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MARKETING AUTOMATION · MIGRATION GUIDE

Switching from Keap to ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign offers a free contact-migration service on every plan, one of the more supported paths in this category.

Bill Belcamino
Bottom line up frontby Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
Editorial assessment

Bottom line up front: Should I leave Keap for ActiveCampaign to cut costs?

Yes, if you can live without Keap's invoicing, checkout, payment processing and scheduling, since ActiveCampaign starts at $15/mo against Keap's $299/mo flat.

ActiveCampaign's free contact-migration service moves your list, but it has no payment processing at all, and your automations get rebuilt by hand either way. The payments are the hard part, not the contacts. Before you cancel Keap, list every customer on a payment plan or recurring charge and decide where that billing will live, because stored card details usually can't just be exported, and customers may need to re-enter them with the new processor. Move the billing first, confirm the next charge goes through, and only then cut over email. Leave the automation rebuild for last, once the money side is settled.

My read of the verified data on this page, checked against vendor sources on September 23, 2026. Disagree or spot an error? Tell Bill

Estimate · your inputs

Switching Cost & Friction Estimator

Most buyers only budget for the new subscription. This estimates the hidden labor, data-cleanup, and retraining cost of actually making the switch.

25,000
10

Estimate assumes: 1 hour of data-mapping/cleaning labor per 2,000 records, a blended $75/hr ops rate, tiered migration & cleaning tooling fees, and 4 hours of retraining per seat at a $45/hr fully-loaded rate.

Estimated Migration Time —
Data Friction Rating —
Total Hidden Switching Cost $0

    Why teams move from Keap to ActiveCampaign

    Much lower price

    $15/mo against $299/mo flat.

    Deeper automation

    15 active goals, granular segmentation.

    Free contact-migration service

    Included on every plan.

    How the migration actually works

    You lose Keap’s built-in invoicing, checkout, payment processing and appointment scheduling — ActiveCampaign offers none of these.

    StepWhat you do
    1Export your contact listExport contacts, tags and segments as CSV from the old tool.
    2Create your ActiveCampaign accountCreate your ActiveCampaign account and use its free contact-migration service, or import your list as CSV.
    3Rebuild automations in ActiveCampaign’s builderRecreate your automation logic using ActiveCampaign’s automation builder, and set up basic CRM/deal tracking if you plan to use it.
    4Rebuild automationsRecreate email sequences, triggers and automation rules by hand — these do not transfer automatically.
    5Reconnect integrationsReconnect your website forms, e-commerce store, payment processor or CRM sync to the new tool.
    6Run a real send before cancellingSend one real campaign through the new tool and confirm deliverability before cancelling the old plan.

    What this path doesn’t do for you:

    Keap’s invoicing, checkout, payments and appointment scheduling have no ActiveCampaign equivalent — plan for separate tools if you still need them.

    Pricing side by side

    PlanKeapActiveCampaign
    Pricing basisFlat, 2 users includedPer contact tier, account-wide
    Entry price$299/mo ($39/mo per extra user)Starter $15/mo (1,000 contacts)
    CRMIncludedStandard CRM included
    Invoicing/paymentsIncludedNot offered

    Standard list prices checked on each vendor’s pricing page on September 23, 2026. HubSpot price is the $20/seat standing rate, not its current new-customer promo.

    Feature parity check

    CapabilityKeapActiveCampaign
    Invoicing/paymentsIncludedNot offered
    Price$299/mo (2 users)$15/mo
    CRMIncludedStandard CRM included
    Automation depthIncluded, less granular15 active goals

    Going the other direction, or want the full comparison first?

    Read the ActiveCampaign vs Keap comparison Switching from ActiveCampaign to Keap instead?
    Verified data

    Security & access: what changes when you switch

    Security, offline and access rules that differ between Keap and ActiveCampaign. Rows where both tools are the same (2) are left out; the full side-by-side is on each tool’s page: Keap, ActiveCampaign.

    What changesKeap (today)ActiveCampaign (after)
    SOC 2 reportNot publishedSOC 2 Type IIsource
    Other certificationsPCI DSSsourceNot published
    HIPAA (BAA)BAA availablesourceBAA availableEnterprisesource
    Single sign-on (SAML/OIDC)Not publishedYesEnterprisesource
    Two-factor authenticationYesEnforcement: All plans (2FA mandatory for every user)sourceYesEnforcement: Startersource
    Data residency choicesNot publishedUS, EU, APACsource
    Offline modeNot documentedPartialThe Forms for iPad app can collect form sign-ups offline and adds them to the account once back online; the main ActiveCampaign mobile app needs an internet connection.source
    Device & session controlsNot publishedYesIdle-session timeout with customizable session length; MFA required to use the mobile app.source
    Editorial assessment

    Before you cut over

    • Set up single sign-on in ActiveCampaign on Enterprise before you invite the team, so accounts are created through your identity provider rather than by hand.
    • ActiveCampaign adds offline access (partial): install the mobile app for staff who work on the move.

    Checked September 19, 2026 against each vendor’s own trust center, help docs and app pages. Hover or tap “source” to see the exact wording we relied on. “Not published” means we could not find the vendor saying it on its own site; it doesn’t mean the feature is missing. Plan names are the lowest plan the vendor says includes the feature. Security · Offline · Remote vs office · Download the data

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Does ActiveCampaign import Keap data?

    Yes, through its free contact-migration service, or by CSV import.

    Will I save money?

    Yes, substantially, but you will need separate tools for invoicing, checkout and payments.

    Do I lose payment processing?

    Yes, entirely — ActiveCampaign does not process payments.

    Do my automations and workflows carry over?

    No. Automation logic, workflows and segmentation rules are specific to each platform’s builder and are rebuilt by hand in the new tool; only contact data moves via export/import or a migration service.

    Sources

    Prices on this page were recorded from each vendor’s own pricing page on the date shown at the top of the page. Vendors change pricing often — check the live source before you buy.

    Every figure is also in our open dataset (JSON and CSV, CC BY 4.0), with its source page and verification date. See how we research pricing.

    Source links on this site are checked every month; last check . How sources are checked.

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    Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
    About the author

    Bill Belcamino

    Founder and author, HelpCompare

    Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent eight and a half years as an engineer at HP, was COO of Auctiva (the number one third-party selling platform on eBay, past 200,000 users) and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. Then he spent 13 years building his own web properties with his own money at stake. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.

    “I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”

    Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. Pricing on this page was last verified on September 23, 2026. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.