Are you confused about which email marketing tool is right for you? Do you feel like you’re comparing apples and oranges, trying to decide between ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp? Don’t worry, you’re not alone!
Many marketers have been at the same crossroads, but the answer depends on multiple factors. The most crucial is your marketing and business requirements. The pricing plans and payment options are also influential when deciding on an online platform.
Selecting a platform is not as trivial as it seems at first. An in-depth side-by-side comparison is always your best ally.
Let’s explore the differences between the two to help overcome indecision and step confidently into email marketing. After all, marketing doesn’t need to be stressful or tiresome!
Meet ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is an email marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) platform that helps businesses automate customer communications and sales processes.
Its features include email design, testing, automation, segmentation and personalization, customer journey mapping, AI-powered automated customer segmentation, and customer insights.
It is used by businesses of all sizes, from small start-ups to giant companies. It has a powerful automation engine that enables users to create highly customized and sophisticated customer journeys in minutes.
ActiveCampaign also provides detailed customer insights for business owners to see how customers respond to emails and other marketing campaigns. It is a reliable and easy-to-use platform that can help businesses simplify and improve their marketing processes.
Key Features
- Automation: create automated multi-step campaigns and messages tailored to customer needs.
- Segmentation: Create targeted customer segments to personalize campaigns and messages.
- Email marketing: Set up automated campaigns and send automated emails.
- Landing pages: Create custom landing pages and track customer behavior.
- A/B testing: To test different versions of emails and campaigns to determine the best-performing one.
- Contact management: Keep track of customer data, such as contact information, preferences, and purchase history.
- Analytics: Track customer behavior and performance of campaigns and messages.
Who can use ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign is used by small businesses, startups, corporations, ecommerce stores, and nonprofits. Because it helps streamline marketing activities, send automated emails, generate reports, and track customer behavior.
It is suitable for a variety of online businesses despite the size of the operation.
ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation features help improve customer engagement, drive sales, and increase ROI.
Meet Mailchimp
Like ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp is an all-in-one email marketing platform for customer segmentation, campaigns, and analytics.
It offers multiple features and integrations designed to help businesses reach and engage their customers on any device. From managing customer contacts and creating email campaigns to optimizing customer journeys, Mailchimp makes it easy to get to customers in a timely and cost-effective way.
It also provides robust tools for segmenting customers and creating personalized experiences that increase customer loyalty and deliver better results.
With a drag-and-drop editor and powerful automation features, Mailchimp helps businesses quickly set up and launch campaigns, optimize content, and measure performance.
Whether you’re just starting out or already have an established e-commerce business, Mailchimp can help you reach your objectives.
Key Features
- Intuitive and easy-to-use interface: Mailchimp’s dashboard makes it easy to create and manage email campaigns, from selecting the template to scheduling the timing of your emails.
- Automation: Automate your campaigns and workflow with Mailchimp’s automation tools and send personalized campaigns based on customer behavior.
- Reporting and analytics: Monitor and improve your campaigns with Mailchimp’s comprehensive reporting and analytics system. Track engagement, open rates, click-throughs, and more.
- Easy integration: Easily integrate Mailchimp with third-party platforms such as WordPress, Shopify, and Google Analytics.
- Design tools: Create beautiful emails with Mailchimp’s design tools, such as drag-and-drop templates and custom HTML.
- Advanced segmentation: Mailchimp’s advanced segmentation capabilities let you send highly targeted and personalized emails to the right audiences.
ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp Side-by-Side Comparison
Buying email marketing software can relate to buying a pair of running shoes, finding what you like, and trying it on is the best way to choose.
Comparing the pros and cons of each product you’ll be able to identify the option that is the better fit for your requirements.
From now on, we’ll list the main features of ActiveCampaign VS Mailchimp to help you identify the most suitable email marketing software for your marketing needs.
ActiveCampaign VS Mailchimp: Landing Page Builder Tool
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign’s Landing Page Builder helps businesses create and customize landing pages for their website. It has a variety of basic templates they can use to create beautiful, effective landing pages tailored to the business needs.
The builder allows users to customize their landing page to fit the look and feel of their liking or brand. It includes drag-and-drop functionality, allowing users to move and rearrange the elements of the page to suit their desired layout.
