Head to head
Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign
Both platforms are scored with the same methodology and the same category rubric. Nothing on this page is influenced by advertising.
56/100Higher score | 55/100 | |
|---|---|---|
| Category rank | #2 | #5 |
| Confidence | High confidence | High confidence |
| External Reputation | 86 | 66 |
| AI Authority | 47 | 51 |
| Web Authority | 18 | 38 |
| Expert Assessment | 61 | 63 |
| TOP10 User Score | — | — |
| Pricing | Essentials displayed at $13.00/mo for 12 months (promotional first-year rate; ongoing rack rate not published on the retrieved page) · free tier: Free plan at $0/month: 250 contacts, 500 sends/month, 250 daily send limit, 1 audience, 1 seat, limited templates, basic reporting; exceeding 250 contacts holds sending. 14-day trial on Essentials/Standard (up to 100 emails without payment info); 1-month Premium trial via sales. | USD $15.00 per month (Starter, vendor-supplied figure published on G2) · free tier: 14-day free trial ("Try it free for 14 days" per vendor homepage); no free plan verified |
| Pricing model | Subscription (contact-tiered) with Pay As You Go credit option | Subscription |
| Best for | Small businesses and non-profits sending straightforward newsletters to a stable list under roughly 10,000 contacts, who value template quality, brand familiarity and a wide integration catalogue, and will monitor contact counts each cycle to avoid overages. | SMBs and agencies with roughly 500–25,000 contacts that want marketing automation, CRM and email/SMS/WhatsApp messaging in one system and will actually build branching automations rather than simple broadcasts. |
| Avoid if | You are an e-commerce operator needing revenue-first automation, run large unsubscribed contact archives you would be billed for, need multi-step automation on a budget, require fast expert human support, or cannot survive an out-of-hours suspension given compliance reviews run Mon–Fri 9am–5pm EST only. | You need frictionless self-service cancellation, predictable refunds, a fully published price at higher contact volumes, guaranteed support SLAs on lower tiers, or only simple newsletter sending. |
| Markets | SMB, Mid-Market, Non-profit | SMB, Mid-Market, Agencies |
| Founded | — | — |
| Headquarters | 675 Ponce De Leon Ave, Atlanta, United States | Chicago, Illinois, United States (1 N. Dearborn, 5th Floor) |
A higher TOP SCORE means more of the evidence favours that platform on this methodology — it is not a recommendation, and it does not account for your specific requirements. Advertisers are never declared the winner of a comparison.