# ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp

Automations built from a prompt and a sales pipeline against a free plan and a website builder.

Canonical: https://brew.new/compare/activecampaign-vs-mailchimp

## The short version

Choose ActiveCampaign if you want AI that builds whole automations from a prompt, with SMS, WhatsApp and a deals pipeline next to email.

Choose Mailchimp if you want a free plan to start, landing pages and a website builder, and product recommendations on every plan.

Choose Brew if you want a fully agentic setup, where your AI agent drives lifecycle marketing to engage and retain customers. Brew designs every email from your brand and runs your automations agentically.

## ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp, side by side

### Key differences

| | ActiveCampaign | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Billed on | Contacts, unsubscribed ones included on new accounts | Contacts, counted once per audience | Emails sent and AI credits |
| Fully agentic | Partly: Drafts campaigns and automations; you send and activate them | Partly: AI assists with copy; your team does the work in the app | Your agent designs, sends and runs automations end to end |
| Designs finished, on-brand emails | Partly: Full drafts; images from your library or stock photos | Writes copy and subject lines; you design each email | Layout, copy and images from your brand, ready to send |
| Builds an automation from a description | The automation and its emails from one prompt | Partly: AI fills in pre-built flow templates, Standard and up | Emails, waits and branches together |
| MCP server for AI agents | Partly: Contacts, deals and campaign content; no automation tools | Partly: Searches the docs; a separate one for transactional email | Every Brew tool, in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Grok |
| Landing pages, forms and websites | Landing pages from Plus; forms on every plan | Landing pages and a website builder | Email only |

### Creating emails

| | ActiveCampaign | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Remembers your brand for every email | Brand Kit from your site: logos, colors, fonts, voice | Partly: Brand kit takes colors and fonts from your site; logos by hand | Brand files your agent reads every time |
| Visual editor | Drag-and-drop designer with 250+ templates | Drag-and-drop builder with 250+ templates | Infinite canvas, edit by hand or in chat |
| Bring the emails you already have | AI builds a campaign and template from your HTML | Partly: Custom-coded templates; sending them needs Standard | HTML, MJML, React Email, Figma or a forwarded email |

### Automation

| | ActiveCampaign | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Event-triggered automations | Multiple triggers; custom events on Pro and up | Signups, store activity and dates | Stripe, Shopify, Clerk, Supabase or your own events |
| Automations on the first paid plan | Partly: 5 actions per automation on Starter | Partly: Up to 4 steps on Essentials; none on Free | No step or flow limits on any plan |

### Channels

| | ActiveCampaign | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Email from your own domain | Partly: Marketing; transactional email is a paid add-on | Partly: Marketing; transactional is a paid add-on from Standard | Marketing and transactional on every plan |
| SMS | Add-on from Plus; US, UK and Australia numbers | Paid add-on in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and parts of Europe | Email only |

### Agents and developers

| | ActiveCampaign | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Your agent takes it live | MCP reads campaigns and manages contacts; sending is in the app | Claude and ChatGPT connectors draft; you finish and send in Mailchimp | Sends, schedules and runs automations; OAuth and org-scoped MCP require confirmation, brand API keys do not |
| API | API and webhooks | Marketing API and webhooks | REST API, typed SDK and CLI |

### Pricing

| | ActiveCampaign | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Getting started | 14-day free trial of the Professional plan | Free plan: 250 contacts, 500 sends a month | Free trial with 500 AI credits and 1,000 sends |
| First paid plan | Starter, from $15/month billed annually: 1,000 contacts, 1 user | Essentials, from $13/month for 500 contacts; no AI features | Growth, $99/month: 10,000 AI credits and 50,000 sends |
| Next plan | Plus, from $49/month billed annually; Pro from $79/month | Standard, from $20/month for 500 contacts; adds AI and longer flows | Pro, $249/month: 25,000 AI credits and 200,000 sends |
| Top plan | Enterprise, from $145/month billed annually: 5 users, SSO | Premium, from $350/month for 10,000 contacts: phone support and SSO | Enterprise: custom volume and a dedicated account manager |

### Security and compliance

| | ActiveCampaign | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SOC 2 | SOC 2 Type 2 report on request | SOC 2 reports and ISO 27001 | Not yet; security review and DPA on request |

## Where ActiveCampaign is stronger

- Active Intelligence builds an automation and its emails from one prompt. Mailchimp’s AI fills in pre-built flow templates on Standard and up.
- Its MCP server works with contacts, deals and campaign content. Mailchimp’s MCP server searches its docs.
- Brand Kit takes your logos, colors, fonts and voice from your site. Mailchimp’s brand kit takes colors and fonts, and you add logos by hand.
- Deals and pipelines with the Pipelines add-on, and WhatsApp as an add-on or on its own plans.

## Where Mailchimp is stronger

- A free plan for 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. ActiveCampaign starts with a 14-day trial.
- Landing pages and a website builder. ActiveCampaign has landing pages from Plus and forms on every plan.
- Product recommendations on every plan, Free included.
- SMS in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and parts of Europe. ActiveCampaign offers US, UK and Australia numbers, from Plus.

## Where both fall short

Neither designs a finished, on-brand email or lets your own agent send it. ActiveCampaign drafts full campaigns that you send in the app, and Mailchimp’s AI writes copy and subject lines.

Teams that move to Brew tell us AI drafts from tools like these rarely look like their brand, so someone still redesigns them.

Both price on contacts and count unsubscribed ones (on ActiveCampaign, for accounts created since November 3, 2025), so contacts you rarely email still cost money.

