Our next two contenders for the title of top email marketing platform are Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign. Both offer robust features and tools designed to help businesses engage customers, nurture leads, and drive conversions. However, with different strengths and capabilities, choosing between them can be challenging. Selecting the right marketing automation platform is crucial for businesses looking to streamline their marketing efforts and drive growth.
In this blog, we’ll compare Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign to help you make an informed decision about which platform best suits your business needs. We’ll explore their key features, pricing structures, user experiences, and more. So whether you’re a small business owner, marketer, or entrepreneur, you’ll come out the other side of this battle with valuable insights to guide your marketing automation strategy.
Key Feature Comparisons: Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign
Email marketing is an absolutely crucial component for doing business in today’s market. Thus, finding the right email and digital marketing platform for your business is of paramount importance. It’s time to ring that bell and let the battle of Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign begin!
Email Building
In today’s world, most programs use graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that allow you to drag-and-drop or click-and-add just about anything you want in your email. With Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign, it’s the same way. When you’re building an email—whether it’s an automation, a one-off campaign, or a transactional message—both platforms offer beautiful email templates to get you started.
The key difference between the two is the level of customization you’re allowed. ActiveCampaign allows you full access to its range of 250+ gorgeous mobile-friendly templates, no matter what plan you’re on. Mailchimp, on the other hand, only gives you a handful of (admittedly dated-looking) templates in comparison—unless you subscribe to one of the two higher-paid plans.
That being said, both platforms will give you the ability to make your email design perfectly suited to your business’s signature look. Plus, Mailchimp has a bit of a leg up when it comes to ease of use. After all, they basically set the industry standard by focusing on user experience.
The winner here? It depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re new to email marketing—or you want something fast and capable—Mailchimp is your monkey. However, if you want great templates to start from and in-depth customization, ActiveCampaign might be a better way to go.
Forms & Landing Pages
Growing your list is, of course, a key part of email marketing. The more people you can email, the more hot leads you have. So list-building features like forms and landing pages are important to your business. How do these contenders compare in the battle of Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign?
Surprisingly, Mailchimp’s form-builder is straightforward on the surface—but gets a little confusing further down and we recommend leaving this to a MailChimp Expert. Although each form builder is intuitive to use, there’s a different one for embedded and popup forms, which seems unnecessarily complicated. Plus, there are only 10 templates available, not all of which are mobile-responsive.
As for landing pages, the difference is even more stark. When comparing Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign, you’ll notice that the latter platform charges extra for this tool. And while their forms, landing pages, and array of templates are streamlined and relatively easy-to-use, that could be a deciding factor.
Again, this all comes down to what you’ll need for your business.
Automations
Mailchimp, as the long-time most popular email marketing platform around, has plenty of power to handle most email automation. They have an abundance of customer journeys to handle typical business interactions, and you can choose from pre-programmed templates. It’s certainly easy to get started, and as long as your business is straightforward, Mailchimp will help you just fine.
However, ActiveCampaign has made its mark with more complex automation programming. That does mean that the automation builder looks pretty intimidating at first, so expect a steep learning curve. But once you’ve got that down, you can do a whole lot—and view all your automations working together on one screen. That’s pretty impressive!
When it comes to Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign automations, you’re really only pitting ease-of-use against level of customization.
Integration, Analytics & Reporting
Once you’ve got most of your email marketing set up, the next step is to find out how well it’s working. With metrics reporting, the Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign match is pretty even. Both provide plenty of information on your performance, with tips and tools to refine and improve over time.
Plus, with most major ecommerce integrations available to both, you can get a pretty good idea of how much you’re selling. Although ActiveCampaign technically has more integration options available (nearly 1,000) compared to Mailchimp (about 300), all major platforms are covered. You can even use Zapier to increase your potential.
So who’s the winner here? It’s a tie. No matter which platform you choose, you should be in good hands with your analytics.
Customer Service
Customer service is an important feature to consider, especially if you’re new to either platform. Even though Mailchimp focuses on creating an easy user experience, you’ll still likely run across some problem or another when using it. As long as you’re paying for your account, Mailchimp will provide the support you’ll need. However, if you’re on their free plan, they’ll only help you out for the first 30 days.
