ActiveCampaign vs Top Alternatives: 8 Better Options

ActiveCampaign has established itself as one of the leading names in the email marketing industry, especially because it has been operating since 2003. However, it does not mean that it is the right fit for every business.

A lot of companies look for ActiveCampaign alternatives to ensure they can reach their full marketing potential. Moreover, businesses facing budget constraints or simply wanting a simpler workflow and better features should also know about ActiveCampaign's competitors to choose the right platform.

Let's start by analyzing the limitations of ActiveCampaign to see why you need to explore its alternatives before discussing some of the best alternative marketing automation tools available in 2025.

Why Look for Alternatives to ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign definitely has robust marketing automation capabilities that make it a highly popular email marketing platform. Yet, many pain points cause businesses to find alternatives to ActiveCampaign.

High Learning Costs

ActiveCampaign has no shortage of useful features. But learning to use all of them takes a lot of time and training. Its interface is relatively complex, and the time cost of learning is much higher than some simple tools. Too high a learning cost will reduce the productivity and efficiency of your team. In addition, you'll have to conduct multiple training sessions, which will add to your budget.

Higher Pricing for Growing Organizations

ActiveCampaign utilizes contact-based pricing. This means that your cost of use will increase with more subscribers. Also, advanced features such as automation, custom reports, and integrations are only available in more advanced PLANs and do not allow for separate paid purchases. This leads to the fact that companies have to keep upgrading their pricing plans as they scale.o

Lack of Automation Flexibility

Despite some efforts, ActiveCampaign still has inflexible automation capabilities that cannot fully work in complex marketing situations. The visual builder cannot build multi-branch workflows easily, and only advanced users can use custom triggers. As a result, many users have to use multiple tools to fulfill specific marketing needs.

Email Deliverability Issues

ActiveCampaign has issues while delivering emails in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The platform's average deliverability rate is lower than many other email service providers. These deliverability issues make your email campaign less effective with lower ROI.

So, if your target audience is in APAC markets like China or Southeast Asia, it is better to use ActiveCampaign alternatives to ensure your marketing messages are reaching the right audience at the right time.

8+ Best ActiveCampaign Alternatives

Considering the several ActiveCampaign's limitations, let's now look at the top 8 alternatives to ActiveCampaign:

1. Encharge

Encharge is one of the leading ActiveCampaign competitors. It is a powerful behaviour-based email marketing platform specially meant for digital businesses. The tool is great for creating a customized user journey based on specific customer actions and engagement patterns.

The user-friendly flow builder of Encharge is its most useful feature. Marketers can use the builder to design complex automation workflows without technical expertise. It also has advanced segmentation capabilities to target users with precise marketing material based on their behavior and engagement history.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Encharge has competitive pricing that also makes it a reliable alternative to ActiveCampaign.

2. EngageLab

EngageLab has emerged as one of the best ActiveCampaign alternatives because of its omnichannel marketing capabilities. It particularly excels in areas where ActiveCampaign falls short, such as deliverability.

Most of the ActiveCampaign competitors are focused on a single region or specific industries. However, EngageLab is a global solution that addresses the marketing pain points of all types of businesses.

Some of the key reasons why EngageLab is the top alternative to ActiveCampaign are:

• An omnichannel marketing automation platform helps you reach a wide target audience through multiple channels, including email, SMS, push notifications, and WhatsApp.
• EngageLab's multi-channel and multi-data nodes delivery system ensures you can send your marketing messages to all target regions, including APAC.
• Users get a reliable visual workflow builder in EngageLab to build complex automation sequences without any steep learning curve.
• A user-friendly and unified interface makes it easy to run successful marketing campaigns across multiple channels.
• Scalable pay-as-you-go model of EngageLab makes it affordable for all types and sizes of businesses.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

EngageLab has a simple pay-as-you-go pricing model. Such a type of transparent pricing structure means you can have a clear idea of your marketing budget way before you even start the campaign. Moreover, you won't have to pay any extra or hidden charges as you can get a complete breakdown depending on your usage.

3. Klaviyo

Klaviyo is another popular name among email marketing platforms. It mainly targets e-commerce businesses with quick and easy integration with major e-commerce platforms. Moreover, Klaviyo's segmentation features can help you categorize users based on their purchasing behavior.

