ActiveCampaign alternatives — when switching pays and when it does not

ActiveCampaign sells automation: conditional content is on its price list from the Plus plan up and lead scoring from the Pro plan, and there are over 1,000 integrations — the widest coverage in the comparison. It is also the most expensive in the comparison: a 10,000-contact list costs €149 a month even on the cheapest plan. That is why an alternative is almost always sought because of price — but price is a problem only after a certain list size, and this page says where the line runs.

The short answer

• Biggest saving at a large list

  Brevo

  A 10,000-contact list costs €28 a month, while ActiveCampaign asks €149 — €1,452 a year.

  Start free — 300 emails/day

• Closest equivalent from the EU

  GetResponse

  Automation, funnels and webinars in one, data in Poland: €69 against €149 at 10,000 contacts.

  Try 14 days without a card

• If you do not build automations

  EmailOctopus

  €36/month for 10,000 subscribers and free up to 2,500 — but no conditional branches.

  Start free — 2,500 subscribers (ad)

ActiveCampaign and six alternatives

Prices are monthly prices excluding VAT, read from the services’ own price lists on 3 September 2026. Our recommendation concerns this page’s most common reader: a list of over 5,000 names, at which ActiveCampaign’s price is already in three figures. At a smaller list the recommendation is different, and it is written out below.

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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 and EmailOctopus: the price list only shows the monthly price on annual billing. Monthly billing costs more.
• ActiveCampaign and GetResponse: the smallest list sold is 1,000 contacts, so the 500-contact column shows that price.

How much switching saves

Below is the difference compared with ActiveCampaign’s cheapest paid plan, per year. The smallest row is 1,000 contacts, because ActiveCampaign sells no smaller list; EmailOctopus sells a 500-subscriber list for €9.

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Read from the services’ own price lists (ActiveCampaign, EmailOctopus) on 3 September 2026, excluding VAT. Both figures are monthly prices on annual billing: ActiveCampaign’s price list does not show the monthly-billing price at all, and EmailOctopus’s monthly billing costs more by the price list’s own saving figure. EmailOctopus’s free plan holds 2,500 subscribers, so on the two smallest rows a paid plan may not be needed at all.

The table tells only half the story, though, because EmailOctopus is the narrowest of the alternatives: it has no conditional automation branches and no lead scoring. If you are switching from ActiveCampaign, you presumably used exactly those — and then the right comparison is the next table.

What automation costs elsewhere

At ActiveCampaign automation is included already in the cheapest Starter plan. At Brevo it is not: marketing automation and A/B testing are on the Standard plan. When both are put on the same line, the picture changes substantially.

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Read from the price lists (ActiveCampaign, Brevo, GetResponse) on 3 September 2026, excluding VAT. Brevo’s package is set by sending volume, and the row shows the cheapest Standard package whose contact quota covers that list: 10,000, 15,000 and 20,000 emails a month. ActiveCampaign’s figures are monthly prices on annual billing, GetResponse’s on monthly billing; GetResponse’s annual billing is 18 per cent cheaper.

The conclusion is clearer than you would expect. At a list under 2,500 contacts ActiveCampaign is among the cheapest automation-capable options — at 1,000 contacts it is €14 a month cheaper than Brevo’s Standard. Only at 10,000 contacts does the direction turn sharply: €149 against €55, i.e. €1,128 a year.

So if you are considering switching at a small list for price alone, calculate first. The same pair opened up in full: Brevo vs EmailOctopus shows where the line at the cheapest end sits.

What replaces ActiveCampaign in which situation

• The list grew past 5,000 names → Brevo: the price follows sending volume, so a 10,000-name list costs a fraction. Try it free
• You want to keep the automation and move the data to the EU → GetResponse: Polish company, automation and webinars in the same package. Try it free
• The automations never got built → EmailOctopus: scheduled email sequences are enough, and the price is among the lowest in the comparison. Try it free (ad)
• You want a predictable bill from an EU provider → MailerLite: the contact-based price does not move with sending pace, and cleaning out the inactive is in the app in one view. Try it free
• You sell courses or use funnels → Systeme.io: also replaces the course platform and payment handling, with 2,000 contacts on the free plan. Try it free (ad)

What you lose by switching

This is a short but weighty list, and not one to skip because of the saving:

• Conditional content and lead scoring. These are on ActiveCampaign’s price list on the Plus and Pro plans, not on the cheapest Starter. The other tools compared have automations, but none offers the same scope. If your path chooses the email by the recipient’s score, it has to be built differently.
• Over 1,000 connectors — the widest coverage in the comparison. On a rarer platform the gap shows immediately: the next widest are Mailchimp (300+) and MailerLite (over 130).
• Deliverability tools. ActiveCampaign’s Engagement Management removes the inactive automatically, and a dedicated IP is available on any plan for a 100,000-contact list. Brevo’s help page tells you to clean by hand, but Brevo shows a deliverability score in the app — ActiveCampaign does not for an ordinary account.

The last point should be read together with the saving. At a 10,000-name list switching to Brevo saves over a thousand euros a year, but list cleaning becomes manual work. Eight points for every service, read from the help pages: deliverability features.

The contact limit comes up earlier than you think

One feature of ActiveCampaign’s pricing is worth knowing before you compare figures: on new accounts all contacts count toward the limit. According to the service’s own help page, on accounts created on or after 3 November 2025 the unsubscribed, unconfirmed and bounced are counted too; on accounts created before that, only active ones.

The practical meaning: if your account is new, the 10,000-contact tier comes up earlier than the number of active subscribers would suggest — and that tier is exactly the one where the price is €149. Among the alternatives, at EmailOctopus and MailerLite the unsubscribed do not count toward the limit at all. The rules for all seven: how contacts are counted. Help page read 5 September 2026.

How to migrate without the list suffering

1. Write out the current automations before you do anything else. This is the heaviest work step for someone leaving ActiveCampaign: automations do not transfer as a file, and a multi-step path has to be rebuilt. Check at the same time which branches the destination service supports at all.
2. Export the contacts as a CSV file including the subscription date, source and the tags you use — consent has to be demonstrable afterwards.
3. Clean the list before importing. Leave out the unsubscribed and hard bounces; in the new service they mostly do not count toward the limit, but they damage sender reputation.
4. Authenticate the sender domain in the new service (SPF, DKIM and DMARC) before the first send: what Gmail and Yahoo require.
5. Update your own privacy policy. The processor changes, and if you move to an EU provider, the transfer basis outside the EU disappears too. What to record: email marketing and GDPR.

For whom ActiveCampaign is still the right choice

In three situations switching would be a mistake. The list is under 2,500 contacts and a path of a few steps is enough automation: then Starter is competitively priced (€15 at a thousand contacts). The automation has conditions and scoring: no cheaper alternative does the same. And an integration to a rare platform has already been built: 1,000 connectors’ coverage is not found elsewhere.

In other cases switching is settled by one question — how many contacts are on the list — and the saving table above answers it.