ActiveCampaign vs. Zapier

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
Score 8.0 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.
$19
per month
Zapier
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
The Zapier Automation Platform designed to integrate data between web apps. It is scaled for small to mid-sized businesses, with a functional but limited free version of the program.
$29.99
per month 750 tasks per month
Pricing
ActiveCampaignZapier
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Starter
$29.99
per month 750 tasks per month
Professional
$73.50
per month 2k tasks per month
Team
$103.50
per month 2k tasks per month
Company
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaignZapier
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details33% discount for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCampaignZapier
Considered Both Products
ActiveCampaign
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign focuses much more on automation and email marketing. It also has highly advanced customization in both marketing campaigns and contacts, allowing them to tag and send content based on the interaction that the contact has had. ActiveCampaign offers custom email, …
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign allows more integrations, automated emails, and a better user experience. I have also tested FloDesk (which was not listed on the product drop-down) and though the original templates were better by design, it did not allow me to customize as much or create as …
Chose ActiveCampaign
For the price, what it offers, and how easy it is to adapt and use. I think it is a better option than all of them.
Chose ActiveCampaign
MailerLite is cheaper but a lot simpler. You're very limited in what you can do because you can't tag or segment. On the other hand, ActiveCampaign is extremely flexible with tagging and you can create as many complex dynamic segments as you like, which means you can send much …
Chose ActiveCampaign
The fact that it combines email, CRM, and automations between them makes it such a force to be reconned with. Its plans are reasonable and moving up from a basic plan allows 25 users for one price. This is great compared to Hubspot. It's much smoother than Mailchimp and much …
Chose ActiveCampaign
I ended up with ActiveCampaign cause it's more professional, and I already used it in another project, so it was easy to implement it on another project.
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign feels more minimalist and power user heavy than mail chimp. It doesn't hold your hand and force you into a box, which I like. It can however be a bit more tricky to understand how to use. But, it's more user friendly than HighLevel, which offers maximum freedom …
Chose ActiveCampaign
More features, but still affordable
Chose ActiveCampaign
Automations are more advanced.
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is far and away the better email marketing platform than Mailchimp. It gives you more options across the board when it comes to design and automation. The landing page designer of ActiveCampaign is somewhat similar to Instapage and Landingi and I have no real …
Chose ActiveCampaign
For the price, ActiveCampaign is streets ahead. I probably use about 60% of the platform's functionality with a further 20% that I could benefit from using and intend to explore in the next 12 months. This compares to only about 25% usage with some other platforms or having to …
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign was more affordable and had more features than I needed. In particular, the automation, sequences, and integrations plus the ability for custom webhooks. While I like the other platforms too for various reasons, the automation and webhooks features, integrations, …
Chose ActiveCampaign
In comparison to all the other systems (except Keap), ActiveCampaign goes above and beyond for email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM functionality. It's the closest you can get to an all-in-one system.

And while Infusionsoft is also robust, it's not very intuitive. …
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a more robust tool that offers a lot more of customization and options, it's like having a mini CRM without actually having one, cause if you use the tags properly you can see and know exactly what your audience does on your site and which products do they buy.
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is the middle ground between the simpler platforms like Mailchimp and the significant complexity of platforms like Infusionsoft (now Keap). It provides custom fields, segmented automations and other options without the need to hire a consultant or company to …
Chose ActiveCampaign
Hubspot seemed really complicated, I found ActiveCampaign much easier to set up & the support is instant & well above expectation. Hubspot sales team are very pushy & it makes me feel really uncomfortable - they still contact me a year after advising it wasn't the right fit. It …
Chose ActiveCampaign
AWeber is way too limiting. ConvertKit wasn't as intuitive and also very limiting. Mailchimp was ultra basic. ActiveCampaign was easy to figure out, enough to keep simple but have the ability to add more complexity. I'd say anyone should use ActiveCampaign. From what I've seen, …
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is so much easier to interact with. There is much more flexibility right from the start. Mailchimp required upgrading to higher levels to enable some of the things that are standard features in ActiveCampaign.
Chose ActiveCampaign
Everything we sent with Mailchimp ended up in spam. We’re not sure why, maybe it even wasn’t the program's fault but it happened. The minute we changed to AC the open rate of our emails skyrocketed. Also, it was a lot easier to use and understand. The user experience design of …
Chose ActiveCampaign
User experience. Options. ActiveCampaign is way more easy to use. The email templates are better.
