8 Best ActiveCampaign Alternatives for Small Business in 2026

ActiveCampaign has one of the best automation builders in email marketing. The trouble for small businesses is the bill: there is no free plan, prices rise with every contact, the CRM with deal pipelines sits on higher tiers or as an add-on, and SMS and transactional email cost extra.

We compared the most recommended ActiveCampaign alternatives for small business on automation power, price as your list grows, the free plan, and how much of your customer journey (sales, invoices, support) each tool handles.

Disclosure: DoubleScale is our product, and we put it first because it was built for exactly this problem. We kept the comparison honest, including where another tool is the better fit.

Quick picks: the best ActiveCampaign alternatives for small business

• DoubleScale – best ActiveCampaign alternative for automation plus CRM: 100+ triggers, pipelines, invoices and support, no per-contact pricing
• MailerLite – best value email marketing, with a free plan for 500 subscribers
• Brevo – best for email, SMS and WhatsApp on a budget, priced by sends
• HubSpot – best known free CRM, with paid tiers priced per seat
• Klaviyo – best for e-commerce stores that live on segmentation and revenue reporting
• GetResponse – best for email plus webinars and landing pages
• Keap – CRM and automation for service businesses, at a premium price
• EngageBay – low-cost all-in-one cloud suite with a free plan

Why small businesses look for an ActiveCampaign alternative

1. Per-contact pricing. Starter begins at about $15 a month for 1,000 contacts billed annually, and costs climb steeply past 10,000 contacts (ActiveCampaign pricing).
2. No free plan, only a 14-day trial.
3. CRM, SMS and transactional email as extras.
4. Marketing only. Invoices, bookings and support still need other tools.

If you love automation but not the bill, these ActiveCampaign alternatives for small business are worth comparing.

ActiveCampaign alternatives for small business compared: pricing at a glance

Starting prices from each vendor, checked in October 2026. Annual means the monthly price when billed yearly; prices change often, so confirm on each vendor’s pricing page.

How we chose these ActiveCampaign alternatives

• Automation depth: triggers, conditions, goals and branches.
• Price as your list grows.
• A free plan or trial.
• CRM and sales features included.
• Deliverability and integrations.

1. DoubleScale: best ActiveCampaign alternative with automation and CRM

DoubleScale gives you ActiveCampaign-style automation inside your WordPress site: a visual builder with 100+ triggers across contacts, forms, campaigns, deals, bookings, tickets, WooCommerce, LMS and membership plugins, with delays, conditions, goals and branches.

The difference is everything around the automation. The same plugin includes pipelines, proposals, invoices, booking pages and a helpdesk, and it never charges per contact: the free version on WordPress.org includes unlimited contacts, email campaigns and automations, and Pro adds SMS and WhatsApp, lead scoring and website tracking. See DoubleScale vs ActiveCampaign.

Pricing

Free forever on WordPress.org with unlimited contacts. Pro starts at $99 a year for one website with unlimited users; lifetime licenses start at $249.

Pros

• Replaces several subscriptions (CRM, email marketing, booking, helpdesk, SMTP) with one plugin
• Flat pricing: adding team members or contacts never raises the bill
• Self-hosted: customer data stays in your own database, which simplifies GDPR
• Native integrations with WooCommerce, 17 form plugins and the main LMS and membership plugins

Cons

• Needs a WordPress site and decent hosting, and you manage updates
• Email, SMS and WhatsApp go through your own providers (for example Amazon SES, Twilio or Meta), billed separately
• A younger ecosystem than the big SaaS CRMs

Best for: WordPress businesses that want serious automation plus a CRM, without per-contact pricing. Running WordPress? Also see the best ActiveCampaign alternatives for WordPress.

2. MailerLite: best budget ActiveCampaign alternative

MailerLite offers a clean drag-and-drop editor, automations, landing pages and sign-up forms at some of the lowest prices in email marketing.

Pricing

Free for up to 500 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month. Growing Business starts at about $10 a month for 500 subscribers (MailerLite pricing).

Pros

• Excellent value
• Simple, modern editor and automations
• Landing pages included

Cons

• Free plan was cut to 500 subscribers
• No CRM or sales pipeline

Best for: small businesses and creators that want affordable, easy email marketing. See DoubleScale vs MailerLite.

3. Brevo: best ActiveCampaign alternative for email, SMS and WhatsApp

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is a marketing-first platform: email campaigns, SMS, WhatsApp, automation and transactional email with a light CRM. It charges by emails sent rather than contacts stored.

Pricing

Free for up to 300 emails a day. Paid plans start at about $9 a month (Starter), with automation on the Standard tier (Brevo pricing).

