Keap and ActiveCampaign overlap in the middle of the market — both offer CRM features, email automation, and contact management for small businesses — but they are built on completely different philosophies. Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) is an all-in-one platform: one bill, one login, one place to handle your contacts, email campaigns, invoices, appointments, and payment processing. ActiveCampaign is an automation-first platform that does email extremely well and offers a CRM layer on higher plans, but is not trying to replace every tool in your stack. The price difference is significant. The trade-offs are real. This comparison covers both honestly, including where each falls short and the integration gap that neither one actually solves for service businesses.
Why this comparison matters in 2025
Service businesses — home services, coaching, consulting, accounting, agencies — have a specific problem that email marketing tools were not designed to solve. Their work lives across multiple systems. Leads come in through a website. Jobs get created in scheduling software. Invoices go out through a billing tool. Follow-up should happen automatically at each of those moments. The appeal of Keap is that it promises to put most of those functions in one place. The appeal of ActiveCampaign is that you get powerful email automation without paying $299/month for features you may not use.
The real question is not which platform has a better feature list. It is which platform fits how your business actually works and what you will genuinely use every month.
Quick comparison: Keap vs ActiveCampaign
| Feature | Keap | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $299/mo (includes CRM, email, SMS, invoicing) | $15/mo (email only); $49/mo with CRM |
| Free plan | No — trial only | No — trial only |
| CRM | Built-in, included at base price | Available on Plus plan ($49/mo+) |
| Email automation | Yes — campaign builder included | Yes — strongest feature, deep behavioral logic |
| SMS | Yes, included | Available as add-on |
| Invoicing & payments | Yes, built-in with payment processing | No |
| Appointment booking | Yes, included | No |
| Pipeline management | Yes, included | Yes, on Plus plan+ |
| Learning curve | Steep — significant onboarding required | Moderate — automation builder takes time |
| Best for | Service businesses wanting one platform, budget available | Email-first automation, teams with existing tools |
Keap deep dive
Keap's pitch is consolidation. At $299/month, you get a CRM, email marketing, SMS campaigns, an invoicing system with payment processing, appointment booking, and a deal pipeline. If you are currently paying for three or four separate tools to cover those functions, the math can start to look reasonable. A small home services company paying for Jobber, Mailchimp, and a separate invoicing tool is already spending real money. Keap bundles most of that.
The platform was Infusionsoft before a 2019 rebrand — a name most small business owners know because it was one of the first serious all-in-one CRM and automation platforms for the market. That history is both an asset and a liability. Keap has years of feature development behind it, a mature payment processing integration, and strong pipeline functionality. It also carries the reputation for complexity that made Infusionsoft infamous. The learning curve is real. Most new Keap customers need 30 to 90 days of structured onboarding before they are using it effectively, and Keap actively sells onboarding packages to close that gap.
The built-in pipeline lets you move deals through stages manually or via automation — a contact fills out a lead form, a deal is automatically created, a follow-up task is assigned. The invoicing and payment processing integration means you can send an invoice and collect payment without leaving the platform. For coaching and consulting businesses that want a sales pipeline and a billing workflow in the same tool, that combination is genuinely useful.
Automation in Keap is solid but not as flexible as ActiveCampaign's builder. You can build sequence-based campaigns triggered by form submissions, tag additions, or pipeline stage changes. What it lacks is the granular behavioral branching that ActiveCampaign handles well — conditional logic based on email opens, link clicks, or site visits is more limited on Keap.
Limitations to know:
- $299/month is a high floor — you are committing significant budget whether you use all the features or not
- Onboarding typically requires additional investment beyond the subscription cost
- Email automation is functional but not as sophisticated as ActiveCampaign's behavioral logic
- The platform still carries complexity from its Infusionsoft roots — it is not a tool you just open and figure out
- Third-party integrations are narrower than ActiveCampaign's library
Keap pricing note: The $299/month base price includes up to 1,500 contacts. Pricing scales with contact count beyond that. There is no stripped-down entry plan — you are buying the full platform or nothing. If you only need email automation and a basic CRM, you are paying for invoicing and SMS features you may never use. Verify current pricing at keap.com.
ActiveCampaign deep dive
ActiveCampaign starts at $15/month for up to 1,000 contacts, covering email automation only. The Plus plan adds a built-in CRM and starts at $49/month. That $34 gap between plans is where most serious service businesses will end up — you need the CRM to run a proper pipeline alongside your email sequences.
