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.
It is simple to start but advanced features!!! You can segment, tag, and do a lot more.
Advanced features unknown to me thus far
Landing pages, automation, tags
I like that I can set it and forget it. This program is easy to use once you get the hang of it and they have great customer service. I like all the features they provice and it works well with my funnels.
While it allows you to do alot it don't not provide everything I need for my business, however I would not expect them to.
It is sending automatic campaines and automations for me
I love the whole platform - creating new emails from scratch or using some of my past emails as templates is so easy, the ability to incorporate images and to have so much variety in the design allows for any creative person to simply unleash their imagination. And the analytical reports give me valuable insights about the behaviour of my readers. I have been sending consistently emails to my auidence for a whole year already, a couple of times a week - and my readers love to write back to me. I could not have been so consistent if it was not for the ease of implementation. A couple of times I hasd to reach out to the support team - and there were so quick to respond! Using Active campaign is a must for any serious online entrepreneur, I highly recommend it!
I haven't seen an easy option to create a newsletter om Active Campaign - as it is with Convertkit. I also like how Ck have such a generous landing page and forms service - so I will be integrating Convertkit with Activecampaign, as I want to stay on the entry paid level due to my small audience (less than 300 members).
It helps me to create real life connections with my readers, and have conversations with them.
We like to use Active Campaign as a marketing tool and for service forms on our website. It is a great tool for automations and campaigns!
I wish there was a better way to search for contacts.
It has allowed us to create deals and generate sales through our website. It has worked out great.
The simplicity of creating funnels is reliable and robust making it easy to integrate with our other platforms
I can get overwhelmed but the amount of (good) information
Our ability to communicate effectively with our clients
AC provides all we need in oder to organize our sales and marketing departement. The CRM is simple but it works perfect for what we need. Email automation is a wonderfull tool that have been improved. Amazing Customer Support.
There are no really good reports to work with and it would be nice to have a quotation feature to get everything in one place. It would be nice not to depend on zapier to integrate to other platforms. It would be nice to have the chance to register contacts by their phone numbers and not only by their email.
We use forms, integration, CRM and Email automation the most. Having everything in the same place solves a lot for us. We're now automating some process and AC is helping us on that.
I like the automation part of it. I didn't know all of that could happen but I like that I have it now.
I like most things about it. I do wish it was easier to find past emails to copy and paste them though.
It gives people information about my site and allows me to get more emails.
The ability to customize and automate data tracking for better informed marketing decisions. It's extremely easy to create lists and integrate those lists with other CRM tools. ActiveCampaign plays an everyday role in our marketing department.
Building emails from scratch and be a bit challenging if you aren't already familiarized with doing so. If it weren't for someone one our team who had already learned all the ends and outs, I'd be spending more time building automations and email designs than creating the copy writing.
The data analytics for email campaigns. What this means, is we are able to see the conversion of prsopects to leads, to clients. This helps know our target audience and understand what is and is not working through our marketing email strategies.
I find ActiveCampaign very intiuative and simple to use. Things are not difficult to figure out and get working, but when I do have an issue or problem, there is always someone there who can help me!
Nothing, I like using it! My only downside is actually having to do the marketing, which isn't ActiveCampaign's fault!
I run several different businesses and I like that I can do all of the email marketing with one platform instead of having to have different accounts for different businesses.
The Automations are easy to set up and are super helpful to reach out my audience
There is nothing I dislike, if there is a problem the support is asap there to help
I currently use active campaign for sending out my newsletter and per automation my "freebie", also my digital products
It's great product that is easy to setup, but also very effective
It's can be a bit hard to start, but easy to setup
Doing all contact emails and automating alot of our marketing procecess
It's simple and easy to create campaigns and automations.
I appreciate the security of getting an access code periodically, but I also find this frustrating. I simply want to access the app and go.
Less time-consuming than my previous email/marketing platform. It offers greater flexibility in easy to adjust the structure and add blocks.
Simple to use, great open rates & fai pricing
I'm quite happy with everything! Nothing i dislike
Helping me reach a wider audience
Active campaign has a user-friendly interface that is easy to understand even for those of us who have limited knowledge of technology. The tools it provides and ease of use and integrations is the biggest advantage it offers, in addition to having excellent automations that make sales funnels more effective. I also really like the customer support they provide since the response is quick and effective to any questions that may arise along the way. In general, it is a platform that favors communication with potential clients, favoring their results.
So far I have not had any setbacks with the platform, my difficulties in using it or doubts may come from the fact that I am not dedicated to technology or marketing, but I independently use this tool to communicate with my clients and to make the registration processes for webinars, among others. I believe that being an independent professional who has found ample advantages for its use even if I don't do it frequently, larger companies with email marketing specialists will be able to take advantage of this powerful platform for more frequent communication with their clients due to its easy implementation and effective delivery of emails to your contacts, thus increasing the percentage of visits to your websites, online stores or any other destination of interest to the company, generating better results
Active campaign solves the limitation of direct and personal communication with my potential clients and this is beneficial because it facilitates the mass sending of messages and automates some of the conversation processes with them, expanding conversion opportunities
Intuitive interface. I like the auto save feature.
A bit pricey compared to other services of its class.
Keeping in touch with prospects
Everything works smoothly and good support as well
Price if could be lower would be even better
Attribution and tracking
It has been an extremely effective tool for staying connected to my list of prospective clients.
It takes me a while to figure out how to set up automations that would be ideal for my desired outcomes.
Helping people on my email list feel personal attention from me.
