Ever wondered whether ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo was the better choice for your business? It depends really, you’ll have to consider what your marketing budget is, how complex your email marketing systems are, and what type of business you run. In this post, we will review the two software in terms of their features, user-experience, email deliverability, support and other key criteria. Lean back and let our in-depth comparison guide you with your choice.
Table of Contents
ActiveCampaign vs. Klaviyo: Overview
| Criteria | ActiveCampaign | Klaviyo |
|---|---|---|
| Key Differences | Generalized Marketing Platform | Specialized for eCommerce |
| Free Trial | Available (14 days) | Available (<250 contacts) |
| Starting Pricing | $9/month – Paid Yearly | $20/month (No yearly payment) |
| Features | Excellent | Great |
| Ease of Use | Great | Excellent |
| Deliverability | Great | Great |
| Integrations | Great | Excellent |
| Support | Excellent | Good |
| Customer Feedback | Great | Great |
Upfront Summary: ActiveCampaign is a platform packed with powerful features for almost every kind of business. Klaviyo on the other hand is a similar platform with features and functions optimized for the eCommerce sector.
ActiveCampaign vs. Klaviyo: Key Differences
ActiveCampaign:
| Free Access | Yes, 14-days trial |
| Entry Price | $9 /mo |
| Best for: | small /mid-sized companies |
ActiveCampaign has grown into an all-in-one marketing platform over the years. These are the key features of ActiveCampaign:
- It’s a good choice for small and medium-sized companies;
- Works for most kinds of businesses (eCommerce, Web-Publishing, B2B relationships and more);
- Great software for Email automation and CRM.
Klaviyo:
Unlike ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo focuses on a more specific customer group; owners of ecommerce stores. These are reasons why you may choose Klaviyo:
- Great tool for eCommerce businesses that sell physical products;
- Lots of integrations for popular eCommerce Platforms such as Shopify or WooCommerce;
- Analytics and Reports optimized for sales.
Bottom Line: ActiveCampaign is a great platform for marketing campaigns of all kinds. Klaviyo is a good platform for marketing as well, but it’s mostly optimized for eCommerce purposes.
ActiveCampaign vs. Klaviyo: Pricing
ActiveCampaign:
ActiveCampaign offers four plans (and a 14-days free trial) to its users. As with many online tools, you get to choose whether you would pay monthly or annually. We would recommend you register for the free trial first. If the software serves your needs, then you could subscribe to a paid plan, it is advisable, however, to opt for the annual payment plan directly to save costs.
Here is a list of the various plans and prices of ActiveCampaign (every plan upgrade comes with new features):
- The Lite Plan starts at $9/month – Paid Yearly
- The Plus Plan starts from $49/month – Paid Yearly
- The Professional Plan which ActiveCampaign claims is most popular starts from $129/month – Paid Yearly
- The Enterprise Plan starts from $229/month – Paid Yearly
Generally, the more contacts you have, the more you have to pay.
Klaviyo:
Klaviyo is a slightly different pricing strategy (they also don’t offer annual payment options).
The pricing is calculated based on the number of your email contacts. Klaviyo has no additional plans, as is the case with ActiveCampaign. Additionally, you always have access to all features of Klaviyo, no matter how big or little your email list is. You only need to enter your number of contacts in the price calculator and the tool will give out your monthly price. It has a different calculator for SMS marketing.
Here is a quick overview of the prices for Email contacts:
- Up to 250 contacts and 500 Emails sent, it’s free
- From 251 contacts upwards, it starts with $20/ month (and unlimited Emails sends)
- From 501 contacts upwards it costs $30/ month a month
- From 1001 contacts upwards it costs $45/ month a month
- From 1501 contacts upwards it costs $60/ month a month
And so on… it gets cheaper the more contacts you have.
Bottom Line: In terms of pricing, each tool has a different pricing strategy. Both offer free plans, but with a couple of limitations. However, ActiveCampaign has the lower entry price (the Lite Plan with 500 contacts for $9/month – Paid Yearly) compared to Klaviyo (251-500 contacts for $20 month). But it all depends on your number of contacts and your objectives really.
ActiveCampaign vs. Klaviyo: Main Features
ActiveCampaign:
Here are some of the main features from ActiveCampaign: Marketing Automation, Unlimited Emails, Newsletters, Forms, Templates, Segmentation, Site and Event Tracking, Campaign and Automation Reporting, 300+ Integrations, Sales Emails, Chat and Email Support, CRM, APIs, Landing Pages, SMS Marketing, Lead Scoring, Split-Testing, Site Messages, Conversion Reporting.
They have a lot more features, but the features you have available are dependent on the plan you choose and the type of business you have.
Klaviyo:
Here are some of the main features from Klaviyo: ROI-based reporting, One-click integrations, Segmentation, Forms, Facebook advertising, Autoresponder Templates, Email Personalization, Activity fields, Drag-and-drop Designs, Product recommendations, Triggered emails, AB testing, Follow-ups, Real-time tracking.
Klaviyo also has a wide range of useful features which are especially tailored for ecommerce marketing campaigns.
Bottom Line: Both tools have modern features and most of the necessary functions that are needed for professional Email marketing. However, depending on what plan you subscribe to, you have a few more features with ActiveCampaign.
