ActiveCampaign Pricing and Comparison with Other Alternatives

ActiveCampaign is undoubtedly one of the most popular CRM automation platforms. But even the most popular ones have their own drawbacks.

ActiveCampaign is no exception.

What do we mean by this?

ActiveCampaign is not the best solution for small businesses. In fact, ActiveCampaign pricing is priced deceptively low to lure users, and then shoots up as the number of contacts increases.

This blog aims to dig deeper and break down the pricing to help you understand why you are better off with a more affordable alternative. Then, we’ll list out three of the best ActiveCampaign alternatives.

Happy reading!

ActiveCampaign Pricing: What Do I Get?

If you decide to become a subscriber, you can choose among four ActiveCampaign plans at different costs. These are the Lite, Plus, Professional, and Enterprise plans.

Here’s an overview of ActiveCampaign costs for each of the four plans:

ActiveCampaign Lite Plan

First is the Lite plan, which includes the following features:

Lite implementation
Data migration
Managed email delivery
Email-based support with live chat
Webhooks and API
Integrations
Social media tools
Event and site tracking
Auto-importing
Basic subscriptions
Unlimited email sending
GEO tracking
Optional paid email testing
Reporting
Autoresponders
Contact importing
Optional paid social data
Email designer (drag and drop)
3 users
Marketing automation
Email marketing
Newsletter sending

ActiveCampaign pricing for any of its four plans varies based on how many contacts you have. Here’s an overview of the Lite plan pricing by the number of contacts:

$9 a month for 500 contacts
$29 a month for 1,000 contacts
$49 a month for 2,500 contacts
$79 a month for 5,000 contacts
$139 a month for 10,000 contacts
$229 a month for 25,000 contacts
$339 a month for 50,000 contacts
$449 a month for 75,000 contacts
$549 a month for 100,000 contacts

Note: Pricing mentioned above is for annual plans. Monthly pricing costs more.

ActiveCampaign Plus Plan

Next is the Plus plan, the second tier of ActiveCampaign pricing. Your subscription earns you everything in the Plus plan, as well as these features:

Automation strategy consultation
Detailed onboarding consultation
Basic free custom email designs
One month of one-on-one training
No ActiveCampaign logos on forms
SMS subscriptions
Database syncing
Facebook Custom Audience integration
More advanced subscription forms
SMS sending
5 free inbox previews a month for email testing, then paid after
SMS subscriptions
Custom user permissions
25 users
Conditional content
Lead and contact scoring
Sales automation
CRM
Automations mapping
Landing pages

Going back to the sliding scale of ActiveCampaign pricing by your number of contacts, here’s what you’d pay for the Plus plan:

$49 a month for 500 contacts
$49 a month for 1,000 contacts
$99 a month for 2,500 contacts
$149 a month for 5,000 contacts
$229 a month for 10,000 contacts
$379 a month for 25,000 contacts
Custom pricing for 50,000 contacts and more

Note: Pricing mentioned above is for annual plans. Monthly pricing costs more.

ActiveCampaign Professional Plan

The third pricing plan available to you if you use ActiveCampaign is the Professional plan. This adds even more features, including what you’d get in the Lite and Plus plans, as well as:

Pro implementation
3 months of one-on-one training
50 users
Predictive sending
Attribution
Site messages
Split automations

Let’s take a closer look at the Professional plan pricing based on the number of contacts you have:

$149 a month for 500 contacts
$149 a month for 1,000 contacts
$149 a month for 2,500 contacts
$209 a month for 5,000 contacts
$339 a month for 10,000 contacts
$549 a month for 25,000 contacts
Custom pricing for 50,000 contacts and over

Note: Pricing mentioned above is for annual plans. Monthly pricing costs more.

ActiveCampaign Enterprise Plan

The most encompassing plan ActiveCampaign offers is undoubtedly the Enterprise plan. Every feature above is included. Here’s what else your money gets you at this level of ActiveCampaign pricing:

Custom implementation
Uptime SLA
Reputation monitoring and personalized message deliverability
Expedited support via email, live chat, and phone
A dedicated account representative
Custom marketing strategy and updates every quarter
Phone support
Premium custom email design and a waiver of your $395 fee
Unlimited one-on-one training
Custom SMS phone number
Custom email server domain
Custom app CSS and HTML
Custom app URL
Compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Unlimited email testing
Unlimited users

ActiveCampaign’s Enterprise plan is custom-priced. You need to talk to sales to get a quote.

Is ActiveCampaign the Right Marketing Automation Solution for You?

ActiveCampaign lets you create and send email newsletters to your subscribers to keep them engaged and eager to open your next emails. You can select from a variety of templates for creating newsletters. These templates may be more text-based or image-based, depending on your company’s preferences.

