⚡ Quick Verdict:
- Pricing: ActiveCampaign starts at $15/month. Close CRM starts at $35/seat/month.
- Best for: ActiveCampaign for email marketing automation. Close CRM for outbound sales teams that live on the phone.
- Key difference: ActiveCampaign is a marketing platform with a CRM attached. Close is a sales CRM with calling attached.
- Our pick: ActiveCampaign, because it covers marketing and sales automation in one account at a lower entry price.
ActiveCampaign and Close CRM both promise to help you win more deals.
But they were built for two different jobs.
ActiveCampaign starts with email marketing and grows into a CRM platform.
Close starts with phone calls and grows into a full sales pipeline tool.
That single difference decides which one fits your business.
Overview
This ActiveCampaign vs Close CRM comparison covers pricing, key features, and ease of use.
We reviewed documentation, pricing pages, and G2 reviews for both tools.
Our writers also spent hands-on time inside each app.
Those notes appear in the “What Our Team Noticed” sections below.
By the end, you will know which tool matches your sales process.
What is ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation and CRM platform for growing companies.
It started as one of the better known email marketing services.
Today it handles email campaigns, text messages, ads, and deal tracking.
The company calls this customer experience automation, or CXA.
Its drag and drop builder lets you build automations without code.
Most teams pick it for advanced automation that a plain newsletter tool cannot match.
🏆 Winner: ActiveCampaign
Email marketing automation with a built-in CRM on every plan. Over 900 pre-made automation templates. Free migration from your old tool.
ActiveCampaign Pricing
ActiveCampaign offers four paid tiers. Prices climb with your contact count and feature access.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $15/month | Small businesses sending basic email campaigns |
| Plus | $49/month | Teams that need lead scoring and landing pages |
| Pro | $79/month | The more advanced user who wants custom reports |
| Enterprise | $145/month | Big businesses needing custom objects and single sign-on |
Pricing verified September 2026.
Free trial: 14 days, no credit card needed. The trial unlocks most Professional-tier features.
Money-back guarantee: There is no standard refund window. Cancel before renewal to avoid the next charge.
📌 Note: Yearly billing saves 20%. Transactional email, SMS add ons, and CRM add ons are billed separately from the base plan.
⚠️ Pricing conflict flagged: Our CSV lists the Starter plan at $15/month. Some third-party sources quote $19 for the same tier, likely a monthly-billing figure. We use the CSV number across every table and card here. Check the live pricing page before you buy.
Key Benefits of ActiveCampaign
Here is what makes ActiveCampaign worth a look:
- Automation depth: Over 900 automation templates ship with the account. You can A/B test entire automation paths, not just subject lines.
- Advanced segmentation: Group contacts by website visits, location, purchase history, or interaction history. Custom fields let you slice the list further.
- Omnichannel reach: Run email, SMS, WhatsApp, and social campaigns from one dashboard. You can send SMS to the same segment that got the follow up email.
- Deliverability record: ActiveCampaign’s deliverability scores well in independent inbox tests. That matters more than any feature list.
- Free migrations: The team moves your lists, email templates, and automations over at no cost. Non profits and small teams use this a lot.
- Data handling: The platform is GDPR compliant and stores data on U.S. servers under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.
- AI assistance: Predictive sending picks delivery times per contact. Active Intelligence agents suggest high-value audience segments from live data.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer set up an account and built a live welcome series inside it. Here is what stood out from that hands-on time:
ActiveCampaign Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Over 900 automation templates and 950 integrations
- Built-in CRM and lead scoring on every paid plan
- High deliverability rates in independent inbox tests
- Free migration from your old email marketing platform
- User friendly menus and a 14-day free trial without a card
❌ Cons
- Overkill if you only send simple newsletters
- No free plan, and costs rise fast with contact count
- The Starter plan caps you at 5 actions per automation
- No dialer, so calling teams need a second tool
What is Close CRM?
Close CRM is a customer relationship management tool built for sales teams.
It targets startups and small to medium businesses that sell by phone.
Email, phone calls, and SMS all land in one shared inbox.
Sales reps dial straight from the browser without a separate phone system.
Close captures every touch and pins it to the contact timeline.
That cuts the manual data entry most CRM options force on reps.
Close CRM
A sales CRM with calling, SMS, and email in one inbox. Power dialer included. One-click migration from other CRMs.
