HighLevel vs the rest › HighLevel vs ActiveCampaign
Quick answer: At 1,000 contacts ActiveCampaign Plus is $59 a month, but sales pipelines are a $39 add-on, texting starts at $21 for 1,000 credits, extra seats are $15 each and the price climbs to $239 at 10,000 contacts. HighLevel is $97 flat with pipelines, texting and unlimited seats included.
HighLevel gives 30 days through my link, no card hold.
Every number below is from the vendor's own pricing page and help centre, read 20 Sep 2026. HighLevel is the one I use and teach, and I'm an affiliate, so I show you the numbers instead of asking you to trust me.
Nine ways the number on the price tag turns into a different number on your card. Most of these are published, just not on the big price tag. Every cell is from the vendor's own pages, read 20 Sep 2026.
| The fee | HighLevel | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| Cap on contacts | None. Unlimited on every plan. | Every price is per contact tier. New accounts pay for unsubscribed and bounced contacts too. Cap reached = campaigns stop. |
| Fee per user seat | None. Unlimited users. | 1 seat on Starter and Plus. Extra $10 to $40 per seat. |
| Cut of your sales | 0% on top of Stripe. | None. No checkout at all. |
| Email charges | $0.675 per 1,000 sent. 10,000 emails = $6.75. No monthly cap; brand-new accounts ramp up over their first weeks. | Capped at 10x contacts. Over that, $0.005 per email. At 3x your cap, sending is switched off. |
| Texting (SMS) | Built in. About $0.012 per text, number $1.15/mo, pay as you go. | Add-on from $21/mo for 1,000 credits, Plus and up only, no rollover. |
| AI charges | Separate on every plan: pay per use, or $50/mo AI Employee Growth, $97/mo Unlimited. Never included in the $97. | AI Activities add-on $5 per 1,000 for internal automation. No AI that talks to customers. |
| Onboarding or setup fee | None. | None. |
| Commitments and cancellation terms | Month to month. Cancel any time. Numbers and texts used during the trial are billed at usage rates. | Annual auto-renews; reviewers report no refund. Trial capped at 100 emails. |
| Price rises this year | Same $97 / $297 / $497. | Trustpilot summary: "steep price hikes... costs that keep rising". |
30 things a business actually needs to run, and whether HighLevel and ActiveCampaign have it built in. "Add-on" means you pay extra. "Limited" means it's there but capped or tier-gated.
| You need | HighLevel | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| CRM with sales pipelines | ✓ | add-on from $39/mo |
| Websites and funnels | ✓ | limited landing pages, Plus+ |
| Courses and memberships | ✓ | ✕ |
| Community | ✓ groups, channels, gamification | ✕ |
| Documents and contracts with e-signature | ✓ | ✕ DocuSign integration |
| Invoicing and estimates | ✓ | ✕ |
| Subscriptions and payment plans | ✓ | limited via Stripe/PayPal |
| Forms and surveys with conditional logic | ✓ | ✓ forms |
| Chat widget on your website | ✓ | limited site messages only |
| add-on $10/mo + Meta fees | add-on from $63/mo | |
| Missed-call text-back and call tracking | ✓ | ✕ |
| Affiliate program manager | ✓ | ✕ |
| Blog | ✓ | ✕ |
| Mobile app for you to manage leads | ✓ | ✓ |
| Webinars, built in | ✓ | ✕ |
| Course quizzes and certificates | ✓ | ✕ |
| Google review requests | ✓ | ✕ |
| Email marketing | ✓ metered | ✓ 10x contacts (12x Pro) |
| Texting from the app | ✓ | add-on from $21/mo |
| Phone numbers and calling | ✓ | ✕ |
| Booking calendars | ✓ | ✕ Calendly |
| Reviews and reputation | ✓ | ✕ |
| Social media planner | ✓ | ✕ |
| AI that talks to customers (chat, voice) | add-on pay per use or $50/mo, every plan | ✕ internal AI only |
| Multi-step automation | ✓ | ✓ unlimited on Plus |
| Separate accounts for clients | ✓ 3 on $97, unlimited on $297 | limited reseller program, you bill |
| Your brand on the software (white label) | limited $297 plan and up | limited agency program: domain + logo |
| Sell the software to clients (SaaS) | limited $497 plan | ✕ |
| Unlimited contacts | ✓ | ✕ |
| Unlimited users | ✓ | ✕ |
| Free trial | 30 days | 14 days 100 emails |
| Built in, no add-on | 26 of 30 | 4 |
Counted: a ✓ with no "limited" or "add-on" tag, trial row excluded. Each column is that tool's entry plan shown in the close-up cards below, except Kartra, where I use the $119 Starter because the $59 plan is not a real starting point. A grey ? means I couldn't find it on the vendor's own pages, so I didn't count it either way. Read 20 Sep 2026 from each vendor's pricing page and help centre; links in the footer.
Plans, the fees behind them, what's missing, who it's honestly good for, and what people said about it in the last 30 days.
Not because HighLevel is always the cheapest line. Because of what the price tag can't show.
| Tool | Your brand on the software | Separate accounts for clients | Resell it and set your own price |
|---|---|---|---|
| HighLevel | Yes, from $297: white-label desktop app and custom domain | Yes: 3 on $97, unlimited on $297 | Yes, on $497: SaaS mode, clients sign up and pay you automatically, you mark up their usage |
| ActiveCampaign | Partly: custom domain and logo via the partner program; full rebrand on Enterprise | Yes: resold accounts at 25 to 55% off | Partly: you set the price and invoice clients yourself; no sign-up-and-pay mode, no usage rebilling |
Short answers. Every number is from the vendor's own pricing page, read 20 Sep 2026.
At 1,000 contacts ActiveCampaign Plus is $59 a month, but sales pipelines are a $39 add-on, texting starts at $21 for 1,000 credits, extra seats are $15 each and the price climbs to $239 at 10,000 contacts. HighLevel is $97 flat with pipelines, texting and unlimited seats included.
Kajabi, Kartra, ClickFunnels, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign and Flodesk all price by contact tier. HubSpot and Flodesk auto-upgrade you the moment you cross a tier; Kartra auto-upgrades and adds a fee; ActiveCampaign stops your campaigns at the cap. HighLevel has unlimited contacts on every plan.
All six. Kajabi $5 per extra seat, ActiveCampaign $10 to $40, HubSpot $20 to $75. Kartra, ClickFunnels and Flodesk have hard seat caps with no add-on, so you must jump a whole tier. HighLevel has unlimited users on every plan.
Only HighLevel has texting, phone numbers and calling built in, at about 1.2 cents per text. HubSpot sells it as a $75 a month add-on on Professional and above. ActiveCampaign sells credits from $21 a month. Kajabi, Kartra and ClickFunnels require your own Twilio account. Flodesk has no SMS at all.
HighLevel and Kajabi both offer 30 days. HighLevel's is 30 days through an affiliate link with no card hold (14 days on the public page); Kajabi places a $149 hold on your card. Kartra, ClickFunnels, ActiveCampaign, Flodesk and HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional offer 14 days, and ActiveCampaign caps its trial at 100 emails. HubSpot also has a permanent free tier with HubSpot branding.
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