10 Best ActiveCampaign Alternatives for Businesses

Having started as a marketing consulting firm back in 2003, ActiveCampaign has evolved into a leading SaaS company focused on marketing automation. The service is a popular choice among marketers, but not the best fit for all.

ActiveCampaign provides businesses with email marketing services, automation, and CRM tools to streamline their marketing efforts and build stronger customer relationships. While these features are valuable, they carry a high cost along with several limitations.

Luckily, there are better alternatives to ActiveCampaign with affordable pricing, advanced features, email deliverability, bulk email sending, and good customer support.

To help you choose the best ActiveCampaign alternative, we reviewed and ranked several tools based on their price, ease of use, and feature set, focusing on transactional email services.

We then compiled this list of the top 10 ActiveCampaign alternatives, assessing their strengths and weaknesses. Let’s start with what ActiveCampaign offers and where ActiveCampaign competitors stand out.

Top Alternatives To ActiveCampaign

Platform	Free Options	Best For	Stands Out For	Starting Price
UniOne	Free Trial	All types of businesses, and e-commerce	Inexpensive, reliable API, friendly support, detailed analytics and reporting	$6/month for 10,000 emails.
GetResponse	Free Plan	Small to mid-sized businesses	Complete marketing suite, AI-powered email content suggestions.	$19/month for the Email Marketing plan.
Brevo (Formerly Sendinblue)	Free Plan	Small to mid-sized businesses, startups	Multi-channel marketing with email & SMS, Built-in CRM.	$9/month for 5,000 emails.
Drip	Free Trial	E-commerce	Powerful e-commerce CRM, Advanced segmentation	$39/month for up to 2,500 contacts.
Mailchimp	Free Demo	Small to medium-sized businesses, e-commerce	All-in-one platform, Audience management tools for segmentation and targeting	$9.27/month for 5,000 emails.
MailerLite	Free Plan	Small to medium-sized businesses, email marketing	Customizable templates, drag-and-drop editor, Advanced segmentation, A/B testing	$35/month for 50,000 emails.
Campaigner	Free Trial	Mid-sized and larger businesses	Automation features with complex workflows, advanced segmentation, A/B testing	$59/month for up to 5,000 contacts.
Klaviyo	Free Plan	Mid-sized to large enterprises, e-commerce	Real-time customer data tracking for personalized marketing, Dynamic product recommendations, integration with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Magento	$45/month for up to 1,500 emails.
OmniSend	Free Plan	Small and medium-sized businesses, ecommerce.	Pre-built automation workflows, dynamic content features	$16/month for up to 500 contacts and 6,000 emails.
Moosend	Free Trial	Small to medium-sized businesses, ecommerce.	Drag-and-drop editor, customizable templates, automation workflows, analytics, and reporting.	$7/month for up to 500 subscribers.

What is ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign is a premier marketing automation platform with tools for multichannel and email marketing, customer relationship management, and sales pipeline.

These tools help businesses craft targeted email campaigns based on customer behavior and do other kinds of email automation. ActiveCampaign is ideal for large enterprises and experienced email marketers with huge contact lists and high monthly email volumes.

Why are people switching from ActiveCampaign?

Reason #1: High cost and limited value for small businesses

A lot of users running small businesses find ActiveCampaign's pricing too high for the value it provides. Considering cost vs. benefit, many user reviews mention looking for more affordable alternatives.

Reason #2: Unsatisfactory customer service

ActiveCampaign's customer service is often criticized for its poor response time and lack of support.

Reason #3: Constant glitches and sluggish performance

It is common for users to experience technical problems, such as lost emails, automation glitches, and other platform-related issues. There’s nothing more frustrating than constantly troubleshooting and working around technical problems, which can significantly reduce user productivity, disrupt business operations, and ultimately lead to lost opportunities.

*The above reasons were taken from public online reviews of ActiveCampaign users.

UniOne – Best for Email API

Note: UniOne handles email volumes of up to 60 million emails per hour, allowing you to scale up seamlessly as your email volume grows.

UniOne is a reliable and cost-effective email delivery service with notable advantages over ActiveCampaign. Its interface is smooth, intuitive, and designed to save time. A must-have for businesses hoping to regain control of their online marketing efforts.

UniOne boasts a 99.88% deliverability rate, ensuring your emails always reach the recipients. UniOne also comes with a user-friendly design with everything on hand.

