ActiveCampaign’s cheapest plan, Starter, costs $49 a month at 2,500 subscribers with no annual commitment, billed monthly in USD. At 25,000 subscribers, the size where Starter’s contact cap ends, it’s $489. Plus, Pro and Enterprise add more: unlimited automation actions, conditional content, predictive send times. Each costs the same as or more than Starter at every size, and Plus ties it at 25,000. ActiveCampaign is the automation-first end of this market, priced accordingly, and it turns up in “cheap email marketing” roundups because those roundups quote its lowest entry number. If you need what the higher tiers buy, the price is a fair trade. If you just want to send a newsletter, it’s the wrong tool at any tier.
Key Takeaways
- ActiveCampaign Starter: $49 / $99 / $189 / $489 a month at 2,500, 5,000, 10,000 and 25,000 subscribers, monthly billing, no annual commitment. Starter is capped at 25,000 contacts, so it has no price at 50,000.
- Plus runs $119 to $759 across the same five sizes and is the cheapest plan at 50,000 subscribers.
- Pro and Enterprise have no month-to-month option at any size. Their listed rate needs a one-year commitment paid in monthly installments. Only Starter and Plus bill truly month to month.
- Unlimited automation actions need Plus or higher. Conditional content and predictive sending need Pro. Starter caps every automation at 5 actions.
- EmailFig’s managed plan costs $11 to $125 across the same sizes. We don’t build branching automation this deep, and we don’t sell a CRM.
What ActiveCampaign costs at five list sizes
Prices are from ActiveCampaign’s signup configurator with contacts set to each size and currency set to USD, checked in September 2026. Enterprise has no published contact ceiling, and the configurator prices it directly.
| Subscribers | Starter | Plus | Pro* | Enterprise* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,500 | $49 | $119 | $169 | $289 |
| 5,000 | $99 | $179 | $235 | $425 |
| 10,000 | $189 | $239 | $419 | $665 |
| 25,000 | $489 | $489 | $709 | $989 |
| 50,000 | N/A | $759 | $1,089 | $1,315 |
*Pro and Enterprise have no month-to-month option. These are the “Commit annually, pay monthly” installment rates, which need a one-year contract. Starter and Plus are true month-to-month prices.
Starter and Plus both cost $489 at 25,000 subscribers. Starter disappears at 50,000: the configurator states “Starter plans have a maximum of 25,000 contacts.”
Where to find the month-to-month price
ActiveCampaign’s pricing page loads in CAD with annual billing shown as a monthly-equivalent rate, and it has no monthly toggle. The true monthly rate lives one click further in, on the plan configurator behind “Buy Now,” where Starter and Plus offer “Pay month-to-month without savings.” Pro and Enterprise offer only “Annual, Save 20%” paid upfront, or the one-year commitment paid in twelve installments. The price you see and the price you pay covers this default pattern across nine vendors.
What each tier buys
Starter includes marketing automation, email marketing, limited segmentation and a basic CRM (contacts, custom fields, tags, lists). Its real limit is buried in the feature list: every automation caps at 5 actions, and Active Intelligence, ActiveCampaign’s AI layer, runs with restrictions. One user, no landing pages.
Plus removes the 5-action cap; automations on Plus and every tier above run unlimited actions. It adds standard segmentation and a landing page builder, still one user.
Pro is where the real automation depth shows up. It adds advanced segmentation, attribution and conversion tracking, and three users. It also adds conditional content, showing different content to different contacts based on their segment or behavior inside the same automation, and predictive sending, AI-timed sends based on when a contact is likely to open. A reader who needs branching or conditional logic is really pricing Pro.
Enterprise adds premium segmentation, single sign-on, a dedicated account team and five users. Email sends scale with the tier too: Starter and Plus allow 10 times your contact count in monthly sends, Pro allows 12 times, Enterprise 15 times.
None of the four tiers include ActiveCampaign’s full CRM. Contact records, tags and lists are there from Starter up, but pipeline management, deal records, lead scoring and 1:1 sales automation are a separate paid add-on on every plan, priced from $39 a month. If a CRM is why you’re pricing ActiveCampaign, budget for the add-on on top of whichever tier you land on.
There’s no ongoing free plan, only a 14-day free trial. After that you need a paid tier to keep sending.
ActiveCampaign versus EmailFig
EmailFig’s managed plan costs $11, $15, $27, $63 and $125 at the same five sizes, and is free up to 4,000 contacts. Against ActiveCampaign’s cheapest plan at each size (Starter through 25,000, Plus at 50,000), that is 4.5x cheaper at 2,500, 6.6x at 5,000, 7x at 10,000, 7.8x at 25,000 and 6.1x at 50,000. Against Pro’s installment rate, the multiple is about 15.5x at the first three sizes, then 11.3x at 25,000 and 8.7x at 50,000.
That gap is real, and it isn’t the whole answer. We don’t build conditional content, predictive send times or automations with deep branching, and we don’t sell a CRM. If those are why you’re pricing ActiveCampaign, the lower number isn’t describing the same product. For a welcome sequence, a trigger-based drip and list segmentation, the comparison is fair. EmailFig’s BYOS plan, where you connect your own Amazon SES account, runs $8, $10, $16, $34 and $65 at these sizes, plus Amazon’s sending fees.
Who the automation depth suits
ActiveCampaign’s pricing makes sense for a specific reader: someone running lifecycle marketing with real branching logic, conditional content by segment, predictive send timing, and a sales pipeline attached to the same contact records. That reader is pricing Pro or Enterprise against building the equivalent out of two or three separate tools, not against a plain email platform, and $169 to $1,315 across the sizes here (installment rates) reflects a bundle rather than a markup.
A reader who sends a newsletter, a product update, or a straightforward drip sequence is paying for automation depth they’ll likely never open. Contact-based pricing like ActiveCampaign’s charges for list size regardless of how deep your automations run, the same shape EmailFig uses. Amazon SES priced against every subscription tool sets ActiveCampaign next to the rest of the field at 10,000 and 50,000 contacts. What nine dollars a month actually buys is worth reading before assuming a vendor’s lowest advertised number is the number you’ll pay.
Frequently asked questions
How much does ActiveCampaign cost at 10,000 subscribers?
$189 a month on Starter or $239 on Plus, both true month-to-month prices in USD. Pro is $419 and Enterprise $665, but those are installment rates on a one-year commitment. Figures from activecampaign.com, September 2026.
Does ActiveCampaign have a free plan?
No. It offers a 14-day free trial, then you need a paid plan.
What’s the difference between ActiveCampaign’s Starter and Plus plans?
Plus removes Starter’s 5-actions-per-automation cap, so automations can run unlimited actions. It also adds standard segmentation and a landing page builder. Both include one user.
Do I need ActiveCampaign’s Pro plan for conditional automation?
Yes. Conditional content and predictive sending are Pro features, and Pro has three users. Unlimited actions start at Plus. Pro has no month-to-month billing: its listed rate requires a one-year commitment, paid upfront or in twelve installments.
Is ActiveCampaign cheaper than EmailFig?
No. EmailFig’s managed plan is $11 to $125 a month across these five sizes, cheaper at every one. Price isn’t the whole story: ActiveCampaign’s higher tiers include conditional automation, predictive sending and a CRM add-on that EmailFig doesn’t offer.