Enterprise Email Marketing: ActiveCampaign vs. Maropost Marketing Cloud for High-volume Campaigns
For enterprises sending millions of emails monthly, choosing the right email marketing tool is critical to building lasting customer relationships.
In this battle for customer attention, Activecampaign and Maropost marketing cloud are strong contenders — should you choose a powerful automation tool or a multichannel marketing tool?
We’ll uncover the pros and cons and compare the features of each to help you make an informed decision.
Activecampaign is an automation, email marketing, and sales engagement tool. Its flexible automation features are ideal for beginners and experienced email marketers alike. Users can create autoresponders, automate list and contact management, and manage deals when using their CRM tool.
Aside from robust automation, Activecampaign consistently showcases good email deliverability rates, a critical factor in ensuring your emails reach customers’ inboxes.
Maropost marketing cloud provides a unified email marketing platform, giving users better control over SMS, email, and social media programs. Its single-customer view allows you to enhance subscriber experiences and increase conversions.
The platform claims a 98% deliverability rate, and its delivery rate (the ability to reach customers’ email servers) is also pretty solid.
Activecampaign vs. Maropost Marketing Cloud: Which Option is Better?
Both Activecampaign and Maropost Marketing Cloud offer concrete marketing features such as SMS marketing, In-app messages, personalized landing pages, and powerful automation. However, choosing one depends on your specific needs.
We’ll analyze their high-end features and pricing to make your decision-making simpler:
- Email deliverability,
- User-interface,
- Automation,
- Customization,
- Analytics and reporting,
- Pricing.
Email Deliverability: Entering Customers’ Inboxes with Ease
Email deliverability ensures emails reach your intended audiences’ primary tabs instead of the spam folder. A high inbox placement rate shows good email-sending habits and the implementation of authentication protocols. Let’s compare how Activecampaign and Maropost Marketing Cloud stack up.
Activecampaign Email Deliverability: A Consistent Winner
Activecampaign has consistently outperformed its competitors in the bi-annual tests run by EmailToolTester. The platform won the best email deliverability award (again) after bagging the top place in the tests run in 2024.
Despite their scores being slightly lower than the previous rounds, they still managed to secure the first place.
For Activecampaign alternatives, check out our guides on:
Maropost Marketing Cloud Email Deliverability: Robust Email Deliverability Features
Maropost Marketing Cloud claims a 98% deliverability rate. The platform offers advanced email deliverability tools, including comprehensive reporting and spam checker features.
Their in-built deliverability checker assesses the spamminess, identifying potential triggers in emails. The ‘Cleansing Rule’ automatically cleans up inactive email addresses every day at 3 am EST.
| Feature | Activecampaign | Maropost Marketing Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Shared IP | ❌ | ✅ |
| Deliverability tools | Basic bounce handling, shared IP address management | Dedicated IP addresses, sender reputation management, advanced bounce handling |
| Advanced authentication protocols | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Winner: It’s a tie. Activecampaign and Maropost maintain good deliverability rates.
User Interface: Navigating the Workspace
The user interface (UI) is the first point of interaction with your email marketing tool. A seamless user experience sets the tone for the rest of your email marketing journey. Choosing a platform depends on your skill level (beginner or experienced marketer). Let’s compare Activecampaign vs. Maropost marketing cloud in relation to their ease of use.
Activecampaign: Simple and Functional UI
Activecampaign boasts a simple and intuitive user interface, making it easier for users to navigate the platform. The dashboard is cleanly organized, and both beginners and professionals can access it easily.
Its flexible email editor with drag-and-drop options makes building emails and automation feel more natural. You can choose from their 250+ pre-built email campaign templates and use heading blocks, customizable buttons, and other unique features to expand your email campaigns.
Activecampaign’s standout feature is the visual automation builder, which allows you to create complex workflows with a flowchart-like interface. Even as a beginner, you will be able to confidently navigate the platform with guidance at every step.
