Which Platform is Best Overall in 2024?

Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign are two of the most popular marketing automation platforms on the market. Both offer powerful features designed to boost your marketing efforts, but you might be surprised to learn that there are actually quite a few differences between the two. In this guide, I’m sharing a detailed comparison of Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign, examining their strengths, weaknesses, pricing, and overall suitability for various business types.

So whether you’re running an e-commerce store or you need a versatile CRM and marketing solution, this comparison will help you make an informed decision on which platform is right for you.

Let’s dive in.

Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign: Three Key Differences You Should Know About

When you compare Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign, you will see that they do have a lot of similar features. However, there are a few key differences that set them apart from one another.

• Split Testing. While Klaviyo does include basic A/B split testing, ActiveCampaign goes a step further allowing you to test up to five sequences at one time.
• Landing Pages. You can build beautiful, high-converting landing pages for your email marketing campaigns within ActiveCampaign. If you want to build landing pages with Klaviyo you will need to integrate (and cough up the cash for) a third-party landing page builder.
• Reviews. Klaviyo automates the review process on Shopify, making it an excellent option for ecommerce businesses. ActiveCampaign doesn’t currently offer this feature.

Klaviyo Overview

Klaviyo is an email marketing platform designed primarily for e-commerce businesses. It offers a range of features that are designed to help with business growth through building customer relationships.

This includes:

• Email marketing
• SMS marketing
• Marketing automation
• Mobile push notifications
• Automated Reviews

Klaviyo utilizes AI to help you really understand your customers. It can even predict future order dates and send automated messages at exactly the right time to maximize your sales.

Its automated reviews feature makes it a great option for ecommerce business owners using Shopify.

ActiveCampaign Overview

ActiveCampaign is a powerful all-in-one email marketing, automation, and sales engagement platform with a built-in CRM.

It offers omnichannel marketing with communications available via:

• Email Marketing
• SMS Marketing
• Social Media and Ad Audiences

ActiveCampaign also uses integrated AI to help you optimize your campaigns, ensuring the best possible customer experience. This includes an AI automation builder, win probability, and predictive sending, allowing you to send messages at the optimal time.

Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign: Feature Comparison

Now, let’s take a look at some of the key features on offer from Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign to see how they measure up side-by-side.

Templates (ActiveCampaign Wins!)

Klaviyo uses a drag-and-drop template builder, so you can create the perfect template for your email campaigns and save it for future use.

If you would rather use a pre-made template, you can select one of the 100+ professionally designed templates from Klaviyo’s template library.

From there, you can add your own imagery and content, and change the colors and fonts to suit your branding.

ActiveCampaign works in a similar way, with a drag-and-drop email builder that lets you create a custom template that you can use again and again. It includes lots of dynamic features that you can add at the click of a button, such as countdown timers and embedded videos.

And if you prefer to use a template, there are over 250+ professionally designed templates to choose from.

The Verdict: ActiveCampaign offers more templates and dynamic features for your emails.

Marketing Automation (ActiveCampaign Wins!)

Klaviyo makes automation easy, allowing you to connect with customers across a range of channels. 

The built-in AI helps you understand your customers and recommends products they are likely to love based on their previous interactions.

It also unifies the data across all marketing channels, which gives you a deeper insight into your customer’s behavior. This allows you to send truly personalized emails that are optimized for conversion.

There are over 60+ built-in workflows to choose from, many designed specifically for e-commerce and retail businesses. However, you can, of course, build your own automation workflows if you prefer.

My absolute favorite thing about Klaviyo is that it can automate the customer review process on Shopify. If you run an ecommerce store you will know just how important product reviews are for building trust with your customers. I love that this is yet another feature that has a direct impact on your bottom line.

ActiveCampaign also offers a great range of automation features designed to nurture and engage your customers.

It includes an AI automation builder that will build the perfect automation for your needs. Alternatively, you can create your own automations with multiple triggers and unlimited actions.

ActiveCampaign goes a step further than Klaviyo with split testing, allowing you to test up to five sequences at one time. I love this feature! You can test any part of your email, including subject lines, images and videos, calls to action, and even individual blocks.

The Verdict: It’s a close call, but ActiveCampaign wins this round thanks to its robust split testing features and AI automation builder.

Forms and Landing Pages (ActiveCampaign Wins!)

Klaviyo’s form builder is very easy to use, and there are over 50+ templates to choose from to get you started.

You can create:

• Multi-step forms
• Pop-ups
• Embedded forms
• Fly-out forms
• Form teasers (Minimized forms until the customer is ready)

I was disappointed that Klaviyo doesn’t offer landing pages as a feature. However, you can get around this by using a full-page sign-up form as a landing page, although that’s not going to work for everyone.

In most cases, you will want to use an integration for your landing pages (check out the best landing page builders for some great options).

ActiveCampaign, on the other hand, includes a built-in landing page builder. The easy-to-use drag-and-drop page builder lets you build and customize your landing pages to your exact requirements. Alternatively, if you prefer to start with a template, you will find hundreds to choose from.

Forms are just as easy to build, and there are different form types to choose from, including:

• Inline forms
• Floating box forms
• Modal pop-ups
• Floating bars

And you can easily add tags to your forms to help you understand where sign-ups are coming from and segment your contacts from the get-go.

The Verdict: Active Campaign wins again! Both platforms offer a good range of forms. However, only ActiveCampaign lets you build landing pages within the platform.

