Updated March 2026

MailerLite vs ActiveCampaign

A side-by-side comparison based on our hands-on testing, pricing analysis, and community research.

Our pick: MailerLite (7.5/10 vs 7.4/10)

MailerLite wins 4 out of 6 categories. ActiveCampaign is better for: mid-sized businesses (1k-25k contacts) that actively use complex automation daily.

Try MailerLite

MailerLite

7.5/10

ActiveCampaign

7.4/10

3/5

Automation

5/5

Deliverability

4/5

5/5

Ease of Use

2/5

3/5

Templates & Design

2/5

Analytics

4/5

3/5

Customer Support

2/5

Pricing Comparison

MailerLite

Free Plan

Paid plans from $10/mo

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ActiveCampaign

Paid plans from $19/mo

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Pros & Cons

MailerLite

94.41% deliverability rate across 5 independent test rounds (EmailToolTester) — highest we found among all platforms tested

76% cheaper than Mailchimp at 2,500 subscribers ($25/mo vs ~$69/mo for equivalent features)

Won 'Best Email Marketing Tool for Ease of Use' every year from 2023-2026 across G2 and Capterra

Account approval/termination is a real problem — 60% of Capterra reviews mentioning it were negative. Users report accounts terminated without warning and no refund

Free plan was cut from 1,000 to 500 subscribers in September 2025, with no templates on free (must design from scratch)

Limited analytics — no heatmaps, no custom reports, no revenue attribution, no bot-click filtering. If data matters to you, this will frustrate you

Full MailerLite 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 MailerLite if: you want a tool that is best for small businesses and creators on a budget who want simplicity. It scores highest in deliverability, ease of use.

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