They can also add text, images, and videos to the page. Advanced options like custom HTML and CSS help further customize the page.
The landing page builder integrates a form builder so that businesses can easily collect leads. Forms can be customized to include fields for collecting customer information and preferences, making it easy to segment customers and target campaigns.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a popular email marketing service due to its many tools for building visually appealing, effective landing pages that integrate into its email campaign.
Mailchimp features an intuitive drag-and-drop page builder to customize your design and create professional pages. You can add different types of content to your page, such as text, videos, images, and buttons, and customize the look and feel of your page with different fonts, colors, and backgrounds.
You can also embed forms and surveys to collect data from your users. With Mailchimp, you can also track the performance of your landing pages with detailed analytics, and create A/B tests to optimize them.
The Veredict
Overall, Mailchimp is a great option for businesses who need to quickly create landing pages that work with their email campaigns. However, if more customization and features are needed, ActiveCampaign is the way to go.
ActiveCampaign VS Mailchimp: CRM Tool
ActiveCampaign
The features that ActiveCampaing offer for CRM make it easy for businesses to create and execute powerful marketing automation campaigns to boost customer engagement and drive more sales. Features include segmented customer lists, automated emails and campaigns, and real-time analytics.
Its easy-to-use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform helps online businesses manage customer relationships and track sales activity, automate customer communications, and customize their sales workflow to maximize conversions.
Additionally, ActiveCampaign comes with powerful integrations, so businesses can better manage customer data and integrate with third-party applications.
ActiveCampaign is an effective and powerful solution that helps businesses create meaningful customer relationships and maximize conversions.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a popular customer relationship management (CRM) tool used by businesses around the world to better connect with their customers. It helps to automate marketing processes and make them more efficient with features like segmentation, audience profiles, email campaigns, A/B testing, and customer analytics.
With Mailchimp, businesses can easily create, send, and track emails, create personalized messages, and monitor subscriber engagement to better understand customer behavior. Mailchimp’s dashboard also provides valuable insights into customer segmentation, allowing businesses to segment their customer base and tailor messages to specific groups.
With Mailchimp’s powerful suite of tools, businesses can easily increase customer engagement and boost sales.
The Veredict
The difference between ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp is the scope of their respective CRM systems. ActiveCampaign offers a comprehensive suite of CRM tools, including features like dynamic segmentation, custom fields, advanced automation, and in-depth reporting tools.
Mailchimp offers a more basic CRM with limited features. is ideal for small businesses that don’t need the full range of features.
ActiveCampaign wins this round.
ActiveCampaign VS Mailchimp: Reporting and Analytics
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign offers reporting and analytics tools for users to gain valuable insights into their customer data. The platform provides users with comprehensive reporting and analytics that can be accessed from the dashboard or downloaded as a CSV.
The reporting and analytics features available in ActiveCampaign include:
- Automation reports: To track the performance of customer journeys and see which ones are performing well and which need improvement.
- Email reports: They display open rates, click-through rates, and other data related to email campaigns.
- List reports: This report provides a detailed breakdown of customer data from campaigns, tags, and other triggers.
- Activity reports: This report provides an overview of how customers are interacting with the platform, including sign-ups, clicks, and visits.
- Segmentation reports: To see how customer segments are performing and make updates as needed.
- Campaign reports: Provides an overview of the effectiveness of campaigns, including the number of emails sent and the percentage of clicks and opens.
These reporting and analytics features allow users to get a better understanding of their customers and optimize their campaigns and customer journeys for maximum success.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp offers multiple tools for reporting and analytics. The most popular ones are:
- Campaign report: provides insights into open rates, click-through rates, and more.
- Subscriber profile: gives users access to individual subscriber information
- Audience Dashboard, which provides a detailed overview of your current subscribers.
Additionally, Mailchimp’s Insights tool shows users aggregate email performance data, including open and click rates, average order value, and more.
With Mailchimp, users can also track their ROI, analyze the success of their campaigns, and review delivery rates with the Delivery Insights tool.
Users can also view the performance analytics of their automated emails with the Automation Report.
All of these tools provide detailed, actionable insights into email marketing campaigns and can help users optimize their strategies for maximum revenue.
The Veredict
Mailchimp provides basic tracking of email campaigns and provides basic reports such as opens, clicks, and unsubscribes.
