ActiveCampaign vs AWeber: free to start, or pay for real automation
AWeber gives you 500 subscribers free. ActiveCampaign gives you nothing free and holds its real automation behind the $49 tier. Which trade makes sense for a small list.
Verdict
AWeber has a genuine free plan to 500 subscribers and costs about $12.50 a month after that. ActiveCampaign has no free tier and needs its $49 Plus plan before the automation it is known for actually works.
At a glance
| Criterion | AWeberBest free plan | ActiveCampaignDeepest automation |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, to 500 subscribers | No, 14-day trial only |
| Entry paid price | About $12.50/mo annual | $15/mo at 1,000 contacts |
| Price for usable automation | About $20/mo Plus | $49/mo Plus |
| Automation depth | Basic sequences and tagging | Branching, conditional, behaviour-triggered |
| Automation limits on entry tier | Light but not action-capped | Capped at 5 actions per automation |
| Users included | Varies by plan | 1 on Starter and Plus |
| Pricing scales with | Subscriber count | Contact count |
| Billing of inactive contacts | Subscribers on list | New accounts billed for unsubscribed and bounced too |
| Full review | Coming soon | Read the ActiveCampaign review |
What the winner gets right, and where it falls short
What works
- AWeber free plan is a real plan rather than a trial, which makes it one of the few ways to run email at zero cost past the first month
- ActiveCampaign automation is genuinely deeper than anything AWeber offers, with branching and behaviour triggers
- Both scale by list size, so a business with a small list pays a small price on either
What does not
- ActiveCampaign $15 entry tier is close to a false economy: five actions per automation rules out the workflows it is chosen for
- AWeber automation stays basic at every tier, so a business that outgrows simple sequences has to migrate rather than upgrade
- ActiveCampaign new accounts are billed for unsubscribed and bounced contacts, not just active ones, which inflates the contact count over time
The real question is not price, it is whether you need automation#
Both of these are email marketing tools. Only one of them is really an automation platform, and that difference drives everything else.
If your email is a newsletter plus a welcome sequence, AWeber does it, does it free up to 500 subscribers, and does it for about $12.50 a month after that. ActiveCampaign will also do it, at more than three times the price, using a fraction of what you are paying for.
If your email is behaviour-driven, tags people based on what they clicked, splits paths depending on whether they bought, re-engages people who went quiet, then AWeber will frustrate you within a month and ActiveCampaign is the tool.
The pricing, honestly#
$0 vs $49
Realistic starting cost
AWeber free to 500 subscribers, against the ActiveCampaign tier where its automation is actually usable.
| AWeber | ActiveCampaign | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | To 500 subscribers, about 3,000 emails/mo | None, 14-day trial |
| Entry paid | About $12.50/mo annual | $15/mo at 1,000 contacts |
| Tier that unlocks the point of the product | About $20/mo Plus | $49/mo Plus |
The $15 figure for ActiveCampaign is technically accurate and practically misleading, which is why we keep flagging it. Starter caps each automation at five actions. That sounds like plenty until you build one: trigger, wait, send, check a condition, tag, send again. You are over.
Our ActiveCampaign review goes through this and the add-on costs in more detail.
What the AWeber free plan actually includes#
Up to 500 subscribers and roughly 3,000 emails a month. Real sending, real templates, real list management, no expiry.
The limits are honest ones. Automation is basic. Segmentation is lighter than ActiveCampaign's. There is branding on the free tier. But for a business building its first list, this removes the entire question of whether email is worth paying for before you know if it works.
The contact-billing detail worth knowing#
ActiveCampaign accounts opened after 3 November 2025 are billed on total contacts including unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed addresses, not just active subscribers.
Over a couple of years, that is a meaningful difference. A list that has churned through 4,000 addresses to reach 2,500 active subscribers is billed nearer the higher number. Budget for it, and clean the list regularly rather than letting dead addresses accumulate.
Where each one belongs#
AWeber for a newsletter, a small list, a business that wants email running this week without a purchase decision. Start free. Move to the paid tier when you cross 500 subscribers, which is the right moment because by then you know the list is worth something.
ActiveCampaign for a business where email revenue is measurable and depends on sequencing. Budget $49, not $15. If $49 is not justifiable yet, that is a useful signal that you do not need it yet.
Neither, possibly, if your priority is simplicity above all. Constant Contact is easier to learn than both, though it has no free plan and its pricing climbs steeply with list size. We cover it in our Constant Contact review.
Tool by tool
AWeber
Best free planOne of the few established email platforms with a permanent free tier that includes real sending rather than a trial window. Automation is basic, and that is the trade.
- Starting price
- Free to 500, then $12.50/mo
- Best for
- A newsletter or small list that needs sending, not sequencing
ActiveCampaign
Deepest automationThe strongest automation builder at this price, but the $15 Starter plan caps automations at five actions, which is not enough for the workflows people buy it for.
- Starting price
- From $15/mo, realistically $49
- Best for
- A business whose email depends on branching, behaviour-triggered sequences
Frequently asked questions
- Does AWeber have a free plan?
- Yes, a permanent one. It covers up to 500 subscribers and around 3,000 emails a month, with real sending rather than a trial window. That makes AWeber one of the few established email tools you can run a small newsletter on indefinitely at no cost.
- Is ActiveCampaign worth $49 a month?
- It is if you actually use the automation. Plus at $49 is the first tier with unlimited automation actions, which is the point of the product. If your email is broadcasts and a welcome sequence, you are paying for capability you will not touch, and AWeber does that job for a quarter of the price.
- Why not just use ActiveCampaign Starter at $15?
- Because it caps each automation at five actions. A realistic welcome sequence with a condition and a couple of tags hits that limit quickly. Starter suits broadcasts with a very simple follow-up, and if that is all you need, cheaper tools do the same job.
- Which is better for a beginner?
- AWeber. It is simpler to learn, the free plan means mistakes cost nothing, and it does not present an automation builder you are not ready to use. ActiveCampaign rewards someone who already knows what sequence they want to build.
Written by
Nizam Uddin
Founder and pricing researcher
Nizam started Tested AI after noticing how often published software prices are simply wrong. Most articles copy a vendor's pricing page once and never look again. He checks every figure against the vendor's own page, cross-references independent trackers, and states plainly when they disagree rather than picking whichever number reads best. He does not claim to have run these tools in production, and the reviews say so at the top of every page.
- Checks every price against the vendor page
- Reports source conflicts instead of hiding them
- No vendor has paid for placement