The ten Greatest ActiveCampaign Options (With Function Breakdown)

Nearly 4 in 5 entrepreneurs say their total buyer journey is at the least partially automated, in keeping with analysis from Ascend2.

And the #1 use of advertising and marketing automation software program?

E mail advertising and marketing.

Not solely is it the most well-liked type of advertising and marketing automation; it’s additionally one of many fastest-growing, with uptake rising from 40 p.c in 2021 to 55 p.c in 2022.

Which brings us neatly to ActiveCampaign, an e-mail advertising and marketing, automation, and CRM platform utilized by over 180,000 companies in 170+ nations.

It’s a improbable instrument. However with so many ActiveCampaign options accessible, how will you be sure you’re making the fitting alternative?

The one approach to make certain is to completely evaluate ActiveCampaign to the myriad different platforms in the marketplace.

That takes a heap of time. However we’ve completed the leg be just right for you by evaluating the ten greatest ActiveCampaign options throughout a number of standards:

• Worth
• Product options
• Buyer assist
• Professionals and cons
• Target market

Let’s get into it…

What Are the Greatest ActiveCampaign Options?

Drip is an ecommerce advertising and marketing automation instrument for DTC manufacturers who must ship personalised buyer journeys at scale. We give you e-mail advertising and marketing, onsite instruments, and integrations with third-party platforms with the intention to get probably the most out of your ecommerce actions.

What Makes Drip the Greatest ActiveCampaign Various?

• Constructed for ecommerce. Should you’re in DTC ecommerce, Drip is the plain alternative. ActiveCampaign’s performance is designed for gross sales groups. However the challenges of ecommerce are basically completely different to these of enterprise SaaS or B2B manufacturers.

• Ecommerce-focused product growth. Drip is constructed explicitly for DTC ecommerce manufacturers, incorporating out-of-the-box income attribution, pre-built workflow templates, 50+ e-mail templates, ecommerce integrations, and rather more. We’ll proceed creating our product to raised meet the wants of DTC ecommerce manufacturers, as a result of they’re our sole focus. ActiveCampaign—with its wider vary of goal industries and use circumstances—possible received’t do the identical.

• Superior onsite advertising and marketing. Our addition of feature-rich type and popup-building platform Sleeknote (now built-in in Drip as Onsite) provides us a wealth of onsite performance that ActiveCampaign merely can’t match, together with gamification and personalization.

• Help tailor-made to your model. ActiveCampaign solely affords custom-made advertising and marketing methods with quarterly updates for patrons on their Enterprise plan, which is considerably dearer than Drip. In the meantime, at Drip, we pleasure ourselves on custom-made assist. We’ll pull up a chair subsequent to you and assist with every part from onboarding to customized technique suggestions to quarterly enterprise critiques—no matter it takes that can assist you profit from our platform. We even provide content material companies.

• Centered on income. We all know income development is the be-all and end-all for DTC ecommerce companies. To that finish, we offer income metrics for each e-mail and automation, and even present you Drip-attributed income—so you already know precisely how a lot you’re getting out of our instrument. We additionally provide month-to-month experiences centered on ecommerce methods, serving to you perceive what’s going properly and what wants bettering. On the flip facet, ActiveCampaign is extra centered on buyer engagement.

• Easy, stunning UI. Our person interface makes it straightforward to leverage all of the instruments, knowledge, and automations DTC ecommerce manufacturers must hit their development objectives. Inevitably, ActiveCampaign is much more cluttered, as a result of it serves a far broader viewers.

How Does Drip Examine to ActiveCampaign?

Is Drip for you? Take a look at how a lot Drip would value together with your e-mail checklist dimension:

• Ecommerce-focused CRM. Klaviyo successfully affords a built-in CRM platform catered to ecommerce companies, serving to customers acquire a deeper understanding of buyer behaviors and preferences. ActiveCampaign’s CRM is great, but it surely’s designed for gross sales groups quite than ecommerce entrepreneurs.

• Detailed ecommerce dashboard. ActiveCampaign’s dashboard lacks the arduous, revenue-oriented knowledge ecommerce companies require to information decision-making. Klaviyo is way superior right here, exhibiting retailer income, income per automation, and income per marketing campaign.

• Dynamic product feeds. Each platforms provide wonderful marketing campaign builders, however Klaviyo means that you can arrange a dynamic feed primarily based on particular standards, like product class or best-sellers. That approach, you don’t must replace your emails each time you launch a brand new product.

How Does Klaviyo Examine to ActiveCampaign?

Mailchimp is the world’s hottest platform with regards to e-mail advertising and marketing, with a powerful 67 p.c market share. 1000’s of companies depend on its automated companies to ship emails and develop their attain. Presently, there are over 12 million customers benefiting from Mailchimp’s instruments.

What Makes Mailchimp the Greatest ActiveCampaign Various?

• Straightforward to grasp. Maybe Mailchimp’s strongest swimsuit is its ease of use. Even non-marketers can use the platform to interact and develop their viewers. ActiveCampaign is a extra superior instrument with a far steeper studying curve.

• Constructed for e-mail. Mailchimp is before everything an e-mail advertising and marketing platform, whereas ActiveCampaign has much more strings to its bow (and is consequently more durable to make use of). If all you’re on the lookout for is a instrument to energy and optimize your e-mail campaigns, Mailchimp is loads simpler to grasp.

• Beneficiant free product tier. Mailchimp has axed a number of the options from its free tier in current months, but it surely’s nonetheless fairly complete, providing as much as 500 contacts and 1,000 month-to-month e-mail sends. ActiveCampaign doesn’t provide any free performance past the 14-day trial.