Close CRM Pricing
Close charges per seat. That changes the math once your sales team grows.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $35/seat/month | Solo founders and two-person sales teams |
| Growth | $99/seat/month | Teams needing multiple pipelines and email sequences |
| Scale | $139/seat/month | Managers who want call coaching and custom graphs |
Pricing verified September 2026.
Free trial: 14 days with no card required. A motivated team can finish setup inside that window.
Money-back guarantee: No published refund window. Billing stops at the end of the current cycle after you cancel.
📌 Note: Calling minutes and phone numbers are billed on top of the seat price. Budget for that before you compare the two tools on cost alone.
⚠️ Pricing conflict flagged: Our CSV lists Essentials, Growth, and Scale at $35, $99, and $139 per seat. Third-party research still quotes older Startup, Professional, and Enterprise tiers at $59, $109, and $149 monthly. We use the CSV figures throughout this article. Verify on Close’s own pricing page.
Key Benefits of Close CRM
Here is where Close earns its seat price:
- Calling that works: A power dialer and a predictive dialer both ship in-app. Reps can dial multiple numbers back to back without touching a keypad.
- Smart Views: Saved search filters surface the leads worth calling first. Managers use them to keep reps on the right prospects.
- Live call coaching: Managers can listen in and whisper advice mid-call. New reps ramp faster this way.
- Fast onboarding: A CSV import tool and a free one-click migration move your contacts from other CRMs. G2 reviews highlight full team engagement within days.
- Automated follow ups: Workflows fire reminders and email sequences so nothing sits idle in the sales pipeline.
- Mobile access: The Close app runs on any mobile device, so reps can add notes between meetings.
- Support and security: A staffed help center, API documentation for your developer, and regular product updates back the platform.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer ran a week of outbound calls through a trial account. Here is what stood out:
Close CRM Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Best-in-class calling, rated 4.7/5 on G2
- Email, calls, and SMS share one inbox
- Quick setup with free one-click migration help
- Visual pipeline view exposes stalled deals fast
❌ Cons
- Reporting is weak next to bigger CRM platforms
- Less customizable, with limited custom objects
- Roughly 80 integrations, well short of rivals
- Per-seat pricing gets expensive for small teams
Feature Comparison
Here is where the two tools actually split. We walk through ten areas that decide the purchase for most buyers.
| Feature | ActiveCampaign | Close CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $15/month | $35/seat/month |
| Free Plan | ❌ | ❌ |
| Email Marketing | ✅ | Basic bulk email |
| Built-in Calling | ❌ | ✅ |
| Marketing Automation | ✅ | ❌ |
| Landing Pages | ✅ | ❌ |
| Lead Scoring | ✅ | Smart Views only |
| Custom Objects | Enterprise plan | Limited |
| Integrations | 950+ | 80+ |
| Best For | Email marketing automation | High-volume phone outreach |
1. Email Marketing and Campaigns
ActiveCampaign: This is home turf. The email builder ships with pre-made email templates, AI copy suggestions, and split testing. You can trigger a campaign from a form submission, a purchase, or an RSS triggered feed update.
Close CRM: Email here serves outreach, not broadcasting. You get email sequences, templates, and bulk email to a filtered list. There is no design editor and no newsletter workflow.
2. Automation and Workflows
ActiveCampaign: The visual builder handles multi-step journeys with conditional logic. Over 900 automation templates cover welcome series, cart abandonment, and re-engagement. ActiveCampaign says customers save around 20 hours a month this way.
Close CRM: Workflows fire task reminders and follow ups after a call or a reply. They keep reps moving. They will not run a marketing journey across channels.
⚠️ Warning: The ActiveCampaign Starter plan allows only 5 actions per automation. Any real workflow needs Plus or higher tiers.
3. CRM and Contact Management
ActiveCampaign: Every plan includes a CRM for deal tracking and pipeline stages. The ActiveCampaign CRM is solid for marketing-led sales, though power users find it thinner than Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics.
Close CRM: Close was designed around the sales process first. Contacts, deals, and tasks all sit in one view with activity history attached. It manages customer relationships better than it manages marketing.
4. Lead Scoring and Advanced Segmentation
ActiveCampaign: Lead scoring runs on opens, clicks, page visits, and purchase history. Advanced segmentation then routes each score band into its own automation. This is the feature that separates it from a basic newsletter tool.
Close CRM: Smart Views replace scoring. You build a saved search on any field and reps work that list top to bottom. Simple, fast, and enough for most small business teams.
5. AI Features
ActiveCampaign: Predictive sending times each email per contact. Active Intelligence agents can build campaigns and suggest audience segments from live data. This is intelligent marketing automation in practice.