Contact and List Management (ActiveCampaign Wins)

Klaviyo allows you to segment customer data into groups based on categories such as their purchase history, interest, and even dates. This allows you to ensure you reach out to them at the right time – offering a birthday discount for example.

ActiveCampaign has a built-in CRM (customer relationship management software), which means you can automate outreach across the sales cycle—very handy for sales-focused businesses. I’ve used and tested a lot of different CRMs in my time, and I have to say, ActiveCampaign’s CRM is top-notch.

It includes:

• Automatic lead scoring
• Pipeline and deal monitoring
• Automatic sales team notifications

These features help you stay on top of things, ensuring no deals slip through the cracks.

ActiveCampaign has some great segmentation features, too. This enables you to send each customer content they actually want to see, making them far more likely to convert. Contacts are ‘Tagged’ automatically based on their actions, such as web clicks or purchases.

The Verdict: Both platforms offer equally good tagging features. ActiveCampaign wins this round, but only because of the built-in CRM. If you don’t need a full CRM, then either option could work well for you.

Reporting and Analytics (It’s a tie!)

Both Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign offer robust reporting and analytics features.

Klaviyo’s reporting features include:

• Easy-to-read dashboard
• Conversion summary
• Revenue attributes
• Real-time data
• Future behavior predictions
• Multi-channel KPIs
• Custom reports

ActiveCampaign’s analytics features include:

• Visual dashboard
• Attribution
• Site and event tracking
• Lead scoring
• Win Probability
• Real-time order insights
• Cross channel analysis
• Customer journey mapping

The Verdict: As you can see, their features are very similar, so for this round, it’s a tie.

Deliverability (It’s a Tie)

One thing that Klaviyo does extremely well is assist with email deliverability – ensuring that you can manage your email lists, adhere to GDPR compliance rules, and that your emails actually reach the inbox of the intended recipient.

As long as you are sending over 1000 emails per month, you will be given a deliverability score from 1-100, along with tips on how you can improve this.

ActiveCampaign is also known for its excellent deliverability rates and often tops the list when comparing different email marketing software for deliverability.

The Verdict: It’s a tie!

Integrations (It’s a Tie!)

Klaviyo integrates well with several other tools to ensure seamless use of e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce. It includes over 350+ pre-built integrations and flexible APIs, so you can connect your entire tech stack, safe in the knowledge that everything will work seamlessly together.

ActiveCampaign integrates with over 950+ apps, and also offers ActiveCampaign API if you want to create an integration of your own.

If you’re an ecommerce business owner, ActiveCampaign will integrate well with whichever platform you use for your online store.

The Verdict: It’s a tie! Both platforms offer a great range of integrations and APIs.

Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign: Pricing

Now, let’s take a look at the pricing to see how their packages compare.

Klaviyo Pricing

With Klaviyo, all plans include all features. The price you pay will depend on how many contacts you have.

Klaviyo has three main packages to get you started:

• Free – This allows you to send 500 emails per month and 150 SMS per month. You also get email customer support for the first 60 days of signing up to this package.
• Email Plans start from $30/month for up to 1,000 contacts. This allows you to send 10,000 emails per month and 150 SMS per month. You can get access to both email and chat support.
• Email and SMS, starting from $45/month for up to 1,000 contacts. This allows you to send 10,000 emails per month and 1250 SMS messages per month. You can get access to both email and chat support.

ActiveCampaign Pricing

ActiveCampaign has a range of different plans available depending on your needs. Prices also vary depending on the number of contacts you have.

• Plus – from $49/month (paid annually). This allows you to have up to 1000 email contacts, a 10x contact email send limit, and 3 users. You can add more marketing contacts but this will affect your package price.
• Professional – from $149/month (paid annually). This allows you to have up to 2500 email contacts, a 12x contact email send limit, and 5 users. You also get access to split automations, enhanced reporting, and salesforce integration.
• Enterprise – from $259/month (paid annually). This plans allows you to have up to 2500 email contacts, a 15x contact email send limit and 5 users – you can add more marketing contacts but this will affect your package price. You also get access to custom reporting and unlimited email testing.

Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign: The Pros and Cons

As with everything, Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign each have their own pros and cons. It’s important to consider if any of these will affect you before committing to a subscription.

Klaviyo Pros and Cons

ActiveCampaign Pros and Cons

Klaviyo vs Active Campaign: The Verdict

It’s safe to say that both Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign are great email marketing platforms. However, their differences mean that one will suit you better than the other, depending on the type of business you run.

ActiveCampaign came out on top in most areas simply due to the variety of tools and services it includes. Yes, it’s a lot more expensive than Klaviyo, but for that price, you get a built-in CRM and landing pages, so it’s actually good value for money if you will be using all of these tools.

For any business with an active sales team, ActiveCampaign is the obvious choice. This powerful email marketing tool gives you everything you need to grow and scale your business on autopilot.

That being said, if you are running an ecommerce business on Shopify, then Klaviyo could be a great choice. The way it automates reviews on the platform is fantastic, and its integrated AI gives you real insights into your customers’ behavior, predicting future purchases and sending messages across a range of platforms at exactly the right time to maximize sales.

Klaviyo’s free plan means you can take this powerful ecommerce email marketing solution for a test run before committing to a paid plan.

If, after reading our comparison of Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign you’re still undecided, check out these ActiveCampaign alternatives for some more options to try.