Act! vs ActiveCampaign: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of Act! and ActiveCampaign to help you choose the right tool for your business.
Last updated: November 2026
Act!
5.4/10
Act! is a long-running CRM with contact management, sales pipelines and built-in marketing automation, sold to small and midsize businesses in cloud and Windows desktop editions.
ActiveCampaign
6.5/10
Marketing automation platform with email, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns plus optional deal-pipeline CRM add-ons, aimed at small and mid-sized businesses.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 5.4/10 | 6.5/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Analytics | 4/10 | 6/10 |
| Integration | 5/10 | 8/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Ease of Use | 5/10 | 6/10 |
| Security | 5/10 | 7/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Scalability | 4/10 | 7/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $30/user/mo Act! Premium Cloud | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $300/mo Act! Premium Cloud | Contact for pricing |
| Features | ||
| Contact Management | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Lead Management | ||
| Marketing Automation | ||
| Mobile Access | ||
| Opportunity Management | ||
| Reporting & Analytics | ||
| Sales Automation | ||
| Customer Support Management | Not listed | |
Act! vs ActiveCampaign cost by team size
| Team size | Act! | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $30/moAct! Premium Cloud | Contact for pricing |
| 5 users | $150/moAct! Premium Cloud | Contact for pricing |
| 10 users | $300/moAct! Premium Cloud | Contact for pricing |
| 25 users | $750/moAct! Premium Cloud | Contact for pricing |
| 50 users | $1,500/moAct! Premium Cloud | Contact for pricing |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Act!
- Higher Cost score (6/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for sales teams (7/10 vs 5/10)
Why choose ActiveCampaign
- Higher Integration score (8/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Scalability score (7/10 vs 4/10)
- Better fit for marketing teams (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (5/10 vs 3/10)
Pros & Cons
Act!
Pros
- Contact management is detailed and copes with large contact databases and big imports.
- A desktop and hybrid deployment allows offline work, which most cloud-only CRMs do not offer.
- Basic marketing automation is included in Premium, with drip campaigns, lead scoring and web visitor tracking.
- Fields and sales processes are highly customisable.
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android are included at no extra cost for Premium Cloud subscribers.
Cons
- Reviewers describe the interface as dated and dense, comparable to older Windows software.
- Pipeline and profit reporting is a recurring complaint, and the date-based pipeline can hide open deals.
- Users report freezing and slowness, especially with remote databases.
- There is no native Mac desktop app.
- Enhanced support and several capabilities cost extra on top of the per-user fee.
ActiveCampaign
Pros
- Every plan, including Starter, has multi-step automation and AI campaign builders, so small teams can run nurture sequences cheaply.
- Pro adds predictive sending, conditional content and attribution tracking at a list price of about 79 USD a month for 1,000 contacts on annual billing.
- Enterprise covers compliance-heavy buyers with SSO, HIPAA support, custom objects and a Salesforce integration.
- Review sites rate it highly, at about 4.4 on G2 from around 14,700 reviews and 4.6 on Capterra.
- iOS and Android apps let users create and manage deals, assign tasks and log calls on the go.
Cons
- Pricing is tied to contact count and rises sharply as lists grow, and there is no permanent free plan.
- Deal pipelines and inbox sales email cost extra through CRM add-ons, which adds a lot to the total cost for sales teams.
- Starter allows only 5 actions per automation and 1 user, and it has no landing pages.
- Reviewers often mention a steep learning curve and slow support on lower tiers.
- Reporting customisation is limited, and deals cannot be exported without the API.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
ActiveCampaign scores higher on our CRM criteria: 6.5/10 against 5.4/10 for Act!. The largest gap is in Integration: 5/10 for Act! and 8/10 for ActiveCampaign.
No, neither Act! nor ActiveCampaign lists a free plan.
ActiveCampaign is the better fit for marketing teams: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 6/10 for Act!.