You can also use Klaviyo to analyze transactional data and create highly personalized marketing campaigns. The platform's predictive analytics feature is useful for businesses to identify high-value customers, predict purchasing behavior, and optimize email sending times for maximum engagement.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Klaviyo's pricing structure is similar to ActiveCampaign as it follows the contact-based model. But e-commerce businesses can use Klaviyo as an alternative to ActiveCampaign due to its specialized features and better deliverability rates.

4. Omnisend

Omnisend is an ActiveCampaign alternative meant for omnichannel marketing automation. Businesses can use Omnisend to create comprehensive marketing campaigns on different channels like social media, push notifications, and email.

Omnisend also offers a way to build automation workflows through its drag-and-drop builder. While different types of businesses can use this ActievCampaign alternative, it has a vast library of templates for e-commerce businesses to handle situations like cart abandonment.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Omnisend's pricing model is more transparent than ActiveCampaign's. It does not have any hidden charges for essential functions and provides clear differentiation across different plans.

5. MailerLite

MailerLite stands out from the other ActiveCampaign alternatives by positioning itself as a user-friendly email marketing platform that focuses on simplifying the marketing processes without compromising functionality. The platform targets small and medium-sized businesses that want an advanced email automation platform without the complexity found in enterprise-level ActiveCampaign alternatives.

MailerLite has a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and automation builder that makes it accessible to users without technical knowledge. Moreover, you get features like A/B testing and detailed analytics.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

In terms of pricing, MailerLite is more affordable than ActiveCampaign. It has a free plan, along with a transparent pricing model.

6. Brevo

Brevo is another alternative to ActiveCampaign that has an all-in-one marketing approach. Users can execute marketing campaigns on channels like live chat, SMS, and email via Brevo. You also get advanced automation features to add custom triggers and multi-channel workflows.

Marketers can also use Brevo's CRM integration to create customer profiles and segment their audience. This is useful to run personalized campaigns. Overall, Brevo is a reliable ActiveCampaign alternative to ensure high deliverability and compliance.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

The pay-as-you-go pricing model of Brevo makes it a great alternative to ActiveCampaign. You can also get traditional monthly plans.

7. HubSpot

HubSpot is one of the most recognized names in the marketing industry. It is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that also serves as a great alternative to ActiveCampaign. It integrates with numerous CRM and sales tools to ensure businesses have a unified way of managing customers.

Moreover, HubSpot can streamline marketing and sales processes to create quick and easy customer journeys from initial contact through conversion and retention. Some of the key automation features you get in HubSpot are advanced lead scoring, behavioral triggers, and advanced personalization.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Compared to many other email marketing platforms, HubSpot is quite expensive, especially to access advanced features. However, small businesses can try out the platform with its free plan.

8. Marketo Engage

Marketo Engage by Adobe is an enterprise-level alternative to ActiveCampaign. Large-sized businesses and enterprises typically use Marketo Engage to handle complex markeitng scenarios. It is also capable of handling high-volume campaigns with optimum personalization. Such features ultimately increase the effectiveness and success of your marketing campaigns.

Advanced features like predictive analytics, account-based marketing, and lead management tools are also available in Marketo Engage. Such features and vast integration options are great for enterprises to run large-scale marketing campaigns.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Marketo Engage does not disclose its pricing, so you have to contact the support team with your specific requirements. Generally, Marketo Engage's pricing is much higher than ActiveCampaign's, which shows that the platform is targeting enterprises.

Comparison of Top ActiveCampaign Alternatives

The following table summarizes the differences between the top ActiveCampaign alternatives:

How to Choose the Best ActiveCampaign Alternatives for You?

Factors You Should Think

Analyzing your marketing requirements and business plans is the foundation of choosing the best ActiveCampaign alternative. Let's discuss such factors in detail to shortlist the ActiveCampaign competitors and choose the right platform to automate your marketing:

1. Automation Features

Automation is not something that is new in the marketing industry, but with the rising popularity of AI-powered solutions, it has become one of the critical features of any marketing tool. Every platform has varying automation capabilities, ranging from simple drip campaigns to advanced multi-channel workflows.

So, you should carefully evaluate your current and future automation requirements to ensure you are picking the right alternative to ActiveCampaign.

2. Marketing Channel Integration

Your chosen platform should ideally have a unified marketing ecosystem to ensure high effectiveness and operational efficiency. You should evaluate the platform's native integrations, along with the availability of third-party integrations and API availability.

