Leaving ActiveCampaign?Your people can come. Your robots cannot.

What we promise

What happens when you hand over a list

In this order, every time, whatever the files look like.

1. 01

   The people who said no are written first.

   Everybody who unsubscribed, bounced or sits on your ActiveCampaign exclusion list goes on your do-not-email list before a single contact exists. If one address is active on one list and unsubscribed on another, the no wins.

2. 02

   You get a report before anything is written.

   bernard reads your files and shows you what it found: who can be emailed, who cannot and why, who is on the do-not-email side, the duplicates, the broken addresses, and which of your columns it read as what. Nothing has been imported at that point. You approve the report as a whole, or you change the files and read it again.

3. 03

   You can undo the whole thing, at any time.

   One step takes the import back: the contacts, the tags and the permission it created are all removed. What it keeps is the do-not-email entries, because somebody else’s no is not yours to undo.

4. 04

   Nobody is emailed by the move.

   Reading your files sends nothing. Importing sends nothing. Undoing sends nothing. The first email anybody gets from bernard is a campaign you read and approved yourself, with the number of recipients in front of you.

5. 05

   Permission is never invented.

   bernard works out who can be emailed from evidence, one person at a time. It never reads a number you typed or a column in a file, and there is no setting that changes that.

The six promises in full

The move, step by step

Eight steps, and all eight exist today

There is nothing on this list you have to wait for. Each step has a guide, written for the person doing it rather than for us.

1. 01

   Decide whether to move at all

   The honest test is above. If your business runs on a branching automation, this is the wrong move and we would rather say so now than after you have paid.

   The whole move, in order

2. 02

   Export your files from ActiveCampaign

   Your lists, exported once filtered to Active, and again filtered to Unsubscribed and to Bounced. Then your account exclusion list, copied out by hand: we could find no export for it in ActiveCampaign’s help (read 5 September 2026).

   Which files, and the exact clicks

3. 03

   Hand them over and read the report

   Upload the files in the Email campaigns area of your site. bernard tells you which list each file is and what it was filtered to, because guessing that is the one mistake that emails somebody who said no.

   The panel and the buttons

4. 04

   Go through the report line by line

   Who can be emailed, who cannot and why, the do-not-email side, duplicates merged, addresses skipped, and every column bernard read with the name it read it as.

   The report, line by line

5. 05

   Approve it, and the import runs as one thing

   Suppressions first, then people, then tags, then permission. The whole import carries one id, which is what makes the undo a single step rather than an afternoon.

   What approving actually does

6. 06

   Understand who you can email yet

   This is the step people are surprised by, so read it before you import rather than after. An imported contact is a record. An audience is evidence.

   Why the count does not move

7. 07

   Change your mind if you need to

   The undo is there for as long as you want it. Keep ActiveCampaign switched on while you settle in, and pause its scheduled campaigns before you send your first one here: bernard cannot see the other side of the fence, so that part is yours.

   How the undo works

8. 08

   Turn ActiveCampaign off when you are ready

   Export the unsubscribes one last time and bring them over. Replace its forms on your site, remove its tracking script and its sending records, then cancel. A cancelled account is archived and kept for a year, after which it cannot be recovered, so do not rush the last export.

   What we do with your list

The part people are surprised by

An imported contact is a record, not permission

Permission you bring over is recorded, dated and readable on every contact it belongs to. It does not raise your audience count. bernard counts permission given on your own site, and counting permission brought from another tool is a change we have decided to make and have not made. We would rather your count stayed honest than surprised you.

The two doors that do open

• →Somebody fills in a form on your site and clicks the confirmation link in the email that follows. That click is the evidence.
• →Somebody buys from you and leaves the marketing box ticked at the checkout. That is a narrower permission and bernard treats it as one.

Why the count did not move

Once you are here

Sending, and what you get back

Your own sending address

Mail goes out from your own domain and replies land in your real inbox. You add a few records at your registrar; for most sites a person here finishes the setup once those records verify, and you get an email when your address is ready.

One quote, one yes, and a window to stop

Before anything sends you see one summary: the subject, the audience, the number of people. You approve it once. Then there is a five-minute window in which Stop still works.

Results in plain words

Delivered, retired addresses, unsubscribed, complained, and the ones still unknown, each with the reason. A short note arrives 48 hours later with the same breakdown, so you do not have to remember to look.

An unsubscribe that lands on your own site

One click from the inbox. It applies to your site only, and nobody, including you, can undo it.

Your do-not-email list, visible

You can see who has left and why, and add an address yourself. You can only lift a block you made yourself.