ActiveCampaign Review 2025: What Nobody is Saying

This is the ultimate ActiveCampaign review: non-affiliated and 100% honest.

ActiveCampaign is a strong option if you need a great email flow builder with advanced automations, lots of integrations, and you’re okay with a bit of a learning curve.

• But it’s not for everyone.
• Some users love the power…
• Others find it overwhelming, expensive, or clunky in places.

This review is here to help you figure out which side you’re on.

We’ll cover everything: features, pricing, user feedback, and every detail which other online reviews tend to leave out.

While we’re not affiliated with ActiveCampaign, we do run a competing tool (Encharge), but this review isn’t about that. It’s about giving you the clearest, most honest breakdown so you can choose what actually works for your business — even if that’s not us.

Let’s dive in.

TL;DR of My ActiveCampaign Review

For background: My name is David and I’m the head of marketing at Encharge, where we’re putting out detailed reviews like this one.

I’ve been in the email marketing space for over 7 years — building, testing, and improving automation systems for fast-moving SaaS companies.

In that time, I’ve worked with just about every major platform out there. That helped me see what breaks at scale, what saves teams time, and what looks good in a demo but falls short in real life.

This review pulls from:

• Hands-on experience with ActiveCampaign
• Real user feedback from G2 and Trustpilot
• My work building automation tools (including Encharge)

Yes, we compete with ActiveCampaign — but this isn’t a pitch. It’s an honest breakdown to help you decide if ActiveCampaign is the right fit for you.

No hype. No bias. Just what you need to know.

What is ActiveCampaign?

Answer: ActiveCampaign is an email marketing platform built for people who want more than just newsletters.

It’s known for its advanced automation builder, letting you create flows based on how people interact with your emails, site, or sales team.

Very importantly, ActiveCampaign also includes a built-in CRM, SMS messaging, and tools for things like landing pages and lead scoring.

Think of it as an all-in-one tool for marketing and sales automation — built more for pros than beginners.

ActiveCampaign’s Pricing, Explained

ActiveCampaign isn’t cheap, and the pricing can get confusing fast.

• You’ve got four plans: Starter, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise
• And two types of bundles: Marketing and Sales.

Most people just need the marketing side, so that’s what we’ll focus on here.

However, there’s one thing you have to know first:

There’s a catch: The more contacts you have, the more you’ll pay.

And certain features (like predictive sending or AI content) are only available on higher plans — even if your contact list is small.

Breaking down the pricing plans

The jump between tiers isn’t just about more contacts — it’s also about what you unlock at each level.

Some core features (like A/B testing) aren’t available on the lower plans. So depending on what you need, you might find yourself jumping to a higher tier sooner than expected.

How pricing scales with your list size

ActiveCampaign’s pricing isn’t just about the plan you pick — it also changes based on how many contacts you have.

Even if you don’t email all of them regularly, they still count toward your pricing tier, and if you want to keep historical data or segment old leads, you’ll either need to clean your list aggressively or pay more.

The monthly cost jumps pretty fast as your contact list grows:

Now, just to make things easier, let’s start with an example to picture how this cost grows with your list.

Let’s say you start with 1,000 contacts:

• The Pro plan is $79/month.
• But grow your list to 10,000? Now you’re paying $339/month.
• That’s more than 4x the price — just for having more people in your database.

This scaling model makes sense for ActiveCampaign — it’s how they grow revenue. But for small teams or fast-growing brands, it can feel like a tax on your progress.

The bigger issue: Most of the advanced features are only on higher plans. So even if you have a small list, you might end up forced into a $200+ plan just to access the tools you need.

In short, the price you see on their homepage is rarely the price you’ll actually pay in a few months.

How to pick the best ActiveCampaign plan

Before picking a plan, ask yourself:

• How big is your list now — and how fast is it growing?
• Do you really need predictive sending or machine learning?
• Will you use CRM and sales tools, or just the marketing side?

If you’re on the fence, keep reading.

We’ll walk through what each plan actually includes and what real users are saying about the value you’re getting.

Pros & Cons of ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign isn’t some generic email tool — it’s built for marketers who want real control and flexibility.

• Automations? Super strong.
• Integrations? Plenty.
• If you’re technical or running a team, there’s a lot to like.

But it’s not all smooth. Pricing jumps fast, features are locked behind higher plans, and the email editor can be frustrating.

If you’re just getting started or don’t have time to fiddle, these things can slow you down.

