ActiveCampaign vs. Drip Ecommerce CRM

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
ActiveCampaign helps small teams power big businesses with a platform for intelligent marketing automation. It provides email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM tools that help businesses to create incredible customer experiences.
$15
per month
Drip Ecommerce CRM
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Drip is an ECRM–an Ecommerce CRM offering email marketing automation software specifically for B2C online retailers. The vendor’s value proposition is that with Drip's simple, user-friendly visual campaign builder, users can design email campaigns based on specific subscriber behavior—so they always send the right message, to the right person, at the right time. Drip starts at $41/mo (with email sending and every feature enabled).
$19
per month
Pricing
ActiveCampaignDrip Ecommerce CRM
Editions & Modules
Starter
$15
per month
Plus
$49
per month
Pro
$79
per month
Enterprise
$145
per month
Up to 500 people in account
$19
per month
550 - 2,000
$29
per month
2,001 - 5,000
$89
per month
5,001 - 8,000
$124
per month
8,001 - 15,000
$209
per month
15,001 - 22,500
$329
per month
22,501 - 27,500
$409
per month
27,501 - 35,000
$529
per month
35,001 - 50,000
$699
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaignDrip Ecommerce CRM
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsNo matter what plan you choose, our services are designed to help you get the most out of your investment — so you can focus on running your business. ActiveCampaign services included in all plan tiers: ActiveTraining Community access Contact migration Customer enablement workshops Video tutorials Chat and ticket support Knowledge base & help guides
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCampaignDrip Ecommerce CRM
Considered Both Products
ActiveCampaign
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is the most intuitive out of all of the ones I've used. Their visual automation builder is great. I felt like every other option that I had previously played with just felt more confusing. I tested out many other tools while also using ActiveCampaign and I just …
Chose ActiveCampaign
It's hard to say because I use DRIP a lot more so I guess I'm more used to that. Drip's ecommerce linking is great though and the editor is good too. Only issue with DRIP is you can't see a heat map of clicks - which is quite an essential feature. Even MailChimp has that!
Chose ActiveCampaign
Drip and ActiveCampaign are comparable but I chose ActiveCampaign because they had more robust features related to CRM, lead scoring, and integrations.
Chose ActiveCampaign
The greatest benefit that I found when using ActiveCampaign was that it works the way my brain does. It has a good logic system in the way it builds automations and is easy for me to follow with explanatory ways of getting what you want done. In comparison to the other programs …
Chose ActiveCampaign
You've got to know what you want the software to do and then find software that covers as much of those needs as possible. AC had most of the features we wanted - mostly native connectivity with Salesforce and scalability. Their support structure was a HUGE selling point too. …
Chose ActiveCampaign
It's easier to use than most, it has a broader trigger options for drip campaigns, great tagging and segmenting systems, the pipelines are easy to use, the best customer service, and the best drip campaigns layout. We rarely experience bugs.
Chose ActiveCampaign
For the price and available automations, I haven't found a better fit for our needs. There are ESPs out there that have better email and form builders but don't have nearly the automations. There are services that have a much better (more sophisticated) CRM but cost 3x as much …
Chose ActiveCampaign
The foundation of how they organize contacts is very confusing. You organize using tags. Their naming convention is really backwards and hard to understand. Their integrations are limited
Chose ActiveCampaign
Although Mailchimp has a free tier I find their interface clunky and harder to navigate than ActiveCampaign. I did like Drip and would possibly consider switching to them as my business grows. They are very similar to ActiveCampaign and price increases appear to be based on …
Chose ActiveCampaign
There is just no comparison to these other products for me. I have tried each one and either they didn't give me all the complete info I wanted or I had to keep going outside of the app to find another piece to add to my stack to make that functionality happen.
Chose ActiveCampaign
Had been using ActiveCampaign for a while before hearing about Drip. After cursory review, I found no compelling reason to switch from what was already working extremely well.
Chose ActiveCampaign
Definitely, ActiveCampaign has the ability to give us more control within our large email lists and engaged prospects.
Drip Ecommerce CRM
Chose Drip Ecommerce CRM
Compared to the heavyweight, Infusionsoft, Drip is incredibly powerful but much lighter weight. It's faster and easier to get a simple campaign up and running. The price is much more reasonable too. The only downside is the lack of drag and drop email builder that Infusionsoft
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
ActiveCampaignDrip Ecommerce CRM
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.8
674 Ratings
13% above category average
Drip Ecommerce CRM
8.4
8 Ratings
3% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor8.8591 Ratings9.47 Ratings
Dynamic content8.5527 Ratings7.06 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.2477 Ratings5.16 Ratings
Landing pages7.3345 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing9.8387 Ratings8.87 Ratings
Mobile optimization9.1534 Ratings7.18 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting7.9640 Ratings10.08 Ratings
List management9.9659 Ratings10.08 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences9.9581 Ratings10.08 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.6
530 Ratings
