ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp. Who is the winner in 2024? [Tested and Reviewed]

14 min readJul 16, 2024

Email is still a potent tool for businesses to interact with their audience, encourage conversions, and create enduring relationships in the always changing world of digital marketing. As a result, success depends on using the best email marketing platform. Two well-liked competitors have arisen among the many alternatives: ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp.

Both ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp have established themselves as leaders in the field of email marketing, offering a comprehensive set of features and tools to assist companies in designing, automating, and fine-tuning their email campaigns. Although each platform has advantages, understanding how they differ and complement one another is crucial for making a well-informed choice.

The goal of this post is to compare ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp side by side in order to establish which is the superior product. We’ll examine the salient attributes, features, costs, and user encounters of both platforms. We do this in the hopes of giving you the knowledge necessary to select the email marketing platform that most closely matches your company’s goals.

Therefore, this thorough comparison will give you the knowledge you need to make an informed decision, whether you’re a small business owner looking to maximize your email marketing efforts or an established enterprise seeking to improve customer engagement.

Join us as we explore the worlds of ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp in-depth, identifying their individual advantages and disadvantages, and deciding who will prevail in this epic conflict between the two leaders in email marketing.

Ease of Use

The success of email marketing systems is significantly influenced by how simple they are to use. A user-friendly design and clear navigation may empower marketers to quickly create and implement effective email campaigns while also saving time and easing aggravation. In this part, we’ll compare ActiveCampaign’s usability with Mailchimp’s so you can decide which platform provides a better user experience.

The user-friendly interface of ActiveCampaign makes the email marketing process simple. Its interface offers a simple design with quick access to a number of features and tools. Users can easily establish and manage email lists, create visually appealing emails, and set up automated workflows thanks to the platform’s user-friendly interface. The drag-and-drop email builder improves user experience by letting marketers easily alter layouts and add information.

In addition, ActiveCampaign provides comprehensive support tools, like as tutorials, knowledge bases, and a helpful customer service staff. Both inexperienced and seasoned marketers can use these resources to help users get beyond any obstacles they may face.

Mailchimp, which is renowned for its approachable nature, succeeds in offering a seamless experience for users of all experience levels. Marketers may swiftly design aesthetically appealing campaigns because to its user-friendly interface. Without any coding experience, it is simple to produce compelling emails using the platform’s drag-and-drop editor and large variety of configurable themes. Furthermore, Mailchimp’s campaign builder makes the process of targeting and scheduling emails simple, enabling marketers to effectively reach their target market.

Mailchimp offers a thorough knowledge base and customer assistance to handle any questions or concerns, similar to ActiveCampaign. Users can find solutions and get the most out of the platform’s features thanks to its comprehensive documentation, video tutorials, and community forums.

Both ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp excel in offering simple interfaces and user-friendly experiences in terms of usability. However, Mailchimp might have a slight advantage in this regard given its reputation as a user-friendly platform for all skill levels. Mailchimp makes sure that marketers can use the platform easily with its simple campaign builder and a wealth of support resources.

List Management

Effective email list management is essential for communicating with your audience in a targeted and tailored way. The effectiveness of your email marketing efforts can be greatly impacted by your subscriber lists’ ability to be segmented, organized, and analysed. To evaluate which platform offers the best functionality, we’ll compare ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp’s list management features in this section.

With the help of ActiveCampaign’s comprehensive list management tools, marketers can efficiently segment their contacts. With its sophisticated segmentation tools, you can build dynamic categories based on a range of factors like subscriber behavior, interaction history, and demographics. This enables you to target particular groups with your email marketing, ensuring that your communications are meaningful to your audience.

Additionally, ActiveCampaign makes it simple to import and export lists, making it possible to migrate or combine current subscriber data. The platform also offers automated list management capabilities that let you tag contacts, add or remove subscribers from lists, and update contact information all automatically. These automation tools make your list management procedures more efficient and guarantee reliable data administration.

To assist you in efficiently organizing your subscribers, Mailchimp provides a full suite of list management tools. The software makes it simple to integrate contact lists and provides segmentation options based on several factors including demographics, interests, and past purchases. You can easily create segments and target particular audiences with Mailchimp’s user-friendly interface, allowing you to provide more individualized and pertinent information.

Mailchimp offers automated list management features that let you manage bounced emails, handle unsubscribes, and set up welcome emails. By using these automated procedures, you may concentrate on other elements of your email marketing plan while saving time and effort.

Both ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp provide robust list management tools that let advertisers segment, arrange, and conduct successful analyses of their subscriber lists. Businesses that need highly targeted campaigns and complex list management may use ActiveCampaign because of its sophisticated segmentation capabilities and powerful automation tools. Mailchimp, on the other hand, has a user-friendly design and thorough segmentation options that accommodate users of all levels, making it a flexible choice for list management requirements.

Templates and Design

Emails that are visually appealing and well-designed can have a big impact on engagement and conversion rates when it comes to email marketing. Your capacity to construct attention-grabbing campaigns can be substantially improved by the availability of adaptable templates and simple design tools. In order to decide which platform provides a better user experience, we will compare the templates and design capabilities of ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp in this section.

