Best Alternative to ActiveCampaign in 2024
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a high-priced email marketing platform to achieve great results. ActiveCampaign is a popular choice, but its high cost, complex learning curve, and at times slow support can be a discouragement for some businesses.
Ultimately, price isn’t always a reliable indicator of a platform’s effectiveness or return on investment. There are excellent alternatives to ActiveCampaign, offering great features without the hefty price tag.
ActiveCampaign is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that goes beyond email marketing. It provides features like email marketing CRM, sales automation, and marketing automation to help businesses manage customer relationships and grow sales.
In this article, you’ll discover:
- ActiveCampaign’s strengths and weaknesses;
- Reasons to consider alternatives;
- Similar platforms to explore;
- Budget-friendly options.
In the meantime, if you need more information, you can refer to ActiveCampaign competitor comparison articles:
ActiveCampaign Overview: It is Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea
ActiveCampaign has evolved into a comprehensive marketing and sales platform. Its powerful automation features make it a popular choice for experienced email marketers. The platform provides decent email deliverability, ensuring campaigns land right into subscribers’ inboxes.
Also, ActiveCampaign aims to simplify business operations by offering a unified platform for lead generation, sales, customer management, and marketing automation. However, its features might be excessive for anyone who wants to send simple SMS marketing messages or newsletter campaigns.
Its core features include:
- CRM: Manage customer information, track interactions, and build stronger relationships.
- Marketing Automation: Create personalized email campaigns, segment audiences, and analyze customer behavior to optimize marketing efforts.
- Sales Automation: Streamline the sales process, track email performance, and automate follow-ups to boost efficiency.
Elements to Consider When Choosing an ActiveCampaign Alternative
Before you start any migration process, it’s important to identify the ideal marketing platform for your specific needs. A well-suited platform can significantly enhance your marketing efforts and ROI.
The following table will help you evaluate your options and make an informed decision.
| Factors | What to Consider |
|---|---|
| Deliverability | Check the platform’s average email deliverability rate and see if they provide features to improve it. Look for a platform with a reputation for delivering emails to inboxes rather than spam folders. |
| Features and capabilities | Are there advanced features like A/B testing, segmentation, and personalization? Does the platform offer the features you need to achieve your marketing goals? |
| Interface and ease of use | Analyze the ESP for a user-friendly interface and easy-to-understand menus. Also, look for onboarding guides or tutorials to help you get started quickly. |
| Customization | Do you need HTML resources to create custom email templates? Are the templates intuitive to use? Ensure the platform offers the level of customization you require. |
| Scalability | Can the platform support your growing business? Are there additional charges for bigger email lists? Consider a platform that can handle your future growth without significant cost increases. |
| Data migration | Check if the alternative assists with moving your email lists and offers continuous support during the migration process. A smooth transition is essential to avoid data loss or disruptions. |
| Security | Consider the ESP’s adherence to email marketing laws such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM. Ensure the platform has strong security measures to protect your data and your subscribers privacy. |
| Pricing | Consider an ESP based on your subscriber count and email volume. Evaluate the pricing plans to find one that aligns with your budget and usage needs. |
The Best Alternative to ActiveCampaign
Email deliverability is the most important factor when choosing an email marketing platform. Also, a platform that’s easy to navigate and allows you to make changes without difficulty can save you time and frustration.
The price tag is something you can’t afford to overlook. To determine which platform best meets your needs without going over budget, consider trying out a few before making a final decision.
We’ve analyzed potential ActiveCampaign alternatives and selected the following six competitors:
- Mailchimp;
- Brevo;
- Klaviyo;
- ConvertKit;
- Drip;
- Camapign Refinery.
