ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo For Small Businesses: Which One Wins?

ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo are feature-packed platforms for businesses looking to send complex campaigns and integrate e-commerce functionality. 

ActiveCampaign shines in automation, segmentation, and reporting capabilities. The drag-and-drop builder lets you build complex workflows triggered by subscriber behavior. This is ideal for nurturing leads, segmenting audiences, and creating personalized email campaigns that drive sales. 

Klaviyo is well-known as the e-commerce hero — the platform supports growth through intelligent automation features. The integrations unify data to offer a more personalized approach for each campaign. The ESP seamlessly integrates with major online stores and offers features such as abandoned cart emails, product recommendations, and post-purchase automation.

With many advanced features on both platforms, choosing the right one for your needs can be overwhelming. We’re here to simplify the decision for you by examining the strengths and weaknesses of each platform, specifically considering the needs of small businesses.

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Klaviyo Vs. ActiveCampaign — Which One is Better?

ActiveCampaign has extensive features with a steeper learning curve. Similarly, Klaviyo is a powerhouse for e-commerce businesses, but may not be as versatile as its contender. 

Ease of Use

Both platforms are pretty straightforward and make it easy to navigate through the features.

ActiveCampaign is intuitive with a side menu bar to access different sections of the platform. Users appreciate its ease of use because they can put everything together in minutes. The email editor is pretty straightforward and helps you save custom blocks to reuse in future campaigns. However, many features and functionalities can make it challenging to understand and navigate the platform.

Klaviyo offers a simple setup process with a built-in email editor. It provides multiple responsive email templates that make creating any type of email campaign easier. Users find the platform easy to understand and maintain, allowing them to focus on more critical tasks.

The best part is that Klaviyo has a drop-down list instead of a sidebar, making it easier to find features at a glance. The ESP is optimized for all types of devices and lets you preview your emails in desktop and mobile formats. You can also create reusable sections that stay consistent across emails for easier mass updates.

Features	ActiveCampaign	Klaviyo
Simple interface	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Drag-and-drop editors	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Custom embedding	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dynamic product recommendation	N/A	⭐⭐⭐⭐

The winner: It’s a tie — both platforms provide an easy-to-use interface and an email builder. 

Design and Flexibility 

ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo offer hundreds of pre-made templates to choose from.

ActiveCampaign lets you add multiple structures and blocks inside your emails, including images and graphics. You can choose from over 200 email templates and customize them using HTML code. The ESP also makes it easy to toggle between HTML and drag-and-drop editor for more reliable formatting.

The pre-defined elements help you set up the right email campaigns based on specific audience interests. This includes connecting multi-step automation workflows to your email branded emails.

Comparatively, Klaviyo offers over 100 pre-built templates, which is less than ActiveCampaign. However, the ESP emphasizes drag-and-drop email builder with pre-built content blocks for a faster email design process. This makes it ideal for creating basic to moderately complex email campaigns. 

The platform allows you to create high-converting campaigns with flexible HTML templates. You get to choose from a range of dedicated templates such as email marketing newsletters, welcome series, cross-sell, and so on.

Features	ActiveCampaign	Klaviyo
Customized design and branding	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dynamic product feed	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
E-commerce templates and designs	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Data-proven email templates	⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐

 The winner: With simple and elegant email templates, Klaviyo wins this round.

Integration 

Both ESPs allow easy integration with hundreds of marketing and e-commerce tools, but they cater to slightly different strengths.

ActiveCampaign offers integration with 940+ apps, including Shopify, Salesforce, and Postmark. The platform also allows you to build third-party integration with Zapier and similar tools. If you want seamless integration with e-commerce marketplaces, you would have to upgrade to the Plus plan.

While you can access past data on Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign focuses only on the current data. This means there is no access to historical data to help your segmentation strategy.

Klaviyo heavily relies on e-commerce features and tools for email campaigns. The platform helps you connect with over 300 tools such as Stripe, Shopify, and Meta. The data is centralized across tech stack to help personalize the customer experience.

Some of their integrations extend to advertising, POS, shipping and logistics, and booking management. You can use open APIs to build custom integration or automatically sync and store data from across your marketing channels and tools.

Features	ActiveCampaign	Klaviyo
Custom integrations	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Extensive third-party integrations	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
E-commerce focus	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Integration with CRM and landing pages	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐

 The winner: With a large database of integrations for e-commerce and other businesses, ActiveCampaign gets extra points.

