ActiveCampaign vs Sprout Social

Mailchimp

HubSpot Marketing Hub

Hootsuite

Buffer

Keap

Later Social

Compare ActiveCampaign and Sprout Social based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

Brevo

Brevo is a CRM and email marketing solution that helps businesses run multi-channel marketing campaigns across email, WhatsApp, SMS, web push, and Facebook ads. Teams can trigger transactional emails, SMS, and WhatsApp notifications over Brevo SMTP and APIs.

Mailchimp is an email and SMS marketing platform that combines artificial intelligence with marketing automation capabilities. The platform features a drag-and-drop builder, content creation tools, and audience management functions to help businesses design and distribute marketing campaigns across multiple channels.

MailerLite

From newsletters to automated customer journeys—join 700,000 businesses scaling the easy way with MailerLite. 

ActiveCampaign is the AI-first marketing platform built to transform how marketers, agencies, and entrepreneurs work. Use Active Intelligence to power goal-aware automations and orchestrate personalized experiences across email, SMS, and WhatsApp. 

A/B Testing

Access Controls/Permissions

Activity Dashboard

Activity/News Feed

Activity Tracking

Alerts/Notifications

Appointment Scheduling

Archiving & Retention

Assignment Management

Autoresponders

Batch Processing

Calendar Management

Calendar/Reminder System

Call Logging

Campaign Analytics

Campaign Management

Campaign Planning

Campaign Scheduling

Campaign Segmentation

Canned Responses

CAN-SPAM Compliance

Channel Management

Chat/Messaging

Click Tracking

Client Management

Collaboration Tools

Commenting/Notes

Commission Management

Contact Database

Contact Management

Content Management

Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion Tracking

Customer Database

Customer Journey Mapping

Customer Segmentation

Customer Surveys

Customizable Branding

Customizable CTAs

Customizable Fields

Customizable Forms

Customizable Reports

Customizable Templates

Data Import/Export

Data Recovery

Deal Management

Document Management

Document Storage

Drag & Drop

Drip Campaigns

Dynamic Content

Email Campaign Management

Email Distribution

Email Management

Email Marketing

Email Monitoring

Email Sequences

Email Templates

Email Tracking

Engagement Tracking

Event Marketing

Event Triggered Actions

Field Sales Management

File Sharing

Forecasting

For iPad Devices

Forms Management

For Sales Teams/Organizations

For Startups

GDPR Compliance

Generative AI

Goal Setting/Tracking

HTML Editor

Image Library

Inbox Management

Interaction Tracking

Kanban Board

Landing Pages/Web Forms

Lead Assignment

Lead Capture

Lead Distribution

Lead Generation

Lead Management

Lead Nurturing

Lead Qualification

Lead Scoring

Lead Segmentation

Lead Verification/Validation

List Management

Live Chat

Marketing Automation

Marketing Calendar

Mobile Access

Mobile App

Mobile Optimization

Monitoring

Multi-Campaign

Multi-Channel Communication

By industry, ActiveCampaign reviewers are most commonly professionals in marketing and advertising (19%). The most frequent use case cited is email marketing (80% of reviewers).

Users and use cases

Reviewers indicate that ActiveCampaign offers strong features and integrations for the price, and some users say the tiered pricing and flexibility are valuable. However, some reviewers find costs rise quickly, and they report frustration with confusing billing and frequent price increases.

Value for money

The ActiveCampaign integrations most frequently cited by reviewers are: Zapier (an integration product rated 4.6 out of 5 for its integration with ActiveCampaign), WordPress (a website builder product, 4.8), and Calendly (an appointment scheduling product, 4.5).

Integrations

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing solution with key features that include marketing automation, email campaign management, list management, and more.

ActiveCampaign

Web-based

Linux

iPad

Android

iPhone

Windows

Chromebook

Starter

Plus

Enterprise

Sr People Ops

Active Campaign has a lot of native integrations with the current tech stack we have, so it allows us to seamlessly bring it onboard and start making impact in processes.  

Financial Planner

There are so many options for segmenting automated campaigns based on recipient action, timing intervals, contact management (tags, labels, lists, etc).

Customer Service Lead

The automation capabilities will enable me to create a more complicated pre-arrival sequence to automatically deliver check-in instructions and upsell offers to the guests prior to their arrival.

Marketing Coordinator

The email management capabilities will enable us to divide our attendee lists into different segments based on their interests in particular events, which will guarantee high engagement rates.

Design Lead

Email marketing and access control and also scheduling ActiveCampaign provides the most reliable options and real time data analytics generation ability is helpful.

