ConvertKit Vs ActiveCampaign – Why I Switched to ConvertKit

ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit are two of the top email service providers on the market. But which is better?

Here’s a detailed comparison to enable you to choose between ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign…

Which one is better? The reality is ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit are two of the top email service providers. But which is better?

First, a bit of history.

In October 2017, I switched from MailerLite to ActiveCampaign and made a huge song and dance about it. I even wrote an epic blog post about the shift to ActiveCampaign that attracted about 20 comments.

I couldn’t stop talking about ActiveCampaign. I used it. I loved it. And I promoted it!

Fast forward nearly three years after that switch and the epic blog post…

I have made another switch. That’s right.

And this time, I have switched to ConvertKit.

ConvertKit Vs ActiveCampaign – Is the switch really worth it?

So why switch from ActiveCampaign? Particularly for a guy who is generally very loyal to brands!

Here’s why.

I’m striving for perfection as a blogger. And so I don’t have permanent tools, software or services. Only permanent interests.

In international relations, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interests. The original of this pragmatism is generally conceded to Lord Palmerston (John Henry Temple) of Great Britain, but most world leaders have invoked it at one time or another to justify their policies and actions.

No permanent friends or enemies – Artemio V. Panganiban

This means I am always searching for that tool, or software or service that will make the difference and pull me over the line. The fact that I am an affiliate of a particular product or service will not make me compromise my position if I find a better product or service.

One of the benefits for you is that you can be sure I will always recommend the best products and services for you.

Now back to reasons for the switch from ActiveCampaign to ConvertKit.

In this blog post, I’m going to show you why I switched. And for good measure, I will let you know why in my opinion, ConvertKit is a better email service provider for bloggers.

ConvertKit Vs ActiveCampaign – Which is Better?

Let’s get one thing clear.

I’m writing this review of these two amazing email service software as a blogger. When I answer the question, Which is better? I am effectively and essentially asking, Which is better for blogging?

Ready?

Let’s dive straight in.

ActiveCampaign

Truth be told.

ActiveCampaign is more of a customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing tool than an email service provider. So it’s easier to compare it with Infusionsoft (or Keap as it is now known) and Ontraport, which are its direct competitors in terms of CRM.

Having said that, it also functions as an email service provider. So we can compare it with ConvertKit. Otherwise, it would have been a misnomer to talk about ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign!

Back to ActiveCampaign as a CRM tool.

The truth is CRMs are generally known to be complicated pieces of kit. It is therefore not uncommon that these tools have lots of elements to learn in order to be able to unlock their powerful features.

The great thing about ActiveCampaign is that it does not have the steep learning curve associated with fierce competitors such as  Infusionsoft or Ontraport.

ActiveCampaign gives you advanced segmentation, smart automation, a CRM to help you manage relationships, and an actual email designer that’s powerful enough to keep up with your growing audience.

Automation

ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation is designed to grow your audience through the following features:

• Easy-to-use visual email campaign designer
• Powerful email targeting and segmentation
• Pre-built automation workflows to get started easily
• Ability to track your relationships and always know who you’re talking to with the CRM
• Integration with the top membership platforms

ActiveCampaign Price Plan

Active Campaign has four price plans – Lite, plus, professional and enterprise.

As you can see from the images below, the box to the left lets you choose how many subscribers you want your plan to include – anywhere from 500 to 100,000+. When you do this, the prices for the four plans change dynamically. You can end up paying anywhere from $9 per month to thousands of dollars, depending on your needs.

The other thing to note is that the four plans also differ significantly in the features they offer. With the Lite plan, all is you get are the basics you need for email marketing.

All in all, if you are not looking for anything too complicated or complex, ActiveCampaign may be a little bit cheaper than ConvertKit.

For 500 contacts, the price is as follows:

For 1,000 contacts, the price is as follows:

For 2,500 contacts, the price is as follows:

For 5,000 contacts, the price is as follows:

For 10,000 contacts, the price is as follows:

For 25,000 contacts, the price is as follows:

For 50,000 contacts, the price is as follows:

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ConvertKit

ConvertKit is a full-featured email service provider and a robust email marketing platform created by Nathan Barry, a creator, author, speaker and designer.