We’ll compare these platforms based on their email deliverability and standout features to help you choose the best fit for your needs.
| Features | Campaign Refinery | Mailchimp | Brevo | Klaviyo | ConvertKit | Drip |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target audience | All business types | E-commerce brands | Entrepreneurs to large businesses | E-commerce brands | Online creators (bloggers and YouTubers) | E-commerce and online retailers |
| Key strength | Advanced email deliverability | Ease of use | Email, SMS, and chat communication | E-commerce-focused features | Creator marketing platform with optimization features | Advanced automation |
| Ease of use | 10 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 7 |
| Email deliverability | 10 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Advanced automation | 10 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 9 |
| Campaign templates | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Segmentation | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Pricing based on | Email volume | Emails | Emails | Email subscribers | Email subscribers | Email subscribers |
| Real-time email editor | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Spam check tool | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Automatic email list cleaning tool | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Mandatory domain authentication | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Engagement gamification | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Evergreen flash sale | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
1. Mailchimp
Mailchimp offers powerful automation capabilities that rival ActiveCampaign. Its extensive range of triggers, conditional actions, and branching logic enables complex workflows, making it a strong contender for businesses seeking sophisticated automation solutions.
In addition to email services, the platform facilitates social media campaign management and website development. With its robust email template selection, adaptable automation tools, and integration with other marketing platforms, Mailchimp offers a wide variety of useful features. The tools for reporting and analytics are also good.
However, Mailchimp excels in certain areas, particularly email deliverability rates.
Both platforms boast high email deliverability rates, with Mailchimps average of 91.5% compared to ActiveCampaign’s 90% score. Mailchimp provides pre-built automation journeys to help you improve customer engagement.
Mailchimp Pricing
With Maichimp, you can start with a free plan for 500 contacts and enjoy email support for the first 30 days.
| Tier | Monthly commitment | Annual commitment |
|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $270 | Not available |
| Standard | $310 | Not available |
| Premium | $620 | Not available |
Mailchimp Pros
- User-friendly: Similar to ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp makes navigating easy. It is not necessary for users to navigate the platform to locate necessary tools and features.
- Tracking social media: Mailchimp collects information from your online stores, such as Shopify, and provides access to email client and social media data.
- Inbox preview: You can see how your emails will appear on various email clients by using the 25 inbox preview tokens that come with the paid plans.
Mailchimp Cons
- Affiliate marketing: Mailchimp’s terms of service restrict affiliate marketing, making it unsuitable for businesses that rely on this strategy.
- Design flexibility: While Mailchimp offers a drag-and-drop editor and templates, some users find it limiting. If you require extensive design customization, other platforms might be better suited.
- Pricing: Although Mailchimp has a free plan, its features and email sends are limited. As your business grows, the pricing can increase significantly, especially for larger subscriber lists. It also charges for duplicate contacts.
| Category | Mailchimp |
|---|---|
| Best feature | ‣ Complex customer journeys. |
| Pros | ‣ User-friendly; ‣ Social media tracking; ‣ Interface and a variety of tools. |
| Cons | ‣ Price; ‣ Lack of design flexibility; ‣ No affiliate marketing. |
2. Brevo
Brevo caters to businesses of al sizes. It offers a user-friendly email editor and HTML templates for creating different email campaigns. It boosts your email list management by providing email automation features and target specific audiences based on demographic segmentation and other criteria.
Beyond email marketing, Brevo also includes a landing page builder and powerful SMS and WhatsApp marketing features to reach mobile users effectively.
Overall, Brevo’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive features make it a good choice for small businesses and e-commerce stores seeking to target their audience more effectively. It often outshines ActiveCampaign in terms of ease of use and intuitiveness.
Brevo Pricing
Access to all features and 300 emails per day are provided by the free plan.
| Tier | Monthly commitment | Annual commitment |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | $25 | $22 |
| Business | $65 | $58 |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Custom pricing |
Brevo Pros
- Good email deliverability: Brevo is known for keeping its inbox placement rates steady.
- Brevo combines the power of multichannel marketing: This easy-to-use email and form builder supports SMS marketing, emails, CRM, and landing pages.
- User-friendly interface
Brevo Cons
- Limited free plan
- Very limited template selection: A pre-defined selection of email templates is very small.
