We got the email last Tuesday. ActiveCampaign is increasing prices by thirty percent starting next month. No new features. Just thirty percent more expensive.
We have used ActiveCampaign for three years. Their automation is solid. Their predictive sending actually works. But a thirty percent hike with no warning feels like a tax on loyalty.
So we spent the week testing alternatives. Here is what we found.
Mailchimp has improved dramatically. Their AI recommendations are now genuinely useful. The Creative Assistant generates decent subject lines. At twenty dollars per month for five hundred contacts, it is cheaper than ActiveCampaign was before the price hike.
But Mailchimp automation is still basic. You cannot build complex workflows. If you need branching logic based on behavior, you will hit walls fast.
Klaviyo is the obvious choice for e-commerce. Their predictive analytics are better than ActiveCampaign. They forecast lifetime value and churn probability accurately. We tested their AI recommendations on a client store and saw a twelve percent lift in repeat purchases.
The downside is pricing. Klaviyo starts at forty-five dollars per month. For large lists, it gets expensive fast. A fifty thousand contact list costs hundreds monthly.
HubSpot Email Marketing surprised us. At fifteen dollars per month for starter plans, it is cheaper than both alternatives. The Breeze AI integration is slick. It pulls CRM data to personalize emails automatically.
The catch is you need HubSpot CRM to get the full benefit. If you are not in their ecosystem, the value drops significantly.
We also tested Sendlane. At one hundred dollars per month, it is not cheap. But their SMS and email orchestration is seamless. For brands serious about retention, the price is justified.
Here is our decision.
We are moving our e-commerce client to Klaviyo. The predictive analytics justify the cost for stores with repeat customers.
We are keeping one small project on Mailchimp. Simple newsletters do not need complex automation.
We are testing HubSpot for our B2B clients. The CRM integration makes sense for long sales cycles.
We are saying goodbye to ActiveCampaign. Not because it is bad. It is still good. But thirty percent more for the same product is hard to swallow when competitors have caught up.
The honest trade-off. ActiveCampaign still has the best automation builder. If you rely on complex workflows, the price increase might be worth paying. For everyone else, 2026 has brought viable alternatives.
Related: Compare all options in our guide to the best AI email marketing tools.