ActiveCampaign vs Drip: Which Marketing Tool Offers More Value?

Choosing the right email marketing tool can feel like navigating a labyrinth, especially when weighing options like ActiveCampaign vs Drip.

They are powerhouses in their own arenas, packed with features designed to elevate your marketing game, but it's hard to tell which one is the best.

Navigating this choice doesn't have to be a time-consuming process. Stick around and dissect each platform, layer by layer, to reveal which one might just be the champion for your marketing strategy.

Short on time?

Active Campaign vs Drip: Three Key Differences That Will Guide Your Decision

While learning more about ActiveCampaign and Drip, you'll discover that despite sharing many features, some significant differences will help guide your choice.

Use Case

Drip presents itself as the go-to marketing automation tool for e-commerce sites. The tool includes a wide feature set but focuses on sales processes and customer interaction online.

ActiveCampaign casts a wider net. It’s designed not only for e-commerce but for businesses aiming to scale.

ActiveCampaign is suited for companies looking to expand their reach and grow their customer base across multiple channels.

For a full list of features and benefits, check out our ActiveCampaign Review.

Let Your Budget Guide You

With greater features comes a higher price tag. ActiveCampaign's comprehensive toolkit can increase costs, especially for businesses looking to leverage its full potential.

Both platforms offer various pricing tiers to cater to different needs and budgets. However, organizations interested in ActiveCampaign should prepare for potentially higher expenses compared with Drip.

Companies with a smaller budget may want to sacrifice additional features to keep costs down and opt for Drip instead.

Integration Capabilities

Connecting easily with other platforms and services boosts your automation workflow, keeps your data in sync, and creates a marketing setup that instantly performs.

This flexibility lets you use your current tools and platforms. It will be easier to increase functionality without obstacles.

With robust integration capabilities, you gain the advantage of streamlined operations and data-driven insights. Eventually, this will lead to more informed decision-making and a stronger return on investment.

A Quick ActiveCampaign Overview

ActiveCampaign is a robust, all-in-one marketing and sales automation software designed to help businesses connect and engage with their customers more meaningfully.

Built to scale with larger enterprises, ActiveCampaign empowers teams and solopreneurs with the tools they need to create personalized customer experiences.

Here are a few of the main features of ActiveCampaign:

• Email and marketing automation
• CRM and sales engagement
• Landing page builder
• Lead scoring.

With its robust features, ActiveCampaign is built to serve almost any marketing need, and when surveying users, I found a huge range, from solopreneurs to established businesses.

A Quick Drip Overview

Drip is a cutting-edge email marketing software designed to transform how your online store engages with its customers.

Here are the unique features that set Drip apart:

• Multi-channel marketing tools
• Pre-built templates
• Smart A/B testing.

Tailored primarily for e-commerce retailers and digital marketers, Drip offers sophisticated yet user-friendly solutions for online shopping experiences.

Drip allows businesses to craft highly targeted email marketing campaigns based on customer preferences and demographics. This is possible thanks to the deep segmentation capabilities that allow businesses to split up their audience.

See how Drip compares with other email marketing platforms in our Drip vs ConvertKit review.

ActiveCampaign vs Drip: Feature Comparison

Aligning the right features with your business goals is crucial in selecting the best marketing tool. While both ActiveCampaign and Drip offer unique features, understanding how each aligns with your specific business objectives allows for a more targeted and effective marketing strategy.

Here is how some of the more popular features compare between the two email marketing services:

Email Designs: ActiveCampaign Wins

Need designs that immediately stand out but offer enough variety to match any campaign?

ActiveCampaign has over 250 pre-built email templates from you, much more than Drip offers in its email marketing tools.

The additional library of templates makes it easier for you to run email campaigns that resonate with your target audience.

ActiveCampaign makes it easy to customize your emails or start from scratch with a drag-and-drop editor. The editor includes global settings, which let you change the colors or fonts for the entire email.

Reporting and Analytics: ActiveCampaign Wins

The reporting features Drip offers e-commerce stores make it unique compared to ActiveCampaign.

You'll see the revenue generated from each campaign, revenue per subscriber, and average order value per email.

Despite the specific features for eCommerce stores, Drip still doesn't have as robust reporting and analytics tools as ActiveCampaign.

Here are a few helpful data points displayed on the dashboard in ActiveCampaign:

• Opens
• Clicks
• Bounces
• Read reports
• Geolocation
• Contact Trend metrics.

Upgrading to a higher plan gives you access to ActiveCampaigns CRM. Here, you can get deal reports with full-funnel overviews and detailed deal reports.

Marketing and Automation: Drip Wins

One of Drip's most significant advantages is its ease of use and intuitive design, especially when setting up complex automated workflows.

The platform has a lot of different automation triggers for user actions across online stores.

The platform guides you through each step of the automation process. It's straightforward for marketers of all skill levels.

Check out the 7 Best Automated Email Software Tools

ActiveCampaign matches up nicely with Drip in terms of automation. It has a library of pre-built templates with an easy-to-use ActiveCampaign automation builder.

