Top ActiveCampaign Alternatives for Effective Email Marketing in 2024

When it comes to email marketing solutions, ActiveCampaign often comes into the spotlight as a reliable choice. However, as your mailing list grows, so can the platform’s costs. If you’re looking for a more budget-friendly yet feature-rich solution, we’ve got you covered. In this post, we will compare ActiveCampaign alternatives to help you find the perfect match for your needs.

ActiveCampaign features

ActiveCampaign stands out as a robust marketing automation solution, offering features extending beyond email marketing to include sales pipeline management, multichannel marketing, and customer relationship management.

However, in this post, we’ll delve into ActiveCampaign competitors specializing in email marketing, so let’s explore what the platform offers in this field:

• Diverse email campaigns. Using the service, you can reach a wider audience with broadcast emails, set up autoresponders and triggered messages based on specific actions or events, and incorporate transactional campaigns for important transaction-related communication.
• Email design and creation. You can use customizable email templates designed to suit various styles and needs. The platform also offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder, allowing you to put the design process in your hands without coding skills.
• Vast segmentation options. Using tags, custom fields, and dynamic content capabilities, you can create different customer groups, personalize your message, and ensure precise targeting.
• Subject line generator. This tool will give you a list of subject line ideas based on a keyword you specify.
• Robust analytics. Reports and analytics allow you to analyze your email performance and optimize your next campaign. You can also incorporate split testing if necessary.

These were some email-related features the platform offers. Still, there are quite a few reasons you might decide to look for alternatives to ActiveCampaign.

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Disadvantages of ActiveCampaign

While the platform offers great features and capabilities, it’s essential to be aware of potential drawbacks. Based on ActiveCampaign reviews, we’ve identified some challenges users faced:

• Pricing complexity. Users have sometimes mentioned that ActiveCampaign’s pricing structure is complex, especially when scaling is needed.
• High cost. The platform doesn’t offer a free plan. As your mailing list expands or if you wish to have access to more features, ActiveCampaign pricing escalates significantly.
• Steep learning curve. Some users, particularly beginners, have reported navigating the platform as challenging. It may take time for new users to fully harness the platform’s capabilities.
• Limited template design flexibility. While ActiveCampaign provides customizable templates, users have commented on desiring more flexibility in design options. Some customers find that achieving highly unique or specific designs may require additional effort.
• Feature limitations. Some advanced features are exclusive to higher-priced plans. For instance, previewing emails across various clients requires an extra payment. However, even after payment, users on the higher plans receive only five monthly previews.

These seem to be solid reasons to consider some ActiveCampaign alternatives, right?

Best ActiveCampaign alternatives

With a focus on email marketing capabilities, here’s our compilation of noteworthy alternatives to ActiveCampaign you can try.

SendPulse

SendPulse is one of the top ActiveCampaign competitors, offering an omnichannel marketing approach. The service encompasses email campaigns, push notifications, chatbots, and SMS messages.

Users can craft emails from scratch using the intuitive drag-and-drop template builder. Alternatively, there are over 100 email templates, allowing for extensive personalization. For instance, you can personalize your emails by addressing recipients by name or communicating in their preferred language. You can also craft dynamic emails based on your subscriber’s location, age, or gender.

This cost-effective alternative to ActiveCampaign comes equipped with robust automation capabilities as well. Automation 360 will help you set up automated multi-step, multichannel flows to let your contacts progress down your sales pipeline. You can also use the built-in email verifier, segmentation options, and A/B testing tools.

Pricing: SendPulse offers a free plan for up to 500 subscribers and 15,000 monthly emails. The cheapest paid plan starts at $5/month for the same number of contacts and unlimited monthly emails. An alternative option is the pay-as-you-go model, allowing payment for a specific number of campaigns you can send throughout the year.

Bloomreach

Bloomreach is another ActiveCampaign alternative that provides solutions for businesses to enhance their online presence and optimize customer experiences. It offers tools and capabilities to manage content, run digital commerce, and employ personalization in email marketing.

