ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo
ActiveCampaign is a general-purpose journey engine: automations branch on site visits, email behaviour, deal stages and product events, with lead and deal scoring, and it connects evenly to Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive. Klaviyo is a store's tool, with order and browse data native to segmentation. The list you hold, shop or leads, largely settles it.
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Choose ActiveCampaign ifyour contacts are leads or customers heading to a sales team, you need scoring and deal-stage branching, and someone will own the work of mapping the lifecycle into multi-step automations.
Choose Klaviyo ifthe list belongs to a Shopify or WooCommerce store, journeys should branch on orders, browsing and product affinity, and you want revenue reported against each individual message.
ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo side by side
| ActiveCampaign | Klaviyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Our marketing automation rank | #1 of 11 | #6 of 11 |
| Established in | United States | United States |
| Pricing | Per month by contact tier, published through an on-page calculator; 14-day trial | Free tier to 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month; paid by active profiles, published |
| Free tier | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | A team that will actually build multi-step lifecycle automation | A Shopify or WooCommerce store that wants revenue per email |
| Not for | A company that sends one newsletter a month | A B2B newsletter with no product catalogue behind it |
Both are reviewed in full in our marketing automation ranking: ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo.
Where they differ
ActiveCampaign 1 · Klaviyo 1 · open 2- 01
What a journey can branch on
A journey can only branch on data the platform holds. ActiveCampaign branches on site visits, email behaviour, deal stages and product events. Klaviyo branches on product, order and browse data held natively instead of arriving through a connector. Each wins on its own ground: a sales pipeline favours ActiveCampaign, a store catalogue favours Klaviyo, so the better engine depends on the business.
Depends on the buyer
- 02
Lead scoring and the handover to sales
ActiveCampaign builds lead and deal scoring in, carries a CRM of its own and stays neutral towards outside ones, connecting evenly to Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive. Klaviyo is described as an expensive way to buy the wrong tool for a B2B lead-scoring job. Where qualified contacts must reach a sales team, ActiveCampaign is clearly the better fit.
Edge: ActiveCampaign
- 03
Reporting that shows an automation paid off
Reporting is ActiveCampaign's acknowledged weak side: it trails the automation itself, and accounts with many overlapping automations become hard to audit. Klaviyo is the market's exception for shops, with revenue reporting tied to order data and attributed per message. For a store that wants to know which flow earned what, Klaviyo gives the clearer answer.
Edge: Klaviyo
- 04
Paying per contact, and for what
Both bill on contacts held and publish their prices; Klaviyo adds a free tier up to 250 contacts. The difference is what goes unused. ActiveCampaign is overpriced for a team that only sends newsletters and never starts the automation engine. Klaviyo charges a premium per contact for an ecommerce data model, which is wasted away from a store.
Depends on the buyer
When neither fits
A large list that receives an occasional newsletter is poorly served by either, because both charge for contacts stored regardless of how little you send. Brevo and Mailjet bill on messages sent instead, and Brevo also runs email, SMS and WhatsApp from one journey builder.
ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo: questions
3 answersIs ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo better for an online store?
For a list attached to a store, Klaviyo is the stronger fit: product, order and browse data sit natively in its segmentation and revenue is attributed per message.
ActiveCampaign can branch on product events but is a generalist engine, and its reporting is weaker than its automation.
Can Klaviyo replace ActiveCampaign for B2B lead nurturing?
Not sensibly. Klaviyo's setup assumes ecommerce data you may not have, and for a B2B lead-scoring job it is described as an expensive way to buy the wrong tool. ActiveCampaign includes lead and deal scoring and connects evenly to Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive.
Do ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo charge in the same way?
Yes, in structure. Both price by the number of contacts you hold and publish their plans, and Klaviyo has a free tier up to 250 contacts.
Neither is a send-volume tool, so a big list mailed rarely costs more on either than on a platform billed by messages.