Need help with something and need it fast – UniOne's support team is known for its prompt and efficient response times. ⚡

Try UniOne Free →

Pros

Reliable: UniOne offers an impressive delivery rate and enhanced uptime, ensuring that your emails reach their intended recipients.
Affordable: Ensure the success of your strategic efforts with UniOne's plans starting at $6/month for 10,000 emails.
Seamless integration: UniOne effortlessly integrates with external software due to its versatile SMTP and Web APIs.
Detailed analytics: Discover how your campaigns are performing with UniOne’s detailed analytics and advanced segmentation options.
A/B testing: Determine what’s working and what isn't for your campaigns, and optimize accordingly.
Friendly customer support: UniOne boasts a stellar record of 95% positive customer support, ensuring inquiries are addressed and resolved promptly.

Cons

No SMS integration: UniOne is exclusively focused on transactional and marketing email solutions, and doesn’t offer SMS capabilities to businesses that rely on SMS marketing or notifications.
Limited Email Template Library: While UniOne offers a drag-and-drop builder with 40+ pre-designed templates, this might not be enough for users, resulting in more design effort.

Pricing

Free Plan

Unione comes with a free plan for up to 4 months, with 6,000 emails per month.

Paid Plans

Paid plans are based on the number of emails sent per month:

$6/month: 10,000 emails.
$11/month: 20,000 emails.
$25/month: 50,000 emails.

*Pricing information retrieved from UniOne in August 2024.

GetResponse – Best for Email Marketing Features

GetResponse is an all-in-one marketing solution, just like ActiveCampaign, with better functionality for sending customized emails, building interactive landing pages, and automating campaigns. You can create webinars directly within the platform, unlike ActiveCampaign which requires integration with external tools. If you arrange events regularly, this can be a great time-saver.

Setting up campaigns is super easy – with several templates that can be customized to suit your brand and design preferences. The platform includes autoresponders, which maximizes lead generation via newsletters.

The basic GetResponse email marketing plan costs $19 per month with 1,000 contacts, but features like lead scoring, email automation, and webinar creation are only available on higher-tier plans.

While this is a great alternative to ActiveCampaign, beginners may find it challenging since it caters to advanced users looking for robust email marketing solutions.

Pros

Free trial: GetResponse offers a free forever plan for up to 500 contacts on top of its affordable pricing.
Drag-and-drop builder: With the GetResponse drag-and-drop feature, it’s easy to create emails, forms, and landing pages.
Webinar functionality: GetResponse has a built-in webinar functionality which is quite impressive in comparison to other email marketing tools.

Cons

Too Expensive: GetResponse isn’t cheap and will cost you more as your contact list develops.
Limited design options: While the drag-and-drop editor in GetResponse is great, template customization options are limited.
Limited customer service: User reviews mention slow and unhelpful customer service.

Pricing

Free Plan

Free forever plan for up to 500 contacts.

Paid Plans

$19/month: Email marketing plan.
$59/month: Marketing automation plan.
$119/month: E-commerce marketing plan.

*Pricing information retrieved from GetResponse in August 2024.

Brevo (Formerly Sendinblue) – Best for Phone Support

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is another affordable ActiveCampaign alternative that comes with SMS marketing capabilities, a built-in CRM tool, the Conversations app, and WhatsApp campaigns.

Designed to scale with your business – Brevo makes it quite easy to segment audiences based on chosen criteria, such as demographics or purchase history, reaching the right people at the right time with precisely targeted messages.

You can build custom workflows, use the CRM, create emails using drag-and-drop builder, and automate SMS and emails with personalized messages.

Overall, Brevo is a great tool with adequate features to help small and medium-sized businesses target their audiences more effectively.

Pros

SMS marketing options: There aren't many tools that offer both email and SMS marketing – it’s great that Brevo has SMS marketing options along with the autoresponders.
WordPress plugin: Brevo has a WordPress plugin with more than 80,000 active installations, rated at 4.5 stars.

Cons

Limited free plan: Brevo’s free plan has a modest daily sending limit with no landing pages and basic analytics.
Additional fee to remove branding: Brevo requires an additional fee to remove branding on the paid starter plan.
Limited customization options: Although Brevo offers many great features, customization options are limited.
Building landing pages costs extra: Landing page builder is only available in the business plan, so you'll have to pay extra to build landing pages. For an additional $24 per month, Brevo lets you purchase 5 more.
Basic reporting and analytics: Brevo offers only basic reporting and analytics in its low-tiered plans.

Pricing

Free Plan

Forever free plan with up to 300 emails per day.

