ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp
ActiveCampaign or Mailchimp? Here is how they compare on price, free plan, platforms and the jobs each does best, from each vendor's own pages.
| Compared on | Visit | Visit |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Email marketing automation with Active Intelligence AI, priced by contacts from 1,000, with a 14-day free trial | Intuit's email and SMS marketing platform, free for 250 contacts, with AI writing on Standard and Premium |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $15/mo billed annually (Starter)ActiveCampaign pricing | $13/mo (Essentials)Mailchimp pricing |
| What it covers | For 1,000 contacts (the smallest tier) and 10,000 email sends a month; 1 user; $180 billed yearly or $19 month-to-month. The price rises with contact count. Every plan includes 500 AI credits; extra credits are sold separately. | Starting price for the 0-500 contacts tier; email sends up to 10x the contact count (5,000 a month at 500 contacts); 3 user seats. The price rises with the contact tier, up to $385/month for 50,000 contacts. Overages are billed if contact or send limits are exceeded. Annual plans exist only for Standard and Premium at 10,000+ contacts, through sales. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial, no credit card needed; 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans | 14-day free trial of Essentials or Standard (payment details required at sign-up); a 1-month Premium trial for qualified new customers through sales |
| Platforms | Web, API | Web, iOS, Android, API |
| Integrations (vendor's figure) | 1,000+ app integrations including Zapier, Gmail, Outlook, Stripe and Salesforce | 300+ integrations including Shopify, WooCommerce, Canva, Zapier, Square, Stripe and Salesforce |
| Open source | No | No |
| Made by | ActiveCampaign, LLC | The Rocket Science Group LLC d/b/a Mailchimp (part of Intuit) |
Choose ActiveCampaign if…
- The job is building multi-step automations triggered by site visits, purchases and tags.
- The job is small teams that want AI to draft campaigns and automations.
Choose Mailchimp if…
- You want a free plan: ActiveCampaign does not have one.
- Price matters: its cheapest paid plan is $13/mo against $15/mo.
- You want a mobile app (iOS and Android).
- The job is small businesses sending regular newsletters to a few thousand contacts.
- The job is ecommerce stores that want automated flows tied to Shopify or WooCommerce data.
Still weighing it up?
If neither is quite right, ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp are also compared with their other rivals: Mailchimp vs Klaviyo, Mailchimp vs Brevo and Mailchimp vs MailerLite.
What ActiveCampaign does
- Multi-step marketing automation with 950+ automation recipes and multiple triggers
- Active Intelligence AI: AI campaign builder, AI automation builder, AI-suggested segments and proactive drafts, with 500 AI credits on every plan
- Generative AI for email content and images (Plus and above)
- Drag-and-drop email designer with 250+ templates, A/B testing and dynamic content
- Predictive sending and conditional content (Pro and Enterprise)
- Forms on every plan; landing pages and site messages from Plus
Watch out for
- No free plan; the smallest tier is 1,000 contacts
- Starter limits each automation to 5 actions, has no landing pages and automates email only
- Pro and Enterprise require a yearly commitment
What Mailchimp does
- Drag-and-drop email builder with pre-built and branded templates; custom-coded templates can be sent on Standard and Premium
- Marketing Automation Flows: up to 4 steps per flow on Essentials, up to 200 steps with branching and multiple starting points on Standard and Premium
- Signup forms, pop-up forms, landing pages and surveys on every plan
- Tags and segmentation, with predictive segments, customer lifetime value and purchase likelihood on Standard and Premium
- Intuit Assist generative AI: Write with AI in the email editor, plus send time and send day optimization (Standard and Premium)
- Subject line helper and suggested next actions on every plan
Watch out for
- The free plan stops at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with no automation flows or scheduling
- Essentials automation flows are limited to 4 steps; generative AI features need Standard or Premium
- Overage charges apply on paid plans when contact or send limits are exceeded
Questions
Is ActiveCampaign or Mailchimp cheaper?
On published entry prices, Mailchimp is cheaper: $15/mo billed annually (Starter) for ActiveCampaign against $13/mo (Essentials) for Mailchimp. What each plan includes differs, so compare the limits too.
Do ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp have free plans?
Mailchimp does; ActiveCampaign does not, though it offers a 14-day free trial, no credit card needed; 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans.