ActiveCampaign vs. MailerLite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
ActiveCampaign is presented as an AI-first marketing platform for marketers, agencies, and entrepreneurs. It uses Active Intelligence for goal-aware automation and personalized experiences across email, SMS, and WhatsApp. ActiveCampaign integrates with 950+ apps and generates insights to optimize every workflow.
$15
per month
MailerLite
Score 8.6 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
MailerLite is an email marketing platform for small businesses, creators, and ecommerce brands, used to automate the customer journey and grow a customer list. Users can send unlimited emails with every plan. Pricing starts at $10/month. MailerLite enables users to: Grow and engage their audience - Build newsletters, forms, pop-ups, landing pages, and even full websites with a Drag and drop builder that offers total creative control over designs. 150 customizable…
$10
per month
Pricing
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Editions & Modules
Starter
$15
per month
Pro
$49
per month
Plus
$79
per month
Enterprise
$159
per month
Free
$0
per month 1 user
Growing
$10
per month 3 users
Advanced
$20
per month Unlimited users
Enterprise
Custom pricing
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
Additional DetailsAdditional 30% discount available to Non-profit organizations. Up to a 10% for paying yearly.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Considered Both Products
ActiveCampaign
Chose ActiveCampaign
It's much more advanced than other systems such as MailerLite, Mailchimp, Aweber, etc. These offer very limited integrations and automation which can cause a problem when wanting to truly automate your business processes and procedures. ActiveCampaign has a special way with …
Chose ActiveCampaign
I was highly disappointed in Mailchimp from the beginning -- it was incredibly limited, complicated, and I was constantly experiencing glitching that resulted in me losing work. MailerLite was good, but eventually, I needed to upgrade, and that's when I started looking into …
Chose ActiveCampaign
MailerLite is cheaper but a lot simpler. You're very limited in what you can do because you can't tag or segment. On the other hand, ActiveCampaign is extremely flexible with tagging and you can create as many complex dynamic segments as you like, which means you can send much …
Chose ActiveCampaign
I selected ActiveCampaign because many in the communities I was interacting with recommended it. It is also the software many of the platforms I interact with users and integrate directly via API.

The cost to get started is relatively low for access to automation and tagging …
Chose ActiveCampaign
I don't like MailerLite and Flodesk because they only offer segments, no tags. I like to add many tags to my contacts depending on the products they purchase, and this gets too cluttered when there's only segments. They also don't have clear insights on the home page of people …
Chose ActiveCampaign
I used to use MailerLite before and it has a lot less functionality and a lot less support than what I receive via ActiveCampaign. It felt more clunky and more difficult to use. ActiveCampaign is more intuitive and easier to learn and provides a wealth of features.
Chose ActiveCampaign
Salesforce is a beast! The learning involved to use the system is prohibitive. MailerLite is limited in functionality but ConvertKit is a solid alternative. Both are easy to use but clunky to navigate, while ActiveCampaign is logical. Mailchimp is great for small businesses …
Chose ActiveCampaign
The really big difference between ActiveCampaign the the competition, is the power of the automation that you can get with AC.
Chose ActiveCampaign
Keap is more expensive. Used it for a bit and then went off it because of price. AWeber is great - for affiliate marketing and more, as is mailer lite. Good for beginners and simple needs when it comes to lower-ticket offers and just the need for an email marketing software. I …
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaing is a more complete tool. You can create complex automation workflows or use its templates. It integrates with plenty of tools through its API. It makes it easy to do A/B tests in your campaigns or in the automation workflows. The lead scoring is very useful …
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is true marketing automation. The others aren't, or at least weren't when I used them.
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign was more affordable and had more features than I needed. In particular, the automation, sequences, and integrations plus the ability for custom webhooks. While I like the other platforms too for various reasons, the automation and webhooks features, integrations, …
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has a lot more capabilities that can be very useful for being able to achieve marketing goals.
Chose ActiveCampaign
It is the most complete of all due to its versatility and potential.
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a great option for the middle range company - it has TONS of functionality, akin to your Infusionsofts, but at a more affordable price range.
I selected Active Campaign as I use Kajabi, Thrivecart, and EverWebinar, and AC integrates really nicely with all of …
Chose ActiveCampaign
While other products may have features that ActiveCampaign only releases to higher-tier customers (landing pages for example), the benefits of ActiveCampaign far outweigh this. ActiveCampaign is great to use, easy to use, has a lot of power under the hood, and is quite …
Chose ActiveCampaign
  • It costs more than some, less than others, so the price is competitive.
  • The features are above most: constituent metrics, campaign and automation metrics, automation creation with options to integrate with other systems.
  • The ease with which a professional email can be composed …
Chose ActiveCampaign
I tried other products before ActiveCampaign, because they were cheaper many times. Integrations weren't working easily and I always had troubles with forms and double optin settings. Some other products offered way too much more than what I needed, so I thought they weren't …
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has better individual engagement and tracking ability as well as open rates compared to its competitors. The UI is also much simpler and much more preferred.
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has far more capabilities that will help target customers based on their behavior.
Chose ActiveCampaign
I chose ActiveCampaign over other email marketing platforms because of their amazing segmentation and the options to build out intricate email sequencing using rules and actions.

