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ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo – which should you use?
Whether you’re an eCommerce or service-based business, you should be using an email marketing tool to engage with your audience and promote your business.
ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo are two of the best email marketing and automation solutions in the game.
But is there one that reigns supreme over the other? And which one will help you smash your business goals?
Well, there is no clear-cut answer. It all depends on your business type, budget, and audience.
Read more: Top 5 Best FREE Email Marketing Software For Small Business.
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo 2024
Luckily, you don’t have to make this decision alone. Why? I’m going to do all the dirty work for you!
In this ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo article, I will plunge into both platforms and compare their features, pricing, ease of use, and more.
So, if you’ve been curious about how these leading email marketing software stack up against each other, stay tuned!
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo? Let’s go!
What Are They? ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo
ActiveCampaign is most commonly recognized as an email marketing tool. But did you know it encompasses much more than that?
With a focus on scalability and automations, ActiveCampaign’s robust suite of features is tailored for teams committed to growing their brand through marketing and sales tools!
From multi-channel marketing automation to customer relationship management (CRM) and sales engagement tools, ActiveCampaign is your one-stop shop for everything marketing, automation, and sales-related.
On the other hand, Klaviyo is a dedicated data-driven email marketing and automation platform designed to simplify email marketing for eCommerce businesses.
With impressive email and SMS marketing capabilities and seamless integrations with eCommerce platforms, you can skyrocket your marketing strategies to success with Klaviyo!
What Are The Differences Between ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo?
There are a few main differences between ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo.
Firstly, ActiveCampaign can be used by eCommerce or service-based teams. Klaviyo is only compatible with eCommerce businesses.
If you want to drive engagement through email marketing and grow your email list, ActiveCampaign’s strong automation and segmentation tools can take your marketing efforts to the next level.
Alternatively, if your eCommerce brand is primarily data-driven and focused on using customer data, analytics, and behavior to enhance email marketing growth, Klaviyo has you covered.
Another key difference is functionality. ActiveCampaign boasts an internal CRM platform that automatically syncs to your email marketing campaigns.
Klaviyo doesn’t have a built-in CRM, and third-party CRM options are limited.
Read more: Klaviyo vs MailChimp.
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo Ease Of Use
Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign are easy to use, both offering user-friendly interfaces.
But there are some differences. For example, ActiveCampaign utilizes sidebars, while Klaviyo uses dropdown menus for feature-specific settings.
The email editor within ActiveCampaign lets you save custom blocks for future use (which I thought was quite handy!), and you can easily set actions triggered by recipient interactions.
However, beginners may find ActiveCampaign’s jam-packed platform too feature-rich and overcomplicated.
Klaviyo’s clear and clean email editor offers a range of content blocks. You can even embed product blocks for static and dynamic product recommendations – an eCommerce store owner’s dream come true!
ActiveCampaign’s product block feature is limited to Shopify or WooCommerce stores, and personalized dynamic product recommendations are unavailable for individual contacts.
Generally speaking, ActiveCampaign does a good job of keeping things simple (considering how many features they offer).
But Klaviyo’s streamlined feature-set and minimalist interface has to win this round!
Winner = Klaviyo
Read more: Omnisend vs Klaviyo.
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo Pricing
ActiveCampaign:
ActiveCampaign offers various plan types. If you’re after email and automation marketing only, you’ll want to pick one of their marketing plans:
- Lite: $29 per month.
- Plus: $49 per month.
- Professional: $149 per month.
- Enterprise: Custom price.
And if you need a CRM? Check out their Bundle plans!
Klaviyo:
Klaviyo has three plan types, and prices range depending on your contact list size:
- Free: Up to 500 monthly email sends.
- Email: $45 per month (501-1000 contacts).
- Email and SMS: $45 per month (501-1000 contacts).
Winner = Klaviyo
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo Tools
How do both tools compare when it comes to tools and features? Let’s find out!
Design and Customization:
ActiveCampaign stands out with its extensive collection of 250+ modern and completely customizable email templates.
Plus, you can create your own email templates using plain layouts or custom HTML code.
And if you’re an eCommerce business, you can make use of their dedicated ‘sell a product’ template category.
In comparison, Klaviyo has just 100 pre-built responsive design templates for emails.
If it were down to templates alone, ActiveCampaign would wear the crown! But Klaviyo still has a chance to take ActiveCampaign down due to its excellent email form designs!
