ActiveCampaign Free Trial (2026): Length, Card Rules, Costs
The ActiveCampaign free trial lasts 14 days, needs only an email sign-up and no credit card, and lets you send up to 100 emails, as listed in October 2026. If you let it lapse, you are not charged. Staying costs from $19 a month on monthly billing ($15 a month billed yearly) for 1,000 contacts, and Plus, the first plan with landing pages and the Stripe and booking integrations, starts at $59 a month ($49 billed yearly).
We make Coachful, a coaching platform that overlaps with part of what ActiveCampaign does, so weigh our view with that in mind. The vendor figures below come from ActiveCampaign's pricing page, the pricing catalog behind that page, and its help center in October 2026. Where a term is not published, we say so.
How long is the ActiveCampaign free trial, and do you need a card?
The trial is 14 days and no card is needed. ActiveCampaign's sign-up page reads "Free 14-day trial with email sign-up" and "No credit card needed," and you verify your email address while the account is created.
There is no permanent free plan, so the trial is the only unpaid way to use the product. That sets it apart from MailerLite, Kit, Mailchimp and Systeme.io, which all keep a free tier. If you are comparing unpaid options more broadly, our guides to free coaching software and coaching software with a free trial sort out which is which.
What can you actually do during the trial?
You get the features of the Pro plan (the help center calls it Professional) with one user and a cap of 100 email sends. Contacts are not the constraint, because the help center says you can test "with as many contacts as you need." Sends are.
| Trial term | What ActiveCampaign publishes (October 2026) | What it means for a coach |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 14 days | Long enough to build one sequence, short for judging results |
| Card | "No credit card needed" | Nothing on file, so nothing to cancel |
| Email sends | Up to 100 | A list of 300 cannot get even one campaign |
| Contacts | "As many contacts as you need" | You can import your real list and test segments |
| Features | Match the Professional plan | You test a $99 plan, not the $19 one |
| Users | 1 | A coach and assistant cannot both test it |
| Test emails | Only to the trial user's own address, from a verified sending domain | Set up your domain early or test sends fail |
| Pipelines | Pipelines and Sales Engagement add-on included in the trial | A paid add-on once the trial ends |
| Not available | SMS add-on, a custom domain on landing pages, the Preference Center, the "Email Results" form action | You cannot try text reminders or see a landing page on your own domain |
| Extension | One-time, by request, and "we may not be able to grant all" requests | Ask, but do not plan around it |
The Pro-level access is generous, and it is also the trial's main trap. What you build in those two weeks may rely on features that the cheaper plans do not have, which we come back to under gotchas.
What happens when the ActiveCampaign trial ends?
The trial expires after 14 days and you are not billed. The help center says that if you are on a trial, "you can let it expire. We will not charge you unless you manually upgrade to a paid account." After expiry, you are redirected to the Your Plan section of the Billing and Upgrade page, where you can buy a plan.
What ActiveCampaign does not spell out, in the trial articles we read in October 2026, is how long an expired trial account and its contacts are kept for an ordinary customer. Do not assume they will wait for you. Before day 14, export anything you imported or collected:
- Contacts export to CSV from the Contacts overview. You can also export single contacts, search results and lists by status.
- The CSV includes standard and custom fields, lead and deal scores, and tags in a single column.
- Contact notes cannot be exported, so keep anything important elsewhere.
- The download link stays valid for 7 days.
Copy your email text and automation logic into a document too. We found no published route for taking them out of a lapsed trial.
How much does ActiveCampaign cost after the trial?
At 1,000 contacts, plans run from $19 to $179 a month on monthly billing, or $15 to $145 a month billed yearly. The price rises with your contact count, and every paid plan has a 30-day refund guarantee.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Billed yearly | At 2,500 contacts (monthly / yearly) | Limits at 1,000 contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19/month | $15/month ($180/year) | $49 / $39 | 10,000 sends a month; 1 seat included, capped at 2; 5 actions per automation; standard and inline forms only; no landing pages; no pipelines; 15 active business goals |
| Plus | $59/month | $49/month ($588/year) | $119 / $95 | 10,000 sends a month; 1 seat included; unlimited automation actions; pipelines only through a paid add-on; 25 active business goals |
| Pro | $99/month | $79/month ($948/year) | $189 / $149 | 12,000 sends a month; 3 seats included; 200 active business goals |
| Enterprise | $179/month | $145/month ($1,740/year) | $319 / $255 | 15,000 sends a month; 5 seats included |
One detail worth knowing: the pricing page itself shows only the billed-yearly figures. The monthly-billing prices and yearly totals come from the pricing catalog that feeds the page, and those yearly totals divided by 12 match the displayed prices exactly. We list prices up to 2,500 contacts. Larger lists cost more, so price your own band on the pricing page.
