MailerLite vs. ActiveCampaign: Affordable vs. Powerful (2023)
Choosing the right email marketing platform is crucial for the success of your business. After all, email marketing remains a crucial tool for your business to connect with your customers, generate leads, and drive traffic to your website.
While I’ve experimented with plenty of email marketing automation services, two of them stood out among the rest: MailerLite and ActiveCampaign.
In this post, we will delve into the features, pricing, integrations, and more offered by both platforms to help you make an informed decision for your business.
What is MailerLite?
Since its establishment in 2010, MailerLite has garnered over one million users, making it a trusted email marketing platform for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and bloggers.
MailerLite prides itself on its simplicity and ease of use, making it an attractive option for beginners. Despite its “lite” name, MailerLite offers advanced features such as subscriber management & segmentation, A/B testing, automation workflows, and landing page creation.
One feature that I particularly stands out with MailerLite is their ability to create nice looking RSS emails. For example, when I create a new RSS Feed block in MailerLite, I’m given a few choices for a layout, but I ultimately like the following:
No matter if you’re a beginner or an email marketing professional, you’ll discover that their intuitive drag-and-drop email editor allows you to create visually appealing newsletters and email campaigns with ease.
Features aside, one of the main advantages of MailerLite is its affordability, making it an excellent choice for businesses on a budget. Unlike most email marketing platforms, MailerLite offers a free plan for businesses with up to 1,000 subscribers. This makes it an attractive option for small businesses and startups with limited marketing budgets. As a business grows, MailerLite offers reasonably priced plans based on the number of subscribers, ensuring scalability and cost-effectiveness.
Additionally, MailerLite has over 130 integrations, which include integrating with workflow automation platforms such as Zapier, Make.com, n8n, and more.
What Is ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign, founded in 2003, has been a prominent player in the email marketing industry for many years. According to their 2022 Quarter 3 Press Release, they have “surpassed 180,000 global customers, making it the largest provider of CRM and automated sales and marketing.”
Indeed, ActiveCampaign is a powerful and versatile marketing automation platform that empowers businesses of all sizes to create personalized customer experiences and drive growth.
Their platform enables you to automate your marketing, sales, and support activities, all in one centralized platform. They provide you with a comprehensive suite of capabilities, including email marketing, SMS marketing, live chat, website tracking, lead scoring, contact management, CRM functionality, and, most notably, a powerful automation engine.
From my experience, no other service that I’ve used comes close to the automation capabilities that ActiveCampaign can deliver. However, despite their hard efforts to make their platform intuitive, there is definitely a learning curve and an undertaking required to get the most out of it.
The one thing that I couldn’t wrap my head around, though, was their email builder. When compared to many other affordable solutions, it falls short. Here’s an example of adding an RSS block to an email with ActiveCampaign:
Brief Comparison of MailerLite and ActiveCampaign
MailerLite and ActiveCampaign are two popular email marketing platforms that offer different features and benefits. Let’s take a closer look at their differences:
1. Pricing: MailerLite offers a more affordable pricing structure, with a free plan available for up to 1,000 subscribers. ActiveCampaign, on the other hand, has higher starting prices, beginning at $29.99/month for 500 subscribers, but offers more advanced features in its plans.
2. User Interface: MailerLite boasts a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy for beginners to navigate and set up email campaigns. ActiveCampaign has a more complex interface, which may require some learning for beginners.
3. Automation: Both platforms provide automation capabilities, allowing you to create personalized and targeted email sequences. However, ActiveCampaign offers more advanced automation features, including conditional logic and deep data integration.
4. Segmentation: MailerLite and ActiveCampaign both allow for segmenting your subscribers based on specific criteria. ActiveCampaign offers more advanced segmentation options, allowing for more targeted and personalized campaigns.
5. Customer Support: MailerLite provides excellent customer support through email and live chat, offering quick response times and helpful assistance. ActiveCampaign also offers email and live chat support, but response times may vary.
