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MARKETING PLATFORM COMPARISON

Why choose Mailchimp over ActiveCampaign?

Get marketing automation on a platform that’s easy and affordable to use. Mailchimp delivers more value than ActiveCampaign, especially for teams with large contact lists.

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  • #1

    email marketing and automation platform*

  • 3.1 billion

    emails sent with AI-generated content*

  • 25x ROI

    seen by Mailchimp users (up to 25x, average)

  • >99% email

    delivery rate (average)*

  • A modern dining room with wooden tables, black chairs, and coral pendant lamps. A window with greenery is visible in the background.

    Convert more customers

    Craft emails, use behavioral data to more precisely target audiences, and optimize your strategy.

  • Line graph showing SMS and email click rates over time, with SMS at 45% performing 12% better than email, displayed in green and orange lines

    See more and scale faster

    With all of your data in one place, Mailchimp gives you what you need to make the right call at the right time.

  • Optimize and iterate constantly

    Use A/B testing and send time optimization to improve your strategy and identify the right times to reach out.

See how ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp compare

  • Mailchimp

    ✅ Mailchimp is the #1 email marketing and automation platform* for many kinds of organizations.

  • ActiveCampaign

    ❌ Primarily built for CRM and inbound marketing, with email features that may not meet every team’s needs.

  • ✅ Designed to grow with teams, Mailchimp meets the needs of small and large businesses.

  • ❌ Pricing increases quickly as contact lists grow and advanced features are required.

  • ✅ Mailchimp offers 24/7 email/chat support, and 24/7 phone support to Premium plans.*

  • ❌ Support varies by plan. Phone support and onboarding are limited to higher tiers.

  • ✅ Advanced analytics and reporting, including revenue attribution and benchmarking.

  • ❌ Advanced analytics and revenue attribution are only available on higher tiers.

  • ✅ Offers flexible pricing, with plan options to fit different size businesses and needs.

  • ❌ Pricing is based on contact tiers and features. Costs rise as your audience grows.

"Mailchimp’s templates, automations, and forms have made it so much easier to create beautiful, on-brand emails and keep my communications running smoothly without hours of extra work"

—Danielle Arsenault, Founder, Pachavega Holistic Wellness Education

Mailchimp’s powerful SMS marketing platform delivers results:

97% higher click-rates for Mailchimp businesses using both email & SMS*

16.5x More ROI for Mailchimp SMS users after launching their first SMS campaign*

Drive revenue with powerful audience segmentation tools

Marketers see 2x more revenue on average with AI-built predicted segments—just one of the advanced features that are now part of Mailchimp’s platform.*

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A woman with curly hair wearing a pink button-up shirt is sitting at a desk in a bright, modern studio. She is talking on a yellow phone while working on a laptop. Behind her are shelves with colorful fabric rolls, organized boxes, bottles, and plants, suggesting a creative or small business workspace.

Find out what Mailchimp can do for your unique business with a personalized demo.

Request a Demo

Do more with Mailchimp’s 300+ app integrations

Take advantage of peak season without losing time adapting your workflow. Mailchimp works seamlessly with apps like Shopify, Salesforce, and QuickBooks Online.

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11M+ users use Mailchimp

In addition to a large and loyal userbase, Mailchimp is recognized as an industry leader for businesses of multiple sizes.

Source: G2.com, Inc

FAQs

  • The key differences when comparing Mailchimp vs. ActiveCampaign are complexity and learning curve. ActiveCampaign is built for highly technical marketing teams who have the time and resources to build intricate, multi-layered automations across multiple channels.

    However, that flexibility comes with a steep learning curve and longer setup times. Mailchimp delivers powerful automation, segmentation, and analytics in a platform that’s intuitive on day one. We offer over 100 pre-built automation templates, AI-powered content creation, predictive segmentation, and custom reporting — all the sophisticated tools you need without the overwhelming setup process.

    For smaller teams or those with larger contact lists who want to start driving results quickly, Mailchimp strikes the right balance between capability and usability.