When Nathan learned that email marketing was the most reliable way to earn a living as a creator, he started ConvertKit aged just 22, to turn all the best practices he was learning into a repeatable system for other creators.

ConvertKit is for pro bloggers and content creators who are building their online tribes. ConvertKit powers the audiences for A-List creators like Gretchen Rubin, Chris Guillebeau, Pat Flynn, Tim Ferriss, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Tim McGraw.

ConvertKit is extremely easy to use and incredibly powerful. Thanks to its ease of use, automation and other features, it’s one of the fastest-growing email marketing companies around.

It is often labeled as having the power of Infusionsoft, but easier to use than MailChimp. Unlike ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit offers customizable sign-up forms and landing pages to help grow your email list.

#1. ConvertKit Features

ConvertKit gets it.

ConvertKit understands that as a creator, you don’t want to spend all your time worrying about email subscribers and inboxes. You’re a creator, and you want to create content for your audience.

So they’ve built features that make email marketing simple, easy, and the best way to connect with your audience. Their aim is to help you grow your email list, build your business, and get back to creating.

Segmentation and Tags

ConvertKit are masters of tagging. No surprise as ConvertKit is essentially subscriber-centric. With ConvertKit you have one list that’s grouped by tags and segments. You basically tag your contacts according to their interests. This is one major difference between ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign.

It is one of the features that I love about ConvertKit.

With ActiveCampaign your subscribers are grouped into lists. So to send a campaign you have to first choose the list, then add the tag. This is one aspect of ActiveCampaign that I hated with a passion.

Here is the reality.

By organizing your contacts with tags and segments according to their interests, you can send them highly targeted content based on their interests. And you can keep track of how those subscribers interact with your content and your email marketing efforts from the stats on your homepage dashboard.

Forms and Landing Pages

Here is a fact you already know: Your email list is your biggest asset. And ConvertKit helps you grow that list through attractive forms, trackable data, and simple but powerful automation.

Unlike ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit has easy-to-embed, customizable opt-in forms that help you grow your email list.

Again unlike ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit has amazing landing pages. Their landing page templates are designed to help you create beautiful and stunning landing pages in less than 10 minutes without any coding whatsoever.

The forms and landing page templates are another major difference that makes ConvertKit appeal to me when considering ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign.

Automation

ConvertKit is great at automation.

The great thing about ConvertKit’s automation tool is the relative ease of use. With the visual email automation platform, you can send well-timed, targeted email to your audience or tribe.

ConvertKit email automation tool helps you to:

• Create powerful, automated funnels
• Set up the rules then let the software do the work for you
• Customize a subscriber’s path based on their actions
• Always know what’s next for your subscriber
• Send targeted email to the right people at the right time
• Easily segment your audience based on their customer journey

#2. ConvertKit Price Plans

How much does ConvertKit cost?

Paid price plan

ConvertKit price plan is not complicated. All the paid plans have basically the same features. Like most email service providers, the prices increase depending on the number of subscribers:

• 1,000 subscribers – $29/m
• 3,000 subscribers – $49/m
• 5,000 subscribers – $79/m
• 10,000 subscribers – $119/m
• 15,000 subscribers – $149/m
• 20,000 subscribers – $179/m
• 25,000 subscribers – $199/m
• 75,000 subscribers – $499/m
• 105,000 subscribers – $679/m

Freemium price plan

There is also a freemium account for up to 1,000 subscribers. This free account has the following features:

• Unlimited landing pages & forms
• Unlimited traffic
• Customizable domain
• Send email broadcasts
• Subscriber tagging
• Manage 1,000 subscribers

The freemium account excludes the following features

• Automated funnels & email sequences
• Premium support
• Integrations

One advantage of having one list is that ConvertKit counts a subscriber who is on multiple tags and segments as a single distinct subscriber. So you won’t get double or triple billed for the same subscriber on multiple lists like you would with Aweber or Mailchimp.

ConvertKit Vs ActiveCampaign – Why I switched

Here are some of the reasons why I switched from ActiveCampaign to ConvertKit.