ActiveCampaign, on the other hand, offers more detailed and comprehensive reporting and analytics, including detailed open and click tracking, return on investment (ROI) calculations, and more.
Additionally, ActiveCampaign offers more advanced features such as automated segmenting, advanced tagging, and personalized reporting and analytics.
ActiveCampaign VS Mailchimp: Third-Party Integrations
ActiveCampaign
Third-party integrations for ActiveCampaign allow users to add to their accounts features that would otherwise be unavailable. These integrations can help users improve the efficiency of their campaigns, from accessing more detailed analytics to streamlining back-end processes they are an invaluable ally for the success of your campaigns.
ActiveCampaig’s integrations include popular services like Zapier, Mailchimp, and Shopify. It can also integrate with popular web forms, like Gravity Forms or Contact Form 7, allowing users to collect customer data on their website and store it in ActiveCampaign.
This data is valuable to create more targeted campaigns and segment customers better.
Finally, ActiveCampaign provides an API that allows developers to build their custom integrations opening up a world of possibilities and allowing developers to craft unique solutions that perfectly fit their needs.
Mailchimp
Integrating Mailchimp with third-party apps and tools can be a great way to extend the functionality of your email marketing campaigns.
Mailchimp’s API offers integrations with products like WordPress, Shopify, Salesforce, and many more.
For WordPress users, Mailchimp provides an easy-to-use plugin that allows you to quickly connect your website to your Mailchimp account. This plugin can be used to synchronize customer data between the two systems, create opt-in forms, and design email templates.
Integrating with Shopify allows you to sync customer data, create campaigns, and automate emails.
Salesforce integration will allow you to sync contacts and leads between Mailchimp and Salesforce to create segmented lists, automate campaigns, and add contacts to campaigns based on Salesforce data.
For developers, Mailchimp also offers an API to access and update Mailchimp data from your custom apps.
Mailchimp also offers integrations with Zapier, Hootsuite, Highrise, and more.
The Veredict
ActiveCampaign offers integrations with popular platforms like WordPress, Salesforce, Slack, Shopify, Magento, and many more. These integrations allow users to synchronize their contact lists, manage automation and triggers, view real-time reports, and automate processes like email campaigns and lead scoring.
Mailchimp, on the other hand, offers integrations with platforms like WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Zapier, and Facebook Ads. These integrations allow users to create dynamic segments, view advanced analytics and reporting, account for segmented campaigns, and automate their marketing efforts.
ActiveCampaign VS Mailchimp: Customer Support
ActiveCampaign
Customer support for ActiveCampaign is available to users 24/7. Customers can contact the team via phone, email, or live chat support. They have a dedicated support team that is ready to address any inquiries or concerns, both pre-and post-sale.
The team is knowledgeable, friendly, and eager to help in any way they can. They can answer questions about products, services, account setup, technical troubleshooting, and more. ActiveCampaign also has an extensive database of articles and tutorials to help customers find the answers they need without reaching out.
Customers can also access their ActiveCampaign account and find direct support for any issues or questions related to their account. They can easily submit tickets, escalate issues, and even cancel their subscriptions from within the account.
Overall, ActiveCampaign provides an excellent customer support experience to all its customers, ensuring that all inquiries are handled quickly, and any issues are resolved with the utmost care.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp provides great customer support for all its users, offering 24/7 live chat, email, and phone support. The team is highly knowledgeable and can assist with account setup, billing, designing campaigns, and troubleshooting any technical issues.
In addition, Mailchimp provides helpful tutorials and guides, as well as an active community forum, to guide users in getting the most out of their service.
The Veredict
The main difference between the two services is that ActiveCampaign offers comprehensive live chat support, while Mailchimp’s service is limited to technical and sales inquiries. ActiveCampaign also offers phone support with extended hours, while Mailchimp only provides phone support during regular business hours.
ActiveCampaign VS Mailchimp: Pricing Plans
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign’s pricing plans offer multiple options to accommodate different budgets and needs.
- The Lite plan starts at $15/month and includes up to three users, 500 contacts, automation, and basic reporting.
- The Plus plan starts at $70/month and includes up to 25 users, unlimited contacts, automation, and advanced reporting.
