Why does this page not state ActiveCampaign's price?

Because its own pricing page renders the figures client-side and served placeholder dashes rather than dollar amounts when we checked it. Its structure is confirmable and its numbers were not, so this page describes the structure and tells you to read the numbers in a browser. A figure copied from a comparison site would look more helpful and be less reliable.

How does ActiveCampaign's pricing work?

By contact count rather than by seat, which is the important structural fact. Plans are Starter, Plus, Pro and Enterprise, the entry contact tier is under 500, and Starter includes one user with limited segmentation and five actions per automation. Your bill moves with the size of your list, not the size of your team.

Is contact-based pricing better or worse than per-seat?

It depends which one grows faster for you. A ten-person team with a small list pays far less on contact pricing than on seats. A two-person team with 200,000 contacts pays far more. Model your own numbers, because the two shapes cross over at a point that is different for every business.

Can I run cold outbound through ActiveCampaign?

It is a marketing automation platform built around opted-in audiences, which is a different starting assumption than cold outbound. As with any marketing tool, read the vendor's acceptable-use terms about list sourcing before you send, and remember that the platform's terms and your legal obligations under CAN-SPAM or GDPR are two separate questions.

ActiveCampaign alternatives

ActiveCampaign charges by contact count rather than by seat, and its Starter plan includes one user. Six alternatives compared on pricing shape and outbound.

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Pipeline with weighted forecast and stage breakdown

Switch if your list is growing faster than your revenue, since contact-based pricing follows the list, or if you need more than one user on the entry plan. Before you move, check how much of your email is opted-in marketing rather than outbound.

The short answer

We could not verify ActiveCampaign's dollar prices: its own pricing page hydrates the figures client-side and showed placeholders when we checked. Its structure is confirmed. Read the numbers in a browser before comparing.
It prices by contact count, not by seat, with an entry tier under 500 contacts and one user included on Starter. That is a fundamentally different shape from most of this field, and it grows with your list rather than your team.
It is a marketing automation platform first. If your motion is cold outbound to sourced lists, this is the wrong category of tool regardless of what it costs.

How we compared these

Every figure below comes from the vendor's own pricing page, checked in September 2026, and nothing comes from a review site. ActiveCampaign is the entry we could not price: its page renders prices in the browser and returned placeholder dashes to us. Its plan names, its contact-tier model, the one-user Starter limit and its 14-day trial with no card were all confirmable, and those are stated.

Evaluated from ActiveCampaign's own documentation and pricing, September 2026. What appears here is drawn from its site rather than from experience of operating it.

The table is organised around pricing shape, seat inclusion and what each tool is actually for, because those decide this comparison. A marketing automation platform and a sales CRM can look similar on a feature list and be entirely different purchases.

ActiveCampaign and its alternatives, compared

	ActiveCampaign	HubSpot	Keap	Close	Zoho CRM	Instantly	SalesCrew
Entry paid price	Its own page renders prices client-side; no figure confirmable	$20 per seat/mo annual, $7 monthly	From $299/mo, 2 user licences included	Solo $9 per user/mo annual, $19 monthly	Its own page serves rupees only; no dollar figure confirmable	Growth $47/mo outreach only	$299/mo flat, unlimited seats
What the price scales with	Contact count	Seats	Contact tier, with 2 licences included	Users	Users	Email volume and contacts	Tier only. Seats are free
Users on the entry plan	1 on Starter	1 seat, or 2 on the free tier	2 licences, then $39/mo each	1 user	3 on the free edition	Not the billing axis	Unlimited on every tier
Entry-tier constraints	Under 500 contacts, limited segmentation, 5 actions per automation	Free tier 1,000 contacts	Price rises with contact tier	10,000 leads on Solo	Free edition, 3 users	5,000 emails/mo, 1,000 contacts	AI allowance around 5,000 model calls/mo
Primary job	Marketing automation for opted-in audiences	Marketing and sales in one platform	Small-business automation	Sales calling and email	A broad business suite	Cold outbound sending	Sales pipeline plus outbound in one database
Official MCP server	Yes, remote server with connectors	Yes, read and write	No. Its own community confirms none exists	Yes, three permission scopes	Yes, four servers	Not advertised	Yes. Every UI action has an MCP twin
Free entry	No free tier. 14-day trial, no card, 30-day money back	Free tier, 2 users	No. Trial with no card	No. 14-day trial, no card	Free edition, 3 users	Free tier, no card	No. 14-day trial, card required

Figures checked on vendor pricing pages, September 2026.

The field, ranked for a team leaving ActiveCampaign

1. HubSpot

The closest replacement on capability, with a free tier for two users and Starter at $20 a seat annually. It swaps contact-based pricing for per-seat, which is better for large lists and worse for large teams. Best for: teams who want marketing and sales designed together. Not for: cold outbound, which its policy restricts.

2. Keap

The other small-business automation platform, priced flat from $299 a month with two licences included and rising by contact tier. Best for: businesses who want automation and payments in one place. Not for: AI operation, since Keap ships no MCP server and its own community confirms it.

3. SalesCrew

A different purchase rather than a cheaper one: sales pipeline, multi-mailbox inbox, data bank and cadences in one Postgres project you own, unlimited seats at a flat price, with suppression enforced at audience freeze and again at send. Every action is also an MCP tool, and anything an agent sends waits in one approval queue. Best for: teams whose real motion turned out to be sales rather than nurture. Disclosure: SalesCrew is our product.

4. Close

$9 a user annually for a sales tool with calling and sequences, and no contact-count meter at all. Best for: teams who discovered their automations were really follow-up. Not for: nurture campaigns or marketing attribution.

5. Zoho CRM

The broadest suite at the lowest end of the market, with a free edition for three users and four MCP servers. Its dollar pricing could not be verified from its own page. Best for: cost-driven teams wanting marketing and CRM together. Not for: teams who wanted less to configure.

6. Instantly

If what you were doing in ActiveCampaign was really cold outreach, this is the honest tool for it: volume-based pricing, unlimited email accounts on outreach plans, warmup and rotation built in. Best for: sourced-list outbound. Not for: nurture, and not a CRM.

What to check before you switch

Check how much branching your automations use. ActiveCampaign's visual builder handles branching, waiting, conditional logic and multi-channel steps. Close, Attio and SalesCrew all run cadences, and a cadence is a simpler object than an automation with branches. List the automations you run today and mark each branch, so you know what becomes a cadence and what needs more thought.

Price your team and your list both ways. Contact-based pricing suits a business with many people and a focused audience, because everyone gets access without another seat charge. Multiply your seat count by each per-seat price on this page. Then set that against ActiveCampaign's price for your contact count, and you'll see which shape is cheaper for you.

Check where your sending reputation lives. A platform that has sent your newsletters for years carries sending reputation and list hygiene that don't transfer. Plan the move of nurture email as its own step: export your unsubscribes first, and move the opted-in list last.

Questions

Why does this page not state ActiveCampaign's price?: Because its own pricing page renders the figures client-side and served placeholder dashes rather than dollar amounts when we checked it. Its structure is confirmable and its numbers were not, so this page describes the structure and tells you to read the numbers in a browser. A figure copied from a comparison site would look more helpful and be less reliable.
How does ActiveCampaign's pricing work?: By contact count rather than by seat, which is the important structural fact. Plans are Starter, Plus, Pro and Enterprise, the entry contact tier is under 500, and Starter includes one user with limited segmentation and five actions per automation. Your bill moves with the size of your list, not the size of your team.
Is contact-based pricing better or worse than per-seat?: It depends which one grows faster for you. A ten-person team with a small list pays far less on contact pricing than on seats. A two-person team with 200,000 contacts pays far more. Model your own numbers, because the two shapes cross over at a point that is different for every business.
Can I run cold outbound through ActiveCampaign?: It is a marketing automation platform built around opted-in audiences, which is a different starting assumption than cold outbound. As with any marketing tool, read the vendor's acceptable-use terms about list sourcing before you send, and remember that the platform's terms and your legal obligations under CAN-SPAM or GDPR are two separate questions.