Unclaimed: Are you working at ActiveCampaign for Marketing?
ActiveCampaign for Marketing Reviews: 4.5/5 — Highly Rated
ActiveCampaign is an integrated marketing tool that easily automates email marketing strategies and creates targeted campaigns. While automated marketing is a core component of the system, ActiveCampaign is a powerful tool that can do so much more. The software is known for being able to deliver a personalized experience across all customer touchpoints, track buyer behavior and preferences, customize send-outs, and gather data from every stage of the customer lifecycle, just to name a few.
| Capabilities |
AI
API
|
|---|---|
| Segment |
Small Business
Mid Market
Enterprise
|
| Deployment | Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Mobile Android, Mobile iPad, Mobile iPhone |
| Support | 24/7 (Live rep), Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support |
| Training | Documentation |
| Languages | English |
ActiveCampaign for Marketing Pros and Cons
- Powerful email builder
- Machine learning enabled helps boost marketing results
- Seamlessly integrates with automations
- On-site chat is an additional, paid add on
- Advanced feature are complicated to use and navigate.
ActiveCampaign’s $15 Starter plan limits each automation to five actions. On a platform bought specifically for automation, that is the number that decides your plan — a welcome sequence, a lead-scoring flow, or an abandoned-cart journey all run past five steps quickly. And the discount you get for accepting that limit shrinks as your list grows: at 25,000 contacts, Starter is displayed at $391 a month while Plus, which has no action cap at all, is $389.
- What it is: A marketing automation platform combining email, automation, CRM, and now WhatsApp, built around a visual automation builder.
- Best for: Businesses whose value comes from behavioural automation rather than from sending newsletters.
- Pricing: Starter $15, Plus $49, Pro $79, Enterprise $145 per month at 1,000 contacts, billed annually. Verified July 2026.
- The honest catch: Starter and Plus are single-user plans; three users arrive at Pro.
What Is ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign’s reputation rests on its automation builder, which is genuinely one of the best in the category: branching conditions, goals, split tests, wait steps, and CRM actions arranged visually. Where most email tools bolt automation onto a newsletter product, ActiveCampaign is an automation product that also sends email.
The 2026 lineup adds two structural things. Channels are now chosen before plans — Email, WhatsApp, or Email + WhatsApp are separate price families — and “Active Intelligence”, the AI layer, appears on every tier but carries unstated limits on Starter and Plus. The page also offers a results guarantee: 30 days or your money back.
Prices are set by contact count through a selector, so every published figure describes a list size rather than a plan.
How ActiveCampaign Works
- Priced by email contacts, chosen from a dropdown that runs from 1,000 to 150,000.
- Automation actions are the Starter cap — five per automation, unlimited from Plus.
- Users ladder late. One on Starter and Plus, three on Pro, five on Enterprise.
- Landing pages start at Plus, not Starter.
- Attribution and conversion tracking start at Pro.
- WhatsApp is a separate plan family, priced independently of email.
ActiveCampaign Pricing
Captured from ActiveCampaign’s pricing page in July 2026 in US dollars, Email plans, billed annually, reading the contact selector at each size.
| Contacts | Starter | Plus | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $15 | $49 | $79 | $145 |
| 5,000 | $79 | $145 | $205 | $375 |
| 10,000 | $149 | $189 | $375 | $589 |
| 25,000 | $391 | $389 | $629 | $879 |
| 50,000 | $391 | $609 | $969 | $1,169 |
What actually decides your plan:
- Five actions per automation is a hard ceiling, not a soft one. A welcome series that sends three emails with waits between them has already spent its budget. If automation is why you are here — and it usually is — Starter is an email tool with a decorative automation feature, and Plus is the first plan that does the job.
- The Starter discount evaporates with list size. At 1,000 contacts Plus costs 3.3 times more; at 10,000 it costs 27% more; at 25,000 the pricing table shows Starter at $391 against Plus at $389. Whatever the reason for that crossover, nobody with a 25,000-contact list should be choosing Starter over Plus on price.