There are several expertly created email templates available from ActiveCampaign. You can find a good place to start for your email design by browsing through these templates, which cover a variety of business sectors and campaign kinds. The software has a drag-and-drop email builder so you can modify templates without needing to know how to code.

You can easily include images, text, buttons, and social media symbols to your emails with ActiveCampaign. Additionally, the builder enables you to dynamically insert contact information into emails to further personalize and enhance your correspondence. Furthermore, ActiveCampaign supports responsive design, ensuring that your emails display properly on a variety of screens and devices.

Mailchimp is well known for its sizable collection of editable email templates. With more than a hundred design alternatives, you can quickly choose a template that supports the objectives of your brand and marketing strategy. The user-friendly interface of Mailchimp’s template editor enables you to modify templates by adding your own graphics, text, and branding components.

The platform offers a drag-and-drop builder that streamlines the design process and makes it usable for individuals with no prior technical knowledge. To include dynamic information, product recommendations, or social network links in your emails, you may also make use of Mailchimp’s content blocks. Additionally, the responsive design features of Mailchimp’s design tools guarantee that your emails will look fantastic on a variety of devices.

Because ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp both provide a large selection of templates and simple design tools, marketers can create eye-catching emails without having a strong background in design.

Those looking to create highly personalized campaigns will find ActiveCampaign to be an appealing option thanks to its drag-and-drop builder and personalized content options. On the other hand, Mailchimp offers a smooth design experience and is appropriate for users of all levels thanks to its large template collection and user-friendly interface.

Automation

A key element of email marketing is automation, which enables companies to personalize consumer interactions, automate workflows, and send timely and pertinent material. Your email marketing efforts can be considerably improved in terms of efficacy and efficiency by having the capacity to construct automated campaigns and customer journeys. We will contrast ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp’s automation features in this part to see which platform provides a better automation experience.

ActiveCampaign is well known for its robust automation tools that let marketers design incredibly specialized and focused campaigns. With the platform’s visual automation builder, you can design complex workflows using a straightforward drag-and-drop user interface. To define the customer journey and automate various tasks based on user behavior or particular occurrences, you can set up triggers, conditions, and actions.

Sending personalized welcome emails, nurturing leads, segmenting contacts based on their behaviors, and triggering targeted follow-up emails are just a few of the many tasks you can automate with ActiveCampaign. Beyond email marketing, the platform’s automation features enable you to integrate with other channels, like SMS and social media, to construct omnichannel campaigns.

Mailchimp offers a capability for advanced automation called “Mailchimp Automations.” It enables users to design automated workflows using visual builders or pre-built templates. You may build up triggers using Mailchimp Automations based on user actions, time-based events, or eCommerce activities. Then, you can specify particular actions or email sequences that should be sent automatically.

The automation features offered by Mailchimp include welcome series, reminders for abandoned carts, product recommendations, and customized follow-up sequences. Additionally, the platform offers integration with e-commerce platforms, enabling you to automate campaigns based on customer segmentation and purchase behavior.

Deliverability

Deliverability is a key component in email marketing that decides whether your emails get to the inboxes of your subscribers or go in spam bins. Having a high deliverability rate guarantees that your messages are received by the people you are sending them to, boosting the impact of your email campaigns. In order to establish which platform has a higher deliverability rate, we will evaluate the deliverability of ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp in this section.

Deliverability is a significant concern for ActiveCampaign, therefore they take a number of steps to make sure your emails have the best chance of making it to the inbox. The platform makes use of industry best practices, such as authentication standards (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC), to confirm the legitimacy of your emails and lessen the chance that they will be classified as spam.

In order to stay current on best practices and guarantee optimal deliverability rates, ActiveCampaign also keeps track of email deliverability metrics and maintains contacts with significant internet service providers (ISPs). The software also offers email deliverability data and reports, enabling you to monitor the effectiveness of your campaigns and pinpoint areas in need of development.

Mailchimp has a solid reputation for consistent deliverability, and it has a committed workforce that works hard to keep inbox placement rates at high levels. In order to make sure that your emails are trusted by ISPs and have a higher chance of making it to the inbox, the platform makes use of similar industry best practices, such as authentication mechanisms.

In order to handle any potential deliverability concerns, Mailchimp additionally keeps up relationships with ISPs and continuously analyzes deliverability numbers. Based on industry standards and best practices, the platform gives advice to improve your email deliverability along with email deliverability reports.

Reporting and Analytics

Making data-driven decisions and streamlining your plans require analysis of the effectiveness of your email marketing initiatives. The ability to evaluate important data, monitor interaction, and improve your email marketing operations is made possible by robust reporting and analytics options. In order to decide which platform provides a better user experience, we will compare the reporting and analytics features of ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp in this section.

Marketers can analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of their email campaigns with the help of the extensive range of reporting and analytics tools offered by ActiveCampaign. Key performance measures including open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribes are all thoroughly measured by the platform. You can access charts and reports with visuals to quickly understand your campaign data and see trends.

