Comparison

ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp pricing

Both bill on stored contacts and both attach a send allowance under the list. Mailchimp Essentials undercuts ActiveCampaign Starter at most overlapping monthly stops. ActiveCampaign leads with an annual headline while Mailchimp leaves its annual column empty, so the dated ladders have to stay in separate fields.

Snapshot 3, 14 September 2026. Monthly billing shown first, tax excluded.

Cheapest paid plan each one sells

ActiveCampaign Starter against Mailchimp Essentials. Plans are not feature matched.

Prices are compiled from public vendor pages and can lag behind a change. Cells marked Der are calculated from published rules and cells marked Est are rough figures. Neither is an invoice or a quote, so confirm with the vendor before you spend.

Contacts	ActiveCampaign Starter	Mailchimp Essentials	Cheaper
500	$19$15 annualDer	$13Ver	Mailchimp by $6
1,000	$19$15 annualVer	$26.50Der	ActiveCampaign by $7.50
2,500	$49$39 annualVer	$45Ver	Mailchimp by $4
5,000	$99$79 annualVer	$75Ver	Mailchimp by $24
10,000	$189$149 annualVer	$110Ver	Mailchimp by $79
25,000	$489$391 annualVer	$270Ver	Mailchimp by $219
50,000	n/aNot	$385Ver	not comparable
100,000	n/aNot	n/aNot	not comparable

ActiveCampaign Starter against Mailchimp Essentials, month to month billing, with the per month cost of paying yearly underneath. The Cheaper column compares the monthly prices. Plans are not feature matched.

The plan most buyers actually land on

ActiveCampaign Plus against Mailchimp Standard. Both add the features a growing sender usually needs once the entry plan stops fitting.

Contacts	ActiveCampaign Plus	Mailchimp Standard	Cheaper
500	$59$49 annualDer	$20Ver	Mailchimp by $39
1,000	$59$49 annualVer	$45Der	Mailchimp by $14
2,500	$119$95 annualVer	$60Ver	Mailchimp by $59
5,000	$179$145 annualVer	$100Ver	Mailchimp by $79
10,000	$239$189 annualVer	$135Ver	Mailchimp by $104
25,000	$489$389 annualVer	$310Ver	Mailchimp by $179
50,000	$759$609 annualVer	$450Ver	Mailchimp by $309
100,000	n/aNot	$800Ver	not comparable

ActiveCampaign Plus against Mailchimp Standard, month to month billing, with the per month cost of paying yearly underneath. The Cheaper column compares the monthly prices. Plans are not feature matched.

Mid list sizes on both dated ladders

500 contacts: $13; Mailchimp Essentials verified. ActiveCampaign Starter is $19 derived.
10,000 contacts: $110; Mailchimp Essentials verified. ActiveCampaign Starter is $189 verified.
25,000 contacts: $270; Mailchimp Essentials verified. ActiveCampaign Starter is $489, or $391 a month paid yearly.

ActiveCampaign Starter is cheaper than Mailchimp Essentials at 1,000 only where both publish a monthly figure. Mailchimp Essentials is cheaper at 500, 2,500, 5,000, 10,000, 25,000.

At 10,000 contacts Essentials includes about 100,000 emails a month. Plus at the same size is $239 against Standard at $135. At 25,000 contacts Plus is $489 against Standard at $310, and Starter, at the top of its range, is $489.

The headline price is not on the same billing terms

ActiveCampaign Starter: $19; $15 paid yearly, about 21 percent off and the figure the pricing page leads with
Mailchimp Essentials: $26.50; No standing annual rate is published, so the annual column stays empty rather than guessed
Free plans: Mailchimp only; ActiveCampaign: There is no free plan to limit. ActiveCampaign publishes no free tier, so the entry price is the floor.. Mailchimp free ceiling sits at 250 contacts.

ActiveCampaign shows annual billing by default. A month to month buyer pays $19 at the entry stop, not the $15 headline. Mailchimp shows monthly by default and only publishes promotions such as 15 percent off for 12 months above 10,000 contacts, so its annual column stays empty. Comparing the two headlines therefore mixes an annual rate with a monthly contact ladder.

Different rules on the same list size

ActiveCampaign. One question, two answers, split by a date. Accounts created on or after 3 November 2025 are billed for every contact whatever its list status. Accounts created on or before 2 November 2025 are billed for active contacts only. ActiveCampaign publishes both answers in the same help article. Send volume sits under a ten to fifteen times contact allowance, with overage and a hard stop above that.

Mailchimp. Mailchimp's contact table publishes a yes or no per status. Subscribed, unsubscribed and non subscribed contacts all count toward the monthly contact limit. Cleaned contacts, which is where hard bounces land, do not. Pending contacts do not count and are deleted after 60 days if they never confirm. Essentials allows about ten times the contact count in monthly sends. Unsubscribed contacts stay on the bill until they are archived.

Both ladders are dated dataset reads. ActiveCampaign did not move a published price in November 2025. It changed which contacts count, which raised real bills without touching the table. Mailchimp cut the free plan by December 2025 and raised some legacy accounts in 2026 without rewriting the public Essentials ladder. Older sticker prices that ignore those dates are not used here.