Close CRM: Sales AI summarizes calls and drafts follow-up notes. It aims at the rep’s daily grind rather than campaign planning.
6. Landing Pages and Content Creation
ActiveCampaign: You can build landing pages and forms inside the account, then trigger automations from submissions. That closes the loop between digital marketing traffic and your list.
The same editor also drafts subject lines and body copy with AI.
Close CRM: No landing pages and no content creation tools. You will pair Close with other tools for anything top-of-funnel.
7. Dynamic Content and Personalization
ActiveCampaign: Conditional content shows or hides blocks based on custom fields or behaviour. One email can read differently for a first-time buyer and a repeat customer. Dynamic content is included from the Plus tier up.
Close CRM: Personalization here means merge fields in a sequence and full context in the inbox. The rep sees every past email and call before they talk to the prospect.
8. Reporting and Analytics
ActiveCampaign: Campaign, automation, and deal reports come standard. Custom reports and attribution unlock on Pro. You can track revenue back to a specific email.
Close CRM: Reporting is the weakest part of the product. G2 reviewers say analysing performance in depth is hard. Custom graphs arrive only on the top plan.
9. Integrations and Add Ons
ActiveCampaign: Over 950 integrations, including Shopify, Salesforce, WordPress, and Zapier. Premium connectors cover ecommerce and CRM data. Transactional emails and SMS ship as paid add ons.
Close CRM: Around 80 integrations, covering Zoom meetings, Slack, and Zapier. Useful, but you will hit gaps that other CRMs already fill.
10. Pricing & Cost
Plan names differ, so compare entry cost and what a five-person team pays.
| Tier | ActiveCampaign | Close CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Starter: $15/month | Essentials: $35/seat/month |
| Mid | Plus: $49/month | Growth: $99/seat/month |
| Upper | Pro: $79/month | Scale: $139/seat/month |
| Top | Enterprise: $145/month | ❌ |
ActiveCampaign: Pricing scales with contacts, not seats. Ten marketers on one Plus account still pay $49/month. Costs climb as your list grows, so forecast that first.
Close CRM: Every rep costs another seat. Five reps on Growth run $495/month before call minutes. Close offers real value only if those reps are dialling daily.
Different Scenarios
| If You Need… | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest entry cost | ActiveCampaign | $15 flat vs $35 per seat |
| High-volume phone calls | Close CRM | Power and predictive dialer built in |
| Email marketing automation | ActiveCampaign | 900+ automation templates |
| Manager call coaching | Close CRM | Live listen and whisper |
| Deep custom reports | ActiveCampaign | Close reporting is thin |
| Fast rollout | Close CRM | Setup inside the free trial |
💰 Your Budget
ActiveCampaign bills by contacts, so headcount does not raise the bill. Close bills per seat, which punishes small teams that still want the pricier tiers.
🔌 Your Tech Stack
With 950 integrations, ActiveCampaign plugs into most stacks already running. Close covers the common ones but leaves gaps you may need to bridge.
📞 Your Sales Process
If reps close deals on calls, choose Close and let the dialer do the work. If deals close after a nurture sequence, ActiveCampaign fits your sales processes better.
🎓 Your Experience Level
Close is easier on day one and reps rarely need training. ActiveCampaign asks more upfront, but the more advanced features pay off within a month.
🆓 Free Trials and Demos
Both give you 14 days without a card. Import real contacts, not test data, or the trial tells you nothing useful.
🛟 Support Options
Both run a public knowledge base and email support. Phone support and a dedicated account team appear only on the top ActiveCampaign tier.
Switching Guide
Already paying for one of these? Here is what changes if you move.
🔄 Switching from ActiveCampaign to Close CRM?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- Calling from the browser, with no phone system to buy
- Live call coaching and recorded calls for training
- A rep workspace that needs almost no setup
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Marketing automation, landing pages, and forms
- Lead scoring and behaviour-based segmentation
- Roughly 870 integrations you may already rely on
📋 How to switch:
- Export contacts, deals, and custom fields to CSV
- Start the Close free trial and run the one-click migration
- Rebuild your nurture emails as sequences, then rehome anything marketing to a separate tool
🔄 Switching from Close CRM to ActiveCampaign?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- Real marketing automation that generates more leads on its own
- Landing pages, forms, and dynamic email content
- Flat pricing that does not grow with headcount
❌ What you’ll lose:
- The dialer and in-app calling
- Call recording and manager whisper coaching
- The single inbox that merges calls, SMS, and email
📋 How to switch:
- Export leads, notes, and pipeline stages from Close
- Ask ActiveCampaign for a free migration, which is included
- Rebuild sequences as automations, then add a dialer app if reps still call
What Our Review Didn’t Cover
We focused on small businesses and mid-sized teams. We did not test 50-seat rollouts, custom API builds, or regulated setups that need HIPAA-enabled accounts. Deliverability was judged from published inbox tests, not from a campaign we sent ourselves. Both vendors ship new features often, so check current plan limits before you commit.