Their forms come in four styles:
- Embed (or inline forms).
- Popup.
- Full page.
- Flyout.
The form templates are visually stunning, and Klaviyo’s form builder allows for seamless customization with text and images.
Plus, Klaviyo uniquely allows the creation of multiple versions of email forms for split-testing purposes.
ActiveCampaign also offers four form types (inline, floating box, floating bar, and modal popup) that you can customize to suit you.
And while ActiveCampaign offers split testing on emails, you can’t split test forms! This is a unique feature and a missed opportunity to gain further insights into your audience.
But ActiveCampaign redeems itself with its powerful and visually appealing full-page landing pages!
Winner = Draw
Read more: ActiveCampaign vs MailChimp.
Automation:
If you’ve read any of my other ActiveCampaign articles, it should come as no surprise that I’m a big fan of their automation tools that you can use to streamline your workflows!
And I’ll tell you why!
With ActiveCampaign, you have the freedom to automate so many different types of emails, including:
- Abandoned cart emails.
- Post-purchase.
- Follow-up emails.
- Welcome emails and more!
Simply pick from one of their 850+ pre-built email automation templates, known as ‘automation recipes,’ and fully customize them to your liking by adding your own email content, custom fields, and tags.
Alternatively, if the automation recipes aren’t quite right, you can build a new automation from scratch!
Each email marketing automation can have multiple triggers, and you can conduct split testing to determine the most effective automation paths.
And higher-paid plans in ActiveCampaign can use the Automations Map feature, a unique tool that visually illustrates your automation workflow connections.
This is an absolute game-changer in the automation world.
But if you run an online store and do pick ActiveCampaign as your email marketing choice, commerce and lead scoring automations are only available on higher-paid plans.
On the other hand, Klaviyo offers a similar feature called ‘flows’ for marketing automations.
And don’t get me wrong, Klaviyo’s automation tools are up there, but they fall short compared to ActiveCampaign for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, Klaviyo provides fewer templates, and the available automation actions are more limited. Additionally, each flow in Klaviyo can have only one trigger.
Furthermore, Klaviyo doesn’t have any sales automation capabilities. Its flows are reserved for eCommerce email marketing only.
Winner = ActiveCampaign
Read more: ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot.
Segmentation:
Segmentation is about creating dynamic and constantly updated contact groups based on shared traits (like geographical location or previous email engagement).
By segmenting your contacts, you can tailor your emails to target shared characteristics and boost the likelihood of engagement.
This is crucial for your campaigns and emails to get to the right people!
So, how do ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo scrub up?
When signing up to Klaviyo, they’ll give you a list of default segments, such as new subscribers and engagement within the past 30, 60, or 90 days.
Then, you can segment your website visitors and customers further based on specific actions like:
- Coupon codes.
- Order placements.
- Adding to cart.
- Product viewing and more.
However, creating your own segments can prove challenging, as Klaviyo’s segmentation feature uses fancy jargon like ‘Dimensions’ and ‘Boolean’ that people simply won’t understand.
In comparison, ActiveCampaign’s segmentation options are more straightforward to understand.
The platform also allows up to 20 conditions per segment, whereas Klaviyo offers only 13.
ActiveCampaign lets you segment your contacts into geo-location, quiz results, personal interests, and dynamic event data like website visits and deal stage!
Additionally, ActiveCampaign offers lead scoring, which prioritizes leads based on actions and criteria.
Winner = ActiveCampaign
Read more: MailerLite vs ActiveCampaign.
SMS Marketing:
As bad as it is, in this day and age we all live on our phones. Therefore, leveraging SMS marketing is such an effective way to grab people’s attention and engage with more customers quickly!
Both platforms offer SMS marketing services. However, the difference lies in accessibility.
SMS is only available on top-tier plans with ActiveCampaign, whereas Klaviyo offers SMS marketing as a basic feature (regardless of email list size), providing you opt for an SMS or bundle plan.
Now let’s talk about features.
Like its Automation recipes, ActiveCampaign offers SMS recipes (templates) for things like new subscribers, flash sales, discounts, repurchases, or event reminders.
This means you can easily target your contacts who prefer SMS communication over emails!
In contrast, you can do some pretty wicked things with Klaviyo SMS marketing.
