MailChimp vs ActiveCampaign – Which one is the best?
There once was a time when Internet marketing was optional. The Internet was starting, and just a few had access to it. But the situation has changed. Internet is practically available in all nations. It has more than four billion users. Of course, newspaper ads, tv marketing, and billboards are important. Still, Internet marketing is essential to any business. MailChimp vs ActiveCampaign – which one is better?
If you’re starting a business or have one already, you need Internet marketing. It will improve your brand’s awareness and boost your sales. Besides, the Internet is the best way to do CRM or customer relationship management.
If you expect to have a relatively big success, you can’t rely only on yourself to make Internet marketing. It’s just impossible for one person to send hundreds or even thousands of emails or more every day. Don’t worry about it because companies offer you the service of making Internet marketing easier for you.
Internet marketing platforms offer various features that make marketing management simple. The main specialty of these services is the automation of repetitive tasks, but they offer many more useful things.
There are many Internet platforms on the web. Thus we know it’s not easy to choose, especially if you’re new in the marketing world. We want to help you with the choice, and we arranged a match for this reason.
You’ll find below a MailChimp vs ActiveCampaign contest, a comparison between two of the best Internet marketing services, in which you can see and discover which platform is better for your company.
MailChimp vs ActiveCampaign – Meet the rivals
MailChimp is a long veteran in the world of Internet Marketing. Launched in 2001, it is an American email marketing platform known for its simplicity and efficiency. It is the most popular service of its kind. Aimed at small to midsize businesses(SMB), MailChimp adds through the years more and more features. It evolved from an Email marketing service to a complete marketing platform that goes beyond automation.
ActiveCampaign is a platform aimed at SMB from Chicago, launched in 2003. It offers customer experience automation (CXA), including marketing automation, email marketing, sales automation, and CRM features.
Now that you know the opponents, let’s start with the comparison.
Round 1. Features
We could say this is the most important aspect to take into account. Knowing what they offer allows you to see immediately if it suits your business’s needs.
MailChimp
MailChimp offers a good amount of features. It counts with effective automation, customizable email templates. It also has intuitive and wonderful design tools that give you many options and freedom.
Let’s see a complete list of its 78 features:
- A/B testing
- API
- Activity Dashboard
- Activity Tracking
- Archiving and Retention
- Assessment Management
- Campaign analysis
- Management
- Campaign Segmentation
- Click Tracking
- Collaboration Tools
- Content Management
- Custom Fields
- Custom Forms
- Customer Accounts
- Activity Reporting
- Customer Database
- Profiling
- Customer Segmentation
- Customizable Templates
- Data Import
- Data Synchronization
- Delivery Tracking
- Demographic Data Collection
- Design Management
- Drag & Drop Interface
- Drip Marketing
- Duplicate Detection
- Email Distribution
- Email Integration
- Marketing Management
- Email Notifications
- Templates
- Email Tracking
- Engagement Analytics
- Event-Triggered Actions
- Geolocation
- Knowledge Base Management
- Landing Page Templates
- Lead Capture
- Lead Generation
- Management
- Loyalty Program
- Mail Merge
- Mailing List Management
- Mobile Integration
- Monitoring
- Multi-Campaign
- Multi-Channel Communication
- Management
- Multi-Channel Marketing
- Multiple Projects
- Multiple User Accounts
- Opportunity Management
- Order Confirmation
- Order Management
- Preview Functionality
- RSS Feeds
- Real-Time Analytics
- Real-Time Data
- Monitoring
- Real-Time Reporting
- Registration Management
- Reporting & Statistics
- Rich Text Editor
- Search Functionality
- Social Advertising
- Social Media Integration
- Metrics
- Social Network Marketing
- Subscription Management
- Template Management
- Third-Party Integration
- To-Do List
- Unsubscribe Database
- Usage Tracking
- Website Integration
- eCommerce Integration
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign counts with many automation features and a great email template builder. It’s also easy to use and has sales features. It has 90 features in total, including:
- Accounting Management
- Auto-Responders
- CRM Integration
- Forms Management
- Lead Scoring
- Newsletter Management
- Performance Reports
- Pipeline Management
- Pipeline Reports
- Preview Functionality
- SMS Integration
- SMS Marketing Management
- Sales Reporting
- Visitor Management
- Visitor Tracking
- WebForms
The winner is obvious. ActiveCampaign counts with more features than MailChimp, especially in the sales area.
Round 2. Pricing
With the features in mind, you can analyze better which option has the best price/quality relationship. So let’s see the prices.
MailChimp has a starting price of literally $0, as it counts with a free plan that allows you to send 12,000 emails every month to up to 2,000 subscribers. The first paid plan (Essentials) starts at $9,99, which gives you unlimited email sends to your subscribers. The Standard plan starts at $14,99 per month, which allows you higher automation and features related to business growth. And you can enjoy all the 78 features with the premium plan, which costs $299.00 monthly.
ActivCampaign starts at $15.00 monthly for its Lite plan, which offers automation, integration tracking, email marketing, and more. The plus plan costs $70 monthly for many more features, like SMS marketing, landing pages, and customer health scoring. The last two are the Professional and Enterprise plans, which cost $159.00 and $279.00, respectively. These plans give you access to the key features related to sales and marketing.
Both services’ prices depend on your number of subscribers, and the prices shown are for up to 500 contacts.
The winner is MailChimp. It counts with a free plan and better prices overall.
Round 3. Support and training
MailChimp offers support for paid users via live chat and email 24/7. It also offers you phone support if you’re a Premium user. It can also provide you with training through documentation, webinars, and live online.
ActiveCampaign provides you email and live chat support, and phone support is available for Enterprise clients. It offers live online training, webinars, documentation, and even in-person training.
We can say we have a tie here. MailChimp offers better support, ActiveCampaign has better training.
MailChimp vs ActiveCampaign – What platform is the winner?
It all depends on your needs, actually. Both MailChimp and ActiveCampaign are great platforms. One is better than the other in some areas and vice-versa. We believe MailChimp is a better marketing platform, but ActiveCampaign is better in all the other aspects.
So the winner is ActiveCampaign.