- An extra charge for branding removal
- Building landing pages will cost you additionally: Many advanced features require pricing plan upgrades; this could scale costs for larger businesses.
| Category | Brevo |
|---|---|
| Best feature | ‣ SMS marketing tool |
| Pros | ‣ Good email deliverability; ‣ Multichannel marketing; ‣ User-friendly. |
| Cons | ‣ Pricing and limited free plan; ‣ Limited template selection; ‣ Complex for small business. |
3. Klaviyo
Klaviyo’s versatile workflows integrate email, SMS, and push notifications, allowing you to tailor your communications to different stages of the customer journey, from welcome emails to cart abandonment emails and cross-sells. The platform also provides pre-built flow templates and online forms to expand your list and collect customer data.
One of Klaviyo’s key advantages is its built-in CRM capability. With Profiles, you can track each customer’s interactions, including purchase history, email engagement, and website activity. Klaviyo also offers predictive analytics to help you proactively target customers based on behavior segmentation.
To further streamline your workflow, Klaviyo has recently introduced AI-powered tools like:
- segments,
- SMS,
- email,
- and reviews.
This can assist in creating descriptions and entire campaigns.
Klaviyo Pricing
The platform’s pricing is based on the number of active email contacts in your list.
| Tier | Monthly commitment | Annual commitment |
|---|---|---|
| Free (500 emails monthly) | $0 | $0 |
| Email (15000 emails monthly) | $45 | Custom pricing |
| Email and SMS (15000 emails monthly) | $60 | Custom pricing |
Klaviyo Pros
- Segmentation: Create highly targeted lists based on your customer’s behavior, demographics, and order history.
- Customer profiles: Establish profiles to learn more about your clients and customise email campaigns to suit their individual requirements and interests.
- SMS marketing: Boost engagement and conversion rates by sending SMS messages to your subscribers and reaching them on their mobile devices.
Klaviyo Cons
- Complex learning curve: Although Klaviyo has a lot of useful features, it can be difficult for new users to grasp and use them.
- Customer service: Klaviyo’s customer service is difficult to contact in a timely manner.
| Category | Klaviyo |
|---|---|
| Best feature | ‣ Advanced customer profiles |
| Pros | ‣ Advanced segmentation tools; ‣ SMS marketing; ‣ Incorporated AI tools. |
| Cons | ‣ Not so user-friendly; ‣ Customer service. |
4. ConvertKit
ConvertKit, works well for newsletter promotion campaigns and subscriptions as well.
It provides pre-made templates to streamline campaign creation, automates email delivery for personalized communication, and allows you to create landing pages and email opt-in forms to capture leads.
For basic testing and optimization, ConvertKit offers A/B testing capabilities to compare different campaign variations, track email performance, and identify the most effective strategies.
Additionally, the platform’s email blast feature enables you to send mass emails to your entire list or specific segments. These combined features make ConvertKit a powerful tool for email marketing campaigns.
ConvertKit Pricing
ConvertKit provides a free plan that grants access to some premium features, such as premium subscriptions and newsletters.
| Tier | Monthly commitment | Annual commitment |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | $199 | $166/per month |
| Creator Pro | $279 | $233/per month |
ConvertKit Pros
- Landing page editor: Customers can create landing pages without having a website by using ConvertKit, which provides an abundance of attractive landing page templates.
- Segmentation: You can easily segment your audience based on different demographics.
- User-friendly: It is easy to use, and even beginners can benefit from its visual builder.
ConvertKit Cons
- It can get expensive: ConvertKit offers a free plan, but in order to access its automation features, you must purchase the premium plan.
- Limited reporting: ConvertKit users are only able to monitor the most basic campaign metrics, like open rates and unsubscribe rates.
- Limited automation options: It does not offer SMS or social media marketing automations.
| Category | ConvertKit |
|---|---|
| Best feature | ‣ Newsletter subscription |
| Pros | ‣ Easy to use; ‣ Advanced segmentation; ‣ Good landing page editor. |
| Cons | ‣ Pricing; ‣ Limited reporting and automation. |
5. Drip
Drip is an excellent alternative to ActiveCampaign for e-commerce businesses that require detailed segmentation and flexible email automation. It offers advanced features to streamline your workflows.
Its automation capabilities enable you to create complex yet intuitive email sequences that dynamically target customer behavior. This means you can send highly personalized emails based on specific actions, such as visiting a webpage or abandoning a cart.
