Drip vs ActiveCampaign: Which Email Automation Service is Better?

Overview

Drip and ActiveCampaign are both powerful automation platforms, but they've evolved to serve different primary markets. Drip has doubled down on e-commerce, becoming a specialist platform for online stores. ActiveCampaign has built a comprehensive CRM with marketing automation, serving businesses with sales teams and complex customer journeys.

Both offer excellent automation capabilities, but the right choice depends on your business model and whether you need e-commerce features or CRM functionality.

Key Differences

E-commerce Capabilities

Drip offers deep native integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Magento. Product data, purchase history, browse behavior, and cart abandonment all flow automatically into your automation. Revenue attribution shows exactly which emails drive sales.

ActiveCampaign has e-commerce integrations but they're not as deep. You can connect stores and track purchases, but features like browse abandonment and product recommendations require more setup or third-party apps.

CRM and Sales

ActiveCampaign includes a full CRM with deal tracking, sales pipelines, task management, and lead scoring. Sales and marketing teams work from the same platform, with automation supporting both acquisition and sales processes.

Drip lacks CRM functionality entirely. It's designed for marketing to customers, not managing sales processes. Businesses with sales teams will need a separate CRM.

Automation Approach

Both platforms offer excellent visual workflow builders with similar capabilities - conditions, splits, waits, goals, and multi-branch logic. Drip's templates are e-commerce focused (abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back). ActiveCampaign's templates cover broader use cases (lead nurturing, onboarding, engagement).

Who Should Choose What

Choose Drip if:

• You run an e-commerce store as your primary business
• You use Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce
• Revenue attribution and ROI tracking are priorities
• You need advanced e-commerce automation (browse abandonment, product recommendations)
• You don't need CRM or sales pipeline features

Choose ActiveCampaign if:

• You have a sales team that needs CRM
• Lead scoring and nurturing are important
• You need sales pipelines and deal tracking
• Your business model isn't purely e-commerce
• You want marketing and sales in one platform

Consider Sequenzy for SaaS

Neither Drip nor ActiveCampaign is ideal for SaaS businesses. Sequenzy offers what subscription businesses actually need: native Stripe/Polar integration, MRR tracking, AI-powered workflow generation, and billing-based automation triggers - all at $19/mo. For SaaS, it's a better fit than either platform.