ActiveCampaign vs. Klaviyo: Ease of Use
ActiveCampaign:
ActiveCampaign has a large selection of templates that convert well. You could adjust them to match your brand or edit them in the HTML editor if you want to make major changes on the layout if you wanted.
The software has a step-by-step guide that takes you through the process and you also have the option to preview your campaign at any time (also available for mobile devices). It’s a pretty easy process to understand and even a beginner can understand the setup process relatively quickly and create a test campaign in a short time.
You can also create your own template from scratch on a blank canvas. You get to choose between a standard form with an image, a form that is entirely text and a custom HTML development environment for programmers. But we only recommend the last option if you have already set up successful campaigns and know what you are doing.
Klaviyo:
The user interface of Klaviyo is kept very simple and easy to understand even for the most layperson. You can move various elements into the given placeholders a using drag and drop feature. The simple modular system allows you to create templates extremely quickly and dispenses with complicated setting options.
The system is ideal for one-person businesses or even non-technical people who want to start their marketing campaigns fast without outside support.
Just like with ActiveCampaign, you can view your template at any time as a preview on the desktop and on a mobile device to make adjustments if necessary.
Bottom Line: Both Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign have visual builder systems which can be operated by drag and drop, but Klaviyo is a lot easier to use, especially for people without technical skill, which is especially useful for total beginners.
ActiveCampaign vs. Klaviyo: Deliverability
ActiveCampaign:
ActiveCampaign’s test results for deliverability were very good. The emails got delivered to inboxes of the most popular email providers such as Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or AOL (with only a few exceptions).
The loss rate is under 1.5%, which is also really great when compared to other tools.
Klaviyo:
Unfortunately, there is no third-party data on the deliverability rate of Klaviyo. However, Klaviyo claims to achieve good scores and even outperform established competitors such as MailChimp. Unfortunately, we cannot confirm this with certainty. However, Klaviyo has pretty good deliverability.
Bottom Line: It is difficult to decide which software is better here. But both tools have relatively good, industry-acceptable deliverability rates.
ActiveCampaign vs. Klaviyo: Integrations
ActiveCampaign:
You can connect ActiveCampaign with platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce or WooCommerce.
With ActiveCampaign you can connect to over 300+ platforms without any problems. The integrations include all kinds of apps (Accounting, Analytics, CMS, CRM etc.). The more popular platforms are of course also available.
Here are the most important ones: Shopify, Salesforce, Square, WooCommerce, Facebook, WordPress, Google Analytics, Zapier, ClickFunnels, Unbounce, Pipedrive, Sumo, Dropbox, Joomla, Magento, Evernote, Asana, Teachable, AccountingSuite, Google Tasks /Calendar /Sheets, Airtable, Bridge Subscription Manager, Amazon DynamoDB, PayPal, Stripe, 123FormBuilder, Slack, Twitter, YouTube.
Klaviyo:
With a selection of over 20,000 integrations, Klaviyo can be connected to almost any eCommerce relevant platform.
Here are the most important platforms: Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, Salesforce, Woo Commerce, ReCharge, YotPo, Aftership, Privy, Facebook, Amazon Marketplace, Campaign Monitor, Chargebee, Classy, Funraise, Stripe, Zendesk, Recurly, 3dcart, ActBlue, Commercev3, Eventbrite, Help Scout, KickoffLabs, Lightspeed, Mi9, OpenCart, PrestaShop, Recurly, ShipStation…
Bottom Line: Both platforms Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign have all the popular integrations and much more. But Klaviyo wins with a landslide with regards to eCommerce, as it has all the integrations you need for a successful eCommerce business.
ActiveCampaign vs. Klaviyo: Support
ActiveCampaign:
If you have problems with ActiveCampaign, you can communicate via live chat or use the Email support. Depending on the pricing plan you’re on, you are even entitled to free strategy sessions, 1-on-1 training sessions, seminars, onboarding sessions, migration services and phone support. That’s pretty impressive.
Klaviyo:
Klaviyo also offers many support options. From Email to webinar support.
Klaviyo also offers multi-channel support, with email and chat being the most popular. You have access to the support as soon as you subscribe to a paid plan. You also now have access to get help from the community forum which is exclusively for Klaviyo members. This is especially useful as it contains other practical, helpful tips from other Klaviyo users.
Bottom Line: ActiveCampaign wins here with a slight edge over Klaviyo. Where Klaviyo provides average support quality, ActiveCampaign offers a wide range of personal support options such as live seminars or 1:1 training.
ActiveCampaign vs. Klaviyo: Customer Feedback
To provide a better indication of the quality and the customer satisfaction of the two marketing tools, we have added up the ratings of the largest review platforms with certified customer reports.
| Platform | ActiveCampaign | Klaviyo |
|---|---|---|
| Trustradius | 4.5 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Capterra | 4.6 / 5 | 4.7 / 5 |
| G2Crowd | 4.6 / 5 | 4.6 / 5 |
| GetApp | 4.6 / 5 | 4.7 / 5 |
| FinancesOnline | 5 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Average | 4.66 / 5 | 4.6 / 5 |
Bottom Line: In terms of customer feedback, the two companies are equally positioned. Both platforms have above-average customer ratings. In conclusion, Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign are great platforms, but it really depends on your kind of business, your level of technical competence, and the sort of Integrations you’ll like to use.