Maropost Marketing Cloud: Complex with a Steeper Learning Curve
While Maropost offers more features, it comes with a steeper learning curve. The interface can appeal more to experienced users who prefer many features with customization options.
Finding specific features inside Maropost can be time-consuming compared to ActiveCampaign’s straightforward approach. The email creation process is more technical and requires some knowledge of email marketing.
Think of Activecampaign as a well-organized and user-friendly smartphone app, while Maropost leans towards powerful but complex desktop software.
If ease of use is a priority, ActiveCampaign wins. If you’re an experienced marketer looking for customization options, Maropost is the right fit.
| Feature | Activecampaign | Maropost Marketing Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Drag-and-drop email builder | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| User-friendly navigation | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ |
| Pre-built templates | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Knowledge base | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ |
Winner: Activecampaign takes the cup for intuitiveness combined with powerful tools.
Automation: Sending the Right Messages
Email marketing automation is the secret sauce to sending the right messages to the right people at the right time. It’s a feature that sets apart email service providers. And both Activecampaign and Maropost marketing cloud exhibit high-end automation capabilities.
Activecampaign: Sophisticated Automation Features
Activecampaign’s automation capabilities allow users to virtually automate anything, including campaigns, deals, SMS, contact management, etc.
Users can directly trigger automation from their inbox communication with leads, allowing them to create intricate email campaigns.
Their AI-powered automation builder lets you handle complex nurture campaigns, guiding subscribers at every step of their customer journey.
The 850+ ‘Automation Recipes’ are well put together and help users create email campaigns effortlessly. This feature also applies to SMS campaigns, where you can integrate with tools such as ClickSend, MessageMedia, and Twilio.
Maropost Marketing Cloud: Intricate Automation Workflows
Maropost offers granular control over triggers, actions, and conditions within your workflows. You can build detailed automation workflows that are highly specific to your audience’s behavior. While everything sounds great, setting these up can consume more time and require some knowledge of email automation.
The level of detail and insights you get with Maropost is impressive, but yet again, it comes with a steeper learning curve. It also requires more manual setup than choosing from Activecampaign’s pre-built automation templates.
In summary, ActiveCampaign is more suitable for businesses prioritizing ease of use and pre-built recipes. Maropost is better for high-volume sending and complex automation needs.
| Feature | Activecampaign | Maropost Marketing Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| AI-powered automation | ✅ | ❌ |
| API access | ✅ | ✅ |
| Pre-built templates | ✅ | ❌ |
Winner: It’s a tie. While Activecampaign specializes in pre-built templates and powerful automation capabilities, Maropost is ideal for enterprises with large sending needs and API access.
Customization: Streamlining Your Marketing Efforts
Email marketing customization is crucial for sending highly personalized campaigns. Whether switching up the font type or adding layers to automation workflow, customization makes emails stand out. Both ActiveCampaign and Maropost marketing cloud offer customization options.
Activecampaign: Easy-to-use Customization Features
Activecampaign is known for its ease of use and customization features. Users can modify landing pages, emails, and forms with pre-built blocks.
The form builder offers different styles you can choose from to make them unique. It’s as simple as dragging and dropping the elements into the specific fields.
Activecampaign also allows you to add custom fields to sort data submitted by contacts. This data can further be displayed in messages or used internally.
Finally, the personalization tags allow you to add contact fields, deal fields, and custom object fields to enhance user experience.
Maropost Marketing Cloud: Extensive Customization Options
Maropost goes beyond basic customization fields — it offers extensive code editing facilities and API access. The native journey builder lets you personalize experiences by audience segment, channel, and behavior.
The platform also allows you to create highly personalized campaigns with in-depth user data criteria. The custom fields options allow you to add strings, integers, date/time, text, and boolean values.
| Feature | Activecampaign | Maropost Marketing Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Custom fields | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Drag-and-drop elements | ✅ | ✅ |
| Native journey builder | ❌ | ✅ |
Winner: It’s a tie. Both platforms offer robust customization options, with Maropost focusing on extensive coding facilities.
