Best ActiveCampaign Alternatives in 2026 (Top 7)

The best ActiveCampaign alternatives in 2026, ranked: GetResponse for the best balance of automation and price, Brevo for a cheap ActiveCampaign alternative with a CRM, MailerLite for clean simplicity, Klaviyo for ecommerce automation, Mailchimp for mainstream ease, Kit for creators, and HubSpot for teams that want a full sales-and-marketing suite. ActiveCampaign is the most powerful automation platform for small business — and one of the priciest and steepest to learn — so here are the best ActiveCampaign alternatives and which one fits you best.

Why look for the best ActiveCampaign alternatives in 2026?

ActiveCampaign earns its reputation: nested-branch automations, lead scoring, conditional content, split tests inside workflows, and a real CRM all in one tool. But that power comes with two costs. The first is money — there is no free plan, and the genuinely useful features land on the Plus and Professional tiers, which can reach $135/month or more at 5,000 contacts. The second is time: the builder has the steepest learning curve in the category, and plenty of teams pay for capability they never switch on — the two reasons most people start weighing the best ActiveCampaign alternatives.

So solopreneurs, small marketing teams, and creators keep asking for the best ActiveCampaign alternatives: tools that keep enough automation to run real lifecycle marketing while costing less and onboarding faster. Below are the seven best ActiveCampaign alternatives we’d recommend after hands-on testing, ranked by overall fit. Pricing was cross-checked against EmailToolTester’s 2026 benchmarks.

How we chose these 7 best ActiveCampaign alternatives

To make our shortlist of the best ActiveCampaign alternatives, a tool had to: (1) offer visual, multi-step automation — not just basic autoresponders; (2) cost less than ActiveCampaign at 5,000 contacts, or be dramatically easier to use; (3) have a credible CRM or tagging model for segmentation; (4) score above 85% on independent deliverability seed tests; and (5) be something a non-specialist can launch in an afternoon. We tested each on a real list for several weeks. Niche or enterprise-only tools we note in the honourable mentions.

Quick comparison: 7 best ActiveCampaign alternatives

Tool	Free plan	Paid from	Best for	Stand-out feature
GetResponse	500 contacts, 2,500 emails/mo	$19/mo	Marketers wanting real automation cheaper	Strong mid-tier workflow builder
Brevo	9,000 emails/mo, unlimited contacts	$9/mo	Cost-conscious teams wanting a CRM	Email-priced + built-in CRM
MailerLite	1,000 contacts, 12,000 emails/mo	$10/mo	Simplicity over power	Cleanest interface
Klaviyo	250 contacts	$20/mo	Ecommerce automation	Deepest Shopify flows
Mailchimp	500 contacts, 1,000 emails/mo	$13/mo	Mainstream ease	Best onboarding
Kit	1,000 subscribers	$15/mo	Creators	Creator-native automations
HubSpot	Free CRM + limited email	$20/mo	Sales + marketing in one suite	Full CRM platform

1. GetResponse — the best all-round ActiveCampaign alternative

GetResponse is the closest like-for-like ActiveCampaign alternative for most teams. Its automation builder is the strongest in the mid-market — branching logic, scoring, behavioural triggers, webhook actions, and pre-built workflow templates — at a noticeably gentler price. Where ActiveCampaign pushes you toward $135/month for the good stuff, GetResponse unlocks serious automation far lower on the ladder, which is why it leads our best ActiveCampaign alternatives.

The free plan supports 500 contacts and 2,500 emails per month; paid plans start at $19/month, with the full Marketing Automation builder higher up. It adds unlimited landing pages and built-in webinars, useful for course sellers and B2B. Deliverability is consistently good (88–91%). Read our full GetResponse review, or the GetResponse vs Mailchimp comparison.

Choose GetResponse if: you want most of ActiveCampaign’s automation power without the price jump or the learning curve.

2. Brevo — the cheap ActiveCampaign alternative with a CRM

Brevo is the cheap ActiveCampaign alternative for teams who want automation and a sales CRM without the bill. It charges by emails sent rather than contacts stored, bundles a lightweight CRM with pipelines and deals, and includes SMS and WhatsApp. For a small B2B team that mostly needs sequences plus a place to track deals, it covers a lot of ActiveCampaign’s surface area for a fraction of the cost — the best of the ActiveCampaign alternatives with CRM built in, and the cheap ActiveCampaign alternative most teams pick.

The free plan supports 9,000 emails per month with unlimited contacts; paid plans start at $9/month. The automation builder is less sophisticated than ActiveCampaign’s — fine for welcome series, lead nurturing, and basic scoring, less so for deeply nested funnels. Our Brevo review has the detail.

Choose Brevo if: you want automation plus a CRM at the lowest credible price and your funnels are moderately complex.

3. MailerLite — the simplest ActiveCampaign alternative

If ActiveCampaign’s interface ever made you feel like you needed a manual, MailerLite is the antidote. It strips email marketing back to the essentials: a clean drag-and-drop builder, tidy automations, landing pages, and predictable pricing. You give up the deepest branching and CRM features, but you gain speed and sanity — which makes it one of the most accessible best ActiveCampaign alternatives.

The free plan covers 1,000 contacts and 12,000 emails per month; paid plans start at $10/month. Automations handle welcome series, tag-based segmentation, and sequence nurturing well. Deliverability is consistently good (88–91%). See our MailerLite review for the full picture.

Choose MailerLite if: you value simplicity and predictable pricing over maximum automation depth.

