If you’re struggling to choose between Activecampaign vs Convertkit? In this post, I’ll compare both platforms and give you my clear and unbiased facts about which is best for your business.
If you’re looking for a way to improve the ROI of your marketing campaigns, email marketing software is what you need. Autoresponders not only help you automate your emails, but also help you segment your mailing list, send personalized emails, design visually attractive landing pages and functional forms, resend your campaigns, and even test the effectiveness of your emails.
However, with all the email marketing solutions available today, it’s hard to find one that’s the best for your business since they are all advertised the same way. This article reviews two of the most popular email marketing software, ActiveCampaign Vs ConvertKit. They both have unique features that help your business in different ways. Keep reading to find out is best for your business
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has been around since 2003. Over the years, it has grown from being just a newsletter-sending tool to an artificial intelligence-backed tool with some unique features such as CRM, marketing automation, and sales automation. Below are some of its key features.
Segmentation
ActiveCampaign gives you one of the best ways to segment your subscriber’s list through lists and tags. You can place all subscribers in one list, or tag them based on various criteria. Better yet, ActiveCampaign allows you to tag your subscribers using an automation workflow. For example, you can create an email and embed a link, then create a workflow that tags those who will click the link, and those who don’t.
That’s not all; you can combine automatic tagging with site-tracking. Site-tracking records how your subscribers interact with your web pages, while the automation will tag them based on these interactions. Data-driven decision-making is crucial in marketing, and when you can automate the whole process of getting a user’s interests and tagging them, you will greatly improve the results of your marketing campaign.
Automation
If there is one area that ActiveCampaign outdoes other marketing software is in automation. The platform has a drag-and-drop editor that makes the creation of workflows straightforward. You can build any type of workflows, from simple, to very complex. That’s why ActiveCampaign works great for comprehensive campaigns. You can also include site tracking, tagging, and many other applications in one workflow, or combine a number of automations.
A/B Split-testing
ActiveCampaign gives you two ways to conduct split-testing. You can either test the effectiveness of an email subject line or test the email content where you compare two templates.
The tests give you enough information about the best approach while the test is running, or you can wait until the campaign is complete.
Besides testing email contents, you can also test workflows. ActiveCampaign gives you a lot of control over how to run the split-tests, allowing you to come up with several conclusions based on your criteria. When applied strategically, you could improve the effectiveness of your campaign, while spending less time when compared to traditional email marketing methods.
Form Builder
ActiveCampaign also allows you to create different types of forms. However, in the lite plan, you are limited to creating in-line forms and having ActiveCampaign’s logo on your forms.
To create advanced forms, you will have to upgrade to higher plans, which are relatively expensive. The form builder doesn’t have a lot of options for designing your forms. However, if you have some knowledge in CSS, that’s an advantage since it has an in-built CSS editor. There are various ways to use your form; you can post it on your Facebook page, paste the code on your website, install as a WordPress plugin, or share it as a link.
Email Templates
ActiveCampaign gives you about 30 email templates to choose from, as well as an editor to create emails from scratch. The email editor gives several styling options and blocks such as text, HTML, images, button, videos, line breaks, spacer, social link, RSS feed, and a line break.
Also, using the conditional blocks, you can send emails based on the tags you defined when segmenting your mailing list. You can also include this in your automation whereby you set up a workflow that tags your subscribers based on their interests and automatically sends them emails based on these tags.
Integration
ActiveCampaign offers a wide variety of integrations. At least 150 third-party software can integrate with it, including Zapier, Facebook, Shopify, WordPress, and Stripe.
Reports and Tracking
ActiveCampaign offers some tracking options, including the tracking of those who open and read your emails, tracking how many subscribers click your link, how many of them reply, and Google Analytics that help you interpret the information better.
And just like most of its functionalities, you can automate the tracking feature too. It also offers comprehensive reports where, if you click on the open/reads reports, you will get detailed information about the specific contacts that opened and read your emails, and those who didn’t. This makes the auto-resending of the campaigns easier.
Technical Support
If you have any questions, you can always reach out via email, and they always respond within 24 hours. Also, they have covered most of the queries through the video tutorials and how-to articles on their main website.
You can also engage them in a live chat. Before they respond to your emails, or you’re having trouble using the live chat due to the difference in time zones, there are several Facebook groups where you’ll find experienced users who are ready to help.
