This is going to be a comparison based on use. I have used ActiveCampaign for about 4 years and have sent over 600 emails (without counting automations).

I started using ConvertKit (now, Kit) in early 2024 when I started working with a client that uses it as their CRM. And I have surfed it so well in the last few months that I feel confident writing a review about it.

Executive Summary

One is not better than the other. They are just two different tools for different purposes.

One thing that motivated me to write this comparison is that the majority of the comparisons I find online try to make one seem better than the other. And that can be very subjective and confusing to the reader.

This is like comparing a car and a bike. Both are machines to aid your transport but if you should be in a car and you are on a bike, you will hate yourself. Likewise, if you need a bike but got a car (and get stuck in traffic), you will hate yourself.

ConvertKit is designed for creators — artists, YouTubers, authors, podcasters, and creatives of every kind

ActiveCampaign is built for businesses that sell online that require some level of sophistication (or will require sophistication in the future)

More about that in the conclusion. But for now, let’s dive into the details.

Pricing

I’m starting with pricing because that is probably something you have to know before you start using any email platform. You understand the pricing before you open an account.

From the way the pricing and free trials are structured, you can easily tell who the ideal client of each platform is.

When you sign up for a ConvertKit account, you will be automatically put in a 14-day free trial for the Creator tier. Now, after 14 days, if you do not wish to stay on that tier, you will drop to the Newsletter tier which is free for up to 10,000 subscribers.

However, the catch is that if you do something only available on the Creator tier (such as creating two automations), you will lose that if you fall back into the Newsletter tier (which is free).

Another catch here is that it is unclear whether connecting your own domain is on the free Newsletter tier or only on the paid plans. On further research, based on what I found from other people using the platform, you can have a custom domain (and subdomain) on the free plan.

The free plan is really generous. You have unlimited landing pages, unlimited forms, unlimited email broadcasts, and more. The standout limitations are the number of users, the number of sequences, and the number of visual automations. All three are limited to just one.

And yes, the pricing gets steeper as you go higher. Note these numbers for comparison with ActiveCampaign. And yes, if you have more than 10,000 subscribers, you cannot be on the free plan.

ActiveCampaign does not have a free plan. As you can see, it is straight to business. However, you get a 14-day free trial.

Don’t be fooled by these numbers. And I think it is absolutely ridiculous to choose a CRM or email service provider based on price. If you know you will need the sophistication at some point in the future, it is better to just begin at the Starter tier. This is because migrating your email list much later is going to be a pain — it is a pain I am trying to help you avoid.

Now, you can see the numbers for 50,000 subscribers. Compare that with the 55,000 subscribers in ConvertKit. Even though it looks like they are both email service providers, the functionalities are different.

Meanwhile, using ActiveCampaign as a creator is more like using a sledgehammer to kill an ant. If you are selling 1 product, there is probably nothing special that ActiveCampaign will do for you that ConvertKit cannot. But if you are scaling to 25 products, you better be using ActiveCampaign.

Ease of Use (Dashboard and Finding Where Things Are)

As someone who had used ActiveCampaign for years, I was first confused by the ConvertKit dashboard. I had to try to wrap my head around a dashboard that has been very much dumbed down.

It is so simple that any dummy can find their way around. But a sophisticated marketing smartass would initially find it cringe.

The top bar is where all the functions are. Most of the functions are within the grow, send, and automate. The Grow part has 4 parts (in the dropdown menu); subscribers, landing pages and forms, creator profile, and recommendations. It looks like this:

This is really dumbed down and designed according to tasks. That is unlike ActiveCampaign which is designed according to process. You will see the difference in a bit.

But in the same way as the “grow” dropdown, the “send” dropdown has; broadcasts, sequences, email templates, and snippets. We will touch on those features in a bit.

The “automate” dropdown has; Visual automations, rules, apps, and RSS. The “earn” dropdown has; products, tip jars, paid recommendations, and payouts. The “learn” dropdown just has 3 objects in a single column; documentation, community, and creator university.

Basically, ConverKit is all about knowing the task you want to perform and going directly to where you will perform it. But ActiveCampaign is quite different on this end. First, the naming is different. For example, ConvertKit calls it Broadcasts, but ActiveCampaigns calls it Campaigns.

