ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign – Which One to Choose in 2022?

Last Updated on January 2, 2022

Are you confused about which one to choose among Convertkit vs ActiveCampaign, as your email marketing tool?

In this article, we will go through a detailed comparison between these two popular email marketing platforms that helps you to decide which one is better for you.

We have tested and used many popular email marketing platforms like ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, MailerLite, ConvertKit, Aweber, Sendinblue, and Constant Contact. In terms of core features, all of them are the same, but each is inclined more towards a particular niche.

Like ConvetKit is more targeted towards bloggers and creators, whereas ActiveCampaign targets e-commerce sites. So keep these things in mind; they have created their advanced features.

However, based on our research and testing, it has been found that the features of ActiveCampaign is more advanced compared to Convertkit.

Especially in terms of reporting and automation, ActiveCampaign has the edge over Convertkit.

Let’s go to the detailed comparison of each feature of both platforms that help you understand which one scores more over the other. You can also check out our detailed review of each platform: ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit.

About ConvertKit

CovertKit is the best solution for professional bloggers. It provides a free plan if you have less than 1000 subscribers, but it may get more expensive than other platforms for a higher number of subscribers. If you are looking for advanced automations, this platform lacks functionality. However, more emails are landed to inbox sent through ConvertKit because of its persona looking emails.

About ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is our favourite email marketing solution and all one solution for email marketers from starter email platforms to complex automations. However, you will get the advance features only after purchasing the higher plan with them. Also, their mails do not look like personal emails rather than newsletter emails.

Features

Let’s go over the features of ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign in detail.

What are the similarities between ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign?

Both email marketing platforms have many similar features, so let’s have a look at them

• Both ActiveCampaign and Convertkit charge you based on your subscribers’ count rather than charging you per email sent.
• You can create various automations based on funnels and triggers.
• In both solutions, you can create opt-in forms
• Both platforms allow you to create a tag for your email subscribers.
• YOU can segment your contact based on various metrics.
• Both solutions have wordpress plugins for easy integrations.
• You can add Two-factor authentication on both platforms for security. 
• Both platforms offer complimentary migration services to move from existing email marketing solutions.
• You can create custom landing pages using both platforms.

What are the differences between ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign?

• ConvertKit is more expensive per subscriber compared to ActiveCampaign.
• ConvertKit is best for bloggers, whereas ActiveCampaign is built for full-fledged marketers.

User Interface

If you are new to an email marketing tool, you will always love to pick easy to use and better navigational interface.

The same goes for Convertkit and ActiveCampaign dashboard. Convertkit has a slightly easy to navigate UI for the new users.

The dashboard of ActiveCampaign can be a little overwhelming for the new users, as it comes with advanced features that a beginner takes time to understand and use.

On the other hand, the drag and drop editor of ActiveCampaign scores well compared to Convertkit.

It is very easy to master for beginners, and within no time, a beginner can design an attractive landing page or email template.

Thanks to the new tooltip feature in ActiveCampaign that popups when you hover over an element.

In Convertkit, there are not many formatting options, so it becomes difficult to design a visually appealing template.

Though both the tools have their own set of pros and cons in terms of UI and editor, ActiveCampaign stands as the winner because of its ability to design visually appealing templates in no time.

Email Templates

As mentioned earlier, Convertkit has limited templates, and it has fewer to no formatting options that can bring out appealing email templates.

However, if you are an expert in HTML or tech-savvy, you can easily custom code a template in Convertkit’s HTML editor.

It makes it super easy to come up with an attractive template in no time. However, this is not beginner-friendly.

On the other hand, ActiveCampaign has a set of modern email templates visually appealing and can be modified as per the user’s choice.

If you want, you can edit the code of a particular section in the template or redesign the entire template in HTML as per your brand requirement.

It makes it more beginner-friendly and less time-consuming.

ActiveCampaign is the winner in the section because of its ability to design email templates quickly and beginner-friendly.

Opt-in Forms

Both ActiveCampaign and Convertkit comes with attractive signup form builders.

Convetkit has simple and effective forms (2 field forms) customized as per your need.

You can also build a complete form from scratch with the help of the official Convertkit WordPress plugin.

You can also choose the forms based on the category and niche, which is a pretty cool feature of Convertkit.

On the other hand, ActiveCampaign has advanced features like CSS customization, adding custom fields like captcha and checkboxes for security purposes.

Also, ActiveCampaign comes with additional features like interaction with your Facebook audience, website, and SMS messages which are truly missing in the Convertkit platform.

Both the tools score similarly in this aspect, as they offer near to the same kind of experience in form building. However, if you are a user who can opt for high priced plans, ActiveCampaign is the right choice.

Segmentation

For your email campaigns to be more effective, you must know how to segment your audience wisely.

It is observed that personalized emails drive 6X more conversion than traditional email.

In Convertkit, you can import the subscribers’ list in 3 different ways: Import list from other email providers, import a CSV or add a single subscriber.

Once the subscribers are loaded into the application, you can merge them with segments and tags.

Tags divide your subscribers based on the action, and segments help you to organize these tags.

On the other hand, ActiveCampaign helps you to combine both tags and lists.

You can easily view the subscribers based on tags, lists, and which segment they belong to in the contact dashboard.

In short, you can get an overview of your subscribers with a single click.

