ActiveCampaign Pricing 2023: How much does it actually cost?

ActiveCampaign is a popular marketing automation and CRM software with 180K+ customers. Their pricing is as simple as creating an automation with the platform. 

ActiveCampaign has 3 products with multiple tiers, a bundle, and an add-on. Email marketing automation starts at $15/mo. The sales CRM costs $23/mo for the smallest plan. And bundles cost $116/mo and up.

I won’t repeat ActiveCampaign’s pricing page. We’ll cover each plan, how to choose the right one, and what to focus on when choosing a plan.

Short on time? Check out this summary of ActiveCampaign plans

• Marketing Lite: Starts at $15/month for 500 contacts and 1 user. Including email marketing automation, drag & drop editor, 150+ templates, site and event tracking.
• Marketing Plus: Everything in Lite, plus advanced forms, unlimited landing pages, conditional content, and ecommerce integrations. Starts at $70/month for 1K contacts and 3 users. 
• Marketing Professional: All the features in Plus, and site messages, conversions, predictive sending, Salesforce and Dynamics 365 integrations. Starts at $187/month for 2,5K contacts and 5 users.
• Sales Plus: Costs $23/month/user with sales automation, account and deal management, site tracking, deal reporting, lead scoring, and task management.
• Sales Professional: Everything in Plus, and sales engagement, automations map, Facebook Lead Ads, automation splitting, and win probability. Costs $59/month/user.
• Plus Bundle: Starts at $116/month for 1K contacts and 5 users. Includes the features of Marketing & Sales Plus plans.
• Professional Bundle: Costs $482/month for 2,5K contacts and 10 users with the features of Marketing & Sales Professional.

ActiveCampaign has a 14-day free trial. You can have 1 user, add 100 contacts and send 100 emails during your trial. You get all the features of the Professional Bundle.

They offer annual discounts between 20-30% depending on your plan and contact count. And 20% off on all plans for non-profits.

Try ActiveCampaign for free here

How much does ActiveCampaign cost?

ActiveCampaign costs between $19-$2000 and has 3 products. Marketing has 3 plans, and Sales and Bundles have 2. Plus enterprise plans with custom features. Higher prices plans have increasingly advanced features, more contacts, and more users.

ActiveCampaign puts the monthly fees for yearly plans on its pricing page for the lowest contact tier. This makes it hard to see how much you’ll pay monthly. Read on to find out how much it really costs. We’ll include the monthly prices in this guide. Or sign up for a free trial and calculate your costs on the billing page.

Marketing plans are available for 500-50K contacts. Plus and Professional plans have more advanced marketing automation, lead generation, contact management, and integrations. Sales costs are based on users, sales engagement features, sentiment analysis, and win probability. Bundled pricing starts with 5 users and 1K contacts for $116/month.

ActiveCampaign Postmark is a transactional email service that starts from 10K emails/month for $15.

ActiveCampaign Monthly Starting Prices

Here’s how prices grow with your contact count for Marketing Lite:

You’ll pay extra for additional contacts and users. Inside ActiveCampaign, you can put a custom bundle together and only pay for what you need.

Try ActiveCampaign for free here

ActiveCampaign Pricing Bundles

ActiveCampaign Bundles combine marketing automation and sales CRM. On the pricing page, you’ll see monthly prices for yearly payments. We checked the monthly prices, and we’ll write about those here.

Bundles Plus starts with 1K contacts and 5 users at $116/month. It includes email and chat support, custom domain, and lead scoring. Unlimited sending is available for 250K contacts. Above 250K contacts, the monthly sending limit is 10X the contact number. You get 5 email tests monthly, unlimited forms, and landing pages. You can create and manage deals, pipelines, and accounts.

Bundles Plus Pricing Tiers (with 5 users included)

Bundles Professional starts with 2,5K contacts and 10 users for $482/month. It includes everything in Plus, along with site messaging, conversions, and split automation.

Bundles Professional Pricing Tiers (with 10 users included)

ActiveCampaign Enterprise plan includes everything in Professional, plus 5 more users, custom reporting, and unlimited email testing.

ActiveCampaign Bundles Starting Prices and Limits

ActiveCampaign Marketing Pricing

Marketing Lite plan starts at $15/month for 500 contacts, 1 user, live chat and email support. It offers email and marketing automation, drag & drop editor, and basic forms. You can create email campaigns with over 150 email templates. Lite plan includes campaign, automation, and goal reports to help optimize campaigns. And it has site and event tracking.

Marketing Lite Plan Pricing Tiers

Marketing Plus starts with 1K contacts and 3 users for $70/month. It has everything in Lite, plus advanced forms, unlimited landing pages, database sync, and conditional content. It unlocks ecommerce integrations with various ecommerce platforms:

You can email cart abandoners and display product blocks and catalogs in emails. Plus plan removes ActiveCampaign branding from forms and landing pages.

Marketing Plus Pricing Tiers 

The ActiveCampaign Professional plan starts at $187/month with 2,5K contacts and 5 users. It has everything in Plus, and site messages, conversions, and predictive sending. The Professional plan has Salesforce and Dynamics 365 integrations.

