ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse Comparison 2026
ActiveCampaign is automation and a CRM in one account, from $15 a month with Starter's five-action cap pushing most buyers to Plus at $49. GetResponse bundles email, landing pages and paid webinars on one bill, from $19 a month or $15.58 billed annually. Both sell to course creators. The decision turns on whether you run live webinars: GetResponse folds that into the price, and ActiveCampaign has no equivalent, doing conditional branching more deeply instead.
Email automation with a CRM underneath it
Email, automation and webinars on one bill
At a glance
- ActiveCampaign starts cheaper, at $15.
- Neither has a free tier.
- ActiveCampaign bills annually only, so there is no month to try it for.
Side by side
ActiveCampaign | GetResponse | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $15 | From $15.58 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Annual only | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 14 days |
| API | Not stated |
ActiveCampaign
Email automation with a CRM underneath it
ActiveCampaign is what people move to when the sequences outgrow a newsletter tool, and its conditional logic goes deeper than anything at this price. The CRM underneath means a sponsor conversation and a subscriber record are the same object. It takes a weekend to learn, and the cheapest plan caps automations at five actions, which is not enough to try the thing it is good at.
Our note
Budget for Plus rather than Starter. The five-action cap on the cheapest plan blocks exactly the branching logic that justifies choosing ActiveCampaign over a newsletter tool, and discovering that after migrating a list is a bad afternoon.
GetResponse
Email, automation and webinars on one bill
GetResponse has been sending email since before most of its competitors existed, and it kept adding: landing pages, funnels, paid webinars, an ecommerce push. For a creator selling a course that breadth removes two other subscriptions. It also means the interface carries twenty years of features, and the newer tools feel lighter to use.
Why people weigh these two
- GetResponse instead of ActiveCampaign
- GetResponse throws in webinars alongside the email automation for close to the same $15.58 starting price.
- ActiveCampaign instead of GetResponse
- ActiveCampaign starts near the same $15 a month but builds a CRM into the automation, the pick when contacts need deal stages and pipelines rather than a landing page and a webinar.
Which one should you pick
Choose ActiveCampaign for branching that goes deep: behaviour, tags, custom fields or a deal stage, several levels down. Budget for Plus at $49 a month rather than Starter, whose five-action cap blocks the logic you are paying for.
Choose GetResponse if you sell through live webinars and want them hosted and sold from the same account as the email list, starting at $19 a month or $15.58 billed annually. That breadth carries twenty years of accumulated interface, so anybody who wants a plain newsletter with a pleasant writing experience will find both tools heavier than what they actually need.
Common questions
- Does ActiveCampaign include webinars like GetResponse does?
- No. GetResponse sells and hosts paid webinars without a second subscription, which is the clearest reason to pick it over ActiveCampaign. If you do not run live sessions, that feature is not worth paying for.
- Which is cheaper to start?
- GetResponse, at $15.58 a month billed annually against ActiveCampaign's $15 Starter. But ActiveCampaign's Starter caps automations at five actions, so the real comparison is Plus at $49, which makes GetResponse the cheaper entry by a wide margin.
- Does GetResponse have a CRM like ActiveCampaign's?
- Not in the same sense. ActiveCampaign keeps a contact and a deal as one record, built for a sales pipeline. GetResponse's strength is bundling email with landing pages, funnels and webinars rather than a CRM underneath the list.
- How long is the free trial on each?
- GetResponse runs 14 days. ActiveCampaign's pricing page does not state a trial length, so confirm directly before assuming one applies.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.