The best ActiveCampaign alternative for most businesses is HubSpot: free for 2 users and 1,000 contacts, a full sales pipeline on every tier, and Starter at $9 per seat. If cost is the problem, Brevo starts free and its paid marketing plans begin at $9 a month. If you run a store, Klaviyo; if you run an agency, GoHighLevel at a flat $97 a month.
This guide is for people who know ActiveCampaign and want out, or who are pricing it against the field before committing. For a ranking across every kind of team, start with our guide to the best CRM software. If you are still deciding on ActiveCampaign itself, read our ActiveCampaign review first; in short, it is the best automation builder at its price and a limited CRM.
ActiveCampaign alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | G2 rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | All-in-one with a real CRM | $9/seat/mo (Starter, annual) | Free · 2 users, 1,000 contacts | 4.4 ★ |
| Brevo | Cheap marketing plus light CRM | $9/mo (Starter) | Free · 300 emails/day | — |
| Mailchimp | Simple newsletters | $13/mo (Essentials, 500 contacts) | Free · 500 contacts | — |
| Klaviyo | Ecommerce email and SMS | $20/mo (Email, 500 contacts) | Free · 250 contacts | — |
| Keap | Small-business sales automation | About $249/mo (2 users, 1,500 contacts) | 14-day trial | — |
| Zoho CRM | Best value per seat | $14/user/mo (Standard, annual) | Free · 3 users | 4.1 ★ |
| GoHighLevel | Agencies with many clients | $97/mo flat (Starter) | 14-day trial | 4.6 ★ |
| ActiveCampaign (reference) | Behaviour-based automation | $15/mo (Starter, 1,000 contacts) | 14-day trial | 4.5 ★ |
Prices from each vendor's US site, September 2026, billed annually unless noted; Keap from third-party trackers. G2 ratings as published on 21 Sept 2026; "—" means not verified.
HubSpot
All-in-One With Free CRMHubSpot is where most ActiveCampaign leavers land, because it fixes two complaints at once: the CRM is real and it is free to start. Two users get contact and deal records, a pipeline, email tracking, a meeting scheduler, live chat, a shared inbox and dashboards with no expiry. Starter at $9 per seat removes branding and adds simple automation. Marketing email at scale is a separate product, Marketing Hub, priced by contacts.
Who it's for: small businesses that want one record for sales, marketing and support, and any team where reps need a pipeline daily.
Why it beats ActiveCampaign: a full pipeline on every tier, no per-user cap, a free plan, and the easiest setup we have tested (5.0 for ease of use against 3.9).
What to watch: automation that rivals ActiveCampaign's arrives at Professional, $90 per seat plus $1,500 onboarding; until then HubSpot's automation is thin. See ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot.
Pros and cons
- Free plan with a working pipeline
- Per-seat pricing, no contact metering on the CRM
- Largest integration marketplace
- Deep automation costs $90 per seat plus onboarding
- Marketing Hub is a second product
Brevo
Cheapest marketing plus CRMBrevo, formerly Sendinblue, is the budget answer. The free plan allows 300 emails a day, paid marketing plans start at $9 a month, and Business from $18 adds marketing automation and A/B testing. A separate Sales Platform offers a pipeline with a free tier and a Pro seat at $12 a month, so a two-person business can run email and deals for under $40.
Who it's for: solo operators and very small teams whose ActiveCampaign bill has outgrown its value.
Why it beats ActiveCampaign: price. Brevo's marketing plans charge by emails sent, not contacts stored, so a large, quiet list does not push you up a tier.
What to watch: automation is shallower and the CRM is a light pipeline. Based on vendor documentation and published pricing; not reviewed in full.
Pros and cons
- Free plan and $9 entry
- Charges by sends, not contacts stored
- Transactional email and SMS in the same account
- Automation shallower than ActiveCampaign
- Light CRM
Mailchimp
Simplest email marketingIf you left ActiveCampaign because you only ever sent newsletters, Mailchimp is the obvious replacement. The editor is the easiest in the category, the free plan covers 500 contacts and 1,000 sends a month, and Essentials starts at $13 a month. Standard at $20 adds the journey builder and send-time optimisation; Premium at $350 is for large teams and lists.
Who it's for: businesses whose email programme is a regular newsletter plus a welcome series, not a web of behaviour-triggered flows.
Why it beats ActiveCampaign: simplicity and a permanent free plan. A new user can send a campaign in an hour without learning tags, lists and segments.
What to watch: Mailchimp also prices by contacts, its automation is no substitute for ActiveCampaign's canvas, and there is no real sales pipeline. Based on vendor documentation and published pricing.