Marketing Professional Pricing Tiers

Enterprise is a custom plan with everything in Professional and 10 user seats, unlimited email tests, custom objects, custom reports, and custom email domain.

ActiveCampaign Sales Pricing

ActiveCampaign Sales Plus starts with 1 user seat for $23/month. Additional seats are $23 a month. It has sales automation, database sync, account and deal management. With various analytics tools, it offers visibility into the sales process:

• Site tracking
• Link & event tracking
• Automation reports
• Deal reports
• Store performance
• Task management & reporting
• Lead scoring

Professional starts at $59/month with 1 user and everything in Plus. Additional seats cost $59 each. It unlocks a bunch of powerful automation features and social media integration:

• Facebook Lead Ads
• Automations map
• Split automation action
• Sales engagement automation
• Direct, synced email with contacts & deals
• Win probability

Enterprise plan has custom pricing. It offers custom reporting, custom objects, and single sign-on. 

Get started with ActiveCampaign for free here

ActiveCampaign Add-ons & Extras

ActiveCampaign has an SMS add-on available with all plans except the Marketing Lite plan. The add-on costs $21/month and includes 1K SMS credits.

ActiveCampaign SMS Pricing

SMS is an available add-on for Plus, Professional, and Enterprise plans. The SMS add-on costs $21/month with 1000 credits. It comes with useful multichannel automations:

You need credits to send SMS marketing messages to mobile numbers. How many credits you need to spend per message depends on the destination country. Credits per message range from 1 to 22.

You can buy extra credits for:

You can’t have your own custom SMS sending number. ActiveCampaign’s SMS provider chooses the source phone numbers and they vary.

Get started with ActiveCampaign for free here

ActiveCampaign Transactional Email

Postmark is ActiveCampaign’s standalone transactional email service. You can use it with ActiveCampaign to set up and trigger transactional emails like these from an automation:

• Account creation confirmation
• Double opt-in messages like subscription confirmations
• Review & feedback requests
• Order confirmation
• Delivery updates
• Password recovery
• Medical, financial, and legal statements

Here are Postmark’s monthly rates:

ActiveCampaign Discount

ActiveCampaign annual plan discounts range between 20%-30% off based on your plan and contact tier. This means that you can save $38/month on Marketing Professional for 2500 contacts. And even $362/month on a Professional Bundle with 50K contacts and 20 users. They also offer 20% off on all plans for non-profits. 

Try ActiveCampaign for free

Explaining ActiveCampaign pricing: Product, Plan, Contact, User, Integrations, Landing Pages, Conversions

ActiveCampaign’s pricing depends mostly on these 4 factors:

• Product
• Plan
• Contact tier
• User seats

Read our full ActiveCampaign review to find out more about all these features.

Product

ActiveCampaign has 3 products: Marketing, Sales, and Transactional Email. Marketing charges per contact number and Sales pricing is based on users. Bundles include both marketing and sales product. Both contacts and users influence the price of bundles.

The pricing of Transactional Email depends on how many emails you send per month. It has 8 tiers from 10K to 5M monthly emails.

Product is the most important factor in ActiveCampaign’s pricing.

Plan

The price of ActiveCampaign’s products and bundles change based on features. Marketing has 3, Sales and Bundles have 2 pricing plans with different features. 

Enterprise plans have custom pricing. Sign up to ActiveCampaign here and contact sales to get a quote. Plans are the second most important factor influencing your ActiveCampaign bill.

Contacts

Marketing and Bundles plans charge based on how many contacts you add to your account. Only active contacts count toward your contact limit. 

Here’s a breakdown of Marketing plans’ contact tiers:

Bundles pricing starts at $116/month for 1K contacts and goes up as contact numbers grow:

When you’re over your contact limit, you move to the tier above for the next billing cycle. Contact number is the third most important factor on ActiveCampaign cost.

Users

Sales and Bundles pricing increase the users you have in your account. Sales plans start with 1 user, Bundle Plus includes 5 users, Professional has 10, and Enterprise plan includes 15.

Additional users cost:

Users are the fourth most important factor that influences your bill.

Get started with ActiveCampaign for free

Is ActiveCampaign really free?

ActiveCampaign has a 14-day free trial. You can have 1 user, add 100 contacts and send 100 emails during your trial. They don’t offer a free plan. 

The trial is enough to fully test ActiveCampaign and whether it works for you. You can even ask the support team for an extension if the 14 days aren’t enough. You get all the features of the Professional Bundle. Except for some advanced marketing features, like Predictive Sending, Predictive Content, auto-responder campaigns, SMS, and custom domain for landing pages. 

Try ActiveCampaign for free here

Comparing ActiveCampaign Pricing

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing tool with advanced automation and a sales CRM. Let’s see how its pricing compares to similar services. Check out our guide on the best ActiveCampaign alternatives to compare features.