I was also incredibly impressed with the CRM they've built to incorporate automation, tracking, and …
Chose ActiveCampaign
There were a lot more features in ActiveCampaign compared with previous ones and we decided to relaunch our whole newsletters ideas and took a risk to change everything at once.
In the beginning, we saw an improvement in the numbers and after a one year period, we finished …
MailerLite
Chose MailerLite
I moved to Constant Contact from MailerLite as the reporting and segmentation was deeper. But the editor and the lack of decent forms and landing pages soon brought me back to MailerLite.

Mailchimp got too expensive.
Chose MailerLite
Automation is the key feature that sold me. I had it for free and a generous 12k sends monthly for 1000 or less subscribers. I will surely upgrade soon once I exhaust the list. Currently at 600+ as of writing.

For everything else, their customization is on par with Mailchimp and …
Chose MailerLite
MailerLite has similar features to the tools mentioned above. The main advantage is that it is very complete in its free version. This is ideal for those who are starting out and want to try a complete email marketing platform.
Chose MailerLite
I implemented many types of software. So I'm used to work with several software. In terms of email marketing Mailerlite is just great to work with. The overall feeling is the best.
Chose MailerLite
We selected Mailerlite because it was the only one that provided advanced features for free for a list of up to 1000 subscribers.
Features
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.6
688 Ratings
12% above category average
MailerLite
8.5
83 Ratings
7% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor8.3605 Ratings9.472 Ratings
Dynamic content8.0539 Ratings8.966 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.0488 Ratings6.960 Ratings
Landing pages7.0356 Ratings8.265 Ratings
A/B testing8.9398 Ratings8.652 Ratings
Mobile optimization8.8545 Ratings8.166 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.0654 Ratings9.173 Ratings
List management9.4673 Ratings9.072 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences10.0594 Ratings8.748 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.6
541 Ratings
10% above category average
MailerLite
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation9.1507 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.5370 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management9.4413 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks8.2365 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution7.917 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.7
388 Ratings
27% above category average
MailerLite
-
Ratings
Calendaring9.9308 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.4291 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.1
295 Ratings
5% below category average
MailerLite
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns7.4262 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration6.9257 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.9
650 Ratings
8% above category average
MailerLite
6.8
72 Ratings
11% below category average
Dashboards8.0619 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Standard reports7.9607 Ratings8.372 Ratings
Custom reports7.8394 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.1
509 Ratings
20% above category average
MailerLite
-
Ratings
API8.7407 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.6278 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability7.9435 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.397 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.964 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.959 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations9.137 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
MailerLite
9.1
65 Ratings
14% above category average
Email Previews00 Ratings9.165 Ratings
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ActiveCampaignMailerLite
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Mad Mimi
Score 10.0 out of 10
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PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
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PFL Direct Mail Platform
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User Ratings
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(699 ratings)
9.0
(88 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(25 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(62 ratings)
9.2
(25 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.3
(41 ratings)
9.4
(4 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.5
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCampaign
I've been using ActiveCampaign since around 2018-2019 and I've always been satisfied with the software. It's simple to use, connects with the other tools I use and makes it easy for me to duplicate automations, email templates and workflows as I need to. On top of that, any time I've had an issue (which I think is around twice in the past 5/6 years), the customer service has always been super helpful and my issue has been resolved quickly.
Read full review
Mailerlite
I didn't have much luck when testing other similar tools and since we tested with free plan, we couldn't commit to something else if we couldn't get basic stuff fixed. That's when we switched to MailerLite, and their support was great and super helpful all the way (during our free plan, especially). Plus, they're super budget-friendly for startups, so I highly recommend.
Read full review
Pros
ActiveCampaign
  • Collects and filters emails from various lead magnets exceptionally well (especially if a user wants to re-sign up to the same lead magnet and go through it again, they can)
  • Super easy to use email creation that is aesthetically pleasing and user friendly
  • Easy email sequences and user classification from a large range of opt in trigger options
Read full review
Mailerlite
  • Offers a user-friendly interface, making it simple to create beautiful forms, group subscribers, and automate emails.
  • Includes email automation workflows in their free plan - the only provider I know of that doesn't charge you after one month or hit you with "transaction fees".
  • Excellent video tutorial library so you can learn email marketing as a beginner without feeling overwhelmed.
Read full review
Cons
ActiveCampaign
  • It took me a while to get to understand where to find things, and I used a free online course from a consultant who specialises in AC to help me get the foundations set up more easily. That said, there were lots of onboarding workshops, which were good. It just felt like it required a lot of different angles of learning to just get started.
  • The customer support took longer than other software to get back to me via email, though once I found the chat option for my most recent query, that was fast.
  • I've ended up switching to another programme where more software is more naturally integrated, and the AC equivalent is included in the price, along with many other types of software. However, design-wise, ActiveCampaign is much better.