According to ActiveCampaign, you can work with 10 different newsletter templates for 10 email types. You can also automate your newsletters, selecting when they get sent out, and to whom.

All that said, is ActiveCampaign’s newsletter service ideal for your small business or startup? Well, for companies on a budget, you can send newsletters as part of the Lite plan. You can also use ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation services in this first pricing plan.

Do keep in mind that at this tier, you’d have to pay to test your emails.

ActiveCampaign’s automation is quite renowned, and with their included CRM, you can take your marketing campaigns and newsletters further. Remember though that you can’t access the CRM features until you at least upgrade to the Plus plan.

If you don’t need a lot of automation at this stage of your business, then the newsletter and automation services through ActiveCampaign likely won’t suit you. You can create simple email sequences with other software that we’ll discuss later, and often by paying less.

Also, ActiveCampaign is considered an advanced marketing solution, be that for their newsletters and other areas of marketing and sales. If you’re looking for an easy-to-use software, this isn’t it.

The Downsides of ActiveCampaign

Are you still on the fence about whether ActiveCampaign could benefit your small business or startup? Here are some ActiveCampaign downsides you’ll want to give some serious consideration to before you proceed.

Short Trial

Before you commit to any software, we always recommend downloading the software on a trial basis first. During this crucial time, you should play around with all the features, even those your company usually wouldn’t bother with.

Many sales and marketing solutions give you ample time to get a feel for their software, about a month. That’s not so with ActiveCampaign. You only get 14 days to explore the software in full.

Given how expansive ActiveCampaign’s software is, this might not be enough time for you to truly learn the ins and outs.

No Free Plan

If the trial is short, then at least you could rely on a free plan to play around with the most basic features. That’s what some sales and marketing solutions offer, but again, you won’t find this with ActiveCampaign.

You’re forced into paying for any plan, even the Lite plan. Granted, this isn’t super expensive if you stick to a minimal number of contacts, but there are other problems with ActiveCampaign pricing. We’ll discuss these momentarily.

Not having a free plan is a glaring issue for a few reasons. As we discussed, if you want to use ActiveCampaign for longer than a trial basis but without paying, you can’t. If your company is on a budget – which is common for small businesses and startups – you might be reticent to sign up for ActiveCampaign because you’d have to fork over a lot of your hard-earned money.

Hard for Beginners to Grasp

We’re not the only ones to say this: ActiveCampaign is not super beginner-friendly.

For example, ActiveCampaign lets you write your own code with their custom app feature as part of the Enterprise plan. You can use HTML and CSS to create an app that’s truly yours.

This sounds great, and if you’re talented at coding languages, then you’ll be grateful for this feature. If you’re not so savvy at coding, then this feature has a very steep learning curve, even too steep. You’ll almost never touch the feature even though you’re paying for it every month.

Even outside of that, some users have experienced difficulties with aspects of the software that shouldn’t be super hard. Placing radio buttons and text boxes are two such issues that even someone moderately okay at tech should be able to figure out. Yet, with ActiveCampaign, the software has a higher degree of difficulty than average.

Again, for some users (especially tech-savvy ones), this might not be such a big deal. For others, it could be a dealbreaker or darn close to it.

Expensive Pricing Tiers

Upon first glance at ActiveCampaign’s pricing plan, their service looks inexpensive. However, it’s only for 500 contacts that you’re paying to the tune of $9 to $229 a month. As you recall, that’s for an annual plan too; all plans cost more if you’re billed by the month.

At 1,000 contacts, your bill jumps to between $25 and $229 a month. You won’t pay less than $75 a month once your company grows to 5,000 contacts, and the Enterprise plan at that point costs $359 a month. That’s more than likely well outside of the budget of most startups and small businesses.

No CMS for the Lite Plan

ActiveCampaign gets a lot of acclaim for its CMS, but you’re shut out from the service if you subscribe to the Lite plan. The built-in CRM only becomes available to you once you commit to the Plus plan.

Going without a CRM is not recommended, even in your company’s early days. Your options then are to either pay for the Plus plan or to buy a separate CRM. Both choices are expensive.

When charged annually, the Plus plan costs $49 a month for 500 contacts, $99 a month for 2,500 contacts, $135 a month for 5,000 contacts, and $199 a month for 10,000 contacts. In other words, it gets pricy fast for startups on a budget.

Limited Users for Lower Pricing Plans

Even if you didn’t need ActiveCampaign’s CRM and thus decided to buy the Lite plan, you get so few users that this pricing tier almost isn’t an option for many companies. With support for 3 users, you’re capped pretty low.

Small businesses and startups likely need more users than that, or they soon will. The Plus plan increases your user count to 25 people, which is better, at least for a company of your size. Again though, with the extra users comes the higher fees of the Plus plan.

