Top 5 ActiveCampaign Alternatives: A Detailed Feature and Pricing Comparison

In recent years, the world of email marketing has substantially advanced, offering businesses impressive capabilities in automation and customer engagement. Nonetheless, along with this advancement came complications, primarily due to the overwhelming choice of email marketing providers. 

ActiveCampaign has emerged as one of the leaders in the world of email marketing, widely recognized for its advanced tools and choice of integrations. However, its dominance in the market doesn’t overshadow the presence of other email services like ActiveCampaign, each with its own unique advantages.

This article aims to understand what ActiveCampaign is by comparing it to various alternatives in the email marketing space, such as Mailchimp, SendGrid, EmailOctopus, Sender, and Mailjet. As we delve into the nuances of these platforms, we encourage readers to consider what each platform can offer in alignment with their specific marketing objectives and technical preferences.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp was founded in the US in 2001, initially as a simple email marketing service. Over the years, it evolved into an all-in-one marketing platform that provides a wide range of solutions for businesses of all sizes. Acquired by Intuit in 2021, Mailchimp strengthened its portfolio by combining its marketing services with advanced financial tools. 

Mailchimp features compared to ActiveCampaign

Ease of use: Mailchimp is designed for marketers without essential technical or design skills. It features a simple, drag-and-drop Campaign Builder and an automation process that allows non-technical users to set up effective automation. These features make Mailchimp a strong ActiveCampaign alternative for users looking for simplicity and quick setup without a steep learning curve.

Source: Moosend

Support and assistance: Support channels in Mailchimp vary by plan. The platform offers initial email support even on its free plan, but ongoing support requires upgrading. Higher-tier plans provide 24/7 access to email and chat support, with the top-tier offering priority phone support. In contrast, ActiveCampaign generally provides strong customer support across all plans. This support structure in ActiveCampaign might be seen as better than Mailchimp for businesses that require consistent assistance.

Feature set and capabilities: Mailchimp offers an extensive set of features beyond email marketing, such as audience organization with custom tags or the creation of social media posts. ActiveCampaign also includes detailed customer segmentation, site and event tracking, and dynamic content features.

Source: Moosend

Customization and integrations: Both platforms offer significant integration capabilities. Mailchimp supports a variety of integrations with other tools. ActiveCampaign also has extensive integration options, particularly with CRM systems, making it a more comprehensive tool for businesses that require deep integration between their marketing and sales operations.

Altogether Mailchimp can be seen as one of the best ActiveCampaign alternatives for those who prioritize ease of use and broad feature sets beyond email marketing. ActiveCampaign, on the other hand, might be a better choice for businesses looking for more sophisticated automation capabilities and deeper CRM integration. 

Breakdown of the pricing structure

Mailchimp offers four price tiers, starting with the free plan. While the free option is great, it offers very limited functionality and can be considered rather as an option for testing the platform’s usability.  

Its paid plans that start from Essentials will allow you to send 25000 emails monthly for 2500 contacts. That will cost you $45 per month with a still rather limited set of features. Nonetheless, its Standard plan, while offering custom-coded templates, segmentation, advanced reporting and analytics, and others, might already cost you $100 per month for 5000 contacts. 

This price model’s costs might escalate fast as the business grows, which makes Mailchimp’s pricing structure less friendly in comparison to other platforms that are more flexible in this regard.  

Mailchimp pros and cons based on user feedback and expert reviews

While every platform out there has its fans and haters, Mailchimp seems to be reasonably balanced in terms of its advantages and disadvantages: 

Unique selling points

Mailchimp’s unique selling point is its comprehensive suite of marketing tools coupled with a user-friendly interface, which makes it an all-in-one solution for a variety of businesses. Its centralized system supports the entire marketing campaign lifecycle, from creation to execution to analysis. 

SendGrid 

SendGrid is another US-based ActiveCampaign competitor known for its outstanding deliverability and features such as powerful analytics and scalability. In 2019, SendGrid was acquired by Twilio, which enhanced its capabilities by integrating SendGrid’s email services with Twilio’s extensive communication technologies. 

SendGrid features compared to ActiveCampaign

SendGrid focuses on providing an email API and developer-friendly tools, such as an HTML email code builder. Nonetheless, it falls short in the choice of templates and overall design intuitiveness when compared to ActiveCampaign. 

In terms of automation, SendGrid offers straightforward email automation capabilities accessible to all users. However, its functionality is fairly basic. That is especially pronounced when compared with ActiveCampaign, which allows for complex automation strategies. 

Integration capabilities also highlight the differences between the two platforms. ActiveCampaign offers extensive native integrations with over 870 tools. SendGrid, while being beneficial, particularly through its connection with Twilio and Google Analytics, offers a choice in comparison—320 integrations.

