ActiveCampaign Free Plan: What You Actually Get Before Paying

ActiveCampaign has no free plan, only a 14-day trial with Pro features, 100 contacts and 100 sends. Here is what is included and what is left out.

By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-07T15:04:06+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-07T15:04:06+00:00

ActiveCampaign free plan explained: 14-day trial limits, included features and free alternatives

ActiveCampaign Free Plan: What You Actually Get Before Paying

ActiveCampaign has no free plan. That is the short answer. What it offers instead is a 14-day free trial. The trial gives you the features of the Professional plan. It covers up to 100 contacts and up to 100 email sends. No credit card is needed to start. This guide explains exactly what you get in those 14 days, what is left out, and what happens when the trial ends. It also covers free plans elsewhere if $0 is a hard requirement.

ActiveCampaign free plan: the short answer

No. ActiveCampaign does not offer a free-forever plan. Its own FAQ states this plainly. Pricing starts at $15 a month for accounts with under 1,000 contacts. The way in without paying is the 14-day free trial. Several 2026 pricing guides checked the official pricing page and reached the same conclusion. There is no free tier listed. There is only the trial. This matters if you compare ActiveCampaign with rivals. Brevo, MailerLite, and Mailchimp all offer real free plans. ActiveCampaign does not. If you need to send emails for $0 over months, not days, you will need a different tool or a paid ActiveCampaign plan.

What the ActiveCampaign free trial includes

The trial runs for 14 days. Its features match the Professional plan, which is the third of four paid tiers. That is generous. You can test the tools that most buyers actually pay for. The official help center lists what trial accounts can use. Predictive Sending is included. It sends each email at the contact's best time. The Brand kit is included. Active Intelligence is included. That covers AI-generated campaigns and autonomous insights. The Pipelines and Sales Engagement add-on is included in the trial. That covers Deals and one-to-one sales emails. The Smart Start Guide is included. Custom contact and account fields in forms are included. You can add as many contacts as you need, but you can only send up to 100 emails in total. The FAQ puts the contact cap at 100. The help center says you can test with as many contacts as you need, with the 100-send limit as the binding cap. Either way, the send limit is the real constraint. You must verify your email to create a trial account. You will not be charged unless you manually upgrade to a paid plan. You can simply let the trial expire.

What the trial does not include

Some features are switched off during the trial. The SMS add-on is not available. That includes SMS credits and SMS sending. You cannot add a custom domain to a landing page. The Preference Center is not available. The Email Results form action is not available. Trials are limited to 1 user. Test emails have one more limit. During the trial, test emails can only be sent to the trial user's own email address. Your sending domain must be verified to send test emails. An actual campaign can still be sent to an active contact's email address. These limits are listed in the official help center article on free trial capabilities, updated July 7, 2026. They mean the trial is best for testing the builder, automations, and CRM. It is not a way to run a real sending program for free.

What happens when the trial ends

Nothing is charged automatically. The FAQ states that you will not be charged unless you manually upgrade. If you do not want to continue, you can let the trial expire. If you need more time, you can request a one-time extension. You do this by contacting your account executive or the support team. The FAQ notes that not all extension requests can be granted. If you do upgrade, the cheapest paid plan is Starter at $15 a month, billed yearly, for 1,000 contacts. Monthly billing costs more. ActiveCampaign also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans, according to several 2026 pricing guides. There are no setup fees on any plan. All plans include online training and support. Free onboarding and migration help is included at various levels.

Free plans elsewhere if you need $0

If 14 days is not enough, three rivals offer real free plans. Brevo's free plan costs $0 and sends up to 300 emails a day. It stores up to 100,000 contacts. Automation is capped at 2,000 contacts. No credit card is needed. MailerLite's free plan costs $0 for up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. It includes 2 user seats, 3 automations, 1 website, 1 landing page, and 3 signup forms. Mailchimp's free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. It includes 1 seat and 1 audience. All three are free forever within their limits. None of them matches ActiveCampaign's automation depth. But each one lets you send real emails without a deadline. If your list is small and your automations are simple, any of the three will do the job at $0.

How to use the 14 days well

Fourteen days pass fast. Use them with a plan. Follow these steps to get a real answer about fit.

  1. Import a small real list on day one. Use up to 100 contacts. Tag them by interest or source.
  2. Build one multi-step automation. Test branching, waits, and a goal. This is the feature you are really buying.
  3. Send one real campaign to your imported contacts. Watch the 100-send cap. Do not waste sends on test emails to yourself.
  4. Try Predictive Sending and one AI-generated draft. These are Pro features. They show what the higher tiers add.
  5. Open the CRM and add a deal. Move it through a pipeline stage. Check whether the sales tools fit your process.
  6. Check the price for your real contact count before day 14. Starter is $15 a month at 1,000 contacts. It rises to $149 at 10,000. Decide with your real number, not the entry price.

If you finish these steps and the tool fits, upgrade before the trial ends. If you run out of time, ask support for the one-time extension. If the price or the limits do not fit, move to a free plan elsewhere before you invest more hours.

Bottom line

ActiveCampaign has no free plan. Its 14-day free trial is the only free way in. The trial is generous on features and tight on sends. You get Professional-tier tools, including Predictive Sending, Active Intelligence, and the CRM add-on. You get 100 email sends and 1 user. SMS, custom landing-page domains, and the Preference Center are switched off. Nothing is charged unless you upgrade by hand. If you need a free plan that lasts, Brevo, MailerLite, or Mailchimp will serve you better. If you want to test deep automation properly, the ActiveCampaign trial is one of the best free tests in this category. Just use the 14 days with a plan, and check the price for your real list size before you commit. This is a research-based assessment. We did not test the trial firsthand. Terms can change, so confirm them on the official FAQ and help center before you sign up.