Inexpensive Alternative to Infusionsoft: ActiveCampaign Review - Website Design and Maintenance for Small Businesses

ActiveCampaign is an awesome inexpensive alternative to Infusionsoft and Hubspot. ActiveCampaign is CRM, Email/Sales Automation, and so much more matched with impeccable support. I can’t recommend them highly enough. Watch the video below to see the comparison. I break down ActiveCampaign pricing compared to Infusionsoft and Hubspot as well.

Last Updated Sept 15th, 2018
Video is old, but still relevant!

ActiveCampaign Comparison and Review (ActiveCampaign Compared to Hubspot and Infusionsoft) – VIDEO:

If you’re interested in ActiveCampaign as inexpensive alternative to infusionsoft, consider signing up with my affiliate link here (it doesn’t cost you any extra, I just get a % of your subscription if you decide to sign up).

If you would like help setting up ActiveCampaign, I help members of my No-Contract Website Maintenance Plans do it.

ActiveCampaign Vs. InfusionSoft/Hubspot Breakdown:

What is Marketing Automation?

If you didn’t know already, it’s right in the name. You can use a system like ActiveCampaign, Infusionsoft, or Hubspot to automate your marketing. At its core, automation software allows you to use contact information (tags) to send targeted Emails and reminders.

I was using MailChimp for a while, which is fantastic for just sending out basic linear Email newsletters and campaigns, and it’s cheap/free.

That said, if you need a more robust and true Automation Software then MailChimp/Aweber won’t cut it. I say ActiveCampaign is an excellent inexpensive alternative to Infusionsoft or Hubspot for this purpose.

ActiveCampaign Has Limitless Possibilities

ActiveCampaign has most of the same features as these expensive marketing automation behemoths, and what it doesn’t do it can connect in to other platforms to handle.

For example, ActiveCampaign can’t take payments directly like Infusion. But, you can connect ActiveCampaign to PayPal, Stripe, WooCommerce, and virtually any other payment platform you can think of through Zapier.

What Can ActiveCampaign Do to Free Up Your Time?

I’ll give you a few examples of how I use ActiveCampaign to automate my business, past and present:

EXAMPLE 1: Initially, I used ActiveCampaign to automate my magician business.

When somebody filled out my booking form, they would automatically get a follow-up with my appointment calendar.
Then, I would get an Email telling me of their appointment.
Finally, a to-do list item would be added to my Trello board telling me to send them my “Shock and Awe” package.

By the time I actually met with the prospect they were pre-sold and felt like they already knew me. It was all ActiveCampaign. This allowed me to focus on booking shows instead of following up with prospects. I just showed up to the meetings and collected the checks.

EXAMPLE 2: Today, I use ActiveCampaign to automate my Website Maintenance Membership Programs.

Most of my Website maintenance members pay for their membership on a monthly basis. This is when their time with me resets. Once I got up to around 25 members it got a little hard to keep track of: Payments coming through, time resetting, etc. I was neglecting to remind people that their time had reset, which is a no-go.

The reason I cannot accomplish this with something like MailChimp, for example, is that every member’s reset day is unique. I’m not sending a mass-Email out to everyone on the 1st of each month. One person gets the reminder on the 4th, another on the 7th, and so on…

I was able to automate the entire process by using a series of IF-THEN statements in ActiveCampaign. Now my members automatically get an Email on their day each month. If someone cancels their membership, ActiveCampaign takes them out of the process automatically and stops sending those Emails. If they sign up again it restarts with the new day.

Pros of ActiveCampaign:

Less Complicated – Easy to Learn:

Infusion is incredibly difficult to learn, so much so that they make you pay for premium onboarding. There is also an entire industry of companies who teach how to use Infusion. These come complete with in-person meetings (support groups) and mountains of literature. ActiveCampaign has a much smoother learning curve and any time I’ve been stumped support has had my back.

ActiveCampaign Has a Free Trial

Infusion does not give a free trial. ActiveCampaign gives a 14 day free trial with full functionality (for up to 100 subscribers).

The Price

ActiveCampaign Pricing: An Inexpensive Alternative to Infusionsoft

ActiveCampaign Pricing as of 9/15

You can get ActiveCampaign starting at only $9/month, which is mindblowing when you consider the competition’s price tags. It has most of the same functionality and even outperforms these giants in some areas (like trigger options).

Cons of ActiveCampaign:

The native form builder sucks

The forms have improved since the making of the above video, but I still don’t use them. ActiveCampaign integrates with everything, so I just use other, better, form builders and connect them.

It’s not quite as robust

ActiveCampaign still has some bugs or features left out, but the same can be said for the competition. Where ActiveCampaign shines through is their support: it actually works with you to fix the problems when they pop up. In my experience with Infusion, at least, the support has been sub-par especially for such a premium item.

I almost feel bad contacting ActiveCampaign support because they’re always so helpful and I’m only paying $9/month.

FIXED: Lack of “Full” Drag-and-Drop

At the time of the video, ActiveCampaign was not drag and drop the way you’d expect. They’ve since changed this and it works exactly the way I wanted it to.

Wrap-Up

You should watch the video above if you haven’t. It’s a bit dated in the details, but most of the arguments are still valid. ActiveCampaign has only gotten better.

ActiveCampaign – the Inexpensive Alternative to Infusionsoft and Hubspot

If you would like help setting up ActiveCampaign, I help members of my No-Contract Website Maintenance Plans do it.