ActiveCampaign vs. Mailchimp 2022 (side by side comparison)
ActiveCampaign vs. Mailchimp 2022 (side by side comparison)
ActiveCampaign or mailchimp: Which one is better?
Are you thinking of using a marketing automation tool for your business but don’t know which one to buy? Do you use Mailchimp but want to see an alternative? Do you want to know if ActiveCampaign is worth the price? This article will explain the difference between each tool and which is better for your business. Note that this isn’t a sponsored article, and we’ll show you what we consider are the ins and outs of each tool.
Tools overview (Brief history)
ActiveCampaign was created in 2003 by Jason VandeBoom. He started the company started as a marketing consultancy provider. Jason had developed some marketing tools for some clients, so he decided to offer a solution capable of doing what he was already selling. That’s how he created his first marketing software. However, it wasn’t until several years later that ActiveCampaign started to grow to its current state. Although ActiveCampaign started as an email marketing tool, now it includes a sales CRM and website and SMS integrations. Now ActiveCampaign is one of the leading tools for marketing automation, surpassing more than 140,000 active customers globally and employing more than 300 people.
Mailchimp was created in 2001 by Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius. They wanted to offer an affordable email marketing tool for small-sized businesses. At that time, most marketing software was expensive, focusing on large enterprises. At the same time, Chestnut and Kurzius were running a web design agency, and it wasn’t until 2007 that Ben and Dan focused entirely on the email software they had created years ago. What has made the software so famous is that its purpose isn’t to provide email marketing tools but to help small businesses grow. That’s why Mailchimp has expanded its arsenal of tools to ther areas aside from email marketing over the years. They offer a complete marketing platform, websites and eCommerce development services, and its traditional transactional email tool.
List of features (2022)
ActiveCampaign supports multiple languages. Not only you’ll get support in these languages, but the entire interface will be set in:
ActiveCampaign
— Automation Builder —
— Email Builder —
— Landing Page Builder —
— Form Builder —
— SMS Marketing —
— Sales CRM —
— Website tracking —
— Reports and analytics —
Mailchimp
— CRM —
— Email Builder —
— Form Builder —
— Landing Page builder —
— Workflows Automation —
— Social Posting —
— Social Ads —
— Split Testing —
Feature by feature comparison
✉️ Email Builder ✉️
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign’s drag and drop builder lets you build simple emails in a breeze. You can also create complex and personalized ones with the same editor or use HTML code. Also, if you don’t want to make your emails from scratch, ActiveCampaign has more than 125 templates.
Ins:
– HTML integration.
– Plain Text builder.
– Drag and Drop Builder.
– You can save the blocks to reuse them.
Outs:
– We’ve experienced some glitches in the editor’s appearance,
but it doesn’t impact functionality.
– You can’t apply styles in bulk.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp also has its drag and drop builder. It lets you choose a layout for your emails to use multiple formats, and it also includes a code block so you can insert HTML.
Ins
– Layout selector.
– Simple interface.
– You can apply the same style to all
blocks with the same name.
– Easy to add columns to change the layout.
Outs
– Although the editor is simple, it lacks some intuitiveness.
– You can’t save the blocks to reuse them.
⭐⭐ Winner: ActiveCampaign ⭐⭐
Although Mailchimp’s email builder is easier to use, we believe ActiveCampaign’s one has more capabilities and is more professional. That’s why we give this match to ActiveCampaign.
📝 Form Builder 📝
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign’s form builder is one of the best form builders we have ever tested. It allows you to choose between different layouts such as inline forms, floating, and modal, and its builder makes it very easy for you to give it the style you need.
Ins
– Drag and drop builder.
– Easy to integrate with automations
(like triggering actions when someone completes).
– You can add custom fields.
– Rules after completion
(redirect to a custom page, overwrite existing data).
– Real-time preview.
Outs
– Although the editor is simple, it lacks intuitiveness.
– You can’t save the blocks to reuse them.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp’s forms can get tricky since the form editor will change depending on the type of form you want to use. For example, if you’re building a pop-up form, the editor will differ from the sign-up form builder. We like the Mailchimp sign-up editor (the default one) because it allows you to give exactly the appearance you need for your form. However, the other editors are minimal.
Ins
– You can use different layouts.
– Sign Up forms builder is excellent.
