MailerLite vs ActiveCampaign

Two email marketing tools side by side. Prices are the starting plan a small business would pick, in USD.

Compare	MailerLiteMailerLite	ActiveCampaignActiveCampaign
In one line	Newsletters and automations with a free plan and low prices	Email automation for businesses that follow up over weeks
Starting price	Free	From $15/mo
At 2,500 contacts	$33/mo	$39/mo
Plans	Free (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo); Comfort $12/mo at 500 subscribers, $19 at 1,000, $33 at 2,500, $49 at 5,000, $89 at 10,000 (monthly); Power from $25/mo; 10% off yearly	At 1,000 contacts, billed yearly: Starter $15/mo (1 user, 5 actions per automation); Plus $49 (landing pages, unlimited actions); Pro $79 (3 users). Starter billed yearly rises to $39 at 2,500 contacts, $79 at 5,000, $149 at 10,000. Monthly $19/$59/$99
Pricing model	Free tier	Free trial
Free trial	14 days	14 days
Users	2 on free	1 on Starter and Plus; 3 on Pro
Both connect to	HubSpot CRM, Shopify, Squarespace Commerce, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Teachable
Also connects to	No others on record	Pipedrive1,059+ listed by the vendor
Team size	Just me · 2–10 people · 11–50 people	2–10 people · 11–50 people
Available in	US · UK · CA · AU	US · UK · CA · AU
Phone support	None listed	Plans not stated
Live chat	Power and up	Every paid plan
Support hours	Live chat: 24/7	Not published
Incidents posted	0 incidents posted on MailerLite's status page, which covers all MailerLite products and regions, in the 90 days to Oct 27, 2026. Status page	11 incidents posted on ActiveCampaign's status page, which covers all ActiveCampaign products and regions, in the 90 days to Oct 27, 2026; 7 marked major or critical by ActiveCampaign. Status page
Capterra score	4.7 / 5 from 2,324 reviews	4.6 / 5 from 2,571 reviews
Trustpilot score	4.1 / 5 from 3,390 reviews	2.7 / 5 from 1,450 reviews
Fit: Retail shop	70	65
Fit: Restaurant or café	60	55
Fit: Service business	82	82
Fit: Agency or studio	78	85
Fit: Trades or contractor	55	55
Fit: Online store	72	82
Why people pick it	Cheaper than Mailchimp Clean editor	Unlimited automation steps from Plus up Over 1,000 integrations
Where it falls short	Free plan is small Lighter ecommerce reporting	Starter caps automations at 5 actions and has no landing pages CRM pipelines and SMS cost extra
	Visit MailerLite ↗	Visit ActiveCampaign ↗

List-size prices are the vendor's published price for 2,500 contacts. How we calculate prices