Wouldn’t it be great to use one platform for all the different ways you get in touch with your customers? Activetrail promises just that: a data-powered marketing automation software for email and SMS, letting you create multichannel campaigns effortlessly.
If that sounds a bit optimistic, we’re in the same boat. Let’s see if Activetrail can deliver on its promises, and present a few alternatives to upgrade your email marketing game.
What is Activetrail?
ActiveTrail is an email marketing software that lets businesses connect with their target audiences through email, SMS and Whatsapp.
Activetrail’s top features
Activetrail is an award winning marketing automation software that has a number of ways for reaching out to your target audience. These are its top features:
- email marketing software with an intuitive web builder and mobile-friendly designs
- email marketing automations with autoresponders and triggers
- analytics for tracking, testing and refining your email campaigns
- landing page builder
- SMS marketing software
- popup and form builder
- online surveys
Pricing plans
The pricing depends on how many contacts you have on your list.
There are three available plans, and these are the prices for 500 contacts. The Basic plan costs $8 per month, which gets you:
- unlimited email sending
- popups and landing pages
- reporting and analytics
- surveys
- segmentation
- A/B testing
- dynamic and personalized content
- professional templates
- chat and email support
The Plus plan is $11 per month, and it gets you everything from Basic + more:
- social integrations
- mobile app
- webhooks
- scheduled FTP imports
- smart on-site pixel
- AI-driven predictive delivery
- 2FA
Lastly, the Premium plan is $298 per month, and it has everything from the previous plans + more:
- a dedicated account manager
- help with setup, migration and onboarding
- a monthly report and review
- on-demand training for your team and more.
What are Activetrail users saying?
The landing page builder is one of the most promising aspects of Activetrail as you can design the pages where you send your email recipients to. The problem is that compared to even the most basic design tools, Activetrail’s landing page builder is very limited.
“The landing page creation tool in ActiveTrail seems quite limited. In this case, even for more complex landing pages, I still have to use another tool, which can be quite inconvenient at times.” – Source
Many users complain that the analytics are subpar and not detailed enough. If you’re looking to take a deep dive into email marketing and figure out what (not) to do with your campaigns for more clicks, opens, and conversions… Activetrail is a letdown.
“They do not seem profound to me – the simple data analysis is provided. I could not analyze other variables within the emails like the most clicked links, places at which users bailed in the email process.” – Source
Top Activetrail alternatives to consider in 2025
Activetrail is a decent choice for data powered marketing, tracking, testing and optimizing campaigns, especially if you’re on a tight budget. However, it’s not the only choice out there and there are a few tools that also deserve your attention.
Woodpecker
Woodpecker is a cold email and sales automation platform built for agencies, sales teams, and B2B businesses that prioritize personalized email outreach. While ActiveTrail focuses more on bulk marketing automation and newsletter campaigns, Woodpecker is better suited for cold outreach, with built-in deliverability features and personalized follow-ups that help messages land in the primary inbox.
Key features
- Automated follow-ups: Create fully personalized, condition-based sequences that adjust based on prospect behavior.
- A/B testing: Test different subject lines and message variations to improve open and reply rates.
- Email warm-up and recovery: Keep your sender reputation healthy and prevent emails from going to spam.
- Timezone-based sending: Schedule messages to arrive at optimal times across global time zones.
- Inbox rotation and unified campaigns: Send emails from multiple addresses while managing outreach from one dashboard.
- CRM integrations: Natively connects with Pipedrive, HubSpot, Salesforce, and more, or use Zapier for advanced workflows.
- AI personalization: Create customized email content and even add personalized videos using AI tools.
- Team collaboration tools: Invite unlimited team members and assign campaigns across multiple users.
Pricing
Starts at $20/month for 500 contacted prospects, with pricing based on the number of contacts and email accounts.
- Includes unlimited follow-ups, email warm-up, deliverability tools, A/B testing, and integrations.
- A free trial is available to test the platform before committing.
Why it’s better than ActiveTrail
Woodpecker is ideal for outbound sales teams that prioritize one-to-one conversations over mass emailing. Compared to ActiveTrail, it offers stronger cold outreach features, better deliverability protection, and the flexibility to send from multiple inboxes, making it a smarter choice for B2B prospecting and lead generation.
User reviews
✅ “Excellent for cold emailing with follow-ups that feel personal.”
✅ “Helps keep my emails out of spam and boosts response rates.”
✅ “Clean UI and solid support team.”
❌ “No LinkedIn automation unless you integrate with another tool.”
❌ “Could use more built-in CRM features.”
❌ “Learning curve if you’re used to traditional email marketing tools.”
For teams making the shift from traditional newsletter tools like ActiveTrail to outbound-first sales engagement, Woodpecker is a reliable and scalable alternative.
Grab your free trial of Woodpecker today!
Acumbamail
Acumbamail is a marketing automation tool built for teams that want to run both email and SMS campaigns on one platform. Unlike ActiveTrail, which leans heavily into email with strong behavioral automation, Acumbamail adds more versatility with bulk SMS and a library of ready-to-go email templates. It’s a solid option for teams looking for multi-channel outreach with basic campaign optimization features.
Key features
- Email editor and templates: Customize emails using an easy drag-and-drop builder and choose from over 850 pre-designed templates.
- Marketing automation: Set up autoresponders and drip campaigns based on user actions or time delays.
- Bulk email and SMS campaigns: Run high-volume campaigns through email or SMS with centralized reporting.
- A/B testing and optimization: Test subject lines or content variants to improve performance.
- Advanced reporting: Get stats on open, click, bounce, and unsubscribe rates.
- Surveys and forms: Create feedback forms and surveys directly in the tool.
- Facebook audiences integration: Sync email lists with Facebook for retargeting.
- SMTP service: Use Acumbamail’s SMTP to send transactional emails with analytics.
Pricing
Pricing depends on your monthly email volume and number of subscribers.
- Free: 2,000 emails/month, 250 subscribers, email editor included.
- Basic: $26/month for 20,000 emails. Adds automations, phone support, A/B testing, and templates.
- Pro: $75/month for 20,000 emails. Adds list cleaning, Facebook audience sync, and email marketing advice.
- Enterprise: $237/month for 20,000 emails. Adds priority support, dedicated IP, and a personal account manager.
Why it’s better than ActiveTrail
Acumbamail is a more budget-friendly choice for teams that want both email and SMS marketing in one place. It’s especially useful for agencies or e-commerce brands that want volume-based pricing with access to automation and social integrations, even on mid-tier plans.
User reviews
✅ “Tons of templates and a drag-and-drop editor that’s easy to use.”
✅ “Nice to have SMS and email under the same roof.”
❌ “Poor deliverability and limited CSV import options.”
❌ “Customer support is frustrating and often unhelpful.”
❌ “Lack of tagging and smart contact management.”
If you’re looking for a cost-effective alternative to ActiveTrail that still gives you automation and multi-channel marketing, Acumbamail is worth considering. Just be prepared to navigate its clunky support and occasional UX frustrations.
Conclusion
Sometimes, less truly is more. Tools such as Activetrail try to solve many problems at once on a surface level instead of solving one problem really well. At Woodpecker, we take a different approach.
We help you solve all of your cold email problems. From creating cold emails, segmenting your audiences, creating highly targeted sequences, analyzing your performance and much more, Woodpecker is your go-to cold email platform.
Get a free trial today to see it in action.