- Starter’s displayed price stops rising at $391. It reads $391 at 25,000, 50,000, and 75,000 contacts while every other tier keeps climbing. That may be a deliberate ceiling or a quirk of the selector; either way, confirm it with ActiveCampaign before building a budget on it.
- Landing pages require Plus. Starter sends and automates but does not host pages, which matters if you were planning to run campaigns end to end.
- One user until Pro. Both Starter and Plus are single-seat, so a second marketer means $79 at 1,000 contacts — a fivefold step from the headline.
- Attribution is a Pro feature. Knowing which campaign produced revenue starts at $79, which is worth weighing if proving ROI is part of the job.
Who Should Use ActiveCampaign
- Businesses running genuine behavioural automation. The clearest case, and where the builder outclasses most competitors.
- Ecommerce operators. Deep store integrations plus abandoned-cart and post-purchase flows are a core strength.
- Teams wanting email and CRM together. The built-in CRM removes an integration for smaller sales teams.
- Companies adding WhatsApp to the mix, now a first-class channel rather than an integration.
It fits poorly for simple newsletters, where MailerLite or Kit cost far less; for large lists mailed infrequently, where Brevo’s send-based pricing is structurally cheaper; and for teams needing multiple seats early, since three users requires Pro.
Honest Pros and Cons
Strengths
- The best automation builder in its price range. Conditions, goals, and split tests done properly.
- A real CRM included, not a contact list relabelled.
- Deep ecommerce integrations for cart recovery and post-purchase flows.
- WhatsApp as a native channel rather than a bolt-on.
- A 30-day results guarantee, unusual in the category.
- Transparent contact-based pricing, published across the full list-size range.
Limitations
- Five actions per automation on Starter, which undercuts the reason to buy it.
- Starter’s value collapses as lists grow, and inverts against Plus at 25,000 contacts.
- Single user on Starter and Plus.
- No landing pages below Plus.
- Attribution requires Pro at $79.
- AI limits on Starter and Plus are unstated — “limits apply” without a number.
ActiveCampaign Alternatives and How It Compares
- Mailchimp is better known and easier to start with, but weaker on automation logic at comparable prices.
- Brevo charges by emails sent rather than contacts stored, which is structurally cheaper for large, rarely-mailed lists.
- Klaviyo is the ecommerce specialist, stronger on store data and more expensive as profiles accumulate.
- GetResponse and Omnisend occupy similar ground, the latter ecommerce-focused.
- MailerLite and Kit are the cheaper options for creators and simple sending.
- HubSpot Marketing Hub is the heavier all-in-one, with costs that escalate quickly.
For a broader survey, browse our marketing automation directory.
The Verdict
ActiveCampaign earns its reputation. The automation builder handles branching logic, goals, and conditional content with a fluency that most competitors at this price cannot match, the CRM is genuinely useful rather than nominal, and the ecommerce integrations make cart-recovery and post-purchase flows straightforward. If your marketing depends on what individual contacts do rather than on what you send everyone, it belongs on the shortlist.
Ignore the $15. Starter caps every automation at five actions, and five actions is not an automation — it is a short sequence. Three emails with a wait between each has consumed the allowance before you have added a condition or a goal. Since automation is the entire reason to prefer ActiveCampaign over a cheaper email tool, buying Starter means paying for the product’s reputation while being locked out of the thing that earned it. Plus at $49 is the honest entry price.
Then set the contact selector to your actual list size, because the plan gap behaves strangely as lists grow. At 1,000 contacts Plus costs 3.3 times Starter; at 10,000 it is only 27% more; and at 25,000 the table shows Starter at $391 against Plus at $389 — the entry plan costing more than the tier above it. Starter’s displayed price then holds at $391 while everything else climbs, which is odd enough that it is worth confirming directly with ActiveCampaign rather than planning around. The practical conclusion is unchanged either way: the cheapest plan is only meaningfully cheap on a small list, and on a small list its automation limit is exactly what you cannot afford.
FAQ
How much does ActiveCampaign cost?
