How much does ActiveCampaign cost in 2026?
Quick Answer: ActiveCampaign uses contact-based pricing with four tiers. At the base of 1,000 contacts (verified July 2026): Starter $19/month ($15/month billed annually), Plus $59/month ($49 annual), Professional $99/month ($79 annual), and Enterprise $179/month ($145 annual). All tiers scale up as contact count grows, and there is no free plan — only a 14-day trial. Plus is the most popular tier because it adds the CRM and sales automation. CRM, SMS, and transactional email (Postmark) are separate add-ons.
ActiveCampaign Pricing (as of July 2026)
ActiveCampaign uses a contact-based model: the monthly cost rises as the number of contacts grows. The figures below are the base at 1,000 contacts for the Marketing/Automation product (verified July 2026 against ActiveCampaign's official billing catalog).
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per mo) | Users | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19 | $15 | 1 | Email marketing, automation, forms, site tracking, API |
| Plus | $59 | $49 | 1 (add up to 999) | CRM + sales automation, contact scoring, SMS, custom objects |
| Professional | $99 | $79 | 3 | Advanced segmentation, conditional content, predictive/AI |
| Enterprise | $179 | $145 | 5 | Premium segmentation + support, SSO, uptime SLA |
There is no free plan — ActiveCampaign offers a 14-day trial (no credit card) and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Annual billing is meaningfully cheaper (the "per mo" column). The old "Lite" tier name is gone; the entry tier is Starter.
Pricing scales with contacts
Every tier's price climbs with contact volume (Starter caps at 25,000 contacts; Plus, Professional, and Enterprise scale into the millions, sales-quoted at the top). As a rough guide, moving from 1,000 to 10,000 contacts roughly doubles the base price on most tiers, and 25,000+ contacts pushes Professional and Enterprise into the several-hundred-dollars-a-month range. Confirm the exact number for your contact count on the pricing page, since the ladder updates over time.
What each tier adds
- Starter ($19/mo): email marketing and automation, one user, up to five actions per automation.
- Plus ($59/mo): the CRM with sales automation, contact scoring, SMS, and custom-object segmentation — the tier most teams choose.
- Professional ($99/mo): advanced segmentation, conditional content, and predictive/AI features, with three user seats.
- Enterprise ($179/mo): premium segmentation and support, SSO, and an uptime SLA, with five seats.
Add-ons and hidden costs
- CRM / Sales Engagement, SMS, WhatsApp, and Postmark (transactional email) are separate paid add-ons, not part of the base marketing price.
- Contact hygiene matters: unsubscribed and inactive contacts still count toward the contact tier unless purged, so regular list cleaning keeps the bill down.
How ActiveCampaign pricing compares
| Platform | Entry | Free Tier | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign Starter | $19/mo (1k contacts) | No (14-day trial) | SMBs needing automation + CRM |
| Mailchimp | ~$20/mo | Yes (limited) | Email with basic automation |
| Brevo | $9/mo | Yes (300/day) | Volume email, priced by sends |
| Klaviyo | ~$20/mo | Yes (250 contacts) | E-commerce email + SMS |
Editor's Note: We switched a 15-person B2B SaaS marketing team from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign Plus, and the automation builder and lead scoring cut manual follow-up by roughly 6 hours a week. Re-checked July 2026: ActiveCampaign's base prices are now Starter $19/$15, Plus $59/$49, Professional $99/$79, Enterprise $179/$145 at 1,000 contacts — the old guide's "Lite $29 / Professional $149" figures were out of date, and the real budget driver is contact count, not tier, so we always model the price at the client's actual list size before recommending a plan. — Rafal Fila, ShadowGen
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