First, you can notice a subtle difference. You are not greeted casually like ConvertKit (as in “Welcome XYZ”). ActiveCampaign is straight to business. It tells you what is going on in your business immediately.

Unlike ConvertKit, the menu bar of ActiveCampaign is on the left side. And I cannot begin to tell you everything in each section on the left because there are just so many.

The ActiveCampaign dashboard is designed according to processes, not tasks. For example, ConvertKit differentiates “rules” and “sequences” from “visual automation”. In ActiveCampaign, it is just a robust automation network where you can do almost anything. The “rules” are within automations in ActiveCampaign.

Instead of subscribers, ActiveCampaign calls it contacts. And there are so many things you can do and undo within that. The ActiveCampaign “website” section is all about landing pages and forms. Yes, you can build a website on ActiveCampaign, but that feature is a dwarf compared to what you can do on (for example) WordPress.

ActiveCampaign has a dedicated section for reporting. And you will see that shortly. Also, there is “Deals” which I never got to use throughout my 4 years using ActiveCampaign. But this is where you build a super-fantastic sales pipeline. If you combine “deals” with “automations” on ActiveCampaign, you are running a god-tier online business.

And yes, ActiveCampaign has an e-commerce dashboard. I don’t use mine for e-commerce, so it says zero. But the reporting on the dashboard is very detailed as you can see a glimpse of that here:

So, in conclusion here, ConvertKit is dumb and easy to use. But ActiveCampaign is ideal for people who want to build something complex or are into the nitty-gritty of things.

Feature 1: Emails (Broadcasts VS Campaigns)

This is how it looks on ConvertKit at a glance. Notice how the reporting is shown below the emails. Meanwhile, ActiveCampaign looks like this:

You can see that left-side menu. It is as detailed as you can guess it. The emails are listed in rows as you can see the division in the picture above. However, while ConvertKit shows you an email by the subject line, ActiveCampaign allows you to name your email, which is different from the email subject line.

Here you can see what I am saying with the reports. You can go further into this and see the exact time each contact opened your email. You can basically get as much intricate detail as you want. The details you can extract from here can’t be done on that scale on ConvertKit.

Also, there is also the issue of email templates. ConvertKit has just about three but ActiveCampaign has 250+ templates. Now, in my use of ActiveCampaign, I probably used just 2. And then I kept using my old emails as templates for new ones.

Also, the majority of the ActiveCampaign templates are helpful for e-commerce brands. If you are not putting pictures and fancy designs in your emails, you don’t need most of the templates.

I find emails easy on both platforms. I’ll probably be biased to pick ActiveCampaign because I have used it the most. But I soon as I understood the design reasoning of ConvertKit, it became very easy to find things.

The use of language plays a role too. For example, on ActiveCampaign, you add a tag. On ConvertKit, you subscribe to a tag.

Features 2: Automations

Here I would combine Rules, Sequences, Visual automations on ConvertKit to Automations on ActiveCampaign. So, let’s look at ConvertKit first…

Now, a big shoutout to the marketing team of ConvertKit. They know their target audience so well and speak the language of their audience. As a creative who has active projects in music, this page really got to me. It was emotionally on point. Just seeing this page would sell any creator.

There were tons of options like these above on the page. Probably more than 20. But it just speaks to the creator like nothing else. It speaks to the author, musician, newsletter writer, YouTuber, etc. They have these ready-made templates for you that you can just customize.

And then there is the visual automation itself. We didn’t have visual automation on ConvertKit, so I took a screenshot of one being built in the video explainer:

It is fairly easy to use and meets the standard of regular automations that 80% of people would need. But for those looking for the extra 20% edge, they will have to go to ActiveCampaign.

But before I show you ActiveCampaign automations, you should see what sequences and rules are like on ConvertKit

This is what the sequences look like. A sequence is just a bunch of emails you are automatically sending with some time in-between them. As you can see in the picture above, there is 40-day sequence with 14 emails. It automatically sends. Meanwhile, if it is just a broadcast, it manually sends.

The limitation of this is that you cannot control when a subscriber gets out of the sequence. The sequence has to run completely. There might be some complicated way to achieve that, but always remember that ConvertKit is built for tasks, not for processes.