9% above category average
Drip Ecommerce CRM
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation9.7497 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading9.0363 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management8.7405 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks8.3359 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution7.26 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.7
379 Ratings
24% above category average
Drip Ecommerce CRM
-
Ratings
Calendaring9.7299 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.7287 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.8
290 Ratings
15% above category average
Drip Ecommerce CRM
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns8.8257 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration8.8252 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.9
637 Ratings
6% above category average
Drip Ecommerce CRM
6.9
8 Ratings
11% below category average
Dashboards7.7606 Ratings7.78 Ratings
Standard reports7.7594 Ratings7.97 Ratings
Custom reports8.1382 Ratings5.05 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.4
499 Ratings
21% above category average
Drip Ecommerce CRM
-
Ratings
API9.8397 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals9.8271 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability9.2425 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.894 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.961 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.957 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations7.626 Ratings00 Ratings
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ActiveCampaignDrip Ecommerce CRM
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Score 9.8 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
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Score 9.3 out of 10
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Score 8.8 out of 10
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User Ratings
ActiveCampaignDrip Ecommerce CRM
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(686 ratings)
9.4
(8 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.6
(25 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.4
(47 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.2
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.3
(41 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.7
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCampaignDrip Ecommerce CRM
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCampaign
I've been using ActiveCampaign since around 2018-2019 and I've always been satisfied with the software. It's simple to use, connects with the other tools I use and makes it easy for me to duplicate automations, email templates and workflows as I need to. On top of that, any time I've had an issue (which I think is around twice in the past 5/6 years), the customer service has always been super helpful and my issue has been resolved quickly.
Read full review
Drip Global, Inc
If you're looking to take your email program to the next level with automation, you definitely need to consider Drip. Their support team is always timely and helpful whenever we've needed guidance on the platform or using the API. They are constantly improving their tools. It never feels stagnant or lacking in critical features. Their prebuilt workflows make getting started very easy and you can start driving more revenue almost immediately.
Read full review
Pros
ActiveCampaign
  • Collects and filters emails from various lead magnets exceptionally well (especially if a user wants to re-sign up to the same lead magnet and go through it again, they can)
  • Super easy to use email creation that is aesthetically pleasing and user friendly
  • Easy email sequences and user classification from a large range of opt in trigger options
Read full review
Drip Global, Inc
  • Simplicity + power. Drip is one of the quickest platforms to use in terms of setting up simple drip email sequences. Yet it also packs enormous power if you need to do complex automation.
  • Drip's direct integrations with other systems mean you can easily create hyper-personalized communications and anybody can set this up.
  • Drip's Javascript embed is easy to setup and great for helping to build deeper insights into customer behavior as well as triggering automation.
Read full review
Cons
ActiveCampaign
  • It took me a while to get to understand where to find things, and I used a free online course from a consultant who specialises in AC to help me get the foundations set up more easily. That said, there were lots of onboarding workshops, which were good. It just felt like it required a lot of different angles of learning to just get started.
  • The customer support took longer than other software to get back to me via email, though once I found the chat option for my most recent query, that was fast.
  • I've ended up switching to another programme where more software is more naturally integrated, and the AC equivalent is included in the price, along with many other types of software. However, design-wise, ActiveCampaign is much better.
  • I also had a problem with a form used on my WordPress website, which has a BuddyBoss platform - the colours on the form would be overridden by colour choices for the website, so they were hard to read (pink text on purple background instead of the gold text it was meant to be)
  • I couldn't always find the templates I was looking for or how to access them for automation-based emails. I think when I used it, there was a new type of template for newsletters that weren't available for automations, so I had to recreate it, which added time.
Read full review
Drip Global, Inc
  • Possibly more email design templates for "new" users to automation, HTML coding, integrations, webhooks, etc.
  • Any supported integration partners are always good to see. They have expanded in this area, recently.
  • Some sort of WYSIWYG, drag-and-drop email editor, wouldn't hurt.