The automation builder is ActiveCampaign's clearest advantage over Keap. Conditional logic, split testing within automations, contact tagging based on specific behaviors (which links they clicked, which pages they visited, how they scored on a lead scoring model) — all of this is genuinely more flexible than what Keap offers. A marketing agency running prospect nurture sequences or a coaching business with a multi-step enrollment funnel will find the automation depth pays off once it is set up properly.
Site tracking is worth calling out specifically. Install a lightweight script on your website and ActiveCampaign can trigger automations based on page visits — so a contact who views your pricing page three times in a week automatically enters a follow-up sequence without anyone manually intervening. That level of behavioral trigger is not available in Keap's standard feature set.
What ActiveCampaign does not include: invoicing, payment processing, or appointment booking. It integrates with those tools via Zapier or native connectors, but you are assembling a stack rather than buying a single platform. For businesses that already have those functions handled by other tools they like, that is fine. For businesses hoping to consolidate everything, it falls short of Keap's all-in-one promise.
Limitations to know:
- No invoicing, payments, or built-in appointment booking — you need other tools for those functions
- CRM requires the Plus plan at $49/month minimum — the $15 Starter is email-only
- The automation builder rewards time investment — buying it and under-using it is common
- At higher contact counts, pricing is comparable to Keap but without the all-in-one feature set
ActiveCampaign's automation builder is one of the best in the market for the price. But it does not pay your invoices or book your appointments. Know what job you are hiring the tool to do.
Pricing reality check
The raw price comparison looks like this: Keap at $299/month versus ActiveCampaign Plus at $49/month. That is a $250/month gap, or $3,000 per year. Over three years, that is $9,000 in platform cost before anyone touches a single automation sequence.
But the comparison is not clean. Keap includes tools that ActiveCampaign does not. If you are paying separately for a scheduling tool ($30–$50/month), an invoicing platform ($15–$30/month), and SMS capability ($20–$40/month), the all-in-one math changes. The question is always whether you will actually use what Keap bundles, or whether you already have better-fit tools for those functions that you would not want to replace.
There is also the onboarding cost to factor in. Keap's complexity means most new customers spend additional money on setup assistance — either Keap's own onboarding packages or a certified partner. ActiveCampaign has a shorter ramp time, though the automation builder still requires genuine investment to use well.
Ease of use: an honest assessment
Neither platform is plug-and-play. Both have a learning curve that takes weeks to work through. That said, they are not equally steep.
Keap is harder to set up. The breadth of the platform — the CRM, the campaign builder, the invoicing system, the pipeline — means there are more decisions to make before anything runs. Naming conventions, pipeline stages, invoice templates, payment processors, automation sequences: each needs configuration before the tool delivers value. Most small business owners who try to set it up alone hit a wall around week two and either buy an onboarding package or give up.
ActiveCampaign is more tractable as a starting point. A basic welcome sequence and a contact import can be done in a day. The complexity scales with ambition: simple sequences are simple to build, and more sophisticated behavioral automations require more time. The ceiling is much higher on ActiveCampaign's automation builder, but you do not need to reach the ceiling on day one.
Who each platform is actually for
You want one platform for CRM, email, invoicing, and appointments. You have $299/month available and are willing to invest 30–60 days in proper setup. You are migrating from Infusionsoft, or you are a service business that finds managing four separate tools genuinely painful.
You primarily need email automation and a deal pipeline. You already have tools you like for scheduling and invoicing. You want behavioral triggers — emails that fire based on what contacts actually do, not just time delays. Your budget is tighter and the $49/month entry is meaningful.
A business on either platform is not getting ROI because the automations are not firing. Usually this means the triggers are sitting in a different tool — a booking system, a job platform, an invoicing app — and no one has built the connection between that tool and the email platform.
The decision framework
Five questions to answer before choosing:
Do you want to consolidate tools or are you fine assembling a stack? Keap's value proposition is one platform with one bill. If that genuinely simplifies your operation, the higher price has merit. If you already have tools you trust for scheduling, invoicing, and bookings, Keap's bundled versions may not be better — just more expensive.
How important is email automation depth? If you need behavioral triggers, conditional branching, and sophisticated lead scoring, ActiveCampaign wins. Its automation builder is more flexible than Keap's campaign sequences. If your email needs are simpler — follow-up sequences, appointment reminders, basic nurture — Keap handles those fine.
Are you an existing Infusionsoft customer? If so, Keap is your natural migration path. The data structures are compatible, the workflow logic is similar, and switching to a different platform involves rebuilding years of automation sequences from scratch. Unless there is a strong reason to leave the Infusionsoft ecosystem, Keap is the path of least resistance.