Automation

While both platforms provide powerful automation, ActiveCampaign goes further with its customer experience automation feature.

ActiveCampaign allows a bird-eye-view of the entire automation in a single page — you can check performance reports and make changes across customer channels. The customer experience automation helps you pull data from the entire customer lifecycle to create hyper-personalized experiences.

There are also dozens of pre-made templates for each email campaign, whether it’s a welcome series or following up with customers post-purchase. If you have something else in mind, you can start a new automation and set your own triggers. With these automation recipes, you can keep tabs on customer engagement, email opt-in incentives after someone subscribes, or auto-send follow-up emails after closing a support ticket. Your email automation can have multiple triggers, and you can split test them to see which automation path works better.

Klaviyo features a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder that makes building automation straightforward. You can choose from the 60+ pre-built automation flows templates or customize and trigger each flow based on the data stored in your Klaviyo account.

The platform also allows you to utilize cross-channel such as SMS, email, and push notifications in the same automation flow. E-commerce stores can use price-drop and back in stock reminders and use post-purchase follow-ups to stay connected with customers.

Features	ActiveCampaign	Klaviyo
Flexible triggers and conditions	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Customer experience automation	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Pre-made templates	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐

 

 The winner: Undeniably, ActiveCampaign wins this round with its complex automation capabilities, including in-depth reporting and analytics on your workflows. 

Email Deliverability 

ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo prioritize email deliverability to ensure the messages reach recipients on time. 

80.88% of emails sent through ActiveCampaign reach the recipeints’ inboxes. The email list-hygiene tools automatically reviews and cleans up inactive addresses to keep your email lists updated. Pre-built automation and re-engagement campaigns help you maintain the email engagement score, leading to better deliverability. Plus, the platform automatically monitors key metrics such as email open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to help determine the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.

While there’s no explicit mention of Klaviyo’s email deliverability rate, the ESP offers a clean dashboard to track and analyze email campaigns. The deliverability hub shows insights into email deliverability score, key metrics impacting that score, and bounce details.

Additionally, you can identify deliverability issues and email domain performance associated with a particular inbox provider or domain your customers use. You can also view a breakdown between mobile and desktop usage and gain insights into how recipients are viewing your emails.

Features	ActiveCampaign	Klaviyo
Integrated list hygiene	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Authentication protocols	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reputation check	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Winner: With similar email deliverability rates and security protocols, there’s a close tie between ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo.

Reporting 

Both platforms have a strong reporting feature in place, but one might be a better fit for your business needs.

ActiveCampaign provides insights and reports into automation, campaigns, contact and form, CRM, e-commerce reports, etc. The extensive reporting helps you track every detail from a single page and tailor campaigns through visual charts. 

You can also create custom reports, answer questions, or view particular data. Custom reports give you insights into contacts’ engagement behavior and help you share reports across your team.

Klaviyo’s reporting feature is relatively smaller than ActiveCampaign — you can track key metrics, Apple Privacy Opens, and store revenue earned per recipient. The dashboard gives you a quick glimpse into multi-channel performances and integrates all data into a single report for easier viewing. 

The ESP allows you to set timelines to receive scheduled reports and share it with your teams. It’s easier to view the reports side-by-side with whatever you’re working on to enable better understanding of the outcome.

Features	ActiveCampaign	Klaviyo
Custom reporting	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Intuitive visualization	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Advanced analysis	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐

 The Winner: While Klaviyo is a strong contender in this area, ActiveCampaign has more advanced and customizable reporting features. 

Klaviyo vs. ActiveCampaign: Pricing Comparison For Small Businesses

ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo charge by the number of contacts and have varied pricing tiers for different features. Choosing one depends on your needs and budget. Here’s a quick overview of their pricing structure.

ActiveCampaign’s pricing tiers for 2500 contacts.

ActiveCampaign Pricing Plan	Price/month	Features Included
Plus	Starts at $99	‣ Landing Pages ‣ Facebook Custom Audiences & Lead Ads ‣ Facebook Lead Ads ‣ Lead Scoring ‣ Pop-Up and Modal Forms ‣ Conditional Content ‣ WooCommerce, Shopify & BigCommerce Integrations ‣ Custom Mailserver Domain
Professional	Starts at $149	‣ Everything in Plus, ‣ Predictive Sending AI ‣ Split Automations ‣ Salesforce Integration ‣ Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integration ‣ Website & In Application Messages ‣ Marketing Attribution Reporting ‣ Conversions
Enterprise	$259/month	‣ All features of Professional plan plus, ‣ Custom Reporting ‣ Custom Objects ‣ Single Sign-On ‣ HIPAA Support ‣ Uptime SLA ‣ Unlimited Email Testing

Klaviyo’s pricing plan for 1500-2500 contacts.