Paid Plans

$9/month: 5,000 emails/month (with basic reporting & analytics)
$18/month: 5,000 emails/month (multi-user access, phone support, and much more)

*Pricing information retrieved from Brevo in August 2024.

Drip – Best For E-commerce Stores On Budget

Drip is a complete email marketing solution that helps e-commerce brands maximize repeat sales and build customer engagement with robust features such as advanced email series, email templates, lead scoring, and onsite messaging.

It allows you to streamline your workflow and have more control over your campaigns with its 150+ integrations. You can create dynamic segments based on your customer data, run one-time campaigns, and automate them to engage your customer base.

Save both your time and money with Drip’s drag-and-drop email editor, 50+ themed templates, and advanced popups built for various industries and use cases.

Pros

All-in-one platform: It’s easy to create landing pages, conduct A/B tests, and manage ads within Drip.
Learning resources for newbies: For users to maximize the platform's potential, Drip offers online courses and detailed documentation.
Seamless integration capabilities: Drip makes it easy to integrate with Shopify to expand your e-commerce reach. Once you integrate your store, Drip extends the free trial by an extra week.

Cons

No free plan: Drip doesn’t offer a free plan, only a 14-day trial period that includes limited email sends, which may not be sufficient.
Limited functionality in low-contact plans: Entry plans lack essential features and force users to pay a higher price for basic functionality.
Expensive: Even though it’s focused on a small segment (e-commerce), it’s pretty expensive.
No live chat support for plans with less than 5,000 contacts: While the cost for 5000 contacts is $89/month.
Lacking analytics: Finding essential data, such as email opens, requires too many steps.

Pricing

Free Plan

There is no free plan, a 14-day free trial is available.

Paid Plans

$39/month: for up to 2500 contacts.
$49/month: for up to 3000 contacts.
$59/month: for up to 3500 contacts.

*Pricing information retrieved from Drip in August 2024.

Mailchimp Transactional Email (Formerly Mandrill) – Best for Advanced Features

Mailchimp is a renowned all-in-one marketing platform that started as an email delivery service and is now used by businesses of all sizes.

Mailchimp transactional email (formerly Mandrill) is built for developers and includes everything they need to send highly contextual emails using Web API or SMTP. While ActiveCampaign has similar features, MailChimp is easier to use and takes less time to learn.

It integrates well with CRM and SEO tools, has an A/B testing feature, and a customer journey builder which can be used to create effective customer journey-based automation.

While MailChimp offers a free plan, be aware that costs will increase steeply as your subscriber list grows.

Overall, it is a good option for small businesses just getting started and not planning to invest too much.

Pros

Advanced feature set: The tool includes advanced features like customer journey mapping, list segmenting, and A/B testing.
Customizable templates: Mailchimp has a wide selection of customizable templates that can be used to create attractive emails with little or no design experience.
300+ integrations: Integrate Mailchimp with more than 300 third-party apps for a streamlined workflow.

Cons

Expensive: Mailchimp costs you more as your email list grows.
Intensive learning curve: Beginners might have to learn the tool before they can use it effectively. In particular, complete novices may find it difficult to set up automation.

Pricing

Free Plan

No free plan, but new transactional email users can send up to 500 emails for free to their verified domain.

Paid Plans

$20 plus the regular Mailchimp subscription: for 10,000 emails/per month.
$240 plus the regular Mailchimp subscription: for 300,000 emails/per month.
$720 plus the regular Mailchimp subscription: for more than 300,000 emails/per month.

*Pricing information retrieved from Mailchimp in August 2024.

MailerLite – Best for Detailed Analytics And Reporting

MailerLite is an excellent email marketing service for individual creators with little experience, or small businesses on a tight budget. It is one of the cheapest alternatives to ActiveCampaign.

It offers an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that makes creating landing pages, newsletters, and opt-in forms a breeze. There are pre-made email templates that you can use to speed up the process.

You'll love MailerLite if you have an e-commerce store as it allows users to connect stores, set up behavior-triggered campaigns, and track sales in any of the paid plans.

Pros

Lower prices: MailerLite is cheaper as compared to ActiveCampaign.
Scalable: MailerLite offers numerous segmentation and automation options at an affordable price.
A/B testing: Compare different subject lines, content, and design elements to refine your campaigns accordingly with MailerLite A/B testing features.
Detailed analytics and reporting: Track key metrics of your email campaigns and get valuable insights with MailerLite’s detailed analytics and reporting feature.
Automation tracking: Analyze the history of your automated workflows, monitor performance, and optimize your settings as needed.

