Keap vs ActiveCampaign: Which Is the Best CRM Tool in 2025?

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4.6

• Automation Builder
• Powerful CRM
• Email & Text Marketing
• Cool Landing Pages
• Sales Pipeline
• Free trial Available
• Paid Plan Starts at $249

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3.5

• Email Marketing
• Dynamic Content
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• Integrated AI
• Segmentation
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• Paid Plan Starts at $15

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Choosing the right CRM can feel like trying to navigate a maze blindfolded.

You know it’s important for your business, but which one fits your needs?

Keap and ActiveCampaign are two popular options, both promising to streamline your sales and marketing.

But which one comes out on top?

In this post, we’ll break down the key differences between Keap vs ActiveCampaign, helping you decide which CRM tool is the best for your business.

Overview

To give you the most accurate comparison, we’ve spent weeks testing both Keap and ActiveCampaign.

We built email sequences, set up automation, and even ran a few test campaigns to see how each platform performed in a real-world setting.

4.6out of 5

Ready to get organized and save 15 hours a week? Keap’s powerful automation can make it happen.

Pricing: You can try it for free. Paid plan starts at $249/month

Key Features:

• Email Marketing
• CRM
• Sales and Marketing Automation

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3.5out of 5

Unlock the power of an all-in-one marketing platform. So, check it out now!

Pricing: It has a 7-day free Trial. Paid plan starts at $15/month

Key Features:

• Email Marketing
• Marketing Automation
• CRM

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What is Keap?

Keap wants to make things easier for small businesses.

They combine sales and marketing tools in one place.

Think of it as your all-in-one platform for growth. You can send emails, organize contacts, and track your sales.

Also, explore our favorite Keap alternatives…

Our Take

Keap is a fantastic option for small businesses to streamline their sales and marketing efforts. It’s user-friendly and packed with valuable features.

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Key Benefits

• Built-in email marketing: Send targeted emails to your audience.
• Easy-to-use automation: Automate tasks like sending follow-up messages and assigning leads.
• Sales pipeline management: Track your deals and identify opportunities.
• Ecommerce integrations: Connect Keap with your online store to manage orders and customers.

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Pricing

Keap offers a free trial and a simple pricing structure to get you started.

• Simple plan: Starts at $249/month (Annually Billed) and offers two users and 1500 contacts.

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Pros

• Great for small businesses.
• Easy to learn and use.
• Powerful email marketing tools.
• Excellent automation features.

Cons

• It can get expensive as you grow.
• Limited customization options.
• Not ideal for large enterprises.

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What is ActiveCampaign?

ActiveCampaign is a powerful tool.

But don’t let that scare you. It’s actually pretty easy to use. They focus on helping you automate your marketing.

This means less work for you!

You can send the right message to the right people at the right time. Sounds cool, right?

Also, explore our favorite ActiveCampaign alternatives…

Our Take

ActiveCampaign is an excellent choice for businesses that want to leverage the true power of email marketing and automation. However, it may not be the best fit for beginners due to its complexity.

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Key Benefits

• Advanced automation: Create complex workflows to nurture leads and automate tasks.
• Email marketing powerhouse: Send beautiful and effective email campaigns.
• Built-in CRM: Manage contacts and track interactions.
• Segmentation and personalization: Target specific groups of contacts with personalized messages.

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Pricing

• Starter: $15/month.
• Plus: $49/month.
• Pro: $79/month.
• Enterprise: $145/month.

Pros

• Robust automation capabilities.
• Excellent email deliverability.
• Detailed reporting and analytics.
• Great for growing businesses.

Cons

• It can be complex to learn.
• Pricing can increase quickly.
• It’s not as user-friendly as some options.

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Feature Comparison

The true power of any platform lies in its individual tools.

Let’s dig into the details and find out exactly where ActiveCampaign vs Keap really stands out against the competition.

We’ll examine the key factors that influence your choice of marketing automation platforms.

1. Core Marketing Automation Features

• ActiveCampaign: The clear leader in the breadth of its marketing automation features. It lets you create complex sequences and automated workflows that respond to various triggers across multiple channels, including sms messages.
• Keap: Offers solid automated marketing capabilities, but they are generally less flexible. ActiveCampaign’s focus on deep automation makes your marketing efforts highly personalized and provides more advanced features.

