ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo is the email decision most online businesses face once they outgrow a basic newsletter tool. Both build automated flows, segment by behaviour and send at scale. The difference is focus. Klaviyo is built around ecommerce data: orders, products, browsing and predicted spend. ActiveCampaign is built around automation logic for any kind of business, from SaaS and services to coaching and stores.
We compared ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo from both official pricing pages on 5 November 2026, recording each price at the same list sizes so you can compare like with like.
Short answer: in ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo, choose Klaviyo if you run an online store (especially on Shopify) and your email is driven by products, carts and orders. Choose ActiveCampaign if you sell services, software, courses or B2B, and you want deeper automation logic, lead scoring and a CRM add-on.
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo at a glance
| ActiveCampaign | Klaviyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Any business that relies on automation | Ecommerce brands |
| Free plan | No, 14-day trial | Up to 250 profiles, 500 emails/mo |
| Price at 1,000 contacts | $15 Starter, $49 Plus (billed yearly) | $30 Email (billed monthly) |
| Billing | Monthly or yearly | Monthly only |
| What you pay for | Contacts on your list | Active profiles that can receive email |
| SMS | Paid add-on | Pay per send ($0.01 + provider fees, US toll-free) |
| CRM and deal pipelines | Enhanced CRM add-on | No sales CRM |
| Landing pages | From the Plus plan | Web forms and sign-up pop-ups |
| Integrations | 1,000+ listed | 350+ listed |
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo pricing
Both tools charge by list size, but they count your list differently and bill differently, so the headline prices aren’t directly comparable.
Klaviyo prices (Email plan)
Klaviyo charges for active profiles, meaning profiles that can receive email. Suppressed profiles don’t count. All plans are billed monthly, and the plan automatically moves up if your active profiles grow past the tier. The Klaviyo pricing page showed these Email plan prices on 5 November 2026:
| Active profiles | Price per month | Email sends per month |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 250 | Free | 500 |
| 500 | $20 | 5,000 |
| 1,000 | $30 | 10,000 |
| 2,500 | $60 | 25,000 |
| 5,000 | $100 | 50,000 |
| 10,000 | $150 | 100,000 |
Text messages are no longer bundled into a separate Email + SMS plan. They’re billed per send by destination: a US toll-free SMS was listed at $0.01 plus provider fees. The free plan includes $5 of mobile messaging a month. Optional products such as Customer Hub (from $20), Reviews (from $25, priced by orders) and Composer, Klaviyo’s AI assistant (from $20), are extra.
ActiveCampaign prices
ActiveCampaign charges for every contact on your list across four plans. These are the yearly-billed prices per month on the ActiveCampaign pricing page; monthly billing costs more.
| Contacts | Starter | Plus | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $15 | $49 | $79 | $145 |
| 2,500 | $39 | $95 | $149 | $255 |
| 5,000 | $79 | $145 | $205 | $375 |
| 10,000 | $149 | $189 | $375 | $589 |
The cheapest ActiveCampaign plan is limited: Starter is email-only, allows five actions per automation and has no landing pages. Most businesses comparing ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo will be choosing between Klaviyo Email and ActiveCampaign Plus or Pro.
Clean the list before you compare. Klaviyo only bills profiles that can receive email; ActiveCampaign bills every contact. If you have a lot of old, unengaged subscribers, removing them changes the ActiveCampaign price far more than the Klaviyo one.
Same store, both tools
For a store with 5,000 active subscribers, sending about four campaigns a month plus flows (roughly 25,000 emails), Klaviyo Email costs $100 a month. ActiveCampaign Plus at 5,000 contacts costs $145 a month billed yearly, or $205 on Pro if you want predictive sending. Add SMS and both bills grow: per send on Klaviyo, through an add-on on ActiveCampaign.
Ecommerce features
This is where Klaviyo earns its place. Product catalogue data, order history, browse behaviour and predictive analytics (such as expected next order date and customer lifetime value) are part of every profile. Prebuilt flows for abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase, win-back and price-drop alerts are designed around that data, and product recommendations drop straight into emails. Klaviyo also offers reviews, a customer hub and social marketing as add-ons.
ActiveCampaign’s Shopify integration is available on every plan, with abandoned-cart automations and product data in emails. It covers the essentials well. What it lacks, compared with Klaviyo, is the depth of ecommerce reporting and prediction built into every customer record.
Automation and segmentation
ActiveCampaign’s automation builder is its core product. Goals, branching, wait conditions, lead scoring, site tracking and conditional content let you build long, logic-heavy journeys for leads who don’t buy on day one: free trial users, consultation requests, course prospects. Active Intelligence, its AI layer, can draft automations and content and is included on every plan.
Klaviyo’s flows are excellent for buying behaviour and its segments update in real time. For lead nurturing that depends on scoring, sales handoffs and pipelines, ActiveCampaign is the more natural fit.
