ActiveCampaign vs Drip: the price curve decides it, with a crossover near 50,000 people
Drip is the cheaper of the two for most small and mid-size lists: $39 at 2,500 people, $154 at 10,000 and $369 at 25,000, against ActiveCampaign Plus at $95, $189 and $389. Above that, the lines cross. At 50,000 Drip lists at $699 and ActiveCampaign Plus at $609. Both tools can start automations from Stripe events, so the choice rests on list size, seats and whether you need a CRM.
By Julian Pryor · Updated 7 Oct 2026
Short answer
If your list is under 25,000 and the main job is lifecycle email with behavioral segments, Drip costs less than ActiveCampaign Plus at every size shown here. If you pass 40,000 people, need more than one user, or want deals and pipelines next to the email, price ActiveCampaign first. Starter on ActiveCampaign beats Drip at 10,000 ($149 against $154) but allows only 5 actions in any automation.
List-size price table
Drip's figures are its slider readouts on 7 October 2026, billed monthly. ActiveCampaign's are its contact-selector readouts for the email plan on the same day, billed annually. Starter is not offered above 25,000 contacts.
| People on the list | Drip | AC Starter | AC Plus | AC Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,500 | $39 | $39 | $95 | $149 |
| 5,000 | $89 | $79 | $145 | $205 |
| 10,000 | $154 | $149 | $189 | $375 |
| 25,000 | $369 | $391 | $389 | $629 |
| 50,000 | $699 | not offered | $609 | $969 |
The difference against Plus works out to $95 − $39 = $56 a month at 2,500 and $189 − $154 = $35 at 10,000, which is $420 over a year. At 25,000 the gap is $20. Then at 50,000 it is $699 − $609 = $90 in ActiveCampaign's favor, or $1,080 a year. Sources: drip.com/pricing and activecampaign.com/pricing.
What changes with the plan, and what does not
Drip sells one set of features and scales only the list. Its pricing page says "Pay for your list size. Not for features you never use", and its readouts repeat the same inclusions at each step: dynamic segments, onsite campaigns and email support, with chat support and free migration appearing from 10,000 and 25,000 people. Sends are listed as unlimited on the smaller steps. At 40,000 people the readout shows 480,000 sends and at 50,000 it shows 600,000, which is 12 times the list in both cases, and the 50,000 step swaps the buy button for Book a demo. Its readouts at 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 people also state up to 50 workflows.
ActiveCampaign tiers by plan as well as list size. Starter allows 1 user and 5 actions per automation, Plus keeps 1 user and removes the action cap, Pro adds 3 users and advanced segmentation, and sends are 10 times the contact limit on Starter and Plus and 12 times on Pro. So the Plus column above is the fair comparison for Drip, not Starter, and a second seat sends you to Pro, where the price at 10,000 climbs to $375.
Billing events: both start from Stripe, in different shapes
Drip's Stripe help article says automations can start from events Drip receives from Stripe. When data arrives, Drip adds the customer if they are missing, records an event against the person and updates their lifetime value on charge events. The same article says history is not imported: it records purchases going forward, and workflow triggers only apply to people who act after the workflow goes live.
ActiveCampaign's help article describes syncing Stripe customers, invoices, charges, checkout sessions and subscriptions, with a choice between syncing historical and new records or new records only. You map Stripe fields onto existing ActiveCampaign fields, and the sync will not create fields for you. The article also notes the Invoice event offers no payment-status filter, so for dunning copy a recurring-payment status trigger on the Subscription resource is the better start.
The practical difference for a SaaS: if you want to backfill every current customer's plan and renewal date on day one, ActiveCampaign's option to include historical records helps. If you only care about customers from now on and want revenue per person to update automatically, Drip's lifetime-value update does that without a custom field.
CRM and seats
Drip's pages talk about ecommerce platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce) and list Stripe, Typeform and Zapier among its connections. They describe no deal pipeline. ActiveCampaign lists pipelines and sales engagement as CRM add-ons, lead scoring inside the pipelines add-on and custom objects on Enterprise, and its Starter and Plus plans each carry one user. A founder who sends every email personally never feels either limit. A team of three, with someone in sales, feels both.
Moving between them
- Export people with tags, custom fields and unsubscribe status; Drip's 25,000-people readout lists free migration and personalized onboarding if you are moving in.
- Leave out addresses that have been inactive for a year, because Drip bills on active people and ActiveCampaign bills on whatever you load.
- Rebuild the three automations that make money first: trial welcome, trial ending, failed payment.
- Switch DNS records for the sending domain only after both platforms have authenticated it, and keep the old workflows live until the new ones have run through one billing cycle.
Choosing at your size
At 2,500 to 25,000 people, Drip's flat feature set at a lower price is hard to argue with unless you need seats or a CRM. At 40,000 and beyond, ActiveCampaign Plus is cheaper and Drip steers you to a demo. Between the two, the tie-breaker is your team: one person sending lifecycle email, Drip; several people plus sales, ActiveCampaign.
Related reading: Klaviyo vs Drip, ConvertKit vs Drip, Omnisend vs Drip, reducing churn with tools and the comparison hub.
ActiveCampaign vs Drip: common questions
Is Drip cheaper than ActiveCampaign?
Up to 25,000 people it is cheaper than ActiveCampaign Plus: $39 against $95 at 2,500, $154 against $189 at 10,000 and $369 against $389 at 25,000. At 50,000 the order reverses, with Drip at $699 and Plus at $609. Drip's own price comes from a list-size slider that includes the whole feature set, while ActiveCampaign's Starter ($149 at 10,000) is cheaper than Drip at that size but caps each automation at 5 actions.
What does Drip count as a person for billing?
Drip's pricing page says the cost is based on the number of active people in your account and the volume of emails you send in the month. The readout does not define "active" beyond that, so before you import a cold list, read Drip's help article on how people are counted. ActiveCampaign prices by the contact count you select on its slider.
Which handles a failed Stripe payment more cleanly?
Both can start from Stripe. ActiveCampaign syncs invoices, charges, checkout sessions and subscriptions, though its help article notes the Invoice event has no payment-status filter, so a recurring-payment status change is the better trigger. Drip's Stripe page says automations can start from events Drip receives from Stripe, and that it updates a person's lifetime value on charge events. Neither replaces Stripe's own retry schedule.
Does Drip replace ActiveCampaign's CRM?
No. Drip's pricing readouts describe workflows, dynamic segments, onsite campaigns and revenue attribution, and mention no deal pipeline. ActiveCampaign's pricing page lists pipelines and sales engagement as CRM add-ons. If a person on your team needs to own deals, Drip leaves a gap that you would fill with a separate CRM.