ActiveCampaign Reviews

Pros

We've seen significant efficiency gains thanks to Active Campaign. They have made it simple to set up automated email sequences, or "drip campaigns," that will keep our subscribers and viewers interested. To generate sales, set up reminders, and get rid of inactive contacts has all been aided by this. Easy contact tagging, list segmentation, and A/B testing are other highlights. Active Campaign is simple to use, and there are many tutorials and guides available online.

Cons

We were initially put off by the software's seeming complexity and difficulty. However, there is a learning curve associated with it, and it does take some time to properly comprehend and apply all of its capabilities. After putting in the work, though, we found that it was well worth it. ActiveCampaign is great, and we highly recommend it.

Pros

Moved to Active Campaign from Infusionsoft (2 years ago now, before they changed their name) and we were very satisfied at that particular time that Active Campaign was the superior product.

Good marketing and automation tools - which have also had a lot of investment and attention in the two years we've been using Active Campaign - as well as a solid CRM and lead/opportunity management dashboard.

We have the Enterprise Grade subscription which gives us access to a dedicated account manager. This was really useful in the first year and we had an excellent account manager at that time.

Cons

Active Campaign have really focused in recent years on the live / real time behaviour tools and giving users the ability to build extremely complex automations. For us though, we would prefer a bit more focus on improving the CRM and things that make contact and lead management easier - such as the ability to add follow up tasks from the (otherwise excellent) Gmail widget.

Pros

Easy to use; lots of functionalities; good pricing

Cons

Currently there is nothing what i dont like

Pros

The trial was good, other than that not much

Cons

What we wanted vs what we got is not the same, that is on a pro license. Now we are told to buy add ons.
Also the agent "sent" a payment link for a monthly subscription, but when you follow prompts on the actual site to buy a license, that is not an option so you are basically forced into a year contract.

Pros

I like the interface and functionality compared to some other email marketing software.

Cons

What I liked least is that as the subscriber list gets bigger it can become expensive to use.

Pros

Simple and intuitive platform, best feature is the activation of various email automations

Cons

The price.😅 It’s not so cheap, but form is the beste platform. So I’m happy to pay for a good platform

Pros

It is easy to handle and the Emails can be edited to have my branding. I also like the easy way to make automations.

Cons

Sometimes it is loading slowly and there are sometimes (not often) bugs when I want to change the text auf my Email. So I need to try again.

Pros

Is an amazing platform to manage contacts and email, making everything automated and efficient

Cons

it’s a little bit expensive if you have a lot of contact (like from a free trial / lead generation funnel)

Pros

ActiveCampaign enables me to create, customize and send high volume outbound marketing emails.
It has a robust backend integration capability compared to alternatives.

Cons

ActiveCampaign suits all my needs and I do not find any hectic feature to use.

Pros

I love doing client email marketing on ActiveCampaign!

Cons

I actually dont have any thing I do like like about this prograam

Pros

Active Campaign is a great software, it is very easy to use and having used Aweber and GetResponse I can tell you that the biggest difference is that everything in Active is organized in a logical way and it is easy to grasp.
But what is their stronger point in my opinion is the API system, I was able to add, update and delete contacts from a PHP script in a very simple way. Their documentation is very well done and they have functional examples that you can use as a base fro your work.

Cons

The cost structure could be better, other software they can be cheeper but I'm willing to pay that extra money for the simplicity of usage.

Alternatives Considered

Brevo

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCampaign

I switched by chance. A client was suggesting to switch to getresponse because it got a trial offer and I get to love this software after that

Switched From

GetResponse

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCampaign

API system is very flexible and simple for use. We where able to connect with wordpress Gravity forms, with a Vanilla PHP script and with Opencart.

Pros

I absolutely love ActiveCampaign. I have 2 accounts for my 2 businesses and have approx 10+ customers using it also for their online marketing endeavours. It is my go to software that I recommend to all customers.