Cons

Limited selection of pre-built templates: MailerLite offers limited features in the free plan. For example, no pre-built email templates are available.
Fewer Integration options: MailerLite offers fewer third-party integrations than most other platforms.
Limited automation capabilities: MailerLite offers only basic automation triggers and actions, which makes it hard to build complex workflows.
Customer support: MailerLite’s customer service falls behind other platforms.

Pricing

Free Plan

No free plan available, but you can sign up for a free trial.

Paid Plans

$35/month: for up to 50,000 emails, 100 SMS, and 100 email verification credits.
$110/month: for up to 50,000 emails, 150 SMS, and 400 email verification credits.

*Pricing information retrieved from MailerLite in August 2024.

Campaigner – Best for E-commerce Integrations

Campaigner is a robust email marketing solution with a plethora of automation features, third-party integrations, and competitive pricing. Trusted by more than 100,000 users, Campaigner is an ideal solution for small and medium-sized businesses planning to run email campaigns and engage with customers.

You can create relevant and engaging customer journeys using their automation workflow builder. Design your own layout or edit a premade template template (already made responsive for any type of display) using the drag-and-drop builder.

Campaigner also provides an e-commerce plan for integrating Shopify or Magento with your email marketing functions.

Overall, a good choice for email marketers who need e-commerce integration and other tools to manage complex marketing campaigns at scale and drive revenue growth.

Pros

Customizable advanced feature set: Campaigner offers a variety of advanced customization options such as email automation, personalization, experimentation, and reporting. For even better results, make use of autoresponders, segmentation, and subject line testing.
Built-in marketing automation: Campaigner has a built-in marketing automation feature that helps businesses manage email distribution accordingly and save time.
Easy to create a multi-channel marketing strategy: Campaigner integrates your social media feed with your email, making it easy to create a multi-channel marketing strategy and boost engagement.

Cons

No free plan: Campaigner does not offer a free plan.
Credit card needed for free trial: Campaigner offers a 30-day free trial but requires your credit card — you’ll be charged if you commit to the plan after 30 days.
Confused pricing: Their pricing model is quite confusing, which won’t suit beginner marketers or those with smaller contact base.
Complex workflow automation: Campaigner's workflow automation is quite complex and locked behind the advanced plan.

Pricing

Free Plan

There’s no free plan but you can sign up for a free trial period of 30 days.

Paid Plans

$59/month: for up to 5,000 contacts.

$179/month: for up to 25,000 contacts.

$649/month: for up to 100,000 contacts.

E-commerce plan: $79.95/month

*Pricing information retrieved from Campaigner in August 2024.

Omnisend – Best for Emails & SMS Support

Omnisend is a well-known email marketing platform that helps e-commerce websites of all sizes grow and connect with their customers. Another great ActiveCampaign alternative suited for online store owners looking to automate emails, SMS, push notifications, and Whatsapp campaigns.

You can use Omnisend to integrate with popular e-comm platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.

The platform offers audience segmentation and targeted campaign creation, helping marketers track the success of their email campaigns in no time. Even customer reviews can be managed. It provides personalized product recommendations and reminders for abandoned carts – another way to boost marketing efforts.

Pros

Free plan: It has a limited free plan, and the best part is that it includes all of the features.
Detailed reporting: Omnisend provides users with detailed marketing performance reports.
Workflow automation: You can create custom workflows - or use pre-built e-commerce workflows and eliminate tedious manual tasks.

Cons

Expensive: The pricing tier is based on both list size and number of emails sent, and it is too steep for small businesses. Plus, Omnisend's monthly fees are high if you don't use it regularly.
Limited integrations: Although it integrates well with all the major e-commerce platforms, there’s no integration with Google Analytics or any CRM software.
Branding on the free plan: You’ll have to upgrade your plan to remove the Omnisend badge from your emails.
Learning curve: While the interface is user-friendly, advanced features do require a bit of a learning curve.
E-commerce-specific: Even though it's robust, it doesn't meet the needs of every niche and may not be suitable for any type of business.
Lacks crucial features: There’s no separate styling for mobile mail. It isn’t possible to create additional lists, just segments and tagging.

Pricing

Free Plan

Limited free plan available for up to 250 contacts and 500 monthly emails.

Paid Plans

$16/month: Up to 500 contacts and 6,000/monthly emails sent.
$59/month: Up to 2500 contacts, and unlimited emails.

*Pricing information retrieved from Omnisend in August 2024.

Klaviyo – Best With Built-In CDP & CRM

Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform built to keep prospects and customers intact. With an advanced suite of features for e-commerce, utilizing machine learning and data science, Klaviyo is another great alternative to ActiveCampaign for data-driven marketers.

