ActiveCampaign vs. MailerLite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
ActiveCampaign helps small teams power big businesses with a platform for intelligent marketing automation. It provides email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM tools that help businesses to create incredible customer experiences.
$19
per month
MailerLite
Score 8.0 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
MailerLite is an email marketing platform. Users can create professional newsletters, landing pages and websites using a drag & drop editor with AI generator or by customizing pre-designed templates. And manage campaigns on-the-go in the iOS app. MailerLite helps to connect with an audience using advanced targeting, automations and surveys. It integrates with Zapier, Stripe, WordPress, Shopify and other tools and platforms. MailerLite offers a Forever Free account including 24/7 support and a 30…
$10
per month
Pricing
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Forever free plan
$0
1,000 subscribers
Growing
$10
per month 3 users
Advanced
$21
per month Unlimited users
Enterprise
Custom pricing
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$10 2500 subscribers
Additional DetailsAdditional 30% discount available to Non-profit organizations.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Considered Both Products
ActiveCampaign
Chose ActiveCampaign
We went for ActiveCampaign because it provided more options when it came to automation. MailerLite is pretty easy to use but does not offer all the perks and benefits of AC. Mailchimp used a flow that was counterintuitive for us as a team, so there's no exact answer why we …
Chose ActiveCampaign
We started out using Mailchimp, which worked well enough for the beginning stages of our business. However, it became clear that Mailchimp was limited, especially when it comes to building more sophisticated automated campaigns.

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
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
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.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.9
664 Ratings
13% above category average
MailerLite
7.7
49 Ratings
6% below category average
WYSIWYG email editor9.3581 Ratings7.043 Ratings
Dynamic content9.0520 Ratings8.042 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.7471 Ratings7.637 Ratings
Landing pages8.0338 Ratings6.642 Ratings
A/B testing9.0380 Ratings8.132 Ratings
Mobile optimization9.3526 Ratings8.138 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting7.4631 Ratings8.145 Ratings
List management9.6650 Ratings8.146 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences9.6574 Ratings8.131 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.4
524 Ratings
4% below category average
MailerLite
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation9.1491 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.1359 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management9.1401 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks9.1355 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution1.81 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.5
374 Ratings
22% above category average
MailerLite
-
Ratings
Calendaring9.6295 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.4286 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.5
287 Ratings
24% above category average
MailerLite
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns9.6254 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration9.4250 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.3
627 Ratings
10% above category average
MailerLite
6.1
45 Ratings
25% below category average
Dashboards8.0597 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Standard reports8.0584 Ratings6.345 Ratings
Custom reports9.0377 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.2
491 Ratings
19% above category average
MailerLite
-
Ratings
API9.5391 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals9.2267 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability9.4420 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.292 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.760 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.756 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations7.520 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
MailerLite
6.7
37 Ratings
24% below category average
Email Previews00 Ratings6.737 Ratings
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ActiveCampaignMailerLite
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
VerticalResponse
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Likelihood to Recommend
7.9
(676 ratings)
5.8
(51 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.4
(25 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Usability
7.6
(38 ratings)
8.6
(2 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.9
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.4
(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
8.6
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.5
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.9
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.6
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.5
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCampaignMailerLite
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is brilliant for small businesses wanting a secure, reliable and user friendly email capture software that filters users emails into the appropriate category/tags and have endless options when it comes to having different lead magnets and ways users may sign up. It's been super handy for my small business to send regular emails and be able to analyse the success rates and open rates of emails and the ability to resend them with a different subject line. It's made email marketing really easy peasy.
Read full review
Mailerlite
The tool is really very complete. I have created regular campaigns, Workflows, and A/B tests in my campaigns and I have not had any limitations. I have tried other platforms that are not as complete in the free version like MailerLite. This makes me want to upgrade to the premium version and I'm sure you will get the same benefits.
Read full review
Pros
ActiveCampaign
  • The graphic design is very good, especially fonts, colours and templates
  • Flexibility of design and functionality
  • Takes a little while to learn it, but generally user-friendly
  • Looks very professional but doesn't cost much to get started
  • There are masses of integrations for ActiveCampaign, and the ones I tried all worked well and didn't take long to figure out.
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
  • The email designing part could be easier to use. There are certain simple shortcuts that don't work, for example, adding links is more complicated than it should be, moving blocks around is hard, etc.
  • There's no good way to filter by 'active' and 'inactive' subscribers when editing en-mass.
  • I'd like more reporting data on one page.
Read full review
Mailerlite
  • I would add more types of inbox previews so people can see their campaigns across more channels
  • Mailerlite could definitely use a few more default fields, and more field types. This is an area where we get stuck writing more custom fields than we like. I want to see a variety of fields, from text box, to radio buttons, drop downs and more date options.
  • Custom fields should be able to be organized according to the list type. Custom fields that are added show up on ALL subscriber profiles, so if you were building a list that had a field for the type of pet someone had because you run a Dog Walking Business, but also had a list that only served Sponsors, that dog walking option would show up on all your subscriber types. If there's a way to change this and I missed it, my bad, but I haven't yet found that to be the case.
  • I'd really like to see Mailerlite have the option of adding a subscriber midway through the process, and a RESEND option, whether that is to non-openers or people who are new to a list. While you can set up drip campaigns or triggers to send certain emails when people change their status, it seems a bit too time consuming.
  • I'd love to see a date specific reminder email template for meetings. That would be awesome and speed things up quite a bit.
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
Overall it's super simple to get started and use the service. For those who need a bit more help, the support team is accessible.
Read full review
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 allows tags and the whole visual experience seems a lot clearer. Support was the major factor though, everything points to MailerLite having better support - certainly today has proved that for me. I received support within 10min, my issue was fixed and my first Automation is up and running.
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 tagging, that when combined with conditional content helps to put the right message in front of each customer.Screenshot of marketing automationScreenshot of audience segmentation based on engagement, purchase activity, lead score, or any other dimensionScreenshot of live chat, site messaging, email, and a unified inbox that can be used to build relationships with customers.Screenshot of the CRM, which helps sales reps to get more done in less time

MailerLite Screenshots

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