, scoring, and branching paths, ActiveCampaign’s automation builder will meet the brief. On the other hand, this power comes with complexity. If all you require are basic newsletters or a simple welcome email sequence, a lightweight tool may suffice (and be easier to use). In short: choose ActiveCampaign if marketing automation is a priority for you otherwise, you might be paying for “extras (and complexity) that you simply won’t need”.

CRM and all-in-one platform

ActiveCampaign isn’t just email; it includes a built-in CRM, landing pages, and even SMS capabilities on higher tiers. This all-in-one approach can be a selling point if you want to consolidate marketing and sales in one system. B2B founders often appreciate having contacts, deals, and email automation under the same roof for a holistic view. But evaluate your CRM requirements. ActiveCampaign’s CRM is solid for basic pipeline tracking and lead scoring, yet it lacks the depth of dedicated CRM platforms. For instance, it handles standard contact and deal management but offers less flexibility in custom data and relationship mapping than a true CRM suite. If you already have a preferred CRM (or need advanced CRM objects and analytics), check how ActiveCampaign would integrate or whether its lighter CRM will cause limitations later.

Existing stack and integrations

Your current tech stack plays a role in the decision. ActiveCampaign boasts a large library of integrations over 950 apps can connect directly, from Salesforce and PayPal to WordPress and Shopify. This means it likely fits in with your existing website, CRM, e-commerce platform or other tools. If you value an all-in-one solution, ActiveCampaign lets you replace or reduce reliance on other apps (email tool, basic CRM, etc.). Conversely, if you already have specialised systems (say, a CRM like Pipedrive or a separate analytics suite), ensure ActiveCampaign can sync data with them smoothly. The goal is to avoid data silos or double-handling. Fortunately, with its open API and Zapier support, ActiveCampaign is flexible but you’ll want to plan out those connections upfront to maximise value from day one.

Team resources and learning curve

Adopting ActiveCampaign requires an investment in time and skills. The platform is fairly user-friendly in design new users see onboarding prompts and a ‘Getting Started’ guide in the dashboard, and there are plenty of templates to get you moving. Still, there is a learning curve with such a feature-rich tool. Small marketing teams or busy founders should consider if they have the bandwidth to learn and continually optimise in ActiveCampaign. If you prefer a “set and forget” simple newsletter tool, ActiveCampaign might feel like overkill. On the flip side, if you’re willing to climb that curve, the payoff is gaining a very capable system. The platform also offers strong support (including live chat on all plans) and free migration services for new customers. In short, be realistic about your team’s capacity to leverage ActiveCampaign fully it’s worth it if you can dedicate the effort, but not if it ends up underutilised due to complexity.

Business model fit

Finally, consider your business model and use cases. ActiveCampaign serves both B2B and B2C scenarios (including e-commerce), but its strengths shine for certain situations. B2B marketers will benefit from features like lead scoring, pipeline automation and triggered drip campaigns for long sales cycles. E-commerce businesses can use ActiveCampaign’s abandoned cart emails and product follow-up automations, though some of those advanced e-com integrations require higher-tier plans. If your company is heavily e-commerce-focused, a specialised tool (e.g. Klaviyo) might offer deeper store integration and out-of-the-box revenue reports. Meanwhile, agencies might appreciate ActiveCampaign’s white-label option for client work. The key is to match the tool to your primary use case: ActiveCampaign is a great generalist an automation-centric platform that can adapt to many models but if one aspect (like complex online retail analytics) is absolutely core, weigh that in your decision.

‍

I’ve used ActiveCampaign across multiple B2B projects including my own startup’s marketing and it has been both a workhorse and a source of a few grey hairs. As a founder, I was initially drawn to ActiveCampaign’s pricing and promise of an all-in-one solution. For a lean operation, getting email marketing and a built-in CRM in one reasonably priced package felt like a huge win. And indeed, in the early days, it delivered. I was able to set up automated nurture sequences for new leads, keep track of deals in the pipeline, and even fire off SMS reminders for webinars all without needing separate systems. The bang-for-buck was real. ActiveCampaign gave me capabilities that felt on par with much pricier tools.

However, no tool is perfect. After a while, I ran into the rough edges of ActiveCampaign. Occasionally there were bugs nothing catastrophic, but little glitches like an automation that wouldn’t trigger when it should, or the email editor acting up and requiring a browser refresh. These were manageable, yet when you’re juggling a million founder tasks, any hiccup in your marketing machine is frustrating. The workflow builder, while impressively powerful, could also test my patience. On complex automations, it sometimes slowed to a crawl; I’d be sitting there waiting for a big workflow to load, thinking “come on, I could have made a coffee by now.” It’s not a deal-breaker I’d rather have a slow, capable builder than a fast but simplistic one but it’s something to be aware of if you tend to create monster workflows like I do.

Another limitation I felt was in the CRM area. ActiveCampaign’s CRM is okay for basic contact and deal management, but as my needs grew, I started bumping into walls. I couldn’t create the kind of custom objects or relational data that a more advanced CRM (like HubSpot or Salesforce) would handle. For example, when I wanted to track multiple product interests or implement a bespoke lead-scoring model tied to several custom dimensions, ActiveCampaign wasn’t as accommodating. We made it work with tags and workarounds, but I always knew we were stretching the tool beyond its sweet spot.

Ultimately, I made the tough call to switch our setup moving marketing automation to HubSpot (and later trying out Pipedrive for CRM). Here’s how I’d sum it up: HubSpot is like the luxury option more advanced features, highly polished, but you pay dearly for it. After migrating, I appreciated HubSpot’s depth (especially in CRM objects and reporting), yet I also felt the sting in our budget. Pipedrive, on the other hand, was a joy for the sales team it’s just a really strong CRM for pipeline management, simple and effective. We ended up using Pipedrive alongside marketing tools because it outperformed ActiveCampaign’s CRM at keeping our sales organised.

Do I regret using ActiveCampaign initially? Not at all. It was the right tool for us until we hit a certain stage. Its strengths in automation and email were a big boost when we needed them, and the price-to-value ratio is fantastic for small companies. If I compare it to Mailchimp (which I’d used in a past life), ActiveCampaign is leaps and bounds ahead Mailchimp felt too basic once I got a taste of what ActiveCampaign could do. And for anyone in e-commerce, I’d say consider Klaviyo as well, because Klaviyo brings e-commerce-specific superpowers that ActiveCampaign doesn’t quite match (think product recommendation emails and Shopify deep integration).

In the end, ActiveCampaign is the tool I recommend to fellow founders until they reach the point where their complexity outgrows it. It’s like a reliable hatchback car affordable, gets you from A to B very effectively, with some high-end features under the hood. Just know that if you start dreaming of a sports car (HubSpot) or an off-road SUV (a dedicated CRM like Pipedrive), ActiveCampaign might start to feel limiting. Use it for what it’s great at cost-effective automation and a bit of everything in one place and keep reassessing as your business scales. That’s my honest take, founder-to-founder.

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing and automation platform that has evolved into an all-in-one sales and marketing toolkit. It’s particularly popular with small-to-mid sized businesses as of 2024 it serves over 185,000 customers, 80% of whom have under 100 employees. For B2B marketers and founders, ActiveCampaign offers a way to systemise lead generation and customer outreach without the enterprise price tag. This guide will break down ActiveCampaign’s key use cases, features, and how it stacks up against other tools, so you can determine if it’s the right fit for your company’s stage and needs.

Use cases

ActiveCampaign’s flexibility means it supports a range of marketing and sales use cases:

Lead nurturing for B2B sales

You can set up automated email sequences to warm up prospects over long sales cycles. For example, when a lead downloads a whitepaper, ActiveCampaign can enter them into a multi-email drip campaign, score their engagement, and notify a sales rep once they hit a threshold. This helps B2B teams stay responsive at scale.

Customer onboarding and retention

SaaS companies often use ActiveCampaign to send onboarding emails, feature tips, and re-engagement campaigns. The automation builder can branch based on user behaviour (opened email, clicked link, etc.) to tailor the content. This ensures new customers get the right guidance and lapsed users receive win-back offers.

E-commerce marketing

While not e-commerce-specific, ActiveCampaign integrates with store platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, etc.) and supports typical retail automations like abandoned cart reminders and post-purchase follow-ups. It may require a Plus plan or higher for deep data integrations, but it can drive repeat business for online stores. (That said, for very e-commerce-centric needs, some choose specialised tools more on that later.)

Multi-channel campaigns

ActiveCampaign isn’t limited to email. You can manage contacts and then reach them via email, SMS, site messages, and even sync audiences to Facebook Ads. This makes it useful for orchestrating a campaign that spans several channels for instance, an email sequence supplemented by text reminders and targeted ads, all connected through one automation workflow.

Agencies managing clients’ marketing

ActiveCampaign’s agency reseller program and white-label options allow marketing agencies to run email campaigns for clients under their own branding. With one platform, an agency can automate campaigns for multiple clients and provide each client a login to review their results, which streamlines operations considerably.

In short, ActiveCampaign can be moulded to many scenarios that involve engaging an audience or managing a funnel. Its sweet spot is when you need to automate personalised communications at scale whether that’s nurturing a B2B lead database or staying in touch with thousands of consumers.

Pricing structure

ActiveCampaign operates on a subscriber-based pricing model. You pay based on the number of contacts in your account and the feature tier you choose. There are four main plans (as of 2025): typically named something like Starter, Plus, Professional, and Enterprise. Each step up adds features and raises sending limits. For example, at 2,500 contacts the Starter plan is around $39/month, Plus is ~$95, Professional ~$149, and Enterprise ~$255. Prices increase at higher contact tiers, so a company with 25,000 contacts will pay more than one with 2,500 on the same plan. This scaling makes sense (bigger list = more value and server use), but it can catch growing teams off guard as costs climb alongside their email list.

It’s important to note ActiveCampaign doesn’t offer a permanent free plan only a 14-day free trial for testing. This contrasts with some competitors (like HubSpot’s free CRM or Mailchimp’s free tier). So from the get-go, you’ll need budget allocated if you decide to go with ActiveCampaign. On the flip side, many find it reasonably priced for the functionality on offer, especially compared to enterprise marketing suites. At the low end, ActiveCampaign can deliver “enterprise-grade automation at a small-to-medium-sized business price”. Just be mindful of certain limitations on lower plans: for instance, the Starter plan has fewer automation actions and lacks features like branching logic in workflows, pushing serious users to upgrade sooner or later.

