ActiveCampaign vs Drip
Side-by-side total cost of ownership: subscription fees, labor, hidden costs, and AI alternatives.
Published pricing
The subscription is only part of the cost.
| ActiveCampaign | Drip | |
|---|---|---|
| Published rate | $49/mo | $39/seat/mo |
| Team size modeled | 5 | 3 |
| Annual subscription | $2,940/yr | $1,404/yr |
What the invoice doesn't show
ActiveCampaign
Contact-tier pricing creates steep jumps: 1K to 5K contacts on Plus leaps from $59/mo to $179/mo — a 203% increase. As of November 2025, new accounts are charged for ALL contacts including unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed — people you legally cannot email.
Users report bills doubling without changing plans. Specific complaints: '$588 to $1,800 after five years,' '$1,400/month suddenly turned into $2,800/month for the exact same list and features.' G2 shows 403 mentions of 'Expensive' as a complaint category.
Core features sold separately: SMS ($21/mo activation + per-message credits), CRM Pipelines ($49-107 first user), Custom Reports ($159/mo), Dedicated IP ($750 one-time). Real yearly cost is 20-40% higher than advertised.
AI and advanced features locked to higher tiers: predictive sending and content optimization are Pro-only ($235/mo at 5K contacts). The Starter plan caps at 25K contacts — forced upgrade to continue growing.
Drip
Peak-period 'high-watermark' billing — Drip charges the highest active subscriber count reached during a billing period, not end-of-cycle. A promotional list import followed by hygiene pruning still triggers the elevated rate, potentially adding $50–$215 to a single month's invoice without any change in your usable list.
Steep tier jumps punish organic list growth — $39/month at 2,500 contacts becomes $154/month at 10,000 and $699/month at 50,000. The move from 10,000 to 25,000 contacts alone adds approximately $215/month — a 140% price increase for 2.5× the list size, before a single additional email is sent.
SMS marketing is permanently unavailable to new accounts — Drip restricts its SMS feature to legacy accounts created before the cutoff date. Any business signing up today cannot access email + SMS within Drip at any price, forcing a separate tool (typically $39+/month) alongside a full Drip subscription.
No free plan; trial caps at 100 email sends in 14 days — unlike Omnisend (free to 250 contacts, 500 emails/month) or MailerLite (free to 250 subscribers), Drip offers no permanent free tier. Its trial limits new accounts to 2,500 contacts and just 100 total email sends — too little to validate any meaningful automation sequence before committing to paid.
What teams are switching to
Replacing ActiveCampaign
Brevo
Free (300 emails/day), Starter $9/mo, Business $18/mo
Email-volume-based pricing with unlimited contacts on all plans. At 10K contacts, Brevo costs ~$35/mo vs ActiveCampaign Plus at $239/mo. AI subject line generator and send-time optimization included.
MailerLite
Free (500 subs), $10/mo Growing Business, $20/mo Advanced
Advanced plan at 5K contacts is ~$39/mo vs ActiveCampaign Plus at $179/mo. AI writing assistant for subject lines and content included. Free plan covers 1,000 subscribers with 12,000 emails/month.
Moosend
$9/mo (500 subs), ~$48/mo (5K contacts)
Full automation suite at a fraction of ActiveCampaign's cost with no feature gating on core plans. AI-driven product recommendations and predictive analytics for ecommerce.
Replacing Drip
Omnisend
Free to 250 contacts (500 emails/month); Standard from $16/month; Pro from $59/month with unlimited email sends and bundled SMS credits
Ecommerce-native email and SMS with AI-powered segmentation, a built-in product recommender, and Forms AI. Only bills for 'billable contacts' — unsubscribed contacts are excluded automatically — so list hygiene reduces invoices directly. Standard plan reaches 10,000 contacts for approximately $115/month versus Drip's $154.
Brevo
Free (300 emails/day); Starter from $9/month (5,000 emails/month); Business plans from $18/month
Charges by email volume sent, not contact headcount — store unlimited contacts and pay only for what you send. A large, partially dormant list costs nothing extra to maintain; you pay only when you run a campaign. Includes automation, segmentation, and transactional email in a single subscription with no legacy-tier gatekeeping on SMS.
MailerLite
Free to 250 subscribers; Comfort from $12/month; Power from $25/month (unlimited automations, unlimited sends)
Subscriber-based pricing that runs roughly half of Drip's cost at equivalent list sizes — $73/month for 10,000 subscribers versus Drip's $154. AI writing assistant and smart sending are included on the Power plan. Unlimited automations and unlimited email sends make high-frequency ecommerce sequences affordable without tier traps.
StackCut doesn't sell or recommend any of these tools. We show them for context. The decision is yours.
Total Cost of Ownership
Subscription fees plus labor and error costs, modeled at $50/hr loaded rate (BLS ECEC).
| Cost Component | ActiveCampaign | Drip |
|---|---|---|
| Annual subscription | $2,940 | $1,404 |
| Labor cost | $9,000 | $9,000 |
| Error & rework cost | $1,200 | $1,200 |
| Total Cost of Ownership | $13,140/yr | $11,604/yr |
| Est. AI alternative | $5,088/yr | $5,088/yr |
Labor rate based on BLS ECEC June 2025 ($45.65/hr private industry total compensation, rounded to $50). Team sizes differ because each vendor targets different market segments. Your actual numbers depend on team size, role mix, and usage. Run it with your own data.
Which one fits your team?
Both ActiveCampaign and Dripcost more than their published pricing suggests. The right choice depends on your team size and how you weigh each tool's trade-offs.
ActiveCampaign starts at $49/mo , but watch for Contact-tier pricing creates steep jumps: 1K to 5K contacts on Plus leaps from $59/mo to $179/mo — a 203% increase. As of November 2025, new accounts are charged for ALL contacts including unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed — people you legally cannot email.
Drip starts at $39/seat/mo , but watch for Peak-period 'high-watermark' billing — Drip charges the highest active subscriber count reached during a billing period, not end-of-cycle. A promotional list import followed by hygiene pruning still triggers the elevated rate, potentially adding $50–$215 to a single month's invoice without any change in your usable list.
An AI-native alternative may replace the workflow at a fraction of the TCO.
See all SaaS cost comparisonsBrowse alternatives for every tool
FAQ
ActiveCampaign vs Drip: quick answers
Is ActiveCampaign or Drip cheaper?
On total cost of ownership, ActiveCampaign runs about $13,140/year (5-person team) versus $11,604/year for Drip (3-person team) once labor and hidden costs are counted, not just the published subscription. Adjust the inputs to your own team to compare them directly.
What can replace ActiveCampaign or Drip?
ActiveCampaign is often replaced by Brevo and MailerLite; Drip by Omnisend and Brevo. StackCut shows the cost case for each AI-first alternative without taking referral fees.
What are the hidden costs of ActiveCampaign and Drip?
ActiveCampaign: Contact-tier pricing creates steep jumps: 1K to 5K contacts on Plus leaps from $59/mo to $179/mo — a 203% increase. As of November 2025, new accounts are charged for ALL contacts including unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed — people you legally cannot email. Drip: Peak-period 'high-watermark' billing — Drip charges the highest active subscriber count reached during a billing period, not end-of-cycle. A promotional list import followed by hygiene pruning still triggers the elevated rate, potentially adding $50–$215 to a single month's invoice without any change in your usable list.
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