Drip’s segmentation features allow you to group your audience into highly specific segments based on purchase history, psychographic segmentation, engagement level, demographics, and other criteria. By integrating with sales platforms, Drip can pull in data to enhance your targeting efforts and create more personalized campaigns.
Drip Pricing
The pricing is determined by the size of your contact list.
| Number of Contacts | Monthly commitment | Annual commitment |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 | $39 | Custom pricing |
| 5,500 | $89 | Custom pricing |
| 17,500 | $249 | Custom pricing |
| 50,000 | $699 | Custom pricing |
| 100,000 | $1,199 | Custom pricing |
| 180,001 | Custom pricing | Custom pricing |
| Up to 10,000,000 | Custom pricing | Custom pricing |
Drip Pros
- Comprehensive reports: Drip marketing reports provide you with a thorough understanding of the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign.
- Broad range of tools: It includes a tool for building landing pages, one for A/B testing, and features for managing ads.
- Drip offers thorough usage instructions and online courses.
Drip Cons
- Higher price: It is more expensive than ActiveCampaign.
- Steep learning curve: Drip is not the ideal choice for startup businesses or novices.
- There is no free plan.
| Category | Drip |
|---|---|
| Best feature | ‣ Advanced segmentation |
| Pros | ‣ Powerful automation; ‣ Wide variety of tools; ‣ Instructions and online courses. |
| Cons | ‣ Expenisve; ‣ Hard to learn if you are inexperienced; ‣ No free plan. |
6. Campaign Refinery: The Best Email Deliverability Alternative to ActiveCampaign
Renowned for its outstanding email deliverability rates, Campaign Refinery is a top email marketing platform. With a 99% delivery rate, it stands out in the industry thanks to its advanced features and stringent policies.
We provide clients with unique functional features:
- Automatic List Cleaning: It guarantees safe and deliverable contacts by eliminating malicious emails prior to sending them.
- Engagement Gamification: It increases engagement rates by rewarding subscribers with points for reading and clicking. This improves deliverability and the sender’s reputation.
- Evergreen Flash Sales: They are time-sensitive offers to create urgency and increase conversions.
- Mandatory domain authentication: It forces all customers to authenticate their own domains entirely.
- Credit-based pricing system: It incentivizes customers to send emails to smaller and more engaged segments of their email list. This results in cost savings, increased engagement percentage, enhanced domain reputation, and a positive feedback loop that gradually increases deliverability.
With transparent pricing and a focus on quality, Campaign Refinery is a great choice for businesses looking to maximize their email marketing efforts.
Campaign Refinery Pricing
We offer transparent credit based pricing with no hidden fees.
| Campaign Refinery Plans | Monthly commitment | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Business | $99 | 50,000 |
| Growth | $299 | 200,000 |
| Enterprise | >$1,000 | 1,000,000 |
Campaign Refinery Pros
- Highest Email Deliverability: Achieve industry-leading inbox placement rates with our stringent authentication procedures and thorough email list cleaning.
- Advanced Segmentation: Use our Audience Groups segmentation feature to precisely target particular audience segments.
- Transparent Pricing: Pay only for what you use, ensuring a cost-effective solution for your email marketing needs.
Campaign Refinery Cons
- Strict vetting procedure: To guarantee platform safety, we review client profiles to verify compatibility and gain insight into their past email-sending behaviors.
- No free trial: We select our clients by hand and only collaborate with sincere and accountable senders.
| Category | Campaign Refinery |
|---|---|
| Best feature | ‣ The highest email deliverability rate on the market |
| Pros | ‣ Powerful automation and segmentation; ‣ Highest email deliverability rate; ‣ Gamification and evergreen flash sale features. |
| Cons | ‣ Strict selection procedure; ‣ No free trial. |
Campaign Refinery: Your Partner for Optimal Email Deliverability
Campaign Refinery is committed to providing the highest email deliverability rates and that’s why we work with proven senders only. Our strict domain authentication policy ensures a platform of trusted senders, and our high-speed sending engine maximizes inbox placement. We work closely with each client to understand their unique needs and develop a tailored email marketing strategy.
If you are ready to commit and achieve dramatically better long-term results, apply to join Campaign Refinery today!
