Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign: Pricing, Automation and Fit

These two tools get compared because both send email and both automate it. The real split is what happens after the click. Klaviyo assumes the next event is an order. ActiveCampaign assumes it might be a demo request, a deal or a renewal, though it also runs abandoned cart emails. If you sell candles on Shopify, the answer comes fast. A subscription business with a sales rep and a store takes longer to place.

Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign at a glance

Pricing and plans

Klaviyo pricing (as of November 2026)

The Free plan covers up to 250 active profiles, 500 email sends a month, $5 of mobile messages and $5 of Composer usage a month, with email support for the first 60 days. Paid Email follows a calculator: $20 a month for 500 active profiles (5,000 emails), $30 for 1,000 (10,000 emails), $60 for 2,500, $100 for 5,000 and $150 for 10,000 (100,000 emails). An active profile is a contact who can receive marketing; unsubscribed and suppressed contacts don't count. Through November 30, 2026, Klaviyo also lists $19 off the first month of the $20 Email plan.

Everything else stacks on top. Composer is $20 a month. Customer Hub is $20 up to 10,000 active profiles, Social marketing $50 up to 10,000, and Reviews $25 at 250 orders a month. Text messaging is separate from the email plan: you commit to a monthly spend that burns down as you send, at rates that vary by message type and country. See Klaviyo pricing.

ActiveCampaign pricing (as of November 2026)

ActiveCampaign lists four plans, each billed yearly and scaled by contacts. At 1,000 contacts: Starter $15, Plus $49, Pro $79 and Enterprise $145 a month. Email sends are a multiple of your contact limit (10x on Starter and Plus, 12x on Pro, 15x on Enterprise), and seats run 1, 1, 3 and 5. Enhanced CRM, SMS and WhatsApp are add-ons with their own pricing. There is a 14-day trial, a 30-day money-back guarantee and free contact migration. See ActiveCampaign pricing.

Read that table with care. ActiveCampaign Starter looks cheapest at every size shown, but it caps automations at 5 actions and has no cross-channel marketing, landing pages or generative AI. Plus is the fairer match for Klaviyo Email, and on that comparison Klaviyo costs less at each size shown. Add your text spend and any add-ons before you decide, since both vendors price those separately.

Automation

Klaviyo flows are built around shopper behavior. Its 60+ templates include welcome series, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, price drop, back in stock and post-purchase follow-up, and one flow can mix email, SMS and push. You can start from a template, generate a flow with AI, or use the drag-and-drop builder with split logic.

ActiveCampaign's builder is broader and less store-specific. It lists 950+ automation recipes, multiple triggers, split and conditional actions, site and event tracking, and business goals that track progress against a target. It can create deals, assign leads and send 1:1 follow-ups once the CRM add-ons are on. The catch sits on the cheapest plan: Starter allows 5 actions per automation and email only, which runs out quickly on anything with branches.

Ecommerce data and segmentation

This is where the gap is widest. Klaviyo connects to Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Wix, and keeps unified profiles with all-time data. Segments update in real time, and its AI can group customers by predicted lifetime value, churn risk, next order date and RFM. Revenue attribution for campaigns shows up even on the Free plan.

ActiveCampaign covers the store basics, with limits by plan. Shopify, Square and WooCommerce integrations and abandoned cart are on every plan. Product catalog blocks, coupons and ecommerce reporting start on Plus. BigCommerce, Magento and Shopify Plus integrations, recurring payments and revenue attribution start on Pro. If you run Shopify Plus, the real comparison is Klaviyo against ActiveCampaign Pro, not Starter.

CRM and sales

Don't let the word CRM confuse you. Klaviyo's B2C CRM means customer profiles shared across marketing and service, with no deal pipelines in its product menu. ActiveCampaign sells a sales CRM: the Pipelines add-on brings pipeline management, deal and account records and lead scoring, and Sales Engagement adds automated 1:1 email and win probability. Both add-ons need Plus or above. Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics integrations sit on Enterprise. If a rep works your leads, this section alone may settle it. For a CRM-led comparison, see HubSpot vs Mailchimp.

Channels

Klaviyo lists email, SMS, RCS for Business, WhatsApp, mobile app push, social marketing, Customer Hub and Reviews. Its SMS is available in 23 listed countries, including the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. A separate Service line adds a Helpdesk and Customer Agent, a support AI whose first 50 resolutions are free.