Chose ActiveCampaign
I selected AC to integrate with all these tools. It's complementary
Zapier
Chose Zapier
Zapier is a one of a kind product. It's the only SMB product that provides these kinds of integrations. A few other products do similar things (Segment, IFTTT), but those are a little different. Segment is a little more enterprise focused, and IFTTT is a free product for users, …
Chose Zapier
They are different in look and feel, I like IFTTT for social media sharing (as an alternative to Edgar) but for logistics, email marketing, and lead acquisition, I prefer Zapier. Actually, I do use both, because I'm a small business I like to take advantage of free help and …
Chose Zapier
The only other major alternative we've tried against Zapier is Workato. Workato was great and had a lot of features, but was a bit overkill for what we needed. It was definitely more feature-rich, but it was also 3-4x the price and we didn't really need all the features it …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
ActiveCampaignZapier
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.9
664 Ratings
13% above category average
Zapier
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor9.3581 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content9.0520 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.7471 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages8.0338 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing9.0380 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization9.3526 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting7.4631 Ratings00 Ratings
List management9.6650 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences9.6574 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.4
524 Ratings
4% below category average
Zapier
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation9.1491 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.1359 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management9.1401 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks9.1355 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution1.81 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.5
374 Ratings
22% above category average
Zapier
-
Ratings
Calendaring9.6295 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.4286 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.5
287 Ratings
24% above category average
Zapier
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns9.6254 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration9.4250 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.3
627 Ratings
10% above category average
Zapier
-
Ratings
Dashboards8.0597 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports8.0584 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports9.0377 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.2
491 Ratings
19% above category average
Zapier
-
Ratings
API9.5391 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals9.2267 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability9.4420 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.292 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.760 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.756 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations7.520 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Data Integration
Comparison of Cloud Data Integration features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Zapier
7.4
101 Ratings
10% below category average
Pre-built connectors00 Ratings6.898 Ratings
Connector modification00 Ratings7.186 Ratings
Support for real-time and batch integration00 Ratings9.186 Ratings
Data quality services00 Ratings7.166 Ratings
Data security features00 Ratings7.565 Ratings
Monitoring console00 Ratings6.574 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCampaignZapier
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.4 out of 10
Make
Make
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
UiPath Integration Service
UiPath Integration Service
Score 5.4 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
SAP Integration Suite
SAP Integration Suite
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ActiveCampaignZapier
Likelihood to Recommend
7.9
(676 ratings)
4.5
(106 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.4
(25 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
7.6
(38 ratings)
10.0
(5 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.9
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.4
(41 ratings)
1.0
(10 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.5
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.9
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.6
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.5
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCampaignZapier
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is brilliant for small businesses wanting a secure, reliable and user friendly email capture software that filters users emails into the appropriate category/tags and have endless options when it comes to having different lead magnets and ways users may sign up. It's been super handy for my small business to send regular emails and be able to analyse the success rates and open rates of emails and the ability to resend them with a different subject line. It's made email marketing really easy peasy.
Read full review
Zapier
Zapier is perfect for simple integrations and setting up generally low-volume accounts that require very little configuration and maintenance. For a distributed structure where a client/outside party is responsible for billing, it’s easy to create an account, put them on a low-cost plan, configure a simple integration and teach them how to alter the setup. Its webhook-based setup is perfect for many simple use cases and there’s no reason to use a more complex or expensive solution.
However, if you have integrations that are increasingly complex (involve parsing, multiple non-linear steps, the integration of non-native APIs), significant in overall volume/data or require additional features (time delays for API limits), Zapier likely isn’t your best choice. Other integration platforms offer higher levels of customization and capability, though they’re typically significantly more complex and expensive.
Read full review
Pros
ActiveCampaign
  • The graphic design is very good, especially fonts, colours and templates
  • Flexibility of design and functionality
  • Takes a little while to learn it, but generally user-friendly
  • Looks very professional but doesn't cost much to get started
  • There are masses of integrations for ActiveCampaign, and the ones I tried all worked well and didn't take long to figure out.
Read full review
Zapier
  • Ease of use - multiple people in the organization can set up and run Zaps per their specific use cases without much training.
  • Connectivity - Zapier is able to connect to multiple applications we use on a regular basis.
  • Functionality - Zapier provides embedded functionality within the app itself (email, data conversion), but also appropriate triggers and actions for apps it connects to.
  • Versatile - Zapier can execute complicated and simple tasks and thus has many use cases.
Read full review
Cons
ActiveCampaign
  • The email designing part could be easier to use. There are certain simple shortcuts that don't work, for example, adding links is more complicated than it should be, moving blocks around is hard, etc.
  • There's no good way to filter by 'active' and 'inactive' subscribers when editing en-mass.
  • I'd like more reporting data on one page.
Read full review
Zapier
  • Being able to turn off one leg of a Zap without having to delete it or turn the whole Zap off
  • Not all fields populate when using certain aspects of Salesforce, but that could be an SF issue
  • Communication when support is actually needed basically doesn't happen
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
Zapier
Zapier is now very much an integral part of our business and we could not operate without it!
Read full review
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
Zapier
Zapier is very user-friendly. They walk you through each step of the zap-building process in an orderly and easy to understand way. Each step of the zap is tested before moving onto the next step. For simple zaps, you can have them up and running within minutes. For more complicated zaps, it may take some experimentation, but Zapier is there to help you troubleshoot.
Read full review
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
Zapier
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
Zapier
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.
Read full review
Zapier
Before we purchased Zapier, I contacted support and asked them if Zapier could support my intended workflow (this is actually a selection on their support form - awesome). Within 2 hours, I was contacted by a support team member who seemed sure it would work, but granted me premium access for 2 weeks to try it out for myself. Sure enough, it did! Ever since then, support has replied rapidly to any problems I have experienced and answered my questions within a few sentences.
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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.
Read full review
Zapier
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
Zapier
  • Zapier is a much more mature platform with much more software that you can integrate into and they add to their portfolio every month
  • Zapier has more functions for each software they connect
  • Zapier has their own services that are very useful
  • They have so many existing work flows that you can easily add
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!
Read full review
Zapier
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
Zapier
  • It saves us hours of time every week being able to connect services automatically.
  • It enables automations to happen that would not otherwise be possible at all.
  • It allows us to choose other software for specific purposes without the limitations of only the built-in connectivity.
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