For example, retail businesses should ensure that the alternative to ActiveCampaign can integrate with major e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.

Similarly, CRM integrations are vital to ensure quick and smooth data flow between marketing and sales systems, allowing marketers to manage customer relationships.

3. Pricing Model

Pricing structure and overall pricing transparency are of utmost importance to choosing the best ActiveCampaign alternative. It has a direct impact on your marketing budget planning and the overall cost of running a campaign.

So, whenever you are evaluating ActiveCampaign alternatives, you should evaluate much more than just base pricing. You should also focus on the additional cost of features, overages, and access to support.

The contact-based pricing model can be very expensive for growing businesses. So, you also need to consider your business scalability plan while choosing an ActiveCampaign alternative with the right pricing model.

It is also recommended that you contact the customer support of your chosen tool to discuss the pricing in detail and ensure they don't have any hidden charges.

4. Consider Specific Marketing Scenarios

Other than considering the key features and functionalities of the ActiveCampaign alternatives, you should also ensure that the platform capabilities match your specific business scenarios and marketing objectives.

Things to Consider in Different Business Situations

The following recommendations are made based on common business scenarios and marketing requirements:

Chinese Target Audience with Strict Data Compliance

EngageLab is the top alternative to ActiveCampaign for businesses that want to reach an international audience in the APAC region, such as China. Most of the ActiveCampaign competitors focus on Western regions and do not have multilingual capabilities. Therefore, if you need Chinese language support, you should choose EngageLab.

With the Chinese language support, you can easily understand and use different functions of EngageLab and build automated workflows. Moreover, EngageLab's infrastructure ensures maximum compliance with the relevant rules and regulations to ensure high deliverability rates.

CRM and Marketing Automation Integration

If you are looking for an ActiveCampaign alternative with solid CRM and marketing automation, then HubSpot can be the perfect platform for you. It has advanced segmentation capabilities that can help you reach a massive audience. The only drawback, however, is that you will likely have to allocate a large budget towards HubSpot to access the advanced features in the higher-tier plans.

Source:https://www.hubspot.com

E-Commerce Businesses with Advanced Personalization

E-commerce businesses that want to personalize their marketing campaigns will likely find Klaviyo to be the right alternative to ActiveCampaign. This platform is even more useful in the Western markets to ensure high deliverability. Moreover, the affordable pricing model of Klaviyo makes it one of the top choices for startups.

Source:https://www.octaneai.com/

Budget-Conscious Businesses with a Global Target Audience

If you have a limited marketing budget, but still want to reach a massive global audience, then you should benefit from EngageLab's pay-as-you-go pricing model and global compliance.

Its custom pricing ensures you only have to pay for the capabilities you are using without any hidden costs. For example, if you only want to automate and run an email marketing campaign with EngageLab, you can do that utilizing the other supported channels, like SMS and push notifications.

Conclusion

Ultimately, this detailed guide about ActiveCampaign alternatives shows that many platforms are available to fulfill the evolving needs of different types of businesses. While ActiveCampaign offers some reliable features, its limitations in the pricing model, global deliverability, and automation capabilities make it important to go for its alternatives.

Among the various ActiveCampaign competitors discussed throughout this guide, EngageLab is one powerful alternative that stands out for businesses looking for a comprehensive marketing automation platform.

So, sign up for EngageLab today and see how it can help you as the perfect ActiveCampaign alternative!

FAQs

• 1

  What Is the Best Alternative to ActiveCampaign?

  EngageLab is the best alternative to ActiveCampaign because it offers a better deliverability rate, a transparent pricing model, and more user-friendly marketing automation capabilities.
• 2

  How to Test the Suitability of ActiveCampaign Alternative Tools?

  You can test the suitability of ActiveCampaign alternative tools by starting with the free trials and exploring features related to automation workflows, deliverability rates, and integration options.
• 3

  Can Small Businesses Use EngageLab?

  Yes! EngageLab's custom pricing model makes it suitable for businesses of all sizes with varying marketing budgets.
• 4

  Can ActiveCampaign Alternatives Integrate With CRM Systems?

  Most of the ActiveCampaign alternatives discussed in this article have excellent CRM integrations, including HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive.
• 5

  Which ActiveCampaign Alternative Offers the Best Customer Support?

  EngageLab offers personalized customer support to businesses to answer all their strategic and technical questions quickly.