5 ActiveCampaign Alternatives That Aren’t a Waste of Your Time

There is no other email marketing automation solution that has taken off like ActiveCampaign. It started as a simple email marketing tool with a few bells and whistles but has since become one of the most popular solutions in the world for sending personalized emails through its proprietary “marketing Automation” system.

I want you to have the full story to make an informed decision for your business. I’ll be covering everything from pricing, integrations, and its features to other alternatives… So read up.  

The goal of this guide is not to tell you which tool is the best. Personally, I think it’s silly when companies try to convince their customers that they’re better than every other company. After all, if we’re honest with ourselves, every company has its strengths and weaknesses.

What this Activecampaign alternatives guide will do instead is to give you the information you need to pick the best solution for your business. You’ll be able to weigh all of your options, consider what’s essential to your specific situation and make an informed decision about which tool or service is right for you.

What is ActiveCampaign, and what does it do?

ActiveCampaign is a new email marketing platform. Businesses in the digital marketing niche frequently use it in more specific niche industries, which require keeping track of customer behaviors or purchases, which you can’t really do with other tools (more on this later). So it’s a go-to recommendation for online course creators and SaaS businesses that want a more advanced email marketing tool.

It comes with a 14-day free trial and a lower price point than other software, but slightly fewer users overall.

Why use an alternative to ActiveCampaign

So, when should you consider something other than ActiveCampaign?

Here are a few reasons:

Lack of features to meet specific business needs

While ActiveCampaign has one of the most significant features of any email marketing automation service and a free CRM, it still doesn’t have every single feature for your business. Some businesses might need a more professional-looking opt-in form, landing pages, or HTML templates. There might be dozens if not hundreds of users who need to log in and manage their lists rather than just one individual running the whole show.

Cost

The tool has four tiers; $9/month “Lite” tier and $49/month “Plus” tier being the most affordable. While that seems like reasonable pricing for most businesses, some will want something with more flexibility (like unlimited user accounts and the number of contacts).

These features are only available in higher-tiered packages that cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month for your email list.

Duplication 

Suppose you have multiple companies with the founder/owner in charge of all operations. In that case, it may be smart to use a service that allows you to track duplicate contacts across multiple businesses (something ActiveCampaign doesn’t do yet ).

That is easily fixable by splitting each company into their own database, but this takes time and could lead to confusion about which leads are coming from.

Full-featured reporting and analytics

I know I mentioned above that ActiveCampaign is the best for reporting and analytics, but some services are out there that have even more features. Some services have really interesting breakdowns about average opt-in rates by day/hour/minute or geographic location, favoring a sales and marketing focus.

Set up correctly, this software can give decision-makers in your company the ability to make informed decisions quickly when deciding where to invest time and money.

Advantages of using different email marketing software

Here are some of the disadvantages over other tools:

Annual pay

The software requires me to pay annually. So, if I cannot make use of the software anymore (for example, if my company enters a time of financial instability), I would need to pay an extra year of subscription just because I cannot cancel it or downgrade my plan; meanwhile, other tools allow you to downgrade your plan or cancel it anytime, and you will not incur any extra payment.

Customer service

ActiveCampaign customer service is way better than Getresponse (see reviews). But this advantage has its disadvantage too, especially when the company promises that “you don’t need to know how to code” to use their software or if you want them to do some task for you, but they are unable about it.

Apparently, the ActiveCampaign customer service team has reported making users pay extra as a workaround for their limitations. Some had experiences of not getting satisfactory results or even a decent answer, especially with the help desk and live chat features.

Personally, I have solved many tasks and problems by simply using Google, but if you are not tech-savvy or don’t know how the software works, it may be hard for you to resolve your issues quickly.

Disadvantages of using different email marketing software

Here are a few reasons to avoid ActiveCampaign competitors:

A lot of features

ActiveCampaign has way more features, such as landing page builder, email builder, and the ability to send unlimited emails. Of course, being comprehensive would require an array of features that would drive you crazy.

