ActiveCampaign Review (2025): Pros, Cons, and Alternatives

The terms "intuitive" and "marketing automation" are rarely associated with one another.

A decade ago, businesses were navigating expensive, cumbersome enterprise-level solutions that were far from user-friendly. ActiveCampaign changed the landscape with its flexible automation tools, offering an ease of use that outshines many big-name competitors, all at an affordable price.

Recognized as the Best Email Marketing Tool for 2024, ActiveCampaign combines strong marketing features with seamless automation, making it a popular choice for businesses of all sizes.

However, its advanced functionality comes with a learning curve, which may not make it suitable for everyone.

ActiveCampaign Overview

ActiveCampaign has evolved significantly over the years, offering a comprehensive suite of features that include marketing, sales, CRM, and transactional messaging.

It’s a powerful tool for experienced marketers, especially those focused on automation, but it might feel overwhelming for anyone just looking to send simple newsletters.

The higher price point may also be a concern for small businesses, though the value provided justifies the cost.

A standout feature of ActiveCampaign is its exceptional email deliverability, ensuring that campaigns land directly in subscribers' inboxes. It also consolidates marketing and sales efforts in one platform, helping businesses reduce vendor management costs.

ActiveCampaign is excellent for marketers who prioritize automation, offering more than just autoresponders with tools for managing contacts, lists, and even sales pipelines through its "Deals" system. Pricing starts at $19/month for the basic Starter plan, with plans offering CRM features starting at $50/month. In tests, it consistently ranks highly for deliverability, making it a solid choice for businesses focused on automation.

ActiveCampaign's User Interface and Customer Experience

User Interface Ease of Use

ActiveCampaign has an easy-to-use interface with all tools accessible from the left sidebar.

Each feature comes with helpful explanations, making it user-friendly and reducing the learning curve. Beginners may find it a bit complex, but the clean design and organized layout make it simple to get the hang of quickly.

The email editor offers six layout options and lets advanced users edit HTML with real-time previews. A user can also add actions to links and images, which helps with segmentation and personalization, offering flexibility for different marketing needs.

Customer Experience

ActiveCampaign offers email and chat support during set hours, claiming 24/7 availability, but their support team is only available Monday to Thursday from 6 am to 11 pm CST and Friday until 4:30 pm CST.

This can lead to delays outside those hours. However, the support team is friendly and knowledgeable, and there’s a large knowledge base, tutorials, and webinars to help.

Pros and Cons of ActiveCampaign

Pros:

• Powerful automation: ActiveCampaign offers one of the best marketing automation tools, with easy-to-use features that let users set up complex automations effortlessly. Its flexibility extends with CRM and SMS add-ons, making it a versatile choice for various marketing strategies.
• Thorough reporting: ActiveCampaign provides detailed reporting features, including click maps, geo-tracking, and page visits. Higher plans also offer e-commerce purchase tracking for platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, with recommendations to boost sales and engagement.
• Great deliverability: ActiveCampaign consistently ranks highly for email deliverability, ensuring emails land in subscribers' inboxes reliably.
• Free migrations: ActiveCampaign offers free migrations from other email marketing services, making it simple to switch over without hassle.

Cons:

• Overkill for basic needs: If you don't need advanced automation, ActiveCampaign's extensive capabilities may feel overwhelming or unnecessary for simpler email campaigns.
• Limited integration for sales and marketing data: ActiveCampaign includes CRM add-ons for seamless sales and marketing data integration. However, if your business doesn't require these features, you may find other tools more suited to your needs.
• Multi-channel marketing limitations: While ActiveCampaign does offer landing pages, SMS capabilities, and Facebook ad management, it may not provide the full multi-channel marketing experience some businesses need.Lack of white-labeling: Though ActiveCampaign offers white labeling and an Agency Reseller program, it may not be suitable for businesses looking for a more comprehensive white-label marketing solution.

Overall User Experience

ActiveCampaign focuses heavily on marketing automation, offering a wide range of features like campaign automation, deal management, ecommerce tools, SMS messaging, and contact management.

It’s designed to be an all-in-one solution for businesses that need robust marketing capabilities. However, it’s worth considering if all these features align with your needs, especially if you don’t require every tool it offers.

While ActiveCampaign excels in automation, it lacks some features like site or online store builders that other platforms may offer. This could be a downside for businesses that need those specific tools.

ActiveCampaign's Pricing

ActiveCampaign’s pricing can be on the higher side, especially as your subscriber count grows.

The most basic plan, the Starter plan, begins at $19 per month, and prices increase as you add more contacts. You can choose to pay either monthly or annually, with yearly billing offering the best value.

However, the 14-day free trial (with no free plan available) might feel short for fully exploring all the features. Here’s a breakdown of the pricing:

Starter – $19/month
Best for: Small businesses and startups on a budget
This is the most affordable plan for running email campaigns and automation. It's based on the number of contacts, with pricing for 1,000 contacts. You get basic features to get started, but this plan doesn't include eCommerce functionality.

Plus—$59/month
Best for: Digital marketing teams managing customer journeys
This plan adds more advanced features like custom landing pages, forms, lead scoring, and CRM tools. You also get SMS marketing and automation for an additional $17/month.

Pro – $89/month
Best for: Businesses looking to optimize marketing with more advanced features
The Pro plan builds on the Plus plan with predictive AI for email sending, content creation, and conversion predictions. It also includes split automation for personalized experiences and Salesforce integration.

Enterprise—$159/month
This plan is tailored for larger organizations needing advanced marketing tools. Features include custom reporting, unlimited email testing, single sign-on (SSO), and support for HIPAA-compliant environments.

Alternatives to ActiveCampaign

If you're considering other options for email marketing, there are several alternatives to ActiveCampaign worth checking out:

Maileroo
Maileroo is a great choice, especially if you're looking for an affordable and user-friendly option. It offers excellent deliverability and the ability to track clicks, plus features like global SMTP accounts, blacklist monitoring, and a free email verification API.

Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a popular email marketing tool known for its variety of features, including templates, automation, and analytics. It's often seen as more user-friendly compared to ActiveCampaign, though if email deliverability is your main focus, SendGrid might be a better fit.

MailerLite
MailerLite is a simple and affordable choice for smaller businesses or those new to email marketing. It provides essential tools like email marketing, automation, landing page builders, and sign-up forms. It’s simple to use and competitively priced, making it great for beginners.

SendGrid
SendGrid stands out with its powerful API integration, making it easy to incorporate into existing workflows. It’s designed for high deliverability, which is ideal for transactional emails. It also offers marketing features for creating and managing campaigns.

Amazon SES
Amazon SES is a more technical option, perfect for users who need full control and customization. It’s cost-effective and scalable, especially for transactional emails, but it requires some technical know-how to manage effectively.

Wrap Up: Is ActiveCampaign the Right Choice for You?

After taking a close look at ActiveCampaign, it’s clear that it’s a powerful email marketing tool packed with impressive features.

The platform shines with its automation capabilities, allowing you to run highly targeted campaigns and segment your audience effectively. The detailed reporting features give you valuable insights to improve your digital marketing strategies, and the customer support is top-notch, offering immediate assistance along with helpful training and webinars for Plus plan users.

However, the email builder could use some improvements, which is something to consider if ease of use in that area is important to you.

If you're simply after a basic email newsletter tool, or if budget is a big concern, there may be more affordable or simpler options out there.