Updated March 2026

beehiiv vs ActiveCampaign

A side-by-side comparison based on our hands-on testing, pricing analysis, and community research.

Our pick: ActiveCampaign (7.4/10 vs 7/10)

ActiveCampaign wins 3 out of 6 categories. beehiiv is better for: newsletter creators and media companies who want to monetise their audience through ads, paid subscriptions, and cross-promotion.

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beehiiv

7/10

ActiveCampaign

7.4/10

2/5

Automation

5/5

3/5

Deliverability

4/5

Ease of Use

2/5

3/5

Templates & Design

2/5

3/5

Analytics

4/5

3/5

Customer Support

2/5

Pricing Comparison

beehiiv

Free Plan

Paid plans from $43/mo

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ActiveCampaign

Paid plans from $19/mo

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Pros & Cons

beehiiv

Best-in-class monetisation tools: built-in ad network, Boosts (paid cross-promotions), paid subscriptions with 0% take rate, and referral program. No other newsletter platform offers this full combination

Free plan includes up to 2,500 subscribers — generous for newsletter creators just starting out

November 2025 Winter Release was massive: AI website builder, digital products, podcast hosting, website analytics. Covered by TechCrunch as a significant platform evolution

Automation is the #1 weakness — basic compared to Kit, ActiveCampaign, or even MailerLite. No tags or lists system. This is the biggest reason creators leave beehiiv

No independent deliverability data exists — beehiiv is excluded from EmailToolTester benchmarks. Their self-reported 98.9% delivery rate cannot be externally verified, which is a red flag for a review site

Trustpilot rating of 4.2/5 but 23% of reviews are one-star — a bimodal love-it-or-hate-it distribution. Billing complaints include being charged after deactivation and difficulty finding the cancellation button

Full beehiiv review →

ActiveCampaign

Best-in-class automation builder with 135+ triggers and 750+ pre-built recipes — no other platform matches this depth (G2: 4.5/5 from 14,000+ reviews)

900+ integrations including 40+ new ones added in 2025 alone (Wix, Webflow, SOCi) — plays nicely with almost anything

Deep segmentation with new AI Segments Agent that lets you describe audiences in natural language

Aggressive price hikes documented at 20-100% for existing customers. Real examples: $588/yr to $1,800/yr; $1,400/mo to $2,800/mo; $2,000/yr to $7,800/yr

As of November 2025, now charges for ALL contacts including unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed — same controversial practice as Mailchimp

Trustpilot rating of 2.8/5 from 1,358 reviews — billing complaints, cancellation horror stories, and users charged after cancelling

Full ActiveCampaign review →

The Bottom Line

Choose beehiiv if: you want a tool that is best for newsletter creators and media companies who want to monetise their audience through ads, paid subscriptions, and cross-promotion. It scores highest in ease of use.

Choose ActiveCampaign if: you want a tool that is best for mid-sized businesses (1k-25k contacts) that actively use complex automation daily. It scores highest in automation, deliverability, analytics.

Transparency note: We earn affiliate commissions from some tools on this page. This never influences our scores. Our methodology