Owner

When I attempted to change my billing from annual to monthly for the same plan, the company claimed it had migrated my account from an old model to a new one and that it would now cost more than 7 times what I was paying previously because I was "downgrading."

I'd say the learning curve is not too different from any email campaign software out there, to the extent it is more difficult it is only because it is more loaded in features and capabilities compared to more streamlined/simpler alternatives.

Program Coordinator

I like the fact that automated workflows assist in ensuring that communication remains consistent without manual follow-ups all the time.

Customer Operations Lead

ActiveCampaign demonstrates an outstanding support in matters marketing automation, with advanced and AI supported capabilities

Lead Officer

It's ability to streamline lead management automate process and provide personlized communication makes it powerful tool for business looking to enhance their marketing efforts and drive sales growth

Graphic Designer

ActiveCampaign allows you to build highly customized workflows, automate follow-ups, and segment audiences easily, all with a visual drag-and-drop editor.

developer

The platform allows for creating detailed and complex workflows that can be customized to suit specific needs, making it easy to nurture leads and engage with customers effectively.

We need this for use cases like authorised reps, next of [sensitive content hidden], and broker–client relationships, and it’s frustrating that a CRM level product doesn’t support it.

The learning curve is very steep to my front desk workers who have to periodically update the details of the guests.

I was on a lower-tier subscription but felt myself constantly wanting to use premium features. As a small business not making enough revenue to justify the upgrade, it was frustrating.

It's a comprehensive email marketing and automation platform that offers a wide range of features to help manage and grow customer relationships.

the ability to create a custom lookup field that links one contact to another.

I am not using AC for the campaign features, yet it forces me to constantly upgrade my plans when I reach the cap (while preventing me from deleting inactive users)

The intuitive user interface simplifies campaign creation and management, and the segmentation options enable targeted communication.

Visa Consulting Specialist

It is not possible to manually handle a hundreds of deadlines of clients.

Technical Support Engineer

ActiveCampaign has assisted me in maintaining follow-ups and service updates.

Internal Sales Executive

It allows us to create personalized campaigns to target specific audiences which increases our chances of attracting more leads.

The program records a solid integration with sales and CRM tools

I used ActiveCampaign for a few years to manage an email list and send out a newsletter.

Singing Coach

I built an automation with a goal of checking if a lead had visited a certain page on my website.

Marketing Executive

Seems to be a bit buggy lately, with some criteria like "send in a contacts timezone" (which I used to praise and use constantly) not executing.

Operations

The tracking of clicks, click-throughs, privacy clicks etc.. works very well and is useful to track data of emails sent

Founder

I can easily manage my e-mail campaigns, receive sales e-mails and build my customer base.

It’s one of the most powerfull marketing automation platform out there, pretty cool if you wanna set up some detailed customer journeys

Spinning Instructor

ActiveCampaign reports also keeps us on check by giving us access to pin-point insights about our marketing campaigns performance.

The app combines sales and marketing, bringing a versatile approach to the market

Marketing Specialist

I didn’t have to code or work out sophisticated flows, I just selected triggers and actions, and it did the rest.

I like that ActiveCampaign allows very specific segmentation and a very easy to use automation interface.

ActiveCampaign stands out for its robust complexity and flexibility, making it ideal for those who want more than just a basic email marketing tool.

Client Success Specialist

The ActiveCampaign dashboard can be a bit difficult to navigate at first with all of its features and functionality.

Early Childhood Educator

We've automated repetitive tasks, personalized our customer journeys, and seen a significant increase in engagement and conversions.

It allowed me to re-engage older leads without blasting the same message to everyonw.

Web Specialist

So if we downgrade, we get less for the same price. If we switch to monthly (so we can leave if we want to without being tied in for a year - there are no refunds) - you guessed it - we pay even more.

I used ActiveCampaign extensively for a long time and heavily relied on its advanced automations, dual taxonomy system, and versatile API.

Marketing Director

The platform is at times a few extra clicks to dig into how a campaign is performing.

Associate Professor of Law

Its premium marketing features help us to personalize our marketing campaigns in order to attract our target audience.

Manager

However Activecampaign is more focused around email campaigns and customer engagement while Hubspot can be your all in one marketing suite.

What struck me was how easily I could create automated sequences that were genuinely triggered by user activity.

It is also effective in contact management but it is extremely expensive.

Sales and Strategic Partnership VP

ActiveCampaign makes it easy to customize our marketing campaigns which help have the right content for specific target audience.

ActiveCampaign vs Sprout Social Comparison (2026)

ActiveCampaign

Sprout Social

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives