TL;DR: This one splits cleanly by business model rather than by quality. ActiveCampaign takes the win for most businesses, because it pairs the deepest automation builder in the category with a real sales CRM, and it works whether you sell software, services or products. Klaviyo wins outright if you run an online store, since its Shopify sync, predictive analytics and per-flow revenue reporting are genuinely in a class of their own. So pick ActiveCampaign for B2B, SaaS, agencies, coaching and mixed lists. Pick Klaviyo instead for DTC and Shopify. Both bill by contact count, so both bills grow with your list. Sign up to ActiveCampaign through Rewardio and you get 17% recurring cashback every billing cycle, which softens that growth.
Two platforms, two different starting points
People compare ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo constantly, and the comparison is fair, because both cover the same ground. Both do email. Each one sends SMS as well. Both build behaviour-triggered automations that fire when someone clicks, buys or goes quiet. Yet they grew out of different problems, and that shows up in every screen.
ActiveCampaign started in 2003 as marketing automation for businesses that needed to link a marketing action to a sales follow-up. Meanwhile, Klaviyo started in ecommerce, where the hard part was turning store activity into a timely message. As a result, one became a workflow engine with a CRM bolted into the middle of it. The other became a commerce data platform that happens to send email.
People searching ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo usually fall into two camps. Either you run a store and wonder whether ActiveCampaign can save you money, or you sell services and wonder whether Klaviyo earns its hype. Either way, here is how each one holds up.
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo at a glance
| ActiveCampaign | Klaviyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | B2B, SaaS, agencies, services, mixed lists | Shopify and DTC ecommerce |
| Entry price | $15/month, Starter, 1,000 contacts, annual billing | Free up to 250 profiles, then from $20/month |
| Price at 10,000 contacts | $149 Starter, $189 Plus, $375 Pro | Around $150/month on the email plan |
| Billing basis | Contact count, and new accounts pay for unsubscribed and bounced contacts too | Active profiles you can still reach, suppressed contacts excluded |
| Annual discount | Yes, headline prices assume annual billing | No discount on self-serve plans |
| Automation | 135+ triggers, 900+ recipes, split-testing on whole paths | Excellent ecommerce flows, less flexible for long B2B logic |
| Built-in CRM | Yes, with lead scoring, though pipelines cost extra | No sales pipeline, B2C customer data instead |
| Free plan | No, 14-day trial only | Yes, 250 profiles |
| Cashback via Rewardio | 17% recurring, every month | Not a Rewardio merchant |
ActiveCampaign in brief
Around 180,000 businesses use ActiveCampaign, which now calls itself an autonomous marketing platform. Underneath the new label sits the same thing people have always bought it for. That is a visual automation builder with more depth than anything else at this price.
You get 135 or so triggers, 900+ pre-built recipes, conditional branching, lead scoring and the rare ability to split-test entire automation paths. A sales CRM sits alongside it, so a marketing action can create a task for a rep. Deliverability is also a quiet strength. Independent inbox placement testing from EmailToolTester has put ActiveCampaign at the top of the field.
The catch is cost and complexity. Pricing runs $15, $49, $79 and $145 a month on Starter, Plus, Pro and Enterprise at 1,000 contacts with annual billing. Grow your list and the whole plan re-prices. Add-ons also stack up, since CRM pipelines, SMS credits and custom reporting all cost extra. Since 3 November 2025, new accounts also pay for unsubscribed, bounced and unconfirmed contacts, which most rivals do not do. Our full ActiveCampaign pricing breakdown covers every tier and add-on.
Klaviyo in brief
Klaviyo is the default email and SMS platform for Shopify brands, and its numbers back that up. The company hit $358 million in revenue in Q1 2026, up 28% year on year, across more than 196,000 customers. Notably, Shopify holds an investment in the business and names Klaviyo its preferred email partner for Shopify Plus.
What you actually buy is the data layer. Klaviyo stores every order, browse and click, then lets you segment on it in real time. Predicted lifetime value, churn risk and next order date come as standard. Revenue attribution runs per campaign and per flow, so you can see which welcome series earns its keep. Around 350 integrations then connect the rest of your stack.