ActiveCampaign’s pricing structure also includes optional add-ons. Notably, the CRM (sales automation) component is considered an add-on for some tiers: on Plus and above, it’s included, but if you’re on an older plan or certain bundles you might pay extra. There are also add-ons for things like transactional email or enhanced support. The bottom line: ActiveCampaign’s pricing is transparent but multi-dimensional evaluate not just the starting price but what happens as you scale your contacts and need advanced features.

CRM features

One of ActiveCampaign’s differentiators from basic email tools is that it includes CRM (Customer Relationship Management) features as part of the platform. In practical terms, that means you’re not just storing email addresses and send data you can also manage deals, track who’s in your sales pipeline, and record interactions in one system. ActiveCampaign’s CRM is centred on deals/opportunities: you can create pipeline stages (fully customizable to match your sales process) and drag-and-drop deals as they progress. The nice thing is you can have multiple pipelines if you run different sales processes or products concurrently. This flexibility ensures that even if you have, say, one pipeline for SMB clients and another for enterprise deals, ActiveCampaign can accommodate it.

Within contact records, ActiveCampaign logs all email engagements and also allows sales actions. You can add notes, create tasks or follow-up reminders, and even automate certain sales activities (for example, automatically creating a deal when a contact fills out a “Contact Sales” form on your site). A standout feature for marketers is lead scoring: you can set up rules that assign points to contacts based on their behaviour opening emails, visiting pricing pages, etc. to help salespeople prioritise leads. This bridges the gap between marketing and sales nicely, as both teams can refer to the same contact score.

That said, the CRM in ActiveCampaign is not as elaborate as those in dedicated CRM systems. It covers the basics: contacts, companies, deals, pipelines, tasks. You can’t, for example, natively handle multiple associated contacts on one deal in a sophisticated way, or create entirely custom object types (like “Subscriptions” or “Projects”) without technical workarounds. (ActiveCampaign has introduced a custom objects feature via API, but it’s more developer-oriented and not a common part of everyday use for most marketers.) The interface for the pipeline, while functional, is noted to be less visually intuitive than Pipedrive’s renowned pipeline view sales teams that live in the CRM might find ActiveCampaign’s UI adequate but not delightful. In summary, ActiveCampaign’s CRM features are great for a marketing-first platform: they allow you to keep sales info together with marketing data, run automations that span both worlds (e.g., email a lead and create a sales task if they click), and get a unified view of the customer. Just be aware that if you have very advanced CRM needs or large sales teams, you might outgrow what ActiveCampaign’s CRM can comfortably handle.

Email automation capabilities

Email automation is truly ActiveCampaign’s home turf. The platform earned its reputation here by offering a level of sophistication that few competitors in its class can match. Users can design automated workflows that respond to virtually any trigger: a contact joining a list, submitting a form, clicking a specific link, visiting a webpage, achieving a lead score, or even a custom event from your app. Once in a workflow, contacts can be sent down different paths using if/else conditions (for example: “IF prospect is in Industry A, send Sequence X, ELSE send Sequence Y”). You can automate actions beyond just sending emails such as updating a contact’s data, adding a tag, creating a deal, or notifying a team member. This means ActiveCampaign can handle complex marketing funnels end-to-end: triggered campaigns, sales follow-ups, dynamic content insertion, and automated segmentation are all part of its repertoire.

One of ActiveCampaign’s strongest points is that these automations are relatively easy to build given their power. The interface uses a visual flowchart-style builder (more on that shortly) with a library of pre-built “recipes” to start from. For instance, instead of building an abandoned cart email series from scratch, you could import a recipe and then tweak it. This lowers the barrier for smaller teams to implement best-practice flows without needing a dedicated marketing ops person. It’s also worth noting ActiveCampaign supports multi-step, multi-channel automation: a single workflow could send an email, then wait, then add the contact to a Facebook Custom Audience, then notify a sales rep in Slack, all in sequence. Many rival email tools don’t extend that far beyond email itself.

The capabilities even include things like split testing within automations (you can have two paths to test different timings or content) and goal tracking (e.g., the automation can end early if a contact achieves a defined goal like making a purchase). The depth is such that expert users sometimes dub ActiveCampaign a “lite marketing automation platform” comparable to enterprise systems like Marketo or Eloqua, not just an email newsletter app. In plain terms, if you can dream up a customer journey or sales process, ActiveCampaign likely lets you automate it. This power is why it’s often recommended “if you’re serious about marketing automation”. The flip side, naturally, is that setting up very elaborate automations requires careful thought but the toolset to execute is all there in ActiveCampaign.

Reporting and analytics

ActiveCampaign provides a range of reports to help you track how your campaigns and automations are performing. For email campaigns, you’ll get the usual open and click rates, but it goes further with click-maps (showing where on your email people clicked), geo-tracking (where your opens are coming from), and device reports. If you run an online store or have purchase data flowing into ActiveCampaign, you can also see revenue reports tying purchases to campaigns on certain plans. For instance, you could attribute $X of sales to your “Winter Promo Email #3” if you integrate with Shopify or another e-commerce system. This is especially useful for e-commerce use cases to gauge ROI.