A visual email builder lets you easily create, test, and preview your templates. You can leverage AI product recommendations, insert personalization elements, and use conditional blocks to selectively display content to specific audiences. Besides, Bloomreach provides you with vast segmentation possibilities. You can utilize visual data exploration tools to create campaigns based on profile properties, computed attributes, behavioral triggers, or any desired metric.

One more standout feature is its IP warm-up support, meaning that Bloomreach assists users in managing their IP warm-up process. This precaution is necessary to establish a positive sending reputation with internet service providers and email clients.

Pricing: Bloomreach lets you pay for specific tools you wish to access, and its pricing will be usage-based. However, Bloomreach doesn’t have a free plan or trial. To start using the platform, you will need to request a quote by filling out a form on the website.

Moosend

Moosend offers a robust suite of email marketing tools designed to streamline and enhance your email campaigns. Its user-friendly drag-and-drop builder simplifies the process of creating your emails. The platform provides various responsive, customizable templates for diverse styles and needs.

This ActiveCampaign competitor also offers marketing automation capabilities. To save time and ensure that your messages are timely and relevant, you can set up automated workflows, triggered emails, and personalized customer journeys. The platform’s advanced segmentation options and personalization tools allow you to tailor your messages to specific audience segments.

Furthermore, Moosend’s real-time analytics empower you to track the performance of your campaigns, providing valuable insights into open rates, click-through rates, and subscriber behavior.

Pricing: Moosend has no free plan, but you can test all the features within its 30-day free trial. After the trial, you can adjust the paid plan to the number of your subscribers. The cheapest option includes up to 500 contacts and unlimited emails and will cost you $ 6/month, billed annually.

Drip

Drip is a powerful marketing platform that enables you to build on-brand emails. With a focus on eCommerce, its point-and-click email builder lets you seamlessly integrate your online store to be able to insert dynamic product-related content blocks directly into your emails. Whether you want to showcase best-selling products to newcomers or send custom links to recover abandoned carts, the platform makes it a breeze.

With over 50 professionally designed eCommerce templates, this ActiveCampaign alternative provides a solid foundation for creating your email campaigns. It enables you to customize every template element — brand logo, colors, fonts, and more — to align it with your brand identity.

Drip also allows you to run A/B tests, experimenting with up to four email content variations or subject lines simultaneously.

Pricing: Drip doesn’t offer a free plan, but you can test the service within its 14-day free trial period. The cheapest plan starts at $39/month for up to 2,500 contacts on your mailing list and unlimited emails.

AWeber

AWeber is another tool you might want to consider as an alternative to ActiveCampaign. What sets this platform apart is its seamless integration with Canva, allowing you to design eye-catching emails and add a creative touch to them without leaving the platform.

With dynamic content capabilities, AWeber enables you to tailor each email to specific individuals on your mailing list to ensure that your content is highly personalized and relevant. Additionally, the platform provides AI tools to streamline the email creation process, helping you generate emails faster.

To optimize your email strategy, AWeber includes A/B testing features. You can experiment with concepts, headers, images, and more to determine what resonates best with your audience.

Pricing: AWeber provides users with a free plan that covers up to 500 subscribers and one mailing list. If you want to upgrade, you can choose from three more options depending on the scale of your business. The cheapest paid plan starts at $12.50/month for unlimited subscribers and one mailing list.

Keap

Being another great alternative to ActiveCampaign, Keap offers all the tools companies need to capture and follow up with leads. Users can easily create emails that match their vision by dragging and dropping required content elements and blocks. There are also diverse email templates with clean designs you can customize. Besides, this tool allows you to tag and segment your leads when they register based on the criteria you define.

One more notable service is the done-for-you migration, meaning that there is a dedicated team that assists you in transferring your contacts, templates, campaigns, and other marketing data from third-party platforms to Keap.