The friction is money and scope. Since February 2025 Klaviyo bills on active profiles, meaning every contact you could still message, not just the ones you emailed. Cross a tier and it upgrades you automatically on the next cycle. Similarly, Reviews, Marketing Analytics and the advanced data platform all cost extra, and self-serve plans get no annual discount. If you do not sell products online, most of that value never lands.
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo, category by category
Pricing and billing
At the bottom end, Klaviyo looks friendlier. It has a free plan for 250 profiles, then paid plans open at $20 a month. By comparison, ActiveCampaign has no free tier, only a 14-day trial, and it starts at $15 a month on annual billing.
Higher up, the picture flips depending on what you need. For example, at 10,000 contacts Klaviyo’s email plan sits around $150 a month. ActiveCampaign wants $149 for Starter but $375 for Pro, and Pro is where the features most people want actually live. Klaviyo also charges SMS separately through credits.
The billing detail matters more than the headline. Klaviyo excludes suppressed and unsubscribed profiles from your count, though you have to suppress dead contacts yourself. ActiveCampaign now counts everything for new accounts, unsubscribes and hard bounces included. That is the less consumer-friendly policy of the two, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Automation
ActiveCampaign wins this on flexibility. The builder handles nested conditions, goals, split actions, multi-branch logic and A/B tests across whole journeys. Long, messy sequences with sales handoffs live here comfortably.
Klaviyo’s flows are excellent within their lane, though. Abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase, win-back and VIP flows come pre-built and tuned for stores. Push them toward complex B2B logic and they start to feel rigid.
Ecommerce data and segmentation
Klaviyo wins this one and it is not particularly close. The Shopify sync runs in near real time, event by event, so every property becomes something you can segment on. ActiveCampaign integrates with Shopify and WooCommerce and covers cart recovery and upsell flows, but the data model is shallower and reporting lags behind.
CRM and B2B use
ActiveCampaign takes this comfortably. Deals, pipelines, lead scoring and win-probability scoring sit inside the same account as your emails. Klaviyo, in contrast, markets itself as a B2C CRM, and it means it. There are no sales pipelines, so B2B teams end up bolting on a separate tool.
Ease of use
Neither one is a weekend tool. ActiveCampaign has more surface area and a steeper ramp, so reviewers consistently flag the learning curve. Klaviyo feels quicker for a Shopify merchant on day one, because the integration does the heavy lifting. It gets denser once you move into custom properties.
Deliverability and support
Both land mail reliably. Still, ActiveCampaign has the stronger independent testing record, and it offers dedicated IPs higher up the range. Support is a weak spot for both, and review sites tell the same story. Response times slow down, chat bots get in the way, and the better help sits on the pricier plans.
Where ActiveCampaign wins
- Automation depth for any business model. If your customer journey is not a product catalogue, ActiveCampaign handles it and Klaviyo struggles.
- A real CRM in the box. Lead scoring, deals and tasks stay in one system, so nothing falls between marketing and sales.
- Deliverability. Independent inbox placement testing has repeatedly put it at the front of the pack.
- Annual billing saves money. The headline prices already reflect the annual commitment, and Klaviyo offers no equivalent on self-serve plans.
- 17% recurring cashback through Rewardio. It repeats every billing cycle, so it scales as your bill grows.
Where Klaviyo wins
- Shopify integration. Nothing else syncs store data this deeply or this fast, and new Shopify features tend to land in Klaviyo first.
- Revenue attribution. You can see the money each flow generates, so budget conversations stay short.
- Predictive analytics as standard. Predicted CLV, churn risk and next order date need no add-on.
- Fairer contact counting. Suppressed and unsubscribed profiles never add to your bill.
- A genuine free plan. Small stores can run real flows at 250 profiles without paying anything.
What users say
Both platforms show the same split personality across review sites. Software buyer sites rate them highly, while consumer complaint sites rate them harshly.
ActiveCampaign holds around 4.4 to 4.5 out of 5 on G2 from more than 14,000 reviews, and 4.6 on Capterra from roughly 2,500. Reviewers particularly praise the automation builder. Then Trustpilot lands at about 2.8 to 3.0 from over 1,300 reviews, where billing disputes, tier price jumps and slow support dominate.