I love how the software is cheap for a startup but also offers really high level of integration for advanced customers. It is solid, easy to use and I cannot honestly recall having an issue with it. It has strong reporting and I love the integration features for Woo Commerce and Shopify also.

Cons

The only thing that is missing from ActiveCampaign is a simple checkout / payment type offering. So connecting to Paypal / Stripe is doable but not seamless. Apart from that I love it.

Alternatives Considered

MailerLite, GetResponse, Keap, Mailchimp and AWeber

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCampaign

I have switch others across from all sorts of mail responders. Like I mention above it is easy to use, great as a start up but also has great higher level options. So easy to build a customer journey.

Switched From

1ShoppingCart

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCampaign

Quite simply it was better!

Pros

I am only using the Email Service Provider side of the software, not the CRM, so I will comment from the ESP perspective. What I like the most is the unlimited flexibility and features. In the "old days", marketers needed super expensive and complicated software like Infusionsoft to achieve what ActiveCampaign can do, in terms of automation, rules, segmentation and so on.

This unlimited flexibility means you can make your email marketing as simple or as sophisticated as you like, the choice is yours.

Generally speaking, the features of the software are outstanding!

Cons

In some ways the user interface can be a bit clumsy, e.g. when creating an email campaign. It's not bad, but there's room for improvement.

Alternatives Considered

ConvertKit, GetResponse, Keap, Mailchimp and AWeber

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCampaign

I needed more functionalities and flexibility in automation and segmentation.

Switched From

AWeber

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCampaign

The best combination of features and functionality and price, by a large margin.

Pros

I held back from investing in ActiveCampaign for over a year because of the overall cost. What I didn’t realize then was that I would be able to cancel FOUR other software subscriptions thanks to the robust suite of features that AC has. This software has played a critical role in my ability to grow my business by over 150% this year and I would recommend it to anyone!

Cons

I would give my left leg for AC to have mobile functionality. They don’t have an app and the mobile version of their site is non-functional. It quite literally can only be used on a computer. This is the one place where AC is severely behind their competitors.

Alternatives Considered

Constant Contact

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCampaign

Because AC has so many more features.

Switched From

MailerLite

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCampaign

AC seemed like a longer term solution, based on features.

Pros

ActiveCampaign is the CRM I wish I would have chosen back in 2012 when I went with Infusionsoft. I love the automations. They are intuitive to build, easy to manage, and they flat out work. I love two way SMS via the deep integration with SalesMsg and that the convos get added to the contact record. And finally, I love the Deals feature which is the best and easily customizable sales pipeline software I've ever used.

Cons

One tiny thing I'd change is the contact merge feature. I prefer the ability to choose what fields to merge in a contact record instead of being forced to delete one.

Alternatives Considered

HighLevel

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCampaign

I used Infusionsoft for years and then switched to Keap because of the baked in phone number and appointment scheduler. You can't add an automated 2-way text to a campaign sequence. If someone responds it says the number doesn't accept incoming messages. This creates a super poor customer experience. The appointment scheduler was useless because it won't allow you to redirect the customer to a custom URL after they book so it messed up my funnel tracking.

Switched From

Keap

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCampaign

I did the HighLevel trial but couldn't get things to work properly after 2-weeks.

Pros

The Customer Service is stellar, especially for being chat-based. As a previous HubSpot user (which is prohibitively expensive), AC comes pretty close to delivering all the essential features and the ease of use between the two platforms is night and day. AC is, for the most part, pretty intuitive. They also have better onboarding/training.

Cons

There are some seemingly very basic features that are missing. That being said, I'm able to create 'workarounds' to get what I need, but the workarounds do cause unnecessary work. Specifically, I can't automate task assignment at the Contact or Account level so I have to create and organize wholly unnecessary Deals and Deal Pipelines to do what I need to do. The other (minor) frustration is not being able to customize/save multiple views. I can add columns to views and that will stay put, but the default ordering of pretty much every page is alphabetical. For instance, when I switch the Contact view to sort by Date Created, if I navigate into a contact record or another page, the list reverts to being sorted alphabetically. Same with the Automations page, etc. I want to set custom sorts that are my own defaults (preferably multiple custom sorts/views). And I want it to remember to show me records by the 100s, not 20 at a time. It's little stuff, I know, but the constant extra clicks does get tedious.

