Comparison · Newsletter / Marketing Automation · Last tested May 2026
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo
Two strong marketing-automation platforms with different DNA. Klaviyo is built for ecommerce — purchase events, cart-abandon flows, post-purchase sequences. ActiveCampaign is built for general SMB — automations, light CRM, sales-pipeline-light. The right pick depends on whether your revenue runs through Shopify or through anything else.
Side-by-side specs
| ActiveCampaign | Klaviyo | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing transparency | Quote-gated 2026 (no public USD) | Public pricing, contact-tier scaling on site | 🏆 B |
| Free tier | No free tier (trial only, 30-day money-back) | Free up to 250 contacts | 🏆 B |
| Starting paid (1k) | ~$15-49/mo (Starter/Plus, gated) | $20/mo (1k contacts, both Email + SMS) | — |
| At 25k contacts | ~$280/mo (Plus baseline) | ~$385/mo | 🏆 A |
| At 100k contacts | ~$680/mo | ~$1,400/mo | 🏆 A |
| Ecommerce-event triggers | Generic behavioral (custom) | Native Shopify/BigCommerce/Magento integration | 🏆 B |
| Cart-abandon flows | Workable (manual setup) | Industry-leading | 🏆 B |
| CRM module | Yes (Pro+) — pipelines, deal scoring | Light contact tracking only | 🏆 A |
| Automation depth | Industry-leading among general SMB tools | Strong, ecommerce-tilted | — |
| SMS marketing | Add-on (separate quota) | Built-in (Email+SMS unified pricing) | 🏆 B |
| Affiliate program | Partner program — terms not public | Affiliate Klaviyo — public terms (15%/recurring) | 🏆 B |
VTS Score (1-10 per category)
Where ActiveCampaign wins
General-purpose automation depth. Sequence builder, conditional content, predictive sending, and A/B testing inside automations work across any business model. Klaviyo's automation depth is real but tilted to ecommerce-event triggers. For SaaS, services, or B2B — AC has the broader toolkit.
Light CRM included on Pro tier. Pipelines, deal scoring, lead routing. Not a replacement for a real sales-CRM at 500+ deals/month, but for SMB pipelines under 100 deals it covers what most teams need without integrating Pipedrive or HubSpot Sales Hub. Klaviyo doesn't have this — its "CRM" is really contact-tagging.
Cost economics at scale. At 100k contacts, AC sits around $680/mo while Klaviyo runs ~$1,400/mo. The gap widens above 250k. For operators projecting list growth past the 50k mark, AC's flatter scaling matters.
Course creator + welcome-sequence territory. Long welcome sequences with conditional logic per subscriber tag fit AC's general-purpose automation better than Klaviyo's ecommerce-event tilt. KIT is the lighter alternative; AC wins where complexity ramps up.
Where Klaviyo wins
Ecommerce-native everything. Klaviyo's Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento integrations send purchase events, product views, cart-abandon, and post-purchase signals into the platform automatically. Cart-abandon flow setup is 5 minutes. AC's equivalent requires custom-event integration and manual flow construction — workable, but you're rebuilding what Klaviyo gives you out of the box.
Public pricing. Klaviyo's pricing page shows tier costs against contact-volume sliders. You can compare to alternatives without filling out a quote form. AC's 2026 quote-only move is the bigger friction point for most evaluators.
Free tier. Klaviyo gives 250 contacts free with full feature access including SMS. AC has no permanent free tier — only a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans. For early-stage operators testing the platform, Klaviyo's path-to-paid is friendlier.
SMS unified with email. Klaviyo bundles email + SMS in tier pricing. AC has SMS as a separate add-on with separate quota. For DTC brands running both channels, Klaviyo's integration is cleaner.
Affiliate program transparency. Klaviyo publishes affiliate-program terms (15% recurring, public partner page). AC's Partner program exists but commission structure isn't publicly disclosed. For operators considering either as an affiliate-promotion target, Klaviyo wins on clarity.
Pick by use-case
- You run a non-ecommerce business (SaaS, services, courses, B2B)
- You need light CRM + pipeline tracking in the same tool
- You're scaling past 50k contacts and cost matters
- Your automations are sequence-based, not event-based
- Your revenue runs through Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento
- Cart-abandon and post-purchase flows drive a meaningful % of revenue
- You want public pricing and a real free tier
- You run email + SMS together and want unified pricing
Bottom line
The two tools aren't really competing for the same job. Klaviyo's category is ecommerce marketing automation. ActiveCampaign's category is general-purpose SMB marketing automation. The overlap exists in middle-cases (a DTC brand that also has a B2B wholesale arm, for example), and there the decision usually comes down to which side of the business is bigger.
For pure ecommerce: Klaviyo. For everything else: AC. For both: run both, accept the integration overhead. The wrong call is forcing one tool to do both jobs poorly when the cost of running the right tool for each is modest at SMB scale. Read the full ActiveCampaign review for AC's broader context, including the 2026 pricing-wall situation.
FAQ
Is ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo cheaper?
Depends on contact volume. Under 5k contacts, Klaviyo is typically cheaper because it has a free tier and lower entry pricing. Above 50k contacts, AC is cheaper because Klaviyo's pricing scales more aggressively. At 100k contacts, AC is roughly $680/mo and Klaviyo is roughly $1,400/mo.
Can ActiveCampaign do ecommerce automations like Klaviyo?
It can, but not as well. AC's ecommerce features come through custom-event integration with Shopify and others — workable, but you're rebuilding what Klaviyo gives you natively. For pure ecommerce operations, Klaviyo's purpose-built flows save weeks of setup.
Does Klaviyo have a CRM module?
Light contact tracking only — tags, segments, attributes. No real pipeline-stage logic, no deal scoring, no sales-rep routing. If you need CRM in the sales-team sense, Klaviyo isn't the tool. AC's Pro tier covers SMB pipelines (under 100 deals/month).
Should I run both ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo?
Yes if your business has both an ecommerce side and a non-ecommerce side that's substantial enough to justify the second platform. Many DTC operators run Klaviyo for the store and AC for B2B, agency-services, or course-side. The combined cost is usually $200-400/mo at SMB scale — a fair price for using each tool where it's strongest.
Why doesn't ActiveCampaign show prices in 2026?
AC moved to a quote-only model in early 2026. Tier structure (Starter / Plus / Pro / Enterprise) is public; concrete USD figures are gated behind a quote-request form. The signal: AC is targeting mid-market and up. Klaviyo, Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Beehiiv all still publish prices openly.
Which has better deliverability?
Both have strong platform-level deliverability infrastructure. Per-list inbox placement varies based on domain reputation, content patterns, and engagement metrics — anyone giving you a single deliverability percentage for either is making it up. In aggregate customer reports, neither has a meaningful edge over the other.