ActiveCampaign vs Customer.io
We give ActiveCampaign a 2.4 GPA and Customer.io a 2.2, out of 4.0. ActiveCampaign grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
ActiveCampaign
Email marketing and multi-step automation priced by contacts
Customer.io
Data-driven email, SMS, push and in-app messaging for product teams
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAActiveCampaignFair | 2.2GPACustomer.ioFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | C$15 a month for 1,000 contacts on yearly billing, or $19 monthly, a little above the middle of what email tools charge. Starter has 1 user and 5 actions per automation, though. Unlimited steps and landing pages need Plus at $49, and Starter is $149 a month at 10,000 contacts. | D$100 a month for 5,000 profiles, many times what email tools start at and well into the dearest tenth. It does include 1 million emails, unlimited users and unlimited push and in-app messages. Premium jumps to $1,000 a month billed yearly. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan at all, but there's a 14-day trial with no credit card needed. Long enough to build an automation or two and see if it clicks. | CNo free plan, but there's a 14-day trial with up to 5,000 messages across every channel. Startups that raised under $10 million can get up to a year of Essentials free, which is a real deal if that's you. |
| Features | BMulti-step automations, a drag-and-drop designer with 250+ templates and A/B tests, segmentation, forms, reports and AI drafting. It covers the whole job. SMS, WhatsApp, transactional email and sales pipelines cost extra on top. | BVisual journeys across email, SMS, push, in-app, WhatsApp, LINE and webhooks, custom objects, an AI segment builder, warehouse syncs, transactional email and a design studio with version history. It covers the job across more channels than most, built around product data. |
| Ease of use | CNo App Store rating on record, and this is a web app where the work is building automations and segments. Powerful, but expect a learning curve before it pays off. | CNo App Store rating on record. Before the first message your product has to send people and events through the API, SDKs or a warehouse sync, and every account is checked by hand before it can send. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, but it connects to Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Salesforce, Stripe, Slack, Zapier and Calendly, and has an API. No desktop or phone app is listed. | BWeb, with Segment, Snowflake, Salesforce, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Twilio, Google Ads and Facebook Lead Ads, an API, mobile SDKs and an MCP server. There's no desktop app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | long automated email sequences | product teams messaging users from app data |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: ActiveCampaign and Customer.io. How we grade
Price against what you get
ActiveCampaign starts at $15 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Customer.io starts at $100 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and ActiveCampaign starts $85 a month lower. Of the other email marketing and newsletter tools on the chart, 3 score higher than ActiveCampaign for less, and 3 score higher than Customer.io for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- ActiveCampaign starts at $15 per month for up to 1,000 contacts, billed annually ($19 monthly). Customer.io starts at $100 per month for up to 5,000 profiles, billed monthly.
- ActiveCampaign also covers sales pipeline, forms and reports.
- Customer.io also covers business texting.
At a glance
| ActiveCampaign | Customer.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $15 per month for up to 1,000 contacts, billed annually ($19 monthly) | $100 per month for up to 5,000 profiles, billed monthly |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial, no credit card needed | 14-day free trial with up to 5,000 messages across all channels |
| Web | ||
| Made by | ActiveCampaign | Peaberry Software, Inc. |
| Price read from | activecampaign.com | customer.io |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
ActiveCampaign
- Businesses that run long automated sequences rather than one-off newsletters
- Teams that want email marketing tied to a sales CRM
- Online stores on Shopify, WooCommerce or Square that tie orders to email
Customer.io
- Software and app companies sending messages from product data
- Teams wanting transactional and marketing messages in one tool
- Startups under $10 million raised, through its free-year program
Worth knowing
ActiveCampaign
- There is no free plan; after the 14-day trial every plan is paid.
- Monthly email sends are capped at 10 times your contact limit on Starter and Plus, 12 times on Pro and 15 times on Enterprise.
- SMS, WhatsApp, transactional email, sales pipelines and extra users are paid add-ons on top of the plan price.
- Starter has one user and stops at 25,000 contacts; landing pages need Plus and conditional content needs Pro.