Pros: What ActiveCampaign Gets Right

• 👍 Flexible automation builder – You can build complex flows without code, though it takes some clicks.
• 👍 Advanced segmentation – Tag users, filter by behavior, and personalize based on attributes.
• 👍 Built-in CRM – Sales and marketing in one place for better lead tracking.
• 👍 Good deliverability – Emails usually hit inboxes, not spam folders.
• 👍 Tons of integrations – Works with 900+ tools like Stripe, Shopify, and Zapier.
• 👍 Prebuilt workflow templates – Get started quickly with done-for-you automations.

Cons: Where ActiveCampaign Falls Short

• 👎 Pricing grows fast – Your cost scales with contacts, even inactive ones.
• 👎No native SMS or WhatsApp – Requires third-party tools to message beyond email.
• 👎 Limited support on lower plans – Priority help is gated to higher tiers.
• 👎 Clunky email editor – Bugs and formatting issues slow you down.
• 👎 Weak A/B testing – Only tests subject lines, no full-flow or multivariate testing.
• 👎 Basic CRM features – Enough for small teams, but not a HubSpot replacement.
• 👎 No event tracking built-in – You’ll need dev help or integrations for user behavior.
• 👎 Old leads cost money – Pricing doesn’t forgive stale or inactive contacts.

Features: What does ActiveCampaign offer?

If you’ve been on ActiveCampaign’s site, you’ve probably seen a wall of features — automations, CRM, predictive sending, machine learning… the works.

• But what do those features actually do?
• Which ones are useful?
• Which ones end up collecting dust?

In this section, we’ll break down the most talked-about features — the good, the bad, and the stuff that real users say makes a difference (or doesn’t).

We’ve also added direct quotes from ActiveCampaign customers.

1. Email Automation

This is ActiveCampaign’s core. You build flows using their drag-and-drop visual builder.

Think: When someone signs up → wait 2 days → check if they opened email → send offer/reminder accordingly.

You can branch the flow based on behavior, tags, lists, or custom fields.

What’s good is how flexible it is.

You can mix email sequences, sales pipeline updates, tagging, and lead scoring into one flow. This gives you real control over how you move leads through your funnel.

Tim’s review on G2: “The automation flows are incredible, intuitive and just work in the background.”

But if you’re new, it can be a bit much. The visual builder looks easy at first, but once you start building logic-heavy flows, it’s easy to get lost.

Some users said the documentation didn’t match the current UI, which made onboarding harder than it should be.

User complaint:
⚠️ “All their tutorial videos and guides are completely outdated compared to the current interface.” — Michael Mangan on Trustpilot

2. Email Campaign Builder

ActiveCampaign lets you build and send one-off emails, or “Broadcasts,” to your entire list or a segment of it.

The builder is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), but it’s not the most modern editor out there.

You can personalize emails, insert dynamic content, and choose from templates. But multiple users noted that the design tools are clunky and buggy — especially when formatting on mobile.

User complaints:
⚠️ “The email editor does not allow mobile emails to be formatted separately.” — Geoffrey Nixon on Trustpilot
⚠️ “Formatting is frequently glitchy and my emails will contain odd font shifts, color changes, and spacing issues.” — Kimberly B. on Trustpilot

If you’re just trying to get a clean, mobile-ready campaign out fast, this can be frustrating. This is where a cleaner, simpler tool like Encharge’s user profiles might feel easier.

3. Segmentation and Targeting

Segmentation is one of ActiveCampaign’s strengths.

You can build segments based on behavior, email activity, tags, custom fields, and more. This helps you send the right message to the right people — without blasting your whole list.

That said, several users said it can get confusing fast.

It’s powerful, but not beginner-friendly.

User reviews:
⚠️ Makayla L. on G2: “I think they are improving the segmentation, but that also is sometimes hard to understand.”

✅ Nadine V. on G2: “The segmentation is top-notch, ensuring that every message reaches the right audience at the right time.”

For teams that want deep logic and don’t mind a learning curve, it’s great. For those that want to build quick audiences without reading docs? Maybe not ideal.

4. CRM and Sales Features

This is where ActiveCampaign tries to stand out: it’s not just for email — it’s also a full CRM. You can track deals, assign tasks, manage pipelines, and score leads.

If your sales and marketing teams are working closely together, this could be a plus. Especially if you’re using the sales triggers inside automations.

But if you’re not using ActiveCampaign for sales, these features just bloat the interface and confuse things. Also, CRM features like lead scoring and task management are only on higher-tier plans.

To offer a leaner alternative, Encharge offers lead scoring and basic user tracking — without requiring a full CRM setup.

5. A/B Testing

ActiveCampaign lets you split test subject lines, content, and send times — though it’s mostly limited to email broadcasts.

If you want to test different flows or user journeys in your automations, you’ll need to get creative. A/B testing isn’t native to automations like it is in other tools.

