ActiveCampaign Competitors and Alternatives

Sales and marketing teams rely on a variety of tools to streamline their processes, increase leads, and boost conversions and ActiveCampaign competitors and alternatives are often considered when making a purchase in the category. From contact and customer relationship management platforms to marketing automation tools, a lot goes into finding and closing deals. Once a deal is closed, sales teams continue to use their tools to upsell existing customers and manage customer relationships. 

Two essential tools for sales teams are a reliable CRM and a marketing automation platform. Many companies have separate platforms that handle these functions. However, there are tools available today that combine these platforms into a single product. One such tools is ActiveCampaign, a sales prospecting, CRM, and automation platform. 

Keep reading to learn more about ActiveCampaign, including what the platform does and top ActiveCampaign competitors. 

What is ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign is a platform used by sales teams for prospecting. The sales CRM includes automation capabilities to combine two tools that sales teams use most. By hosting a CRM and automation platform in a single product, ActiveCampaign can save sales teams time and resources when it comes to customer relationships and prospecting. 

Salespeople have a lot of tasks on their daily to-do list. From finding new prospects to cold calls and lead nurturing, every task takes up time in a salesperson’s day. With a CRM and automation platform, salespeople can streamline their daily processes and free up time in their calendar for more complex or high priority tasks. 

Sales automation platforms, like ActiveCampaign, also help salespeople manage their funnel. With complete visibility into the CRM and automation processes, contacts are less likely to slip through the cracks. 

ActiveCampaign Features

The ActiveCampaign platform has three main solutions: a CRM, marketing automation, and lead generation tools. Each solution offers a variety of features to streamline sales processes, improve prospecting, and manage sales pipelines. 

The ActiveCampaign CRM solution enables salespeople to manage their contacts in a single platform. Salespeople can view their entire pipeline and track contacts easily. Top features of the ActiveCampaign CRM include:

• Contact Creation: Create a new contact from a page visit.
• 1:1 Emails: Send personal emails to new leads automatically. 
• Appointment Follow-up: Book appointments and trigger emails. 
• Lead History: View the entire history of a lead from the contact record.
• Contact Management: Automate contact management to quickly gain insight into the sales process. 

Marketing automation from ActiveCampaign helps with the tasks that salespeople do not have time for. Smart automation can improve the lead or customer experience as well. Top features of the ActiveCampaign marketing automation solution include:

• Welcome Series: Setup a welcome series for new contacts or customers. 
• Track Engagement: Utilize tags and custom fields, track analytics, and pull performance reports. 
• Engagement Score: Determine which buyers or leads are most engaged and loyal to your brand. 
• Automatic Reminders: Set up reminders and notifications for customer dates that are important. 

Additional features from ActiveCampaign help with lead generation, lead nurturing, and engagement. Top additional features include:

• New deal alerts
• Email marketing 
• Transactional emails 
• Lead scoring 
• Win probability 
• Pipeline automation

ActiveCampaign also offers a variety of services and tools designed to improve the user experience. Users can take advantage of free onboarding and migration services, including HubSpot migration and up to five personal onboarding calls. ActiveCampaign has a YouTube channel that features more than 100 videos on maximizing platform utilization and automation recommendations as well. 

Finally, ActiveCampaign has a robust library of templates and prebuilt data, so teams do not have to start from scratch. There are more than 150 prebuilt automation recipes within the platform, including email designs and landing pages. For small and medium-sized businesses with limited marketing and design resources, these templates can save a lot of time and money. 

ActiveCampaign Integrations

ActiveCampaign has a native, bidirectional integration with Salesforce. While other tools in the marketplace require the purchase of a third-party middleware provider, ActiveCampaign directly integrates with Salesforce. In fact, ActiveCampaign is top recommended marketing automation tool on the Salesforce AppExchange. 

In addition to Salesforce, ActiveCampaign integrates with a variety of tools and platforms that sales teams rely on for daily tasks and activities. The most popular apps for ActiveCampaign include: 

• Facebook
• WordPress
• Google Analytics
• Shopify
• WooCommerce
• Unbound
• Zapier
• ClickFunnels
• Salesforce

ActiveCampaign Pricing

ActiveCampaign pricing varies by contact volume and features. For a robust enterprise plan, companies can plan to spend about $1,300 per month or more than $12,000 annually. 

PLAN	PRICE (Starting at)	CONTACT VOLUME	TOP FEATURES
Lite	$9/month	500	Marketing automation Email automation  Unlimited email sending
Plus	$49/month	1000	Landing pages Facebook custom audiences Contact scoring
Professional	$149/month	2500	Website personalization Predictive sending Predictive content
Enterprise	Custom	2500	Custom reporting Custom mailserver domain Custom domain

ActiveCampaign also offers a free 14-day trial for their professional plan. Users can import up to 100 contacts, and no credit card is required to sign up. 

ActiveCampaign Pricing additional info is available.

ActiveCampaign Reviews

ActiveCampaign has overwhelmingly positive reviews online. Users appreciate the prebuilt templates and recipes, making it easier to build a workflow. Other users cite the ease of integration with apps they already use and the lightweight CRM. Reviews also highlight the automation capabilities that make it fast and easy to onboard new clients, create campaigns, and generate reports. 

Complaints about the solution include limited third-party integrations and high pricing. Some users feel overwhelmed by the amount of features and fields available in the platform, citing a steep learning curve needed to maximize utilization of the platform. 

Top ActiveCampaign Competitors

There are many CRM and marketing automation solutions available in the market today, so ActiveCampaign has several competitors. ActiveCampaign offers two valuable solutions in one platform, but other solutions tend to offer only one solution. When comparing ActiveCampaign competitors, it is important to determine which solutions are necessary for your business. 

If your team only needs a CRM, you can focus on ActiveCampaign alternatives that only offer a CRM. If you only need marketing automation, you can narrow your options to marketing automation platforms that do not include a CRM. Sales teams may already have a CRM or marketing automation platform that they prefer. These teams may not be interested in switching to a different solution. 

The #1 ActiveCampaign Competitor – HubSpot Marketing Hub

The top ActiveCampaign competitor is HubSpot Marketing Hub. HubSpot is a popular solution for enterprise organizations that need robust features at a reasonable cost. Many companies rely on HubSpot for their CRM and adding the Marketing Hub may be the best logical decision. HubSpot is a well-known solution provider for marketing automation and CRM tools, and many businesses trust HubSpot for their daily sales and marketing activities.  

What is HubSpot Marketing Hub?

The HubSpot Marketing Hub is marketing software designed to help sales teams with prospecting and lead conversions. Sales teams can utilize HubSpot Marketing Hub to create custom inbound marketing campaigns and scale their campaigns within a single platform. Within the platform, users can create content to attract leads, develop strategies to convert leads, and pull reports to track their campaigns. 

HubSpot Marketing Hub Features

The HubSpot Marketing Hub offers a wide range of features to help sales teams increase leads, boost sales, and provide a better customer experience. Features for the HubSpot Marketing Hub are separated into three categories based on the user’s goal: Attract Attention, Convert More Leads, and Report & Customize. 

Features designed to attract attention help salespeople create content to draw in leads. Top features to attract attention through the HubSpot Marketing Hub include:

• Blog: Create and publish content that adds value to your audience. 
• SEO: Outrank competitors by building search authority, planning a content strategy, and optimizing content. 
• Ad Tracking & Management: Manage social media and Google ads in one platform to justify ad spending. 
• Social Media Management: Monitor conversations on social media, prioritize conversations, and publish content to social media. 
• Video: Host video files and manage your video library within the platform to embed on social media, blogs, and websites. 
• Live Chat: Bots qualify leads and users can connect with website visitors. 

Features designed to convert leads help sales teams turn visitors into leads and personalize their strategy. Top features to convert leads through the HubSpot Marketing Hub include:

• Landing Page Builder: Create landing pages from mobile-optimized templates. 
• Form Builder: Design forms with a drag-and-drop editor to add to a website. 
• Marketing Automation: Automate workflows, score leads, personalize messages, and more within one platform. 
• Email Marketing: Design emails optimized for mobile and personalize content. 
• Account-Based Marketing: identify high-value accounts and build relationships to convert leads. 
• Lead Tracking & Management: Segment contacts, gain visibility into campaign data, and automatically score leads. 

Reporting and customized features with the HubSpot Marketing Hub enable sales teams to better collaborate and turn data into strategic actions. Top features for reporting and customizing include:

• Marketing Analytics: Track effort through deals and conversions to make decision backed by data. 
• Custom Objects: Store and customize your data in HubSpot, build dashboards, and custom filter your data. 
• Salesforce Integration: HubSpot has a bidirectional sync with Salesforce to easily provide context for salespeople to close deals. 

HubSpot Marketing Hub Integrations

Like ActiveCampaign, the HubSpot Marketing Hub integrates directly with Salesforce. This is great for sales teams that utilize Salesforce as their CRM. The bidirectional sync ensure that any changes made in one platform are automatically made in the other. HubSpot also has a robust App Marketplace with more than 1,000 custom integrations. Most sales teams will find the integrations they need to continue using their favorite solutions and platforms in conjunction with the HubSpot Marketing Hub. The most popular integrations for HubSpot include:

• Gmail 
• Google Calendar
• HubSpot for WordPress
• Outlook
• Facebook Ads
• Zapier 
• Google Ads
• Zoom
• Slack 
• LinkedIn Ads
• Mailchimp 

HubSpot Marketing Hub Pricing

The HubSpot Marketing Hub platform is priced at three tiers: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. You can start using some tools for free, including lead generation, email marketing, forms, ad management, live chat, and reporting. However, the free tool includes HubSpot branding. 

PLAN	PRICE (Starting at)	CONTACT VOLUME	TOP FEATURES
Starter	$45/month	1000	Forms Email marketing Landing pages Live chat
Professional	$800/month	2000	Omni-channel marketing automation Social media Video hosting Collaboration tools A/B testing Campaign reporting Salesforce integration
Enterprise	$3200/month	10000	Single sign-on Custom objects Adaptive testing Sandboxing Multi-touch revenue attribution  Predictive lead scoring

HubSpot Marketing Hub Reviews

Most of the online reviews for the HubSpot Marketing Hub are positive. Users appreciate how seamlessly the platform connects with other marketing tools and solutions. The platform is easy to learn and easy to use. Many teams cite that the solution has saved them time and money. Other users note that the email marketing and landing page builders are efficient solutions.

Chief complaints about the solution include the learning curve to fully utilize all the platform’s features. Other users cite the limited flexibility in designing emails or landing pages. There also seems to be a disconnect between the health checks for SEO problems and correctly linking to the issues at the source. 

An ActiveCampaign Alternative – Adobe Marketo Engage

Marketing automation software is extremely popular for sales team. Despite the solutions having a “marketing” focus, sales teams often find useful tools and features for their daily tasks and goals. Sales and marketing automation software and platforms are designed with one goal in mind: streamline processes. 

There are a lot of small or repetitive tasks that salespeople must complete every day. While these tasks are not necessarily difficult or complicated, they can take up a lot of time. Sales teams rely on marketing automation platforms to handle these tasks for them, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. One marketing automation platform that is popular among sales teams is Adobe Marketo Engage. 

What is Adobe Marketo Engage?

Adobe Marketo Engage is sometimes referred to as Marketo or Marketo Engage. It is another marketing automation software solution and an ActiveCampaign alternative. As a marketing automation solution, Marketo helps streamline sales processes, automate tasks, and measure campaign success. 

Adobe Marketo Engage Features

Adobe Marketo Engage offers a wide variety of features to automate marketing across channels and create robust reports. Top features for Marketo include:

• Cross-channel marketing
  • Social marketing
  • Email marketing 
  • Mobile marketing
  • Digital advertising
  • Dynamic chat
• Sales and marketing partnership
  • Sales insights
  • Account profiling
  • Target account management
  • Predictive audiences
  • Lead generation
  • Segmentation
  • Targeting
• Content intelligence
  • Content personalization
  • Web personalization
  • Predictive content 
• Data and insights
  • Marketing analytics
  • Advanced journey analytics
  • Multi-touch attribution

Adobe Marketo Engage Integrations 

Adobe Marketo Engage integrates with a long list of apps and solutions for sales teams. The Adobe marketplace is full of integrations to ensure sales teams have the tools they need for success. Top Adobe Marketo Engage integrations include:

• Adobe Experience Cloud
• Salesforce
• Microsoft
• SAP
• Google
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Adobe Marketo Engage Pricing

Pricing is not available for Marketo without requesting a quote. Adobe Marketo Engage offers four pricing tiers with various features to accommodate specific organizations. The pricing tiers include Jumpstart, Select, Prime, and Ultimate. The Jumpstart tier includes 10 users while the other tiers include up to 25 users. 