  • Sometimes, when trying to implement advanced HTML coding to an email template, the code doesn't stick, save or format as "native HTML."
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
ActiveCampaign
I am committed at the moment. Rebuilding the automations I have would be a huge time drain. Plus the cost of learning a new system and the risk to deliverability of porting a 6,000 person list to a new platform. Also, AC offers everything I need ast a reasonable (but a little high) price. So, why not a 10? Because, early 2023, AC dropped a massive 2x price hike on long-term customers. They knew few would shift, so this feels like a cynical cash grab and left a bad taste, If they do something like this again, this camel will have a broken back.
Read full review
Drip Global, Inc
No answers on this topic
Usability
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has been the easiest marketing automation software we have ever used. They provide tips throughout the entire process of anything you are building. Their support team through LIVE CHAT has been extremely fast and helpful. The monthly meetings provided with the enablement team has helped us through several large and urgent needs.
Read full review
Drip Global, Inc
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
ActiveCampaign
I haven't experienced application errors or unplanned outages at all. Active Campaign is ultra reliable and I would not be using them if that were the case. Also, the helpful emails they send are welcomed and informative, and present very practical tips and guidance for using the platform. They're always demonstrating new features and I'm thankful for that.
Read full review
Drip Global, Inc
No answers on this topic
Performance
ActiveCampaign
Oh my gosh, Active Campaign's performance gets an A+++ in my book. The pages load quickly and so do the reports. I haven't noticed any slowdowns when it's integrating with other programs and it performs excellently on all levels.
Read full review
Drip Global, Inc
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
ActiveCampaign
This might be the best part. The chat support lady offered to make a video to help me solve my problem. I worked in customer service for years and I've never done that, lol. So, if they're offering things like that, I can only imagine that they'd be able to handle most any issue you throw at them.
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Drip Global, Inc
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
ActiveCampaign
Very satisfied with our implementation in our professional medical practice, allowing us to be on top of client service, and not miss out on crucial information and insights. Marketing is often neglected in professional practices and ActiveCampaign solved this problem with aplomb.
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Drip Global, Inc
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
ActiveCampaign
I moved to ActiveCampaign from Mailchimp. Admittedly, I was using the free version of Mailchimp, but I had numerous episodes of subscriber data NOT being added to Mailchimp, despite using API to integrate with my mailing list. Obviously, I couldn't pay for clicks and not capture subscriber data, so I had to find something else. ActiveCampaign has been 100% reliable in testing.
Read full review
Drip Global, Inc
Again, this is dependent on the use case. If you are a small- to medium-sized business that doesn't have a sales team, this is likely a great product for you. It is also a good price compared to larger enterprise software. Other software I have used worked better for other companies I worked for, but Drip fits best for my current company.
Read full review
Scalability
ActiveCampaign
My web designer told me about Active Campaign and although I don't recall which platform I had before, I LOVE Active Campaign and its user friendliness. The transition was seamless and I've never had a problem with functionality or server failure.
Active Campaign provides so many features, and makes it easy for non-techies to maneuver around the site with ease. They capture information and put it in an easy-to-read format.
At this point, I don't think I'd ever use any other platform!
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Drip Global, Inc
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
ActiveCampaign
  • I haven't monetized my list yet so no clear ROI but great from a list-building perspective
  • The software is not cheap so at times I feel like I may not be getting the most out of the product because I'm not using all of the features
Read full review
Drip Global, Inc
  • Saves hours of typing redundant emails
  • Helps with our retention based on the constant contact with our current clients
  • Keeps our prospects up to date as we move through the stages of the sales cycle which also increases our capacity to handle more volume.
Read full review
ScreenShots

ActiveCampaign Screenshots

Screenshot of tagging, that when combined with conditional content helps to put the right message in front of each customer.Screenshot of marketing automationScreenshot of audience segmentation based on engagement, purchase activity, lead score, or any other dimensionScreenshot of live chat, site messaging, email, and a unified inbox that can be used to build relationships with customers.Screenshot of the CRM, which helps sales reps to get more done in less time

Drip Ecommerce CRM Screenshots

Screenshot of Get a deeper look into when and how often your customers are up to something. Tracking Events in Drip lets you understand all the times someone takes a peek at their favorite product, when they make a purchase, and more so you can personalize experiences based on real-life behaviors and engagement.Screenshot of Not only do Tags help you quickly see how people interact with your brand, but they also provide an intuitive way of segmenting your people when it comes time to tailor your messaging.Screenshot of Drip’s one-time setup makes it simple to start collecting all the revenue attribution data you need in one place for confident decision-making for the long haul.