Sendlane Vs. ActiveCampaign Compare Features, Ease of Use, And Pricing

Are you comparing Sendlane vs. ActiveCampaign? Before you make your final decision, dig into our in-depth comparison of top features, software ease of use, and pricing. You’ll receive an honest review from a business owner who has tried both platforms.

Both Sendlane 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.

Unfortunately, neither marketing automation tool allows you to organize these tags in any way (although you can always search by tag name). Realistically, for a number of entrepreneurs who have, say, less than 100 tags, this doesn’t pose a problem in the least. And you can certainly create a spreadsheet to help manage the tags (as long as you have a process to always keep it up to date).

Sendlane and ActiveCampaign both offer drag-and-drop visual builders to help you create a variety of marketing automations. While ActiveCampaign has a slight edge in terms of the variety of elements you can add, both systems offer a nice selection of fundamentals, from conditional logic to webhooks and wait timers.

Sendlane’s automation builder is designed to be a bit more minimalist than ActiveCampaign’s: the right sidebar is hidden until you click on one of the “+” buttons in the builder.’

While it lacks the CRM/Salesforce options, entrepreneurs who are primarily interested in email marketing automations with a smaller list (and no sales team) won’t notice a difference.

If you are planning to sell products on your website, the integrations available through Sendlane and ActiveCampaign is going to make a big difference in which platform works best for you.

Like Sendlane, ActiveCampaign also does not include any e-commerce within its platform. However, it does have the capability to integrate with a much larger selection 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 ActiveCampaign 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.

Both Sendlane and ActiveCampaign really shine in terms of user-friendliness. The drag-and-drop interface of the automation builders are super nice (and kind of fun, if you like that stuff!), and the systems as a whole are easy to navigate.

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 they don’t include e-commerce), neither Sendlane nor ActiveCampaign offers a built-in affiliate tracking system. Again, this is where you will want to review the available integrations carefully, as neither system offers a wide selection of integrations for referral tracking.

AccessAlly does offer affiliate functionality as part of its WordPress LMS plugin.

If the whole Sendlane vs. ActiveCampaign decision is still a toss-up for you, the pricing system might 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. Within each tier, the price continues to fluctuate based on the number of subscribers you have on your list. (So an ActiveCampaign subscription at the Lite level could still change dramatically as your business grows and flourishes.)

The Sendlane pricing system is also separated into three tiers: Growth, Marketing Automation Pro, and Enterprise/Agency. As with the ActiveCampaign pricing format, the ultimate price of each tier is largely dependent on the number of contacts you have.

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

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 Sendlane’s websites and try their demos or talk to their representatives to get a feel for what they can offer.