ActiveCampaign vs Hubspot

HubSpot has 3 pricing plans for 5 Hubs and the CRM Suite. The Hubspot CRM Suite includes all Hubs and has 3 plans:

• Starter: From $50/month for 1K contacts
• Professional: From $1781/month for 2K contacts
• Enterprise: From $5,000/month for 10K contacts (billed yearly)

Let’s compare the monthly prices of ActiveCampaign Plus Bundle with Hubspot CRM Suite Professional:

ActiveCampaign Plus Bundle vs Hubspot CRM Suite Professional

HubSpot has a wider range of features than ActiveCampaign. It’s a better option for larger organizations that prefer having their CMS, CRM, marketing, and service tools in one place. And it offers phone support on Professional and Enterprise plans. Yet its cost rises steeply as your contact numbers grow. Check out the best HubSpot alternatives to compare features or our full Hubspot pricing guide.

ActiveCampaign is for companies that have a website and social tools. And need email marketing software with a CRM and advanced automation without paying a premium.

ActiveCampaign vs ConvertKit

ConvertKit has 2 paid plans:

• Creator: Starting at $15/month for 300 subscribers
• Creator Pro: Starting at $29/month for 300 subscribers

Let’s see how the monthly pricing of ActiveCampaign Marketing Lite compares to ConvertKit Creator:

ConvertKit is an email marketing tool for creators. The Creator plan includes unlimited landing pages, forms, broadcasts, and 1 user. You can send automated email sequences, sell digital products and subscriptions. It’s a good choice for content creators, publishers, bloggers, and small businesses. 

ActiveCampaign is a better choice for companies that want better automation and may need a CRM. It’s easier to get the ActiveCampaign CRM than integrate a CRM tool with ConvertKit.

ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse

GetResponse offers 3 pricing plans:

• Email Marketing: From $19/month for 1K contacts
• Marketing Automation: From $59/month for 1K contacts
• Ecommerce Marketing: From $119/month for 1K contacts 

Here’s how the monthly prices of ActiveCampaign Marketing Plus and GetResponse Marketing Automation compare:

GetResponse is the most similar alternative to ActiveCampaign. Both Marketing Plus and Marketing Automation include newsletters, advanced automation, and lead generation tools. They offer unlimited landing pages, monthly emails, and forms. GetResponse doesn’t get as expensive as ActiveCampaign as contact numbers grow. Even if you’re on the Ecommerce Marketing plan. GetResponse it a better choice for budget-conscious B2B and ecommerce businesses with large lists. Or if you’re looking for a European provider. Read our full GetResponse review for an in-depth look at features, pros, and cons. And have a look at our GetResponse pricing guide for a full run-down on all plans.

ActiveCampaign’s Marketing Plus also includes ecommerce automations and integrations. ActiveCampaign integrates with the best ecommerce platforms, like Shopify and WooCommerce. For similar ecommerce features in GetResponse, you have to upgrade to Ecommerce Marketing. And Ecommerce Marketing is more expensive for smaller list sizes. ActiveCampaign is better for ecommerce businesses with smaller lists.

ActiveCampaign vs AWeber

AWeber has 3 paid plans:

• Lite: Starting at $14.99/month for 500 subscribers
• Plus: Starting at $29.99/month for 500 subscribers
• Unlimited: Starting at $899/month for unlimited subscribers

Here’s a comparison of monthly fees for ActiveCampaign Marketing Plus and AWeber Plus:

AWeber covers basic email marketing needs, it doesn’t offer the same level of functionality. If you don’t need more than newsletters, lead generation, and basic automation, it’s the cheaper option. Phone support is available on all paid plans. And you get unlimited user accounts on Plus and Unlimited plans. Dive into our full AWeber review for details on features, pros, and cons.

If you’re looking for advanced automation, go for ActiveCampaign. 

Have a look at our reviews of the best CRMs with email marketing with more ActiveCampaign alternatives. Or have a look at free and cheap email marketing tools, most have lightweight CRMs suitable for small businesses.

Try ActiveCampaign for free

Hidden costs/Onboarding fees

There are no onboarding or setup fees. ActiveCampaign features a bunch of free services on their services site to help you get started:

• Free online training and support
• Free digital onboarding
• Community access
• Free templates and guides for emails and automations

So which ActiveCampaign pricing plan should you pick?

The Marketing Lite plan is a great starter pack for email marketing automation for startups and small businesses. It costs $15/month for 500 contacts, 1 user, chat and email support. You get email marketing automation, drag and drop email template builder, basic forms, 150+ email templates, and site tracking.

Marketing Plus is best for small to midsize ecommerce and B2B businesses. It comes with l bunch of ecommerce automations and integrations. Like cart abandonment emails and embedding product blocks into emails. Landing pages, lead scoring, Facebook Lead Ads and Custom Audiences, and SMS unlock lead generation, and multichannel campaigns.

Online sellers can also track sales metrics and store performance with Sales Plus. And Bundles Plus is the best to get into both sales and marketing automation for B2B. It has a fair price considering that you get advanced automation and a sales CRM.

Marketing and Sales Professional work well for scaling businesses that need advanced automations and tracking. Automation splitting, conversions, automations map, site messages, predictive sending, and attribution are great machine learning features to create personalized experiences.

ActiveCampaign Pricing FAQ