Systeme.io vs ActiveCampaign — which should you choose?

Systeme.io and ActiveCampaign both sell automation, but in very different price classes and different packages. This page is not settled by a price comparison — one prices in dollars and the other in euros, and we do not invent an exchange rate — so it is settled by what each one’s cheapest plan actually lets you do.

The short answer

Choose Systeme.io if you sell a course or build funnels and want to start without paying anything. The free plan holds 2,000 contacts with no sending limit.

Choose ActiveCampaign if you need conditional content or lead scoring. They are not in Systeme.io at all, and even at ActiveCampaign they only start on the Plus and Pro plans.

Note before choosing: Systeme.io lacks a published contact counting rule and list clean-up inside the app; at ActiveCampaign both can be read in the help pages.

Comparison table

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Prices exclude VAT, billed monthly unless stated otherwise.(ad) = ad link

• The price is the monthly price of the cheapest paid plan at that list size. The Free plan column shows when you do not have to pay.
• ActiveCampaign: the price list only shows the monthly price on annual billing. Monthly billing costs more.
• ActiveCampaign: the smallest list sold is 1,000 contacts, so the 500-contact column shows that price.

Both limit automation — by a different unit

This is the core of the page. Neither gives free rein on its cheapest plan, but they limit different things, so comparing the price lists directly misleads.

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Limits read from the services’ own price lists (Systeme.io, ActiveCampaign) on 3 September 2026. Systeme.io’s plans are Free, Startup, Webinar and Unlimited; ActiveCampaign’s Starter, Plus, Pro and Enterprise. ActiveCampaign’s feature limits were read from the same price list on 6 September 2026.

The difference is qualitative, not quantitative. Systeme.io limits how many automations you may build; ActiveCampaign limits what one automation may do. Building a hundred simple rules works on Systeme.io’s Webinar plan, but none of them chooses an email by score — that feature is not in it on any plan.

The practical rule of thumb: if your automations are of the form “when someone joins list X, send series Y”, Systeme.io is enough and cheap. If they are of the form “if score over 50 and visited the pricing page, send a different email”, Systeme.io is not enough on any plan.

Prices side by side — we give no difference

Systeme.io’s price list is in dollars and ActiveCampaign’s in euros. Giving a single difference figure would need an exchange rate, which is on neither price list. So the figures sit side by side in their own currencies.

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Read from the price lists on 3 September 2026, monthly prices excluding VAT. The currencies differ, so the columns are not added together and no difference is given. ActiveCampaign’s figures are monthly prices on annual billing — the monthly-billing price is not shown on the price list at all — and its smallest list sold is 1,000 contacts.

Without a rate, what is comparable is how many contacts each tier carries: Systeme.io’s tiers carry further at once, and its top plan removes the contact limit entirely.

The free plan and what the package holds

Systeme.io’s free plan holds 2,000 contacts and sending is not capped. It includes three funnels, one online course and one automation rule — a usable plan, not a trial. ActiveCampaign has no free plan at all, only a 14-day trial.

On the paid plans too the packages differ: at Systeme.io funnels, courses and payment handling in the same price, at ActiveCampaign over 1,000 integrations and a CRM. If you do not sell a course, you pay for Systeme.io’s extras anyway; if you do not build scoring, you pay for ActiveCampaign’s pricier plans anyway. All free plans side by side: free email marketing.

Data location

Systeme.io is operated by Irish ITACWT Limited, and the data is in AWS’s Irish data centre and is not transferred outside the EU. ActiveCampaign’s own privacy policy lists transfers to the United States, Australia, Ireland, Brazil and Costa Rica. Both read from the services’ own privacy policies on 3 September 2026.

The difference is in what you record in your own policy. What to check: email marketing and GDPR.

Deliverability and the counting rule: two gaps at one of them

We do not test deliverability ourselves. Below are two things: Tooltester’s 2017–2024 series as history — it ended in January 2024, and the source no longer stands behind its method — and eight points from the services’ own help pages, which are the current basis of this comparison.

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Tooltester ended the series with the January 2024 round and explained why in August 2026: seed lists proved unreliable and providers started optimising for them. The figures are therefore history, not a measurement of current deliverability.

Source: Tooltester deliverability test, 12 rounds 8/2017–1/2024. About 80 seed addresses, 28 providers, shared IP addresses. Average across all platforms in the latest round 83.1%. Average and range calculated from the published rounds.

Deliverability features from the help docs

Eight points read from each provider’s own help pages on 13 September 2026. This replaces percentages as a buying basis: a feature can be checked and dated, a seed-list result no longer can. Every cell links to the article it was read from.

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Yes = the help page describes the feature. No = the help page says it is absent or points to an external tool. — = not found in the help pages; that does not mean the feature is absent.

As history: in Tooltester’s series ActiveCampaign’s average was 90.8%; Systeme.io was not in the series. The series ended in January 2024.

Read from the help pages, the difference is in the tools. ActiveCampaign’s Engagement Management unsubscribes the inactive, and a dedicated IP is available on any plan for a 100,000-contact list. Systeme.io’s help page tells you to clean with an external checking tool, points record checking to dnschecker and mxtoolbox and does not mention a dedicated IP. The basics are at both.

Most of deliverability is still the sender’s own responsibility — authentication, list quality and sending pace: what Gmail and Yahoo require of senders.

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The rules are read from the providers’ own help pages. “Not read” means the rule could not be opened in the original source — we do not guess it in either direction.

• Systeme.io. The plan limits are contact counts (free plan 2,000, Startup 5,000, Webinar 10,000). All nine contact-management articles in the help centre were read on 5 September 2026: none of them says which contact statuses count toward the plan limit. The guides advise cleaning the list, but the counting rule is not published. So we claim nothing either way until it can be read or has been asked from support.
• ActiveCampaign. The rule depends on the account creation date. ActiveCampaign’s own help article gives two answers: on accounts created on or after 3 November 2025, all contacts count toward the limit regardless of status, i.e. unsubscribed, unconfirmed and bounced too; on accounts created on or before 2 November 2025, only active ones. A new account is therefore in the same group as Mailchimp in this comparison. The help page opens only in a browser (HTTP 403); the text was read through the help centre’s own API on 5 September 2026.

Which one for you