With ActiveCampaign, you’ll get 24/7 chat and email support for all plans. This is excellent, since they have a reputation for being challenging for beginners. Plus, you can request one-on-one training from an expert.
As long as you’re happy with the level of support, either platform will provide industry standard assistance.
Free Plans on Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign
One of the great enduring things about Mailchimp’s philosophy of accessibility is that their Free plan is available in perpetuity. As long as you don’t exceed 500 contacts or 1,000 sends in a month, you can use their popular, powerful platform forever. That’s excellent news for small businesses and organizations. Of course, a fair number of features will be locked behind the paywall—but if you’re looking for just the basics, the monkey has you covered.
In comparison, ActiveCampaign doesn’t really have a free plan. They’ll let you try the system out for 14 days—without the need for a credit card. But after that, you’ll have to pony up. Considering the fact that this might not even give you enough time to set up, this is something to consider when choosing Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign.
If your company’s email marketing needs are small enough to fit into Mailchimp’s Free plan, you’re sitting pretty with the primate.
Pricing Chart: Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign
Putting Mailchimp’s Free plan aside, both Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign have three paid tiers to choose from. Additionally, both platforms’ prices are dependent on the number of contacts in your list, the features you have access to, and the number of sends you’re allowed to use.
| Mailchimp Prices | ActiveCampaign Prices | ||
| Free: Up to 500 contacts + 1,000 sends per month | Unlimited | Free Trial: Up to 100 contacts + 100 sends | 14-day trial only |
| Essentials: Up to 50,000 contacts + sends 10x contact limit | Starts at $13/mo | Plus: Up to 50,000 contacts + sends 10x contact limit | Starts at $49/mo (billed annually) or $70/mo (billed monthly) |
| Standard: Up to 100,000 contacts + sends 12x contact limit | Starts at $20/mo | Professional: 2,500–50,000 contacts + sends 12x contact limit | Starts at $149/mo (billed annually) or $187/mo (billed monthly) |
| Premium: Custom list + sends 15x contact limit | Starts at $350/mo | Enterprise: At least 2,500 contacts + sends 12x contact limit | Starts at $259/mo (billed annually) or $323/mo (billed monthly) |
As you can see, with Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign, the price difference could be a dealbreaker for your business.
Tier-Locked Features
As can be expected in the Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign contest, each higher tier unlocks more features for your platform. ActiveCampaign has certain ecommerce integrations only available in pricier plans. On the other hand, Mailchimp limits automation and customer journey features from cheaper options. Plus, while Mailchimp looks cheaper up front, ActiveCampaign has the option to save some cash by billing annually. Be sure to compare your prioritized features between plans so you don’t end up getting less—or more—than you need.
ActiveCampaign Bundles
Another factor to consider for Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign is the fact that ActiveCampaign also has programs for customer resource management (CRM). You can choose cheaper plans that limit you to simple sales engagement, bundle sales and marketing together, and even add transactional email models through Postmark. This additional level of customization could save you money—or make your email marketing even more streamlined. Although it looks more complicated, like everything with ActiveCampaign, customization can be powerful.
Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign: Which Should You Choose?
Let’s keep things simple and cut to the chase. In which case should you choose Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign, and vice versa?
Firstly, choose Mailchimp if you can use it for free. There’s little reason to pay for ActiveCampaign if you can get most of the same from the monkey instead. Second, choose Mailchimp if you’re new to the world of email marketing and you want to be able to sort most things out for yourself. Mailchimp has long focused on making things easy for users, so if that’s your priority, Mailchimp can certainly handle your business needs. Third, if you can do without some of the more complex features that ActiveCampaign offers, choose Mailchimp to save some money.
However, choose ActiveCampaign if you’ve got a team that can handle more depth of control—and you want an email marketing system that’s completely tailored to your needs. Like any new program, it could take a little time to get started. But with extensive customer support and the benefit of making a completely customized experience, ActiveCampaign is a strong contender.
Your Email Marketing Platform Choice Is Up to You
At the end of the day, when the battle of Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign is over, your business will still benefit from a strong email marketing platform. Both of these contenders have robust features, reasonable prices for different uses, and enough intuitiveness to get the job done.
If you’re still struggling to decide, talk to the experts, and we’ll help you find the best fit for your business. Schedule a free 20-minute consultation today.