Pros and cons
- Easiest editor in the category
- Free to 500 contacts
- Huge template and integration library
- Automation is basic below Standard
- No real CRM
- Also priced by contacts
Leaving for a real sales CRM?
Our small-business guide ranks eight CRMs on price, ease of use and fit for teams under 25 people, with pricing verified this month.
Klaviyo
Best for ecommerceKlaviyo is where ActiveCampaign's ecommerce customers usually go. It is built around store data from Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce, so abandoned-cart, browse-abandonment, post-purchase and win-back flows come prebuilt with revenue attributed to each. Free covers 250 contacts; email starts at $20 a month for 500 contacts, email plus SMS at $35.
Who it's for: online stores that want every email and text tied to an order, and marketers who report on revenue per flow rather than open rates.
Why it beats ActiveCampaign: store-native flows, predictive analytics on customer lifetime value, and SMS in the same plan rather than as a credit add-on.
What to watch: it is an ecommerce tool first; B2B teams and service businesses will find the CRM side thin, and pricing climbs with list size as ActiveCampaign's does. Based on vendor documentation and published pricing.
Pros and cons
- Prebuilt revenue-attributed store flows
- Email and SMS together
- Free to 250 contacts
- Weak fit outside ecommerce
- Priced by profiles, so it scales up quickly
Keap
Small-business sales automationKeap, formerly Infusionsoft, is the closest thing here to ActiveCampaign with the CRM turned up. It bundles a pipeline, appointment booking, quotes, invoicing and payments with an automation builder, for service businesses that want one system for the whole client journey. Pricing is $249 a month for 2 users on annual billing ($299 monthly); extra users are $39 a month.
Who it's for: established service businesses — consultants, clinics, home services — that want automation and a pipeline and will pay for both in one tool.
Why it beats ActiveCampaign: the CRM, quoting, invoicing and payments are built in, not add-ons, and the pipeline is designed for a small team of people rather than a single marketer.
What to watch: the entry price is well above ActiveCampaign Plus, contact tiers still apply on top, and implementation is required and priced separately — confirm the exact figure with sales.
Pros and cons
- Pipeline, booking, quotes and payments included
- Automation aimed at service businesses
- Guided (required) onboarding
- $249 a month to start, plus a separate implementation fee
- Also priced by contacts and users
Zoho CRM
Best value CRM per seatZoho CRM is for the team that outgrew ActiveCampaign's five-user ceiling and wants a proper CRM without HubSpot's Professional prices. It is free for 3 users; Standard is $14 per user, Professional $23 and Enterprise $40, billed annually, with workflow automation from Standard and Zia AI from Enterprise. Email marketing is a sister product, Zoho Campaigns, sold separately.
Who it's for: sales teams of five to fifty that want per-seat pricing, multiple pipelines, forecasting and deep customisation at the lowest cost.
Why it beats ActiveCampaign: ten reps on Zoho Standard cost $140 a month for ten full CRM seats. Ten users on ActiveCampaign Pro cost $79 plus 7 × $12, about $163, before the Pipelines add-on.
What to watch: marketing automation lives in Zoho Campaigns, not in the CRM, so email-heavy teams are buying two products. The interface is less polished than HubSpot's.
Pros and cons
- Cheapest full-featured seat here
- Free for 3 users
- Gentle price ladder to Enterprise
- Email marketing is a separate product
- Less polished interface
GoHighLevel
Best for agenciesAgencies running ActiveCampaign for several clients hit its pricing hardest: every client's contacts count. GoHighLevel (officially HighLevel) flips it. Starter at $97 a month covers 3 client sub-accounts with unlimited contacts and users, including CRM, pipelines, funnels, sites, email, two-way SMS, calendars and automations. Unlimited at $297 removes the sub-account cap; Agency Pro at $497 adds SaaS mode for reselling under your brand.
Who it's for: agencies and consultants running campaigns, funnels and follow-up for multiple clients on one flat bill.
Why it beats ActiveCampaign: flat pricing that ignores contacts and headcount, white-label options, and funnels, sites and SMS built in rather than integrated.
What to watch: telephony, email sending and AI are metered separately, the learning curve is steep (3.6 for ease of use), and it is overkill for a single business that wants email automation. See our GoHighLevel review.