Klaviyo shows a wider gap. It sits at 4.6 on both G2 and Capterra, and 4.5 on the Shopify App Store. On Trustpilot it drops to roughly 1.8 from a few hundred reviews. Almost all of that anger points at the active-profile billing change and support quality rather than the product.
Which should you pick?
Run a Shopify or WooCommerce store where product data drives your marketing? Choose Klaviyo. The Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign for Shopify ecommerce question really does have one answer, and paying more for the data layer usually pays for itself.
Sell software, services, courses or consulting? Choose ActiveCampaign, because you need branching journeys and a pipeline, and Klaviyo gives you neither.
On ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo for small businesses, ActiveCampaign is the safer default, because most small businesses are not stores. Solo operators on tiny lists are the exception, since Klaviyo’s free plan beats a $15 minimum.
Running both a store and a B2B arm? Some teams run Klaviyo for the consumer side and ActiveCampaign for everything else. That splits your data, so only do it if the audiences never overlap. On a tighter budget, the ActiveCampaign alternatives worth pricing up are Klaviyo, HubSpot and Mailchimp.
How the cashback works
Rewardio carries ActiveCampaign, so this is where the money comes back. We do not carry Klaviyo, and we are not going to invent an offer that does not exist.
Click through to ActiveCampaign from our merchant page and sign up. Then ActiveCampaign pays us a commission for that signup, and we pass a share of it back to you as cashback. The rate is 17%, and it recurs. That means every billing cycle you stay subscribed, not a one-off on your first invoice.
Recurring matters here more than it does with most tools. ActiveCampaign’s bill climbs as your contact list grows, so the cashback grows with it. There is no code needed, so you simply get an effective 17% off for as long as you keep the account. Payouts typically confirm within 30 to 60 days, then land in your Rewardio balance. Activate ActiveCampaign cashback here.
FAQ
Is ActiveCampaign cheaper than Klaviyo?
It depends on your plan and list. At 10,000 contacts, ActiveCampaign Starter costs $149 a month against roughly $150 for Klaviyo’s email plan, which looks like a tie. Move to Pro for the features most teams want, though, and you pay $375. Factor in annual billing and 17% recurring cashback and ActiveCampaign usually lands cheaper for equivalent capability.
Can ActiveCampaign replace Klaviyo for a Shopify store?
For a small store running welcome and abandoned cart flows, yes. But for a store where segmentation, browse behaviour and revenue attribution drive the strategy, no. ActiveCampaign’s Shopify integration works, but it does not match Klaviyo’s data depth.
Does Klaviyo charge for unsubscribed contacts?
No. Klaviyo bills on active profiles, so suppressed and unsubscribed contacts drop out of your count. You do need to suppress stale contacts yourself, since it does not happen automatically. In contrast, ActiveCampaign takes the opposite approach with accounts opened after 3 November 2025.
Which one has the better automation builder?
ActiveCampaign, for flexibility and depth. It handles nested conditions, goals and split-testing across entire journeys. Klaviyo’s flows are stronger for ecommerce specifically, because the triggers and templates come tuned for store events.
Is there an ActiveCampaign discount code?
No reliable public code exists. The dependable saving is cashback. Sign up through Rewardio for an effective 17% off, paid as real money every month you stay subscribed. Then ActiveCampaign’s own annual billing stacks on top.
Verdict
Overall, ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo comes down to what you sell. Klaviyo is the better product for online stores, and we would rather say that than pretend our merchant sweeps every round. For everyone else, and that is most businesses, ActiveCampaign gives you deeper automation, a usable CRM and a lower effective cost once cashback lands.
Our full scored breakdown, including sub-scores for ease of use, features, value and support, sits on the merchant page. Read the complete ActiveCampaign review and activate 17% recurring cashback there.
Rewardio earns a commission when you sign up to a merchant we carry through our links, and we pass a share of that back to you as cashback. That is how the site stays free to use. Either way, this comparison is called as we see it. The pick reflects which tool actually fits the job, not which one pays us. We would rather earn your trust than a single click, so where a rival is the better choice, we say so.
