ActiveCampaign Review
Email marketing, marketing automation, and a built-in CRM for growing businesses
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Looking for a ActiveCampaign alternative? See our ranked comparison.→What is ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign is an email marketing and automation platform built around a visual workflow builder, with a CRM and sales automation layer bundled into its higher tiers. You build campaigns and multi-step automations (welcome series, abandoned cart, lead scoring) using triggers and actions, then track contacts through a built-in pipeline if you use the CRM side.
Pricing scales on two axes at once: the plan tier (Starter, Plus, Pro, Enterprise) and your contact count. The vendor site shows a default price for 1,000 contacts, and that number rises as you move the contact-count slider higher. The Pro and Enterprise tiers add more users, deeper segmentation, and predictive sending on top of what Starter and Plus offer.
ActiveCampaign has recently pushed its AI features (branded Active Intelligence) further into automation building, letting you describe a workflow in plain language and have it draft the steps, plus connect triggers from tools like Stripe, Salesforce, and Calendly.
ActiveCampaign screenshots
Who it's for
- ✓ Small and mid-size businesses that want email marketing and marketing automation in one tool without stitching together separate apps
- ✓ Teams that want a built-in CRM and sales pipeline alongside their email marketing instead of buying a separate CRM
Who should look elsewhere
- ✗ Anyone who needs a genuinely free plan to start, since ActiveCampaign has none
- ✗ Fast-growing lists on a tight budget, since crossing contact-count thresholds re-prices the whole plan and can double the bill
Pros
- + Automation builder handles complex, branching workflows better than most email-only tools
- + CRM and sales pipeline are included on paid plans instead of requiring a separate purchase
- + Wide integration library, over 1,000 listed connections including e-commerce and ad platforms
- + 14-day free trial with no credit card required
Cons
- – No free forever plan, unlike Mailchimp, Brevo, or MailerLite
- – Pricing is contact-count based and jumps in large steps at each threshold, so renewal costs can rise sharply as a list grows
- – Since November 2025, new customers are billed on total contacts including unsubscribed and bounced ones, not just active contacts
- – Steeper learning curve than simpler email tools, reviewers commonly describe needing several weeks of regular use before feeling comfortable with the automation builder
ActiveCampaign pricing
What you pay for
You pay for a plan tier (Starter, Plus, Pro, or Enterprise) combined with how many contacts you have, so the exact price is not a single number but a lookup based on both. ActiveCampaign's pricing page discloses per-tier figures directly, defaulting to a 1,000-contact baseline, and the amount rises sharply at each contact-count threshold as you increase it. Confirmed on the vendor's own page: $15/$49/$79/$145 per month for 1,000 contacts billed annually. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial.
At about $15/month to start, it sits mid-pack on price in Email Marketing & Automation.
| Plan | Price | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $15/mo | 1,000 contacts · 1 user · 5 actions per automation · limited segmentation |
| Plus | $49/mo | 1,000 contacts · 1 user · unlimited automation actions · standard segmentation |
| Pro | $79/mo | 1,000 contacts · 3 users · advanced segmentation · predictive sending |
| Enterprise | $145/mo | 1,000 contacts · 5 users · premium segmentation · dedicated account team |
Confirmed directly on ActiveCampaign's own pricing page (re-fetched 2026-07-07): Starter, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise are listed at $15/$49/$79/$145 per month, billed annually, at the page's default baseline of 1,000 contacts; the price updates as you move the contact-count slider or change currency. Monthly (non-annual) billing is offered but the page does not disclose those per-tier figures without selecting that option, so it is omitted here. Price jumps sharply at each contact-count threshold as the list grows. As of November 3, 2025, new signups are billed for all contacts including unsubscribed and bounced ones, not just active contacts; accounts created on or before November 2, 2025 remain on active-contact billing. The same pricing page also lists separate WhatsApp-only and combined email+WhatsApp plans with their own listed starting prices (from $99/mo, billed annually, at a 5,000 WhatsApp-contact baseline), not shown here since they are a different product line.
Pricing verified July 7, 2026 · source
How ActiveCampaign's pricing compares
ActiveCampaign next to its closest alternatives on entry price, billing, and whether pricing is public.
| Tool | Starting price | Billing | Free option | Pricing disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | $15/seat/mo | tiered | Trial (14 days, no credit card required) | Public |
| Brevo | $9/mo | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| Mailchimp | $13/mo | tiered | Yes | Public |
| Klaviyo | $20/mo | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| Customer.io | $100/mo | tiered | No | Partly public |
| MailerLite | $12/seat/mo | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| Kit (ConvertKit) | $39/seat/mo | per-seat | Yes | Public |
Is ActiveCampaign still actively developed?
Last significant update: March 2026. Expanded Active Intelligence automation triggers and actions to cover scheduling, payments, CRM, e-signature, ad forms, and call-tracking tools including Calendly, Stripe, Square, Salesforce, Docusign, and Google/LinkedIn lead forms.
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ActiveCampaign FAQ
Does ActiveCampaign have a free plan?+
No. ActiveCampaign offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, but there is no permanent free tier.
How much does ActiveCampaign cost?+
Pricing depends on both the plan tier and how many contacts you have. For 1,000 contacts billed annually, ActiveCampaign's own pricing page lists Starter at $15/month, Plus at $49/month, Pro at $79/month, and Enterprise at $145/month. The figure updates as you adjust your contact count and currency on the vendor site.
Why did my ActiveCampaign bill go up at renewal?+
ActiveCampaign prices by contact-count tier, so crossing a threshold (for example 1,000 to 2,500 contacts) moves your whole plan to a higher band, not just the extra contacts. As of November 3, 2025, new customers are also billed on total contacts, including unsubscribed and bounced ones, which can push totals higher than expected; accounts created before that date keep active-contact billing.
Does ActiveCampaign include a CRM?+
Yes. Paid plans include a built-in CRM and sales pipeline, with more users and features unlocked on the Pro and Enterprise tiers.