ActiveCampaign review: $15 a month gets you one user and five automation steps
ActiveCampaign starts at $15 for 1,000 contacts, but the Starter plan caps automations at five actions. The add-on costs and a 2025 billing change matter more than the headline price.
Verdict
ActiveCampaign has the deepest automation in this price range, but Starter at $15 caps you at five actions per automation. Real workflows need Plus at $49. Add-ons stack up fast.
ActiveCampaign at a glance
- Starting price
- $15/mo
- Free plan
- No
- We tested for
- Two weeks
Pros and cons
What works
- Automation depth beyond what most email tools at this price offer, with branching, conditional logic, and behaviour-based triggers
- A genuine 14-day free trial on all tiers, so the automation builder can be tested properly before committing
- Unlimited automation actions from the Plus tier upward, rather than metering them
- Pricing scales by contact count, so a business with a small list pays a small price
What does not
- The $15 Starter plan limits automations to five actions each, which is not enough for the branching workflows ActiveCampaign is chosen for
- Add-ons are expensive and easy to miss: CRM pipelines around $68 a month, custom reporting around $159, extra users around $12 each
- A billing change on November 3, 2025 means new accounts are charged for unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed contacts, not just active ones
- Starter and Plus include only one user, so any team collaboration means paying per extra seat
What ActiveCampaign is for#
ActiveCampaign is email marketing with a serious automation engine attached. The distinguishing feature is the visual automation builder: branching workflows that react to what a contact does, rather than a sequence that fires on a timer.
That is what people pay for. Which makes the Starter plan's limitation a problem.
The five-action cap on Starter#
5 actions
Automation limit on the $15 Starter plan
An action is one step in a workflow. A send, a wait, a tag, a condition check. Five is not many once a workflow branches.
The contact-billing change from November 2025#
On November 3, 2025, ActiveCampaign changed how it counts billable contacts. Accounts created after that date are billed for unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed contacts, not just active ones.
For a new account with a messy imported list, this can meaningfully increase the bill compared with what the pricing page implies. Older accounts keep the previous active-contacts-only basis.
Add-ons are where budgets break#
The tier price is not the whole cost. The most common additions:
| Add-on | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| CRM pipelines | $68/mo |
| Custom reporting | $159/mo |
| SMS credits | From $17/mo |
| Additional user | $12/user/mo |
A business on Plus at $49 that adds CRM pipelines and a second user is at roughly $129 a month, not $49.
Who should look at something simpler#
If your email marketing is genuinely newsletter-shaped, regular broadcasts to a list, with maybe a welcome sequence, you are paying for an automation engine you will not use. Constant Contact or Mailchimp cover that need for less, with less to configure.
ActiveCampaign pricing
| Plan | Price | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $15per month at 1,000 contacts, billed annually | Email marketing, basic automation limited to 5 actions per automation, limited segmentation, 1 user | A solo business sending broadcasts with very simple follow-up sequences |
| Plus | $49per month at 1,000 contacts, billed annually | Unlimited automation actions, standard segmentation, landing pages, 1 user | The first tier where ActiveCampaign's automation is actually usable |
| Pro | $79per month at 1,000 contacts, billed annually | Advanced segmentation, predictive and conditional content, attribution and conversion tracking, 3 users | A business running attributed campaigns across multiple channels |
| Enterprise | $145per month at 1,000 contacts, billed annually | Premium segmentation and integrations, 5 users, dedicated account team | Larger teams needing account management |
Prices in US dollars, checked on August 13, 2026. Vendors change pricing without notice.
Who ActiveCampaign is for
Buy it if
- Your marketing depends on behavioural automation rather than broadcast newsletters, and you will actually use branching logic
- You can start at Plus rather than Starter, which is where the automation ceiling lifts
- Your contact list is small enough that contact-based pricing works in your favour
Skip it if
- You mainly send newsletters; you are paying for automation depth you will not use, and a simpler tool costs less
- You need CRM pipelines or custom reporting, where add-on costs can exceed the base subscription
- Several people need logins, since Starter and Plus include only one user
Frequently asked questions
- How much does ActiveCampaign cost?
- At 1,000 contacts billed annually, ActiveCampaign is $15 a month for Starter, $49 for Plus, $79 for Pro, and $145 for Enterprise. Monthly billing costs roughly 15 percent more, and prices rise as your contact count grows.
- What is the catch with the $15 Starter plan?
- Starter limits each automation to five actions. ActiveCampaign is generally chosen for its branching, multi-step automation, and five actions is not enough to build that. The Plus plan at $49 removes the limit and is where most buyers actually land.
- Does ActiveCampaign charge for unsubscribed contacts?
- For accounts created after November 3, 2025, yes. Newer accounts are billed for unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed contacts alongside active ones. Accounts created before that date pay only for active contacts.
- What add-ons cost extra?
- The significant ones are CRM pipelines at around $68 a month, SMS credits from about $17, custom reporting at around $159, and additional users at about $12 each. These are easy to miss when comparing headline prices.
Written by
Dana Whitfield
Founder and lead reviewer
Dana spent nine years running a six-person marketing agency in Austin, where payroll depended on picking software that actually shipped work. She started Tested AI after buying one too many tools on the strength of a demo video. She has personally paid for and run every tool reviewed on this site for at least two weeks of real client work before scoring it.
- Nine years running a marketing agency
- Google Analytics 4 certified
- 68 AI tools bought and tested