Pros

I love that their user interface is very functional and easy to understand and use. I've been using ActiveCampaign from a little over a year now and there are still so many features I discover that helps me and my clients every time.

Cons

I guess an area they can improve on is their loading time. Sometimes it takes a while for things to load when I use ActiveCampaign heavily.

Alternatives Considered

Kartra

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCampaign

This is for a client. We did because the previous software provider was charging a bit higher but features are less. We feel it wasn't at par with the value my client was paying.

Switched From

ConvertKit

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCampaign

Aside from AC's powerful features, it was the discount we got on top of the 50% off for 3 months that sealed the deal!

Pros

ActiveCampaign takes our marketing management to the next level, with its extensive interface it is possible to adapt the configuration of sending marketing campaigns, managing every little detail, thanks to its varied templates we can capture our main idea and make our message come through clearly and exactly how we need it. A/B tests allow us to test that our message is working perfectly and to be able to launch it to the public. Likewise, integrating social networks is essential for a broader management of marketing campaigns and the commercialization of our product, in addition to multichannel marketing it is possible to cover much more and put our eyes on a greater range of visualization. It is the perfect platform to plan and manage our content, perfect our ideas, and send a much more solid result, as well as interact with our clients in a more direct way, perfecting the CRM system by getting what each potential client wants to receive from us. Automating the sending of emails in the search to eliminate spam messages and that our emails are received more directly in the inbox, ensuring the reading of our campaign.

Cons

It is a tool with a complete interface, however, at the same time I can highlight that it can be too dense and complicated to use, it is not very intuitive and makes the process a bit more tedious than expected. In the same way, the search through filters is not as precise as possible, sometimes we need to find something in specific and we cannot, so it would be ideal if it were more accurate.

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCampaign

We considered to implement Salesforce Marketing Cloud but found that it did not adjust to our budget very well.

Pros

ActiveCampaign has all the features that other "premium" platforms also have, but the price and the fast set up are totally a game changer.
In a few steps you can provision a marketing automation platform with all the capabilities.

Cons

For high database and high sending volumes, maybe it's not the best option. Large campaigns could take time in sending.

Alternatives Considered

Brevo

Switched From

Watson Campaign Automation

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCampaign

More plans and options available. More flexibility and options in automations. Great community and integrations with most popular platforms.

Pros

It's very rare to find so much functionality while retaining ease of use. I've been a consultant implementing and managing marketing automation and CRMs for 10 years, and AC has become my go to solution for all my clients. The CRM has come a long way in the past few years and now beats just about all of them that do both CRM and Automation. The integration with Ecom platforms like Shopify are also a huge benefit.

Cons

For years I would tell clients if they needed a CRM and they were doing personal sales that they should use Infusionsoft, but I can't say that anymore. Infusionsoft's CRM has become worse over time while AC's CRM has become much more powerful. One thing I wish AC would add is more functionality in the math actions for changing fields. If we could use different fields and formulas in the math to make calculations for custom fields, rather than just simple +-X/ then that would be amazing. I currently have to use Zapier to do that and it's not even that great with Zapier.

Pros

1. The automations.

It makes complex automations easy to understand and seemlessly blends the users interactions in my app with emails in their inbox.

2. The email designer

Easy to use and great templates to get you started

3. Reliability & Peace of mind

Once you set up your automations it's a great feeling to know that it will run like clockwork.

4. API

I was quickly able to interact with ActiveCampaigns API and it runs so perfect! It gives me such power over how users interact with my application. Literally any interaction a user makes with my application, I can capture and add to their contact profile and send them through automations in regards to their actions / inactions. Super Powerful!

Cons

1. No Sandbox mode

There's only one mode to use the software and that's live. This means you have to be mindful when generating software tests as you can end up sending emails to dummy accounts as ActiveCampaign doesn't differentiate between a Live and Sandbox version.