Analytics and Reporting: Gaining Insights into Your Email Marketing
Analytics in email marketing helps you understand campaign performance and gaps in email content. It’s more like a roadmap that guides your email marketing efforts in the right direction. Activecampaign and Maropost seem to have a solid understanding of this and offer effective reporting features.
Activecampaign: User-friendly Reporting
Activecampaign provides a clear and consolidated view of all areas, including click maps, geo-tracking, and page visits. Real-time reporting helps you spot trends and find new opportunities to optimize data.
If you’re considering customizing your reporting, Activecampaign allows you to create separate dashboards for comparing side-by-side metrics. The dashboard also showcases data across different customer interactions within your brand.
Maropost Marketing Cloud: Advanced Analytics and Customizable Reporting
Maropost is more focused on offering in-depth customer data. The platform allows you to combine the power of customer information with real-time analytics to help you create cohesive marketing campaigns. The ‘Acquisition Builder’ lets users convert website visitors into leads and offers advanced segmentation capabilities within reporting.
However, accessing reports could require a steeper learning curve than Activecampaign’s simple analytics tool.
ActiveCampaign is not the only option to replace Maropost. Check out our in-depth guide on Maropost Alternatives.
| Feature | Activecampaign | Maropost Marketing Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time reporting | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Customization in reporting | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Advanced segmentation capabilities | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Winner: It’s a tie. Both ESPs provide robust reporting and analytics, with Maropost offering additional features such as advanced segmentation and acquisition builder.
Activecampaign vs. Maropost: The Pricing Showdown
Both platforms take different approaches to pricing. Activecampaign offers a tiered pricing structure based on features and contact volume, while Maropost charges depending on the number of emails sent.
Let’s break down Activecampaign’s pricing structure for 1,000 contacts below.
| ActiveCampaign Pricing Plan | Price | Features Included |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $15 | ‣ 1000 contacts ‣ 1 user ‣ Email marketing and automation ‣ Personalized chat and email support ‣ Inline forms ‣ Site and event tracking ‣ Campaign reports ‣ API and webhooksGoals |
| Plus | Starts at $49 | ‣ Everything in Lite + ‣ Landing Pages ‣ Facebook Custom Audiences ‣ Facebook Lead Ads ‣ Lead Scoring ‣ Pop-Up and Modal Forms ‣ Conditional Content ‣ WooCommerce, Shopify & Big ‣ Commerce Integrations ‣ Custom Mailserver Domain |
| Professional | $79/month | ‣ Everything in Plus + ‣ Predictive Sending AI ‣ Split Automations ‣ Salesforce Integration ‣ Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integration ‣ Website & In Application Messages ‣ Marketing Attribution Reporting ‣ Conversions |
| Enterprise | $145/month | ‣ Everything in Professional + ‣ Custom Reporting ‣ Custom Objects ‣ Single Sign-On ‣ HIPAA Support ‣ Uptime SLA ‣ Unlimited Email Testing |
Maropost’s minimum sending limit starts with 225,000 emails monthly and it’s priced at $279 per month. Let’s look at their entire pricing structure below.
| Maropost Pricing Plan | Pricing | Features Included |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Starts at $279/month | ‣ Email campaigns ‣ A/B campaigns ‣ Transactional emails ‣ SMS campaigns ‣ Dynamic content ‣ Scripting ‣ Content recommendations ‣ Send-time optimization ‣ Conversion-time optimization ‣ Unlimited users, contacts, and lists ‣ One-click integrations ‣ 24/7 chat support |
| Professional | Starts at $849/month | ‣ All of Essential, + ‣ Mobile keywords ‣ In-app push notifications ‣ Dedicated customer success manager ‣ Training and onboarding ‣ Dedicated deliverability manager |
| Enterprise | Starts at $1,699/month | ‣ All of Professional, + ‣ Da Vinci AI Unlimited journeys ‣ 150 custom contact fields ‣ Relational table data storage |
Maropost is potentially more cost-effective for high-volume email sending and Activecampaign is for marketers preferring predictable pricing. Ultimately, choosing a plan depends on your business needs and budget allocation.
