ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo: Honest Platform Review [2026]

If you’re choosing between ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo in 2026, you’ve already narrowed your options to two of the most advanced automation platforms on the market. They aren’t twins, but they are definitely close siblings — both promise sophisticated workflows, AI-driven features, and deep customer insights. The real difference lies in who they’re built for.

Klaviyo puts transactional and behavioral data at the center, speaking directly to eCommerce teams who sell physical products and rely heavily on lifecycle marketing. ActiveCampaign applies similar automation capabilities to CRM workflows, sales pipelines, and complex customer journeys, making it a stronger fit for B2B, SaaS, and service-based businesses.

This in-depth comparison will help you decide which platform aligns best with your business model, growth stage, and marketing strategy.

TL;DR ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo at a glance

Here’s a quick recap of what we discovered during our testing. These are the key aspects that matter most when choosing an email marketing platform, along with a clear explanation of why one platform comes out ahead in each area.

This snapshot highlights the differences. The breakdown below explains the reasoning behind each point.

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Side-by-side ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo comparison

We structured this aspect-by-aspect comparison around how you’d actually use platforms of this kind. We start with daily usability and tools you use most often, then move into the features that drive long-term results. The first thing to look at is pricing, which accounts for 25% of our overall score and often determines whether a platform even fits within the budget.

Pricing plans

⭐ ActiveCampaign: 8.8/10 | Klaviyo: 7/10

Disclaimer: Pricing changes frequently. These figures are accurate as of January 2026. Always verify final costs on official pricing pages.

The pricing difference is hard to miss. Klaviyo is noticeably more expensive than ActiveCampaign and, honestly, than most other popular email platforms. Here’s what that looks like in real numbers:

If pricing is your primary concern, ActiveCampaign wins. Decision made.

That said, choosing an email platform based on price alone can oversimplify things. To understand whether Klaviyo truly earns its higher price, we need to look at what you actually get for that extra spend.

Ease of use and interface

⭐ ActiveCampaign: 8.8/10 | Klaviyo: 6.5/10

Neither ActiveCampaign nor Klaviyo is built for complete beginners. Both pack their interfaces with data, and the navigation logic assumes you already understand email marketing fundamentals. But one platform makes the learning curve significantly steeper.

Here’s how ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo compare when it comes to everyday usability:

The gap is huge. 2.3 points is a lot, and it tells you loudly – if you or your team are new to email marketing or have never built automations before, Klaviyo will be frustrating to learn. Though experienced users eventually reach similar capability levels with both platforms.

Email builder and templates

ActiveCampaign: 9.3/10 | ⭐ Klaviyo: 9.6/10

First and foremost, email marketing platforms exist to create and send emails, so this part deserves close attention. Both platforms offer user-friendly builders with flexible layouts, content blocks, and extensive template libraries.

Here’s a look at the email builders of these two platforms. Klaviyo offers AI assistance with email layout and content blocks, along with pre-built templates and preview options for mobile and desktop.

The ActiveCampaign email builder interface looks different from Klaviyo’s, yet its functionality is quite similar. You get AI assistance and pre-made templates, along with navigation that is easier to understand.

Klaviyo earns a slight edge thanks to 35 more templates and product feed integration that automatically pulls your inventory data into emails — a major time-saver for eCommerce brands. You can create emails that dynamically display products based on what customers viewed, added to their cart, or purchased, without manual updates.

ActiveCampaign’s unlimited AI brand kit designs nearly close the gap, and its interface may be more intuitive for beginners.

Contact management

⭐ ActiveCampaign: 9.5/10 | Klaviyo: 9.2/10

Contact management is one of the strongest areas for both platforms. While their underlying models differ, the end result is the same: precise targeting, reliable segmentation, and data that stays up to date. An over 9/10 score is no small achievement, and here’s why ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo earned it:

Both platforms update segments quickly and maintain a single contact profile per email address. Where they differ is in how segmentation logic is built and what data it’s centered around.

ActiveCampaign’s segmentation is driven by logic and workflow context. The builder supports rules based on behavior, automation status, website activity, and CRM data. This allows teams to create detailed segments with complex logic, say, “(Visited pricing page AND didn’t convert) OR (has deal value over $5K AND hasn’t been contacted in 7 days).”

Klaviyo’s segmentation is built around customer behavior and eCommerce activity. Typical segments might include: “Viewed product category X at least twice AND didn’t purchase” or “Placed an order in the last 60 days AND predicted CLV is high AND engagement score is above average.”

Marketing automation

⭐ ActiveCampaign: 10/10 | Klaviyo: 9.6/10

Both ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo excel in automation, yet there’s a 0.4-point gap driven by a few objective advantages on ActiveCampaign’s side. Here’s what’s truly unique about ActiveCampaign that earned it a perfect 10, and what makes Klaviyo’s automation strong enough to land a solid 9.6:

ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo both deliver professional-grade automation with multiple steps, conditional logic, delays, and event-based triggers.

ActiveCampaign’s strength is versatility and flexibility. Its builder lets you add multiple entry points in the same automation and supports a wide range of actions that go beyond email. You can mix in SMS, site messages, and even CRM updates, which makes the platform a great fit for teams running customer journeys across marketing and sales.