SendGrid extensive deliverability report

Source: One Hour Professor

Lastly, the overall user interface and experience differ significantly between the two. ActiveCampaign’s design is clean and modern, enhancing usability and appeal. SendGrid presents a less intuitive interface, which can be a barrier for users seeking a more straightforward experience.

Breakdown of the pricing structure

The SendGrid price structure is overall more complex than the one offered by other platforms since it offers 4 plans for developers and 3 plans for marketers. 

On its marketing plans, the price varies depending on the combination of your contacts and emails per month. For example, on the platform’s Basic plan, you can afford 5000 contacts and 60000 emails for $50 per month, which is very competitive in comparison to many other providers, including ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp.

For this price on a Basic plan, users get such classical features as segmentation, A/B testing, and email design, plus a bunch of advanced security features like GDPR compliance, TLS encryption, two-factor authentication, or API key permissions. 

If high email volume rates and security features are your priorities, SendGrid is your choice.

For some reason, an automation option available on the Free plan was removed from the Basic plan. 

Pros and cons based on user feedback and expert reviews

While some users consider SendGrid automation requiring learning for those new to e-mail marketing, this feature has overall positive reviews.

Unique selling points

SendGrid’s MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) or email relays are the platform’s unique selling point, for sure. SendGrid’s MTA is purpose-built and optimized for high email volumes and fast email delivery. While most companies rely on third-party providers for handling heavy email traffic load, Twilio’s in-house solution allows them to handle high email volumes faster and better. 

EmailOctopus 

EmailOctopus was launched in 2014 in the UK, and already for 10 years, it offers an easy-to-use platform that’s particularly appealing to small businesses and startups. EmailOctopus is famous for its integration with Amazon SES, which provides users with a low-cost yet highly reliable email delivery solution. 

EmailOctopus features compared to ActiveCampaign

EmailOctopus is primarily designed as a cost-effective solution that simplifies email marketing for users of all levels and budgets. So, if you are looking for a free ActiveCampaign alternative, EmailOctopus might be a choice to consider. 

In terms of user interface and usability, EmailOctopus offers a clean, user-friendly design that is easy to navigate, particularly for those new to email marketing. While ActiveCampaign is also known for its intuitive interface, it is packed with more advanced features that might take a bit longer for new users to fully grasp.

Source: Amritsar Digital Academy

When it comes to automation, ActiveCampaign is far superior, providing users with complex automation tools that include behavior-based triggers, detailed segmentation, and machine-learning features like predictive sending. EmailOctopus provides basic automation options that are easy to use but lack depth and flexibility.

Regarding integration capabilities, ActiveCampaign again stands out with almost 900 integrations. While EmailOctopus offers fewer integrations, it includes essential connections with major services, which might be enough to support less complex operations.

With ActiveCampaign’s sophisticated feature set also comes more detailed analytics and reporting compared to EmailOctopus. The latter offers basic reporting features that cover fundamental metrics, which might suffice for smaller businesses.

Breakdown of the pricing structure

Unlike most other platforms that offer three or more pricing plans, EmailOctopus has two price options: Starter (free) and Pro. The free plan represents a slightly limited version of the Pro plan with some limitations for the number of landing pages, custom fields, or tags (10 vs. 50 on the Pro plan). Besides, you cannot remove the EmailOctopus logo on the free plan. 

For just $18 a month (2500 subscribers and 25000 emails), you can enjoy a full range of platform features, including different forms of support. 

Price-wise, EmailOctopus feels like a solid offer for those who know their limitations and are fine with it.

Email Octopus pros and cons based on user feedback and expert reviews

The ultimate advantage of this platform is its ease of use, which seems to relate to its overall user interface as well as its separate features. 

Another advantage is the ability to easily create beautiful designs with a wide range of templates and drag-and-drop editors.

Some users consider that with the platform’s simplicity come its disadvantages, like the lack of some more advanced features, which prevents you from the creation of some complicated campaigns. 

Plus, the platform’s integrations are lacking, with most of them happening via Zapier. 

Unique selling points

EmailOctopus’s unique selling point is its cost-effectiveness combined with simplicity. It offers a straightforward, user-friendly email marketing platform that is significantly more affordable than many of its competitors. This makes it particularly attractive for small businesses and startups that are budget-conscious but still want to implement effective email marketing campaigns. 

Sender 

Sender is a European-based company, established in Lithuania 12 years ago. Sender is particularly noted for providing features like advanced segmentation, personalization, and detailed analytics, which are typically found in more expensive email marketing solutions. Being a European-based company, Sender focuses on ensuring users’ compliance with the GDPR.

