Pricing guide
Review
ActiveCampaign Review (2026): Official Plans, Limits, and Who It Actually Fits
An independent, document-based ActiveCampaign review using official USD prices, plan limits, trial terms, and comparisons checked on November 13, 2026. No star ratings or invented testimonials.
On this page
- The short answer
- How we researched this review
- Official pricing, in brief
- What the official plan grid actually contrasts
- Who official ActiveCampaign fits — and who should look elsewhere
- Official prices at larger published contact tiers
- Official send, seat, and add-on limits that change the fit
- Official price context against tools people actually compare
- How this review is not a score
- FAQ
- Sources and method
The short answer
This is an independent, document-based review of ActiveCampaign, not a hands-on lab test and not a star rating. On November 13, 2026 (America/Denver), official ActiveCampaign marketing plans were Starter, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise, priced on contacts with a 1,000-contact minimum and no free plan on the pricing page we checked. Official USD starting rates at 1,000 contacts were $19 / $59 / $99 / $179 a month, or $15 / $49 / $79 / $145 billed yearly ($180 / $588 / $948 / $1,740 a year). The official page advertised a 14-day free trial with email sign-up and no credit card needed, plus the vendor line “Guaranteed results in 30 days or your money back.”
Those official limits make ActiveCampaign a reasonable mid-market email and automation option when you are already at or above 1,000 contacts and you want a published four-plan, yearly-billed ladder — especially official Plus or Pro items such as landing pages and generative AI (Plus), CRM and SMS add-ons (Plus and up), or predictive sending and conditional content (Pro). It is a weaker official fit if you need a free plan, a quote below the 1,000-contact minimum, a creator-style free cap at 10,000 subscribers, or a full multi-hub platform in HubSpot's official Professional or Enterprise band.
Full price tables: ActiveCampaign pricing. Head-to-heads: vs Mailchimp, vs Klaviyo, vs HubSpot. Honest alternatives: ActiveCampaign alternatives. Official trial terms: ActiveCampaign free trial.
See ActiveCampaign's official plans
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How we researched this review
On November 13, 2026, we opened activecampaign.com/pricing and the official USD catalog that page loads (https://www.activecampaign.com/marketing/api/v1/pricing-catalog?c=ac2024¤cy=USD). Plan names, contact minimums, month-to-month and yearly-billed rates, send multiples, seat counts, feature-grid inclusions, trial copy, and the 30-day money-back line come from those official sources. Comparison figures for other vendors come from their official pricing pages or official catalogs, as cited in the linked guides.
This site is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, ActiveCampaign. Some links to ActiveCampaign are affiliate links. We do not invent testimonials, multi-month test results, or star ratings, and we do not publish coupons.
Official pricing, in brief
The official catalog's 1,000-contact starting row is the right place to begin, because ActiveCampaign does not publish a cheaper band below that minimum. If your list is smaller, you still pay the 1,000-contact starting price.
| Official plan (13 Nov 2026, 1,000 contacts) | Month-to-month | Yearly-billed / month | Official annual total | Included sends | Included seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19 | $15 | $180 | 10,000 (10×) | 1 (max 2) |
| Plus | $59 | $49 | $588 | 10,000 (10×) | 1 |
| Pro | $99 | $79 | $948 | 12,000 (12×) | 3 |
| Enterprise | $179 | $145 | $1,740 | 15,000 (15×) | 5 |
Official send caps are a multiple of the contact limit: 10× on Starter and Plus, 12× on Pro, 15× on Enterprise. Official Starter also caps contacts at 25,000; Plus, Pro, and Enterprise continue higher. At 10,000 contacts, official month-to-month rates were $189 / $239 / $469 / $739, or $149 / $189 / $375 / $589 yearly-billed. At 25,000 contacts, official month-to-month Starter and Plus are both $489 (yearly-billed $391 and $389). That 25,000 row is Starter's last published tier.
The official comparison grid lists 500 Active Intelligence credits on all four plans. We did not find a published per-seat dollar rate in the catalog entitlements we read, so this review does not invent one.
CRM pipelines, sales engagement, and SMS are official add-ons on Plus, Pro, and Enterprise, and not on Starter. The public grid does not print a complete add-on rate card. Get those quotes from the official calculator rather than from this page.