Advanced features like contact-level reporting are available in ActiveCampaign’s reporting in addition to conventional email metrics. This enables you to learn more about the unique subscriber behavior, including their engagement history, conversion rates, and particular campaign actions.

Additionally, ActiveCampaign offers automation reports that let you assess the effectiveness of your automated workflows and pinpoint areas for improvement. These reports give you insight into how well your automation sequences are working, allowing you to make data-driven improvements.

Marketing professionals can monitor and assess the effectiveness of their email campaigns with the help of Mailchimp’s comprehensive reporting and analytics services. In-depth campaign performance analytics are provided by the platform, including open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribes. You may get graphic data and graphs to clearly understand the success of your campaign.

You can study your subscriber base and adjust your campaigns by using the insights on audience growth, interaction, and geolocation data included in Mailchimp’s reports. You can test various campaign components using the platform’s A/B testing features to see how they affect performance.

Additionally, Mailchimp offers e-commerce tracking, enabling you to monitor sales made as a result of your email campaigns and gauge the success of your efforts. Including Google Analytics in your analysis of campaign data and website interaction tracking will help you do so even more effectively.

Integrations

To maximize the efficiency and efficacy of your email marketing activities, seamless connectivity with other tools and platforms is essential. Through integrations, you can link your email marketing platform to a variety of external programs, including lead generation software, e-commerce platforms, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. In order to establish which platform provides a better user experience, we will contrast ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp’s integration capabilities in this section.

Wide-ranging third-party tool and platform connections are available through ActiveCampaign. You may synchronize contact data and simplify your sales and marketing procedures by using its native connectors with popular CRM platforms like Pipedrive, HubSpot, and Salesforce. You can automate email campaigns using customer data and e-commerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento thanks to the platform’s integration with these systems.

ActiveCampaign also provides integrations with lead generation programs, webinar platforms, analytics programs, and other services. It has a strong API that permits tailored integrations and smooth communication with other tech stack software products.

Mailchimp provides a wide range of third-party app integrations. You can synchronize data and streamline your marketing and sales activities with the help of its native connectors with popular CRM platforms like Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and SugarCRM. You may use client data for customized email campaigns thanks to the platform’s integrations with popular e-commerce systems like Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce.

Additionally, Mailchimp provides lead generation tools, landing page builders, integrations with social media platforms, and more. It offers an API that enables connectedness and specialized integrations with other systems and tools in your marketing ecosystem.

With the help of the numerous connectors that ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp offer with well-known third-party tools and platforms, marketers can make better use of their current IT infrastructure and improve their email marketing capabilities. Businesses with intricate integration requirements may use ActiveCampaign because of its native integrations with well-known CRMs and e-commerce systems as well as its reliable API.

Mailchimp is adaptable for companies wishing to broaden their marketing reach due to its vast range of connectors and connectivity with social media platforms and lead creation tools.

Pricing

When selecting an email marketing platform, price is an important aspect to take into account. ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp’s pricing and cost structures can differ, affecting your budget and the services you can access. In order to decide whether platform offers a more advantageous pricing structure, we will examine the pricing structures of both platforms in this section.

With its tiered price structure, ActiveCampaign can accommodate companies of various sizes and needs. They provide the Lite, Plus, Professional, and Enterprise pricing tiers. The fundamental features of the Lite plan, which has a cheaper price point initially, include email marketing, marketing automation, and chat and email assistance. Access to more sophisticated tools, including CRM connection, lead scoring, SMS marketing, and others, increases as you progress up the pricing tiers.

The cost of ActiveCampaign is determined by the quantity of contacts in your database and the capabilities you need. As your contact list expands and you choose more sophisticated functionality, the price rises. Additionally, ActiveCampaign charges extra for add-ons like more users, personalized branding, and dedicated account support.

The price structure offered by Mailchimp is simpler and more user-friendly. There are a number of pricing tiers available from them, including Free, Essentials, Standard, and Premium. You can access basic features and send emails to a constrained number of subscribers with the Free plan. Paid plans provide access to further features like sophisticated segmentation, A/B testing, automated processes, and round-the-clock customer service.

The main factor affecting Mailchimp’s pricing is the amount of subscribers in your audience. The price of the plan increases in line with the growth in your subscriber base. Additionally, they provide paid add-ons like more users, unique templates, and more email sends.

Depending on your unique requirements, the size of your contact list, and the functionality needed for your email marketing campaigns, you can choose between ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp in terms of pricing. Because of its tiered price model, which enables greater scalability and customization, ActiveCampaign is appropriate for companies with a range of needs and financial constraints. On the other side, Mailchimp’s price structure is less complex and more affordable for small and medium-sized organizations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, your individual demands and preferences will determine whether you choose ActiveCampaign or Mailchimp. ActiveCampaign is ideal for companies that need extensive capabilities because it excels at personalization, automation, and customization.

For small to medium-sized enterprises, Mailchimp provides a user-friendly platform with a variety of templates, strong automation capabilities, and affordable pricing. When making your choice, take into account elements like pricing, deliverability, integrations, reporting, and ease of use.