ActiveCampaign’s automations have their own analytics as well. You can see how many contacts entered a given automation, how many reached each step, and where they exited. This helps in debugging funnels or improving them (e.g., noticing a lot of contacts drop off before an offer email might prompt you to tweak that email or timing). There’s also lead scoring analytics you can identify which contacts have the highest scores and why, which feeds into sales readiness reporting.

One area to highlight is ActiveCampaign’s approach to aggregate reporting vs. custom reporting. ActiveCampaign offers a set of standard report dashboards (campaign performance, automation overview, contact trends, etc.) that cover most needs. For many small businesses, these are sufficient. HubSpot and similar tools might have an edge in allowing fully custom reports and dashboards (e.g. combining any data points you want), whereas ActiveCampaign’s are more pre-defined. However, ActiveCampaign does have a “Custom Reports” feature on higher tiers that can unlock more tailored analytics if needed. In any case, for a majority of users, ActiveCampaign’s reports answer the key questions: Who is engaging? What are they engaging with? How is it impacting sales? In fact, ActiveCampaign even added a feature called “Marketing Revenue” which attempts to show the revenue generated from your marketing efforts, bridging the gap between marketing metrics and sales outcomes.

In summary, ActiveCampaign’s analytics are thorough for marketing purposes: you get deep email metrics and cross-channel attribution on capable plans. They might not be as extensive as a full business intelligence tool, but for marketers looking to optimise campaigns and prove their worth in pipeline or revenue terms, ActiveCampaign delivers the goods with its built-in reporting suite.

Workflow builder functionality

ActiveCampaign’s workflow (automation) builder is worth examining on its own it’s the canvas where all those automation ideas come to life, and it’s a major factor in user experience. The builder is a visual, drag-and-drop interface that maps out automation steps in a flowchart style. You start with a trigger (e.g., “Contact subscribes to list X” or “Deal status changes to Won”) and then add subsequent actions or conditions as nodes. Each node is clearly labelled and can be clicked to configure its details (like the content of an email or the time delay). The ability to see your entire sequence laid out makes even complex automations easier to comprehend and explain to teammates. ActiveCampaign was one of the first to pioneer this kind of visual automation builder in email software, and it remains a strong point.

In use, the builder is generally intuitive. There are quality-of-life features such as notes you can add to annotate parts of your workflow, and the option to disable or test sections of an automation. ActiveCampaign also lets you zoom out and pan around, which is handy when automations become large. Additionally, you can organize workflows with tags and search through them, which is crucial as your library of automations grows.

However, the builder isn’t without its challenges. As mentioned earlier, if you have a very large automation with many steps or thousands of contacts churning through it, the interface can start to lag. For example, users managing huge subscriber lists (hundreds of thousands) have reported the automation editor becoming “painfully slow,” to the point of waiting a noticeable time for each edit to load. In my own experience (and echoed by others), small and medium workflows run fine, but extremely complex ones can tax the system something to keep in mind if you envision building a do-it-all mega workflow. Another limitation on the entry-level plans is functionality: the cheapest tier historically did not allow certain advanced actions like branching (if/else) in automations, meaning you’d need to upgrade to design more sophisticated flows. This is a consideration for budget-conscious users; hitting a wall in the builder due to plan limits can be frustrating.

Despite these issues, ActiveCampaign’s workflow builder is still considered one of the best in class in terms of capability. It strikes a good balance between power and usability. People with no coding skills can implement fairly advanced logic by simply configuring the pre-built actions and conditions. For a B2B marketer, this means you don’t need a developer to set up things like “if a lead visits the pricing page twice AND is tagged as Industry=Finance, then notify the finance sales rep and send a tailored follow-up email.” You can do that yourself with the toolkit ActiveCampaign provides. In short, the workflow builder is a core reason to choose ActiveCampaign, as long as you’re prepared to occasionally be patient on very data-heavy processes and you select a plan that matches your automation ambitions.

Third-party integrations

In today’s marketing stack, no tool is an island. ActiveCampaign recognises this with an impressive array of third-party integrations. The platform connects natively with over 900 apps and services a number that stands out in the SMB marketing tech space. Common integrations include CRM systems (Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Pipedrive), e-commerce platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce), CMS and form tools (WordPress, Wix, Typeform), payment processors (Stripe, PayPal), webinar services (Zoom, GoToWebinar), and many more. This breadth means you can likely plug ActiveCampaign into whatever ecosystem you’re using.

For B2B teams, a very typical integration is syncing ActiveCampaign with a sales CRM. If a company prefers to use Pipedrive or Salesforce for the sales team, they might still use ActiveCampaign for marketing emails integrations allow contact data and lead status to flow between the systems. For example, you could integrate Salesforce so that when a lead in Salesforce gets updated to Customer, ActiveCampaign gets that info and pulls them out of nurture emails. ActiveCampaign’s own CRM add-on can be bypassed or supplemented in this way. The key is data flow ActiveCampaign’s integrations and API ensure that it doesn’t operate in a silo.

ActiveCampaign also integrates with advertising and analytics platforms. You can sync audiences to Facebook and Google, connect to Google Analytics for tracking, and even use Zapier or native links to feed data into dashboards or reporting tools. The availability of an open API means if you have a custom in-house system, a developer can connect it to ActiveCampaign relatively easily.