• Free touchdown web page builder. ActiveCampaign’s touchdown web page instruments are solely accessible at “Plus” stage and above, whereas all Mailchimp prospects—even these on the free tier—can use its touchdown web page and type builder.

How Does Mailchimp Examine to ActiveCampaign?

• Extra e-mail templates. AWeber affords one of many largest alternatives of e-mail advertising and marketing and publication templates of any instrument we’ve seen, at greater than 600. ActiveCampaign, by comparability, has a library of 250+ templates—nonetheless a lot, however not in AWeber’s league.

• Extra touchdown web page templates, too. On the time of writing, AWeber’s template library contains near 150 templates—about 3 times greater than ActiveCampaign—spanning over 100 industries.

• Free for all times. It must be clear by now that ActiveCampaign doesn’t have a free product tier. AWeber does—and it’s fairly beneficiant, together with as much as 500 e-mail subscribers and three,000 month-to-month e-mail sends.

• Telephone-based assist (even at low product tiers). Solely ActiveCampaign Enterprise prospects get the choice to select up the telephone and communicate to buyer assist, whereas AWeber affords phone-based assist throughout all product tiers—even to free customers (albeit paying prospects get precedence).

How Does AWeber Examine to ActiveCampaign?

• Constructed-in referral program. Referral advertising and marketing is a robust technique for creators trying to develop an viewers. ConvertKit has a built-in referral program, permitting prospects to leverage this performance out of the field. It’s attainable to run referral advertising and marketing by way of ActiveCampaign, however you’ll must combine with a separate instrument (like SparkLoop). And that’ll value you more cash.

• Free product tier. We’re beginning to sound like a damaged document now, however ActiveCampaign has no free product tier, whereas ConvertKit allows you to add as much as 1,000 contacts and ship limitless emails freed from cost. Not an enormous deal in the event you’ve bought a considerable mailing checklist, however a bit free performance is all the time good to have.

• Monetize by way of sponsorships. One other space through which ConvertKit’s creator-focused instruments come to the fore: the platform helps publication creators land advertiser sponsorships (offered they’ve 10,000+ subscribers and ship newsletters at the least as soon as per week). ActiveCampaign doesn’t provide something related.

How Does ConvertKit Examine to ActiveCampaign?

• Constructed-in assist for transactional emails. Transactional emails are an important a part of operating an ecommerce enterprise. Sendinblue affords transactional emails as commonplace on all plans, even the free tier, and ensures 97 p.c deliverability. Against this, you’ll want a separate integration—with a further price ticket—to ship transactional emails by way of ActiveCampaign.

• Free CRM. That’s proper: Sendinblue affords a completely free gross sales CRM, together with limitless contacts, pipeline administration, automations, and extra. With ActiveCampaign, you’d must bundle the CRM and advertising and marketing merchandise, which can set you again at the least $$93/month.

How Does Sendinblue Examine to ActiveCampaign?

• Unparalleled e-mail deliverability. GetResponse sits proudly on the high of the tree in E mail Deliverability Report’s e-mail advertising and marketing supplier rating. ActiveCampaign solely fares fractionally worse—but when deliverability is your primary concern, GetResponse is difficult to beat.

• Extra significant inbox testing. Coupled with its very good e-mail deliverability, GetResponse offers strong inbox testing instruments, scoring emails from 0 – 5 primarily based on how possible they’re to keep away from the spam folder. ActiveCampaign does spam testing, too, but it surely solely awards a “cross” or “fail” score, with no approach to interpret your rating.

• Free performance. Guess what? ActiveCampaign doesn’t have a free product tier. GetResponse does, and it’s fairly beneficiant. Free customers can ship 2,500 month-to-month emails to as much as 500 contacts, they usually additionally get to entry GetResponse’s HTML editor, click on monitoring, and some different tasty options.

• Built-in webinar internet hosting. Out of the field, GetResponse Advertising and marketing Automation, Ecommerce Advertising and marketing, and MAX2 prospects can benefit from the platform’s built-in webinar internet hosting performance. It’s a comparatively area of interest characteristic, however actually good to have if webinars are a part of your advertising and marketing technique. ActiveCampaign requires a third-party integration to run webinars, which carries a further value.

• Construct touchdown pages cheaper. Each platforms provide wonderful touchdown web page builders, however ActiveCampaign’s is just accessible at Plus stage and above (priced from $49/month). Against this, even free customers can entry the GetResponse touchdown web page builder (albeit with a number of utilization limitations).

How Does GetResponse Examine to ActiveCampaign?

• Free CRM. HubSpot is arguably greatest often known as a buyer relationship administration instrument, and it allows you to use (a few of) its CRM instruments freed from cost, serving to you create extra personalised buyer experiences. ActiveCampaign has a superb CRM, too, however you’ll must pay for the privilege of utilizing it.

How Does HubSpot Examine to ActiveCampaign?

Incessantly Requested Questions

What Are the Disadvantages of ActiveCampaign?

There are few clear drawbacks to ActiveCampaign—it truly is a terrific platform. Its solely actual weak point is that it hasn’t “niched down”, as a substitute preferring to serve dozens of industries. So whereas there’s arguably no higher all-round advertising and marketing automation platform, there would possibly be a greater industry-specific answer for your enterprise.

Conclusion

All-rounders like ActiveCampaign aren’t proper for everybody.

Realistically, you’re going to pay for lots of performance designed for one of many dozens of different niches it serves. And also you’ll miss out on a number of the extra enticing options of an industry-specific platform.

That’s why we really imagine Drip is a greater match for ecommerce manufacturers (particularly DTCs).

However don’t take our phrase for it. Discover out for your self by signing up in your 14-day free trial at the moment.