ActiveCampaign vs. Mailchimp

Last verified 28 days ago · 18 sources · Updated automatically

ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp compared across Company facts, Pricing, Campaigns & content, Automation & audience, Channels & deliverability and Platform & integrations — every fact sourced and re-verified from each vendor's public material.

ActiveCampaign

Marketing automation and email with deep branching workflows, advanced segmentation, and a built-in CRM.

HQ Chicago, IL

Visit ActiveCampaign Full profile

Mailchimp

All-in-one email marketing and automation platform for small businesses, with forms, landing pages, and ecommerce integrations.

HQ Atlanta, GA

Visit Mailchimp Full profile

Attribute

ActiveCampaign

Mailchimp

Company facts

Headquarters

Chicago, IL

Atlanta, GA

Employees

800 800+ global team members (vendor-stated)

1.5k LinkedIn (Intuit Mailchimp) employees on platform

Pricing

Free Plan

Free plan up to 250 contacts (500 sends/mo)

Free Plan Contacts

—

250

Starting Monthly Price (USD)

$15 Starter plan, 1,000 contacts (billed annually)

$13 Essentials plan, 500 contacts

Pricing Basis

contacts

Campaigns & content

Drag-and-Drop Builder

Yes

Prebuilt Templates

Yes

A/B Testing

Yes

Landing Pages

Yes

AI Content Assistance

Active Intelligence

Generative AI copy + Subject Line Helper

Automation & audience

Automation Workflows

Yes

Advanced Segmentation

Yes

Signup Forms & Popups

Yes

Built-in CRM

Yes

Markets a 'Marketing CRM' (profiles/tags/audience insights), not a sales pipeline

Channels & deliverability

SMS Marketing

Yes

Add-on for Essentials+; US/CA, UK, much of EU, Australia

Transactional Email

Yes

Via Mailchimp Transactional (Mandrill) add-on; API or SMTP

Ecommerce Integration

Native Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix

Native Shopify, WooCommerce, Square integrations

Platform & integrations

Native Integrations

1,000+ apps

300+ integrations marketplace

Public API

REST API (v3)

Public REST Marketing API

The verdict

ActiveCampaign

Best for sales pipelines and deep integration needs

ActiveCampaign bundles a true built-in CRM with a sales pipeline, which Mailchimp lacks (it markets a 'Marketing CRM' of profiles and tags, not a pipeline). It also lists 1,000+ native integrations against Mailchimp's 300+. The trade-off: no free plan, and a $15 entry price versus Mailchimp's $13.

Full profile

Mailchimp

Best for starting free and the lowest paid entry price

Mailchimp offers a free plan (up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month) where ActiveCampaign has none, and its paid tier starts at $13 versus $15. Capabilities like automation, segmentation, A/B testing, and landing pages are at parity. The gap: no built-in sales CRM, and 300+ integrations versus ActiveCampaign's 1,000+.

Full profile

Sources · 18 verified references

activecampaign.com mailchimp.com linkedin.com developers.activecampaign.com

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