Campaign Monitor vs ActiveCampaign

Two email marketing tools side by side. Prices are the starting plan a small business would pick, in USD.

Compare	Campaign MonitorMarigold	ActiveCampaignActiveCampaign
In one line	Polished email campaigns with a strong template editor	Email automation for businesses that follow up over weeks
Starting price	From $11.70/mo	From $15/mo
At 2,500 contacts	$42.30/mo	$39/mo
Plans	Up to 500 contacts: Lite $13/mo (2,500 sends), Essentials $31, Premier $171; 10% off yearly ($11.70/$27.90/$153.90); price rises with contacts (501-2,500: $47/$74/$182); Lite billed yearly: $11.70 to 500 contacts, $42.30 to 2,500, $67.50 to 5,000, $105.30 to 10,000; 30-day trial with 500 contacts	At 1,000 contacts, billed yearly: Starter $15/mo (1 user, 5 actions per automation); Plus $49 (landing pages, unlimited actions); Pro $79 (3 users). Starter billed yearly rises to $39 at 2,500 contacts, $79 at 5,000, $149 at 10,000. Monthly $19/$59/$99
Pricing model	Free trial	Free trial
Free trial	30 days	14 days
Users	Unlimited	1 on Starter and Plus; 3 on Pro
Both connect to	HubSpot CRM, Shopify
Also connects to	No others on record	Pipedrive, Squarespace Commerce, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Teachable1,059+ listed by the vendor
Team size	Just me · 2–10 people · 11–50 people	2–10 people · 11–50 people
Available in	US · UK · CA · AU	US · UK · CA · AU
Phone support	Premier and up	Plans not stated
Live chat	None listed	Every paid plan
Support hours	Web form: Mon-Fri 8 am to 5 pm CST/CDT, Mon-Fri 9 am to 5 pm AEST/AEDT, Mon-Fri 9 am to 5 pm BST/GMT	Not published
Incidents posted	Marigold has a public status page. Status page	11 incidents posted on ActiveCampaign's status page, which covers all ActiveCampaign products and regions, in the 90 days to Oct 27, 2026; 7 marked major or critical by ActiveCampaign. Status page
Capterra score	4.5 / 5 from 506 reviews	4.6 / 5 from 2,571 reviews
Trustpilot score	2.2 / 5 from 200 reviews	2.7 / 5 from 1,450 reviews
Fit: Retail shop	70	65
Fit: Restaurant or café	65	55
Fit: Service business	75	82
Fit: Agency or studio	85	85
Fit: Trades or contractor	50	55
Fit: Online store	70	82
Why people pick it	Best-in-class template editor Agency features for client accounts	Unlimited automation steps from Plus up Over 1,000 integrations
Where it falls short	Automation less deep than rivals Price climbs with list size	Starter caps automations at 5 actions and has no landing pages CRM pipelines and SMS cost extra
	Visit Campaign Monitor ↗	Visit ActiveCampaign ↗

List-size prices are the vendor's published price for 2,500 contacts. How we calculate prices

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