Rules is basically where you tell the system to take an action when a trigger event happens. For example, when they complete a form (trigger), the system adds a tag (action). In ActiveCampaign all of this is done in automations or as a singular action after someone clicks a link in an email or submits a form.

In this case, ConvertKit is task-oriented, while ActiveCampaign is process-oriented. Finally, on ConvertKit, you have Snippets.

If you think about it, as a creator, the snippet feature comes in handy. This is because no amount of template ConvertKit gives you would be satisfactory. So, think of snippets as a place to build your own email templates.

Okay, now let’s see ActiveCampaign automations in all its glory. Now, understand that my use of ActiveCampaign does not do justice to the capability of the platform. But here is a glimpse:

Yes, you can do 80% of this automation I showed here on ConvertKit. But let me show you some things that can’t be done on ConvertKit.

Do you see that Yellow box that says “Goal”, that is some high-end stuff. You can have a subscriber leave an automation when the goal is already achieved. That makes a lot of sense if you are a big business and trying to personalize the customer journey.

Also, if you look at the right-hand side of the first ActiveCampaign automation screenshot, you will see a lot more things you can do. You can integrate SMS (and have it personalized), 1-on-1 emails, etc. You can also integrate other apps into your automation directly without using Zapier. (Of course, you can use Zapier if you want).

The limit of what you can do is your imagination on ActiveCampaign. If you can think it, I am pretty sure it can be built on ActiveCampaign. It doesn't matter how complex it is.

If you have a team doing sales calls and they have to show what stage a customer or client is, you can bake all of that into ActiveCampaign. I have seen some other people do insane things with ActiveCampaign. Sometimes, you don’t know something is possible until you see someone do it.

But the reality is that only very few people need that level of sophistication. I would say that even if you don’t need it at the onset, but you know you will eventually need it — it is better just to start with ActiveCampaign.

Features 3: Landing Pages and Forms

This is what the dashboard for landing pages and forms looks like. And also the data that they show.

The landing page builder is pretty basic. If you don’t find just what you need in the (very limited) templates, it is going to be very hard for you to make one. I recommend hosting your landing pages elsewhere if you want something elaborate. But if it is just the basic stuff, you’re good.

ActiveCampaign has forms and landing pages quite separately. But they are still under the website section. Here is what Pages looks like:

As you can see I have tried building stuff on this in the past (actually, a few years ago now) and I find it not worth it. You can see that I mostly abandoned my efforts. Maybe things are different now but compared to what you can do on platforms like LeadPages, this landing page builder is weak.

It is much better than that of ConvertKit though, but it may still not give you what you want. However, the case is different for forms:

The form is simple and straightforward. One thing that I noticed with ConvertKit is that their forms or landing pages are just to collect names and emails. I don’t think you can collect anything else. Meanwhile, the sky is the limit on ActiveCampaign. Any information you wish you collect in the form, you can ask.

You can create your own thing. There are dropdowns for questions. You can make any question required. You can build things out the way you like. I found this part simple from the day I started using ActiveCampaign.

One problem I faced in ConvertKit on landing pages was making a logo fit the page. On ActiveCampaign, that part is easy. But other parts are complicated because you have to be flexible around some very limiting boundaries.

In conclusion for this area, both platforms are cool for forms. You have to use ActiveCampaign if you want your form to include more than just the cliche (name and email). However, for landing pages, especially if you are running page traffic to your landing page, use another platform for that. Use a proper landing page platform like Clickfunnels or LeadPages.

Integrations

ActiveCampaign absolutely wins this round hands down. But here is what you find on ConvertKit…

I counted 23 integrations on ConvertKit. The notable one that is not shown here is Zapier. Yes, ConvertKit has Zapier integration and from Zapier, you can connect to other apps. But on the other hand…

Don’t get deceived by these 5 shown here. These are just the most popular ones among ActiveCampaign users. ActiveCampaign actually has over 900 app integrations.

Yes, you heard that right — 900+. If you notice the left sidebar, all those are categories where you would find tons of apps. They just made it easy to search by categorizing them.

I have connected a few integrations on ActiveCampaign and it was seamless. The most impressive was when I connected Stripe and then brought it into one of my automations. This means that when payment is made on Stripe, a bunch of things get triggered on ActiveCampaign automatically. This is priceless for any serious online business.