Pros

• Unlimited contacts on every plan
• Email, SMS and WhatsApp in one place

Cons

• CRM and sales tools are basic
• Free plan’s daily cap slows large sends

Best for: businesses with big lists that email occasionally. See DoubleScale vs Brevo.

4. HubSpot: best free CRM-first alternative to ActiveCampaign

HubSpot’s free CRM is the default starting point for many small businesses: contacts, companies, deals, a basic pipeline, forms, live chat and meeting links, all in a polished cloud app. Marketing, Sales and Service hubs add automation, sequences and a help desk in paid tiers.

The catch is the pricing ladder. The free plan is limited to 2 users, Starter is priced per seat, and the features most teams want (workflows, sequences, custom reports) sit in Professional at $90 per seat per month.

Pricing

Free for up to 2 users. Starter lists at $20 per seat per month, Professional at $90 and Enterprise at $175 per seat per month (HubSpot pricing).

Pros

• Polished, easy to learn and well documented
• Generous free CRM for very small teams
• Huge integration marketplace

Cons

• Costs jump sharply from Starter to Professional
• Per-seat and per-contact pricing grows with your business
• Data lives on HubSpot’s servers

Best for: small teams that want a free cloud CRM today and can budget for HubSpot’s paid tiers later. See the best HubSpot alternatives for small business.

5. Klaviyo: best ActiveCampaign alternative for online stores

Klaviyo is the e-commerce email and SMS platform: deep Shopify and WooCommerce data, predictive segments and revenue attribution for every flow.

Pricing

Free for 250 active profiles and 500 sends a month. The Email plan starts at about $20 a month (Klaviyo pricing).

Pros

• Best-in-class e-commerce segmentation
• Revenue attribution on every message

Cons

• Billed on every active profile, so costs rise fast
• Overkill outside e-commerce

Best for: online stores with a growing customer list.

6. GetResponse: best ActiveCampaign alternative for webinars and funnels

GetResponse combines email marketing with landing pages, a website builder and webinars, so you can run lead-generation funnels in one tool.

Pricing

Starter starts at about $19 a month for 1,000 contacts, and Marketer at about $59 (cheaper billed annually) (GetResponse pricing).

Pros

• Webinars and landing pages built in
• Good automation on Marketer

Cons

• Per-contact pricing
• Interface can feel busy

Best for: marketers who run webinars and lead-generation funnels.

7. Keap: CRM plus automation for established service businesses

Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) combines CRM, email automation, invoicing and payments for small service businesses.

Pricing

Plans start at about $249 a month billed annually ($299 monthly) for 2 users and 1,500 contacts, plus an onboarding fee (Keap pricing).

Pros

• CRM, automation and payments together
• Mature automation builder

Cons

• Expensive for a small business
• Mandatory onboarding fee

Best for: established service businesses with budget for automation. See also the best Keap alternatives.

8. EngageBay: best low-cost all-in-one ActiveCampaign alternative

EngageBay mirrors HubSpot’s structure (marketing, sales and service in one suite) at a much lower price. Its free plan covers up to 15 users with 250 contacts.

Pricing

Free for up to 15 users and 250 contacts. The All-in-One suite costs $13.79, $59.79 or $110.39 per user per month billed annually (EngageBay pricing).

Pros

• Marketing, CRM and helpdesk in one subscription
• Much cheaper than HubSpot

Cons

• Smaller ecosystem
• Per-user pricing and a small free contact limit

Best for: small teams that want a HubSpot-style cloud suite for less.

What a growing list really costs

• ActiveCampaign Plus: about $239 a month at 10,000 contacts on monthly billing, plus the CRM add-on if you need deals.
• MailerLite Growing Business: about $39 a month at 5,000 subscribers.
• Brevo: priced by sends, not contacts.
• DoubleScale: free, or $99 a year for Pro, plus your sending service (Amazon SES is about $0.10 per 1,000 emails).

How to choose the right ActiveCampaign alternative

• You want automation plus a CRM on WordPress: DoubleScale.
• You want cheap, easy automation: MailerLite.
• You need SMS and WhatsApp: Brevo or DoubleScale Pro.
• You run an online store: Klaviyo.
• You want a free CRM-first platform: HubSpot or EngageBay.

How to move from ActiveCampaign

1. Export contacts with tags and custom fields as CSV.
2. Map tags, lists and fields in the new tool before importing.
3. Rebuild your top automations first: welcome series, lead nurture and abandoned cart.
4. Switch forms and integrations, then warm up your sending domain.

ActiveCampaign alternatives for small business: FAQ

The verdict

ActiveCampaign remains a great automation tool. If price is the issue, MailerLite and Brevo cover most needs for less. If you want automation and a CRM together, on your own WordPress site and without per-contact fees, DoubleScale is the ActiveCampaign alternative for small business to try first. Download it free or try the live demo.