One thing to note is that some integrations are only available on certain plans. The company historically reserved some deep data integrations (like advanced e-commerce syncing) for the “Plus” plan and above. Always check if a specific integration you need has any plan requirements. Also, while ActiveCampaign has nearly every integration under the sun, the depth of each integration might vary. A native integration with Shopify, for instance, will pull purchase history and product catalogue info into ActiveCampaign (enabling product-specific emails). A more obscure integration might simply pass basic contact info. Thankfully, the major ones are quite robust, and there’s usually documentation outlining what each integration covers.

In summary, ActiveCampaign plays well with others. Its large integration directory is a strong asset, as confirmed by independent reviews giving it the win for having a “larger range of built-in integrations” over specialised tools like Klaviyo. Whether you need to connect your website signup form, your CRM, or your accounting system (to trigger an email when an invoice is paid, for example), chances are ActiveCampaign has a solution ready.

Customer support

ActiveCampaign provides a solid level of customer support and resources, which is crucial given the complexity users might encounter. All paid plans include access to support channels including email and live chat support which is something not all competitors offer without an upcharge. In practice, this means if you hit a snag or have a question, you can hop on chat (during their business hours) and often get guidance in real time. Many small business-oriented tools only offer email support or require premium plans for quick responses, so ActiveCampaign’s approach here is fairly generous.

Beyond direct support, ActiveCampaign has a comprehensive help center (knowledge base) with how-to articles and troubleshooting guides for virtually every feature. They also offer webinars and video tutorials (often branded as “ActiveCampaign University”) to help users get the hang of things like building automations or improving deliverability. For those migrating from other systems, as noted earlier, ActiveCampaign even offers a free migration service they will assist in transferring contacts and workflows from another platform, which can remove a big barrier to switching.

ActiveCampaign’s community forum and the active user group (like the subreddit we saw and other forums) also serve as support avenues, albeit unofficial. The presence of a large user base means you can frequently find that someone else has had the same question or issue, and often the answers are already out there. This is not support in the formal sense, but it’s part of the ecosystem that new users can tap into.

In terms of quality, ActiveCampaign’s support is generally well-regarded. They aren’t perfect during peak times you might wait a bit for chat, and not every support rep will have deep technical knowledge of complex scenarios but for day-to-day help, they do the job. Importantly, they don’t gatekeep their support behind enterprise contracts; even a small customer gets help, which aligns with their SMB user focus. One thing to keep in mind is time zones ActiveCampaign’s support team is largely U.S. based (with some international presence), so very late hours might have slower response. However, critical issues (like the system being down, which is rare) are addressed globally.

Overall, as a founder or marketer, you can feel relatively confident that when you “buy” ActiveCampaign, you’re also getting a partner that will help you succeed with it. Whether through direct chats, detailed documentation, or free onboarding resources, the platform tries to set users up for success. It’s a stark difference from some enterprise tools where support is an added cost, and also from some low-end tools where support is virtually non-existent.

Comparison with other tools

The marketing automation landscape is crowded, and it’s useful to see where ActiveCampaign stands in comparison to some popular alternatives. Here we’ll compare it to a few notable tools: HubSpot, Pipedrive, Klaviyo, and Mailchimp each representing a different category of competitor.

HubSpot

HubSpot is often the first name that comes up as a point of comparison. In essence, HubSpot offers a broader suite (marketing, sales, service, CMS, and more) with a CRM at its core, whereas ActiveCampaign focuses on marketing+CRM automation. HubSpot’s strengths include a highly advanced CRM with features like custom objects, very granular reporting, and a polished user experience across all its “hubs”. It’s also known for great educational resources and a strong ecosystem. However, HubSpot is significantly more expensive for equivalent functionality. For instance, while ActiveCampaign might charge under $100/month for robust automation for a small list, HubSpot’s Professional tiers (to get comparable automation features) can run into hundreds or even thousands per month. HubSpot tends to price per module and per user, adding up quickly.

Functionally, ActiveCampaign often wins for pure automation prowess and price efficiency at the SMB level. In a detailed 2025 comparison, testers gave ActiveCampaign the edge due to “excellent automations and much more reasonable prices”. ActiveCampaign’s automation builder is arguably easier to use than HubSpot’s, and you get unlimited email sends and contacts-based pricing rather than HubSpot’s combination of contact tiers and user fees. On the other hand, HubSpot outshines ActiveCampaign in analytics, integration depth, and breadth of features. HubSpot offers things like a powerful blog CMS, ad management, social media scheduling, and more integrated under one roof features ActiveCampaign doesn’t have (ActiveCampaign has landing pages and forms, but not a full CMS or social toolset). HubSpot also has more native integrations (especially on the sales side) and tends to tie data together very seamlessly in reports.

In summary: If you are a growing B2B business that can afford it and needs a truly all-encompassing platform, HubSpot is often worth a look. It’s more advanced in many areas, from customisable dashboards to AI features to the sheer range of things it can do. But many founders find that ActiveCampaign hits a sweet spot by covering the core needs (marketing automation + light CRM) at a fraction of HubSpot’s cost. Many reviews conclude that for small businesses, ActiveCampaign delivers “enterprise-grade automation at an SMB price” while HubSpot delivers enterprise-grade everything at an enterprise price. A sensible approach some take is: start with ActiveCampaign, and if you eventually feel you’re outgrowing it in terms of CRM or analytics, consider a move to HubSpot down the line when the ROI can justify the bigger budget.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison because it’s primarily a sales CRM, not a marketing automation tool. However, for founders and teams evaluating ActiveCampaign, the question of “ActiveCampaign’s CRM vs. using Pipedrive + another email tool” often arises. Pipedrive’s hallmark is its simplicity and effectiveness for managing a sales pipeline. It presents deals in a very clean visual kanban board, making it easy for salespeople to track progress. If a dedicated sales tool is what you need, Pipedrive excels it’s frequently praised for its intuitive drag-and-drop pipeline and ease of use for sales teams. In fact, if you compared just the pipeline management UI, Pipedrive is more visually straightforward and arguably more user-friendly than ActiveCampaign’s deals interface.

On the automation front, Pipedrive has introduced some basic marketing features (like an add-on for email campaigns called Pipedrive Campaigns) and workflow automation for sales tasks. But it’s nowhere near ActiveCampaign in terms of marketing automation sophistication. Pipedrive might automate a task like “if deal moves to stage X, create a task to follow up in 3 days”, whereas ActiveCampaign can automate entire multi-email sequences with branching logic, etc. So the comparison often comes down to your focus: If your priority is a strong CRM for sales and you’re willing to use separate tools for heavy marketing automation, Pipedrive plus another email platform could be a good combo. If you want an integrated approach with capable marketing automation and a built-in CRM (albeit lighter-weight), ActiveCampaign alone can cover both.

Many small B2B companies actually integrate ActiveCampaign and Pipedrive using Pipedrive for the day-to-day sales management and ActiveCampaign for the marketing and lead nurturing, syncing contacts between them. This is telling: ActiveCampaign’s own CRM might not fully satisfy a busy sales team, especially one that loves Pipedrive’s simplicity. Conversely, Pipedrive alone doesn’t cover what a marketer needs to do sophisticated campaigns. In a head-to-head where a reviewer tried to pick one or the other, some have noted that while ActiveCampaign is great for marketing and “good enough” at deal management, Pipedrive “offers more” in terms of a holistic sales-focused solution with some marketing abilities creeping in. That particular viewpoint claimed Pipedrive as the winner for their use case, citing its advanced automation (likely referring to sales workflow automation) and saying it’s an all-in-one powerhouse for growth.

Take that with a grain of salt Pipedrive’s idea of all-in-one is still very sales-centric. In contrast, ActiveCampaign is a marketing-first system that branched into sales. So, choose based on your centre of gravity: marketing teams lean to ActiveCampaign, pure sales teams lean to Pipedrive. Both can co-exist via integration if needed, and that’s a valid path for many.

Klaviyo

Klaviyo is the go-to email marketing platform for e-commerce, so it’s useful to compare it with ActiveCampaign if your context includes online retail or D2C business. The biggest difference is focus: Klaviyo is built for e-commerce first, whereas ActiveCampaign is more of a generalist. In practice, Klaviyo plugs very deeply into e-commerce platforms (Shopify, Magento, etc.), pulling in product catalogs, purchase history, and even browsing behaviour out of the box. It excels at things like automatically emailing a customer a product recommendation based on what’s in their cart or their past purchases. Klaviyo also provides revenue-based reporting tailored to e-commerce (e.g., showing how much money each campaign generated, calculating customer lifetime value segments, etc.).

ActiveCampaign, while it does integrate with those same e-commerce platforms and offers abandoned cart automation, doesn’t go quite as far with native e-com features. For instance, Klaviyo lets you easily insert dynamic product recommendation blocks into emails and target super granular segments like “customers who bought product X but not Y in the last 30 days.” ActiveCampaign can do some of this with the right data, but often you need to be on a higher plan and invest time in setup. In fact, some advanced e-commerce data features in ActiveCampaign (like certain Shopify deep data) are only on the Plus plan and above. Klaviyo, by contrast, bakes in a lot of that for all users, as e-commerce is its main use case.

For non-e-commerce B2B needs, Klaviyo is usually not considered it’s really optimised for online stores. If you’re a B2B marketer, ActiveCampaign is generally more appropriate, with its CRM and broader toolkit. But if you’re a founder who runs an e-commerce or hybrid business, you might wonder if ActiveCampaign can handle it. It can, and one advantage it has is broader capabilities beyond email (SMS, CRM, etc.) plus potentially better automation flexibility. Interestingly, some users note that ActiveCampaign’s automation and segmentation are actually more powerful than Klaviyo’s, but Klaviyo is simpler to navigate for pure store marketing. A 2025 comparison summed it up well: ActiveCampaign provides more powerful automation and segmentation options, while Klaviyo offers a more specialised e-commerce tool with a free plan option for entry. Klaviyo’s interface is a bit more streamlined precisely because it doesn’t have to cover as many features as ActiveCampaign does.

