ActiveCampaign vs. ontraport: a marketing automation comparison

Marketing automation can be a very powerful tool for businesses. In this review, we compare ActiveCampaign vs. Ontraport for features, cost, and ease of use.

Switching email marketing platforms can be expensive and disruptive for your business. We want to make sure you all the information needed to make the best decision for your sales and marketing efforts.

Both Ontraport and ActiveCampaign utilize “tags” to categorize and assign properties to the members within your CRM. In each platform, these tags are automatically applied and function according to the parameters that you set. Within both platforms, these tags can be used for a variety of purposes.

For example, you might choose to segment your email list, or grant a user specific permissions based on a purchase or opt-in. Tagging is invaluable when you’re ready to really start targeting specific client groups and provide a more personal experience for them.

Although ActiveCampaign also uses tags, it does not currently allow you to organize these in any way.

Realistically, for a number of entrepreneurs who have, say, less than 100 tags, this doesn’t pose a problem in the least.

Of course, there are super easy ways to work around this if ActiveCampaign seems to be your perfect fit in the other areas.

Creating a spreadsheet for your tags can be a great way to manage them (as long as you have a process to always keep it up to date). Since ActiveCampaign does allow you to search for tags by name, you can easily locate the right ones that you need to edit or merge.

Ontraport and ActiveCampaign both automate the email marketing process by allowing you to use a drag-and-drop sequence builder.

If you are planning to sell products on your website, the e-commerce side of the Ontraport vs. ActiveCampaign debate is going to be big.

In this area, Ontraport has a lot of strengths that ActiveCampaign currently falls short of. If you’re big into product sales, upsells, and automated follow-ups, you’re probably going to lean towards Ontraport.

But, if ActiveCampaign is a better fit overall for your online business, take the time to really look into which e-commerce integration will also be able to do what you want it to. And if you’re only working with a few products and don’t mind using a couple of different tools to create a solid sales email sequence, ActiveCampaign will be perfectly fine.

Within ActiveCampaign, the e-commerce side of things requires a little more work on your part, in addition to the basic setup.

To begin with, ActiveCampaign actually does not include any e-commerce within its platform. However, it does have the capability to integrate with any number of payment processing systems, such as PayPal, Stripe, WooCommerce, etc.

Before you get super excited that your favorite payment processor claims an ActiveCampaign integration, be aware that not all integrations work the same. (See the current list of integrations here.)

Example: The Shopify integration will actually auto-add a new customer to your ActiveCampaign email list only if that customer chooses to optin to your marketing updates during the checkout process.

If they don’t, you’ll have to manually add them yourself before you can apply any tags and add them to a follow-up sales sequence.

Whereas the Bigcommerce integration does point out that it will automatically add any new clients to your ActiveCampaign CRM.

This is where ActiveCampaign really shines in the eyes of most users! It’s so, so sleek and user-friendly, requiring minimal effort on the part of a dedicated user to become familiar with getting stuff done.

The drag-and-drop interface of the sequence builder is super nice (and kind of fun, if you like that stuff!), and the site is easy to navigate.

Ontraport, on the other hand, is a little different story. It does require you to take some time to learn how to navigate and take advantage of its functionality, whether you’re going to do something basic or more complex.

Yes, it does have more options to offer in terms of customization and potential, which definitely adds to the steeper learning curve.

After you’ve become familiar with the interface, you’ll probably find that the more complex things (think coupons, limited trials, and a couple hundred tags to manage) will probably perform better for you in Ontraport. Keep in mind that these more complex functions might also require a bit of tech savviness on your part to make it happen.

Fortunately, if you’re leaning towards Ontraport and can’t (or don’t have the time to) do all the setup yourself, there are actually quite a few Ontraport certified consultants who are ready and willing to help make your Ontraport dreams a reality.

Overall, if you’re not going to get down and dirty with the more intricate features of Ontraport, you’ll probably enjoy using ActiveCampaign much more. But if you’re maxing out on CRM capabilities and are longing for more advanced potential, Ontraport is the stronger contender.

Setting up an affiliate program can be a great way to boost your sales and business reach. Of course, it also includes an entirely different set of responsibilities for you to manage, including unique affiliate links, sales, and refunds.

Not surprisingly (since it doesn’t include e-commerce), ActiveCampaign does not offer its own affiliate tracking system. However, it definitely does integrate with various 3rd party platforms to make this feature a possibility.

Ontraport does include a Partner (Affiliate) program that will allow you to manage a unique set of permissions that can be applied to your affiliates.

If the whole Ontraport vs. ActiveCampaign decision is still a toss-up for you, the pricing system should help you lean in one direction or another.

The ActiveCampaign pricing system is separated into three tiers: Lite, Small Business, and Enterprise. Each of those tiers represents the functionality you’ll get, rather than a set price range.

The price is actually largely dependent on the number of contacts you have within your CRM. So if you have under 5,000 contacts, pretty much any of the three tiers will cost less than Ontraport.

Ontraport’s pricing is also divided into three tiers.

However, the price point of each tier varies much less (if at all) on a per-user basis compared to ActiveCampaign until you get into the realm of 100,000 + subscribers, at which point you’ll have to start paying extra.

Definitely take time to look through each of their pricing pages to see which area you fall into.

Generally speaking, though, a business with a smaller email list is going to lean towards ActiveCampaign as the more affordable option. It seems like the price plateaus between the two at about 10K subscribers, after which Ontraport starts coming out ahead.

One more thing to think about when deciding based on price is whether you intend to expand your business significantly in the future.

If this is the case, you might find that you’ll “outgrow” ActiveCampaign and should consider whether it will be worthwhile to start small now and port everything over to Ontraport later on, or whether you’d prefer to start with Ontraport in anticipation of a large email list of subscribers coming down the road.

While I can’t make the decision for you, I hope that now you have a better understanding of what each system is best used for, and which one you’ll want to investigate further.

In terms of when the right time to make the move is… I say before you’re ready. Because it takes awhile to make a big move to a new platform like this. I’ll also say that it’s best to be running from a profitable place, because these monthly fees are in the triple digits.

Take a look at both ActiveCampaign and Ontraport’s websites and try their demos or talk to their representatives to get a feel for what they can offer.