Klaviyo Pricing Plan	Price/month	Features Included
Free	$0	‣ 500 monthly email sends ‣ 150 free SMS/MMS credits ‣ Email support for the first 60 days
Email	Starting at $60	‣ Starting at 25,000 monthly email sends ‣ 150 free SMS/MMS credits ‣ Email and chat support
Email & SMS	Starts at $75	‣ Starting at 25,000 monthly email sends ‣ Mobile push notifications ‣ Email and chat support

Klaviyo’s free plan includes e-commerce features and might be a good fit for a new business. However, if you seek advanced automation and segmentation, choose ActiveCampaign. Note that you can access e-commerce integrations and related features solely on ActiveCampaign’s Plus plan.

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ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo – Making the Final Choice

Choosing between ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo comes down to understanding your business requirements. 

Go for ActiveCampaign if you have a lengthy sales cycle and require lead scoring, nurturing, and advanced automation. Choose Klaviyo if e-commerce is your niche and budget is a concern.

Here’s a breakdown of their features to help you make the final call.

Features	ActiveCampaign	Klaviyo
AI content creation	✅	✅
AB testing	✅	✅
Behavioral analytics	✅	✅
Channel management	✅	✅
Revenue analytics	✅	✅
Landing page/web forms	✅	✅
SMS messaging	❌	✅
Co-browsing	✅	❌
Predictive modeling	✅	✅
Unsubscribe database	❌	✅
Real-time reporting	✅	✅

Evaluate customer support and the platform’s future plans to see if they fit your growing needs. You can opt for free trials to see which ESP’s interface and features suit you better.

If you want to take the guesswork out of your email marketing and use a transparent pricing model, choose Campaign Refinery.

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Campaign Refinery: The Best Email Deliverability Partner 

Campaign Refinery boasts robust automation, segmentation, and offers the highest email deliverability on the market. The core focus on inbox placement allows users to achieve as high as 600% increase in deliverability rates.

The platform presents a compelling option, especially for businesses seeking an all-in-one solution with powerful automation, advanced segmentation, the highest email deliverability rate, and excellent customer support.

Campaign Refinery bridges the gap between ActiveCampaign’s complex automation and Klaviyo’s e-commerce integration, offering unique features to scale your email marketing.

Is Campaign Refinery Affordable?

It depends on the stage of email marketing you are in. However, Campaign Refinery offers premium support and growth tools regardless of your pricing tier.

We charge based on the number of emails you send instead of the size of your email list. This gives you more opportunities to scale your business without paying more for similar features.

Here’s an overview of Campaign Refinery pricing.

Campaign Refinery Pricing Tier	Pricing	Features Included	Credits Included
Business plan	Starts at $99 / month	‣ Unlimited Contacts ‣ Built-in Contact Cleaning ‣ Engaged Delivery System ‣ Automation Rule Builder ‣ Free Campaign Library  ‣ Custom Audience Builder  ‣ Evergreen Flash Sale	50 K
Growth plan	Starts at $299 / month	‣ Everything in business,  ‣ Turn off ”powered by” Text ‣ Reduced Overage Cost ‣ Increased API Volume Limits	200 K
Enterprise plan	Starts at $1k+ / month	‣ Everything in Growth plan, ‣ Dedicated success manager ‣ Lowest Overage Cost ‣ Custom API volume	1 M

Campaign Refinery’s unique features along with its core functionalities make it a wonderful fit for any business type and size. 

Is Moving to Campaign Refinery Complicated?

Migrating to Campaign Refinery might be one of the easiest with our intuitive drag-and-drop tools. If you require additional assistance, our migration agents take over the process, helping you move your email marketing assets completely. Although we request that clients clean their email lists and bring the opted-in contacts alone.

Note that we have a strict vetting process to ensure the highest standards for clients. After the initial sign-up, you will go through a discovery call to assess compatibility. Once you onboard with us, you will have access to premium tools and features and 24/7 support.

Transfer your business to Campaign Refinery and enjoy superior email marketing results — sign-up to become a client today!