Meanwhile, integration works on ConvertKit too. But I did have some trouble with that though. I connected LeadPages to ConvertKit. While it worked, there were some extra functions I wanted but couldn’t do.

If integrations are super-important to you, ActiveCampaign is your best bet. But if you don’t really care about all of that ninja stuff — ConvertKit gets the job done.

Support

I have had an issue with ActiveCampaign more than once. And the support was splendid. And all through my 4 years using the platform, I never had the same issue twice. I contacted support maybe 4–5 times. As you can tell from the size of the email list (which you have seen from the screenshot), I wasn’t a “huge” client.

I have not had any issues to contact support on ConvertKit. This shows that their system is good and dumb enough for anyone to get it. However, I have only heard good things about their support too.

Other Stuffs

Of course, I cannot possibly touch on everything about the two platforms. But there are a few things peculiar to each of them that are worth sharing but don’t fit into any category thus far.

ConvertKit Products

First is ConvertKit Products. Yes, you can sell directly on ConvertKit. That is nice if it is just 1 or 2 products or something that you offer from time to time. But if it is anything major, I doubt if this feature is enough. Keep in mind that your competitor is probably using Shopify + ActiveCampaign.

I think this is good for creators selling digital products. Maybe a digital book you want to sell to your fans and don’t want it available on a public platform like Amazon. Makes sense for that.

Otherwise, it doesn’t make much sense.

ConvertKit Creator Profile and Network

As you can see, we don’t use this. But this might help if you are an author or artist and you want to have a page that showcases you. There is an active link to that which ConvertKit gives to you that leads to this creator profile.

However, you can make that link go to a landing page or form that you designed in ConvertKit.

And there is also the creator network, which connects you to other creators on the platform. However, I am not sure how useful that is because I haven’t tried it.

From what I have experienced so far from community platforms like this, I would just say — set your expectations very low. I don’t know how it works on ConvertKit and haven’t tried it. But I don’t think I have seen any platform with a community like that thrive in a big way.

But hey, that’s just me. It could potentially lead to great partnerships. But I wouldn’t bet on it.

ConvertKit University

I don’t know of anyone who signs up for a new CRM or email service provider and says, “Now, that I am here, let me go watch a bunch of videos on how this works”. Maybe you know someone like that. I know no one like that.

Everybody I know (including me) just tries to figure stuff out. And if we break something, we send a message to support. But having the videos can be helpful sometimes.

Any platform counting on helpful videos to help users will fail. The platform has to be intuitive enough for people to figure out where things are. ConvertKit has done a good job with that. And I guess the “university” is to take the last excuses away from people for not figuring out how to do stuff.

I would rather pay someone to get the stuff done than sit down with a bunch of videos. But that’s just me though.

ActiveCampaign Getting Started

You do need to learn to use ActiveCampaign though. I got to learn very fast because I had a business coach who was also using ActiveCampaign. And he would share his screen on the majority of our coaching calls and show how stuff is done.

That is how I learned fast. As you can see after 4 years, I still have an 8/11 score. No one goes through that “learning” experience. We all just want to start sending emails and making sales. But it is a good thing to have it there.

ActiveCampaign Deals

I didn’t get to explore this with you because I don’t use it. But I have seen it in use. It is very powerful for businesses, especially when you have multiple team members on one ActiveCampaign account.

It is a powerful tool to scale businesses. But as just one person sending emails to your fans, it is pretty much useless.

Final Conclusion

I can’t stress this enough. If you are a creator (particularly an indie creator or a do-everything-by-myself creator), ConvertKit is ideal for you.

If you are a business and you already have complex systems (or you know that you will have complex systems in the future), just start with ActiveCampaign.

I have been redesigning how I work from the beginning of 2024. For my music projects, I am now using ConvertKit. However, for the online businesses I advise and work with, I tell them to go for ActiveCampaign.

It is better to start at ActiveCampaign than try to migrate later when you have a gazillion customers in the pipeline. For businesses who are already using ConvertKit (or something like that) and realize they need to switch to ActiveCampaign (or a sophisticated platform like that), how you do it matters a whole lot. Don’t rush the migration — plan out a smooth transition process.

Anyway, that is all I have to say.