Many email marketing tools are available in the market. But, ActiveCampaign is one of our favourite tools amongst them. I’m a huge fan of ActiveCampaign and use it daily in my business. Activecampaign has more robust automation features and CRM functionality and is bundled together, which makes it an awesome option for marketers, small businesses, SaaS and software companies etc. Their support and reports are excellent that no one can knock them out of their automation.
ActiveCampaign has flexible pricing and options (Lite, Plus, Professional & Enterprise) available for solopreneurs and bloggers. But the question is that which offer gives you what and what we recommend out of those? And do they really good to increase your subscriber count?
So we’re going to be looking at the difference between activecampaign lite vs plus packages and which one is going to be right for you and primarily we’ll be looking at the lite plan versus the plus plan and there’s also a professional plan here but to be honest, most people don’t really need the professional plan or the enterprise plan. So, Lite and Plus is really good that most people will be looking at. If you want to know more about it, I have published one blog on Activecampaign Review.
ActiveCampaign Lite vs Plus
We can find four plans in ActiveCampaign: Lite (from $15/month), Plus (from $70/month), Professional (from $159/month) and Enterprise (from $279/month). The entry-level plan includes features like a template editor and marketing automation. Higher plans include some more features like CRM and lead scoring without any setup fee.
But, we will analyze two of the most demanded plans- lite plan and plus plan, to see which one is more similar to your business.
The main difference between Activecampaign lite and Plus plan is Lite comes for a small range of teams & is limited to 3 users and Plus is for bigger teams (up to 25 accounts) or organizations that need a CRM to manage their customers.
ActiveCampaign Lite Plan:
ActiveCampaign Lite comes for a small range team. It is limited to 3 users, but it comes with the most powerful email automation, design options, and social media integration. So you indeed get a much more powerful product in the same price range as most competitors.
Activecampaign Lite plan comes with a watermark in forms and email confirmation. But, if these elements are added via HTML, it will not be an issue. But, you cannot get the support as it is live chat and email.
You will get email newsletters, dozens of email templates, and subscription forms at this much low price. Additionally, you will get marketing automation, including 100+ premade “recipes” that is beneficial to increase your subscriber and followers on your e-commerce site, social media pages, and other apps.
While testing it out for myself, I found it beneficial for small businesses as it gives access to more than 300 apps. Additionally, it supports small businesses by supporting up to 3 users, 300+ integrations, and basic automation. However, this plan lacks a customer relationship management (CRM) tool and channels like SMS marketing and site messaging. You can upgrade the Activecampaign plan if you need more marketing channels. Or any platform that offers a free plan for basic email marketing and automation.
| Price: $9/month |
| Includes: |
| Unlimited Sending |
| Email Marketing |
| Send Newsletters |
| Subscription Forms |
| Marketing Automation |
| Chat & Email Support |
| Up to 3 Users |
ActiveCampaign Plus Plan:
Activecampaign Plus plan is appropriate for bigger teams (up to 25 accounts) or organizations that need a CRM to manage their customers. This plan comes with the features of the landing page editor, the ability to send SMS, and the use of a custom domain name for your links. It makes your forms professional without any watermark. So your forms look more professional. Finally, the 1 month of 1-to-1 training could be useful if you want to get the most from ActiveCampaign’s powerful automation.
Activecampaign Plus plan takes things up a notch with a CRM for tracking prospects and lead scoring that allows you to decide which subscribers to prioritize. Because marketing automation can get complicated quickly, I like how the Plus plan includes an automation map to help you visualize your workflows. This map would be ideal for multiple workflows and more complex automation needs.
Though Activecampaign Plus plan has several benefits still it does not have some more advanced features like machine learning and technology and site messaging. If you want to put your sales process on autopilot and potentially increase your revenue significantly, I’d recommend upgrading.