Still, it’s not needed for most businesses since their goals aren’t commensurate with complex but rather basic features and functionalities only. As you can see below, I’ve highlighted some essential core areas in which ActiveCampaign won.

ActiveCampaign = Email marketing + CRM + marketing automation

Other tools = Email marketing only.

It’s sometimes affordable

You need to pay more for getting features that would drive your business if you’re with other tools while it’s free or very reasonable in some other email software. For example, sending out a sequence of autoresponders and follow-ups is cheaper and way better when using it than other tools like Aweber.

It’s hard to abandon it

It’s hard to leave ActiveCampaign once you start using it since there are many things that you can do with it. For example, sending out a sequence of 10 emails will cost you only $15 in ActiveCampaign, while with Aweber, you’ll be paying up to $500+ every month for thousands of emails sent. Not to mention the automation feature that allows one to create sequences.

Easy to use

ActiveCampaign’S marketing platform is more user-friendly compared to other email marketing platforms such as MailChimp. They have their templates and landing pages builders, which are well designed and easy to edit even if a newbie uses them without any coding knowledge. Since there’s no learning curve associated with the software, once you master the core skills to use it flawlessly, you are on your way to the top of the marketing world.

Mobile users

ActiveCampaign has a mobile app for Android and iOS operating systems, while others don’t have an app. Some people would opt to send emails using a mobile phone. So, having an app that would support email marketing is essential, especially if you’re on the go most of the time.

No limit on subscribers

ActiveCampaign does not limit subscribers, unlike other tools that put a cap on your number of subscribers who can add at one time which is 500 per day, with a 30k max subscriber count in total for their email marketing platform.

That is low compared to ActiveCampaign that allows 25k free subscribers with no limits whatsoever. That’s why when creating autoresponders, it’s crucial to have a reliable system if you’re sending out emails that require follow-up.

Data Portability and open API

Like MailChimp, ActiveCampaign has an open API, which means any developer can create incredible new ways to use your data. The only difference previously was that Mail Chimp’s API was documented better, and the MailChimp dev team maintained it, whereas ActiveCampaign had a public version, but it wasn’t readily available.

List of alternatives to ActiveCampaign

1. Aweber

Aweber is a popular email marketing tool, which has been around since 2001 with a 14-day free trial. It’s used by many small business owners, bloggers, or internet marketers who want to create an autoresponder series and send marketing emails to their list.

How does it compare to ActiveCampaign?

But before going into the details of how they differ in their feature set, let’s talk about what they both have in common.

They are both self-hosted solutions, which means you won’t have any third-party server storing your subscribers’ information and will have to maintain it yourself. Although with recent technological advancements like cloud hosting and managed servers, even a novice user can handle the above task.

They both offer excellent email marketing automation features, allowing you to create autoresponder campaigns, landing pages, and segment your audience based on their behavior. They both provide an interface that is easy to use for anyone with basic technical knowledge in web development. They also have a responsive customer support team that can answer all your queries within a short period.

How do they differ?

ActiveCampaign is an all-inclusive marketing software that works with email automation, affiliate tracking, and list building in one system. It also integrates with many third-party apps, including Google Analytics or Salesforce; it includes goal tracking, advanced reporting features, landing pages creation tools, etc.

On the other hand, Aweber is strictly an email marketing software that gives the marketer many individual components such as autoresponders, landing pages, templates, list management, etc.

Nevertheless, if you are looking for integrations with other applications, you will need to look elsewhere. For instance, when it comes to automating your sales process and keeping in touch with leads/prospects via email – ActiveCampaign does that much better.

Aweber vs. ActiveCampaign: which one to choose

2. ConvertKit

As someone who has been using ConvertKit for a little over a year now, I really enjoyed the relative lack of “marketing” in it. The software was made precisely for email marketers who knew what they were doing and didn’t need all the flash and glitz with ActiveCampaign.

If you’re interested in switching from ActiveCampaign to ConvertKit, you may need to know how both tools compare.

How do they compare?

Email Templates / Drag & Drop Builder

ActiveCampaign has a separate option to create templates, while Convertkit will integrate right into the main editor itself. While this may seem like an advantage for Convertkit, but let’s be honest- who wants to use the same boring email template again and again!

