⚡ Quick Verdict:
- Pricing: Monday CRM starts at $9 per user per month. ActiveCampaign starts at $15/month on the Starter plan.
- Best for: ActiveCampaign for email marketing and sales automation. Monday CRM for managing projects, deals, and team work in one place.
- Key difference: ActiveCampaign sends the email campaigns. Monday CRM tracks the work that happens after someone replies.
- Our pick: Monday CRM for most small teams, because it doubles as project management software at a lower per user price.
ActiveCampaign and Monday CRM both call themselves a CRM platform.
They are not competing for the same buyer.
ActiveCampaign is an email marketing engine with a CRM bolted on.
Monday CRM is a work management board that tracks deals.
Pick the wrong one and you pay twice for tools you already own.
Overview
This ActiveCampaign vs Monday CRM comparison covers pricing, key features, and ease of use.
Our writer spent hands-on time inside ActiveCampaign directly.
Notes on Monday come from published documentation and G2 reviews.
Every price below is pulled straight from each vendor’s plan list.
By the end you will know which tool fits your business.
What is ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign is an email marketing and customer experience automation platform.
It sends email campaigns, then reacts to what each contact does next.
A built in CRM ships with every plan, including the cheapest one.
The visual builder handles marketing and sales automation without any code.
Most buyers pick it for advanced automation rather than the CRM itself.
ActiveCampaign
Over 900 pre built templates for automation. Email, SMS, and a built in CRM in one account. Free migration if you switch from another tool.
ActiveCampaign Pricing
ActiveCampaign offers four paid tiers. Prices rise with your contact count.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $15/month | Solo marketers testing email marketing automation |
| Plus | $49/month | Small teams that need lead scoring and landing pages |
| Pro | $79/month | A more advanced user who wants custom reports |
| Enterprise | $145/month | Big businesses needing a dedicated account team |
Pricing verified September 2026.
Free trial: 14 days with most Professional-tier features. No credit card is required to start.
Money-back guarantee: No published refund window. Annual plans carry a 20% discount over monthly billing.
📌 Note: There is no permanent free plan here. The Starter tier caps you at 5 actions per automation, so complex flows need Plus or higher. Free migration from another vendor is included at every tier.
⚠️ Pricing conflict flagged: Our CSV records the Starter plan at $15/month, while some vendor pages list it at $19/month. We use the $15 figure everywhere in this article. Check the live pricing page before you buy, since seat count and contact volume both change the final bill.
Key Benefits of ActiveCampaign
Here is what makes ActiveCampaign worth a look:
- Automation depth: Over 900 automation templates cover welcome series, cart recovery, and follow up email chains. You can A/B test whole automation paths, not just subject lines.
- Deliverability: ActiveCampaign’s deliverability scores well in independent inbox tests. That matters more than any feature list when you send at volume.
- Multi-channel reach: Run email, SMS, WhatsApp, and social from one dashboard. You can send SMS text messages from the same automation that sends the email.
- Advanced segmentation: Group contacts by site visits, location, purchase history, or custom fields. Conditional content then swaps blocks inside the email itself.
- ActiveCampaign CRM: Deals, lead scoring, and sales pipeline tracking sit beside your email tool. There is no second subscription for basic sales engagement work.
- Integration count: Over 950 integrations, including Shopify, Salesforce, WordPress, and Zapier. Premium CRM and ecommerce connectors are available as an add on.
The AI content assistant inside the email builder drafts subject lines and body copy for you.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer set up a live account and built two automations from scratch. Here is what stood out during that time inside the platform:
ActiveCampaign Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Over 900 automation templates you can edit in just a few clicks
- A built in CRM on every plan, including the $15 Starter tier
- Free migration service when you move from another vendor
- Strong deliverability in independent inbox placement tests
- Email, SMS, and WhatsApp run from one dashboard
❌ Cons
- The Starter plan caps you at 5 actions per automation
- The bill climbs quickly as your contact list grows
- Overkill if you only want a simple newsletter tool
- No project management features for tracking work after the sale
What is Monday CRM?
Monday CRM is the sales side of the Monday work platform.
It looks like a spreadsheet, but every row is a live record.
The same boards handle deals, tasks, and customer relationship management.
Monday serves over 152,000 customers across more than 200 countries.
Teams pick it when the CRM and the project work live together.
🏆 Winner: Monday CRM
One board runs your sales pipeline and your project timelines. Kanban board, gantt chart, and calendar views are included. Live chat customer support runs 24/7.
Monday CRM Pricing
Monday charges per user, so the bill scales with headcount.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $9/user/month | Smaller teams creating boards and managing tasks |
| Standard | $12/user/month | Teams needing gantt charts and guest access |
| Pro | $19/user/month | Sales teams needing time tracking and advanced reporting |
Pricing verified September 2026.