I LIKE THAT IM NOT OLNY ABLE TO NURTURE MY CLIENTS BUT ALSO MY LEADS. THE EMAIL AUTOMATIONS THAT I SET UP WAS EASY TO CONFIGURE AND I DONT HAVE ANY ISSUES WITH EMAILS BOUNCING BACK OR GOING TO SPAM.
I DONT HAVE ANY DOWNSIDES AS IVE USED THE PROGRAM FOR YEARS AND LIKE IT FOR MY BUSINESS
IT ALLOWING ME TO NOT HAVE TO SEND MANUAL EMAILS TO MY CLIENT. I CAN BUILD A CAPAIGN AND HAVE THE EMALS SENT AUTOMATICALLY WHEN I WANT THEM TO BE
Robust marketing automations. I can build virtually any automation that fits my needs. It's easy to troubleshoot automations as I can follow each contact thru their steps, see when each step happened (down to the second), why steps were skipped, etc.
The reporting is sorely lacking, at least on the tier I'm on. Even for basics like click rates on emails, filtering open rates by date. Probably available on a pricier tier, but I'm already paying a LOT for ActiveCampaign.
Email marketing to segments of my contacts. Building business automations like adding tags and populating custom fields of contacts that perform actions I'm interested in, adding rows to Google Sheets, calling webhooks to other software.
I love that Active Campaign is great for a handful of resources that marketing can use. The automation is super helpful and their new AI is wonderful.
I wish they had more robust features, specifically for automation. While their automation is great, it's not an all-in-one tool. Also, the sales portion can be improved massively.
Active Campaign is helping us gather leads, market to those leads, and gain new valuable insights into our business acumen.
IKt is easy to create, there are lot of templates and preset autmatizations
Somtimes site loads slow, but it is ok. Pricing is not cheap for Croatian economy
It is solving our ecommerce abandoned cart, and occasional neswsletter about new products.
Creating campaigns and automation is the easiest compared to many of their top competitors. Integrating into other tools is also incredibly simple.
Some additional tools cost extra, and there's no option to try them out first. At least I couldn't find them, but I didn't contact their support for confirmation.
The top problems being solved are email newsletter list building and follow-up with automated emails.
A very useful, proactive Sales and Marketing tool to have indeed! User-friendly, easy-to-set up, full of business development features with outstanding lead conversion. Have frequently used it for years. Its designed to help you win business like never before thanks to brilliant qualifying and engaging, backed by an amazing help and support centre. A real asset.
For me it's been an ultimate business development tool. Has amazing targeting, reach, engagement, marketing campaigns. It integrates superbly with relevant applications too that help with prospect targeting and conversion including Salesforce and HubSpot. Nothing concrete to yap about.
Naturally its solved Sales and Marketing Campaigns automation. Building up contact bases and avenues for engagement. Consequently increasing prospects for leads, settling up platforms for pitching, leading to closing deals.
The onboarding experience was fantastic. Active Campaign took care of importing my lists and had me set up and ready to go very quickly. The tier that I have also includes one-on-one time with a specialist that can help you when creating your automationa. Very helpful.
I encountered some bugs when using the email composer where I couldn't click in some boxes. It's been fixed now though.
I am able to create a CRM with a pipeline for our team. This wasn't something I was expecting on using, I was more interested in the email automation so it's an added bonus.
The most helpful aspect of AC for marketing is the CRM integration with campaigns and external platforms and APIs to website. Everything can be house under one roof.
The number of features avaiable for bespoke and complicated reporting, although it does offer a plethora of items within it's foundation.
Automatically capturing consent and data through website integration. It also allows for automations following subscriptions and newsletter mailouts.
Once I got going with Active Campaign it became easier to understand how it all works. Regular insights and emails from Active Campaign remind me what I can do in my service based business with Active Campaign to help clients revisit course materials meaning they get a better return on investment without me having to worry about when to contact them
There are so many things I can do, even at the basic level I am at that it is finding the time to work out what is relevant and useful for my service based business.
Making it easy to have forms on my Word press website pages for lead magnets, reminding clients to access courses they have putchased and I love how it integrates so well with Thinkific, the course platform I use,
Having a lead generation automation set up from a web form that sends a confirmation email, sets a new lead and adds a task to call them. The email looks professional and was easy to design. Easy integration with Squarespace and Zapier.
Not being able to use the SMS function in Australia. Addresses not auto-filling.
Automated the inquiry process and saved me time individually emailing new clients.
Their automation features are very intuitive and make it easy to ensure all new marketing leads are proptley engaged with content to keep them engaged.
The only thing that wuold be nice to have would be a simple method to see all automation triggeres and where they were located. For older campaigns it can be difficult to find how the process flowed unless you really dig.
They make it easy to take newley captured leads from our paid marketing efforts, and engage them quickly with confirmation emails and nurturing campaigns.
les interface de creation de mail sont aisées et bien structuré, les emails font vraiment pro. Le CRM est facile d'utilisation aussi
Je n'ai pas encore trouver d'éléments négatif pour l'instant
Cela m'a permis de gagner beaucoup de temps , d'etre plus pro dans l'envoie d'email et d'avoir des prospects plus precis
ActiveCampaign makes it easy to design great newsletters and funnels for our business. It is so much more user-friendly than other services I've used!
Historically their customer service has been extraordinary, but it's been less than stellar the last few times. I'm hoping it's just some bad luck on my part and not a permanent issue.
ActiveCampaign makes it easy to design funnels and newsletters and keep our various audiences organized and tracked.