If you enable their built-in contact cards feature, you’ll show up as your brand name to contacts (instead of a random phone number).
And the SMS quiet hours feature means you won’t get caught out for sending messages outside the business hours of your recipients (for their timezone).
Additionally, you can enable mobile push notifications and SMS reviews so your customers can easily review your products!
ActiveCampaign has the upper hand regarding SMS automations (which is no surprise, I’m sure).
But in general, I believe Klaviyo’s eCommerce dynamic range of SMS marketing features is better.
Winner = Klaviyo
Read more: ClickFunnels vs ActiveCampaign.
CRM:
If you’re after a CRM platform to help organize everything customer-related, ActiveCampaign has you covered from head to toe.
In fact, ActiveCampaign surpasses other email marketing solutions due to its robust CRM capabilities!
Did you know you can manage your contacts, deals, and leads right inside ActiveCampaign and then integrate them directly with your marketing activities?
CRM features include:
- Sales pipeline.
- Deal record creation.
- Deal owner assignment.
- Lead scoring.
- And CRM automation.
This level of functionality sets ActiveCampaign apart from its competitors.
It’s worth noting that to access ActiveCampaign’s CRM, you’ll have to subscribe to their Sales Plan or Bundle Plan.
On the other hand, Klaviyo doesn’t have a CRM, making ActiveCampaign an impressive option for teams looking to merge their CRM and email marketing efforts on one platform.
Read more: 7 Best CRM Software For Small Business.
AI:
AI tools are designed to make our lives easier. So, who comes out on top?
ActiveCampaign offers many AI tools, such as an AI email writer that generates descriptions, which you can customize in terms of length, tone, and content.
And excitingly, they also plan to expand this feature to SMSs, landing pages, and forms (November 2023).
ActiveCampaign’s AI predictive content feature helps you personalize your email messages based on past contact engagement, and the predictive sending tool automatically sends messages based on engagement history.
Additionally, their AI Automation Builder simplifies the process of building automation!
Another notable feature is the Win Probability tool, which predicts sales conversions based on existing CRM data.
On the other hand, Klaviyo’s AI tools also include an AI subject line generator and predictive analysis, which uses previous data to predict purchase behaviors.
They’ve also rolled out their very own AI SMS assistant and suggested text response tool.
As AI continues to evolve, I’m sure we’ll see new or improved features on both platforms.
But for now, due to the incredible AI-driven automation builder and integrated CRM AI tools, this one has to go to ActiveCampaign!
Note: It’s important to mention that many of ActiveCampaign’s AI features are only available in higher-level subscription plans.
Winner = ActiveCampaign
Read more: 11 Best AI Tools For Small Business.
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo Support
Unfortunately, neither platform provides phone support.
But if you don’t require an immediate response, you can contact Klaviyo via email support or ActiveCampaign through a support ticket.
Both ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo offer live chat support on weekdays during specific hours.
Klaviyo’s email support is also available on weekdays and 10 am-4 pm ET on weekends, which is perfect for teams who work on the weekend.
Both platforms also provide extensive help documentation in their knowledge bases.
Klaviyo’s knowledge base is particularly easy to navigate, with neatly categorized articles and a sidebar of internal links for easy navigation between subcategories.
Winner = Klaviyo
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo Who Are They Best For?
So, with all that said, which email marketing tool is the best for you?
If you’re an eCommerce brand selling physical products, Klaviyo is the ultimate eCommerce marketing platform of your dreams.
Whether you use WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento for your online store, you can seamlessly integrate the two together to become unstoppable!
And the cherry on top? Klaviyo’s SMS marketing, of course!
But if you don’t have an online store, my recommendation would be ActiveCampaign.
You simply can’t go past their impressive automation capabilities, flexible segmentation tools, and built-in CRM software.
ActiveCampaign is the perfect solution for small and medium-sized businesses looking for a fully functional and scalable platform!
My Final Thoughts
And you’ve made it!
That brings me to the end of my comprehensive ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo article.
As you can see, both tools are exceptional in their own right.
And while they both offer many of the same features, their target audiences are very different.
So whether you run an online store or a service-based brand, there’s something for you within ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo!
And if neither platform tickles your fancy, that’s okay.
Why don’t you check out some of my other recommended email marketing comparison articles? There’s plenty out there!
No matter what you choose, let me know how you get on.