Captured in July 2026 in US dollars for Email plans billed annually at 1,000 contacts: Starter $15, Plus $49, Pro $79, and Enterprise $145 per month. Prices rise with contact count — at 10,000 contacts they are $149, $189, $375, and $589. WhatsApp and Email + WhatsApp are separate plan families with their own pricing. A 30-day results guarantee applies.
What is the 5-action limit on ActiveCampaign Starter?
Starter permits five actions per automation, where an action is any step — sending an email, waiting, applying a tag, updating a field, or branching. A three-email welcome sequence with waits between the emails reaches the limit immediately. Every plan from Plus upward includes unlimited automation actions, which is why Plus is the realistic entry point for anyone buying ActiveCampaign for automation rather than for sending.
Why does Starter cost more than Plus at 25,000 contacts?
That is what ActiveCampaign’s own contact selector displays: $391 for Starter against $389 for Plus at 25,000 contacts. Starter’s shown price then remains $391 at 50,000 and 75,000 while the other tiers keep rising. It may be a deliberate ceiling on the entry plan or a quirk in the pricing table, so confirm it before budgeting — but at that list size there is no price argument for Starter over Plus in any case.
How many users does ActiveCampaign include?
Starter and Plus are both single-user plans. Pro includes three users and Enterprise five. That makes Pro the practical entry point for any marketing team rather than a solo operator, and at 1,000 contacts that is $79 per month against the $15 headline — worth establishing before you compare it against competitors that include several seats lower down.
Is ActiveCampaign better than Mailchimp?
For automation, clearly yes — the builder handles branching conditions, goals, and split tests with more depth than Mailchimp offers at comparable prices, and the built-in CRM is a real one. Mailchimp is easier to start with, better known, and has a free tier. Choose ActiveCampaign when behavioural automation drives revenue, and something simpler when you mostly need to send good-looking campaigns to a list.
Compare ActiveCampaign for Marketing with other popular tools in the same category.
I really like the simplicity of using the platform, with a few clicks I can set up great email funnels. Another very relevant point for me is the visualization of email funnels, which makes creating them even better.
In terms of disadvantages, I don't see many. A point that I consider to improve is in the loading when I create a large email funnel, because due to the volume of emails and the contact base, it takes time to load, but nothing that gets in the way.
My use is for creating email funnels and for that it serves me very well. The delivery of emails is good, I can do complex logic, clean the contact base, leaving everything very automated.
I love the automatizations, the process to create them is very simple and intuitive.
Sometimes the response from the website is very slow. Even if the automatization is not very complex and your internet connexion is great, you need to refresh a lot the page.
I can program my email campaigns, program them just once and forget. Once I've done the work I can dedicate my time to other things helping me to escalate the business.
I enjoy how intuitive and straight forward your product is. Our staff find it very useful to track our customer base and it helps me visualize our sales pipeline.
I enjoy the entire product so far. There isn't anything missing, however I mostly use it for CRM purposes. My marketing team does use it to reach out to customer as part of their email campagin.
With active campagin, the finance and sales team uses the CRM to track the stages of the customer journey. The finance team will use this data to help forecast and identify opportunities. The sales team will use this as a follow up and reminder of their customers.
Utilizo o AC desde 2020 para fazer o disparo de meus emails e minhas automações de marketing. Entendo como maior poder do AC as integração com centenas de aplicativos. Utilizo mais de 10 integrações rodando simultaneamente e estou muito satisfeito com os resultados. Essa conecção entre as automações e os disporos de emails com alta taxa de abertura, tornam a ferramente muito poderosa.
Em algums momentos o sistema fica um pouco lento, mas isso não acontece com frequencia, portanto é suportavel essas pequenas instabilidades. Alguns artigos na central de ajuda não estão em português, mas o suporte oferecido pela ferramenta consegue superar essa pequena deficiência.
Integrações com mais de 10 aplicativos, onde consigo conectar minha loja virtual, minhas estratégias de disparo de emails, meu controle financeiro e minha plataforma de ensino a distância.
Mi trovo molto bene con i molti spunti dati per creare mail, delle campagne e la gestione del contatto in modo completo! L'ottimizzazazione per le automazioni che si possono trovare sono molto utili e ti fanno risparmiare tempo.