- The Professional plan starts at $159/month and includes up to 50 users, advanced segmentation, A/B testing, and predictive content.
- The Enterprise plan is custom-priced and offers access to features such as custom user roles, custom automation, and dedicated account management.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp offers pricing plans for both individuals and businesses.
- For individuals, Mailchimp’s free plan allows users to send up to 10,000 emails per month to up to 2,000 contacts.
- For businesses, the Essentials Plan starts at $9.99 per month and allows users to send up to 50,000 emails per month to up to 50,000 contacts.
- The Standard plan costs $14.99 per month and allows users to send up to 100,000 emails per month to up to 500,000 contacts.
- The Premium plan starts at $299 per month and allows users to send up to 1,000,000 emails per month to up to 5,000,000 contacts.
- Mailchimp also offers a pay-as-you-go plan, which allows users to purchase email credits in bulk and use them as needed.
ActiveCampaign VS Mailchimp: List of pros and cons
ActiveCampaign
List of Pros
- ActiveCampaign offers a wide range of features that can help you build relationships with your customers, create targeted campaigns, and monitor results.
- With the ability to segment your audience, you can personalize content, target specific audiences, and track the effectiveness of your campaigns.
- ActiveCampaign’s automation features can help you automate customer journeys, reduce manual work, and save time. With easy-to-use reporting, you can gain insights into your customers, analyze performance, and increase ROI.
- ActiveCampaign is an excellent choice for businesses looking to maximize their email marketing efforts.
List of Cons
- The main disadvantage of using ActiveCampaign is the cost. It is a paid service, and the pricing plans can be relatively expensive depending on the size of your business.
- It can be difficult to set up and use, as the interface can be complicated and overwhelming.
Mailchimp
Pros
Using Mailchimp for email marketing has numerous advantages for businesses and organizations. Below are some of the main advantages:
- Automated Email Marketing: Users can plan and execute campaigns with minimal effort and without having to manually send out emails.
- Detailed Analysis & Reporting: Users to track their campaigns and understand how they are performing and which areas need improvement.
- Easy to Use Interface: User-friendly interface that allows users to quickly create campaigns and track their results.
- Comprehensive Integration With Social Media and Other Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Salesforce, allowing users to leverage these platforms to reach even more customers.
Cons
- The lack of an out-of-the-box solution for segmenting customers, limited customer support, and the inability to link to multiple data sources.
- Additionally, the platform is limited to email marketing and lacks features for SMS, social media, or chatbot marketing. For more complex marketing automation, additional integrations or custom solutions must be implemented.
FAQs
What Can ActiveCampaign Do Better Than Mailchimp?
Compared to Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign provides more powerful automation features, allowing you to create personalized and targeted email marketing campaigns. ActiveCampaign also offers deeper segmentation of your contact list, allowing you to target specific audience demographics and send out messages tailored to their interests. Additionally, its reporting capabilities are more comprehensive and offer greater insight into the effectiveness of your campaigns.
With reporting options such as split tests, A/B tests, and click/open rate tracking, you can more easily measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions about how to improve your email marketing strategy.
What Can Mailchimp Do Better Than ActiveCampaign?
Mailchimp stands out for its ease of use and its free plan, which offers 2000 contacts and up to 10,000 email sends per month. It also allows users to design and send newsletters, surveys, and automated emails, as well as to track customer engagement.
The onboarding process is simple and the advanced features have everything you need to get started in email marketing.
Are There Other Alternatives to Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign?
Sure, there are more options for you to test. If you feel ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp are not right for your business, consider the following platforms:
- ConvertKit
- Constant Contact
- HubSpot
- Klavio
- Sendinblue
Wrapping Up
Selecting the appropriate tool has the potential to boost your email marketing campaigns, and streamline your operations, leaving more time to enjoy the simple pleasures of life, and improving the revenue for your business.
All things considered, both platforms have robust features and integrations. But considering the price, the features, and the usability, ActiveCampaign is better suited for bigger companies, who need to automate and track large amounts of information with maximum accuracy and minimum resources.
Mailchimp, on the other hand, is good for smaller businesses that are looking for the best features to run small or medium operations.
Both ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp email marketing platforms are excellent choices, just consider your specific requirements and set your email marketing efforts to success.
