ActiveCampaign vs. Microsoft Dynamics 365

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
ActiveCampaign is presented as an AI-first marketing platform for marketers, agencies, and entrepreneurs. It uses Active Intelligence for goal-aware automation and personalized experiences across email, SMS, and WhatsApp. ActiveCampaign integrates with 950+ apps and generates insights to optimize every workflow.
$15
per month
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a CRM providing sales, marketing, and service functionality. It is offered as SaaS and on-premise. Dynamics 365 is part of the larger Dynamics suite of business intelligence and ERP products.
$44
per month
Pricing
ActiveCampaignMicrosoft Dynamics 365
Editions & Modules
Starter
$15
per month
Pro
$49
per month
Plus
$79
per month
Enterprise
$159
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaignMicrosoft Dynamics 365
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCampaignMicrosoft Dynamics 365
Considered Both Products
ActiveCampaign
Chose ActiveCampaign
Active Campaign is a lot of time cheaper, better and easier to use.
Dynamics is great, but it's expensive and the learning curve for using it is big.
Also, it lacks integration between WordPress website and other services, where ActiveCampaign is great at adding more and more …
Microsoft Dynamics 365

No answer on this topic

Features
ActiveCampaignMicrosoft Dynamics 365
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.6
688 Ratings
12% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor8.3605 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content8.1539 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.1488 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages7.1356 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing8.7398 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization8.8545 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.0654 Ratings00 Ratings
List management9.3673 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences10.0594 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.7
541 Ratings
11% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation9.0507 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.4370 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management9.6413 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks8.4365 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution7.917 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.7
388 Ratings
27% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
Calendaring9.9308 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.4291 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.0
295 Ratings
5% below category average
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns7.3262 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration6.7257 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.0
650 Ratings
9% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
Dashboards8.1619 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports7.9607 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports7.9394 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.0
509 Ratings
19% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
API8.6407 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.6278 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability7.9435 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.297 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.964 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.859 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations9.137 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Force Automation
Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.7
84 Ratings
2% below category average
Customer data management / contact management00 Ratings7.981 Ratings
Workflow management00 Ratings7.980 Ratings
Territory management00 Ratings7.160 Ratings
Opportunity management00 Ratings7.572 Ratings
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)00 Ratings8.079 Ratings
Contract management00 Ratings7.961 Ratings
Quote & order management00 Ratings7.458 Ratings
Interaction tracking00 Ratings8.171 Ratings
Channel / partner relationship management00 Ratings7.362 Ratings
Customer Service & Support
Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365
8.0
68 Ratings
4% above category average
Case management00 Ratings7.863 Ratings
Call center management00 Ratings7.850 Ratings
Help desk management00 Ratings8.457 Ratings
Marketing Automation
Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.8
78 Ratings
0% above category average
Lead management00 Ratings7.672 Ratings
Email marketing00 Ratings8.171 Ratings
CRM Project Management
Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365
8.0
76 Ratings
4% above category average
Task management00 Ratings8.171 Ratings
Billing and invoicing management00 Ratings8.054 Ratings
Reporting00 Ratings8.065 Ratings
CRM Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.6
77 Ratings
1% below category average
Forecasting00 Ratings7.667 Ratings
Pipeline visualization00 Ratings7.773 Ratings
Customizable reports00 Ratings7.476 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.7
80 Ratings
0% above category average
Custom fields00 Ratings7.678 Ratings
Custom objects00 Ratings7.572 Ratings
Scripting environment00 Ratings7.956 Ratings
API for custom integration00 Ratings7.861 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365
8.8
75 Ratings
4% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.869 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.770 Ratings
Social CRM
Comparison of Social CRM features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.7
44 Ratings
3% above category average
Social data00 Ratings7.843 Ratings
Social engagement00 Ratings7.643 Ratings
Integrations with 3rd-party Software
Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.2
65 Ratings
4% below category average
Marketing automation00 Ratings7.665 Ratings
Compensation management00 Ratings6.834 Ratings
Platform
Comparison of Platform features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365
6.8
56 Ratings
11% below category average
Mobile access00 Ratings6.856 Ratings
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ActiveCampaignMicrosoft Dynamics 365
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
ActiveCampaignMicrosoft Dynamics 365
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(699 ratings)
7.6
(103 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(25 ratings)
8.0
(20 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(62 ratings)
7.5
(33 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.3
(41 ratings)
8.0
(11 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
7.5
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.5
(14 ratings)
9.2
(4 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
3.8
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCampaignMicrosoft Dynamics 365
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.
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Microsoft
Provides our company access to manage and customize the folds tailored to our needs. We needed to have certain paragraphs on certain paperwork per customer. MD 365 has those options to customize where needed and remove when not. The system is easy to navigate, and training can be done in a matter of days, even without prior knowledge of the system or similar systems.