Activecampaign vs. Maropost Marketing Cloud: Making the Final Decision
Activecampaign is ideal for small to mid-sized businesses looking for affordability and user-friendly interface and features. Maropost is the straight opposite — it caters to larger businesses with high-volume needs and complex automation and customization features.
To help you make a suitable choice, we’ll compare both platforms side-by-side in the table below.
| Features | ActiveCampaign | Maropost Marketing Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Smart autoresponders | ✅ | ✅ |
| Drag-and-drop email designer | ✅ | ✅ |
| Campaign, contact, and list reporting | ✅ | ✅ |
| A/B testing | ✅ | ✅ |
| Pre-built automations | ✅ | ❌ |
| Custom forms and fields | ✅ | ✅ |
| CRM and sales automation | ✅ | ✅ |
| Website and app engagement data | ❌ | ✅ |
| Email deliverability | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Reporting and analytics | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Marketing automation | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Both platforms offer robust features catering to different audiences. Choosing one depends on your technical expertise, business needs, and budget.
If you’re looking for a mix of Activecampaign and Maropost; a user-friendly interface with powerful marketing tools and the best deliverability available, Campaign Refinery is the only choice..
Campaign Refinery: The Best Choice Overall
Email deliverability is crucial to your email marketing success. If emails don’t reach your subscribers, your well-done campaigns will be pointless.
Campaign Refinery offers the highest inbox placement rate on the market. Our clients immediately notice an increase of up to 600% in email deliverability rates after joining us.
That’s not all, Campaign Refinery provides a comprehensive approach to email marketing. Here’s how.
Why Choose Campaign Refinery Over Activecampaign and Maropost?
From the get-go, we ensure safety for clients through mandatory domain authentication and strict authentication protocols. We carefully vet applicants to determine compatibility, so we don’t believe in free trials.
Our pricing plans start at $99 per month with access to exclusive features and tools, such as:
- Integrated email list-cleaning: The automatic list-cleaning tool removes harmful and invalid email addresses, keeping your email list healthy.
- Easy to use email editor: Our simple WYSIWYG email editor and pre-built campaigns help you get started.
- Enhanced email deliverability rates: The deliverability ecosystem, including our high-speed sending engine, ensures all your emails reach customers’ inboxes.
- Credit system: You should be able to grow your email list without worrying about paying extra. That’s why we provide a credit system — purchase ‘X’ credits and use it to clean email lists, send emails, and perform other actions.
- Engagement gamification: This exclusive feature allows clients to set a points system and incentivize their subscribers for every action they take on the emails.
Is Campaign Refinery Affordable?
Our pricing system is for business owners and marketers, willing to scale their business with unlimited contacts. And you only pay for what you use instead of paying for a static list of contacts you don’t get real value from.
Here’s an overview of how our pricing works.
| 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 Sales | 50 K |
| Growth plan | Starts at $299 / month | ‣ Everything in the Business plan, + ‣ Turn off ”powered by” Text ‣ Reduced Overage Cost ‣ Increased API Volume Limits | 200 K |
| Enterprise plan | Starts at $1k+ / month | ‣ Everything in the Growth plan, + ‣ Dedicated Success Manager ‣ Lowest Overage Cost ‣ Custom API volume | 1 M |
Is Moving to Campaign Refinery Complicated?
Migrating to Campaign Refinery is a straightforward process. We require clients to bring their opt-in email lists, and our support team will take care of the rest.
Even after the migration process, our team continually monitors your sending habits and addresses potential email deliverability issues for a stress-free email marketing experience.
Ready to become a top sender with Campaign Refinery?
