ActiveCampaign has the most sophisticated automation builder in the mid-market, and the most modular pricing in the category. Those two facts are related, and together they explain why the plan price is a floor rather than a ceiling.
ActiveCampaign describes this as a modular approach — you buy what you need rather than a bundle. That is a fair defence. But it means comparing its list price against Mailchimp or Brevo is misleading unless you add up the modules you will actually need.
The billing model
Priced on contacts, with monthly sends as a multiple of that count: 10× on Starter and Plus, 12× on Pro, 15× on Enterprise. Structurally the same as Mailchimp.
Plans are quoted billed annually by default, so the headline figure assumes a year’s commitment. There are also three separate product tracks — Email, WhatsApp, and Email + WhatsApp — each with its own ladder.
The four email plans
Starter
Limited segmentation, standard CRM and ecommerce integrations, 1 user, 15 active business goals, one AI brand kit, inbox preview five times a month, basic support.
The gate: 5 actions per automation. Not five automations — five actions inside each one. A welcome flow with a wait, a condition and two sends is at the ceiling. No landing pages either.
Plus
Standard segmentation, unlimited automation actions, landing pages, 25 active goals, five brand kits. Still 1 user.
The jump from Starter to Plus is the one that makes the automation builder usable. It is also where most people discover they need to be.
Pro
Advanced segmentation, premium ecommerce integrations, predictive and conditional content, attribution and conversion tracking, predictive sending, 200 active goals, unlimited Active Intelligence access, 3 users, priority support.
Enterprise
Premium segmentation, premium CRM integrations (Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics), custom objects, SSO, HIPAA support, an uptime SLA, a dedicated account team, unlimited inbox previews, custom reporting included rather than as an add-on, 5 users.
The user limits are the quiet constraint
One user on Starter. One user on Plus. Three on Pro. Five on Enterprise.
Most competitors give you three seats at their middle tier. If two people touch your email programme, ActiveCampaign pushes you to Pro on headcount alone, before any feature requirement enters the conversation. Additional users are available as an add-on.
What is an add-on rather than included
This is the part worth reading closely, because it is where the real cost lives:
- Transactional email — an add-on on every plan including Enterprise. Password resets, receipts and confirmations are not part of any tier.
- SMS marketing — add-on
- WhatsApp messaging — add-on, or a separate product track
- Pipelines (enhanced CRM) — add-on. Pipeline management, deal records, account records and lead scoring all sit here.
- Sales engagement — add-on. Automated 1:1 email and win probability.
- Custom reporting — add-on on Starter, Plus and Pro; included only on Enterprise.
- AI Activities — add-on. AI translations and AI actions.
- Additional users — add-on
The one that surprises people most is lead scoring sitting inside the Pipelines add-on. ActiveCampaign is widely recommended as the CRM-plus-email option, but the CRM capabilities that justify that recommendation are not in the base plans.
What ActiveCampaign genuinely does better
The critique above should not obscure the case for it:
- The best automation builder in the mid-market. Multi-step, multi-trigger, conditional, with 950+ prebuilt recipes. If your flows are genuinely complex, nothing at this price does it better.
- 1,000+ integrations, including Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics at the top tier.
- Free migration and onboarding. Contact migration is listed among the free services on every plan, with no setup fees — a genuine differentiator that many competitors charge for or reserve for enterprise.
- A 30-day money-back guarantee, and a 14-day trial with no card required.
- Predictive sending and conditional content from Pro, which is earlier than most competitors gate equivalent features.
How it compares
At roughly 10,000 contacts, from our tested comparison (verified June 2026 — check vendor pages for current figures):
- Bluey Email $14 — per send
- Brevo ~$17 — per send
- MailerLite $89 — per subscriber
- Omnisend $132 — per contact
- Mailchimp $135 — per contact
- Klaviyo $175 — per profile
- ActiveCampaign $189 — per contact
ActiveCampaign is the most expensive on that list before add-ons. Add transactional and pipelines and the gap widens. Whether that is worth it depends almost entirely on whether you will use the automation depth you are paying for — and a lot of accounts do not.
Is ActiveCampaign worth it?
Yes, if your automations are genuinely complex, you need Salesforce or Dynamics integration, or the flows you want are impossible on simpler tools. It is the right answer for a real automation problem.
Probably not, if you send newsletters and a welcome series, you need transactional email included rather than bolted on, more than one person needs access at the lower tiers, or your list is large relative to how often you mail it.
The most common expensive mistake here is buying ActiveCampaign for automation capability that never gets built. If your flows would fit comfortably on a simpler platform, the difference is pure cost.
See ActiveCampaign alternatives or Bluey Email vs ActiveCampaign.
Frequently asked questions
Does ActiveCampaign charge per contact?
Yes. Monthly sends are a multiple of contacts — 10× on Starter and Plus, 12× on Pro, 15× on Enterprise.
Is transactional email included?
No. It is an add-on on every plan, including Enterprise.
How many users do I get?
One on Starter, one on Plus, three on Pro, five on Enterprise. Additional users are an add-on.
What is the automation limit on Starter?
Five actions per automation. Plus and above have unlimited actions.
Does ActiveCampaign include a CRM?
A basic one — contact profiles, custom fields, tags and lists. Pipeline management, deal records and lead scoring require the Pipelines add-on.
Does ActiveCampaign offer free migration?
Yes. Contact migration and onboarding are listed among the free services on every plan, with no setup fees.
If the add-on stacking is the problem
Bluey Email includes transactional email, the built-in CRM with lead scoring, and automations with conditional branching within the plan rather than as separate purchases — and bills on emails sent rather than contacts stored. For senders above 100,000 emails a month, our team does the migration hands-on: lists, templates and automations. Below that, we guide you through it.
See Bluey Email pricing, or compare with Mailchimp, Brevo and Constant Contact pricing.
Plan structure, send multiples, user limits and the add-on matrix verified from activecampaign.com/pricing, September 2026. ActiveCampaign displays prices dynamically by contact count and currency — check their pricing page for figures at your list size. Comparative price points dated June 2026.