We know no business survives if they do not market themselves creatively- so while both ActiveCampaign and Convertkit have lots of options in terms of templates, my personal choice goes to Activecampaign as they are just a tad better than Convertkit.

Segmentation

Segmentation is one of the essential things for an email marketer to keep track of their audience and convert them into sales leads or customers. Compared to ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit has segmentation done well, but again I feel that ActiveCampaign does it slightly better with a minimal edge over ConvertKit.

Automation

Automation can be compelling if you know how to do it right, so let us look at some aspects- built-in automation, group-based automation, time-based automation, etc.- both ActiveCampaign & ConvertKit have good options here are good enough to get the job done without much hassle.

Bulk actions

With both ActiveCampaign & ConvertKit, you can do bulk editing/deleting subscribers from the list and from within your email campaigns section- however, in terms of ease of use, ConvertKit is slightly better.

The reason being that while ActiveCampaign allows users to create rules based on conditions for bulk deletion, you need to select the contacts and hit delete with ConvertKit.

3. Getresponse

Getresponse is one of the best ActiveCampaign alternatives. It simply started as an email automation service. It is a platform that helps you generate leads. It also has other features that allow you to send mass emails out and track your campaigns. You can add forms to your website, and it will help you with the sending and tracking of messages.

Worldwide, many people use Getresponse as their primary email marketing program. The key reason behind that is Getresponse’s simplicity and ease of use. Its reliability has led to its growth, and many now trust the company for its email marketing.

The pricing on Getresponse is simple as well. You pay either $1 or $2 per subscriber with three plans to choose from, depending on which plan you use.

Getresponse has been said by many to be one of the best platforms for email marketers. The past two years have been big for the company. It has added many new features and grown to serve over 20 different languages.

How it compares with ActiveCampaign

Clean design

I have been working with GetResponse and ActiveCampaign for years now. I always like ActiveCampaign because of its simplicity. ActiveCampaign’s interface is very similar to Mailchimp, so it will be easier for you to get used to it if you have been using it before.

ActiveCampaign has a clean and simple design. I like the color scheme; everything is straightforward to understand and find your way around. I love how you can add custom CSS on each page or section (a feature that Getresponse lacks).

Another thing that stands out in Activecampaign’s design is the filled icons/pictures in different options pages/boxes.

Create unlimited autoresponder

You can create unlimited autoresponders and landing pages inside your account. That is useful if you have created a series of follow-up emails over some time and want to keep things organized, or if you have specific campaigns that need their email sequence, the recipient knows they are not getting spam.

Compared to ActiveCampaign, Getresponse lacks this important feature, which forces me to keep my entire campaign list in one single campaign (which means I can’t send more than one campaign per day because sending out two separate campaigns will be considered spam).

That also hinders me from creating different types of content for each segment of my list because I only have one campaign with all segments combined.

External tracking codes

ActiveCampaign allows you to add external tracking codes to your landing pages and sales pages. That is essential because not only does it shows you statistics about your sent emails, opens, and clicks, but it also shows you stats from other sources like Facebook ads.

Templates

ActiveCampaign has a great templates section in their platform where you can sort templates by industry/niche, so if there is any template I create for the online business that I want to use it again for another project (like if I am hired as an expert in SEO and earn money through Google Adwords), then I can copy the template without having to create it from scratch or hiring someone else.

The drag and drop editor also helps save time and money. If Getresponse had this feature, too, then it would really be helpful.

4. Mailerlite

Another best ActiveCampaign alternative is Mailerlite. It is cloud-based marketing automation and e-commerce platform that enables companies to send personalized SMS, emails, and push notifications at scale.

The company was founded in 2012 by Amit Agarwal along with his business partners. They have raised $1 million funding from IDG Ventures India (formerly IDG Capital Partners). The global headquarters are based out of Bengaluru.

Approximately 100 brands globally use Mailerlite as an automation platform for their marketing process, mainly in the retail industry, including Amazon, Quikr, Lenskart, Myntra, and Snapdeal.