User reviews of ActiveCampaign

Let’s check out some of the issues faced by ActiveCampaign users. In their own words:

What Are the Alternatives to ActiveCampaign?

If ActiveCampaign pricing exceeds your budget as a startup or small business, you’re not out of options. The following solutions are viable ActiveCampaign alternatives that may fit your company’s needs even better.

EngageBay

Your first option is EngageBay, an all-in-one sales and marketing solution with CRM. Created as an affordable alternative to today’s more costly software, EngageBay is for small businesses and startups alike.

You don’t have to pay a single cent to use EngageBay’s CRM, already making this service more cost-effective than ActiveCampaign.

In EngageBay’s All-in-One Suite, you get these features:

CRM (available for free)
Landing pages
Ticketing
Email marketing
Views
Contact management
Live chat (also available for free)
Email sequences
Macros
Web forms
SLAs
Landing pages
Marketing automation

The Marketing Suite will help you harness your marketing potential with the following features:

Bulk SMS marketing
SMS marketing
Email templates
Contact segmentation
Push notifications
Email marketing automation
Site messaging
Inbound marketing automation

Don’t forget the sales! Here’s what you’ll find in EngageBay’s CRM & Sales Bay:

Deal management
Sales tools
Employee management
Sales CRM (available for free)
CRM email integration
Lead management
Contact management
CRM Telephony
Appointment scheduling
Project management
Lead scoring
360-degree customer views

Finally, in the Service Bay, you have these handy features:

Reports
Custom tickets
Canned responses
Service automation
Helpdesk reports

EngageBay Pricing

Pricing for the all-in-one plan is as follows:

Free: $0 for 500 contacts
Basic: $14.99 for 1,000 contacts
Growth: $49.99 for 10,000 contacts
Pro: $99.99 for unlimited contacts

EngageBay also offers a 10% discount on annual plans and a 20% discount on biennial plans.

The ultimate comparison of EngageBay with ActiveCampaign

Drip

Another ActiveCampaign alternative to consider is Drip. Their company offers optimization, engagement, personalization, and customer data tools.

Here is an overview of Drip’s features:

Workflows
Email marketing and automation
Social media tools
Revenue attribution
Personalization
Audience segmentation
Integrations
Customer behavior and event tracking
Custom fields and tagging

Drip Pricing

Drip prices increase per user. This is what their pricing model looks like:

$39 a month for 2,500 contacts
$49 a month for 3,000 contacts
$69 a month for 4,000 contacts
$209 a month for 15,000 contacts
$529 a month for 35,000 contacts

Insightly

The third option you might consider over ActiveCampaign is Insightly. This CRM and marketing automation platform includes these features:

Data security such as encryption, two-factor authentication, and single sign-on
Integrations
iOS and Android app for opportunities management, project updates, and business card scanning
Dashboards with metrics tracking
Custom apps that include workflow automation, calculated fields, and validation rules (but don’t require coding knowledge)
Dataset modeling
Relationship linking
Email sending
Workflow automations
Lead routing
Email template builder
Customer journeys
Lead segmentation

Insightly Pricing

Insightly offers different pricing plans for its marketing and CRM services.

For the CRM, the Plus plan starts at $29 a month per user, the Professional plan is $49 a month per user, and the Enterprise plan is $99 a month per user.

Insightly’s marketing plans include the Plus plan at $299 a month, the Professional plan at $599 a month, and the Enterprise plan at $1,299 a month. You’re not charged per user for Insightly’s marketing services.

You can also bundle Insightly’s CRM and marketing features together for a custom fee. Outside of that, Insightly is also more reasonable than ActiveCampaign pricing.

Conclusion

ActiveCampaign is a CRM, marketing, and sales tool that seems attractive at first glance. Upon doing some further digging, though, you may find that ActiveCampaign pricing is a little outside of your budget, especially if you’re a startup or small business.

For an efficient option that doesn’t skimp on features, EngageBay is the best option. Their free plans never cost you a cent, and if your company needs more features, EngageBay’s paid plans are highly affordable.

ActiveCampaign Pricing and Comparison with Other Alternatives

ActiveCampaign Pricing: What Do I Get?

ActiveCampaign Lite Plan

ActiveCampaign Plus Plan

ActiveCampaign Professional Plan

ActiveCampaign Enterprise Plan

Is ActiveCampaign the Right Marketing Automation Solution for You?

The Downsides of ActiveCampaign

Short Trial

No Free Plan

Hard for Beginners to Grasp

Expensive Pricing Tiers

No CMS for the Lite Plan

Limited Users for Lower Pricing Plans

User reviews of ActiveCampaign

What Are the Alternatives to ActiveCampaign?

EngageBay

EngageBay Pricing

Drip

Drip Pricing

Insightly

Insightly Pricing

Conclusion

About The Author

Nicole Malczan

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