ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign (2023)
- January 09, 2023
ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign has been a popular battle especially since the recent surge in demand for the former. ActiveCampaign is one of the oldest email marketing solutions and is well-known for its abilities. On the other hand, ConvertKit is an emerging player in the market that recently gained momentum and has been competing well with the famous tools.
Given the high volume of searches and the low quality of content available on this topic, we decided to write a thorough comparison of ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit to help online marketers decide which is a better marketing tool for their needs.
First of all, we will cover a short introduction of both the tools, then compare each feature in-depth, and at last conclude the article with the winner of this battle.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit was launched in 2013 by US entrepreneur Nathan Barry. They claim to have a user base of more than 400,000 but it is unclear that whether it is the number of active users or total users to date.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign was founded by Jason VandeBoom in Chicago, USA, in 2003, a decade prior to ConvertKit. In June 2021, it reached an active user base of 150,000 businesses from 170 countries.
1. ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign: Form and Page Building
Subscribing and integrating separate software for registration forms and landing pages is highly inconvenient for business owners. Realizing this problem, almost all email marketing tools now come with inbuilt form and page-building abilities. In most cases, they are not as good as specialized solutions but definitely useful.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit makes the process of creating forms and landing pages easy as well as fast but doesn’t provide much customizability. Moreover, it doesn’t come with a lot of great templates either.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is pretty much similar to ConvertKit when it comes to form and page building. It is simple, fast, and easy to use. Both of them even provide similar form styles and ActiveCampaign also lacks when it comes to templates and customizability.
Winner - TIE
You saw that coming, didn’t you? ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign have uncommon equality in their form and page-building abilities. There might be a difference or two here and there, but overall, they are almost alike.
2. ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign: Lead and Customer Management
Lead and Customer relationship management is an extremely important aspect of online marketing. Not only does it help in converting more leads into sales, but also generates repeat business from existing customers.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit has a pretty basic system for managing leads and customers. There are not many options available when it comes to automation, segmentation, and tracking. It is great for beginners but not good enough to manage the needs of big enterprises.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign provides an advanced CRM to manage the needs of businesses both small and large. One stand-out feature includes adding tasks to your customer profile to avoid missing prompt follow-ups and important actions.
Winner - ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has one of the best subscriber management systems among all email marketing solutions presently available on the internet. ConvertKit is nowhere near. ActiveCampaign is a lot more powerful.
3. ConvertKit vs ActiveCampaign: Campaigns and Automations
This is the most important feature of email marketing solutions and probably the comparison of which most of you are here to read. All other features are present in an email marketing software to ultimately make your campaigns and automations more powerful. Because this is what brings in actual revenue!
ConvertKit
ConvertKit provides an advanced automation builder with a plenty of triggers along with the ability to set up ‘If this, then that’ rules. One drawback of ConvertKit, however, is the absence of a drag and drop email builder which might or might not be important for you depending on your business and its needs.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is quite famous for its automations. It was one of the first tools to introduce the visual automation builder, which is now provided by almost every other software. ActiveCampaign also comes with a drag and drop email builder along with several pre-built templates.
Winner - ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign provides a drag and drop email builder, which ConvertKit does not. Moreover, it also has a better automation builder. ConvertKit has a pretty great system as well, but ActiveCampaign is just too advanced to beat.
4. ActiveCampaign vs ConvertKit: Deliverability
Email deliverability is defined as the percentage of emails which are successfully delivered to subscribers’ inboxes. It is an important measure of success because emails which reach the targeted inboxes have a greater chance of being opened.
Winner - ActiveCampaign
ConvertKit provides an above average deliverability but ActiveCampaign is in a higher league. It can consistently get you a 90%+ deliverability rate and is only behind Drip in this race.
5. ActiveCampaign vs ConvertKit: Pricing
Not everyone can afford the best. It doesn’t matter how amazing a tool is, businesses won’t buy it unless it fits in their budget. As a result, pricing is an important factor to compare before deciding the winner of this battle.
ConvertKit
ActiveCampaign
Winner - ConvertKit
Not only does ConvertKit provide a free plan (which ActiveCampaign does not), but also the paid plans of ConvertKit are more affordable than those of ActiveCampaign whereas the features are almost the same.
ActiveCampaign vs ConvertKit: Conclusion
ActiveCampaign is unquestionably a better email marketing solution than ConvertKit. Sure, it costs a little more but it is definitely worth it. The extra revenue you can generate and the time you can save with advanced features in ActiveCampaign will be much more valuable than a few bucks every month.
If you are still not sure, it is highly recommended that you give a try to both tools. You can do that without investing anything and in fact, even if you are pretty confident about ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit is definitely worth a try.
Different businesses have different needs and what might be the perfect solution for one may not be the same for another. Reading reviews and comparisons of other users and experts is without a doubt useful and helpful but no one knows your business better than you.
Knowing is one thing and experiencing is totally another. There’s a famous quote that says, “It is better to experience than to be told”. So you should definitely give a try to both ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit.
As a matter of fact, a lot of users and experts claim ConvertKit to be the better tool among the two, and they are not wrong. Sure, most of them are just affiliates trying to earn a commission but some genuinely feel ConvertKit is better software for their business and its needs. And it really is. In short, you should test both the tools and see for yourself which one is a better fit.
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