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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
Microsoft
  • Best to use for AP - like in our organization, there are plenty of AP bills, so with Dynamics, we can quickly enter the same into the Excel utility, which means CSV-based upload, and then we can easily upload the same to the software. It's a time saver.
  • Best for Bank reconciliation - MS Dynamics makes Bank reconciliation easy. Banks can easily sync with software and easily get reconciled.
  • Generating invoices to customers and directly sending them to their inbox is easy with this software.
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
Microsoft
  • Small learning curve, obviously. You won't figure this out in a day, a week, or even a month. But given time, you can learn to be an expert. Or you can always get a consultant or hire in somebody. But learning the tool isn't out of the questions by any means.
  • Licensing can be confusing at times and isn't cheap, but it is cheaper than Salesforce. Plus no additional fees for data calls to better integrate your D365 CE data with other systems.
  • The Classic user interface left a bit to be desired, but now with the much-improved Unified Interface, the web client and the mobile client look the same, much more modern, and have more flexibility and power behind them for customizers as well.
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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.
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Microsoft
CRM has allowed us to keep all of our data in one place that is easy for all users within the company to view. I came into the company after they had been using CRM for about 4 years. They have all said that since we have used this it has helped us control work processes better, it has allowed us to be able to track things so much better, and has been something that has helped unite many processes that used to be all over the place. We are currently using CRM 4.0 and are planning on upgrading in the next 18 months to the 2011 version. Support for 4.0 is almost all but dried up. Understandably so. Some of the customization we have done, and a plugins we use, are now contained within the 2011 version so we are looking forward to that upgrade. We use an email marketing company as well, and they primarily support the 2011 version, but their product connects and is integrated within CRM. This is a great benefit as well so that all of our marketing information can be contained in one location.
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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.
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Microsoft
The usability is easily adopted for users familiar with other Microsoft products. Dynamics 365 has several interfaces that cross over browsers and tablets. These multiple interfaces will be phased out and updated to a single unified interface eventually to provide the same usability across all devices. The backend configurations is slowly improving with the introduction of PowerApps compared to pre-D365 Online versions
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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.
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Microsoft
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.
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Microsoft
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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Microsoft
Our partner, Ledgeview Partners has been FANTASTIC to work with. They are always timely in their response and have taken time to understand our business and our specific needs. We've made a lot of advanced customizations and they have been a great help in making those updates.
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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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Microsoft
We used a data warehouse to house our data, and our IT team and implementation vendor worked diligently ahead of time to construct idea implementation plans. Out of millions of records- we had less than a dozen errors, which is remarkable. My major insight is simply having a group of completely devoted individuals working towards your goal who fully understand the desired outcome. Focused resources for implementation season are critical to success.
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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.
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Microsoft
Microsoft Dynamics was part of a system overhaul for a local school, and we looked at many products. If we had used it for a company with low turnover, then it might have been more feasible. They needed something a new person could learn quickly, someone who might also be learning marketing terms at the same time - especially if there is nobody to train the individual now expected to know the system. Similar issues occurred with all of these programs (we called it being too big for their britches), and one of the bigger things we liked was that it is more compatible with MS Office products in both technical and visual appeal. If you have a steady employees who use a CRM consistently, low turnover, and those who are very familiar with Office products, Dynamics would be the smartest option for you. Unfortunately, this was just not true for the school environment
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
ActiveCampaign
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
On our purchase, I'd been interrogated about our usage. Our needs are met by Microsoft Dynamics 365, which is simple to use. With so much data and information available, we must ensure that it is presented correctly to managers. Due to a lack of use, we don't have to spend as much money on Salesforce.
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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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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
ActiveCampaign
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
My company's preferred program right now is Microsoft Dynamics 365. We use it to keep track of customers and important sales metrics in a streamlined manner. Anyone familiar with CRMs will find the tool extremely useful. Considering that we have a good turnover, this product will be used for its basic segments. As a result, there are few chances of error with Microsoft dynamics because it is so easy to use. Many options for recording data on these leads are available. It meets our needs and pays off.
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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
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Microsoft
  • For those without a centralized, all in one solution for major HR, Finance and other departments, Microsoft Dynamics 365 has vastly improved employee time utilization and profit.
  • Migrating clients from on-premise to the cloud has reaped benefits including better security, no unscheduled downtime and frequent updates to functionality.
  • Those transferring from cheaper solutions have lost money in the aim to be better integrated with other Microsoft products and AI they don't really utilize.
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ScreenShots

ActiveCampaign Screenshots

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