ActiveCampaign is an email marketing platform with advanced features, integrations, and tools that compete with Klaviyo and MailChimp. The marketing automation choice for companies across 170 countries, ActiveCampaign helps you send all of your emails, scale and personalize customer experiences, and even manage your sales engagement automation.
In this article, we’ve broken down ActiveCampaigns’ marketing tool and features to help you decide which is best for your brand.
ActiveCampaign Pricing – Your Guide To Selecting the Best Plan
ActiveCampaign’s pricing structure can leave you scratching your head. With multiple pricing plans and various subscriber tiers, what’s what?
Their pricing is broken into four base pricing tiers for its users. These tiers are used for all of their products, bundles, and add-ons:
- Lite
- Plus
- Professional
- Enterprises
ActiveCampaign can be an inexpensive alternative to some of the other email marketing platforms, provided you choose the right price plan.
The key to maximizing your ROI is choosing the plan that contains only the features that you require and nothing more. Not sure if you need sales automation or SMS messaging yet? As you need more, upgrade, but don’t waste money on features you might never use.
Let’s explore the different pricing plans and features of ActiveCampaign’s Marketing automation platform to find what’s right for you.
ActiveCampaign Marketing Platform (Email + Marketing Automation)
The marketing platform from ActiveCampaign includes everything you need to set up your email marketing campaigns. It has powerful email delivery, automation workflows, contact management tools, and advanced marketing features. So, how does the pricing look for each of those tiers we mentioned?
ActiveCampaign Lite Plan
This plan is for you if you’re looking for basic email marketing functionality.
The marketing Lite plan is perfect for individual entrepreneurs and small businesses wanting to start with Email Marketing. But, if you have a higher subscriber count, the features of this plan might feel restrictive.
This plan starts at the deceptively low price of $29 per month and includes essential features like Email, Drag & Drop Email Designer, Forms, Inbox Browser Extension, Marketing Automation, and 870+ integrations.
However, you will have to upgrade to a higher plan if you want capabilities like SMS, Landing Pages, Facebook Custom Audiences, Facebook Lead Ads, Site Messages, E-Commerce integration, and more. There is no option to add individual features as needed, so if upgrading to the Plus plan is not an option, you may need to find other platforms for any features not included.
Be aware that this plan only supports one seat and does not allow for custom branding, meaning you will see ActiveCampaign’s logo in your marketing efforts.
ActiveCampaign Plus Plan
The next tier is the Plus plan, offering additional features from the Lite plan. This is probably the most popular plan for customers, due to its valuable CRM feature, and starts at just $49.
This is good starting point for startups and small organizations. The Plus plan offers features such as SMS (as add-ons), advanced forms, Landing pages, Ecommerce integration and automation, lead scoring, advanced reporting, and more. An added plus for growing teams is its 3 user seats.
It also allows you to connect a custom domain and removes the ActiveCampaign branding from forms and landing pages. This gives you more control over your assets and marketing and streamlines how prospects perceive your brand.
Recently, ActiveCampaign even added its own AI to help users generate email content in accordance with their voice.
If you have an E-Commerce store hosted on WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, or Square, this is the plan to choose if you are just starting with email marketing. With its simple integrations and transactional email add-on potential, it’s the perfect fit for e-commerce businesses without breaking the bank.
ActiveCampaign Professional Plan
Their Professional plan is priced at around $149 per month. Here, marketers get to enjoy a host of different features and functionalities to streamline their marketing strategies.
This is the perfect plan for bigger teams, with 5 total user seats. It has all the features from Plus Plan and adds exciting capabilities like Salesforce & Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integrations, Split Automation, Predictive Sending, and Dynamic Personalization.
This plan’s in-depth attribution and custom reporting help your team understand which touchpoints lead to the most sales and optimize accordingly.
ActiveCampaign Enterprise Plan
Lastly, you get the Enterprise plan, ActiveCampaign’s most advanced marketing plan. This plan is designed for large organizations, teams, and agencies that need more advanced features to power their email marketing campaigns.
It has all the features of all previously mentioned plans along with advanced features like highly customized reports, Single Sign-On (SSO), HIPAA Support, Uptime SLA, and Custom Mailserver Domain.
Note: The pricing of the Enterprise plan is 100% customized based on your needs and number of contacts. Contact the ActiveCampaign sales team for an exact quote.
ActiveCampaign Sales Product (CRM + Sales Engagement)
Let’s quickly touch on the sales automation side of ActiveCampaign. Their CRM helps to monitor performance and define how you capture, qualify, and engage with leads throughout the sales process.
With the CRM built-in, you can access interactions with every lead across different channels, track emails and notes for every contact, manage sales engagement automation, trigger workflows, and personalized sales experiences.
Empowered by data, you can then invest time and energy in the leads most likely to convert.
ActiveCampaign Bundles (Marketing Automation + Sales CRM)
ActiveCampaign’s bundle option offers the best of both worlds: Marketing Automation and Sales CRM. Having both marketing and sales under one roof streamlines operations and ensures all your data—and goals—are in the same place.
ActiveCampaign Add-Ons
ActiveCampaign offers a few add-ons for which you must fork out extra cash. These hidden charges might push some users overboard their allocated marketing budget. But, some of these add-ons are worth every penny.
Transactional Emails Add-On (API + SMTP for your site or app)
The Transactional Email Add-On provides fast and reliable delivery for vital transactional emails, such as password resets or order confirmations. This ensures that your critical emails reach the intended recipients without delay. With easy and clear integration and real-time email performance tracking, this is a valuable addition for businesses of all sizes.
