ActiveCampaign vs ClickUp: Which CRM Wins in 2025?

by | Feb 27, 2025

Winner
ActiveCampaign logo
4.6
  • Email Marketing
  • Dynamic Content
  • Custom Landing Pages
  • Integrated AI
  • Segmentation
  • Free Plan Available
  • Paid Plan Starts at $15
Runner Up
clickup
3.5
  • Project Management
  • Product Development
  • Workflow
  • Resource Management
  • Private Whiteboards
  • Free plan available
  • Paid Plans from $7
Fahim AI 4 2 20

Ever feel like you’re juggling too many tools?

You’re trying to keep track of customers and projects, and it’s a mess.

Maybe you’re using separate systems, and nothing talks to each other.

It slows you down, and you might even lose track of important tasks or customers.

That’s where comparing ActiveCampaign vs ClickUp comes in.

Overview

To give you the best comparison, we dove deep.

We used both ActiveCampaign and ClickUp for weeks, testing every major feature.

We built sample campaigns, managed fake projects, and tracked our results. 

This hands-on experience lets us show you real differences, not just marketing talk.

ActiveCampaign
4.6out of 5

Unlock the power of an all-in-one marketing platform. So, check it out now!

Pricing: It has a 7-day free Trial. Paid plan starts at $15/month

Key Features:

  • Email Marketing
  • Marketing Automation
  • CRM
Clickup CTA
3.5out of 5

Boost productivity by 25%! ClickUp helps you manage sales, projects, docs, and more.

Pricing: It has a free plan. The premium plan starts at $7/month.

Key Features:

  • Task Management
  • Project Management
  • Collaboration Tools

What is ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign? It’s a powerhouse. Think marketing automation, email, and CRM all in one spot.

Do you want to automate your sales?

This tool can help. It also lets you track customers and makes your marketing smarter.

Also, explore our favorite ActiveCampaign alternatives…

ActiveCampaign

Our Take

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an excellent choice for businesses that want to leverage the true power of email marketing and automation. However, it may not be the best fit for beginners due to its complexity.

Key Benefits

  • Advanced automation: Create complex workflows to nurture leads and automate tasks.
  • Email marketing powerhouse: Send beautiful and effective email campaigns.
  • Built-in CRM: Manage contacts and track interactions.
  • Segmentation and personalization: Target specific groups of contacts with personalized messages.

Pricing

  • Starter: $15/month.
  • Plus: $49/month.
  • Pro: $79/month.
  • Enterprise: $145/month.
ActiveCampaign Pricing

Pros

  • Robust automation capabilities.
  • Excellent email deliverability.
  • Detailed reporting and analytics.
  • Great for growing businesses.

Cons

  • It can be complex to learn.
  • Pricing can increase quickly.
  • It’s not as user-friendly as some options.

What is ClickUp?

ClickUp. It’s a workspace.

Think of it as one app. It can handle many tasks.

You can manage projects. You can track time. It’s built for teams.

Also, explore our favorite ClickUp alternatives…

clickup homepage

Our Take

Clickup CTA

It’s incredibly powerful and flexible. The free plan is very generous, and it has many features for managing projects. However, due to its many options, it can be overwhelming at first, and the learning curve can be steep for new users.

Key Benefits

  • Centralized workspace for tasks.
  • Offers a free forever plan.
  • Supports over 1,000 integrations.
  • Customizable workflows and views.
  • Comprehensive reporting features.

Pricing

  • Free: Best for personal use.
  • Unlimited: $7/user.
  • Business: $12/user.
  • Enterprise: Contact them for custom pricing based on your requirements.
Clickup Pricing

Pros

  • All-in-One Platform.
  • Highly Customizable.
  • Robust Free Plan.
  • Strong Automation.
  • Collaborative Features.

Cons

  • Steep Learning Curve.
  • Feature Overload.
  • Mobile App Limitations.
  • Performance Issues.

Feature Comparison

Picking the right platform is all about the details. Let’s look closely at 9 key features.

This head-to-head comparison will help you decide which tool fits your daily business operations best.

1. Core Focus: Marketing Automation vs Project Management Software

  • ActiveCampaign is a powerful crm platform built around intelligent marketing automation.
  • Its key features help you create customer journeys for digital marketing.
  • ClickUp is a robust project management software designed to manage tasks and complex projects.

2. Marketing and Sales Automation

  • ActiveCampaign excels in marketing and sales automation, offering pre-built templates and over 900 automation ‘recipes’.
  • This makes it a must-have platform for sophisticated sales engagement.
  • ClickUp offers simpler, task-based automations, which are great for workflow but less suited for advanced activeCampaign marketing automation.