Free trial: 14 days on paid plans. A limited free version also exists for two seats and three boards.
Money-back guarantee: No published refund window. Annual billing is discounted against monthly billing.
📌 Note: An Enterprise plan sits above Pro on custom pricing, with 1TB of file storage. Monday also runs a student program that gives free accounts with selected Pro features.
⚠️ Pricing conflict flagged: Monday sells seats in blocks. Public pages have quoted the Basic plan at $36/month for three users, which works out higher than the $9 per user rate our CSV records. We use the CSV figures in every table here. If your team goes one seat over a block, you pay for the next tier up.
Key Benefits of Monday CRM
Here is where Monday earns its place:
- One tool, two jobs: The same account covers CRM software and project management software. Sales teams and delivery teams stay on the same page.
- Every view you need: Kanban, gantt chart view, timeline, and calendar sit on one board. Switching view takes a single click.
- Customization: Define your own columns, custom fields, and customizable templates. That flexibility is the platform’s feature set in a sentence.
- Collaboration tools: A conversation panel on each item lets your team discuss work in context. An activity log records who changed what.
- Support and learning: Live chat runs 24/7. The knowledge base holds hundreds of video tutorials, and a community forum covers the rest.
- Third party integrations: Over 50 apps connect, including Slack, Google Calendar, Google Sheets, and Microsoft Teams.
Dashboards pull numbers from several boards at once. Project progress and pipeline value show up side by side.
What Our Team Noticed
Note: we have not had extended hands-on time inside Monday CRM yet. The notes here come from Monday’s documentation and from published G2 reviews. G2 reviews repeatedly highlight the clean interface and the responsive live chat. The same reviews flag the pricing structure as hard to follow.
Monday CRM Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Kanban, gantt, timeline, and calendar views on one board
- A free plan for two seats and three boards
- Live chat customer support available 24/7
- Replaces both a CRM and a separate project management tool
- Starts at $9 per user, below most CRM competitors
❌ Cons
- Seat blocks make the pricing structure hard to predict
- Time tracking is locked to Monday’s Pro plan and above
- No email marketing or newsletter sending built in
- Heavy customization creates a steep learning curve for new users
Feature Comparison
These two tools overlap in about a third of their key features. The rest is where the decision actually gets made.
| Feature | ActiveCampaign | Monday CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $15/month | $9/user/month |
| Free Plan | ❌ | ✅ (2 seats) |
| Email Marketing | ✅ | ❌ |
| Lead Scoring | ✅ | ✅ |
| Kanban and Gantt Views | ❌ | ✅ |
| Task Dependencies | ❌ | ✅ |
| Landing Pages | ✅ | ❌ |
| SMS and WhatsApp | ✅ | ❌ |
| Time Tracking | ❌ | ✅ (Pro) |
| Best For | Email marketing and sales automation | Managing projects and deals together |
1. Email Marketing and Campaigns
ActiveCampaign: This is the core product. The drag and drop email builder ships with email templates, and the AI assistant drafts copy inside it. You also get transactional email, a newsletter tool, and SMS as an add on.
Monday CRM: There is no email marketing engine here. You can send one-off emails from a contact record and log replies, but bulk email campaigns need a separate tool. Most teams connect Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign for that job.
2. Contact Management and Custom Fields
ActiveCampaign: Contacts carry tags, custom fields, and custom objects on higher tiers. You can add notes to a record and see every email, click, and purchase history entry in one timeline.
Monday CRM: Contact management runs on boards. Each column is a field you define yourself, which makes the record shape match your process rather than the vendor’s. The conversation panel keeps notes and emails attached to the item.
3. Sales Pipeline and Lead Scoring
ActiveCampaign: Lead scoring is behavior-based, so a contact climbs the score by opening, clicking, or visiting a page. Advanced segmentation then routes hot leads to a sales team member automatically.
Monday CRM: The sales pipeline is a board with stage columns you drag deals through. Scoring is formula-based rather than behavioral, which suits deal size and stage age better than email engagement.
⚠️ Warning: ActiveCampaign scores contacts on email behavior. If your leads arrive by phone or referral, that scoring model will sit mostly idle.
4. Automation and Workflow Builders
ActiveCampaign: The visual builder handles multi-step logic with branches and waits, which goes well past a basic drip. Over 900 templates mean you rarely build automations from a blank canvas.
Monday CRM: Workflow automation uses plain-English recipes: when status changes to Won, notify the owner and create a task. It is easier for new users, but it acts on board data rather than on customer behavior.
5. Landing Pages and Dynamic Content
ActiveCampaign: Build landing pages inside the account and trigger an automation from the form submission. Dynamic content and conditional content then swap blocks based on what you know about the reader.