Unfortunately, this feature isn’t present in Convertkit, which makes it hard to segment your audience.

ActiveCampaign scores top in this area because its strong analytics and the lead-scoring system helps you to identify the possibilities of which audience have a high chance of becoming your customer.

Automation

ActiveCampaign and Convertkit have a visual flowchart that gives a clear view of your automation process.

However, the visualization of ActiveCampaign is slightly complex when compared to Convertkit.

On the other hand, Convertkit does not have an option for triggers, whereas the ThriveCart service can help in firing automation on ActiveCampaign.

There are many pre-built automation templates available on ActiveCampaign and Converkit, but several features like the Abandon cart sequence are missing in Convertkit.

Moreover, the templates of Convertkit are restricted to only bloggers, whereas ActiveCampaign templates are built by third-party and a few templates by the company itself.

Hence, you have plenty of options to automate your sequences in ActiveCampaign.

ActiveCampaign is a winner in automation as it supports many advanced conditions, triggers, and automates sequences more than Convertkit.

A/B Testing

Once you have the landing page and email sequences set up, you need to test your landing page to get the best ROI out of your email campaigns.

Convertkit provides basic information about the A/B testing like open rate, subscribers, unsubscribers etc.

If you head on to the Broadcasts tab and enable the A/B testing option; it only helps you test the email’s subject lines.

On the other hand, if you want more comprehensive data about your A/B testing like subject line performance, content performance, email sequence, and track your visitor’s engagement with the emails, then ActiveCampaign is the right fit.

The best part about the ActiveCampaign A/B the testing feature is that it helps you easily identify the winner at the end of the campaign and even when it is being run.

ActiveCampaign is the clear winner in A/B testing as it provides comprehensive data compared to Convertkit.

Moreover, Convertkit only helps test the subject lines, whereas ActiveCampaign helps you test every possible thing in your campaign.

Reporting and Analytics

ActiveCampaign offers more advanced features than Convertkit in terms of reporting. You cannot improvise Convertkit features due to its poor API structure.

Moreover, ActiveCampaign can integrate with third-party tools for providing comprehensive reports.

You can check geo-maps, open rate, close rate, and many more with the help of the ActiveCampaign report.

ActiveCampaign also has a CRM that helps you get deals and sales reports.

ActiveCampaign stands winner in reporting and analytics because of its well-defined reporting structure and its ability to integrate with other reporting and tracking tools.

Deliverability

Before you pick a tool, it is very important to know its deliverability rate. If the deliverability rate is poor, all your email marketing efforts go in vain.

Both Convertkit and ActiveCampaign use third-party services for delivering emails.

Convertkit provides a more personalized touch to emails which makes them land straight into the inbox.

On the other hand, it isn’t easy to create such customized emails in bulk on ActiveCampaign.

However, both these email marketing tools score similarly in terms of deliverability.

Both Convertkit and ActiveCampaign scores the same in terms of deliverability.

Integrations

Convertkit offers 90+ integrations, whereas ActiveCampaign supports more than 870 integrations.

It is very clear that ActiveCampaign has more direct integrations than ConvertKit that reduces the need of other services like Zapier.

Though both the email tools support API, the Convertkit API lacks functionality compared to ActiveCampaign.

ActiveCampaign is the winner in Integrations because of its compatibility with more than 340 apps.

Customer Support

Both Convertkit and ActiveCampaign provide the best support systems.

ActiveCampaign provides training sessions to its new customers.

Similarly, Convertkit provides a fast support system, and you can always contact the team via email.

Both the products provide great support, and hence this is a tie.

Pricing

Convertkit comes with three plans:

Free: This plan is limited to only 1000 subscribers. Moreover, you cannot do any automation in the free plan.

Creator: It starts at $29 per month (for 1000 subscribers) and supports automation funnels and email sequences.

Creator Pro: This plan starts at $59 per month (for 1000 subscribers). This plan supports Facebook custom audiences, advanced reporting, and newsletter referral system.

ActiveCampaign has four plans:

Lite: Though this is the lowest plan, it supports automation and integration. The plan starts from $9 per month for 500 subscribers

Plus: This plan has access to a Facebook custom audience, landing pages, and SMS marketing. This plan starts at $49 per month for 500 subscribers.

Professional: This plan supports split automation and website personalization. The cost of this plan starts from $129 per month for 500 subscribers.

Enterprise: If you are looking for unlimited email testing, personal domain, and custom reporting, this is the best plan. The cost of this plan starts from $229 per month for 500 subscribers.

Based on the subscribers you have, the pricing varies in Convertkit and ActiveCampaign.

Subscribers	500	1000	5000	10000	50000	10000
ConvertKit	FREE	$29	$79	$119	$379	$679
ActiveCampaign	$15	$30	$99	$174	$424	$687

However, based on the pricing per subscriber, ActiveCampaign looks slightly overpriced than Convertkit.

Despite higher prices, ActiveCampaign stands as a winner because of the number of features it offers.

Feature Comparision: ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign

Which is Better: Convertkit or ActiveCampaign?

After testing the number of features offered by Convertkit and ActiveCampaign, we recommend ActiveCampaign to all the users because it offers more features and options than ConvertKit.

Though the advanced features of ActiveCampaign can overwhelm the new users, they can become experts at this tool within a few days of practice.

FAQs – ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign