ActiveCampaign Reviews

Pros

ActiveCampaign is a hyper growth SaaS business with compelling scaling challenges. This is a dream job for anybody who considers themselves a self starer problem solver type. We do the Kubernetes and the AWS with the Cloud Native stuff (sometimes, lots of legacy too) and a bunch of really solid PHP (and Java and Python and Go and a bunch of shell scripts and whatever). Databases too!

Cons

The sheer volume of work can be overwhelming at times. Leadership at the VP level has been inconsistent. We've unfortunately lost a few very strong leaders at that level. We've also had some frankly negative contributors at that level. Older code can be challenging to work with.

Pros

Really smart engineers Good benefits

Cons

Where do I start..... This company is UTTER CHAOS. Completely and totally. Its very top heavy and so many of the leaders in the company do not have the experience or the background needed to take the company forward. They cannot make a decision and STICK TO IT to save their lives! The management wants the staff to just "do what they are being told", whenever they are being told. The Product department at this company is a joke. The head of the department has no Product experience at any other company and makes super random decisions. But they are a friend of the CEO, so........ The technology is old, the tech debt is HUGE, the code is patched up and band-aided together, there are permanent fire drills.... and what does the leadership do to fix it? They spent $$$$ on a productivity tool to measure developer performance by "counting their code checkins". The engineering teams are all understaffed and struggling to keep up with the workload, working nights and weekends, but no hiring is allowed. The leadership turns a blind eye and instead focuses on such things as mentioned above. Forget work life balance at this company. It.does.not.exist.

Pros

I worked with some great people (almost all of them have moved on from AC) and I learned huge lessons about the red flags to look out for in the future. The best thing AC ever did for me was lay me off.

Cons

I could write a lot here - I was with the company for a long time and saw all of the huge ups and downs. But I’ll keep it short. AC rewards toxic, unethical, under handed behavior. If you ever push back, if you ever make a mistake, if you ever fail to kiss the right butts, you’ll never make it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a great collaborator, a subject matter expert, if you truly know your area of expertise, an excellent people leader - you will not be rewarded unless a few people at the top like you and you fall in line. If you love a company that emulates every negative tech stereotype and then adds cronyism and absolute chaos on top of it, then go for it. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

Pros

The pay used to be competitive, but since it's so hard to meet your goals, you never get a good paycheck at the end of the day.

Cons

''The best thing AC ever did for me was lay me off.''' The toxic work environment extended beyond the management team. Colleagues were pitted against one another, creating a sense of constant competition and paranoia. Trust and collaboration were virtually nonexistent, as everyone seemed more concerned with protecting their own interests than working towards a common goal. Additionally, the workers' physical and mental health was flagrantly neglected. Without any thought for a work-life balance, long hours were expected. Employees who complained about their workload received dismissive answers from management, and burnout was a common occurrence.

Pros

If you want to make a difference, you can. I’ve been able to do almost everything I’ve wanted to do here. There are a lot of reviews claiming leaders aren’t transparent, but my experience is that all of them will share what’s going on when you ask them. They don’t proactively share because there’s a lot going on and it’s not natural to them to stop and share. But when you ask, they’ll tell you directly.

Cons

It’s fast moving and there are competing priorities. People who don’t know how to manage their time don’t succeed here.

Pros

Benefits are competitive, but don’t let the unlimited PTO fool you — it is monitored by exec leadership. Lots of incredibly smart people in the trenches and on the frontlines.

Cons

There are a couple of reviews out here from April that mention how immature the executive leadership is, and they are 100% accurate. So, plus 1 on those reviews. This organization is plagued with cronyism, an immature executive leadership, executives (C level and SVP) in roles where they have no professional background outside of ActiveCampaign, and a leadership team who doesn’t get out of its own way and allow the people they’ve hired to do the job they were hired to do. It’s almost impossible to make the simplest decision, like sending out an email to let customers know that a significant change is happening to their plan. There are too many decision makers on pretty much every project or program that is ever launched. It’s a wonder that anything ever gets done - it definitely doesn’t get done on time. And if someone does have a good/original idea, someone who is favored by management will inevitably take ownership of that project/program. Management by fear is real, and in practice here at ActiveCampaign. Org changes have pretty much been continuous since I started a few years ago, and haven’t stopped. I’ve lost count with the number of org changes and layoffs that have happened over the last year. Each time this happens the direction and the goals of the company shift. It’s never really well explained why the change, you are simply expected to comply and not ask questions. There are no clear company goals or performance KPI’s to align to, or to create your own professional goals or plans to execute against. Your own priorities and goals will shift continuously, not just in the year, and not just one quarter to the next, but monthly. It’s impossible to determine the success of your work as priorities keep shifting. Lots of top talent has been let go over the last year. If an employee is seen as redundant in their role, rather than invest in that top talent who has contributed to the organization, they are let go unless they are friends of the CEO. If someone catches the attention of the head of Marketing, he will go after that person, often without all of the facts, even if they are not in his vertical, and that person is in danger of getting cut. There is a perpetual climate of chaos and fear — who is next on the chopping block?

Pros

Competitive Salary, open to change

Cons

Can feel alienated at times

Pros

Good company and great benefits

Cons

Fast decision's and complex software

Pros

They hire helpful, intelligent people that are fantastic long-lasting connections even after you leave. You *could get lots of opportunities for personal/career growth with the right manager/team. Warning: Those opportunities often come at the cost of burning you out due to the start-up momentum and inability to shift old responsibilities.

Cons

Rampant burn-out, out of touch leadership that doesn't even realize how hard they gaslight people. I've watched multiple people across departments burn out and be left with a very low sense of confidence in the end. The unofficial leadership approach if you're having trouble handling load or balance, is to put that back on you and ask "well, what can you do about that?". They don't seem to take responsibility for systematic issues caused by leadership themselves or maybe there aren't enough of those crucial manager roles that have the bandwidth to take on these issues. Due to the love of a 'start up mentality', 'middle management' is a lower priority and almost a bad word but it's a reality of scaling!

Pros

Competitive salary, benefits, and PTO.

Cons

Layoffs in fall 2022. Overcomplicated software architecture. Poor developer tooling and environments. Poor ability to scale without high cost/impact. Huge tech debt. Poorly built monolith, and implementation of microservices is chaotic/disorganized. Understaffed and underskilled teams, resulting in poor work/life balance for any employees that care to try to make a difference and meet deadlines despite understaffed or underskilled teams. Management ignores engineers warning of impending problems, until they become active problems that can no longer be ignored. Poor communication, Engineering Managers are not always kept in the loop, which means teams are not always in the loop. Company is 20 years old, yet still claims to be a startup. Highest position available for a code-facing role is Staff Engineer, no higher level available. High rate of defects. High customer churn rate. High employee churn rate.