It also caters to companies that have a more complex automation process. You can set up lead scoring and data segmentation to achieve more granular control over your campaigns.

ActiveCampaign has more complex capabilities, but Drip is easier to use. It has plenty of useful automation workflows for almost any company.

Deliverability: ActiveCampaign Wins

Many variables include email deliverability, like content, sender reputation, and infrastructure.

While the email marketing platforms you choose don't have control over these factors, here are a few key questions you can ask when looking for the right platform:

• Does the platform have DKIM authentification?
• Does the platform have a strict anti-spam policy?
• Does the platform have robust affiliate marketing rules?
• Does the platform have a private IP?

The good news is that both Drip and ActiveCampaign have DKIM authentication, strict anti-spam policies, and private IPs. However, ActiveCampaign has more detailed and fleshed-out affiliate marketing rules.

Because ActiveCampaign has been around longer and has had more time to protect itself from spammers. When considering ActiveCampaign vs Drip for deliverability, I found that ActiveCampaign has a slight advantage.

Forms: ActiveCampaign Wins

Drip has a basic form builder that includes widget, embedded, and hosted forms. After submission, you can customize basic design elements and add email marketing automation.

However, if you're using a widget form, some custom fields features, such as radio buttons, checkboxes, and dropdowns, become unavailable. Embedded forms require HTML to change designs.

The small technical restrictions on Drip make it harder for beginners to get what they want. ActiveCampaign picks up the slack by giving you more control over the design of your form.

Here are the different kinds of forms you can use:

• Inline
• Floating bar
• Floating box
• Pop-up.

It doesn't matter what form you use in ActiveCampaign; you can customize each one without knowing any code.

Integrations: ActiveCampaign Wins

With over 890 integrations with some of marketing's most popular tools, ActiveCampaign makes it easy to implement in your current system.

ActiveCampaign is compatible with CRM integration, analytics tools, website builders, CMS tools, and social media networks.

On the other hand, Drip only has around 100 different integrations available. Unfortunately, none of those involve any type of CRM.

ActiveCampaign vs Drip: Which Is Easier to Use

ActiveCampaign stands out as the more user-friendly option primarily because of its comprehensive features. You have unmatched customization of your workflows, automations, and designs.

This customization allows you to tailor your marketing strategies to align with your goals and audience preferences.

Its wide range of pre-built templates and intuitive drag-and-drop editor simplifies the creation of engaging and effective marketing campaigns without requiring advanced technical skills.

Using ActiveCampaign’s extensive library of automation triggers to create highly personalized customer journeys such as:

• Abandoned cart
• Post-purchase upsell
• Tagging contacts
• Lead scoring
• Customer data segmentation.

Marketers of all skill levels can set up sophisticated, automated marketing sequences.

The ability to fine-tune every aspect of your campaigns, from email designs to fully integrated marketing automation, makes ActiveCampaign a preferred choice. The email marketing platform is perfect for streamlining your marketing efforts with maximum control and minimum fuss.

Activecampaign vs drip: Pros and Cons

In this section, you'll get a quick breakdown of the key features of ActiveCampaign and Drip. You'll see at a glance whether these tools match your business's needs.

ActiveCampaign Pros and Cons

Drip Pros and Cons

Pricing Comparison

When selecting a marketing platform, you need to balance the platform's functionality with your budget. You must get the necessary features without overspending and jeopardizing your business's financial health.

Aligning these aspects can help you maximize efficiency and effectiveness in your marketing efforts while preserving your bottom line.

ActiveCampaign Pricing

ActiveCampaign's pricing can be confusing for smaller businesses. It is divided into four categories: Marketing, Sales, Bundles, and Transactional Email.

The Marketing category has three plans: Plus, Professional, and Enterprise. Prices for each plan will change depending on the number of contacts you have.

The Sales category is perfect for your sales team and has three separate pricing plans: Plus, Professional, and Enterprise. However, there are no contact restrictions.

The Bundle category combines marketing and sales features to create a comprehensive business plan. These plans include Plus, Professional, and Enterprise and have contact restrictions.

The Transactional Email category is for using the ActiveCampaign API. Here, you'll be charged a flat amount depending on your monthly emails.

Drip Pricing

Drip uses a sliding-scale pricing model. The monthly amount you'll pay depends on the number of people in your contact list.

For example, if you have 2,500 people on your list, you'll pay $39 per month. If you had 6,000 people on your list, you would pay $99 monthly. There are no hidden fees or charges.

ActiveCampaign vs Drip: A Clear Winner

ActiveCampaign is the clear winner when deciding between ActiveCampaign and Drip. It allows you to integrate more of your existing tools, create complex automation, have comprehensive reporting metrics, and have slightly better deliverability rates.

While there may be a steeper learning curve, and you will invest more financially, it's perfect for small businesses looking to grow their email marketing efforts with everything in one place.

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