Per chi come me non conosce l'inglese mi dispiace che i moltissimi contenuti di formazione che vengono forniti non siano tradotti in italiano, per questo molto spesso non li seguo.
Il primo dei molti aspetti che ho iniziato a risolvere è la gestione di un database contatti unico dove gestire e tenere insieme le informazioni che raccolgo, poi a seguire la programmazione delle mail.
Possibilità di creare automazioni e mail personalizzate
Prezzo un pò troppo alto quando i contatti vanno ad aumentare
Più iscritti alla mia mailing list e più conversioni sul sito web
Sehr Bedienerfreundlich aufgebaut. Ich w
Leider kommen die Newsletter nur auf englisch, ich würde mich freuen, wenn mehr auf deutsch kommt
Ich nutze ActiveCampaign für meine Online Kurse und Newsletter
Gosto das automações que posso criar para diferentes campanhas
O preço poderia ser mais acessível, principalmente para poucos contatos, pois minha moeda é real e não dolar
campanhas de lançamento de produto digital, entrega de e-mail sem ir para lixeira
- Easy interface - Amazing onboarding - Easy to use Email Builder - Low pricing
- Analytics can be made better - Popups should be available in every plan
- Email Campaigns - Lead Collection
It has all the functionality of hubspot for a fraction of the price,
The ui can be better, and the crm could have some more functions.
Marketing automation, CRM, lead scroring and more.
We can make all you want on the platform for any marketing professional
It's a lits bit complicated to create automatizations
I used active Campaign to promote my company's products and services to my customers and it works very well
How easy it is to create customer journeys with multiple steps and integrated to our company website for proper tracking. Also, it's very easy to integrate to the website, tag prospects, score leads and all sorts of features a business might need in order to scale digitally.
Nothing so far, very easy to use, short learning curve and excellent support
Marketing Automation, long customer journeys, nurturing campaigns.
Most helpful are the targeting possibilities and creating different lists to see exactly what your prospects or clients are interested in. I love the automations with which I set up already complete online courses to be delivered at exactly the time I want this email to go out.
What is annoying me if when I change the font from "Arial" to "Open Sans" very often when I add new lines, the font changes back to Arial and it is quite time consuming to keep changing it several times within one single email. It would be very helpful to be able to change the default font, maybe there is a possibility that I didn't figure out yet. :-)
Active Campaign helps me to create attractive emails that my audience and prospects love to see and read, add beautiful buttons to sign up for a masterclass or program.
I love Active Campaign because is very easy to use. Its support is amazing and the templates are amazing. Perfectly integrated with Shopify
I'd like to have more personalized ecommerce items, for example to have the chance to add a single product instead of the category
My performance are better than in the past
The best thing is that it has everything I need, in other email marketing platforms I have missed certain features that Active Campaign does have. Above all, it integrates with many plugins that I need, because these include the integration with AC.
Sometimes I notice a lot of slowness in loading pages, although lately it has improved, but it could still be speeded up more.
I have automated many processes on my website, automatic shipments after purchases or actions, it saves me a lot of time. The marketing automation editor is quite intuitive and easy to use.
Facilidade e usabilidade da ferramenta.
O suporte via chat nem sempre resolve os problemas na hora que mais precisamos.
Funciona muito bem com as integrações com o Hotmart por exemplo.... E com sistemas como wordpress e seus plugins.
the best part that i was looking for with the active campaign was the automation system, and I was missing the simplicity of other options. more than that most of my emails hit the inbox so the delivery % is very high compared to a local mailing options
I didn't understand why I need the autoresponder option if it was sending me to the automation option... it's not that clear what exactly active can offer me more options. the landing pages are not in use for me. I'm based in Israel and compared to other local options the cost for active campaign is pretty high
1. it's fully connected to my website, email, WP automation, and my website plugins. 2. the system is pretty easy to use. 3. the delivery % is higher than other option
Ease-to-use and completeness. By a large margin, even the most basic signature gives you more features, with more options, than the competition.
Sometimes it's a bit confusing to get used to that amount of tools, but within 2-3 weeks of use you should get pretty good in it.