Pros and cons
- Flat price, unlimited contacts and users
- Funnels, sites, SMS and CRM in one
- White-label and SaaS mode for agencies
- Usage charges on top for SMS, email and AI
- Steep learning curve
- Too much for a single small business
When to stay with ActiveCampaign
An alternatives guide owes you the other side. Keep ActiveCampaign if three things are true: revenue comes from what people click rather than what reps do, your team is five or fewer, and your list is under about 10,000 contacts. In that shape, Plus at $49 a month buys unlimited automation, behaviour-based segmentation and a contact record that tracks every page view, and nothing here matches it for the money.
Each tool above wins on one dimension: HubSpot on the CRM, Brevo and Mailchimp on price, Klaviyo on store data, Keap on bundled sales tools, Zoho on per-seat value, GoHighLevel on agency economics. None wins on automation depth per dollar. If that is the feature you use, fix the account instead: prune dead contacts, agree a tag naming scheme, archive idle automations.
What most people miss: ActiveCampaign's contact count includes unsubscribed and bounced contacts. Many "ActiveCampaign is too expensive" decisions are really "we never cleaned the list" decisions. Delete them before you compare bills.
How we chose
Every tool here is scored on the same rubric we use across the site: ease of use 25%, features 20%, value 20%, scalability 15%, integrations 10% and support 10%. Here "features" means automation depth and the sales pipeline, and "value" is measured at one to ten users and 1,000 to 10,000 contacts, the sizes where people typically leave ActiveCampaign.
Pricing was verified on each vendor's US pricing page in September 2026, on annual billing unless noted; Keap's figures come from third-party trackers. G2 ratings are displayed as published. HubSpot, Zoho CRM and GoHighLevel carry our own score from full reviews; Brevo, Mailchimp, Klaviyo and Keap are assessed on documentation and published pricing. The full process is in our methodology.
How to switch without losing your automations
- Export the map, not just the data. Document every active automation's trigger, conditions and actions. Every tool imports contacts; none imports ActiveCampaign automations.
- Clean before you move. Delete unsubscribed and bounced contacts and merge duplicate tags; contact-priced tools charge for every record you import.
- Rebuild the three automations that make money first. Usually a welcome series, a sales hand-off and a re-engagement flow. Run them alongside ActiveCampaign for two weeks.
- Move deals last. Export open deals with stage, value and owner and import them the day you switch. Our CRM migration checklist covers the mechanics.
- Price next year's tier. Contact-priced tools grow with your list; seat-priced tools grow with your team. Compare both at your expected size with our CRM cost breakdown.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to ActiveCampaign?
HubSpot for most businesses: free for 2 users and 1,000 contacts, a full pipeline on every tier, and Starter at $9 per seat. Its automation is shallower than ActiveCampaign's until Professional at $90 per seat, so email-heavy businesses on a budget should look at Brevo.
What is the cheapest ActiveCampaign alternative?
Brevo. The free plan allows 300 emails a day, paid marketing plans start at $9 a month, and the Sales Platform has a free tier with a Pro seat at $12. Mailchimp and Klaviyo also have free plans, capped at 500 and 250 contacts.
Is there a free alternative to ActiveCampaign?
Yes. HubSpot (2 users, 1,000 contacts), Brevo (300 emails a day), Mailchimp (500 contacts), Klaviyo (250 contacts) and Zoho CRM (3 users) all have free tiers that do not expire. None matches ActiveCampaign's automation depth for free. See our best free CRM guide for the CRM-side limits.
Which ActiveCampaign alternative is best for ecommerce?
Klaviyo. It is built around store data, with a free plan to 250 contacts, email from $20 a month at 500 contacts and email plus SMS from $35. If you also need a pipeline for wholesale or B2B deals, HubSpot is the stronger all-rounder.
Which ActiveCampaign alternative is best for agencies?
GoHighLevel. Starter at $97 a month covers 3 client sub-accounts with unlimited contacts and users, and Unlimited at $297 removes the cap. Pricing is flat rather than per contact, the opposite of ActiveCampaign's model.
Should I switch from ActiveCampaign?
Stay if behaviour-based automation drives your revenue and five or fewer people log in; nothing here matches its depth at $49 a month. Switch if you need a full pipeline for a team of reps, a free plan, flat pricing, or simpler newsletters. Our ActiveCampaign review sets out the trade-offs.
Conclusion
Choose by the reason you are leaving. Need a real CRM for a team: HubSpot, or Zoho CRM if per-seat cost matters most. Need a smaller bill: Brevo, or Mailchimp if newsletters are all you send. Run a store: Klaviyo. Run an agency: GoHighLevel. Want automation with quoting and payments built in and can pay for it: Keap.
And if the honest reason is that the account got messy while the automations kept working, clean the list, name the tags and stay. For the wider field, see our guide to the best CRM software.