3. Email Marketing Services and Editor

  • ActiveCampaign is a top-tier email marketing service provider, offering a great email builder, advanced features like conditional content, and many email templates.
  • ClickUp’s email tools are more basic, focusing on sending transactional emails and team communication, not large-scale campaigns.

4. Sales Pipeline and Built in CRM

  • ActiveCampaign features a dedicated sales pipeline and built-in crm for easy contact management and deal tracking.
  • ClickUp offers a customizable crm platform using its task lists and custom fields.
  • However, ActiveCampaign’s crm offers more dedicated sales automation and sales engagement tools.

5. Task Management and Complex Tasks

  • ClickUp is the clear winner for task management and complex tasks, with features like Gantt charts and multiple views to view tasks.
  • The platform is perfect for complex projects and resource management.
  • ActiveCampaign’s task management is more basic, mostly focused on internal follow-up email reminders.

6. User Experience and Advanced User Needs

  • ActiveCampaign is generally more user-friendly for its core function (marketing automation), though its more advanced features can be complex for a more advanced user.
  • ClickUp has a steeper learning curve due to its extensive feature set.
  • A power user or advanced user will appreciate ClickUp’s deep customization options for their entire workspace.

7. Support and Training

  • ActiveCampaign offers excellent onboarding and often a dedicated account team on its higher tiers, which is very helpful for the activecampaign crm platform.
  • ClickUp provides a detailed knowledge base and ClickUp University for training.
  • Direct phone support or live training may be limited to certain paid plan options.

8. Customization and Custom Reports

  • ClickUp is highly customizable, allowing unlimited users to create custom reports, custom objects, and unique views.
  • ActiveCampaign provides strong custom reports on marketing performance but limits customization of its core crm platform features compared to ClickUp.

9. Pricing and Free Plan Options

  • ClickUp offers a generous free forever plan, which includes many essential features, making it ideal for small teams.
  • ActiveCampaign does not offer a truly free plan, though it has a free trial.
  • Its pricing is tiered based on contact numbers, which can be costly for big businesses.

What to Look For When Choosing CRM Software?

Final Verdict

After trying both ActiveCampaign and ClickUp, we have a clear favorite.

We think ActiveCampaign is the better pick for most businesses.

Why? It’s really good at helping you talk to your customers.

It has strong tools for email and sales.

You can send special emails to different groups of people. It helps you keep track of your customers and make more sales. 

ClickUp is great for teams that need to work on projects together.

It helps you keep track of tasks and deadlines.

However, ActiveCampaign is better if you want to grow your business by talking to customers. We spent a lot of time using both. 

More of ActiveCampaign

Here’s a comparison of ActiveCampaign with its alternatives:

  • ActiveCampaign vs Pipedrive: ActiveCampaign excels in marketing automation and lead nurturing with integrated CRM. Pipedrive, however, is a sales-centric CRM that emphasizes visual pipeline management and efficient deal tracking.
  • ActiveCampaign vs GoHighLevel: GoHighLevel is an all-in-one platform for marketing agency users, with strong white-labeling and unlimited accounts.
  • ActiveCampaign vs Keap: ActiveCampaign offers robust marketing automation and email capabilities. Keap is tailored for small businesses, blending CRM with sales and email for an integrated approach.
  • ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot: ActiveCampaign is a leader in email marketing automation and customer engagement. HubSpot provides a more comprehensive, all-in-one platform covering marketing, sales, service, and content management.
  • ActiveCampaign vs ClickFunnels: ActiveCampaign is ideal for email marketing automation and lead nurturing within a CRM context. ClickFunnels specializes in building sales funnels and landing pages for direct conversions.
  • ActiveCampaign vs Folk: ActiveCampaign is known for sophisticated marketing automation and detailed customer segmentation. Folk offers a simpler, collaborative CRM for contact management, email campaigns, and basic sales pipelines.
  • ActiveCampaign vs Instantly: ActiveCampaign delivers advanced marketing automation and a comprehensive CRM. Instantly focuses more on cold email outreach and lead finding with basic CRM features for simplified sales.
  • ActiveCampaign vs ClickUp: ActiveCampaign excels in marketing-specific automation and customer relationship management. ClickUp is a versatile work management platform that can be customized for CRM and emphasizes project management.
  • ActiveCampaign vs Monday CRM: ActiveCampaign provides powerful marketing automation and email campaigns with strong CRM integration. Monday CRM emphasizes visual collaboration and customizable boards for lead and deal management.
  • ActiveCampaign vs Capsule: ActiveCampaign offers robust email marketing and advanced automation for sales and customer journeys. Capsule CRM provides straightforward contact management and sales pipeline features, ideal for basic CRM needs.
  • ActiveCampaign vs Insightly: ActiveCampaign focuses on deep marketing and sales automation with lead scoring and tracking. Insightly combines CRM with project management, suiting teams needing both sales and project delivery.
  • ActiveCampaign vs Freshsales CRM: ActiveCampaign provides comprehensive marketing automation and email with integrated CRM functionalities. Freshsales CRM focuses on sales management and streamlining sales processes with AI-powered insights.
  • ActiveCampaign vs Salesforce: ActiveCampaign specializes in marketing automation and email engagement for small to medium businesses. Salesforce is an extensive, scalable CRM platform for large enterprises, covering sales, service, and marketing.
  • ActiveCampaign vs Zendesk: ActiveCampaign focuses on email marketing, sales automation, and customer experience management. Zendesk primarily provides customer service and support tools, including ticketing systems and help desks.