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo, feature by feature
| Feature | ActiveCampaign | Klaviyo | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | Yes, 250 profiles | Klaviyo is free to start for a small store. |
| Ecommerce predictions | Basic | Built in | Klaviyo predicts lifetime value and next order. |
| Lead scoring | Yes | Not its focus | Useful for services, SaaS and B2B. |
| Sales CRM | Add-on | No | ActiveCampaign can add deal pipelines. |
| Landing pages | From Plus | Web forms | ActiveCampaign includes a landing page builder from Plus. |
| SMS | Add-on | Pay per send | Klaviyo’s SMS is built into the same flows. |
| Yearly billing discount | Yes | Monthly only | ActiveCampaign rewards a yearly commitment. |
Ease of use
Klaviyo is quick to set up for a Shopify store: connect the store, and data starts flowing into profiles, with flow templates ready to switch on. ActiveCampaign takes a little longer, because you decide more of the structure yourself: tags, custom fields, goals and scoring rules. That flexibility is the point, but it is more work on day one.
Switching between them
- Export contacts with consent status and tags. Keep unsubscribes and suppressions intact; never re-import them as active.
- Recreate your custom fields and segments before importing.
- Rebuild your top flows by hand: welcome, abandoned cart and post-purchase first.
- Authenticate your sending domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and warm up with your most engaged subscribers.
- Run both tools for one billing cycle so no flow goes dark during the move.
Who should look elsewhere
If you need texting, a phone line and booking as much as email, look at GoHighLevel vs ActiveCampaign. If you sell courses or coaching through funnels, compare GoHighLevel vs ClickFunnels. And if you only need a newsletter, a simpler tool such as MailerLite or Brevo will cost less than either.
Choose ActiveCampaign if…
- You sell services, software, courses or B2B
- You need lead scoring and long nurture journeys
- You want landing pages and an optional CRM
- You prefer to pay yearly for a lower price
Choose Klaviyo if…
- You run an online store, especially on Shopify
- Your emails are driven by products, carts and orders
- You want SMS inside the same flows
- You want to start free under 250 profiles
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo by business type
Shopify store with a growing list
Klaviyo is the natural choice. Product, order and browsing data arrive in each profile automatically, the ecommerce flows are designed around that data, and Klaviyo’s price at the same list size is lower than ActiveCampaign Plus.
Online course or coaching business
ActiveCampaign usually fits better. Nurture sequences that run for weeks, lead scoring, landing pages and the option of a sales pipeline suit a business where people take time to decide.
B2B or SaaS company
ActiveCampaign again. Event tracking, scoring, conditional content and its Salesforce integration on Enterprise suit trial and demo funnels. Klaviyo’s strengths are mostly in consumer retail.
Small newsletter
Neither may be necessary. If you only send a weekly newsletter, Klaviyo’s free plan (250 profiles) or a simpler, cheaper tool may be enough until the list grows.
Deliverability and sending setup
In the ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo comparison, neither tool can guarantee inbox placement. Deliverability depends on your domain authentication, list quality and sending habits. With either tool, set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC on your sending domain, send to engaged subscribers first after a migration, and remove addresses that never open. Klaviyo only bills active profiles, so suppressing unengaged subscribers also lowers your bill; on ActiveCampaign, deleting them lowers the contact tier you pay for.
Reporting
Klaviyo’s reporting centres on revenue: attributed revenue per campaign and flow, plus predictive metrics such as expected lifetime value. ActiveCampaign reports on campaigns, automations, goals and, with its CRM add-on, deals. Choose the tool whose reports match the question your business asks every Monday morning.
How we researched ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo
We opened both official pricing pages on 5 November 2026 and recorded the price at each list size by moving the contact selectors ourselves; ActiveCampaign was set to yearly billing in US dollars, and Klaviyo shows monthly prices only. Feature notes come from the vendors’ plan tables and help centres. There are no star ratings on this page; scores come from the standard hands-on job described on our how we test page.
Sources: ActiveCampaign pricing, Klaviyo pricing, How Klaviyo bills customers.
OUR PICK
Klaviyo for online stores. ActiveCampaign for everyone else who lives on automation.
Our ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo verdict: Klaviyo is cheaper at the same list size and far stronger on ecommerce data, so it’s the default for Shopify brands. ActiveCampaign is the more flexible automation platform for businesses that nurture leads over weeks or months, and it adds landing pages, lead scoring and an optional CRM.
FAQ
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo: which is cheaper?
At the same list size, Klaviyo usually is. At 5,000 contacts, Klaviyo Email is $100 a month, while ActiveCampaign Plus is $145 a month billed yearly. ActiveCampaign Starter is cheaper still ($79 at 5,000), but it is email-only with limited automations.
Is Klaviyo only for Shopify?
No, Klaviyo lists 350+ integrations, but it is built for ecommerce and Shopify is its best-known pairing.
Does Klaviyo have a free plan?
Yes: up to 250 active profiles, 500 email sends a month and $5 of mobile messaging.
Does ActiveCampaign have a free plan?
No. It offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Which is better for B2B or services?
ActiveCampaign, because of lead scoring, longer automation journeys, landing pages and its optional CRM with deal pipelines.
Can I pay yearly for Klaviyo?
No. Klaviyo bills every plan monthly, according to its help centre.