I mostly use automations and the lead-capturing features.
The automation, ease of use and dynamic functionality.
So far, there hasn't been anything that has come to my attention. However, if there were support videos to showcase how to maximise automation abilities. That would be great.
Maintaining a CRM and email marketing via automation and campaigns. Deliverability is great! And it's just so easy to manage and maintain.
How intuitive it is an how easy it is to find what you are looking for. Also, support is a great help. This is how companies should be.
I would like to try out features for like 30 days, before paying.
automated emails. There is no manual work needed.
ActiveCampaign is very easy to use, plug and play as its best! And a very good support for my questions!
From my point of view there is nothing I don't like. Keep it up!
Automation of new subscribers Newsletter
The best thing about the platform is its versatility, customer support and ease of use
I like everything, maybe the price is a little expensive than other platforms, but because this is better
It is a tool that has not only helped me automate my email marketing campaigns and segment my contact list by interests, but also gives me tips to optimize
Ease of use for what we do, even though we know we are not using it to its full capabilities.
Not sure if this is necessarily ActiveCampaign's problem, but email block we set up in ActiveCampaign doesn't seem to be working in the workflow of our website contact form > ActiveCampaign Automation > our mail system
Very useful to get contact form filled in our website automatically records that person's information in ActiveCampaign. We've been sending out newsletters using ActiveCampaign as well. The design features for campaigns are great for our needs.
My favorite feature is the live chat extension!
I wish that there was a way to track our sales team's usage and efforts on ActiveCampaign.
We needed a direct line of communication between marketing and the customer base. Activecampaign has made this seamless!
ActiveCampaign's workflow builder is the best in the industry that I've found. The triggering, the email sequences, the data that can get collected all starts with a very simple and visual workflow builder. Other systems are trying to copy this because it's so good.
The only thing I think could be easier to use would be list management and tagging. It's very robust but could use an express version of managing your master list. But it can be confusing for the new user or someone who isn't familiar with list segmentation.
My biggest use cases are segmenting my list based on how they've interacted and what they've purchased, and creating easy automations and workflows. ActiveCampaign is really the best in industry when it comes to these two things.
Customer experience automation is the #1 reason that we stick with ActiveCampaign. We can treat each contact within our database as its own and customize our communication channels. Their support is fast and helpful, which is something we don't get with other platforms that we use.
It is sometimes difficult to generate reports unless you know how to set up the system to align with your reporting needs. Over the years we have become very proficient in the platform mechanics, but it is a learning curve.
ActiveCampaign takes away a lot of the manual steps within our business and team admin roles. As a result, the company is more efficient and attentive to our audiences' needs.
their support, how quickly they solve my enquires!
I don't have any complaints. My experience has been awesome so far.
Solving my email marketing strategy, it's becoming easier to know how to manage my lists, automation and campaigns the more I use AC and I have to use it every day to make sure my online business is doing well
AC customer support is knowledgeable and responsive. Their help articles are easy to understand as well, and the training workshops are engaging and informative.
I haven't experienced any downsides to working with Active Campaign yet.
Active Campaign's automation features are helping me manage my list.
1. Professional Email Designer Tool For Business Email Campaign. 2. It is the best automation tool for our business to increase branding. 3. We can create a great landing page for our business. 4. This email marketing tool gives the best return on investment. 5. We can track and improve our email marketing campaign response rate.
We used ActiveCampaign to generate business leads from our targeted landing pages for multiple email campaigns. We can easily track email campaign performance with the help of ActiveCampaign . It works for B2C And B2B to run email campaigns.
Reviewing ActiveCampaign after using it for more than 2 years. It is one of the best email marketing solutions for our business. In less time we can create email lists and landing pages to show our business services and products to customers. It has several templates for our landing page with the feature of dynamic content insertion. We can easily add content and images for our landing page and run marketing email campaigns. We can also schedule email campaigns for upcoming services to enhance our customers.
The tagging and list creation makes perfect sense
As always it would be nice to have greater customer numbers for a lower fee
Ease of selecting very specific audiences for specific campaigns
