ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp: band pricing and the first-year discount against a smoother slider
On list price, Mailchimp Standard undercuts ActiveCampaign Plus at every size read here: $100 for up to 5,000 contacts against $145, $135 for up to 10,000 against $189, and $310 for up to 25,000 against $389. Mailchimp then halves the first year as an offer, which makes it cheaper again until renewal. What Mailchimp gives up is depth: its Essentials flows stop at 4 steps and its Stripe route runs through a marketplace app.
By Julian Pryor · Updated 7 Oct 2026
Short answer
Choose Mailchimp Standard if you want the lowest list price for a newsletter-plus-automation setup with up to five seats and your own HTML templates. Choose ActiveCampaign if Stripe subscription data should create and update contacts directly and your automations need goals, conditions and a CRM path. Stay off Mailchimp Essentials for SaaS onboarding: its flows are limited to 4 steps.
Band prices against slider prices
Mailchimp's figures are the Standard plan's contact bands as read from its pricing page on 7 October 2026, billed monthly; the table quotes the top of each band. ActiveCampaign's are contact-selector readouts on the same day for annual billing. Mailchimp's first-year offer is shown in the last column.
| Contacts (top of band) | Mailchimp Standard | Mailchimp first 12 months | AC Starter | AC Plus | Plus minus Standard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | $100 | $50 | $79 | $145 | $45 |
| 10,000 | $135 | $67.50 | $149 | $189 | $54 |
| 15,000 | $230 | $115 | $231 | $265 | $35 |
| 25,000 | $310 | $155 | $391 | $389 | $79 |
At 10,000 contacts the difference between Plus and Standard is $54 a month, which is $648 a year at list prices. At 25,000 it is $79 a month, or $948. Mailchimp also lists Essentials at $13 at the first band, Standard at $20 and Premium at $350, and a free plan for up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month (250 a day). Sources: mailchimp.com/pricing and activecampaign.com/pricing.
The discount, then the real bill
The offer is large but temporary. Standard for 5,001-10,000 contacts shows $67.50 a month for twelve months, then $135. Year one costs 12 × $67.50 = $810 and year two $1,620, so at a steady 10,000 contacts the two-year total is $2,430, an average of $101.25 a month. ActiveCampaign Plus at $189 would be $4,536 over the same two years. The gap is still real after the discount ends, but it is $54 a month, not $121.50.
Steps, seats and sending limits by plan
- Mailchimp Essentials: flows up to 4 steps, 3 seats, sends up to 10 times your contacts, and custom-coded templates you can create but not send. It suits a newsletter, not a lifecycle program.
- Mailchimp Standard: flows up to 200 steps with multiple branching points, 5 seats, sends up to 12 times contacts, and custom-coded templates you can create and send.
- ActiveCampaign Plus: unlimited automation actions, 1 user and sends at 10 times contacts. Pro raises seats to 3 and sends to 12 times.
So the nearest pair is Mailchimp Standard and ActiveCampaign Pro for team size, and Standard and Plus for price. Against Pro the gap is bigger still: $205 at 5,000 and $375 at 10,000 on ActiveCampaign.
Product events and Stripe data
Mailchimp's Marketing API has an Events endpoint (POST /lists/{list_id}/members/{subscriber_hash}/events) that adds an event, with properties, to a list member. A flow can then begin from the Event API trigger when the event name matches. Standard or higher gets the trigger in multi-step flows, Essentials only in single-step flows, and the free plan has no event-based flows. There is also a Customer Journeys API trigger endpoint that fires a step for a posted contact. The Events endpoint needs the contact in the audience before you send.
For Stripe, Mailchimp's help article describes a connection that now runs through a Stripe-marketplace app called Data Mapper for Mailchimp, which has its own plans. The article describes syncing customers and, optionally, orders, tagging customers by interaction and choosing a permission mode. It does not describe subscription lifecycle events such as a canceled plan, so those are yours to send through the Events endpoint.
ActiveCampaign's help article describes a direct sync of customers, invoices, charges, checkout sessions and subscriptions, with recurring-payment triggers once you sync subscriptions. That is the clearest functional gap between the two for a SaaS.
Pitfalls on the Mailchimp side
- A contact in more than one audience counts once per audience on the pricing page's terms. Keep a single audience and use tags.
- On the free plan, sending pauses if the contact or email limit is exceeded, with 500 sends a month at most.
- Overages apply on paid plans if you exceed contact or email send limits, according to the pricing page footnote.
If you switch
- Export the audience with tags and merge fields, and collapse any duplicate audiences first.
- Carry unsubscribed and cleaned contacts across as suppressed, so nobody who left is mailed again.
- Rebuild flows by outcome, put your Stripe events in place, and run both systems on a small cohort for one billing cycle.
- Move the sending domain's authentication last and keep the old records until the new stream has sent cleanly for a week.
Which one
Mailchimp Standard is the cheaper list price and has more seats at the entry level, so a team of three to five that mostly sends campaigns with some automation should look at it first. ActiveCampaign is worth the premium when Stripe subscription state decides who gets which email and a salesperson wants a pipeline. If you are early and cost-sensitive, take the Mailchimp discount, but write down the renewal price on the day you sign.
Related reading: Mailchimp vs Brevo, Mailchimp vs MailerLite, Customer.io vs Mailchimp, free tools for SaaS startups and the comparison hub.
ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp: common questions
Is Mailchimp cheaper than ActiveCampaign?
Its Standard plan is, at every band shown here. Standard lists $100 for 2,501-5,000 contacts, $135 for 5,001-10,000 and $310 for 20,001-25,000, against ActiveCampaign Plus at $145, $189 and $389 for the same sizes. The gap is $45 a month at 5,000 contacts and $79 at 25,000. Mailchimp bills by band, so the bill steps up as soon as you cross a boundary, and ActiveCampaign's slider has finer steps.
What happens when Mailchimp's first-year offer ends?
The price doubles. The pricing page shows Standard for 5,001-10,000 contacts at $67.50 a month for 12 months and "then, starts at $135". Over a first year that is 12 × $67.50 = $810, then $1,620 a year after that at the same band. Budget for the second-year figure, not the headline.
Can Mailchimp start automations from events in my product?
Yes. Its Marketing API has an Events endpoint that records an event against a list member, and flows can start from an Event API trigger that matches the event name. Mailchimp's help says Standard or higher can use it in multi-step flows, Essentials only in single-step flows, and the free plan cannot use event-based flows. The contact has to be in the audience first.
Do contacts in two Mailchimp audiences cost double?
Yes, according to the pricing page: adding a contact to more than one audience counts them toward the plan's contact total as many times as they appear. A SaaS that keeps a "trial users" audience and a "customers" audience can pay twice for anyone in both, so keep one audience and use tags or segments instead.