ActiveCampaign also offers higher-volume transactional email plans. You can contact the team to discuss your needs, and they will personalize your plan accordingly.
Does ActiveCampaign Offer a Free Trial?
ActiveCampaign does offer a free trial of 14 days. ActiveCampaign free trial is a risk-free way to asses if it’s right for you, while getting access to advanced features with no initial financial commitment.
You will be able to test up to 100 email sends & contacts, limited to only one user. If you find 14 days isn’t enough time, you can contact their support for a one-time trial extension.
Can You Get a Discount On Any ActiveCampaign Plans?
Of course, if you opt for an annual payment, you can enjoy a discount of up to 30% on the original plan price. Non-profit organizations get another 20% on top of the previous discounts.
How to choose the best ActiveCampaign plan for you?
To select the best ActiveCampaign plan, you must weigh your needs first. Answering the following questions can be a good starting point:
- What are your business goals?
- How many contacts do you have/need to manage?
- Do you need access to advanced features, such as sales automation or integrations?
- How important is customer service and support for your company?
- Do you need extra user seats?
- Are there any special requirements that need to be taken into account?
- Do you want to focus only on marketing, or is sales a big part of your plans?
- Do you plan to send transactional emails?
- Is SMS messaging an essential part of your customer engagement plans?
Once you know the answers to these questions, you can better review the various ActiveCampaign Marketing and Sales plans.
In general, here’s how the respective plans fare for different teams and use cases:
Lite Plan
- Small business owners who want to start email marketing without any commitments
- Creative agencies looking for basic functionality to work on small projects
- Freelancers who need to set up a campaign on a budget quickly
Plus Plan
- Smaller organizations with limited marketing budgets.
- Startups looking to get their Ecommerce stores off the ground without breaking the bank.
- Growing businesses who need more powerful email automation capabilities.
Professional Plan
- Bigger teams with more marketing goals.
- Businesses that require powerful analytics to track the performance of campaigns.
- Users who need to integrate with Salesforce & Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Enterprise Plan
- Bigger teams who need advanced features like custom reports.
- Agencies that manage multiple clients and require more user seats (unlimited user accounts).
- Organizations that need HIPAA compliance for their campaigns.
ActiveCampaign actively promotes its Professional plan as the most popular plan. However, on closer inspection, you will notice that most users will not use most of the advanced features offered in the plan.
The Lite plan is best for entry-level marketers who want to experience ActiveCampaign’s offerings. It is also the best option for brands that manage a limited number of contacts.
By eliminating, you can see that the Plus plan offers the best features compared to its pricing structure.
Comparison of ActiveCamaign vs Other Email Marketing Platforms
ActiveCampaign vs MailChimp
ActiveCampaign is celebrated for its robust marketing automation and personalization capabilities, which make it great for users looking for advanced features but can be overwhelming for newbies. This is where Mailchimp comes in.
Mailchimp has been in the email marketing game for a long time, known for its ease of use and appealing price point—though its prices have been increasing over the years to more closely match competitors’ pricing.
One big difference between the two is Mailchimp’s Free Plan option. Though very limited, it can be great for small businesses unsure if they will need a robust email marketing automation platform long term.
To summarize, ActiveCampaign tends to be pricier but offers more sophisticated features for larger businesses with complex marketing needs.For more information check our detailed comparison between ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp.
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo
ActiveCampaign’s pricing is very similar to that of Klaviyo. However, Klaviyo is slightly more technical and feature-rich than ActiveCampaign.
On the other hand, ActiveCampaign is easier to use and best suited for beginner email marketers. Similarly, if you do not require any automation, you are better off using Mailchimp or Mailerlite, as they offer more cost-effective plans for smaller businesses. For more information check our detailed comparison between ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo.
So, is it right for you?
Choosing the right ActiveCampaign Pricing plan can be quite complicated because of the various combinations of subscriber count and different features.
Hopefully, this guide can help you choose the right plan for your email marketing efforts. You can also consult InboxArmy, one of the best email marketing agencies to assist you during the plan selection process.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Is The Cheapest Plan of ActiveCampaign Worth It?
The cheapest plan (lite plan), enables you to connect with 500 email contacts for just $29 per month. This plan is entirely worth it for solopreneurs seeking to increase customer communications.
2. What is the email sending limit of ActiveCampaign?
The email sending limit with ActiveCampaign is quite generous. You have the liberty to send an unlimited number of emails to up to 250,000 contacts. However, note that as your contact list grows beyond 250,000, the number of emails allowed is 10 times the number of contacts. For example, if you have 500,000 contacts, the sending limit is 5 million monthly emails.
3. What is the setup or onboarding cost of ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign does not charge any setup or onboarding costs. You can start your email marketing campaigns by subscribing to a paid plan. Any plan would give you free online training and support, digital onboarding, templates, and guides to set up various email campaigns and automation.
4. Can I create landing pages with ActiveCampaign?
Yes, you can. ActiveCampaign offers many landing page templates that you can use to kickstart your campaign in minutes. You can also create custom designs with the easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor. However, please note that landing pages are not included in the Lite Plan. You would need at least the Plus Plan to access it.
5. What Is The Average Monthly Cost of Using ActiveCampaign?
According to ActiveCampaign, the Professional Plan is their most popular plan. So, it is safe to assume that the average monthly ActiveCampaign cost is around $140.
If you are still confused or exploring other ESPs too, then check out:
Mailchimp Pricing
Omnisend Pricing
Sendinblue Pricing
Klaviyo Pricing
