It's clear that the communication landscape is changing, but email has yet to disappear. Despite increased distrust in social media and dismal engagement rates on it - building an email list remains crucial given its permanence as a marketing channel with low cost of entry.
As a small business owner, it can be tough to find the right email marketing software. It’s important for your success that you choose wisely and not just go on price alone.
Let’s Compare Convertkit vs Activecampaign
In this comparison, we take an in-depth look at Convertkit vs Activecampaign- two of the most popular options available today- so you can make an educated decision about which one is best suited to meet all your needs and can grow with your company!
ConvertKit
If you're a busy content producer who is looking for an email marketing software that will automate your work, then ConvertKit might be the solution to all of your problems.
With features like automation and segmentation, this powerful tool can take some weight off of your plate so you can focus on what's really important: producing high-quality content for readers while building up their trust in you as a brand.
ConvertKit is one of the most popular email marketing platforms to date. The founder, Nathan Barry has been able to create a company that now helps over 34,000 customers around the world reach their potential online while maintaining professional quality.
It’s important to have a good sense of what you are actually paying for. So let’s check out the features offered by ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign! With so many impressive options, it can be hard to decide which service is right for your needs.
Convertkit Features
- Build your email list
- Organize your list of subscribers with taxonomies like tags and categories
- Build a sign-up form that you can embed on your website
- Customize your campaigns by setting rules and sequences for automating your emails
- Keep track of subscriber data with tools like list segmentation and lifetime value
- Integrate with other e-commerce platforms to send marketing messages and deliver your offers
Oops. You already sent out an email campaign, and you sent the wrong link. No worries! You can change the link on your email by using ConvertKit’s Link Redirect. This can also swap out old affiliate links and promotions that may have expired.
ConvertKit Pricing
Next, let’s talk about the price. The four plans are based on the number of subscribers you have.
The smallest plan costs $29 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers (paid annually). The largest plan automatically calculates a price for your list size.
All three plans have the same key features, except for the highest-level option, which provides free migration from other services. This is an important difference because the plans of ActiveCampaign are divided differently.
ConvertKit WordPress Integration
Your WordPress blog is an incredibly useful tool for launching email campaigns and building a list. Both ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign offer dedicated WordPress integration plugins for their email marketing services.
You’ll be able to breeze through the signup process with ease, and you'll have a centralized dashboard for all of your needs. To be honest though, this center doesn't offer much in terms of features or anything like that - it's just a simple checklist feature which helps make life easier.
ConvertKit Ease of Use
You’ll be able to breeze through the signup process, and you'll have a centralized dashboard for all of your needs. However, this dashboard doesn't offer much in terms of features but does include a simple checklist feature which allows you to see all the tasks that you will want to take care of from the start.
The navigation menu at the top of the page will walk you through every task and helpful videos are included to get you started.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign started in 2003 as a software you had to install locally, but after 2013 it became SaaS. The company now has more than 500 employees and over 80,000 customers globally.
ActiveCampaign is a more comprehensive service that offers email marketing tools as well as other features. Depending on the plan you sign up for, there are certain things available to use while others will not be accessible at all.
Regardless of this limitation, it provides a platform that is flexible and allows customers to have control over their campaigns. They can then tailor it to what they need most from customer engagement to improving conversion rates.
ActiveCampaign Features
- You can use a subdomain as your email address. Your email links will look much more personal and professional! It’s been proven to get a better open rate on your emails.
- It's user-friendly interface is perfect for today’s customers. They can sign up to your mailing list via SMS and you are able to send an SMS text to subscribers when it comes time for events such as webinars.
- The Conversations feature allows for unified communication with your audience. By utilizing this all-inclusive system, Active Campaign eliminates the need to use separate email, SMS and Live Chat services in order to more effectively communicate with a high level of detail.
- You can utilize the data generated by what subscribers do to score them. This means you can send emails based on their level of engagement with your company and products.
- The team at ActiveCampaign have created a Google Chrome plugin that seamlessly integrates with your email. The plugin allows you to view contact records, create and send emails directly from your inbox, save messages as drafts or templates for future use - all without the need to leave Gmail.
ActiveCampaign Pricing
ActiveCampaign offers four plans, which are much more customizable than ConvertKit.
- Lite — This plan offers integrations and automation, unlike Convertkit’s lowest plan.
- Plus - This level offers landing pages, custom audiences on Facebook, SMS marketing as well as contact scoring..
- Professional — Enables website personalization, enhanced predictive sending as well as split automations.
- Enterprise — Unlimited email design testing, custom email server, custom domain, and custom reporting.
ActiveCampaign sometimes offers different bundles that will include different features at different times. So you could get extra features depending on when you sign up for something that could increase in price later on.
You will have to pay more as your subscriber list grows but the pricing is tiered. This means that although you will have to pay more as your list grows, you will be able to access more features and have more options available.
Although the Lite plan is cheaper, if you want to use more of its features, you will have to upgrade to a higher plan.
ActiveCampaign WordPress Integration
ActiveCampaign makes it easy to integrate your WordPress site with their email marketing platform. You can place a subscription form on any posts, pages and widgets you choose via the ActiveCampaign plugin. There are few reviews for this add-on but it is still worth checking out if that's what you need!
ActiveCampaign Ease Of Use
The ActiveCampaign account dashboard is a wealth of information and features to help you grow your email list, create campaigns with ease, and more.
It has a lot of useful widgets so you can quickly check on your campaigns. The Getting Started widget is just one click away and will help guide you through any key tasks on setting up or adding email addresses to lists, and creating new campaigns.
Email Analytics And Reporting
Although ActiveCampaign has more reporting features than ConvertKit, the lack of API features makes it difficult for you to use third-party tools.
ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign: Which service should you choose?
The decision to choose between these two email marketing services can be difficult, but it's important that you make the right choice. There are many features of both services that will help your business grow and succeed! You can read our in-depth Convertkit review right here.
Each small business is different and has different needs, depending on the size, its target audience and how long they’ve been in business. Use this breakdown of all the key differences so you can decide which service is best for your needs.