What the official plan grid actually contrasts
Starter is officially described as being for getting first automations live. Besides the price and the 25,000-contact cap, the official grid lists tight Starter limits: email only (no official cross-channel marketing), five automation actions, five lists, fifteen business goals, one included seat with a two-seat maximum, and no official landing pages, generative AI for content and images, predictive sending, conditional content, or CRM/SMS add-ons.
Plus is the first official plan whose published grid includes landing pages, generative AI, cross-channel marketing, and access to CRM and SMS add-ons. Official Plus still includes one seat and a 10× send cap. It is the first catalog plan that continues past 25,000 contacts.
Pro officially adds predictive sending, conditional content, advanced segmentation, attribution and conversion tracking, three included seats, and a 12× send cap.
Enterprise officially adds items aimed at larger teams, including SSO, HIPAA support as listed on the page, Salesforce or Dynamics-class CRM integrations, custom objects, a dedicated account team, an uptime SLA, and five included seats.
Those are vendor-published inclusions, not a claim that we configured every feature in a production account.
Who official ActiveCampaign fits — and who should look elsewhere
A reasonable official fit if you need mid-market email plus automation, you can accept a 1,000-contact minimum and no official free plan, and you will actually use Plus or Pro inclusions — or you simply want official yearly-billed Starter at a list size the catalog prices. The official 14-day trial and 30-day money-back line are the documented ways to test that without relying on a reviewer's unsourced case study.
Look at an official alternative when a published limit is the reason, not a brand preference:
- You want an official free plan. Mailchimp, Klaviyo, MailerLite, Brevo, Kit, HubSpot, and Omnisend all published one on the date we checked, with different caps. ActiveCampaign did not.
- Your list is under 1,000 contacts and a vendor that officially starts at 500 contacts or 500 subscribers (Mailchimp Essentials at $13, MailerLite Comfort at $12, Klaviyo Email at $20) is the quote you want.
- You are a creator and Kit's official Free plan up to 10,000 subscribers, or official Creator at the 1,000-subscriber display ($33 a month or $390 billed yearly), is the package you want. Kit also officially states there are no sending limits on any plan.
- You need a full HubSpot-style suite. Official Marketing Hub Professional starts at $800–$890 a month plus $3,000 required onboarding; official Enterprise at $3,600 a month plus $7,000 onboarding. ActiveCampaign is not an official substitute for that whole platform. See HubSpot alternatives.
- You want ecommerce-first official Marketing products (Klaviyo official Marketing includes social, reviews, and Customer Hub on the compare table). Official Klaviyo Email at 1,000 profiles was $30 a month — above official ActiveCampaign Starter, below official Plus. See ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo.
Official prices at larger published contact tiers
The 1,000-contact row is only the start of the official catalog. A few later official USD steps (month-to-month / yearly-billed monthly equivalent):
| Contacts | Starter | Plus | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,500 | $49 / $39 | $119 / $95 | $189 / $149 | $319 / $255 |
| 5,000 | $99 / $79 | $179 / $145 | $259 / $205 | $469 / $375 |
| 10,000 | $189 / $149 | $239 / $189 | $469 / $375 | $739 / $589 |
| 25,000 | $489 / $391 (last Starter tier) | $489 / $389 | $789 / $629 | $1,099 / $879 |
| 50,000 | — (no official Starter row) | $759 / $609 | $1,209 / $969 | $1,459 / $1,169 |
| 100,000 | — | $1,499 / $1,199 | $1,999 / $1,599 | $2,169 / $1,735 |
Empty Starter cells above 25,000 contacts are not omissions. The official catalog stops pricing Starter there. If growth past that cap is likely, official Plus is the first plan the catalog continues to price.
A simple arithmetic check, using only official 1,000-contact numbers: twelve month-to-month Starter invoices would be $228; the official annual total is $180. The same check is $708 versus $588 on Plus, $1,188 versus $948 on Pro, and $2,148 versus $1,740 on Enterprise. Official yearly billing is the lower published total if you keep the same plan for a year. It is not a coupon from this site.
Official send, seat, and add-on limits that change the fit
Sends. Official caps are 10× contacts on Starter and Plus, 12× on Pro, and 15× on Enterprise. At 10,000 contacts that is 100,000 / 100,000 / 120,000 / 150,000 monthly sends. Confirm overage rules on the official page; we are not inventing an overage rate the public grid did not print.