What does each ActiveCampaign plan add for a coach?
Starter is email automation only, Plus is where the coach-relevant connections begin, and Pro and Enterprise add sending intelligence and company-level controls.
Starter
Multi-step automation, AI builders for campaigns and automations, 250+ email templates, 950+ automation recipes, Zapier, API and webhooks, Gmail and Outlook connections, 500 AI credits and basic onboarding and migration help. It does not include landing pages, the Calendly, Acuity or Eventbrite integrations, or the PayPal and Stripe integrations. A welcome sequence fits; a booking-to-payment flow does not.
Plus
Adds landing pages and site messages, custom-branded forms, generative AI for content and images, Calendly, Acuity Scheduling and Eventbrite integrations, PayPal and Stripe integrations, Facebook, Google and LinkedIn ads integrations, sales automation and custom user permissions. For most coaches selling through email, this is the realistic entry point.
Pro
Adds predictive sending, conditional content, advanced segmentation, attribution and conversion tracking, an automations map, split automations and priority support with onboarding and migration help. These matter once your list is large enough for small lifts to show up in revenue.
Enterprise
Adds single sign-on, HIPAA support, premium segmentation and custom objects, Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics integrations, custom reporting, a dedicated account team and an uptime SLA. Few solo coaches need this. A health business that requires HIPAA support from its email tool is the main exception.
What fees sit on top of the plan price?
ActiveCampaign charges no transaction fee because it does not process payments, but add-ons can more than double the bill. Its FAQ says "There are no setup costs or hidden fees," and that holds for setup. The extra costs are add-ons and contact growth.
- Payment processing: none built in. PayPal and Stripe integrations on Plus and above feed purchase data into automations, and those processors charge their own fees.
- Pipelines add-on: $49, $85 or $119 a month on Plus, Pro or Enterprise, plus a per-seat charge of $19, $29 or $49 a month. Yearly, the base is $468, $816 or $1,140.
- Pipelines and Sales Engagement add-on: $85, $139 or $199 a month, plus $39, $59 or $79 per seat. Yearly, the base is $816, $1,332 or $1,908.
- Custom reporting: $159 a month or $1,908 a year on Plus and Pro; included on Enterprise.
- Extra seats: priced in the catalog, for example $10 a month for one extra Starter seat, with Starter capped at 2.
- SMS, WhatsApp messaging and transactional email: sold separately. We have no list price to quote, so get one before you rely on them.
- Extra AI credits: 500 are included on every plan; more cost extra.
- Contact growth: ActiveCampaign's FAQ says growth moves you to the next contact band.
The add-on prices come from the catalog, because the page says only "Available add-on." We could not confirm whether they rise with contact count, so treat them as a floor and check the figure at checkout.
What does a coach actually pay at three sizes?
Expect about $19 a month at the very start, about $119 once you connect booking and payments at 2,500 contacts, and $300 or more with a team and a pipeline. These are worked examples, and every line assumes monthly billing unless noted.
| Coach | Setup | Software cost per month | Still needed beside it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coachful, same three coaches | One membership covering booking, payments, contracts, programs, courses, community, website and email | Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; with no client cap, Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; team seats on team plans | Your own Stripe or Razorpay account, which charges its processing fees |
| New solo coach, up to 1,000 contacts, email only | Starter | $19, or $15 billed yearly | Booking tool, checkout, somewhere to host landing pages, contracts, course and program delivery. None of these connect through the listed Starter integrations except via Zapier, API or webhooks |
| Growing solo coach, 2,500 contacts, selling programs | Plus | $119, or $95 billed yearly | Calendly or Acuity, a Stripe or PayPal account, an e-signature tool, course hosting and a client portal or app |
| Small team of three, 2,500 contacts, tracking deals | Pro plus Pipelines add-on | $303 counting one add-on seat ($189 + $85 + $29), or $361 counting three | The same list as above, plus whatever seats those other tools charge for |
We leave the side tools unpriced on purpose, because their cost depends on which ones you pick and how many seats you need. Add your actual quotes to the right-hand column before you decide. Whether the add-on's seat charge applies to all included seats is not stated on the pricing page, which is why the team row shows both.