## Pricing at the same list size

ActiveCampaign lists its prices at 1,000 contacts, billed annually: Starter from $15/month with 1 user, Plus from $49/month and Pro from $79/month. Mailchimp lists Essentials from $13/month and Standard from $20/month at 500 contacts, so the two entry prices are for different list sizes.

At the top, ActiveCampaign Enterprise starts at $145/month billed annually, with 5 users and SSO; Mailchimp Premium starts at $350/month for 10,000 contacts. Mailchimp has a free plan for 250 contacts, and ActiveCampaign a 14-day trial of its Professional plan.

Brew bills on emails sent and AI credits, with unlimited contacts: Growth is $99/month for 50,000 sends and 10,000 AI credits.

## When to consider Brew

Brew is fully agentic: your agent designs on-brand emails, sends them and runs your automations. Unlimited contacts on every plan. OAuth and organization-scoped MCP connections ask you to confirm live sends and launches. Brand-scoped API keys can execute permitted calls without the MCP confirmation step.

- [Brew vs ActiveCampaign](https://brew.new/compare/brew-vs-activecampaign.md)
- [Brew vs Mailchimp](https://brew.new/compare/brew-vs-mailchimp.md)

## Your agent runs your lifecycle email.

Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Grok over MCP and your agent gets every Brew tool. It designs emails from your brand, builds audiences, runs automations and schedules sends. OAuth and organization-scoped MCP connections ask you to confirm live sends and launches. Brand-scoped API keys can execute permitted calls without the MCP confirmation step.

## Every email designed from your brand.

Paste your website and Brew writes your brand into two files your agent reads for every email. Describe the email and it appears on the canvas, ready to edit by hand or in chat.

## Questions

### Is ActiveCampaign or Mailchimp better for marketing automation?

ActiveCampaign, for most teams that run detailed automations: Active Intelligence builds an automation and its emails from one prompt, custom events trigger flows on Pro and up, and predictive sending picks a send time per contact on Pro and up. Mailchimp’s flows run on signups, store activity and dates. Both limit flows on the first paid plan: 5 actions on ActiveCampaign Starter, 4 steps on Mailchimp Essentials.

### Which is cheaper, ActiveCampaign or Mailchimp?

It depends on your list and your team. Mailchimp has a free plan for 250 contacts, and Essentials starts at $13/month for 500 contacts. ActiveCampaign starts with a 14-day trial, and Starter costs $15/month billed annually for 1,000 contacts and 1 user. Both rise with your contact count and count unsubscribed contacts, on ActiveCampaign for accounts created since November 3, 2025.

### Which has better AI, ActiveCampaign or Mailchimp?

ActiveCampaign goes further: Active Intelligence drafts whole campaigns and builds automations with their emails, and its MCP server works with contacts, deals and campaign content. Mailchimp’s AI writes copy, subject lines and preview text on Standard and up, and its Claude and ChatGPT connectors draft campaigns for you to finish. In both, you send from the app. Neither designs a finished, on-brand email; Brew does.

### Is there an alternative to ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp?

Brew, if you want an agent to run your email. Your agent designs finished, on-brand emails from your brand, sends them and runs your automations, with unlimited contacts and no seat limits. Brew is email only, so SMS, WhatsApp, deals and landing pages stay in another tool.

### Can I use Brew with ActiveCampaign or Mailchimp?

Yes. Connect Mailchimp in Brew and save any email as a Mailchimp template, ready for your campaigns and flows. Brew does not export to ActiveCampaign directly: export the finished email as HTML and paste it into Active Intelligence, which builds a campaign and a template from it.

## Sources and review

Brew publishes this comparison. Brew Team reviewed the linked first-party documentation. This is a documentation review, not a claim of hands-on testing of every product. Pricing and plan limits can change.

Work at ActiveCampaign or Mailchimp? If anything on this page is wrong or out of date, email support@brew.new and we will correct it. We want to compete on the product, not on a mistaken comparison.

- [ActiveCampaign pricing](https://www.activecampaign.com/pricing)
- [Overview of ActiveCampaign plans](https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/14251311251356-Overview-of-ActiveCampaign-plans)
- [Active Intelligence overview](https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/20843404001436-Active-Intelligence-overview)
- [Create campaigns with Active Intelligence](https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/16680546347420)
- [ActiveCampaign Brand Kit](https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/20314642960156)
- [ActiveCampaign MCP server](https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/22566179229596)
- [Do unsubscribed contacts count toward the limit?](https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000337324)
- [Mailchimp plans](https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/)
- [Mailchimp pricing plans: what counts as a contact](https://mailchimp.com/help/about-mailchimp-pricing-plans/)
- [Mailchimp AI tools](https://mailchimp.com/solutions/ai-tools/)
- [Mailchimp and Claude](https://mailchimp.com/resources/connect-mailchimp-to-claude/)
- [Mailchimp MCP server](https://mailchimp.com/developer/marketing/build/ai-tools/mcp-server)
- [Mailchimp customer journeys](https://mailchimp.com/help/about-customer-journeys/)
- [Mailchimp security](https://mailchimp.com/about/security/)
- [Brew vs ActiveCampaign](https://brew.new/compare/brew-vs-activecampaign)
- [Brew vs Mailchimp](https://brew.new/compare/brew-vs-mailchimp)
- [Brew pricing](https://brew.new/pricing)
- [All Brew comparisons](https://brew.new/compare)

Updated October 2026