ActiveCampaign leans on email plus site messages, landing pages and retargeting ads on Plus and above, with transactional email as an add-on. SMS is an add-on with a dedicated 10-digit long code, personalized broadcasts in the US, UK and Australia, and automations to 180+ supported countries. WhatsApp has its own plans (Core, Advanced and Premium) with a shared team inbox and flows. Push is available through an integration.

AI features

Klaviyo has two named agents. Composer analyzes performance, runs scheduled tasks and builds campaigns and flows, with your approval on each step. Customer Agent answers shoppers and recommends products. Klaviyo also offers an MCP server and apps for Claude and ChatGPT. ActiveCampaign puts its AI under Active Intelligence: a campaign builder, AI-suggested segments, an automation health monitor and scheduled tasks, with connectors for Claude and ChatGPT. Every plan gets 500 AI credits; generated content and images start on Plus, and predictive sending starts on Pro. Core features keep working when credits run out, while advanced ones pause. Check which tier holds the feature you actually want, because on both products the demo may show more than your plan includes.

Who each is for

• Klaviyo fits online stores and other B2C brands, from a first store on the Free plan up to enterprise accounts, where purchases drive most messages and reviews or support belong on the same customer profile.
• ActiveCampaign fits teams where leads need nurturing and a rep follows up; its site lists SaaS, education, healthcare, travel and multi-location businesses among its industries.
• Either can work for a small store with simple needs. Run your first three automations through each trial or free plan and see which feels natural.

Limits of each

• Klaviyo: no deal pipelines, so a sales-led team needs a separate CRM.
• Klaviyo: the headline Email price leaves out text spend, Composer, Reviews and Customer Hub, which are priced separately.
• Klaviyo: SMS is limited to its listed countries, far fewer than ActiveCampaign's 180+ for SMS automations.
• ActiveCampaign: no free plan, and listed prices are billed yearly.
• ActiveCampaign: Starter is narrow, with 5 actions per automation, email-only automation and up to 5 lists.
• ActiveCampaign: store features are split across tiers, so a Shopify Plus merchant has to start at Pro.

Which should you choose

Start with who closes the sale. If a checkout does it, pick Klaviyo: you'll get store-shaped flows and predictive segments, and you can start free. If a person does it, pick ActiveCampaign Plus with the Pipelines add-on, and skip Starter unless your automations are genuinely short. One test settles the close cases. Write a real journey, say a first-purchase series with a text fallback, build it in both, then price it at your contact count with text included. A rough build beats any feature grid.

Alternatives worth a look

If neither fits, read Klaviyo vs Omnisend for another store-first option, ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp for a simpler email tool, or our longer lists of Klaviyo alternatives and ActiveCampaign alternatives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign better for ecommerce?
For most online stores, Klaviyo is the closer fit. It calls itself a B2C CRM, offers 60+ pre-built flows such as abandoned cart, browse abandonment and back in stock, and sells reviews and a customer self-service hub as add-ons. ActiveCampaign also has abandoned cart automation and Shopify and WooCommerce integrations on every plan, but product blocks and coupons start on Plus, and its Shopify Plus, BigCommerce and Magento integrations start on Pro.

Does ActiveCampaign have a free plan?
ActiveCampaign's pricing page lists no free plan. It offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card needed and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Klaviyo has a free plan for up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month.

How much do Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign cost at 10,000 contacts?
As of November 2026, Klaviyo's calculator shows Email at $150 a month for 10,000 active profiles. ActiveCampaign lists Starter at $149, Plus at $189, Pro at $375 and Enterprise at $589 a month, billed yearly, for 10,000 contacts. Add-ons such as text messaging cost extra on both.

Does Klaviyo have a sales CRM like ActiveCampaign?
Not in the same sense. Klaviyo's CRM label refers to customer profiles for marketing and service; its product menu lists no deal pipelines. ActiveCampaign sells pipelines, deal and account records, lead scoring and win probability through Enhanced CRM add-ons on Plus, Pro and Enterprise.

Can I move from ActiveCampaign to Klaviyo, or the other way?
Yes, but plan to rebuild. Contacts move with an import, while automations are structured differently in each tool, so recreate your main flows and test them. ActiveCampaign lists contact migration among its free services. Klaviyo publishes an ESP migration checklist on its site.