Compare the total, not the headline number. An email tool can be the cheapest line on your stack and still leave you paying for four other subscriptions and connecting them by hand. If you run those tools now, list them next to a single membership (Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients).
What are the hidden costs and gotchas?
The biggest gotcha is that you trial Pro features but may buy Starter or Plus. Most of the other surprises follow from contact bands and billing terms, and none are hidden in the sense of being undisclosed. They are just easy to miss.
- Your trial build can outrun your plan. Pro costs about five times Starter at 1,000 contacts ($99 against $19). An automation with eight actions, a landing page or a Stripe trigger built in the trial will not fit Starter's limits. We found no published rule for what happens to such a build on a downgrade, so ask support before you commit.
- Pipelines disappear into a paid add-on. They are available in the trial and cost extra on every paid plan, and Starter cannot have them at all.
- The 100-send cap hides deliverability. You cannot learn how a real campaign lands with your full list during the trial.
- Bands jump. Going from the 1,000-contact price to the 2,500-contact price adds $30 a month on Starter, $60 on Plus and $90 on Pro at monthly billing. Clean your list before you cross a band.
- Send limits scale with the plan. Starter and Plus allow 10 times your contact count a month, Pro 12 times and Enterprise 15 times. At 1,000 contacts on Plus, that is ten full-list sends, and a weekly newsletter plus sequences can use it up.
- Yearly billing locks the term. The help center says a cancellation on an annual plan takes effect at the end of the annual period. The 30-day guarantee is the exit: "we'll give you a full refund if you're not satisfied after 30 days."
- Pausing is limited. You can pause billing for at most 3 months, once every 12 months, with no account access during the pause.
- Notes do not leave. Contact notes cannot be exported, so a coach who keeps session notes on contact records would lose them when moving away.
Public reviews are mixed. Trustpilot's heading showed 2.7 from 1,452 reviews on October 28, 2026, while the star image's alt text on the same page said 2.5. ActiveCampaign's own trial page advertises a 4.5 rating from 14,000+ reviews without naming the review site in the text we read. Read recent reviews about billing and support yourself instead of relying on a single score.
How do you get a real answer from 14 days?
Treat the trial as a test of one automation you would truly run. With 100 sends and one user, breadth will not teach you much. Here is one way to spend the two weeks, with the send numbers as an example.
- Days 1 and 2: verify your sending domain, because test emails depend on it. Import your real contacts, since the contact count is open during the trial.
- Days 3 to 5: pick the plan you would actually pay for and stick to its limits. If that is Starter, keep your automation to 5 actions and skip landing pages.
- Days 6 to 9: run a welcome or post-discovery-call sequence on a segment of about 30 people who know you. At three emails each, that uses 90 of your 100 sends.
- Days 10 and 11: connect Calendly, Acuity or Stripe if you would pay for Plus or above. Check that a booking or purchase moves a contact into the right automation.
- Day 12: ask for the one-time extension if you need it, and note that it may be refused.
- Day 13: export contacts to CSV and copy your email text and automation steps into a document.
- Day 14: work out the monthly total with the add-ons and side tools you would need, then decide.
If you do not upgrade, you do nothing else. With no card on file, the account simply expires.
Is ActiveCampaign worth paying for after the trial?
It is worth paying for if email is how you sell, and less so if your main problem is delivering coaching to clients. ActiveCampaign is strong at segmented sequences and multi-step automation, and many coaches will never need more email power than it offers. It has no course hosting, client portal, client app, coaching programs, habit tracking or check-ins, and that is where coaches tend to outgrow it.
List-driven coaches with a large audience
Probably yes. If revenue comes from launches and nurture sequences, Pro's predictive sending, conditional content and attribution can earn their cost. Keep your delivery tools separate and accept the extra logins.
New coaches with few contacts
Usually not yet. Starter lacks booking and payment integrations, and a new coach needs clients more than segmentation. A setup built for new coaches gets you to a first paid client with fewer parts.
Coaches who deliver programs
Not as the main tool. ActiveCampaign can message a client but cannot show them a weekly program, track a habit or collect a check-in. See how client email works without it, and compare with all-in-one coaching software.