Seats. Official included seats are 1 / 1 / 3 / 5. Starter's official maximum is 2. Plus, Pro, and Enterprise list much higher maxima in the catalog (999). Because we did not verify a public per-seat dollar price, budget extra seats only after you look them up on the official calculator.
Add-ons. Official Pipelines, Pipelines & sales engagement, and SMS are marked available on Plus, Pro, and Enterprise, and not on Starter. WhatsApp is an official channel add-on path, not a Starter inclusion. This review does not quote unofficial per-message or per-pipeline prices.
Credits. Official grid: 500 Active Intelligence credits on all four plans. The pricing-page FAQ describes credits as applying when Active Intelligence completes actions outside its core set, and it lists some AI features as limited or included by plan (for example, AI content and image generation are listed as not included on Starter). Treat those as vendor-published limits.
Official price context against tools people actually compare
These snapshots use official figures checked the same day. They are not a single winner table.
- At 1,000 contacts, official ActiveCampaign Starter ($19 or $15 yearly-billed) sits below official Klaviyo Email ($30) and official Klaviyo Marketing list ($40), and in the same neighborhood as official MailerLite Comfort ($19 or $17.10 yearly-billed) and official GetResponse Starter ($19 or $15.58 annually). Official Plus ($59 or $49 yearly-billed) is higher than official Email and official Comfort, and it is the first AC plan whose official grid includes landing pages, generative AI, and CRM/SMS add-ons.
- There is no official Mailchimp 1,000-contact row and no official ActiveCampaign 500-contact row. Official Mailchimp Essentials and Standard start at $13 and $20 at 500 contacts. Do not interpolate the missing cells.
- At 10,000 contacts, official Mailchimp Standard was $135 and official Klaviyo Email was $150, versus official ActiveCampaign Starter at $189 month-to-month or $149 yearly-billed, and official Plus at $239 or $189 yearly-billed. Official Mailchimp Premium starts at $350 at this size. Feature grids still differ.
- Official HubSpot Marketing Professional ($800–$890 a month plus $3,000 onboarding, 2,000 contacts included) and Enterprise ($3,600 a month plus $7,000 onboarding, 10,000 contacts included) are a different platform band. Official ActiveCampaign is not a full-suite replacement.
More detail lives in the comparison guides linked at the top of this review.
How this review is not a score
We are not attaching a star rating, an “editor’s choice” badge, or a made-up recommended score. Schema on this site does not include Review or AggregateRating types. If a third-party directory shows a rating, that is their figure, not ours. A dated reading of official prices and limits is what this review can support.
We also do not invent “we switched and revenue went up” stories, inbox-placement tests, or a claim that we ran ActiveCampaign for a stated number of months. When we have not used a product end-to-end, we do not write as if we have.
Open ActiveCampaign's official pricing
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FAQ
Is ActiveCampaign worth it?
It depends on official limits, not on a slogan. If official Plus or Pro inclusions and the contact-tier prices above match the work, it can be a reasonable official pick. If you need a free plan, a sub-1,000 official starting band, or a multi-hub CRM platform, official alternatives may fit better. Use the official trial to check the product against those limits.
Does ActiveCampaign have a free plan?
No official free plan appeared on the pricing page we checked on November 13, 2026. The official entry is a 14-day trial with email sign-up and no credit card needed.
Did you give ActiveCampaign a star rating?
No. This review does not publish star ratings or fake review schema.
What is the cheapest official ActiveCampaign plan?
Starter. At 1,000 contacts it was $15 a month billed yearly, or $19 month-to-month, on November 13, 2026. It also has the tightest official limits, including a 25,000-contact maximum.
Does official ActiveCampaign include CRM?
A CRM path is official, with limits. The comparison grid lists Pipelines and sales-engagement add-ons as available on Plus, Pro, and Enterprise, and not on Starter. Get the add-on quote from the official calculator.
Sources and method
Checked November 13, 2026 (America/Denver): ActiveCampaign official pricing and official USD catalog https://www.activecampaign.com/marketing/api/v1/pricing-catalog?c=ac2024¤cy=USD. Comparison figures are taken from the dated official-source guides linked above, not from third-party scorecards.