Bottom line: If you are very e-commerce heavy, Klaviyo will likely yield quicker wins and industry-specific features (like ready-made flows for cart abandonment, product review requests, etc.). If your business is a mix or you want one platform that can also do CRM and other non-ecom automation, ActiveCampaign is the broader solution. Many e-commerce businesses actually use both: ActiveCampaign for general marketing/newsletters and another specialist tool for certain flows, though that can lead to overlap. It really depends on scale smaller shops might just pick one. Just know that Klaviyo is king in the Shopify crowd, whereas ActiveCampaign tends to appeal to those with varied needs beyond just cart-centric emails.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is often the starting point for email marketing, thanks to its long-standing free plan and beginner-friendly approach. Comparing Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign is almost like comparing a bicycle to a car. Mailchimp is simpler and was traditionally just about sending newsletters, though it has added some automation and CRM-lite features in recent years. If you’re a very small operation sending occasional email blasts, Mailchimp’s ease of use and free tier (up to a certain subscriber count) are attractive. The interface is straightforward and there’s not a lot to confuse a first-timer which also means it’s not packed with advanced tools.

The moment you need anything beyond basic drip sequences or segmentation, though, Mailchimp starts to show limitations. ActiveCampaign offers tagging, dynamic content, conditional logic in emails, and complex automations; Mailchimp’s automation is comparatively basic for example, sending a simple welcome series or birthday email is fine, but orchestrating a multi-branch nurture funnel is not what Mailchimp is built for. Mailchimp also has very limited scoring or pipeline management (they have a pseudo-CRM called Mailchimp Customer Journey, but it’s minimal).

In terms of pricing, Mailchimp can actually become expensive as well when your list grows, especially considering you might pay for unsubscribed contacts unless you clean your list regularly. ActiveCampaign’s cost scales too, but at least you’re getting a powerhouse of features for the money. One often-cited difference: ActiveCampaign gives far more “bang for buck” in the realm of automation, whereas Mailchimp gives “bang for no buck” at the low end (free). Thus, many startups begin on Mailchimp to save money and because they only need simple emails; but once they aspire to do segmentation, automation, or align marketing with sales, they graduate to ActiveCampaign or similar.

To put it succinctly: Mailchimp is great for beginners and very small marketing needs. ActiveCampaign is for when you need to get serious without jumping to enterprise tools. In a direct 2025 comparison, reviewers noted that while Mailchimp is more popular and user-friendly for basic use, ActiveCampaign “offers better marketing automation and list management options”. Another source from Zapier pointed out that Mailchimp might have slightly better live chat support at the free/low tier and a gentler learning curve, but ActiveCampaign has the more advanced capabilities by far. If you’re reading an in-depth guide like this, chances are you’re already looking beyond what Mailchimp can do and ActiveCampaign is one of the obvious next steps up.

Suitability for different company sizes and maturity levels

ActiveCampaign’s customer base skews towards small and mid-sized businesses, and that’s a clue to its sweet spot. Let’s break it down by company size and maturity:

• Startups and very small businesses: If you’re a one-person or small founding team with a limited budget and just dipping toes into marketing automation, ActiveCampaign can sometimes feel like using a professional camera when you were used to a smartphone powerful but maybe more than you initially need. It will require an investment of time to set up properly. Some early-stage startups opt for Mailchimp or simple tools first (for speed), then move to ActiveCampaign when they have more leads to nurture or a bit of marketing help. However, if you have even a modest volume of leads or are committed to building a scalable marketing foundation, starting with ActiveCampaign can pay off. You’ll avoid migrations later, and you can implement proper segmentation and automations from day one. The key consideration is whether you have the know-how (or willingness to learn) to get value from it at this stage. If you do, ActiveCampaign can actually be a competitive advantage for a tiny team, letting you punch above your weight in personalised marketing. If not, it could become shelfware and cause frustration, so be honest about your capabilities.
  
  
• Small to mid-sized established businesses (SMBs): This is arguably ActiveCampaign’s ideal customer. Companies with, say, 5 to 50 employees (or even up to a few hundred) that have a marketing function in place can really leverage ActiveCampaign. They likely have a decent contact database (a few thousand to tens of thousands of leads/customers) and need to regularly engage them. ActiveCampaign offers such companies a way to run sophisticated campaigns and maintain a light CRM without investing in an enterprise platform. The fact that ~80% of ActiveCampaign’s 185k+ customers are under 100 employees speaks volumes. It suggests that for SMEs, ActiveCampaign hits the right balance of cost and benefit. These companies usually have someone who can dedicate time to building automations and analysing results, which is important. As an SMB grows, ActiveCampaign can scale with them up to a point you can go from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of contacts and upgrade plans accordingly. The “Plus” and “Professional” plans are often aimed at the mid-market, adding features like predictive sending and attribution reports as teams become more data-driven. So for mid-stage companies, ActiveCampaign is very fitting, and many stick with it long term unless their needs become very complex.
  
  
• Enterprise and large organisations: ActiveCampaign does have enterprise plans and some larger clients, but it’s less common in Fortune 500 type enterprises. Larger organisations often need fine-grained user permissions, advanced security (HIPAA compliance, SSO, etc.), multi-team workflows, and maybe integration with enterprise data warehouses areas where enterprise-grade marketing clouds (Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, etc.) dominate. ActiveCampaign’s feature set has been expanding to appeal more to bigger customers (for example, they added custom objects via API, enhanced performance for large volumes, and so on), but the platform is still in many ways optimised for the mid-market user. A large company might pilot ActiveCampaign for a specific division or product line because it’s quick to get running, but for an all-in-one across huge departments, they might hit limitations. Also, large companies might simply prefer the brand assurance of enterprise vendors or already be deep into ecosystems like Microsoft or Salesforce. That said, ActiveCampaign can be a cost-effective alternative for a big company that doesn’t need all the bells and whistles of, say, a full Salesforce Marketing + Pardot setup. If an enterprise mostly needs robust email automation and can live with ActiveCampaign’s CRM or integrate it with their big CRM, it could work and save a lot of money.
  
