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.
How well is it structured. There are many helpful sites to help you get started.
Clicking through the campaigns might take a while as the website has to reload multiple times. It might feel slow.
Active Campaign is solving our newsletter needs and email automation.
Works for our email campaigns, automates our emails.
It does not sync with outlook automatically
Automating my weekly emails to clients, we have more frequent touches with clients.
The most helpful way to use ActiveCampaign is cleary concerning it automation part. I can automate a lot of my marketing campaign easily thanks to this software. Especially helpful concerning my mail marketing program.
At the moment, I can't see any downside of this software. It works perfectly and never let me down. The customer service is great, they answer quickly to my questions. Maybe at the beginning the information can be overwhelmed, but with practice you can improve yourself.
It helps me to automate the task especially with the autorespond functionality. Pretty great thing to use so I can focus on other tasks. It allows to deal with customer and to segment them easily.
Having used Aweber for years, hating Confusionsoft and then turned onto ActiveCampaign, I've been using it for 2 years now and love it. Templates speed things up, very intuitive user interface, easy to duplicate past emails and loved the fact that I can integrate it with Clickfunnels so easily. Highly recommended.
It does take a bot of getting used to, but then that's true of every new platform you sign up for. The 2 arrow thing at the top left corner makes it tricky to find things, couldn't understand why menu options that were there last time weren't there now. But now I know where to look.
Automating my member follow-up and my weekly livestreams. Allows me to automatically follow up my customers and create sequences of messages that drip-feed my offers to my database.
I think Active Campaign is wonderful tool to do all marketing automation strategy a Marketign Manager want to apply on digital. Really more than a simple email marketing tool.
i don't like that there isn't a complete mobile app version of ActiveCampaign which I can use to do all the wonderful thing I do on desktop version.
Creation of automated funnel.
the sheer possibilities of the software and ease of use
i can´t think of anything right now that needs to be fundamentally improved
I am still a beginner in using the email marketing software and am inplementing automations step by step and need explore all the other possibilities as i go.. But the automations have brought me already a time sparing effect and made some extra revenue.
Being able to automate actions items in my workflow based on the prospects behavior or how they respond.
Takes awhile to get set up and it can get confusing if you don't know what you're doing.
Eliminating manual repetitive data entry and it gives the visibility that you need to optimize your marketing efforts.
The automations are super complete and easy to manage. Also it is easier to segment the leads you recieve in mains of their interests and what you can sell them.
I would love that the tasks would be faster to do, sometimes it takes too much time to load a mail and you only want to change a word. Otherwise, the price has incremented.
Thanks to ActiveCampaign I can have my own leads database and convert leads to clients more easily. Also, by looking at the tags I know what I can sell them, this makes everything easier.
It is very easy to use and afordable for people who want to start a business online. It's very fast in autoresponding and I can link it with my other softwares.
At the moment, everything works fine so I have no complaint about it. But I would like to say nonetheless, that the price goes up quickly after 500 contacts, which is something that can be cheaper, at least, till the 1000th contact.
Mostly automation and autoresponding. It is easy to use with other software, so the contact does not wait a lot before receiving a CTA mail from me, which is great.
La cosa migliore di ActiveCampaign è la semplicità di utilizzo per imparare ad utilizzare automazioni e creare campagne di email marketing accattivanti.
Nulla, è uno strumento ad alti livelli. L'unica cosa che migliorerei se fosse possibile è il tasso di apertura.
Risolve i problemi di catalogare le persone in liste specifiche e creare campagne molto mirate.
I use ActiveCampaign every day, all day. I have created different stages for tracking my potential partners and have automated the process to move them through my pipeline to each stage until the deal is won.
Some integrations require the use of Zapier, which I'm still learning. Also I wish I could use my saved response as part of my automation. So far they are two separate things
I can keep track of all the new partners I'm trying to move through the stages and determine when they need attention. Easy to send a saved response when that is all that is needed
The fact that it is very intuitive, well ordered in terms of modules, facilitates integrations, and many other reasons, but above all that it has an excellent Customer Service team
Nothing. Everything is great from my viewpoint.
It allows us to automate the generation of leads via landing pages and forms; nurturing; proposals; conversions; and customer service.
I love the automations, the easy to use email designer and a simple database system.
Making cta buttons suit outlook has been challenging.
Saving time with repeat emails as people in our organisation follow processes
There's a robust set of features that are fairly easy and intuitive to use. We never feel like we are paying for things we don't need and we love the customer support.
One of the downsides is that the larger you grow your list, the more expensive the platform becomes, and there is a big price jump between entry level and subsequent tiers.
automations while staying connected. We're glad it integrates so nicely with WordPress, Woocommerce and Stripe.
The features are wonderful and suit the needs of my business.
I found the usability of the features difficult to navigate at first, but the webinars and help provided made it much easier to learn.
It's providing the tools to create landing pages, to build my email list with ease and organization.
The Automation provides a powerful graphical interface to build marketing flows with conditions and loops which is extremely powerful in marketing ones services to existing customers, and retaining and recovering old customers.
The email management section is quite confusing, there are different methods of composing an email. It would be easier if it was limited to two types instead of what they have now.
It is a viable "abandoned cart" solution for our sales funnels. As well as providing automation tools to market existing and new customers. Email automation, as well as email campaigns, are quite powerful... e
Ease of use, feature set, cost is reasonable, integrations are solid
I haven't found much at all that I dislike about it!
Simplified integration of emails, client management, and prospect outreach tracking
After using several email marketing platforms throughout the years, ActiveCampaign stands above the rest. It's easy to use, and has everything I need (and more) for my growing business. I've been recommending it to all of my clients and entrepreneurial friends.