Pricing: You can test Keap during a 14-day free trial. When it expires, you need to choose one of the three pricing options that differ in the number of contacts and included features. The cheapest plan starts at $159/month and includes 1,500 contacts, email marketing, CRM, landing pages, and other features.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is a user-friendly service designed to simplify the email marketing process for content creators. With a focus on simplicity and functionality, the platform’s email builder allows users to create engaging emails effortlessly. Besides, the service offers some customizable templates with a professional aesthetic that align with different content types. Another great feature is the possibility to save your templates to the library for convenient access.

Allowing users to run paid newsletters, set up tip jars, and sell various digital products, this platform might be a great alternative to ActiveCampaign for those who want to monetize their content. ConvertKit also provides customizable opt-in forms, subscriber tagging, and automation capabilities so that users can efficiently manage their mailing lists, target specific audience segments, and automate email workflows.

Pricing: ConvertKit has a limited free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers. A paid plan with more features starts at $9/month for up to 300 subscribers.

Mailjet

Mailjet is another ActiveCampaign alternative designed for businesses seeking efficient communication solutions. The platform offers an intuitive email builder that caters to all skill levels and allows users to craft responsive emails in minutes. There is also a range of customizable templates that suit different campaign objectives. Moreover, you can create brand-specific templates and collaborate with teammates directly within the builder.

Beyond its core email-building capabilities, Mailjet provides advanced personalization and segmentation tools for targeted email communications. With its dynamic sections, you can send a single email that displays differently depending on the recipient. Besides, the software provides email validation, A/B testing, and analytics tools.

Pricing: Mailjet offers a free plan that enables businesses to send up to 6,000 emails/month or 200 emails/day to a maximum of 1,500 contacts. The cheapest plan will allow you to send up to 15,000 emails/month without a daily sending limit for $13.50/month, billed annually.

Adobe Marketo Engage

Adobe Marketo Engage Adobe Marketo Engage is a marketing automation platform that offers a suite of features to cover email marketing, lead management, consumer marketing, and analytics. To enable businesses to create highly tailored experiences that resonate with their target audiences, this ActiveCampaign alternative leverages real-time behaviors, enriched profiles, and AI tools.

Besides, the platform provides fully responsive templates and a visual builder to facilitate the creation of engaging emails. It also supports A/B/n testing, allowing users to experiment with predictive content strategies and triggered emails to optimize their communication strategies.

Pricing: Adobe Marketo Engage provides four paid plans to choose from. However, you will need to fill out a form to get more information.

Omnisend

Omnisend is another compelling alternative to ActiveCampaign for eCommerce businesses, as it incorporates features focusing on marketing automation and sales. The platform provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor with pre-made templates and interactive components like Product Picker, Product Listing, Discount Code, etc.

Omnisend lets businesses set up targeted campaigns through segmentation based on visitor behavior and purchase data and launch automated workflows, including abandoned cart emails, welcome series, order confirmation messages, and product recommendations. Besides, you can engage your customers across multiple channels since the platform lets you add SMS and push notifications to your flows.

Pricing: Omnisend offers a free plan for small businesses to reach up to 250 contacts and send up to 500 emails/month. The most affordable plan costs $16/month and lets you send up to 6,000 emails/month.

The bottom line

As highlighted in this post, various factors may lead email marketers to seek an alternative to ActiveCampaign. Whether it’s the absence of a free plan, the tool’s complexity, or its price when it comes to scaling, there are other platforms worth considering. Here is a table with essential takeouts for you to compare.

Our list of ActiveCampaign alternatives has options for everyone, from intuitive platforms with drag-and-drop builders to complex automation solutions. So, take a look at the platforms, explore their features, and take advantage of the free trials or plans.

Since you are here, we invite you to try SendPulse, a fully-featured marketing and sales automation platform. Get started now by creating your free account — no card details are needed!