Klaviyo, just like ActiveCampaign, is going to cost you more as your mailing list grows. From a functional standpoint, it's terrific, as the platform allows you to automate complex workflows for your audience. You can insert personal recommendations into an email using the intuitive email editor. It offers advanced segmentation rules to send customized messages to filtered customer segments. There are even dynamic coupons for Shopify and Magento platforms, to help you drive high conversion rates and boost customer loyalty.

Pros

Email editor: With Klaviyo's drag-and-drop editor, text-only builder, and HTML editor, you can create and manage marketing campaigns effortlessly.
60+ premade workflows: Klaviyo makes it easy to set up an automated email strategy with 60+ predefined flows.
Powerful segmentation: With Klaviyo, you can create lists and specific segments that can also be synced with Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads.
Built-in CDP and CRM system: Understand your customers' behavior and preferences to create highly targeted campaigns with built-in CDP and CRM functionality.

Cons

Learning curve: For new users, Klaviyo might be difficult to navigate and use, and they may need some time to learn it before getting the most out of it.
Customer service: Many users report limited customer support options and problems getting timely assistance from Klaviyo.
Expensive fixed pricing plans: Klaviyo's recent price hike limits its appeal to small businesses. Many smaller eComm businesses find Klaviyo too expensive, wasting a portion of their budget on features they do not use.

Pricing

Free Plan

Limited free plan available for up to 250 contacts and 500 monthly emails.

Paid Plans

$20/month (Email): Up to 500 active profiles and 5,000/monthly email sends.
$35/month (Email & SMS): Up to 500 active profiles, 5,000/monthly email sends, and 1,250/month SMS credits.

*Pricing information retrieved from Klaviyo in August 2024.

Moosend – Best for Real-time Reporting

Moosend is another affordable ActiveCampaign alternative with a robust suite of email marketing tools popular among small businesses and large corporations alike.

You can do almost everything with Moosend – create newsletters, automate tasks, and manage email marketing campaigns with ease. It offers a drag-and-drop editor and a template library that you can use to create appealing emails. You can set up automated workflows, triggered emails, and interactive customer journeys with Moosend to save time and ensure timely and relevant communication. The platform’s advanced segmentation and personalization tools, and real-time analytics are also worth mentioning.

Pros

Unlimited emails: Moosend provides unlimited emails on all plans, which is great.
Ability to track website visits: You can track website visits, and trigger automation based on them.
Detailed reporting: Moosend provides detailed reports that include everything from click heatmap to geolocation insights and even client information regarding their devices.

Cons

Limited email and form template library: Moosend's email and form templates library is pretty basic and small, so you might have to spend more time customizing or building them from scratch according to your preference.
Basic segmentation: The ability to segment the audience for targeted emails with Moosend is somewhat limited – hindering the ability to send highly personalized emails.
Limited A/B testing: Moosend has a limited A/B testing feature that focuses exclusively on subject line variations. This means that you can't compare more than two options at the same time.

Pricing

Free Plan

There’s no free plan, but you can sign up for a free trial period of 30 days.

Paid Plans

$9/month: Up to 500 subscribers and unlimited email sends.
$16/month: Up to 1,000 subscribers and unlimited email sends.

Moosend offers plans for up to 1,000,000 subscribers.

*Pricing information retrieved from Moosend in August 2024.

Conclusion

So there you have it. Compared to ActiveCampaign, there are 10 incredible alternatives you can choose from to meet your specific marketing needs. And it might have already become quite obvious for you which one suits best to your business.

While different alternatives have their strengths and weaknesses based on specific features, UniOne's versatile feature set and super-affordable plans beat the competition hands down – and did I mention the 4 months free trial?

For those seeking a dependable, cost-effective, and powerful email marketing solution, UniOne is the smart choice, particularly as your email list grows.

Try UniOne Free →

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the best free alternative to ActiveCampaign?

Several platforms offer free tiers and plans but with limited features and functionality. This is where UniOne excels with its generous free tier, reliable performance, and easy-to-use interface. Still, the best choice depends on your specific needs and the size of your email list.

Which ActiveCampaign alternative is best for e-commerce businesses?

Drip, Omnisend, and Klaviyo are well-suited for e-commerce businesses.

Is there an ActiveCampaign alternative that costs less regardless of how big my email list gets?

Yes. Several alternatives like UniOne, MailerLite, and Moosend have competitive pricing for a large email list.