ActiveCampaign is a strong email platform with no free plan: a trial, then contact-based pricing that climbs with your list. Plyto starts at $0 with the CRM included and an agent to write the emails.
Brand-new businesses
First customers, first follow-ups, no budget line for software yet.
Startups pre-revenue
The system should exist before the spend does. Set it up free, grow into it.
Side businesses
Nights-and-weekends operations that still lose money when a lead goes cold.
Teams outgrowing the spreadsheet
Past the shared sheet, not ready for a three-figure monthly bill.
Email platforms bill by contact count from day one, add per-seat charges for the team, and start the meter with a trial deadline. A new business ends up paying real money to send a welcome email to forty people. The economics only make sense once the list is big, which is exactly when switching gets hard.
100 sends a month to your first 100 contacts, segmented on real CRM fields: deal stage, source, last activity. Not a send tool bolted to a contact list.
Campaign drafts in your brand voice from a one-line ask, powered by $10 of monthly AI credit on the free plan. You approve everything before it sends.
On the Growth plan at $149, automations trigger on deal stages, form fills and ad conversions, not just opens and clicks. A new account turns them on so you can see them first.
Nobody prices your teammates. Free, $49 and $149 all include the whole team.
Stated plainly:
| ActiveCampaign | Plyto | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | None: a 14-day trial | Free forever: 100 contacts, 100 sends a month |
| Pricing model | Climbs with contact count, plus per-seat charges | Flat plans by contact count, unlimited seats |
| CRM | An add-on around the email product | The foundation the email sits on |
| AI | Writing assists inside the tools | An agent that drafts campaigns end to end; you approve |
| Attribution | Email events | Click to deal to revenue, across email and ads |
ActiveCampaign's packaging and prices change; check their current page before deciding. The structural difference is stable: they have no free tier, and their meter runs on list size plus seats.
An example first month:
A lead form goes on your site; every submission becomes a CRM contact with source recorded.
The agent drafts a welcome email in your voice; you approve it once and new leads get it.
A monthly update goes to the whole list, inside the 100-send allowance.
The list crosses 100 contacts, and $49 buys room for 1,000 with sends to match.
For a new list, usually yes: a welcome email and a monthly update to under 100 contacts fits. When it stops fitting, that is the signal the list justifies $49, which raises both caps to 1,000.
No. Free covers contacts and campaign sends; automations live on Everything at $149, and a new account has them unlocked so you can try them. This page says so up front because finding out at the paywall is the thing we are trying not to do to you.
Contacts and tags import via CSV with agent-assisted mapping. Automations are rebuilt by describing them to the agent on a paid plan rather than imported.
Because we make money when your business grows into the paid plans. A free tier that does real work is the honest top of that funnel.
No card. No trial clock. $0.
Start free