This automation recipe checks whether a customer purchased from a specific category and whether a related accessory is missing. Only customers who meet those conditions receive the upsell email, keeping the message relevant.

Klaviyo’s automation templates are great if you’re running an online store, since they are built around customer behavior and eCommerce scenarios that drive revenue. Besides, you can blend email and text messages and set up CRM lead nurturing automations through integrations with platforms like Salesforce and Zoho.

This example demonstrates behavioral segmentation for a welcome automation in action. When someone subscribes, the automation checks their purchase history and splits the path. First-time subscribers receive one welcome message with an incentive to purchase, while existing customers get a different version acknowledging their loyalty.

Deliverability

⭐ ActiveCampaign: 10/10 | ⭐ Klaviyo: 10/10

Deliverability is about whether your emails actually show up where they’re supposed to – in users’ inboxes. Both ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo provide solid infrastructure that takes care of the technical side. Here’s what two platforms provide:

ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo give you the tools to send emails responsibly and at scale, but results still depend on consistent, careful sending practices.

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Integrations

⭐ ActiveCampaign: 9/10 | Klaviyo: 7.7/10

Integrations is another area where ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo differ a lot. ActiveCampaign offers over 1,000 integrations across almost all business areas, strong Zapier support, and a built-in CRM system. Although Klaviyo doesn’t, it supports deep, seamless integrations with eCommerce platforms. If your business lives in Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce, Klaviyo’s integrations capture more customer data than general-purpose platforms typically track – and this is exactly what its target customers need.

One of the key differences here is that ActiveCampaign includes a built-in CRM system, while Klaviyo does not. A native CRM isn’t required for a strong email platform, but it can be useful for teams that prefer managing customer data and workflows in one place.

AI features

ActiveCampaign: 8.9/10 | ⭐ Klaviyo: 8.9/10

AI is deeply woven into both platforms. It helps generate content and automations, finds the best time to send emails, and supports deliverability. Let’s see which AI capabilities each platform offers.

Both platforms’ AI capabilities are mature enough for production use, though human review is still recommended. ActiveCampaign’s AI excels at generating brand-aligned content quickly — useful for creating multiple campaign variations or jumpstarting creative blocks. The quality is generally strong, but you may need to tweak subject lines and CTAs a bit.

Klaviyo’s AI shines in predictive analytics and behavioral analysis. The platform’s CLV forecasts and churn probability scores are notably accurate when you have sufficient historical data. The AI learns from your specific customer base, so its predictions get better and better over time.

Neither ActiveCampaign nor Klaviyo requires AI expertise to use these features, which is great. They’re designed for marketers, not data scientists.

Reporting and analytics

ActiveCampaign: 8.4/10 | ⭐ Klaviyo: 10/10

Analytics are what help you drive decisions. Klaviyo scores a perfect 10/10 in this category – 1.6 points ahead of ActiveCampaign’s 8.4/10. This is one of the largest gaps in our comparison. The difference is all about speed, accessibility, and revenue focus.

For eCommerce businesses making daily inventory, pricing, or campaign decisions, real-time data access is critical – hence Klaviyo’s perfect score. For B2B businesses optimizing long sales cycles, a 24-hour reporting delay is acceptable, so ActiveCampaign gets a strong but not perfect score.

Customer support

⭐ ActiveCampaign: 6.8/10 | Klaviyo: 6.4/10

Customer support becomes critical the moment a feature or setting fails to meet expectations. Neither ActiveCampaign nor Klaviyo offers instant help in every situation, and access to support channels depends on your pricing plan.

Both platforms rely heavily on documentation and structured support flows. For teams comfortable troubleshooting on their own, this approach can be totally fine. For others, response times and channel limitations may be a factor to consider.

For teams that prefer immediate, human support over self-service resources, it’s worth noting that some platforms take a different approach. Consider SendPulse as an example: you get 24/7 chat support from human reps in multiple languages, no matter your pricing plan.

Your decision checklist

You’ve seen the detailed ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo comparisons. Now let’s distill the decision into four practical questions that match features to your business reality:

You don’t need to match every row on one side for the checklist to be useful. Focus on the areas that matter most to your business right now. If one side keeps coming up, that platform is likely the better match.

Final verdict and recommendations

⚖️ Final scores: ActiveCampaign – 9.2/10 | Klaviyo – 8.6/10

ActiveCampaign earns the higher score as a flexible platform excelling at CRM-driven automation, complex workflows, and broad integrations. Klaviyo specializes in eCommerce, combining deep customer data, real-time analytics, and revenue-focused lifecycle marketing.

The 0.6-point difference is meaningful but not decisive. Your business model matters more than the overall score. An eCommerce business will find more value in Klaviyo’s 8.6 than in ActiveCampaign’s 9.2 – and vice versa for B2B companies.

Your next steps are:

1. Try both platforms. ActiveCampaign offers a 14-day trial; Klaviyo has a free plan up to 250 contacts.
2. Test with your data. Import a segment of your list and build one automation in each platform.
3. Evaluate your specific use case. The platform that makes your most important workflow easier is the right choice.

Still unsure? Look into more alternatives to ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo — you’ll find solutions for every goal and wallet.