Cons
- It’s a bit slow– Due to the large number of features in ActiveCampaign, it gets slow sometimes, and even complicated, especially if you’re a new user.
- The email builder is also quite limited in terms of features and designs. The thirty templates are not enough to choose from.
- The basic form builder comes with ActiveCampaign’s logo, and you have to pay almost double the cost of the lite plan for you to get rid of the logo.
ActiveCampaign Pricing
ActiveCampaign has four plans, as shown below.
- Lite – This plan starts at $15 per month for 500 subscribers. CRM, lead scoring, sales automation are not available in this plan. The lite plan only handles up to 3 users. Your forms will bear the ActiveCampaign logo when using this plan.
- Plus – This plan offers all the features discussed, including those omitted in the Lite plan. It handles up to 25 users and works great if you own a small to medium-sized business, e-commerce site, or blog.
- Professional – This plan is similar to the Plus plan, with an addition to the number of users to 50.
- Enterprise – For a comprehensive functionality, technical support (both live chat and phone calls), an unlimited number of users, this plan does it all. You also get 1-on-1 training for an indefinite period.
| Subscribers | Lite (cost per month) | Plus (cost per month) | Professional (cost per month) | Enterprise (cost per month) |
| 500 | $15 | $70 | $159 | $279 |
| 2500 | $49 | $125 | $159 | $279 |
| 5000 | $89 | $169 | $239 | $449 |
| 10,000 | $139 | $249 | $349 | $499 |
| 25,000 | $225 | $399 | $599 | Request a quote from ActiveCampaign |
| 50,000 | $299 | Request a quote from ActiveCampaign | Request a quote from ActiveCampaign | Request a quote from ActiveCampaign |
| 100,000 | $599 | Request a quote from ActiveCampaign | Request a quote from ActiveCampaign | Request a quote from ActiveCampaign |
Check out out detail Activecampaign review.
ConvertKit
From its design to its functionality, ConvertKit was undoubtedly designed for bloggers and content creators. It’s relatively new in the email marketing industry, but they have managed to build a good reputation. Below are some of its key features.
Segmentation
The best way to run a marketing campaign nowadays is by sending personalized campaigns. ConvertKit allows you to do just that by tagging your subscribers based on their search habits, and their interaction with your content.
It also enables you to merge the tags with your emails, sending emails based on the label on each subscriber. Through the Convertkit WordPress plugin, you can easily track your visitors’ activities and automatically tag them. However, this won’t work if you don’t run WordPress on your site.
Automation
Similar to ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit does allow you to automate various processes, also known as rules. It follows a straightforward Triggers and Actions system, which works great for simple workflows. However, when you need to combine many automations, it gets confusing. Luckily, ConvertKit rolled out a new Visual Automation Builder. It works in an in-line format, and it’s faster and easier to use than most software in the market today.
A/B testing
As mentioned earlier, testing is an integral part of an email marketing campaign since it allows you to test the effectiveness of your campaign before launching it. However, ConvertKit is limited in this area. It only allows for the testing of subject lines. You can test the email content, design, delivery time, but you can’t test the automations.
Form Builder
ConvertKit allows you to create different types of forms to collect emails from your visitors. Besides creating a form, you can also choose to create a landing page. The only issue with this is that you don’t have much control in designing both of them. The best you can do is changing the CSS.
Email Templates
ConvertKit offers about five templates for creating your emails and newsletters, which isn’t that much considering some email marketing software provides more than 20 templates to choose from. The editor is not the best either unless you’re experienced in HTML and CSS. However, for a simple campaign, you will love the idea of including variables in your email templates.
Integration
ConvertKit is not that old in this industry. As a result, it has not managed to integrate with most of the third-party software. However, they have managed to integrate with at least 70 popular software, including Zapier, Stripe, WP Engine, and Shopify.
Reports and Tracking
ConvertKit provides basic reporting on subscription rates, unsubscription rates, open rates, and click through rates. It also shows the statistics of each opt-in form. However, it lacks the Google analytics integration, and the reporting and analytics are not as advanced as in ActiveCampaign.
Technical Support
When you access ConvertKit for the first time, there’s a very detailed welcome video. They are also very prompt in replying to emails. You can get an answer to your query in less than 12 hours. They have also included live chat support that’s usually available during business hours. There’s also extensive support from community-based platforms on Facebook and Slack.