2. Email Marketing and Deliverability

• ActiveCampaign: Known among email marketers for superior email deliverability rates. It provides a wide range of customizable email templates and a flexible campaign builder.
• Keap: Offers robust email marketing functionality. However, ActiveCampaign’s predictive sending and A/B testing give it a powerful edge over Keap’s standard email marketing tools.

3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• Keap: Positions itself as an all-in-one solution with a stronger focus on its robust crm system that includes payment processing and appointment scheduling features. For a small business owner or service-based businesses, it’s simple, a combined approach to managing contacts and crm features is very appealing.
• ActiveCampaign: Its CRM is fantastic for aligning marketing and sales teams, but it is more specialized as a companion to its automation, rather than a standalone crm systems solution.

4. Automation Depth and Builder Interface

• ActiveCampaign: Shines with its ability to create complex automation workflows. Its visual flow builder is incredibly powerful. You can leverage its automation platform with less technical expertise to create complex marketing campaigns.
• Keap: Also uses a drag-and-drop interface for its automation. However, ActiveCampaign allows for much deeper customization based on user behavior and site tracking.

5. Sales Tools and Sales Automation

• ActiveCampaign: Provides more advanced features for sales teams regarding sales automation, including deep lead scoring and pipeline visualization.
• Keap: Includes critical sales tools like invoicing and quotes, which are essential for small businesses. Keap’s sales offering focuses on simplicity, whereas ActiveCampaign targets mid-sized businesses with more advanced sales team requirements.

6. E-commerce and Commerce Features

• Keap: Has a slight edge for commerce features due to stronger, native e-commerce features and built-in payment processing, making it great for managing sales based on past purchases. It integrates easily with popular e-commerce platforms.
• ActiveCampaign: Often requires more reliance on third-party software to achieve the same level of integrated e-commerce functionality.

7. Segmentation and Analytics

• ActiveCampaign: Provides advanced segmentation capabilities. It allows you to segment your customer data based on deep user behavior and trigger targeted campaigns. It also provides detailed analytics for campaign performance.
• Keap: Offers effective reporting, but ActiveCampaign’s insights are more granular, allowing you to use its more advanced features for precise targeting.

8. Ease of Use and Target Audience

• Keap: Is often praised for its user-friendly interface and is built for the small business owner who wants an all-in-one system without a steeper learning curve.
• ActiveCampaign: Has advanced features and is better suited for medium-sized businesses or those in digital marketing that need high-level automation, leading to a slightly higher requirement for technical expertise.

9. Pricing Structure and Lifecycle Support

• ActiveCampaign: Uses a tiered pricing model where features and users unlock at higher levels. This can be more cost-effective for focused email marketers.
• Keap: Has a more all-inclusive tiered pricing model based mostly on contact count. Keap also bundles professional services and support into its plans to assist with client relationships across the entire customer lifecycle.

What to Look for When Choosing a CRM Platform?

• Is the marketing automation tool a comprehensive solution for your specific business needs?
• Check the cost of the enterprise plan if you expect rapid growth.
• Evaluate how the platform helps manage customer relationships over time.
• Ensure the marketing features align with your digital marketing strategy.
• Investigate the availability of various support channels (phone, chat, email).
• Consider the unique strengths of both ActiveCampaign and keap to see which you will benefit greatly from.
• Look for strong integration capabilities with your existing third-party software.
• Assess the platform’s email deliverability to ensure your campaigns are seen.

Final Verdict

For us, Keap emerges as the winner.

While ActiveCampaign is a great option for beginners, Keap’s advanced marketing automation tools & comprehensive feature set make it the better choice for businesses.

It offers greater flexibility, deeper customization, and more powerful automation capabilities.

We’ve walked you through the key differences between Keap and ActiveCampaign, comparing their features, pricing, and ease of use.

Remember it, the best choice depends on your specific needs and budget.

But if you’re looking for a platform that can truly elevate your marketing and sales efforts, Keap is the way to go.

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