More of ClickUp

Here’s a brief comparison of ClickUp with these software solutions:

  • ClickUp vs Pipedrive: Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM with a visual pipeline. ClickUp is a more flexible project management tool.
  • ClickUp vs Gohighlevel: ClickUp is an all-in-one work management platform with strong project management and customizable CRM. GoHighLevel is a dedicated marketing and sales automation platform focused on lead generation and conversion.
  • ClickUp vs Keap: ClickUp is a versatile platform for project management and customizable CRM, while Keap is a powerful CRM and marketing automation tool that emphasizes lead nurturing and sales processes.
  • ClickUp vs ActiveCampaign: ClickUp provides a flexible platform for task, project, and basic CRM management, whereas ActiveCampaign excels in advanced marketing automation, email campaigns, and customer segmentation.
  • ClickUp vs Hubspot: ClickUp is a highly customizable project management and work OS with integrated CRM features, while HubSpot offers a comprehensive suite of tools for marketing, sales, and customer service.
  • ClickUp vs Clickfunnels: ClickUp is an all-in-one work management platform; ClickFunnels is primarily a sales funnel builder for creating landing pages and automating sales funnels.
  • ClickUp vs Folk: ClickUp is a robust work management solution with customizable CRM functionalities, while Folk focuses on collaborative contact management and relationship tracking.
  • ClickUp vs Instantly: ClickUp is a versatile platform for project management and diverse workflows, while Instantly specializes in cold email outreach, deliverability optimization, and automated email campaigns.
  • ClickUp vs Monday CRM: ClickUp provides a highly customizable all-in-one workspace for project management and CRM, while Monday CRM offers visual workflows and team collaboration focused on customer relationships.
  • ClickUp vs Capsule CRM: ClickUp is a comprehensive work management and customizable CRM platform, whereas Capsule CRM is a straightforward, user-friendly CRM focused on managing contacts and sales opportunities.
  • ClickUp vs Insightly: ClickUp is a flexible platform for project management and adaptable CRM. Insightly is a dedicated CRM offering a strong sales pipeline and project management features within a CRM context.
  • ClickUp vs Freshsales: ClickUp is an all-in-one work management tool with adaptable CRM capabilities, whereas Freshsales CRM is a specialized sales CRM with advanced automation, lead scoring, and reporting.
  • ClickUp vs Salesforce: ClickUp is a versatile work management platform with customizable CRM, while Salesforce is an enterprise-grade CRM with extensive features for sales, service, and marketing automation.
  • ClickUp vs Zendesk: ClickUp offers an all-in-one workspace for tasks, projects, and customizable CRM, while Zendesk is a leading customer service platform primarily focused on ticketing and support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better for email marketing, ActiveCampaign or ClickUp?

ActiveCampaign is significantly better for email marketing. It offers advanced automation, personalization, and segmentation features. ClickUp’s email capabilities are primarily for task notifications, not comprehensive marketing campaigns.

Can I use ClickUp as a CRM like ActiveCampaign?

Yes, ClickUp has CRM functionalities with custom fields and pipeline management. However, ActiveCampaign’s CRM is more robust, especially for sales funnel management and customer segmentation. ClickUp is better for integrating tasks and managing customers.

Does ActiveCampaign or ClickUp integrate better with Shopify?

ActiveCampaign offers more seamless and direct integration with Shopify. It’s designed for e-commerce businesses and provides features for customer tracking and targeted marketing within Shopify. ClickUp integrates with many tools but may need more setup.

Which platform is better for project management, ActiveCampaign or ClickUp?

ClickUp is the clear winner for project management. Its features, like multiple views, dependencies, and detailed task management tools, are superior. ActiveCampaign’s task management is more basic and focused on CRM-related tasks.

Is ActiveCampaign or ClickUp more suitable for large enterprises?

ActiveCampaign is often more suitable for larger enterprises, especially those needing advanced marketing automation and integrations like Salesforce. Its comprehensive features and scalability make it a strong choice for complex marketing needs. ClickUp can also scale but is more known for project management.

Related Articles