Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign: Features, Pricing and Verdict
Mailchimp suits simple email campaigns and small lists. ActiveCampaign wins on automation and CRM. Compare plans, prices and features to pick the right one.
By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-11T13:20:33+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-11T13:20:33+00:00
Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign: Features, Pricing and Verdict
Mailchimp is the better pick for simple email campaigns and small lists. ActiveCampaign is the better pick for automation and sales follow-up. Mailchimp starts free for up to 250 contacts. ActiveCampaign has no free plan, only a 14-day trial. The right choice depends on how much automation you need and how fast your list will grow.
Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign at a glance
| Attribute | Mailchimp | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, up to 250 contacts | No, 14-day trial only |
| Entry paid price | $13 a month (Essentials, 500 contacts) | $15 a month billed yearly (Starter, 1,000 contacts) |
| Top plan | Premium, from $350 a month | Enterprise, from $145 a month billed yearly |
| Pricing basis | Contact count | Contact count |
| Built-in CRM | No full CRM | Yes, from the Plus plan |
| Automation | Up to 200 flows on Standard and Premium | Multi-step automation from Starter; unlimited actions from Plus |
| Phone support | Premium plan only | Not a headline plan feature |
| Integrations | 300+ integrations listed | Shopify, WooCommerce and other ecommerce integrations |
Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign pricing
Both tools charge by contact count. Your bill rises as your list grows. That makes the entry price less important than the price at your real list size.
Mailchimp has four plans. The Free plan costs $0 and covers up to 250 contacts with 500 sends a month and a 250-a-day cap. Essentials starts at $13 a month for 500 contacts, with sends equal to 10 times your contact limit. Standard starts at $20 a month for 500 contacts, with sends equal to 12 times your contact limit. Premium starts at $350 a month for 10,000 contacts, with sends equal to 15 times your contact limit.
At 5,000 contacts, Mailchimp Essentials costs about $75 a month and Standard about $100 a month. At 10,000 contacts, Essentials is about $110 and Standard about $135 a month. Premium stays at $350 a month at 10,000 contacts. Mailchimp counts unsubscribed contacts toward your tier, so archive contacts you no longer email.
ActiveCampaign has four plans too. Starter costs $15 a month billed yearly, or $19 a month billed monthly, for 1,000 contacts. Plus costs $49 a month billed yearly, or $59 monthly. Professional costs $79 a month billed yearly, or $99 monthly. Enterprise costs $145 a month billed yearly, or $179 monthly.
ActiveCampaign prices climb steeply with list size. At 10,000 contacts, Starter costs about $149 a month billed yearly and Plus about $189. There is no free plan. Every account created after early November 2025 counts all contacts toward the limit, including unsubscribed ones.
On price alone, Mailchimp is cheaper at small list sizes. ActiveCampaign becomes competitive once you need its automation, because Mailchimp charges extra for the features that ActiveCampaign bundles.
Automation: where ActiveCampaign pulls ahead
Automation is the biggest gap between the two tools. ActiveCampaign was built around it. Mailchimp added it later.
ActiveCampaign Starter includes multi-step automation, with up to 5 actions per automation. Plus removes that cap and adds landing pages, cross-channel marketing and generative content tools. Professional adds predictive sending, conditional content and attribution. These are the tools that let a small team run welcome series, abandoned-cart flows and lead scoring without manual work.
Mailchimp Standard and Premium allow up to 200 automation flows. Essentials allows only 4 flow steps. That limit matters. A welcome series with a few branches can use it up fast. Mailchimp also lists generative features on its pricing page at no extra cost on Standard and Premium, but not on Essentials.
If your marketing is mostly one-off newsletters and simple welcome emails, Mailchimp is enough. If you want behaviour-based journeys, lead scoring and deal pipelines, ActiveCampaign is the stronger tool.
CRM and sales features
ActiveCampaign includes a CRM with deal pipelines from the Plus plan. You can track leads, set deal stages and follow up from the same account. That suits small sales teams that want email and CRM in one place.
Mailchimp is an email and marketing platform, not a CRM. It stores contacts and tracks campaign engagement. It does not offer deal pipelines or sales stages in its standard plans. Teams that need a CRM with Mailchimp must connect a separate tool.
This is a real deciding factor. If you only need email, Mailchimp is simpler. If you need to manage a sales pipeline, ActiveCampaign saves you a second subscription.
Ease of use, templates and support
Mailchimp is the easier tool to learn. Its editor is simple. Its template library is broad. A beginner can send a first campaign in an afternoon. Standard and Premium include one onboarding session, and Premium includes four.
ActiveCampaign has a steeper learning curve. Its automation builder is powerful but takes time to master. The payoff is flexibility. You can build journeys that Mailchimp cannot match.
Support differs by plan. Mailchimp offers email support for the first 30 days on Free, then 24/7 email and chat on Essentials and Standard. Phone and priority support are Premium only. ActiveCampaign includes email and chat support from Starter, with priority support on Professional.
Who should choose which
Choose Mailchimp if you send mostly newsletters and simple campaigns. Choose it if your list is small and you want a free start. Choose it if ease of use matters more than deep automation.
Choose ActiveCampaign if automation drives your revenue. Choose it if you run an online store and need abandoned-cart and post-purchase flows. Choose it if you want email and CRM in one tool. Budget for the Plus plan, because Starter limits each automation to 5 actions.
Watch the add-ons on both sides. Mailchimp charges extra for SMS and transactional email. ActiveCampaign charges extra for SMS, WhatsApp and its CRM add-on on some plans. Check the add-on prices before you commit.
Templates, design and sending limits
Both tools include drag-and-drop editors and ready-made templates. Mailchimp offers branded templates on Standard and Premium, and custom-coded templates on all paid plans. Its free plan has a limited template set and keeps Mailchimp branding on emails.
ActiveCampaign includes more than 250 email templates from the Starter plan. Its editor is flexible, but building a polished template takes longer than in Mailchimp. Both tools support A/B testing, although Mailchimp reserves multivariate testing for Premium.
Sending limits follow your contact tier. Mailchimp allows 10, 12 or 15 times your contact limit per month, depending on plan. ActiveCampaign Starter and Plus allow 10 times your contact limit, Professional 12 times and Enterprise 15 times. If you send daily to a large list, check the send cap before you pick a plan. A cheap plan with a low send cap costs more than a dearer plan once you pay for extra sends.
Switching costs
Moving between these tools is possible but not free. Both offer import tools for contacts and lists. Automations do not transfer. You must rebuild every flow by hand. Templates do not transfer either. Budget a day or two to rebuild your core journeys if you switch.
Mailchimp offers a free trial of Standard or Essentials for 14 days, and a 1-month Premium trial for qualified new customers through Sales. ActiveCampaign offers a 14-day free trial. Use the trial to build one real automation and send one real campaign. That tells you more than any feature list.