ActiveCampaign sits in a weird middle ground. It’s more powerful than Mailchimp, cheaper than HubSpot, and confusing to price because your bill depends on both your plan tier AND your contact count. Two companies on the same plan can pay wildly different amounts.

📅 Pricing last verified: June 2026. We check and update pricing quarterly. If you notice a change, email us.

Let me break down exactly what each tier costs, how pricing scales with contacts, and when ActiveCampaign makes sense versus the alternatives.

The Four Marketing Plans

ActiveCampaign’s core product is email marketing + automation. Here are the four tiers at 1,000 contacts:

Plan	Price (1K contacts)	Key Features
Lite	$29/mo	Email, automation, 1 user
Plus	$49/mo	CRM, landing pages, 3 users
Professional	$149/mo	Predictive sending, split automations, 5 users
Enterprise	$259/mo	Custom objects, HIPAA, 10 users

These prices are for annual billing. Monthly billing adds about 20-25%.

How Contact-Based Pricing Scales

Here’s the part that matters most for budgeting. Your bill grows with your contact list:

Lite Plan by Contacts

• 1,000 contacts: $29/mo
• 2,500 contacts: $49/mo
• 5,000 contacts: $79/mo
• 10,000 contacts: $139/mo
• 25,000 contacts: $259/mo
• 50,000 contacts: $399/mo

Plus Plan by Contacts

• 1,000 contacts: $49/mo
• 2,500 contacts: $79/mo
• 5,000 contacts: $119/mo
• 10,000 contacts: $199/mo
• 25,000 contacts: $379/mo
• 50,000 contacts: $559/mo

Professional Plan by Contacts

• 1,000 contacts: $149/mo
• 2,500 contacts: $149/mo
• 5,000 contacts: $189/mo
• 10,000 contacts: $289/mo
• 25,000 contacts: $479/mo
• 50,000 contacts: $699/mo

Enterprise Plan by Contacts

• 1,000 contacts: $259/mo
• 2,500 contacts: $259/mo
• 5,000 contacts: $289/mo
• 10,000 contacts: $399/mo
• 25,000 contacts: $599/mo
• 50,000 contacts: $899/mo

Notice the pattern: at lower contact counts, the plan tier matters most. At higher counts, the contact pricing dominates and the tier difference shrinks proportionally.

What Each Tier Actually Includes

Lite ($29/mo): Email + Basic Automation

• Unlimited email sending
• Marketing automation (visual workflow builder)
• Email templates and drag-and-drop editor
• Subscription forms
• Segmentation and tagging
• Campaign and automation reporting
• Chat and email support
• 1 user included

Lite is genuinely useful for solo creators and small businesses that need automated email sequences. The automation builder alone is more capable than Mailchimp’s Standard plan. You can build multi-step workflows with conditional logic, wait steps, and branching.

What you’re missing: no CRM, no landing pages, no lead scoring, limited integrations.

Plus ($49/mo): CRM + Landing Pages

Everything in Lite, plus:

• Built-in CRM with deal management
• Landing pages (unlimited)
• Lead scoring
• SMS marketing
• Facebook Custom Audiences integration
• WooCommerce / Shopify deep integrations
• 3 users included

Plus is the sweet spot for most small businesses. The CRM isn’t as deep as dedicated tools like Pipedrive or Zoho, but if your sales process is straightforward, having email automation and CRM in one place is genuinely useful.

Landing pages save you a separate tool subscription ($30-50/mo typically), so Plus often pays for itself if you’re building pages.

Professional ($149/mo): Predictive + Advanced Automation

Everything in Plus, plus:

• Predictive sending (AI picks optimal send time per contact)
• Split automations (A/B test entire workflows, not just emails)
• Attribution reporting
• Site messaging
• Conversion tracking
• 5 users included

The jump from $49 to $149 is steep. Professional makes sense when you’re sending enough volume that optimization matters: split automations can meaningfully improve conversion rates if you have the traffic to get statistically significant results.

Predictive sending is legitimately useful. Instead of guessing when to send, ActiveCampaign analyzes each contact’s open patterns and sends at their optimal time. For a list of 10K+ contacts, this alone can boost open rates 10-15%.

