Updated March 2026

Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign

Mailchimp is easier. ActiveCampaign is more powerful. That's the simple version. The longer version: Mailchimp gutted its free plan, raised prices 20-30%, retired its Classic Automation Builder in June 2025, and now charges for unsubscribed contacts. ActiveCampaign has documented price hikes of 20-100% for existing customers, a Trustpilot score of 2.8/5, and now also charges for inactive contacts. Neither platform is the value it once was. Here's which one still makes sense for your situation.

Our pick: ActiveCampaign (7.4/10 vs 6.5/10)

ActiveCampaign wins 3 out of 6 categories. Mailchimp is better for: complete beginners who want the easiest interface and maximum third-party integrations.

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Mailchimp

6.5/10

ActiveCampaign

7.4/10

2/5

Automation

5/5

3/5

Deliverability

4/5

5/5

Ease of Use

2/5

5/5

Templates & Design

2/5

3/5

Analytics

4/5

2/5

Customer Support

2/5

Pricing Comparison

Mailchimp

Free Plan

Paid plans from $13/mo

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ActiveCampaign

Paid plans from $19/mo

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Pros & Cons

Mailchimp

Genuinely intuitive interface — G2 rates ease of use 4.3/5, Capterra 4.4/5. The drag-and-drop builder has a shallow learning curve for basic campaigns

300+ third-party integrations — the largest ecosystem of any email tool. Nearly every SaaS product connects to Mailchimp natively

260+ professional templates on paid plans. The email builder produces clean, responsive emails that look good on mobile

Free plan has been systematically gutted: 2,000 contacts (pre-2021) → 500 (2023) → 250 (Jan 2026). Automations removed June 2025. A/B testing removed. Email scheduling removed. It is now effectively a demo, not a free plan

Charges for ALL contacts including unsubscribed and bounced — you pay for contacts who will never receive an email unless you manually archive each one. Most competitors only bill for active subscribers

Trustpilot: 2.8/5 with 67% one-star reviews. Support is widely despised — phone support only available on the $350+/month Premium plan. Below that, users report chatbots and generic responses

Full Mailchimp review →

ActiveCampaign

Best-in-class automation builder with 135+ triggers and 750+ pre-built recipes — no other platform matches this depth (G2: 4.5/5 from 14,000+ reviews)

900+ integrations including 40+ new ones added in 2025 alone (Wix, Webflow, SOCi) — plays nicely with almost anything

Deep segmentation with new AI Segments Agent that lets you describe audiences in natural language

Aggressive price hikes documented at 20-100% for existing customers. Real examples: $588/yr to $1,800/yr; $1,400/mo to $2,800/mo; $2,000/yr to $7,800/yr

As of November 2025, now charges for ALL contacts including unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed — same controversial practice as Mailchimp

Trustpilot rating of 2.8/5 from 1,358 reviews — billing complaints, cancellation horror stories, and users charged after cancelling

Full ActiveCampaign review →

The Bottom Line

Choose Mailchimp if: you want a tool that is best for complete beginners who want the easiest interface and maximum third-party integrations. It scores highest in ease of use, templates & design.

Choose ActiveCampaign if: you want a tool that is best for mid-sized businesses (1k-25k contacts) that actively use complex automation daily. It scores highest in automation, deliverability, analytics.

Transparency note: We earn affiliate commissions from some tools on this page. This never influences our scores. Our methodology