  • When deciding between ActiveCampaign vs. Mailchimp, ease of use should be a major consideration. Mailchimp ranks higher than ActiveCampaign on G2 for ease of use, setup, and admin. Our drag-and-drop email builder, intuitive interface, and pre-built templates mean your team can launch campaigns immediately without extensive training or technical resources. We also provide 24/7 email and chat support, with phone support available for Premium users, plus free personalized onboarding to help you get started.

    ActiveCampaign customers often note that the platform can be overwhelming at first and requires considerable time to set up and maintain. Many users find themselves paying for features and customization options they don’t need or have time to use. If your team wants to focus on marketing results rather than platform management, Mailchimp saves you time and reduces the learning curve.

    If your team wants to focus on marketing instead of platform management, Mailchimp saves you time and frustration.

  • ActiveCampaign pricing increases as your contact list grows. For teams with 75,000+ contacts, ActiveCampaign’s Plus plan costs $500-$800 more per month than Mailchimp Premium. At 50,000 contacts, Mailchimp Premium already becomes the more affordable option.

    ActiveCampaign also recently updated its pricing structure, resulting in price increases and some features moving to paid add-ons like custom reporting and enhanced CRM. Mailchimp offers flexible pricing with no hidden fees or forced upgrades. We include sophisticated features like predictive segmentation, custom reporting, and revenue attribution in our plans without charging extra.

    For teams with larger contact lists who need strong automation and analytics capabilities, Mailchimp delivers better value at a lower total cost.

  • Both Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign offer email marketing, automation, and analytics, but Mailchimp delivers these capabilities with less friction. We provide over 100 customizable automation templates, AI content generation, predictive segmentation that identifies your highest-value customers, and custom reporting that tracks revenue attribution and campaign performance.

    Our platform also includes SMS marketing, landing pages, social media post creation and scheduling, and retargeting ads — all in one place. We deliver at >99% average email delivery rate, which outperforms ActiveCampaign’s 93.4% rate. ActiveCampaign offers more automation customization options with hundreds of recipes and extensive integration capabilities, which can be high value for large, technically sophisticated teams.

    However, many of these advanced features require significant setup time and technical resources. When comparing Mailchimp vs. ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp gives you the automation and analytics you need on a platform you can actually use without a dedicated technical team.

  • Choose Mailchimp over ActiveCampaign if you want powerful marketing automation that’s easy to use and delivers better value. We provide sophisticated segmentation and reporting capabilities at a lower price point, saving you potentially hundreds of dollars every month.

    Our platform is intuitive enough that your team can start creating campaigns immediately, with 24/7 support to help you succeed. You’ll get advanced features without paying for add-ons or struggling through complex setups. Mailchimp also offers premium migration services to help you transfer your data and automations smoothly, so you can start generating revenue-driving campaigns right away.

    With 11 million users trusting Mailchimp and our customers seeing up to 15x ROI within three months of launching their first campaign, we deliver results for teams that want powerful tools without the hassle.

  1. #1 AI-powered email marketing platform: Based on May 2025 publicly available data on number of customers of competitors that also advertise using AI to enhance their email marketing and automation products and services.
  2. 3.1 Billion Emails Sent: Based on InLine AI Assistant feature for December 2023 - August 2024. Standard and Premium plans only.
  3. 25X ROI: Based on all e-commerce revenue attributable to paid plan users’ Mailchimp campaigns from April 2023 to April 2024. ROI calculation requires an e-commerce store that is connected to a Mailchimp account.
  4. >99% Email Delivery Rate: Data reflects email delivery rate from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024 and is the aggregate of all Mailchimp users across all plans.
  5. 2x More Revenue with Predictive Segments: Standard and Premium users saw 2x more revenue (266%) on average for their connected ecommerce stores using predictive segmented emails versus non-predictive segmented emails for Jan 2023 - Dec 2024 period. Predictive segments available on Standard or Premium plans only.
  6. 97% Higher Click Rate: Based on US users who sent both email and SMS campaigns compared to users who sent only email campaigns from 8/1/23 to 1/05/25.
  7. 16.5x SMS ROI: Based on U.S. SMS users’ e-commerce revenue attributable to first SMS campaign launch during September 2023 through April 2024. ROI calculation requires an e-commerce store that is connected to a Mailchimp account. Results may vary.