| Price: $49/month |
| Includes: |
| Everything from Lite |
| CRM with Sales |
| Automation |
| Landing Pages |
| Facebook Custom |
| Audiences |
| Lead & Contact Scoring |
| Integrations |
| SMS Marketing |
| Dynamic Content |
| Custom User |
| Permissions |
| Up to 25 Users |
ActiveCampaign Lite vs Plus in a Nutshell
| Best Features | LITE | PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Send Newsletter | Yes | Yes |
| Email Marketing | Yes | Yes |
| Marketing automation | Yes | Yes |
| Landing pages | No | Yes |
| Automations map | No | Yes |
| Split automations | No | No |
| Build-in CRM | No | Yes |
| Sales automation | No | Yes |
| Contact & lead scoring | No | Yes |
| Site messages | No | No |
| Attribution | No | No |
| Predictive sending | No | No |
| Web personalization | No | No |
| Drag & drop email designer | Yes | Yes |
| Free email templates | Yes | Yes |
| Import existing contacts | Yes | Yes |
| Auto responders | Yes | Yes |
| In-depth reporting | Yes | Yes |
| GEO tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Conditional content | No | Yes |
| Users | 1 | 25 |
| Custom user permissions | No | Yes |
| Unlimited Sending | Yes | Yes |
| Subscribe by SMS | No | Yes |
| Inbox preview (Email testing) | Optional - Paid | 5 free/month |
| Social data | Optional - Paid | Optional - Paid |
| SMS sending | No | Yes |
| HIPAA compliance | No | No |
| Integration | LITE | PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Auto import from other services | Yes | Yes |
| Subscription forms | Yes | Yes |
| Site & event tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Facebook Custom Audience integration | No | Yes |
| Social media tools & integrations | No | Yes |
| API & web hooks | Yes | Yes |
| Database sync | No | Yes |
| SMS subscriptions | No | Yes |
| Customize your application URL (for application access) | No | Yes |
| Rebranding (remove our logo from forms) | No | Yes |
| Rebranding (change HTML/CSS of app) | No | Yes |
| Customize your mail server domain (for mail sending) | No | No |
| Custom SMS number (for sending SMS messages) | No | No |
| Support & training | LITE | PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Live chat & email based support | Yes | Yes |
| Managed email delivery | Yes | Yes |
| Comprehensive strategic enablement | Yes | Yes |
| Free custom email design service | No | Yes |
| Phone support | No | No |
| Accelerated Onboarding training | Yes | Yes |
| 1:1 Onboarding training | No | No |
| Customized marketing strategy (with quarterly updates) | No | No |
| Automation strategy consultation | No | Yes |
| 1:1 CXA Strategy Consultations | No | Yes |
| Expedited phone, live chat, and email support | No | No |
| Uptime SLA | No | No |
| Data migration service | Yes | Yes |
| Lite implementation service | Yes | Yes |
| Pro implementation service | No | No |
| Custom implementation service | No | No |
ActiveCampaign Lite vs Plus Video Comparison:
If you are a video person, you can watch this video for ActiveCampaign Lite vs Plus review.
ActiveCampaign Cancellation & Refund Policy
How Easy Is It to Cancel Your ActiveCampaign Plan (Lite and Plus)?
It is essential to know beforehand that ActiveCampaign does not have a refund policy if you are thinking of just trying ActiveCampaign. So, if you don’t need the service for a whole year or want to cancel in between, I’d recommend starting out with a monthly plan instead. So, you will not be losing or wasting your money.
If you want to cancel your account, it is pretty straightforward. You don’t need to get panic. You can locate the cancel button at the bottom of the billing page, just below your account details. Just click there and close our account. You will get the option where you can request to ActiveCampaign to keep your data for an entire data.
The FAQs can provide you right direction in case you have any queries related to your account. In addition, this option can open the doors for you in case you decide to come back and reopen your account.
Toward the end of the process, you will receive confirmation that your account and data will be accessible through the end of your billing cycle.
Fortunately, you only have to pay for the immediate billing period. If you opt to pay monthly, you won’t be responsible for additional payments when you cancel about halfway through the month. If you had already paid for an annual plan but wanted to cancel a few months in, you wouldn’t be able to recover the cost of the remaining months.
Some Special Features of ActiveCampaign Tool
Automations
You get access to ActiveCampaign automation feature on all plans starting with the Lite plan at $15/month
ActiveCampaign offer recipes for automation as suggestions on how you can build them however you can choose to modify it or choose to build from scratch which is what I normally do.
Reporting
ActiveCampaign offer inbuilt reporting tools that give you needed stats in email marketing such as
- open rate
- click through rate
- week,day,hour of email opens and link clicks
You can access all this data in their reporting sections.
SMS Sending
ActiveCampaign offers in-built SMS sending capabilities. This feature is available on ActiveCampaign Plus plan starting at $49/month.
Sales Funnel and Webinars
ActiveCampaign does not have a Sales Funnel or Webinar feature. It focuses on being an email and sales automation tool.
If you need this feature ActiveCampaign offers integrations to many funnel and webinar tools either directly or through a tool like Zapier.
Predictive Content
Different contacts will see different content based on their characteristics determined by AI
Predictive Sending
ActiveCampaign will send an email to a contact at a time it thinks it is more likely for that contact to open the email using AI. These AI-powered features are available in the higher tier Professional plan.
Activecampaign Alternatives
Here are some Activecampaign alternatives to consider if Activecampaign isn’t quite your thing…
Check out Aweber vs Activecampaign vs Omnisend post if interested
Conclusion | Activecampaign Lite vs Plus :
Activecampaign integrates with plenty of other systems and is robust enough even on the Lite plan to create sequences that can help automate sales, segment your list and weed out the non-responsive (with a little know-how).
One online business I work with easily makes 2 million+ in revenue per year and is still only on the Activecampaign Lite plan. So that could be all you need.
If you need the sales pipeline CRM, lead scoring and integration with FB for advertising…you’d need to instead go for Activecampaign Plus plan. It’s a bit of a jump in price from Lite, but if you’re actually using the features it should actively generate revenue for you.
Activecampaign Lite vs Plus – FAQ’s :
How many contacts can you have in ActiveCampaign?
Paid plans offer unlimited sending up to 250,000 contacts
What happens if I reach my contact limit ActiveCampaign?
Your account will not be able to create or send campaigns after you have reached your contact limit.
If you’re just starting out, I suggest to avail Lite first and see how it goes then go with Plus if all goes well.
Great article, by the way, I’ll definitely check out your other blogs.