Adobe Marketo Engage Reviews

Most online reviews for Adobe Marketo Engage are positive. Users cite in-person training, implementation, and professional services as the top categories where Marketo excels. Reviewers appreciate the ability to create and manage emails, track web activity, and review analytics. Other users note high prices, difficulty drilling down on reports, and bugs in the email editor as negatives of the platform. 

Another Top ActiveCampaign Competitor – SharpSpring

When a platform combines a CRM with marketing automation solutions, sales teams need fewer tools to carry out their processes and achieve their goals. By housing both tools in a single solution, there is seamless tracking and insights for campaign performance, key contacts, and more. Another top ActiveCampaign competitor is SharpSpring. 

What is SharpSpring?

SharpSpring is another marketing automation platform that includes a CRM. The cloud-based solution enables sales teams to conduct email and social media marketing. SharpSpring has a built-in CRM, so sales teams do not have to invest in another solution. They can better understand their buyers and design campaigns that are personalized for their leads. 

SharpSpring Features

SharpSpring has a lot of features across many channels, including email, ads, forms, and landing pages. Top features for SharpSpring include:

• Smart email and CRM marketing automation 
• Dynamic forms
• Marketing automation system
• Key lead detection 
• VisitorID
• CRM integrations
• Built-in CRM
• Landing page designer
• Blogs
• Marketing reports

SharpSpring Integrations 

SharpSpring hosts an App Marketplace that offers a variety of integrations and services for sales teams. The platform has API, native, and Zapier integrations to connect users to their other platforms and tools. Top SharpSpring integrations include:

• Salesforce
• Shutterstock
• Litmus
• WebEx
• Databox
• Survicate
• LeadSync
• Veeqo
• Plecto
• AdRoll 

SharpSpring Pricing

SharpSpring tailors pricing and packages to fit the needs of specific businesses, including small and enterprise organizations. The small business plan starts at $449/month for up to 1,000 contacts. For up to 20,000 contacts, small businesses can utilize SharpSpring for $1449/month. Enterprise and Agency organizations must request a quote for pricing that includes more than 20,000 contacts. 

SharpSpring Reviews

There are not as many reviews online for SharpSpring as other marketing automation platform, but the reviews online are mainly positive. Users appreciate how cost-effective the solution is as well as the quality received for the price. Reviews also cite how fast and efficient the platform is, how easy it is to learn, and how the platform is constantly improving. Negatives include a limited email builder, issues with email deliverability, and the need to connect integrations through Zapier. 

Other ActiveCampaign Competitors and Alternatives 

There are many marketing automation solutions available on the market today, which may make it difficult for sales teams to choose the right fit for their organization. While these competitors may not offer exactly the same solutions as ActiveCampaign, their features do overlap in some ways. Additional ActiveCampaign alternatives are detailed below. 

ActiveCampaign Competitors – Mailchimp 

Marketing platforms are largely focused on connecting with prospects, converting leads, and building customer relationships. There are many channels available to sales teams today when it comes to communicating with customers, including email, phone calls, texts, and social media. Popular marketing platforms help sales teams communicate across all these channels without sacrificing quality or taking up too much time. 

What is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp is a marketing platform and an ActiveCampaign competitor. The platform is designed around emails and automation to help teams grow their audience and boost revenue. As an email marketing service, Mailchimp helps sales teams communicate with leads and prospects. 

Mailchimp Features

Platform features for Mailchimp include marketing CRM tools, automation, creative tools, and analytics. Top features for Mailchimp include:

• Marketing CRM
• Signup forms
• Segmentation 
• Behavioral targeting
• Predicted demographics
• Content studio
• Subject line helper
• Campaign templates
• Customer journeys
• Reports
• A/B testing
• Surveys

Mailchimp Integrations

Mailchimp integrates with many apps and tools to help sales teams streamline processes. Top Mailchimp integrations include:

• Salesforce
• QuickBooks Online
• Shopify
• Stripe
• LiveChat
• SimpleTexting
• WordPress
• LinkedIn
• Facebook 
• Typeform

Mailchimp Pricing

Mailchimp has three pricing platforms: Essentials, Standard, and Premium. The Essentials tier starts at $11/month for up to 500 contacts. The Standard tier starts at $17/month, and the Premium tier starts at $299/month. Mailchimp also offers a free tier that includes marketing CRM, creative assistant tools, website builder, forms, and landing pages. 

Mailchimp Reviews

Mailchimp has a lot of online reviews, and most are positive. The platform is widely known and very popular among sales and marketing teams. Users like how easy is it to organize and segment audience lists, import leads, manage campaigns, and send quick newsletters. Dislikes for Mailchimp include a lack of functionality, limited features with the free plan, limited customization features, and bugs when sending emails in other languages. 

ActiveCampaign Competitor – Constant Contact 

Constant Contact is similar to Mailchimp and another ActiveCampaign alternative. Email marketing tools are frequently utilized by small businesses because they are both affordable and effective. Businesses can harness the power of an email marketing platform without investing a lot of time and money. These solutions frequently include prebuilt templates and engaging designs, so sales teams do not have to spend time creating their own emails or landing pages. They can also track their campaigns without building robust reports. 

What is Constant Contact?

Constant Contact is an email marketing tool that focuses on building and sending emails. Companies can import customer lists and data and use the platform to email prospects and customers. Salespeople can create campaigns and automate certain functions to nurture leads and develop relationships. 

Constant Contact Features

Constant Contact offers a lot of features to communicate with prospects and customers, especially via email marketing. Top features for Constant Contact include:

• Design templates
• Marketing automation
• A/B testing
• Landing pages
• List-building tools
• Event marketing
• Reporting
• Social media marketing 
• Mobile apps 

Constant Contact Integrations 

Constant Contact is a popular marketing automation tool and integrates with a wide range of other apps and platforms. Top integrations for Constant Contact include:

• Salesforce
• SurveyMonkey
• eBay
• Vimeo
• Canva
• Esty
• Eventbrite
• Shopify
• Facebook 
• WooCommerce
• Google Ads
• Facebook Ads

Constant Contact Pricing

Constant Contact’s Core tier starts at $9.99/month and includes up to 500 contacts. Pricing increases as contact volume increases. The Plus tier starts at $45/month for up to 500 contacts and includes additional list growth tools, automated emails, conversion and sales reporting, and more. Constant Contact also offers an all-in-one CRM platform through a partnership with SharpSpring. The solution starts at $449/month. 

Constant Contact Reviews

Reviews for Constant Contact online are positive. Users appreciate how easy the solution is to use for beginners, including step-by-step guides and appealing templates. Reviewers also note how easy it is to upload contacts and A/B test campaigns. Dislikes for the platform include a lack of preview abilities for landing pages, limited mobile features, and system bugs that cause delays or errors. 

ActiveCampaign Competitors Ranked

ActiveCampaign has many competitors that are popular and well-known in the marketplace. When ranking ActiveCampaign competitors, there are some clear winners in terms of features and functionality. The top ActiveCampaign competitors ranked are:

1. HubSpot Marketing Hub
2. SharpSpring
3. Adobe Marketo Engage
4. Constant Contact
5. Mailchimp

ActiveCampaign Competitors Compared

When comparing ActiveCampaign alternatives, it is important for organizations to consider their specific goals, needs, and budget. While the HubSpot Marketing Hub offers a lot of features, it can be very expensive. Some small businesses may be priced out of using this tool and can find what they need in other platforms. On the other hand, larger enterprises with complex needs may not find the solutions they need in Mailchimp or Constant Contact alone. 

ActiveCampaign vs. HubSpot Marketing Hub 

ActiveCampaign and HubSpot Marketing Hub offer many similar features. Both solutions include a CRM and marketing automation tools in the same platform. However, HubSpot is geared toward larger, enterprise-focused clients and sells their CRM and marketing automation solution separately. ActiveCampaign is a great fit for small and medium-sized businesses and sells their CRM and marketing automation solution as one package. 

ActiveCampaign vs. SharpSpring 

ActiveCampaign is a robust marketing automation solution that includes a lot of complex features. SharpSpring offers a great out-of-the-box solution for organizations that want to get up and running quickly. SharpSpring includes a blog and landing page builder as well as social media tools. ActiveCampaign is less expensive and offers both live chat and SMS messaging. 

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