– You can edit response emails in the same builder.
Outs
– It gets confusing when the editor
changes depending on the form type.
– Pop-up and embedded form editors are minimal.
– Not intuitive at all.
⭐⭐ Winner: ActiveCampaign ⭐⭐
ActiveCampaigns is the best form builder. Not only can you integrate them with your automations from the very beginning, but the builder is simple to use and very complete. If Mailchimp unified all of its editors and made the process simpler, they could rule this one, but in the meantime, ActiveCampaign wins this match by far.
✈️ Landing Page Builder ✈️
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has a powerful page builder natively integrated into its dashboard. The drag and drop builder it’s thoroughgoing and intuitive, so you can fully customize your page. On the downside, it may be hard to learn if you’re a complete beginner.
Ins
– Intuitive interface.
– Add or remove columns easily.
– Build responsive pages.
– Allows forms integration.
– Payment buttons.
– Theme Editor.
Outs
– It may be hard to use for beginners.
– Although you can see the design inside the editor,
it lacks a preview mode before publishing.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp landing page builder is more straightforward, with fewer functionalities but easier to learn for beginners. The drag and drop interface lets you easily add, remove and edit blocks. The major drawback is that it misses an undo button to return to previous versions of the document quickly.
Ins
– Simple and easy to learn.
– Form Integration.
– Payment buttons.
– Store integrations.
– Theme editor.
– Preview Mode.
Outs
– The layout and styles options are limited.
– It misses a dedicated editor for the mobile version.
⭐⭐ Winner: ActiveCampaign ⭐⭐
Although the Mailchimp builder is more straightforward for beginners, the ActiveCampaigns one is just more complete and intuitive. Once you learn how to use it, you can create complex and fully customized landing pages. If you have used popular page builders before like Elementor or Wix, ActiveCampaign’s page builder is just as good, and that’s why this match goes to ActiveCampaign.
🤖 Automations Builder 🤖
ActiveCampaign
Marketing automations is ActiveCampaign’s specialty. Although you probably will need to check on the help articles and tutorials, ActiveCampaign can help you automate all of the workflows in your marketing campaigns. It gives you some “recipes”, which are nothing more than frequent use automations, so you use one of those and customize it to your needs. Or you can build a new one from scratch.
Ins
– You can choose frequent use templates.
– You can use actions on your website as triggers.
– Integrate with third-party apps.
– User sentiment triggers (for example,
send an email when the user’s mood changes).
– CRM integration.
– Connect to eCommerce.
– Use webhooks.
– API integration.
Outs
– Hard at first for beginners.
– Navigation can get tricky if you open an email template,
for example.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp Marketing automation uses the Customer Journey Builder. Mailchimp’s customer journey builder interface is cleaner and easier to learn. Just like ActiveCampaign, it lets you use frequent use templates. You can also integrate with third-party apps to use actions occurring on them as triggers.
Ins
– Templated automations.
– Clean interface.
– Integrate with third-party apps.
– Integrate with eCommerce.
– API integration.
Outs
– The list of triggers and actions is limited compared to AC.
– Shorter list of apps.
⭐⭐ Winner: ActiveCampaign ⭐⭐
ActiveCampaign wins this match since it can do everything Mailchimp does and more. Also, Its CRM and machine learning integration allows performing actions based on lead score and sentiments. ActiveCampaign’s automations make it one of the best marketing software in the market.
📒 Contact Management 📒
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign makes it very easy to add and import your lists of contacts. Using tags, you can create different lists and segments depending on the users’ characteristics and behaviors. Use your lists and tags to create more custom campaigns and automations.
Ins
– Add different lists.
– Add contacts manually or in bulk.
– Add tags.
– Import from third-party apps.
– Search and filter your contacts easily.
– Add custom fields easily.
Outs
– Your lists and contacts are accessed
through different locations of your dashboard.
– Manual contacts edits are saved in real-time,
so it may not be easy to restore it to its previous state
if you update something mistakenly.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp lets you add your contacts manually or import them in bulk. You can also segment your lists based on contacts’ behavior, characteristics, and behavior. However, you can’t use multiple audiences on your campaigns, meaning that if you want to include contacts on your campaigns, they should be on the same list.
Ins
– Add contacts manually or in bulk.