Embedding an ActiveCampaign form in an external platform has limitations. There is very little design functionality, and it is not mobile responsive.
Segmenting my audience and creating seamless automations helps with new client onboarding and audience communication. ActiveCampaign helps increase efficiency while delivering a great user experience.
As someone who is new to marketing the templates included and guides are great to use and simple.
I haven't found anything I dislike as yet!
Quick and easy results for email campaigns and landing pages
It's really easy to create professional campaigns and save a lot of time. Customer service is very good. Easy integration with other services. No bugs so far )
Maybe there is a better way to organize and edit images.
Keeping in touch with leads, automating processes, promoting the brand and the products.
I liked the customer support and a variety of learning materials. Also, for me as a new user, it offered a lot of templates, guidelines and inspiration. From what I hear about the comparative platforms, seems to me AC is one of the best to choose.
Not much to dislike, apart from the fact that I have to prioritise this part of my business. As expected, learning about all the available tools and options requires dedication.
AC is a good way to start email automation. It is very easy to learn and it provides a set of templates for inspiration and guidance. It can help solve the problem of overwhelm when you are a beginner.
We love the tags and the automation sequences in Active Campaign. The recipes make it easy to start a campaign, and the tags make it so we can stay organized. I also like that there are updated templates ready to use!
The only thing we dislike is that we cannot send an email to our @lecinc email since that is what we are registered under. It would be great if they allowed domain-to-domain sending so my whole team could get our notifications.
Our website is outdated, and we are working on building a new one. Active campaign has let us create pages with forms we can now send our customers until we update our website. It has provided us with more leads as well!
The templates are really good and simple to use - they guide you to send all different types of emails etc
It takes a little while to get used to the navigation but once there it is easy
Centrally keeps on top of all my contacts and touch points with my leads I can see who has opened and who hasnt I can see who has subscribed and who hasnt
We had been using another service before ActiveCampaign, and when we switched we were AMAZED at how much better it was. Setting up automated events is especially easy and helpful.
The only thing I can think of is that ActiveCampaign offers a LOT of services, many of which we don't use and don't really understand. I wish that there were more opportunities to find out how to use those features so that they weren't so overwhelming.
ActiveCampaign is so much better at wrangling our email list and putting it to work for us than our old system. As our leads grew, it was impossible to keep track of everything before - AC makes it easy and everyone gets a great and streamlined experience.
The onboarding team, success team, etc. have been so helpful and knowledgable. Overall, the system is well organized, easy to use (considering its potential complexity, etc.). The emails from AC with tips, guides, etc. have been awesome too. But yeah, the employees and how AC really shows they want their system to succeed for our business is what really shines. Please don't ever change that.
There are some strange things that happen occasionally like the screen freezing on automations page (indefinitely until you close out or refresh). The Forms are also really ugly by default to the point I am almost embarrassed for leads to use them. I see how people make them look great, so the capability is there and the problem is that I haven't taken the time to do the same, but if there were some really nice looking form styles that could be applied, that would be really awesome.
Getting set up to be more scalable by automating responses to leads, getting them into automations that handle portions of their requests automatically and allow us to get involved personally through Calendly integration, emails etc. I haven't realized any benefits yet, but that's just because it took us forever to get it set up. Ask me again in 12 months!
AC is extremely easy to set up, and the automation campaigns are fantastic and allow us to easily trigger rule-based emails, such as user sign-ups, cancellations etc.
The interface can be a little slow at times, it would be great if things could feel a little less clunky. But otherwise, everything is fantastic and we enjoy the platform.
AC Allows us to automate emails upon user sign-up, conversions, cancellations and more. We trigger emails based on tags, which allows us to send out certain emails based on a users role and payment status.
I like that's easy to use and very effective. I also like the automation in it because it helped with reducing a lot of effort on my part. In addition to this, I am a quite visionary person, I like the automation map feature which helps in illustrating to me the big picture of the automation we have built and how they're performing. Overall, great experience with ActiveCampaign.
The only negative thing I have about it is the pricing when comparing it to other tools. However, I can easily that it's still worth the investment despite it being more expensive than other similar tools.
ActiveCampaign is solving the problem of having to manage the entire aspects of building and managing an email list of customers, while also acting as a CRM to keep track of customers' journey progress. It provides an omnichannel approach to managing your email campaigns and marketing automation with the variety of options available.
1 anytime i have an issue or a question I can ask a "real person" and not a robot. They always find a way to give me the best advices and solve my issues
the price :) I feel like the difference between the free plan and the paying plan is huge
I have so many option, i think i don't even use the half of the possibilities that are given to me. The automation system saved my business. i now have time for more productive task and I can track my customers and give them better services and offers
I love the amount of automations (& that there are many already built that you can just plug in & customize). I also love how our sales and marketing teams can now both work within one platform so there is better visbility across the organization.
The email design builder was a bit of an adjustment for me and sometimes my emails don't look exactly how I'd like them to, but every platform has its pros and cons and most custom email design would require skills beyond of what we have on our team. I've also noticed there are sometimes the platform crashes or has issues, which impacts my work. Typically those issues are resolved within an hour or two, so not a huge deal.
We have a lack of visbility between sales and marketing. ActiveCampaign is helping us solve that through their all-in-one platform. We can now see what activity sales is taking with prospects and can adjust marketing accordingly (and vice versa). ActiveCampaign has also allowed us to get a lot more specific with our email segmenting, so we can send more tailored communications.
It's simple to use, has many templates for different industries, and allows you to set up automation for follow-up. There support is also great.
I have not run into anything I don't like.
It's saving time with follow-up with customers with their automation and allowing us to engage and provide information on updates and specials.
