ActiveCampaign Pricing in 2026: What You're Actually Paying

ActiveCampaign raised prices on existing accounts by up to 30% in 2024, switched new customers to annual-only billing, and in November 2025 quietly changed how contacts are counted — meaning you now pay for people who unsubscribed, bounced, or never confirmed their address. If you signed up recently, or you’re comparing tools right now, the headline price on their website doesn’t tell the full story.

This guide breaks down what each plan actually costs, where the hidden charges come from, and who should stay versus switch.

The Four Plans at a Glance

ActiveCampaign offers four tiers. All prices below are for 1,000 contacts, billed annually. Monthly billing is no longer available for new accounts.

Plan	Price/mo (annual)	Notable Addition
Starter	~$15	Basic email + automation
Plus	~$49	CRM, landing pages, A/B testing
Professional	~$79	AI features, predictive sending
Enterprise	~$145	Custom reporting, SSO, SLA

The Starter plan covers the basics: email campaigns, a visual automation builder, and basic reporting. It’s usable, but several features that competitors include by default — like split testing and CRM — are gated behind Plus and above. If you need anything beyond straightforward broadcast emails and simple automations, you’ll likely end up on Plus.

Professional is where ActiveCampaign’s AI tools live. Predictive sending (which optimises delivery time per subscriber), AI-generated content, and predictive win probability in the CRM are all Professional-only. For most small and mid-size businesses, paying $79/mo just to access AI features is a tough sell when MailerLite and others include send-time optimisation at much lower price points.

Enterprise adds custom reporting, a dedicated account representative, and single sign-on (SSO). It’s enterprise in the literal sense — most companies under 50,000 contacts won’t need it.

The Contact Counting Change That Nobody Talked About

In November 2025, ActiveCampaign changed how it counts contacts for accounts created on or after November 3, 2025.

Previously, only active (subscribed) contacts counted toward your plan limit. Unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed contacts were excluded. That was industry-standard behaviour. Most tools still work this way.

Now, for new accounts, all contacts count — regardless of subscription status.

This matters more than it sounds. On a typical list that has been running for a year or two:

• Unsubscribe rates of 0.3–0.5% per campaign add up fast. After 50 sends, 15–25% of your contacts may have unsubscribed.
• Hard bounces accumulate from invalid addresses. Email hygiene guides recommend keeping bounce rates below 2%, but those bounced contacts sit in your account.
• Double opt-in lists leave unconfirmed contacts indefinitely if people click the confirmation link late or not at all.

If your account has 1,000 actively subscribed contacts but 400 historical unsubscribes and 100 bounces, you’re effectively paying for 1,500 contacts under the new model.

Accounts created before November 3, 2025 are still billed on the old active-contacts-only model. If you migrated from a legacy plan in 2024, check your account terms — your contact counting may differ from what a new signup today would experience.

Annual-Only Billing: The Monthly Option Is Gone

For new accounts, monthly billing is no longer available. You commit to a full year upfront.

This isn’t unusual in the industry — many tools incentivise annual billing with discounts. But ActiveCampaign no longer gives you the choice. If you sign up on Plus at $49/mo, you’re committing to $588 before you’ve sent a single campaign.

The lack of a monthly option is a real friction point for:

• Agencies evaluating the tool for a client
• Startups with uncertain subscriber growth
• Seasonal businesses that only need email marketing 4–5 months per year

Several competitors — including MailerLite, Brevo, and Omnisend — still offer month-to-month plans. If cash flow predictability matters to your business, this difference is worth factoring in.

What You Actually Pay at Common List Sizes

The headline $15/mo Starter price disappears fast as your list grows. Here are approximate annual costs across plans at different contact counts. Treat these as estimates and verify against the live pricing page:

1,000 contacts (annual billing)

• Starter: ~$180/year
• Plus: ~$588/year
• Professional: ~$948/year

5,000 contacts (annual billing)

• Starter: ~$708/year
• Plus: ~$1,788/year
• Professional: ~$2,388/year

10,000 contacts (annual billing)

• Starter: ~$1,188/year
• Plus: ~$2,748/year
• Professional: ~$3,588/year

Add the inactive-contact counting rule and these numbers climb further. A list of 10,000 active subscribers might require a 15,000-contact plan tier if you have significant historical churn.

