ActiveCampaign's pricing page opens on a 14-day trial with no card and a 30-day money-back guarantee, then a four-tier ladder: Starter at $15 a month billed annually for 1,000 contacts, Plus at $49, Pro at $79 and Enterprise at $145, with custom pricing above. The limits that matter are structural rather than cosmetic - Starter allows 5 actions per automation, Plus raises active automation goals to 25, and Pro removes the ceiling with 200 goals and unlimited actions. Users climb from one seat on Starter and Plus to three on Pro and five on Enterprise, and the vendor's AI features, branded Active Intelligence, are held back on the lower tiers and complete from Pro upward.
TL;DR
ActiveCampaign prices automation depth: Starter at $15 a month billed annually for 1,000 contacts, Plus at $49, Pro at $79 and Enterprise at $145, with 5 automation actions per automation on Starter, 25 active goals on Plus and 200 goals with unlimited actions from Pro, and one to five users by tier. Mailchimp prices the list: Free up to 250 contacts, Essentials at $13 a month for the first 12 months, Standard at $20 and Premium at $350, all at the entry contact tier shown on its pricing page, with an extra 15% off for lists over 10,000 contacts in year one. Choose ActiveCampaign if automation is the product you are buying; choose Mailchimp if campaigns, a familiar editor and a free entry point matter more than branching logic.
Mailchimp's page sells by contact count with a promotional first year. The Free plan stops at 250 contacts. Essentials lists at $13 a month for 12 months at the entry contact tier, Standard at $20 - the tier the vendor recommends and offers a 14-day trial for, with the page citing up to 27x ROI as a customer claim - and Premium at $350, which adds phone and priority support, multivariate testing and enhanced automation flows. Lists over 10,000 contacts take an extra 15% off the first 12 months, and accounts spending at least $299 a month qualify for customer success management.
The decision is what you expect to automate. ActiveCampaign's pricing assumes the selling point is branching logic: goals, unlimited actions and segmentation depth are what the tiers buy, and the entry price is higher because of it. Mailchimp's assumes the selling point is sending well to a list you already have: a free plan that holds 250 contacts, a $13 entry that covers regular campaigns, and premium testing and support features that unlock as the monthly price rises. Teams migrating off a basic ESP with complex journeys in mind tend to pick ActiveCampaign; teams that want the biggest template library and the lowest entry cost tend to pick Mailchimp.
| Feature | ActiveCampaign | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Free entry | 14-day trial, no card | Free plan up to 250 contacts at $0 a month |
| Entry paid tier | Starter $15/month billed annually (1,000 contacts) | Essentials $13/month for 12 months, entry contact tier |
| Mid tier | Plus $49/month with 25 active automation goals | Standard $20/month for 12 months, vendor-recommended, 14-day trial |
| Top tier | Pro $79/month: 200 goals, unlimited actions, three users | Premium $350/month: phone support, multivariate testing, enhanced automations |
| Automation | 5 actions per automation on Starter; unlimited from Pro | Automation flows deepen on upper tiers; enhanced flows on Premium |
| Users | 1 on Starter and Plus, 3 on Pro, 5 on Enterprise | Plans scale by contacts rather than seats |
| List-size discount | Priced by contact band; custom above Enterprise | 15% off the first 12 months for lists over 10,000 contacts |
| Guarantee | 30-day money-back guarantee | 14-day free trial on paid tiers; free plan runs indefinitely |
Pick ActiveCampaign if
ActiveCampaign is for teams whose emails are branches rather than blasts: welcome journeys with conditions, goal-based automation, segmentation that changes mid-flow. Paying $15 rather than $13 at the entry buys that structure, and the ceiling - 200 goals and unlimited actions at $79 - is published rather than negotiated. It is the less sensible choice for a simple newsletter, where Starter's 5-action automation limit is the only automation you would use anyway.
Pick Mailchimp if
Mailchimp suits lists that want a proven editor, templates and deliverability without an automation project: free up to 250 contacts, $13 a month at the entry tier after that, and the deeper testing and phone support on Premium when the program grows. Watch the renewal price after month 12 and the contact-based repricing as the list grows - the entry number is a first-year number.
No independent ratings or user quotes are reproduced here; we collected none for this pair. Vendor-published figures are labeled as such: ActiveCampaign's site cites 14,000+ positive customer reviews and Mailchimp's cites a 4.5-star rating from 33,000+ reviews plus up to 27x ROI on Standard. Mailchimp prices were read from mailchimp.com/pricing (US) on 2026-10-13. ActiveCampaign's current pricing page loads plan prices through a contact-count calculator that did not render in our fetch; the $15/$49/$79/$145 ladder and tier limits above were read from the same page during the previous pipeline run on 2026-09-28.
At the entry, Mailchimp's Essentials lists at $13 a month for 12 months against ActiveCampaign's Starter at $15 billed annually. ActiveCampaign bundles deeper automation at that price; Mailchimp's price is promotional and rises after the first year.
Mailchimp runs a free plan up to 250 contacts. ActiveCampaign lists a 14-day trial with no credit card instead, backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
ActiveCampaign prices automation into its tiers: 5 actions per automation on Starter, 25 active goals on Plus, 200 goals and unlimited actions on Pro. Mailchimp's automation flows deepen on its upper tiers, with enhanced flows listed on Premium.
Both price by contact count. ActiveCampaign's tiers are set per contact band with custom pricing above Enterprise; Mailchimp's page reprices each tier through a contact selector and offers 15% off the first 12 months for lists over 10,000 contacts.
ActiveCampaign states one user on Starter and Plus, three on Pro and five on Enterprise. Mailchimp's plans are priced by contacts rather than seats.
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