I am a blogger. I am a content creator.

My email list is my most important asset. It is at the center of my business model. As I said here, my entire business model can be summarized into four building blocks:

• #1: Build a huge email list.
• #2: Bring value to the people on that list by providing insanely valuable content.
• #4: Build a relationship with the people on that list.
• #4: Market solutions to the people on that list.

My decision to join ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign hinges on my understanding that ConvertKit is a much more robust and better tool for bloggers and content creators like me.

As I said earlier, ActiveCampaign is more of a CRM than an out-and-out email service provider.

#1. The Price plans

As already pointed out, ActiveCampaign has four different price plans – Lite, Plus, Professional and Enterprise.

Most beginner and intermediate bloggers who decide to go with ActiveCampaign will probably subscribe to the Lite plan because of the price. The problem is that the Lite plan is not feature rich.

To get the benefit of all the features, you need to be on at least the Professional price plan which can be quite pricey, depending of course on the size of your email list.

This contrasts sharply with ConvertKit where there is only one price plan. What you do depends on the size of your list, and all the paid plans have basically the same features.

#2. The list

With ActiveCampaign every contact must belong to a list. So you end up with several lists. And to send out a campaign, you have to first choose a list and then you can segment the list with tags.

I found this very difficult and cumbersome to work with.

And this is one of the things I absolutely love about ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign. With ConvertKit, you have just one list. So to send out a broadcast, you either send it to the entire list or send it to a segment of the list differentiated by tags.

Simple, yet very powerful.

#3. Dealing with unsubscribes

With ConvertKit, once a subscriber unsubscribes, you can’t inadvertently send them another email.

With ActiveCampaign it is very different.

If a contact belongs to two different lists, and subscribes from a broadcast sent from one list, next time you send out an email to the other list, the contact will still be included and will receive the email. I never could get my head around this. So whenever I had any unsubscribes, I used to always manually delete them, because that was the only way no to inadvertently send them an email.

This was one of my biggest frustrations and which made it easy for me to choose ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign

#4. The forms and landing pages

The forms and landing pages available on ActiveCampaign (especially on the Lite plan) are at best amateurish.

Contrast this with ConvertKit which has beautiful templates that are proven to work.

Another reason for choosing ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign.

ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign 2022 FAQ

My ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign guide would be incomplete without an FAQ section, agree?

#1- Is ActiveCampaign Better than ConvertKit?

ActiveCampaign is an excellent ESP and you will not go wrong if you go with them. However, as I covered in this post I found ConvertKit to be more user-friendly, more streamlined, and a perfect tool for bloggers looking to build their email list faster.

#2- Do Both ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit Have Landing Pages?

Both ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit let you build attractive landing pages with their native page builders. However, ActiveCampaign’s page builder is a bit harder to use and a common complaint from newbie bloggers is that there’s a bit of a steep learning curve.

ConvertKit’s page builder, on the other hand, is very easy to use and most people get a hang of out in minutes and not hours as is the case with the ActiveCampaign landing page editor.

#3- Why is ActiveCampaign the Best?

ActiveCampaign is an excellent ESP, but it’s not the best. ConvertKit is a more affordable alternative that is better suited for bloggers to build their lists faster.

Wrapping Up – ConvertKit Vs ActiveCampaign

As you can see, while both software have all the basics covered, there are some significant differences in their feature sets. 

ConvertKit has everything bloggers and content creators need to get started with email marketing.

On the other hand, ActiveCampaign gives you advanced segmentation, smart automation, a CRM to help you manage relationships, and an actual email designer that’s powerful enough to keep up with your growing audience.

ActiveCampaign provides more when it comes to building your emails and tracking data. In contrast, ConvertKit offers more precise automation and segmentation and helps you to grow your email list with beautiful and stunning forms and landing page templates for all paid plans.

In my opinion, ConvertKit is a better email service provider for bloggers and content creators.

Want to Try Before You Decide?

Of course, you can!

Thankfully, both ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign now offer free trials. So go ahead and take each of them for a test drive.

Simply click on any of the buttons below to get started!