  • I also had a problem with a form used on my WordPress website, which has a BuddyBoss platform - the colours on the form would be overridden by colour choices for the website, so they were hard to read (pink text on purple background instead of the gold text it was meant to be)
  • I couldn't always find the templates I was looking for or how to access them for automation-based emails. I think when I used it, there was a new type of template for newsletters that weren't available for automations, so I had to recreate it, which added time.
Read full review
Mailerlite
  • EVERYONE should be allowed to at least use the AI bot chat feature. This doesn't take a person and is such basic customer service that it should be offered at all levels.
  • It would be nice if MailerLite worked better with AddEvent icons
  • When emailing support it took days to get a response (after an agent escalated the issue). Some concerns are more urgent and email support shouldn't mean bad support.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
ActiveCampaign
I am committed at the moment. Rebuilding the automations I have would be a huge time drain. Plus the cost of learning a new system and the risk to deliverability of porting a 6,000 person list to a new platform. Also, AC offers everything I need ast a reasonable (but a little high) price. So, why not a 10? Because, early 2023, AC dropped a massive 2x price hike on long-term customers. They knew few would shift, so this feels like a cynical cash grab and left a bad taste, If they do something like this again, this camel will have a broken back.
Read full review
Mailerlite
Mailerlite is awesome and it does everything I need and then some. They're always innovating and adding new features, and their team is flippin' amazing. Can't see myself ever switching. They may not have everything, but looking at how well their team works, they'll get there for sure and I'm willing to wait.
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Usability
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has been the easiest marketing automation software we have ever used. They provide tips throughout the entire process of anything you are building. Their support team through LIVE CHAT has been extremely fast and helpful. The monthly meetings provided with the enablement team has helped us through several large and urgent needs.
Read full review
Mailerlite
I can't express how happy and satisfied I've been with recent email exchange with Ivan from MailerLite support. He answered promptly, clearly and assisted me with urgent issue I needed to be taken care of asap. HUGE satisfaction! Excellent customer service! Thank you, Ivan!
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Reliability and Availability
ActiveCampaign
I haven't experienced application errors or unplanned outages at all. Active Campaign is ultra reliable and I would not be using them if that were the case. Also, the helpful emails they send are welcomed and informative, and present very practical tips and guidance for using the platform. They're always demonstrating new features and I'm thankful for that.
Read full review
Mailerlite
No answers on this topic
Performance
ActiveCampaign
Oh my gosh, Active Campaign's performance gets an A+++ in my book. The pages load quickly and so do the reports. I haven't noticed any slowdowns when it's integrating with other programs and it performs excellently on all levels.
Read full review
Mailerlite
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
ActiveCampaign
This might be the best part. The chat support lady offered to make a video to help me solve my problem. I worked in customer service for years and I've never done that, lol. So, if they're offering things like that, I can only imagine that they'd be able to handle most any issue you throw at them.
Read full review
Mailerlite
Timely responses, quality answers to my questions, showing that the support are knowledgeable and cares about my results. I've had other experiences with competitors, so I'm delighted that this team cares about my business. It's good to know there are real experts ready to jump in when you need help
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Implementation Rating
ActiveCampaign
Very satisfied with our implementation in our professional medical practice, allowing us to be on top of client service, and not miss out on crucial information and insights. Marketing is often neglected in professional practices and ActiveCampaign solved this problem with aplomb.
Read full review
Mailerlite
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
ActiveCampaign
I moved to ActiveCampaign from Mailchimp. Admittedly, I was using the free version of Mailchimp, but I had numerous episodes of subscriber data NOT being added to Mailchimp, despite using API to integrate with my mailing list. Obviously, I couldn't pay for clicks and not capture subscriber data, so I had to find something else. ActiveCampaign has been 100% reliable in testing.
Read full review
Mailerlite
MailerLite has similar features to the tools mentioned above. The main advantage is that it is very complete in its free version. This is ideal for those who are starting out and want to try a complete email marketing platform.
Read full review
Scalability
ActiveCampaign
My web designer told me about Active Campaign and although I don't recall which platform I had before, I LOVE Active Campaign and its user friendliness. The transition was seamless and I've never had a problem with functionality or server failure.
Active Campaign provides so many features, and makes it easy for non-techies to maneuver around the site with ease. They capture information and put it in an easy-to-read format.
At this point, I don't think I'd ever use any other platform!
Read full review
Mailerlite
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
ActiveCampaign
  • I haven't monetized my list yet so no clear ROI but great from a list-building perspective
  • The software is not cheap so at times I feel like I may not be getting the most out of the product because I'm not using all of the features
Read full review
Mailerlite
  • Gives us the ability to track the popularity of content in our email as well as who has read the content.
  • The customizable layout gives us the opportunity to be creative and have our culture shine through our company communication.
  • The ability to see who has un-subscribed helps our HR department to see who isn't receiving important company information so we can ask them to re-subscribe.
  • Helps our company to be more transparent and communicate more effectively.
Read full review
ScreenShots

ActiveCampaign Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

MailerLite Screenshots

Screenshot of reports, that can include unsubscribe count, spam complaints, bounces, link activity and other metrics that are critical to measuring success.Screenshot of automations for every subscriber journeyScreenshot of the MailerLite landing page builderScreenshot of an example newsletterScreenshot of some of the over 150 templates availableScreenshot of where to find MailerLite's integrations