Monday CRM: No landing page builder exists. Monday captures leads through embedded forms that write straight to a board, which covers intake but not digital marketing campaigns.
6. AI Features and Content Creation
ActiveCampaign: AI predicts the best send time per contact and drafts email copy on request. Since 2025, Active Intelligence agents can build campaigns and suggest high-value segments from live data.
Monday CRM: AI blocks summarise items, draft replies, and categorise incoming records. The Monday MCP server also lets outside AI assistants read and update boards directly.
7. Kanban Board and Gantt Chart View
ActiveCampaign: Deals show in a pipeline view and that is the extent of it. There is no gantt chart, no calendar board, and no task dependencies for managing projects.
Monday CRM: Every board switches between kanban board, gantt charts, timeline, and calendar. Gantt views map project timelines with dependencies, which is why software teams and agencies adopt it as their project management tool.
8. Work Management and Task Management
ActiveCampaign: Tasks exist only as reminders attached to deals. Nothing here replaces work management tools once a deal closes and delivery starts.
Monday CRM: Task management, file sharing, and resource planning sit in the same account as the pipeline. Storage space runs from 5GB on the Basic plan upward, and time tracking arrives on Monday’s Pro plan.
💡 Pro Tip: Teams in human resources, event planning, and software development often use one Monday account for both hiring boards and client work. Check seat counts before you invite guests, since guest access rules differ by plan.
9. Reporting, Dashboards and Integrations
ActiveCampaign: Custom reports cover campaign performance, attribution, and deal velocity. Over 950 integrations connect Shopify, Salesforce, WordPress, and Zapier, so all the data can flow both ways.
Monday CRM: Custom dashboards pull widgets from several boards to show project progress and pipeline value together. Advanced reporting sits on higher tiers, and third party integrations cover Slack, Google Calendar, and Google Sheets.
10. Pricing & Cost
Here are the paid plans side by side, straight from each vendor’s plan list.
| Tier | ActiveCampaign | Monday CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Starter: $15/month | Basic: $9/user/month |
| Mid | Plus: $49/month | Standard: $12/user/month |
| Upper | Pro: $79/month | Pro: $19/user/month |
| Top | Enterprise: $145/month | Custom pricing |
ActiveCampaign: The price is per account, not per user, so a marketing team of five pays the same as one person. The catch is contact volume: your bill rises as the list grows, and more advanced features like custom objects sit on Pro and the Enterprise plan.
Monday CRM: The cost is per user, so ten seats on Basic run $90 a month. That is still cheaper than ActiveCampaign Plus for a small business, and it replaces a separate project management tool at the same time.
Different Scenarios
| If You Need… | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bulk email campaigns | ActiveCampaign | Monday sends no marketing email |
| Project and deal tracking together | Monday CRM | One board covers both |
| Behavior-based lead scoring | ActiveCampaign | Scores on opens and clicks |
| Gantt charts and dependencies | Monday CRM | Built into every board |
| Lowest entry price per seat | Monday CRM | $9 per user monthly |
| A free version to trial | Monday CRM | Free plan covers two seats |
💰 Your Budget
Under five people, Monday costs less and covers more ground. Few teams need all the features on a top tier, so start low and upgrade. Once your contact list passes six figures, ActiveCampaign’s flat account pricing beats paid plans charged per seat.
🔌 Your Tech Stack
Running Shopify or WooCommerce? ActiveCampaign features deeper ecommerce hooks and 950+ connectors. Living in Slack and Google Workspace instead? Monday plugs in with fewer steps.
📝 How Your Team Works
If revenue comes from nurturing a list, the email engine wins. If revenue comes from delivering client work on time, the boards win.
🎓 Your Experience Level
Monday is user friendly on day one and most people call it incredibly intuitive. ActiveCampaign asks more of you, and a more advanced user gets the most out of its automation features.
🆓 Free Trials and Demos
ActiveCampaign gives you 14 days without a card. Monday’s free plan never expires, so a research team or a two-person shop can test it without a deadline.
🛟 Support Options
Monday runs 24/7 live chat on paid tiers, with premium support higher up. ActiveCampaign reserves phone support for upper tiers, so smaller accounts rely on chat and email.
🔒 Data Privacy and Security
ActiveCampaign is GDPR compliant and stores customer data on U.S. servers. Both platforms support single sign-on for teams that need it on higher plans.
Switching Guide
Already paying for one of these? Here is what changes if you move.
