Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign

Written head to head: ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp, with when to choose each side.

Compared on	Mailchimp Free plan · from $13/mo VisitRemove	ActiveCampaign Free trial · from $15/mo VisitRemove
What it is	Intuit's email and SMS marketing platform, free for 250 contacts, with AI writing on Standard and Premium	Email marketing automation with Active Intelligence AI, priced by contacts from 1,000, with a 14-day free trial
Free plan	Up to 250 contacts; 500 email sends a month with no more than 250 a day; 1 user seat and 1 audience; limited pre-built templates; no automation flows, email scheduling or A/B testing; Mailchimp branding stays on; email support for the first 30 days only. Sending pauses if the contact or send limit is exceeded.	No
Cheapest paid plan	$13/mo (Essentials)Mailchimp pricing	$15/mo billed annually (Starter)ActiveCampaign pricing
What it covers	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.	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.
Free trial	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	14-day free trial, no credit card needed; 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android, API	Web, API
Integrations (vendor's figure)	300+ integrations including Shopify, WooCommerce, Canva, Zapier, Square, Stripe and Salesforce	1,000+ app integrations including Zapier, Gmail, Outlook, Stripe and Salesforce
Open source	No	No
Good for	Small businesses sending regular newsletters to a few thousand contacts Ecommerce stores that want automated flows tied to Shopify or WooCommerce data Trying email marketing free with a list under 250 contacts	Building multi-step automations triggered by site visits, purchases and tags Small teams that want AI to draft campaigns and automations Businesses that want marketing automation and a sales CRM in one account
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	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
Made by	The Rocket Science Group LLC d/b/a Mailchimp (part of Intuit)	ActiveCampaign, LLC

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

Every tool in email marketing tools is on its category page, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.