Health and fitness coaches
Be careful with what goes into any marketing tool. HIPAA support appears only on Enterprise. Coaching is not medical care, so refer clients with medical concerns to a licensed clinician and keep clinical records in a clinical system. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified either. For delivery tools, see our pages for health coaches and fitness coaches.
Small teams and B2B coaches
Sometimes. If you sell to companies and need Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics, ActiveCampaign's Enterprise plan has what Coachful does not. If a simple lead list is enough, read how to run pipelines without ActiveCampaign before you buy the add-on, and look at Coachful for teams.
How does ActiveCampaign compare with alternatives on trial and price?
ActiveCampaign's trial is one of the easier ones to start, but most rivals keep a free tier or include more than email. Prices below are entry points as listed in October 2026, and most scale with your list.
| Tool | Trial or free terms | Entry price | Fees on your sales | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coachful | A free trial, plus a free white-glove build on every plan | Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients | 0% platform fee; Stripe or Razorpay processing only | Coaches who want booking, payments, contracts, programs and email under one login |
| ActiveCampaign | 14 days, no card, 100 sends; no free plan | $19/month ($15 billed yearly) at 1,000 contacts | Processes no payments | Deep email automation and segmentation |
| MailerLite | 14 days of premium features, then they switch off and nothing is deleted; free plan up to 250 subscribers | $12/month at 500 subscribers; $19 at 1,000 | 0% commission; Stripe's fee applies | Budget email with built-in bookings and simple sales |
| Kit | 14 days on paid plans, no card; free plan up to 10,000 subscribers | Creator from $39/month at 1,000 subscribers | Kit Commerce: 3.5% + $0.30 all-in | Newsletter-led coaches selling digital products |
| Mailchimp | 14 days on Essentials or Standard in select countries, payment details required; free plan up to 250 contacts | $13/month Essentials or $20/month Standard at 500 contacts | None stated for marketing plans | Small lists and basic newsletters |
| Systeme.io | Free plan that never expires, no card | Startup $17/month for 5,000 contacts | 0% transaction fee; Stripe or PayPal processing | Low-cost funnels, email and basic courses |
| Kajabi | 14 days; card optional, and entering one places a hold and charges when the trial ends | $179/month ($143 billed yearly) | 2.7% to 2.9% + $0.30 on Kajabi Payments (US); other providers add 0.5% to 2% | Selling courses and communities at a higher budget |
For direct head-to-heads, read MailerLite vs ActiveCampaign, ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign vs ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign vs Flodesk, Systeme.io vs ActiveCampaign and ActiveCampaign vs Kajabi. Our ranked list of ActiveCampaign alternatives for coaches covers the wider field, and the Mailchimp free trial and Kajabi free trial guides cover their trial terms in full.
MailerLite is the closest like-for-like saving, and it adds bookings that ActiveCampaign lacks.
Mailchimp's Essentials plan allows only 4 steps per flow, so a multi-step nurture sequence needs Standard.
Systeme.io has no native 1:1 scheduling with client records, based on our September 2026 profile.
Kajabi caps its Basic plan at 2,500 contacts and 5 products, and costs far more at entry.
What does Coachful do differently from ActiveCampaign?
Coachful replaces the stack around your email instead of competing only on email depth. It is a coaching platform where one subscription covers booking, payments, contracts, program delivery with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant, with one login for you and one branded app for your client. It is built for coaches who deliver programs and not just sessions, solo coaches growing into a small team, and coaches replacing 4 to 6 tools.
Here is what that covers against the gaps above:
- Email: lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences with triggers, delays, branching and A/B splits, included in your Coachful membership.
- Booking: pages with availability rules, buffers and time-zone detection, two-way Google, Apple and Outlook calendar sync, and built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Meet or Teams links. See scheduling software.
- Payments: one-time, subscriptions and payment plans through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account, with a 0% Coachful platform fee. See payment software.
- Agreements: coaching contracts with e-signature, sent before the first call and stored on the client record.
- Client records: goals, check-ins, habits, notes, intake answers, tags, payments and sessions in one coaching CRM.
- Delivery: multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, and morning and evening check-ins in the client's branded home and app.
This walkthrough shows how email works inside the platform.
The Automations screen holds app automation, reminder and Instagram automation choices, so a comment on a post can send someone your booking link in a DM.
Sessions sit on one calendar, with email reminders plus SMS and WhatsApp reminders once messaging is enabled.
Each transaction gets an invoice, and you can raise manual invoices as well.
Clients see their program and its current week, which is the part an email tool cannot show them.
Coachful does not do everything, and ActiveCampaign is ahead in places. Predictive sending, conditional content and attribution reporting are ActiveCampaign Pro features that are not on our feature list. We have no Salesforce or HubSpot integration, no multi-stage sales deal board for large teams, no PayPal and no permanent free plan. We are not HIPAA-certified, so we are not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing. The client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not your own App Store account. On Trustpilot we hold 4.5 from 21 reviews, which is a small sample.
Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. From Create, under We'll build it for you, you describe what you want and our team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. That can be a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline, email sequence, lead quiz or automation. You can attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files. Nothing gets invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. A somatic coach leaving Kajabi had the homepage and About page rebuilt and the contact form connected, and a business mentor for beauty professionals got a 12-week mentorship sales page, a start-up-guide funnel and rewritten follow-up emails. Read more about the white-glove service.
To start, take a free trial, request your first build, and have your clients, programs and content imported for you during onboarding. Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients. If you later leave, you can export your full client data as a ZIP, including notes, check-ins, goals, habits, sessions and form responses.
How can you save money on ActiveCampaign?
The largest saving is yearly billing, followed by buying the lowest plan that truly fits and keeping your list clean. At 1,000 contacts, yearly billing saves $48 a year on Starter, $120 on Plus, $240 on Pro and $408 on Enterprise against paying monthly.
- Pay yearly only after you are sure. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the annual term, so use monthly billing or the 30-day guarantee to prove the fit first.
- Prune contacts before a band change. Removing inactive contacts can keep you under 1,000, which is worth up to $60 a month on Plus at monthly billing.
- Skip the Pipelines add-on until you need it. A solo coach with a few leads a month can often track them with tags and a simple list.
- Do not buy Plus only for landing pages if your website already handles them. Check whether you need the Stripe and booking integrations too, since those are the stronger reason to upgrade.
- Use the pause if you take a break. You can pause billing for up to 3 months, once every 12 months, though not on Commit Annually Pay Monthly accounts.
Frequently asked questions about the ActiveCampaign free trial
How long is the ActiveCampaign free trial?
It lasts 14 days, as listed in October 2026. You can request a one-time extension from the Customer Experience team, but ActiveCampaign says it may not be able to grant every request.
Does the ActiveCampaign free trial need a credit card?
No. The sign-up page says "No credit card needed," and you sign up with an email address that you verify during account creation.
Will I be charged when the trial ends?
No, unless you choose to upgrade. The help center says it will not charge you unless you manually upgrade to a paid account. After expiry you are sent to the billing page, where you can buy a plan if you want one.
Does ActiveCampaign have a free plan?
No. The 14-day trial is the only unpaid option. Paid plans start at $19 a month on monthly billing or $15 a month billed yearly for 1,000 contacts.
How many emails can I send during the trial?
Up to 100 in total, to as many contacts as you import. Test emails go only to your own address and need a verified sending domain, while real campaigns can go to active contacts.
Which plan does the trial match?
Its features match the Pro plan, which the help center calls Professional, with one user. It also includes the Pipelines and Sales Engagement add-on, which costs extra on paid plans. The SMS add-on, custom domains on landing pages and the Preference Center are not available.
Can I get a refund after the trial if I upgrade?
The pricing page says "we'll give you a full refund if you're not satisfied after 30 days." Read the terms before you pay yearly, because a cancellation on an annual plan otherwise takes effect at the end of the annual period.
What should I do before the trial ends?
Export your contacts to CSV, since we found no published retention period for expired trial accounts. Copy your emails and automation steps into a document, and keep contact notes elsewhere because they cannot be exported.
Can Coachful replace ActiveCampaign for a coach?
For most coaches who need lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences alongside booking, payments and program delivery, yes. If you depend on predictive sending, attribution reporting or a Salesforce integration, keep ActiveCampaign. You can start with a free trial and compare for yourself on the comparison page.
What is Coachful's free white-glove service?
On any plan, you describe what you want built and the Coachful team builds it inside your account, usually within about 24 hours. That can be a website, funnel, program, email sequence and more. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing.