– Add segments and tags.
– Group your contacts.
– Import from third-party tools.
– Access your contacts, tags,
and segments from the same menu.
– Your contacts are rated.
Outs
– To add custom fields, you need to set them on your forms.
– You can’t send a campaign to more than one audience.
⭐⭐ Winner: Tie ⭐⭐
Both Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign let you add and manage your contacts easily. Although it may seem that Mailchimp’s audience limitation is a downside, it fulfills the purpose of using your account for a single marketing project, and you can use tags and segments to split your audience. So, for this match, we consider it’s a tie.
📊 Reports 📊
ActiveCampaign
On ActiveCampaign, you get detailed reports for each of your marketing workflows:
Ins
– Email performance.
– Campaigns Performance.
– Automation Performance.
– Deal Reports.
– Trends.
– Conversation reports.
Outs
– The reports section is confusing.
It may be hard for you to find the specific report you need.
– Some reports are limited to higher subscription plans.
Mailchimp
On Mailchimp, your reports are easy to find and properly segmented.
Ins
– Email reports.
– Automation reports.
– Landing Pages reports.
– Ads and social reports.
– Surveys reports.
– Postcards reports.
Outs
– Your campaign reports are segmented by audience
⭐⭐ Winner: Mailchimp ⭐⭐
Since we consider reports should be easy to find and read, we’re going to give this match to Mailchimp for the simplicity of its reports dashboard.
🚀 Extra Features 🚀
Both ActiveCampaign extend their features beyond email marketing. Let’s compare the special features for each one.
ActiveCampagin
– Create and send SMS campaigns.
– CRM (create sales pipelines)
– Use conversations (webchat and Facebook messenger)
and add them to automations.
Outs
– Website creator
– Store builder
– Create and publish Facebook and Instagram posts.
– Create and run Facebook and Instagram ads.
– Send postcards.
⭐⭐ Winner: Mailchimp ⭐⭐
When it comes to extra functionalities to your marketing campaigns, Mailchimp includes more features out of the box. Although you might find better choices for these unique features, having the ability to control them all from a single dashboard can make it attractive for small businesses. Without a doubt, this match goes to Mailchimp.
💰 Pricing 💰
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaigns plans start at $9 per month if you acquire the yearly subscription. Their most basic plan allows you to upload up to 500 contacts and gives access to 1 user only. See our ActiveCampaign pricing page to get details for each subscription plan.
Ins
– Get a discount for yearly subscriptions.
– The Plus plan gives access to 25 users for $49 a month.
– You get support via chat and email.
Outs
– Doesn’t offer a free plan.
– Prices can get very expensive if your lists of contacts
are long.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp subscription plans start at $0 for 2,000 contacts included on its free plan, which gives you the basics to launch your marketing campaigns. The premium plan costs $299/ month, giving you unlimited seats for your marketing team.
Ins
– It offers a free plan which is perfect
if you want to try the tool.
– You can get 50,000 contacts for $9,99 a month.
– You get unlimited audiences with the premium plan.
Outs
– You get a limit for email sendings per month.
– The non-premium plans offer up to 5 seats per month.
⭐⭐ Winner: Mailchimp ⭐⭐
ActiveCampaign and MailChimp offer affordable prices for small and middle-sized businesses. But having the chance to try the tool for free and for up to 2,000 contacts makes Mailchimp ideal for beginners. Also, you’ll get a friendly and professional tool with unlimited seats at a more affordable price. That’s why we give this match to MailChimp.
Side by Side Winner: ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign
(Winner)
Mailchimp
Email Builder
Form Builder
Landing Page Builder
Automations Builder
Contact Management
Reports
Extra Features
Pricing
Need some Help?
Both ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp are great tools for managing and automating your marketing. However, in terms of quality and streamlining marketing operations, ActiveCampaign is just the best. Also, consider that ActiveCampaign gives you access to a sales CRM where you can automate your sales flows and score your leads. But that doesn’t mean Mailchimp is a bad tool, but we consider it to be more for small-sized businesses, and that’s what Mailchimp’s aim is, to help small businesses. At DigitalME, we can advise you on which tool might best fit your business by auditing your current marketing strategy. If you’re interested, don’t hesitate to complete our contact form, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
IN VALENCIA AND SAN DIEGO