Enterprise ($259/mo): Custom Objects + Compliance

Everything in Professional, plus:

• Custom objects (build your own data models)
• HIPAA compliance
• Custom reporting
• Uptime SLA
• Dedicated account rep
• Design services
• 10 users included

Enterprise is for companies with complex data needs or compliance requirements (HIPAA for healthcare). If neither applies, Professional covers most advanced use cases.

CRM + Sales Add-on

ActiveCampaign also sells a standalone Sales CRM:

• Plus: $19/user/mo
• Professional: $49/user/mo

This is separate from the marketing platform’s built-in CRM. The standalone Sales product adds pipeline automation, win probability (Professional), sentiment analysis, and sales engagement automation.

Most companies using ActiveCampaign for marketing just use the built-in CRM on Plus or higher. The standalone Sales product is for teams needing dedicated sales features without the full marketing platform.

Bundle Pricing

ActiveCampaign offers a “Marketing + Sales” bundle that combines both products at a discount. Pricing is custom based on your needs, but typically saves 15-20% versus buying separately.

If you need 5+ sales users AND marketing automation for 10K+ contacts, ask for bundle pricing: don’t buy them individually.

ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp

The comparison everyone asks about:

Feature	ActiveCampaign Plus	Mailchimp Standard
Price (5K contacts)	$119/mo	$100/mo
Automation depth	Advanced (branching, splits)	Basic
CRM included	Yes	No
Landing pages	Unlimited	Limited
Send limit	Unlimited	12× contact count
Support	Chat + email	Email only

ActiveCampaign costs slightly more but gives you dramatically more powerful automation. If you’re sending basic newsletters, Mailchimp is fine. If you’re building automated sequences based on behavior (abandoned cart → wait 2 days → follow-up → if opened → different path), ActiveCampaign is in a different league.

ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot

Feature	ActiveCampaign Pro	HubSpot Marketing Pro
Price (10K contacts)	$289/mo	$890+/mo
Automation	Advanced	Advanced
CRM	Built-in (basic)	Full-featured
Landing pages	Yes	Yes
Onboarding fee	$0	$3,000
Reporting	Good	Excellent

HubSpot wins on reporting, CRM depth, and ecosystem. ActiveCampaign wins on price: dramatically. If your primary need is email marketing automation with basic CRM, ActiveCampaign at $289/mo does 80% of what HubSpot does at $890/mo.

Who Should Choose ActiveCampaign

Great fit:

• Small-to-mid businesses focused on email marketing automation
• E-commerce companies needing behavioral triggers
• Content creators with complex nurture sequences
• Teams wanting CRM + email in one tool without enterprise pricing

Not ideal:

• Enterprise companies needing advanced CRM (use Salesforce or HubSpot)
• Simple newsletter senders (Mailchimp or ConvertKit is cheaper)
• Teams needing social media management (not included)
• Companies requiring extensive reporting (HubSpot is stronger)

FAQ

Is ActiveCampaign good for e-commerce? Yes, especially at Plus tier and above. Deep Shopify and WooCommerce integrations let you trigger automations based on purchase behavior, abandoned carts, and product browsing. It’s comparable to Klaviyo for most small-to-mid e-commerce stores.

Can I use ActiveCampaign as my only CRM? On Plus or higher, yes: if your sales process is straightforward. It handles deals, pipelines, and basic contact management. For complex B2B sales with multiple stakeholders or territory routing, you’ll want a dedicated CRM.

What happens when I exceed my contact limit? ActiveCampaign automatically bumps you to the next contact tier and adjusts your billing. No hard cutoff or service interruption: just a higher bill. Keep an eye on your contact count to avoid surprises.

Is the annual commitment worth it? Yes, if you’re confident you’ll use it for 12+ months. Annual billing saves roughly 20% on every plan. Given that email marketing is a long-term commitment, the savings are usually worth it.

How does migration work from Mailchimp? ActiveCampaign offers free migration services for customers with 10K+ contacts. They’ll move your contacts, tags, and basic automations. For smaller lists, their import tool handles CSV uploads cleanly. Expect 1-2 weeks for a full migration with automations rebuilt.

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Exploring email marketing options? Check our best email marketing tools for creators roundup or see the e-commerce email showdown.