Customer.io
- Usage beyond the plan costs extra: $0.12 per 1,000 emails on every plan, and AI credits at $10 per 100,000 on Essentials and Premium.
- Every account is reviewed by hand before it can send messages.
- SMS volume is priced on request on every plan.
- Chat support, onboarding help and custom roles start with Premium, which is billed yearly from $1,000 a month.
Key features
ActiveCampaign
- Multi-step automations
- A visual builder links actions, waits and branches into automations. Starter allows 5 actions per automation; Plus and above have no limit.
- Email designer and AI tools
- Drag-and-drop and HTML designer, 250+ templates and A/B testing, plus an AI campaign builder and AI text and image generation.
- Segmentation and personalization
- Segmentation runs from limited on Starter to premium on Enterprise. Conditional content and predictive sending start at Pro.
- CRM and pipelines
- Every plan keeps contact profiles, tags and custom fields. Pipelines, deals, lead scoring and win probability come with the paid CRM add-ons.
- Forms, landing pages and site messages
- Starter has standard and inline forms only; Plus adds landing pages. Site messages and Google, Facebook and LinkedIn ad audiences are also available.
- Reporting and attribution
- Campaign, automation and contact reports on every plan. Attribution starts at Pro; custom reports are included on Enterprise and an add-on on Plus and Pro.
Customer.io
- Journeys and workflow builder
- Cross-channel campaigns built in a visual workflow builder, with send-time optimization, LLM actions and API-triggered broadcasts.
- Many channels
- Email, transactional email, SMS, push, in-app messages, WhatsApp, LINE and webhooks from one account; push and in-app are unlimited.
- Profiles and custom objects
- Store people and objects such as accounts or courses with unlimited attributes, then segment on them, including an AI segment builder.
- Data in and out
- Unlimited API calls, mobile SDKs, reverse ETL from a data warehouse and an MCP server; warehouse destinations need Premium.
- Design Studio
- Drag-and-drop and code editors with reusable components, version history, AI translation and 25 inbox previews.
- AI Agent
- A beta agent that carries out tasks in the account, with scheduled routines: one weekly task on Essentials and five daily on Premium.
Plans
ActiveCampaign
Starter$15
per month for up to 1,000 contacts, billed annually ($19 monthly)
1 user, limited segmentation, 5 actions per automation, up to 25,000 contacts. Price rises with the list: $149 a month at 10,000 contacts, billed annually.
Plus$49
per month for up to 1,000 contacts, billed annually ($59 monthly)
1 user, unlimited automation actions, standard segmentation and landing pages. $189 a month at 10,000 contacts, billed annually.
Pro$79
per month for up to 1,000 contacts, billed annually ($99 monthly)
3 users, advanced segmentation, conditional content, predictive sending and attribution. $375 a month at 10,000 contacts, billed annually.
Enterprise$145
per month for up to 1,000 contacts, billed annually ($179 monthly)
5 users, premium segmentation, custom objects, single sign-on and a dedicated account team. $589 a month at 10,000 contacts, billed annually.
Customer.io
Essentials$100
per month for up to 5,000 profiles, billed monthly
1 million emails a month, unlimited users, 2 object types, visual workflows and the AI Agent. Extra profiles cost $0.009 each and extra emails $0.12 per 1,000.
Premium$1,000
per month and up, billed yearly
Custom profile and email volume, 10 object types, chat support, 90-day onboarding, managed deliverability and HIPAA compliance at extra cost.
EnterpriseCustom
Dedicated hardware, audit logging, a customer success manager, priority technical support and a shared Slack channel.
Ways to pay less
ActiveCampaign
- Annual discount
About 20% off with annual billing
At 1,000 contacts, annual billing brings Starter to $15 a month from $19 monthly, Plus to $49 from $59 and Pro to $79 from $99.
- Nonprofit
20% off for nonprofits
ActiveCampaign's FAQ offers nonprofits a 20% discount on proof of nonprofit status, requested from the sales team or, for existing accounts, from support.
Customer.io
- Startups
Up to 12 months free for startups
Startups new to Customer.io that have raised less than $10 million can get up to 12 months of Essentials features free, with up to 30,000 profiles.