Final Verdict
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| 💰 Pricing | ActiveCampaign |
| 🚀 Automation | ActiveCampaign |
| 📞 Calling and Outreach | Close CRM |
| 🎯 Segmentation | ActiveCampaign |
| 👶 Ease of Use | Close CRM |
| 📊 Reporting | ActiveCampaign |
| 🔌 Integrations | ActiveCampaign |
| 🏆 Overall Winner | ActiveCampaign |
🏆 WINNER: ACTIVECAMPAIGN
ActiveCampaign wins 5 of 7 categories.
Best for: email marketing automation, lead nurturing, ecommerce follow-ups, and teams that want one bill instead of two
ActiveCampaign takes it on breadth. It handles marketing and the CRM side well enough that most small businesses never need a second platform. The ActiveCampaign features that matter most, automation depth and segmentation, are also the ones Close does not attempt.
Close is the better product at one specific job. If your revenue depends on reps making calls all day, its dialer and single inbox beat anything ActiveCampaign offers on that front. Sales engagement is its whole reason to exist.
For everyone else, we recommend ActiveCampaign. It costs less to start, covers more ground, and grows with your list instead of your headcount.
More of ActiveCampaign Compared
ActiveCampaign marketing automation runs into a different rival in every category. Here are the three worth weighing, and you can dig deeper in our full ActiveCampaign review or the ActiveCampaign alternatives roundup.
ActiveCampaign wins on: a $15 entry price against HubSpot’s steep jump to paid tiers, deeper branching inside a single automation, and no forced onboarding fee.
HubSpot wins on: a genuine free plan, a far stronger sales CRM with custom objects on more tiers, and native meeting scheduling that ActiveCampaign leaves to add ons.
ActiveCampaign wins on: lower cost per contact, a cleaner automation canvas, and roughly ten times the integration count.
Keap wins on: built-in invoicing and payments, appointment booking inside the same account, and a phone line bundled with the plan.
ActiveCampaign vs GoHighLevel
ActiveCampaign wins on: inbox placement, a calmer interface for non-technical staff, and reporting you can hand to a client without cleanup.
GoHighLevel wins on: unlimited sub-accounts for agencies serving many clients, white-label front-end automation and funnels, and bundled SMS at agency rates.
More of Close CRM Compared
Close competes with tools that share only some of its key features.
Close wins on: setup measured in days not months, calling that needs no extra licence, and a price a five-person team can actually approve.
Salesforce wins on: custom objects and fields with no practical ceiling, reporting depth Close cannot match, and a hiring pool of certified admins.
Close wins on: the dialer, call recording for coaching, and a layout built purely around outbound rather than general project work.
Monday CRM wins on: board views you can create for any process, cheaper seats at the low end, and a desktop and mobile app that doubles as your work hub.
Close wins on: dialer quality, faster onboarding for reps who resist software, and a tighter focus on conversations over configuration.
Freshsales wins on: a free starting tier, stronger built-in analytics, and support that includes phone contact on lower plans.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ActiveCampaign used for?
It is used for email campaigns, automated follow-ups, SMS, and deal tracking. Businesses run welcome series, cart recovery, and lead nurturing from one account.
Is ActiveCampaign a CRM?
Yes. A CRM ships with every paid plan and covers pipelines, deals, and lead scoring. It is lighter than Salesforce but fine for marketing-led sales.
How is Close different from other CRMs?
Calling, SMS, and email sit in one inbox with a dialer included. Most rivals treat calling as an integration, so Close feels closer to a sales engagement tool.
How much is Close per month?
Plans run $35, $99, and $139 per seat each month. Call minutes and phone numbers cost extra, so a five-rep team should budget above the sticker price.
Is ActiveCampaign expensive?
It starts at $15 monthly, which undercuts most rivals. The bill grows with your contact list rather than your headcount, so forecast list growth first.
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