What is your actual monthly budget for software? $299/month is real money for a small service business. If the choice is between Keap and three months of a part-time salesperson's time, the math gets uncomfortable fast. ActiveCampaign at $49/month leaves budget for other things. Only you know which trade-off makes sense for your stage.
How much time will you invest in setup? Both platforms require setup time to deliver value. Keap requires more of it, and more of it upfront. If the honest answer is that you want something running quickly with minimal configuration, neither is ideal — but ActiveCampaign is faster to get to a functional baseline.
Tools commonly evaluated alongside this decision:
The automation gap that neither platform solves
Here is the thing that does not make it into either platform's marketing materials: both Keap and ActiveCampaign are designed around the data they own. Their automations fire based on what happens inside their system — a contact added, a tag applied, a form submitted. What they do not natively know is what happens in the external tools where service work actually gets done.
Your scheduling software knows when an appointment is booked. Your job management platform knows when a job is completed. Your invoicing tool knows when a payment clears. None of those events automatically trigger automations in Keap or ActiveCampaign without a custom integration sitting between them. A five-star review request that fires 48 hours after job completion requires Jobber (or whatever you use) to talk to your email platform. That connection does not exist out of the box in either system.
This is not a knock on either platform — it is a structural reality. CRM and email tools are good at managing contacts and sending emails. They are not good at reaching into your scheduling software, your field service app, or your bookkeeping platform to pull triggers from events happening there. That cross-platform layer is where most service businesses have automation gaps, and it is not a problem either Keap or ActiveCampaign solves for you.
Consider a plumbing company. A job closes in their field service app. Three days later they want a review request sent. Six months later, a seasonal maintenance reminder. Neither of those triggers lives in their email platform — they live in the field service system. Getting the two to talk requires custom automation built outside of either Keap or ActiveCampaign.
Running Keap or ActiveCampaign but not sure whether your automations are actually firing? We audit your email and CRM stack, identify which cross-platform triggers are missing, and map exactly what it would take to connect your tools to each other.
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Keap makes sense if you want to reduce the number of tools you manage and have the budget to absorb a $299/month platform plus onboarding costs. It is genuinely good for service businesses that need CRM, invoicing, and email under one roof — and it is the obvious home for anyone migrating off Infusionsoft. The trade-off is cost, complexity, and an automation engine that is solid but not the best in class.
ActiveCampaign makes sense if email automation is the primary need and you are comfortable assembling a stack. The $49/month Plus plan gives you a functional CRM and the best automation builder in its price range. If you already have tools you like for scheduling and invoicing, there is no reason to replace them with Keap's built-in versions just to consolidate under one platform.
Either way, pick a platform and build on top of it. The businesses that get the most value from either tool are the ones that invest in setup rather than leaving the default settings in place and wondering why nothing is happening.
The platform is only as useful as the automations running on top of it.
Keap and ActiveCampaign both handle internal triggers. Neither connects to your scheduling software, job platform, or invoicing tool out of the box. We build that cross-platform layer so your tools actually talk to each other.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on what you want to consolidate. Keap is better if you want CRM, email, SMS, invoicing, and appointment booking in one platform and have $299/month to spend. ActiveCampaign is better if you primarily need email automation and already have separate tools handling your invoicing and scheduling — the entry price is dramatically lower at $15/month for email or $49/month with CRM.
Keap starts at $299/month and includes CRM, email marketing, SMS, invoicing, payment processing, appointment booking, and a pipeline. There is no meaningful free plan — only a trial period. Pricing scales with contact count and is significantly higher than most individual tools in each category. Verify current pricing at keap.com.
ActiveCampaign's Starter plan begins at $15/month for up to 1,000 contacts (email automation only). The Plus plan, which adds a built-in CRM and sales pipeline, starts at $49/month. At 10,000 contacts, plans range from approximately $139–$299/month depending on tier. Confirm current pricing at activecampaign.com.
Yes. Keap is the rebrand of Infusionsoft, which launched in 2001 and became the dominant all-in-one CRM and automation platform for small service businesses for over a decade. The rebrand in 2019 was partly meant to signal a simplified product alongside the legacy platform. If you were an Infusionsoft customer, Keap is effectively your migration path.
Both platforms handle internal email automation well. What neither does natively is connect to the external tools where service work actually happens — your scheduling software, job management platform, or field service app. A trigger like "job marked complete in Jobber" or "appointment booked in Acuity" requires a custom integration or middleware layer to fire automations inside either platform. That cross-platform connection is what Aplos AI builds for service businesses.