User feature request:
⚠️ Makayla L. on G2: “We used to get free consultations twice a year… now that has been revoked.” (related to optimizing campaigns)

6. Reporting and Analytics

ActiveCampaign gives you email performance stats, automation metrics, and attribution reports on the higher plans.

If you’re on Pro or Enterprise, you get more detailed funnel reporting and predictive analytics.

But a lot of users say reporting is either overkill or hard to work with.

User complaint:s
⚠️ Novella C. on G2: “I would like for the reporting to have the capability of being printed or shared in some way.”

⚠️ Matt P. on G2: “I wish this platform could… flag emails that are likely landing in spam.”

If all you need is clear visibility into what’s working and what’s not, simpler tools like Encharge offer real-time email stats built into every user profile.

7. Form Builder and Website Tracking

ActiveCampaign includes basic form creation and site tracking — but again, it’s more functional than friendly. You can build pop-ups and inline forms and track what pages people visit.

However, form customization is limited unless you know CSS, and reviews point to a lack of polish.]

ActiveCampaign’s Customer Support

ActiveCampaign sounds like it has a ton of support options — and to be fair, on paper, it does. But what matters is how useful these actually are — and what kind of help you can expect when things break or get confusing.

Let’s start by laying out your options.

Ways to Contact ActiveCampaign

At the end of the day, calling isn’t for everybody.

That’s why we’ve made this list with all the methods for getting customer support and contacting ActiveCampaign’s team:

• Help Center: A large library of how-to guides and troubleshooting articles
• ActiveCampaign University: Video tutorials and learning paths
• Live Training & Webinars: Ongoing sessions to get better at the platform
• Free 1:1 Strategy Sessions: For qualified users — usually available when onboarding
• Migration Support: ActiveCampaign will help you move contacts and automations from another tool
• Community Support: Facebook group, Slack community, and a forum

Now, this probably got you wondering…

But How Good Is ActiveCampaign’s Support?

This is where the reviews start to paint a different picture. Many users say the knowledge base is helpful — but when you actually need to talk to someone?

It gets frustrating.

Here’s what real users said:

• Slow response times, via G2: “Customer support was much faster when I first joined… now it can take days.”
• Hard to get live help: “Next to impossible to get through to a person.” – Mandy, Trustpilot
• Upsells for support: “They refused to have a call with us without paying an additional $79.” – Brittany, Trustpilot

In other words, ActiveCampaign does offer live support and onboarding, but access depends heavily on your plan, timing, and sometimes even who you talk to.

At Encharge, we keep things simple: Every plan comes with live chat support, email help, and onboarding guidance — no hidden fees.

Reviews from Real Users: What do Users Think of ActiveCampaign?

Before we wrap up, let’s look at what real users say about ActiveCampaign — the good, the bad, and the stuff most reviews don’t highlight.

On Trustpilot, ActiveCampaign currently sits at a 3.0 out of 5 rating, based on 1,128+ reviews.

• Trustpilot: 3.0/5 ⭐️
• G2: 4.5/5 ⭐️
• Capterra: 4.6/5 ⭐️

That’s… average.

It’s not terrible, but not what you’d expect from a platform at this price point. Now, let’s take a look at the good and the bad (all reviews below have been preciously cited).

What People Like

• Solid automation features: “Automation options are good, sync with Salesforce and Zapier are reliable.” — Geoffrey Nixon
• Great for managing leads: “ActiveCampaign is great for housing leads, and tracking the campaigns and notes for each lead.” — Victoria
• Flexible integrations: “Easy to connect to other platforms (typeform, stripe).” — Victoria

What People Complain About

• Price hikes and hidden costs: “Price increased significantly… without any communication.” — Lisa O’Neill
• Dated UX and clunky design: “Feels like it’s 12 separate systems duct taped together.” — Nathan
• Poor customer support: “Customer service is incompetent and utterly unhelpful.” — Nathan
• Features moved behind paywalls: “They removed features from packages to move them into higher tier packages without any type of communication.” — Mandy

Similar to what Lisa O’Neill said, you should know that ActiveCampaign raises their prices very often, and they never grandfather their old users’ plans.

There’s a clear split.

Long-time users appreciate the automation power, but many are frustrated with price jumps, dated UX, and customer service decline. For small teams and fast-growing businesses, these are real blockers — especially if you’re paying $200+ a month.

If you’re worried about scaling costs, clunky workflows, or support delays, you might want to look at alternatives like Encharge.

What Other Articles Won’t Tell You about ActiveCampaign

Most review sites either hype up ActiveCampaign because they’re affiliates — or bash it because they’re trying to sell you something else.

We’re doing neither.

Yes, we built a competing product. But we’re not here to trash ActiveCampaign. In fact, we respect what they’ve built — it was one of the first tools to make marketing automation accessible to small teams. And many of their features still do the job.

