📊 Data source: Manual research + official pricing page•🔄 Updated April 2026•✅ 77% confidence score

Email & Marketing

ActiveCampaign True Cost Calculator

Email marketing and CRM automation platform. Contact-based pricing from $15-$145/mo sounds fair until contact tiers, CRM add-on costs, and transactional email charges stack up.

Advertised Price

$15

/month

Estimated True Cost

$128

/month (typical usage)

Surprise Factor

8.5×

more than expected

Confidence

77%

Data source: manual

Calculate Your Exact Cost →

Hidden Fees & Gotchas

What the pricing page doesn't tell you

Contact Tier Scaling

Lite at $15/mo for 1K contacts, but 10K contacts = $79/mo, 25K = $149/mo, 50K = $259/mo. Pricing scales steeply and non-linearly with list growth.

Trigger: contacts > 5000

+$64

/monthly

CRM & Sales Require Plus

CRM pipeline, lead scoring, and SMS marketing require Plus plan at $49/mo minimum — over 3x the Lite price. Most B2B companies need this immediately.

Trigger: crmFeatures > 0

+$34

/monthly

Transactional Email Separate

Transactional emails (order confirmations, password resets) are NOT included. Requires separate Postmark add-on starting at $15/mo for 10K emails.

Trigger: transactionalEmail > 0

+$15

/monthly

Total hidden fees: +$113/mo on top of the $15 advertised price

ActiveCampaign Pricing Tiers

Plan	Monthly	Annual (per mo)	Key Limits	Overage Rules
LitePOPULAR	$15	$9	Crm: false Forms: true Contacts: 1000 Email Sends: 10x contacts	$15/1000 contacts over 1,000
Plus	$49	$29	Crm: true Sms: true Contacts: 1000 Ecommerce: true	$12/1000 contacts over 1,000
Professional	$79	$49	Contacts: 1000 Attribution: true Site Massaging: true Split Automations: true	$10/1000 contacts over 1,000