Cons
- The Email editor is limited; there are only about five templates and no options for making it visually attractive.
- It also only allows the testing of email subject lines; you can’t test the content, delivery time, or design.
- Tracking and tagging of visitors based on their behaviours are only available to WordPress users.
Pricing
Free– For the free plan, you can send up to 1000 emails per month. However, the following features are not available; reports and tracking, autoresponders, and automation. In this plan, only one user is allowed per account.
Paid Account- All features discussed above are available in this plan, with an increase in the monthly payment based on the number of subscribers you have.
| Subscribers | Cost per month |
| 1000 | $29 |
| 3000 | $49 |
| 5000 | $79 |
| 10,000 | $119 |
| 25,000 | $199 |
| 50,000 | $379 |
| 100,000 | $679 |
Activecampaign Vs ConvertKit: Similarities
From the reviews above, both of these software are similar to some extent;
- They allow you to segment your mailing list, tag them, and send personalized emails.
- They also have some form of automation where you can automate some workflows and automate the tagging and autoresponders.
- ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit have some templates and editors for emails, forms, and landing pages.
- They both use a drag-and-drop format to create automation workflows.
- They both offer some form of A/B testing.
- ActiveCampaign gives you access to some reporting and analytics for a data-driven marketing campaign.
Activecampaign Vs. Convertkit: Differences
The differences between the two are how uniquely they implement their features to serve various types of businesses.
| Feature | ActiveCampaign | ConvertKit |
| Segmentation | This software offers an option to combine the tags and lists. It also allows you to manage subscribers to multiple websites on one account. You can also combine segmentation and tracking of subscribers’ activities.It allows you to conduct lead scoring to identify prospective buyers effectively. | ConvertKit offers a basic tagging of your subscribers based on several factors. You can then place the tags in a segment.You will need multiple accounts if you have multiple websites.For you to track your customer’s activities, you need a WordPress website.It doesn’t offer lead scoring. |
| Automation | It offers up to 22 triggers and integration with a CRM.You can also include segments in a workflow, unlike in Convertkit. It’s overwhelming at first and takes longer to learn. | It has a limited number of triggers, about 7 of them.It’s straightforward to use, even for a beginner. |
| Integration | It offers a wide integration of most third-party software, at least 150 of them. | Since it’s not that old in the industry, it offers fewer integrations. |
| Reports and Tracking | AC offers a comprehensive reporting of open rates, click rates, reply rates, and even Google analytics. | ConvertKit just offers basic reporting on the open-rate, click-rate, and subscription rate. It can’t be used for advanced marketing campaigns. |
| A/B Testing | It offers two types of testing, email subject lines and email content.You can also test your automation workflows. | Testing is limited to email subject lines, in broadcast mode |
| Form Builder | It has a pop-up option for enticing your visitors.ActiveCampaign has a higher number of form templates to choose fromAC has more options for sharing your form, such as using it as a WordPress plugin, posting on Facebook, embedding in your web-pages code, and sharing it as a link. | ConvertKit lacks the pop-up.It also has a few form and landing page templates to choose from.There are limited options for integrating your form. |
| Email Templates | You get at least 30 templates | It offers just 5 email templates. |
| Pricing | Not all features are available in each package.ActiveCampaign has no free version, just a 14-day trial period. | All features are included in each package.They also offer a free version. |
Which One Should You Choose?
Based on the reviews and comparison, it seems that ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit have been designed for different applications. So, the best one for your business depends on what you want to achieve. If you want a basic email editor that’s fast, easy to use, has basic reporting, and basic automations, ConvertKit is the best for you. If you’re looking for a software that gives deep insight into your subscriber list, offers integration with most software, gives you a lot of control in automation, and A/B testing, ActiveCampaign is the best. Since they are quite similar in terms of pricing, ActiveCampaign is the best for serious marketing campaigns. If you’re a beginner, choose ConvertKit since it also has a free version.
Affiliate Disclaimer: I hope you liked our Activecampaign vs Convertkit . Please note that some of the links inside this article may be affiliate links to Activecampaign and Convertkit . That means that if you click on one of the links and sign up, I may be compensated for it. If you do happen to click, we really appreciate it! Any money we make keeps this site running smoothly and allows us to keep writing these high-quality reviews.