That said, we’ve also heard from hundreds of users who switched to Encharge after outgrowing ActiveCampaign or getting frustrated with the experience. And we’ve read through 850+ real reviews to understand why.

Here’s what most articles won’t tell you:

• You’ll probably pay more than you expect. The pricing jumps fast as your list grows, and most of the good stuff (like predictive sending) is locked behind expensive plans.
• Support isn’t what it used to be. More than one reviewer said getting help is slow or frustrating — even after paying hundreds per month.
• It’s powerful, but not simple. If you’re not technical, expect a learning curve. Many workflows feel clunky or buried under layers of setup.

We’re not saying ActiveCampaign is bad — just that it’s not always the best fit, especially for lean teams that need to move fast.

So before you commit, ask yourself:

• Do you need this level of complexity right now?
• Are you OK with support that’s hit-or-miss?
• Are you ready to pay more as your list grows?

If the answer’s “maybe,” try a few alternatives side-by-side.

You’ve got options. Pick the one that works for you — not the one with the biggest name.

Pro Tip: After reading all of this, you may not like ActiveCampaign nor Encharge. In that case, you might want to read an honest list of the best ActiveCampaign alternatives.

Conclusion: Should You Buy ActiveCampaign?

If you’re running a large team, need a full CRM, and don’t mind paying more as you grow — ActiveCampaign can work.

It’s packed with features, the automation is flexible, and for some businesses, it just clicks.

But here’s the real talk:

• It’s not cheap, especially once your list grows past a few thousand.
• The learning curve is real — especially if you’re not technical.
• Support can be slow, and simple things sometimes feel harder than they should be.

We’ve seen plenty of users start strong with ActiveCampaign… then hit walls. Complexity, costs, or clunky UX gets in the way.

That’s why we built Encharge. It’s what we wanted as users:

✅ Easier flows
✅ Simpler pricing
✅ Features that just work for SaaS and online businesses

No hard pitch, just facts. If you’re still deciding, keep reading the FAQs up next.

Or if you’re ready to try something smoother — start with Encharge free.

FAQ about ActiveCampaign

1. Is ActiveCampaign free?

No, ActiveCampaign isn’t free. They offer a 14-day free trial, but all plans are paid — and pricing scales with your list size.

Here’s what you should know:

• No forever-free plan (you’ll need to pay after the trial)
• Pricing is based on contacts — more contacts = higher monthly cost
• Starter plan starts at $15/month for 1,000 contacts (billed monthly)
• Most useful features (like A/B testing, lead scoring, predictive sending) are only on higher-tier plans

There’s also a send limit of 10x your contact count, meaning 10,000 emails/month if you have 1,000 contacts.

2. Is ActiveCampaign HIPAA compliant?

Yes — but only on the Enterprise plan, and only if you sign a BAA. ActiveCampaign offers HIPAA compliance for healthcare use, but it’s not automatic.

You’ll need to:

• Be on an Enterprise plan (starts at $145/month)
• Request and sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA)
• Use approved features only (some tools may be excluded)

Without the BAA, your account is not HIPAA compliant — even if you’re on a high-tier plan.

3. Is ActiveCampaign GDPR compliant?

Yes, ActiveCampaign is GDPR compliant. ActiveCampaign takes data protection seriously and offers several tools to help businesses stay compliant with the GDPR.

Here’s what they provide:

• Data Processing Agreement (DPA): You can sign a DPA with ActiveCampaign to formalize your compliance.
• GDPR Tools: ActiveCampaign includes features like opt-in forms, cookie consent banners, and data access management.
• Security Features: ActiveCampaign follows security best practices like encryption and access controls to protect customer data.

By using these features, you can manage user consent, ensure data portability, and provide your customers with the right to be forgotten.

4. Is ActiveCampaign publicly traded?

No, ActiveCampaign is not publicly traded. ActiveCampaign is a privately held company, meaning it is not listed on any stock exchange.

As of now, investing in ActiveCampaign can only be done through private funding rounds, and opportunities for pre-IPO investments are available only to accredited investors.

Source: Hiive.

Still Not Sure? Try Encharge for Free

I get it — choosing the right tool for your business can be a big decision. If you’re unsure whether ActiveCampaign is the best fit, why not give Encharge a shot instead?

Encharge offers a free trial so you can explore its features risk-free and see how it stacks up.

With easy-to-use automation, powerful segmentation, and personalized emails, Encharge might just be the perfect solution to streamline your marketing efforts.

Ready to see the difference? Start your free trial with Encharge today.

Thank you so much for reading this,
David Ch
Head of Marketing at Encharge