Who Should Stay on ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is genuinely strong at one thing: deep marketing automation combined with a built-in CRM. If your business relies on complex, multi-step sequences — lead scoring, conditional branching based on CRM activity, sales pipeline integration — the tool earns its cost.

Specific use cases where ActiveCampaign holds up well:

B2B sales-led businesses. The combination of email automation and deal pipeline management in one tool is hard to replicate cheaply. Alternatives that match this usually cost more (HubSpot) or require integrating two separate tools.

E-commerce with complex post-purchase flows. The automation builder can trigger sequences based on purchase history, abandoned cart timing, and product categories in ways that simpler tools don’t support natively.

Existing accounts on legacy pricing. If you were on a legacy plan before June 2024 and your costs weren’t dramatically impacted by the migration, you may have better terms than a new customer would get today. Switching tools to save money might not actually save money once migration costs and re-building automations are factored in.

Where ActiveCampaign is hard to justify: anyone who primarily sends newsletters or broadcast campaigns, small businesses that don’t need CRM, or teams who want predictable monthly billing.

Best Alternatives If the Cost Doesn’t Make Sense

MailerLite

MailerLite is the most common reason people leave ActiveCampaign. The free plan covers 500 subscribers (reduced from 1,000 in late 2025 — worth noting). Paid plans start around $9/mo for 500 contacts on annual billing — roughly half the Starter cost. The automation builder is capable, A/B testing is included, and it counts only active subscribers toward billing.

The weakness: MailerLite doesn’t have a native CRM. If you rely on pipeline management inside ActiveCampaign, you’d need a separate tool or accept that trade-off.

Brevo

Brevo bills by email sends, not contacts — making it significantly cheaper for large lists that are mailed infrequently. The free plan includes unlimited contacts with 300 emails per day. Paid plans start around $9/mo for 5,000 emails. There’s a built-in CRM on all plans, transactional email support, and month-to-month billing available.

The weakness: Brevo’s automation depth doesn’t match ActiveCampaign’s. Complex conditional sequences and lead scoring are less flexible. For straightforward segmentation and broadcast campaigns it’s excellent; for sophisticated multi-path automations, it starts to show limits.

HubSpot

HubSpot is the upgrade path, not the budget alternative. The free CRM is genuinely useful, and Marketing Hub covers email well. But pricing escalates quickly — the Starter Marketing plan runs around $20/mo, Professional jumps to $890/mo. For teams that have outgrown ActiveCampaign and need deeper CRM integration, HubSpot is the natural successor. For teams trying to save money, it isn’t.

How to Choose

If you’re evaluating ActiveCampaign against alternatives, be honest about which features you’ll actually use. A few questions that clarify the decision:

Do you need a built-in CRM? If yes, your options narrow to ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, or Brevo. If no, MailerLite, Omnisend, or GetResponse offer more value per dollar for pure email marketing.

How complex are your automations? Three-step welcome sequences don’t require a Professional plan. ActiveCampaign’s advanced automation is powerful but only worth the cost if you’ll build and maintain those sequences.

When was your account created? If you’re on a pre-November 2025 account, your contact counting model is better than what new customers get. That’s a hidden advantage worth preserving if you’re already on the platform.

Are you comfortable with annual billing? If cash flow is tight or your subscriber count is volatile, an annual commitment to a higher contact tier is a real risk. MailerLite and Brevo offer monthly plans without penalty.

The honest summary: ActiveCampaign is among the most capable email marketing tools available, and it was better value two years ago than it is today. The plan restructuring, inactive-contact billing, add-on unbundling, and annual-only commitment have pushed the effective cost well above competitors offering comparable results for simpler use cases. If you need the depth, it’s justified. If you don’t, there’s a shorter, cheaper path.

For a head-to-head against specific alternatives, see ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp or our full list of ActiveCampaign alternatives. For broader pricing context, see how email marketing tools compare on cost.

Sources

1. ActiveCampaign — Official Website — accessed 2026-05-09
2. MailerLite — Official Website — accessed 2026-05-09