4. Klaviyo — the ecommerce ActiveCampaign alternative

If the reason you were on ActiveCampaign was ecommerce automation, Klaviyo is the more specialised choice. Its Shopify and WooCommerce integrations are the deepest in the category, and its pre-built cart, browse, and post-purchase flows convert better out of the box because they are designed for retail rather than general marketing — the ecommerce specialist among the best ActiveCampaign alternatives.

Pricing scales on contacts and SMS, starting around $20/month and climbing for larger stores — so it is an alternative on capability, not necessarily on cost. Deliverability is strong. Our Klaviyo review and Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign comparison cover the trade-offs in detail.

Choose Klaviyo if: your automations are mostly ecommerce flows and you run a real online store.

5. Mailchimp — the mainstream ActiveCampaign alternative

Mailchimp is the gentler, more familiar option. Its Customer Journey builder has matured into a capable automation tool, the onboarding is the best in the category, and the integration library is enormous. It will not match ActiveCampaign’s depth, but for a team that wants approachable automation it is an easy landing spot and a safe pick among the best ActiveCampaign alternatives.

The free plan is modest (500 contacts, 1,000 emails/month) and paid plans start around $13/month, rising as your list grows and as you unlock the Standard tier where the better automations live. Deliverability is middle-of-the-pack (86–89%). Read the Mailchimp review for specifics.

Choose Mailchimp if: you want the most familiar interface and the widest integrations, and your automations are moderate.

6. Kit — the creator’s ActiveCampaign alternative

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is the alternative for creators who found ActiveCampaign overbuilt. Its tag-and-sequence model fits how newsletter writers, course sellers, and podcasters think about their audience, and its visual automations are powerful enough for most creator funnels without the complexity tax, making it the creator-first choice on our best ActiveCampaign alternatives list.

The free plan supports up to 1,000 subscribers; paid plans start at $15/month and unlock automations plus the native commerce stack for selling paid newsletters and digital products. Deliverability is excellent (91–94%). Our Kit review covers it fully.

Choose Kit if: you make a living from your audience and want creator-native automation, not a sales CRM.

7. HubSpot — the full-suite ActiveCampaign alternative

HubSpot is the alternative for teams that want ActiveCampaign’s marketing-plus-CRM ambition taken all the way to a full platform: marketing, sales, service, and a free CRM at the core. If you are scaling a sales team alongside marketing, HubSpot’s unified data model is hard to beat and rounds out the best ActiveCampaign alternatives at the enterprise end.

The free tier includes the CRM and limited email; paid Marketing Hub plans start around $20/month and climb steeply as contacts and features grow — it can become far pricier than ActiveCampaign at scale. Deliverability is solid. It is overkill for a solo sender but compelling for a growing revenue team.

Choose HubSpot if: you need a true sales-and-marketing suite, not just an email tool with automation.

Best ActiveCampaign alternatives: honourable mentions

A few tools we tested but didn’t rank: Encharge (excellent SaaS automation but narrow), Customer.io (powerful event-based messaging but developer-oriented), Drip (great for DTC ecommerce, covered in our best Klaviyo alternatives guide), and Moosend (cheap and capable but a smaller ecosystem). Each is strong in its lane but not a general ActiveCampaign replacement, so none made the main ranking of the best ActiveCampaign alternatives.

FAQ: ActiveCampaign alternatives

What is the best free ActiveCampaign alternative?

ActiveCampaign has no free plan, so the best free alternative is Brevo (9,000 free emails/month, unlimited contacts) or MailerLite (1,000 contacts free). Both let you build real automations on the free tier, which ActiveCampaign never offered.

What are the best ActiveCampaign alternatives with CRM?

The best ActiveCampaign alternatives with CRM built in are Brevo (lightweight pipelines and deals, cheapest), HubSpot (the most complete CRM platform), and GetResponse (CRM features on higher tiers). Brevo is the value pick; HubSpot is the choice if sales is the priority.

Which ActiveCampaign alternative is cheapest?

Brevo is the cheap ActiveCampaign alternative at scale because it prices on emails sent, not contacts stored. MailerLite is next cheapest for smaller lists. GetResponse undercuts ActiveCampaign while keeping a comparable automation builder.

Will I lose automation power if I leave ActiveCampaign?

Some, but less than you’d expect. GetResponse matches most use cases, and Brevo and Klaviyo handle the common funnels well. What you give up is the very deepest nested branching, multi-signal lead scoring, and conditional content — features most small teams never fully use.

Is migrating away from ActiveCampaign difficult?

Contacts and tags export cleanly to CSV. The work is rebuilding automations (they don’t transfer between platforms) and re-authenticating your sending domain so deliverability holds — allow a day or two for DNS and a couple of weeks to warm the new sender reputation. Run both tools in parallel for a week during the switch.

Our pick of the best ActiveCampaign alternatives

If we had to pick one default from the best ActiveCampaign alternatives above, it would be GetResponse for most marketers — it keeps the automation depth that made ActiveCampaign worth it while cutting the price and the learning curve — and Brevo for cost-conscious teams that also want a CRM. Klaviyo is the answer for ecommerce, Kit for creators, and HubSpot for teams scaling sales alongside marketing. Whichever of the best ActiveCampaign alternatives you choose from this list, you will almost certainly spend less and onboard faster than you did on ActiveCampaign.

Start free with any of them:

Want a deeper dive? Read our ActiveCampaign Review 2026 to see exactly what you’d be leaving, or our GetResponse Review for the closest replacement.

Related reading

• Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign
• ActiveCampaign Review 2026
• ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot
• GetResponse vs ActiveCampaign
• ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp
• Best Cheap Email Marketing Services

Affiliate disclosure: ToolTrusted may earn a commission from links above at no extra cost to you. See our disclosure page. Rankings reflect our independent editorial verdict.