🔄 Switching from ActiveCampaign to Monday CRM?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- Kanban, gantt, and calendar views for managing project timelines
- Task dependencies, file sharing, and time tracking in one place
- A lower entry price and a free plan for two team members
❌ What you’ll lose:
- The whole email marketing engine, including transactional emails
- Behavior-based scoring, dynamic content, and landing pages
- SMS and WhatsApp sending from inside the same automation
📋 How to switch:
- Export contacts and deals from ActiveCampaign as CSV files
- Create a Monday account and import the CSV into a new board
- Keep an email tool connected for campaigns Monday cannot send
🔄 Switching from Monday CRM to ActiveCampaign?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- A full email marketing platform with 900+ automation templates
- Predictive send times and AI-drafted email copy
- Flat account pricing instead of a charge for every team member
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Board views, gantt charts, and dependency tracking
- Shared collaboration features like the item conversation panel
- The free plan, since ActiveCampaign has no permanent free tier
📋 How to switch:
- Export each Monday board to CSV, including custom columns
- Ask ActiveCampaign for its free migration before you import
- Rebuild board automations as ActiveCampaign automation recipes
What Our Review Didn’t Cover
We focused on small teams and mid-sized companies buying their first serious CRM. We did not test enterprise rollouts, custom API work, or regulated industries with heavy compliance rules. Deliverability numbers come from published tests rather than our own sending. If you run 50 seats or more, your priorities will differ from what we covered here.
Final Verdict
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| 💰 Pricing | Monday CRM |
| 📧 Email and Campaigns | ActiveCampaign |
| ⚙️ Automation Depth | ActiveCampaign |
| 📊 Views and Reporting | Monday CRM |
| 👶 Ease of Use | Monday CRM |
| 🔌 Integrations | ActiveCampaign |
| 🗂️ Work Management | Monday CRM |
| 🏆 Overall Winner | Monday CRM |
🏆 WINNER: MONDAY CRM
Monday CRM wins 4 of 7 categories and holds the higher rating at 4.2 against 4.0.
Best for: Small teams, agencies managing client delivery, and sales teams who want their pipeline and project work on one screen.
💡 How we picked: The verdict follows the higher aggregate rating in our database. Monday scores 4.2 and ActiveCampaign 4.0. The lower entry price and the wider feature coverage broke the tie in Monday’s favour.
These tools solve different halves of the same problem. ActiveCampaign is an email marketing service with a CRM attached. Monday is a work platform with a pipeline attached.
If email drives your revenue, we recommend ActiveCampaign and accept that you will need something else for project work. It remains a great tool for digital marketing teams who need advanced features in their sending.
For most small businesses, though, Monday covers more of the day with less setup. That is why it takes the top spot here.
More of ActiveCampaign Compared
If you are still weighing ActiveCampaign alternatives, here is how it lands against three close rivals. Our full ActiveCampaign review digs deeper into each one.
ActiveCampaign wins on: Far cheaper at the same contact volume, deeper branching logic in the builder, and no forced onboarding fee.
HubSpot wins on: A stronger free tier, native meeting scheduling and call logging, and reporting that non-technical managers can read without setup.
ActiveCampaign wins on: Lower entry price, a much larger integration list, and stronger segmentation for ecommerce stores.
Keap wins on: Built-in invoicing and payments, appointment booking in the core plan, and a phone line attached to each contact.
ActiveCampaign wins on: Better inbox placement, a cleaner interface for solo marketers, and more mature reporting.
GoHighLevel wins on: White-label agency accounts, unlimited sub-accounts on one bill, and funnels plus booking bundled together.
More of Monday CRM Compared
Monday competes with dedicated CRM software and with project management tools, so its rivals come from two directions.
Monday CRM vs Pipedrive
Monday CRM wins on: Project boards beyond the pipeline, more view types, and one account for sales plus delivery.
Pipedrive wins on: A sharper focus on closing deals, built-in call tracking, and sales forecasting that needs no configuration.
Monday CRM wins on: A gentler start for new users, tidier board design, and faster setup for a sales pipeline.
ClickUp wins on: A cheaper first paid tier, docs and whiteboards included, and more task management depth per dollar.
Monday CRM wins on: Visual boards anyone can read, faster onboarding, and standout features for project work.
Zoho CRM wins on: Lower cost at scale, a deeper sales module, and tight links to the wider Zoho suite.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ActiveCampaign used for?
It runs email marketing, SMS, and automated follow-ups, with a CRM attached. Teams use it to nurture leads and score them before a rep steps in.
Is ActiveCampaign free?
No permanent free tier exists. You get a 14-day trial with no card required, and paid plans begin at $15 per month on Starter.
Is Monday a CRM tool?
Yes. Monday CRM is a dedicated sales product built on the same board engine, covering contacts, deals, and pipeline stages alongside project work.
Is Monday.com free to use?
A free plan covers two seats and three boards. It works for testing, but most teams need the Basic tier at $9 per user monthly.
Which one should a small business pick?
Choose by where revenue comes from. Email-led businesses want ActiveCampaign. Teams juggling client delivery and deals get more from Monday CRM at a lower seat price.
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