I would be super greatful if there was a sandbox mode that could be used for testing my applications and not worry about passing dummy contacts through automations etc.

2. Subscription model can be a little bit pricey if not utilized

When I began using ActiveCampaign I was starting a fresh business, so my mail list was 0 at the time. It took me sometime to get accustomed to it & test integrations etc.

This setup time and any other non-marketing time still costs money with the current subscription model.

I would personally prefer a usage based fee based on features and emails sent.

3. No built-in suggestions to get more emails in the Primary folder.

It may be wishful thinking as the goalposts are often moved by what is deemed as falling under "Promotions", nevertheless there could be more done to get emails in the Primary Inbox at the time of creating emails.

I would really appreciate a "likelihood of reaching the primary inbox" meter before creating campaigns. This could be difficult to implement but I feel it would help alot of new users and people new to email marketing.

Alternatives Considered

Mailchimp

Pros

I enjoy the way ActiveCampaign displays information because it assists you in optimizing your services. The platform eliminates the requirement for users of varying skill levels to use multiple programs by centralizing all records in a single location that can be accessed from anywhere at any time. ActiveCampaign's advanced marketing tools enable you to create and save lists of potential customers for any product or service you offer, then email them offers. You can also customize ActiveCampaign to track the success of your marketing campaigns, which enables you to develop more distinctive campaigns and sustainable marketing strategies. ActiveCampaign's charts, suggestions, and reports will ensure that you always make the best choices. I appreciate how you can improve content viewing and automatically track engagement across many social media platforms, allowing you to have a better understanding of how your consumers and new customers react to it.

Cons

I had no technical issues when using ActiveCampaign, and the user interface is fantastic and simplifies the process of accessing various tools and reports, but the work team need easy exercises to effectively use the platform and get the intended results.

Pros

I particularly appreciated the variety of tools and features offered by Activ Campagne. The platform offers a wide range of intuitive tools to make it easier to send and track marketing campaigns and more complex marketing tasks. Plus, built-in APIs allow complex campaigns and processes to be instantly planned and managed. Finally, the excellent customer service ensures that users receive the information they need when they need it.

Cons

What I liked least about ActiveCampaign is its price. Although the platform offers excellent value for money, the price may be prohibitive for some companies on a budget. Moreover, very advanced features may also exceed their capabilities. However, I think for companies with the budget, the platform is a great option.

Alternatives Considered

AWeber

Switched From

Mailchimp

Pros

Creating campaigns, automations, email design, all super easy. Contacts management and list creation is also pretty straightforward and works great. High deliverability and good reporting. I like that I can track a contact's engagement history from visits to my site, to what emails were opened, links clicked. And tagging works great.

Cons

While they have a CRM option. It's not up to par. I use Pipedrive which is way more than I need, but Activecampaign's poor implementation of CRM is what drop its score big time. Plus it is expensive for what else is in the market. I keep paying because it's too much effort to move to save $20-$50 a month... but if I was looking to come in fresh, I would see what else exists.

Alternatives Considered

Mailchimp

Pros

The automation management system is really one of the best on the market.
As mentioned, you might have to struggle for deep, manual integration if you have specific ecommerce needs (i.e. subscription products whose membership status needs to trigger actions in the automations) but a part from that their approach is still the best on the market for that, you even have an automation map to keep track of how automations connect to each other.

Cons

Right now definitely a) the cost: there is a lot of fresher solutions that come for a fraction of AC's licence cost and perform as much as good, if you are willing to close an eye on usability and some specific features. b) data export: AC tries to discourage your migration to other platforms. I.e.: if you want to export all your contacts with the information of the lists they are in, you will have to export each list separately. Also, you can't export ecommerce data together with the contacts, you will need to resync your new platform with your ecommere

Alternatives Considered

Klaviyo and Mailchimp

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCampaign

couldn't meet our client's ecommerce needs.

Switched From

Mailchimp