In March 2015, Toorcon Google awarded the best startup at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley 2014 for public web app developers.

How does it compared to Activecampaign?

Lead generation

While Mailerlite feels most comfortable with smaller businesses that need to send follow-up series for their customers or send out product campaigns, ActiveCampaign is more aimed at lead generation and sequences of nurturing the leads until they become revenue.

Advanced features

ActiveCampaign has slightly better features in this area with deeper automation, but Mailerlite still has its pluses which are better segmentation tools, easier to use and manage .csv imports. You can get pretty advanced with Mailerlite if you put some time into it!

ActiveCampaign also offers dedicated support for Shopify merchants, whereas MailerLite doesn’t currently have that feature; we find them all around such a great email marketing tool!

Aimed at small businesses

Mailerlite is an email marketing automation platform for non-profit or small businesses. It is made by the same company that makes “No SpamToday,” a trendy spam blocker extension for Chrome browser, which has over 800,000 users and 4.5 stars on the extension store (extensions.gnome.org).

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing product aimed at mid to large-sized companies or agencies. These are businesses looking to automate their sales process with drip campaigns and automation for different stages of the funnel, from capturing leads all the way through to get them to upgrade/purchase something and ideally return later and do it all over again!

5. Moosend

The last ActiveCampaign alternatives are Moosend. It is an all-in-one email marketing automation software that allows you to send bulk emails and personalize emails using their templates and drag and drop editor. As discussed above, it’s an effective platform with a wide range of tools you need when sending out campaign emails.

Using this powerful app, users can easily send multiple campaigns simultaneously (which means less time spent sending). They’ve managed to make each process more convenient by allowing their customers easy access via their dashboard, so updating drag and drop template changes could be done directly through there or through uploading a new one of your own making.

How does it compare to ActiveCampaign?

A/B Testing

Both services offer complete A/B testing capabilities, which track different elements of your email campaign and see which one performs best.

Moosend allows you to test a handful of variables, including subject line, name, and email address. ActiveCampaign’s A/B testing is more robust, letting you quickly test up to 10 different elements in your email, such as subject line, sender name, and email address.

Advanced tracking and marketing automation

Another advanced feature of ActiveCampaign is its ability to track which subscribers opened your campaign, clicked on a link within it, and even which links they clicked on specifically in real-time.

That isn’t available with Moosend, although you can track other click-throughs using Google Analytics or other similar services.

CRM integration

A bonus offered by ActiveCampaign is its extensive CRM integration for your contact management, which allows you to track a huge variety of customer interaction data within your email marketing campaigns. It’s almost similar to HubSpot.

CRM lets you build a detailed map of how subscribers interact with your company through their inboxes and see precisely what’s working for them.

Moosend doesn’t offer this feature as standard but does have an API that allows outside integrations with third-party CRM tools, such as Salesforce.

Pricing and free trial

Over in the high-end pricing option, ActiveCampaign would seem like a better buy. However, once you look at it from the lower end of their scale (1000 subscribers for $19/month) and compare it to Moosend’s lowest tier of $29/month for 7000 subscribers, ActiveCampaign’s higher price tag doesn’t look quite so impressive.

Final thoughts on the topic

FAQ

What is similar to ActiveCampaign?

There are a few tools that are almost similar to ActiveCampaign. One of them is GetResponse. The tool has nearly the same features as ActiveCampaign. The pricing and a few other functionalities might differ, but they offer almost the same services.

Who are ActiveCampaigns competitors?

There are several ActiveCampaign alternatives, such as ConvertKit, Sendinblue Constant contact, Maillerlite, and Aweber. These tools have almost the same functionalities as ActiveCampaign but differ in pricing, ease of use, and other unique features.

Is there a free version of ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign doesn’t have a free plan. Their pricing starts at $9 per feature per month. They, however, offer 14 days free trial – pretty standard for SaaS software providers – to help you set the ball rolling. You can utilize their free trial and learn a few things about the tool. I’m sure you will like it.