  
• Maturity level in marketing automation: Apart from size, consider your team’s maturity with these tools. If you’re new to marketing automation (no matter your company size), expect a learning phase. ActiveCampaign suits a team that is ready to experiment, iterate, and gradually unlock more features. It’s forgiving in that you can start with simple automations and build complexity over time. If you are already experienced (maybe you’ve used a Marketo or HubSpot before), you’ll likely find ActiveCampaign refreshingly straightforward for many tasks though you might miss some high-end features. If you’re at a very advanced level (for example, you need multi-touch revenue attribution models, or extremely customised lead management processes), you might find ActiveCampaign limiting; those cases might warrant an upscale tool or additional analytics platforms to supplement.
  
  

In conclusion, ActiveCampaign is best suited for small and midsize B2B organisations and growth-minded founders. It aligns well with companies that have moved past basic email needs but aren’t ready or willing to invest in enterprise marketing software. It can stretch to accommodate fairly large contact lists and complex automations, so it’s not going to be the bottleneck as you grow until you reach a considerable scale or complexity. And when you do approach that point, you’ll likely know maybe you have multiple teams clamouring for custom reports or intricate sales-marketing alignment that pushes the platform’s boundaries. Until then, ActiveCampaign provides a growth path for companies to mature their marketing capabilities steadily.

Setup and learning curve

Getting started with ActiveCampaign involves a few setup steps and a period of acclimatisation. Here’s what to expect:

Initial setup: After you sign up (likely for the 14-day free trial to kick the tires), you’ll enter the ActiveCampaign dashboard which will prompt you with some onboarding tasks. Typically, you’ll want to do things like verify your email sending domain (to improve deliverability), import or add contacts, and maybe connect any important integrations (for example, integrate your website form or your CRM if you have one). ActiveCampaign’s dashboard does a good job of guiding new users as noted, there’s a ‘Getting Started’ slider with a checklist for key setup items. The presence of some dummy data can also help illustrate how things work, which is handy for first-timers.

Learning the interface: The interface is sectioned into Contacts, Campaigns (one-off emails), Automations, Deals (CRM pipeline), and so on. Each of these areas has its own sub-menus. ActiveCampaign provides tooltip pop-ups and even a search bar to find features quickly. New users should budget some time to click around and maybe follow a basic tutorial perhaps create a test email campaign, build a simple welcome automation, etc., just to see things in action. The good news is the design is generally considered user-friendly and modern. For example, the email drag-and-drop editor is intuitive, and the automation builder, despite being powerful, is logically laid out. Many users comment that ActiveCampaign has a lot of features, but it doesn’t feel utterly overwhelming in layout thanks to sensible menus and the ability to customise the dashboard to show what matters to you.

Documentation and resources: As you get deeper, you’ll likely consult the help center or community for specific how-tos. ActiveCampaign’s documentation is quite detailed. For instance, if you want to create a particular kind of automation, their help articles often provide step-by-step guides. They also run webinars and have an “ActiveCampaign Academy” with courses, which can accelerate the learning if you prefer a classroom-style intro. If you prefer personal help, the free onboarding sessions (sometimes offered for new customers) or their support are options to leverage.

Time to proficiency: The learning curve is there, especially if you haven’t used an automation tool before. Expect to spend several days to a few weeks to become comfortable with building basic campaigns and automations. To master the more advanced features (like lead scoring, attribution reports, or complex segmentation), it could take longer and some trial and error. Users often report that the effort is worth it once you climb the hill, the view is great, so to speak because you start to see how much you can automate and how efficient your marketing can become. But you should indeed plan for ongoing optimisation. ActiveCampaign is not a set-and-forget platform; you’ll get the most value by continuously tweaking your automations, cleaning your data, and learning from each campaign’s performance.

One thing to be mindful of is the trial period. 14 days can feel short if you’re busy. It’s wise to schedule your ActiveCampaign trial when you know you can dedicate time to really test it. Otherwise, you might end up paying for the first month just to properly evaluate it, which isn’t the end of the world but good to be aware of. Also, migrating from another platform (if you have one) should be done carefully ActiveCampaign’s team can assist with migrations to ease this process, as mentioned, which can reduce setup headaches.

In terms of learning support, beyond official channels, the user community (blogs, forums, even Reddit) can be invaluable for practical tips. Sometimes you’ll find shared automation recipes or advice on how to structure things better. Given ActiveCampaign’s emphasis on “evidence over hype” and a pragmatic approach (which fits Solid Growth’s style too), most educational content about it is straightforward and example-driven, which helps flatten the learning curve.

In summary, setting up ActiveCampaign is a manageable task, but don’t expect to unleash its full power on day one. Give yourself and your team the learning runway start with small automations and campaigns, then gradually build up. The platform is designed to grow with you, and the knowledge you gain will compound. Many founders and marketers find that after getting through the initial learning phase, ActiveCampaign becomes a trusted engine running in the background of their business, reliably doing the work of what might otherwise require a larger team or more manual effort. With patience and practice during setup, you set the stage for that long-term payoff.