Sender features compared to ActiveCampaign

Sender is often seen as a user-friendly and efficient ActiveCampaign alternative. One of its standout features is simplicity and usability, which makes it an attractive option for users who may find the more comprehensive environment of ActiveCampaign challenging. 

Sender enables users to quickly design sharp, effective campaigns with features like drag-and-drop editing, template personalization, and a built-in image editor. 

Source: TrustRadius

The integration capabilities of Sender are rather limited, offering direct connections only with 6 platforms. ActiveCampaign, known for its extensive integration options, offers a much bigger variety. Nonetheless, its connection with Zapier opens possibilities for connection with 3000+ tools and platforms. 

In terms of deliverability and analytics, Sender offers an advanced infrastructure with high deliverability and rapid delivery. Sender also provides detailed analytics tools, which are similar to the analytics capabilities in ActiveCampaign.

While ActiveCampaign offers an overall more feature-rich environment, Sender positions itself as a highly competent ActiveCampaign alternative, especially for users seeking simplicity, effectiveness, and a user-friendly experience in their email marketing platform.

Breakdown of the pricing structure

Sender offers four different price options, ranging from the Free Forever plan to the most advanced Enterprise one. 

Its Standard plan will cost you $15.83 per month for 2500 subscribers and a rather comprehensive set of features, including unlimited segmentation, a wide choice of options for template design, automation, analytics and reporting, integrations, and 24/7 chat support. Two other price options add a few extras, like, for example, additional phone support and a dedicated IP address on the Enterprise plan. 

You also have a choice between monthly and yearly billing, with two free months in the case of the latter.  

Sender pros and cons based on user feedback and expert reviews

Unique selling points

Sender’s unique selling point is its combination of affordability and ease of use. Sender provides advanced features like automation, segmentation, and personalization even on its free plan. This balance of low cost, comprehensive features, and user-friendly design makes Sender an attractive choice for those looking to achieve professional-level email marketing on a budget.

Mailjet 

Mailjet, founded in 2010 in France, is an email service provider utilized by over 150,000 companies globally. The platform stands out by offering its users real-time collaboration in email creation. Mailjet’s user-friendly interface is accessible in five languages—English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian—a great advantage on the international market! 

Mailjet features compared to ActiveCampaign

Mailjet is another email platform like ActiveCampaign, but with its own specifics. Mailjet introduces innovative real-time collaboration features similar to Google Docs, which are not commonly found in other email platforms, including ActiveCampaign. This collaboration functionality allows multiple team members to work on the same email simultaneously, with the capability to comment and lock sections to prevent simultaneous edits.

Mailjet also includes a structured campaign approval process, enabling managers to review and approve campaigns before they go live, adding an extra layer of oversight. 

Both platforms support a variety of integrations, with Mailjet having over 100 integrations, including e-commerce platforms, CRMs, and Facebook.

However, when it comes to templates and design flexibility, Mailjet has some limitations. While all its templates are mobile-responsive, the platform’s template gallery is somewhat restricted in terms of design variety. ActiveCampaign also provides a beautiful template environment but with more extensive design options.

Source: Mailmodo

In terms of automation, both Mailjet and ActiveCampaign provide user-friendly interfaces that facilitate the setup of automation, transactional emails, and SMS. Nonetheless, ActiveCampaign’s complex automation capabilities position it as a more powerful tool in comparison.

Breakdown of the pricing structure

What’s special about Mailjet is that its pricing plans are based on the email volume and not on the number of contacts.

All plans offer an unlimited number of contacts. With that being said, its Free plan allows you to send 6000 emails per month with 200 emails daily. For 15000 emails on the Essential plan, you will pay $15 per month and get an advanced email editor, basic statistics, online customer support, segmentation, AI-copy, and subject line generator. While $15 per month is not much, you also do not get much in return. Nonetheless, by paying $10 on top of that and upgrading to the Premium plan, you can supplement your functionality with advanced statistics, A/B testing, and priority support. 

Mailjet pros and cons based on user feedback and expert reviews.

When it comes to customer support on the platform, user experiences vary from it lacking responsiveness to it being 100% on point.

Unique selling points

Mailjet offers strong collaborative features, which make it easier for teams to work together on email campaigns. Features like real-time collaboration, template locking, and version control help teams coordinate and refine their email content efficiently. 

To Sum Up

In this article, we examined five ActiveCampaign alternatives and looked into their distinctive features, ease of use, customer support, and pricing strategies. Each platform can be a preferred choice depending on your business’s scale, complexity of marketing needs, and budget constraints. When looking for platforms that might be better than ActiveCampaign, don’t try to estimate a platform’s reputation only based on other reviews, but rather reflect on your marketing objectives. In the end, there is no perfect email marketing platform, but there is one that is perfect for your particular business.