It is important to assess your specific needs and goals to determine which platform would be the best fit for your business. Consider factors such as budget, ease of use, features, and customer support when making your decision
Now, let’s dive a little deeper into MailerLite vs. ActiveCampaign.
Pricing and Plans
When it comes to choosing an email marketing service, pricing is an important factor to consider. Let’s compare the pricing tiers and features of MailerLite and ActiveCampaign to see which one offers the best value for your money.
MailerLite pricing tiers and features
Free Plan: MailerLite offers a generous free plan for users with up to 1,000 subscribers. This plan includes unlimited emails, automation workflows, landing pages, pop-ups, and basic reporting.
Paid Plans: MailerLite’s paid plans start at $9 per month for up to 500 subscribers for their “Growing Business” plan and $18 for their “Advanced” plan, which includes an AI writing assistant and AI subject line generator. Unfortunately, the ability to automatically schedule an RSS campaign isn’t available in their free plan; however, you can still use the RSS block.
ActiveCampaign pricing tiers and features
Lite Plan: ActiveCampaign’s Lite plan starts at $29 per month for up to 500 subscribers. This plan includes unlimited emails, marketing automation, and basic email marketing features.
Plus Plan: ActiveCampaign’s Plus plan starts at $49 per month for up to 500 subscribers. This plan includes all the features of the Lite plan, plus additional features such as CRM with sales automation, lead scoring, conditional content, integrations, and more.
Professional and Enterprise Plans: ActiveCampaign’s Professional and Enterprise plans are suited for larger businesses and offer additional features such as a dedicated account representative and custom mail server domain. However, these plans come at a higher cost.
Pricing and Plans Conclusion
In terms of pricing, MailerLite offers a more affordable solution for small to medium-sized businesses. With its free plan and affordable paid plans, MailerLite provides excellent value for money.
ActiveCampaign, on the other hand, offers more advanced features and scalability options but at a higher price point.
Overall, the choice between MailerLite and ActiveCampaign depends on your budget and specific requirements.
As an ActiveCampaign Partner, I stay current with their platform through their sandbox environment and have used it for over a year, but when it came time for renewal, I couldn’t justify the expense given that I wasn’t making full use of their platform, so I switched to MailerLite.
If you’re looking for an affordable yet feature-rich email marketing solution, MailerLite is the way to go. However, if you need advanced features, such as conditional logic and advanced workflows, and have a larger budget, ActiveCampaign is be the better option.
User Interface and Ease of Use
MailerLite Interface and User Experience
When it comes to the user interface and user experience, MailerLite excels in providing a seamless and intuitive platform. The clean and organized user interface makes navigating through different features and sections effortless. The layout is visually appealing and does not overwhelm users with unnecessary distractions.
The well-thought-out design ensures that all necessary tools are readily available, which improves the user experience. Whether you’re creating email campaigns, managing subscribers, or analyzing campaign performance, you will find a user-friendly interface that makes these tasks efficient and straightforward.
Furthermore, MailerLite offers a range of helpful features that contribute to an enhanced user experience. The drag-and-drop editor allows for quick and easy email creation, even for those without technical knowledge. The platform’s responsive design ensures that your emails will look great on different devices.
Overall, MailerLite prioritizes a positive user experience by ensuring simplicity, functionality, and ease of use. The platform continuously refines its user interface, making it intuitive and delivering a robust set of features that empower users to create effective email marketing campaigns.
MailerLite’s Email Editor and Templates
One of the major pain points I have with most email marketing platforms is how poorly designed their email editor is. I’d typically have to use a third party service to design my newsletters, then import them, make some tweaks, and then send the campaign.
When I first tried MailerLite, I was astounded at how much superior their email editor was to industry heavyweights like ActiveCampaign. While they only offer over 50 email templates, their editor provides you with all the tools you need to build attractive and responsive emails.
As with most editors, you can insert personalization tags in your email’s subject line and body. For me, one thing that’s nice is that you can build a default footer and styles for certain objects so that they can be applied to any existing campaigns in an automation or new campaigns. This saves me a ton of time.
Lastly, as shown above, they’re capable of building the nicest RSS email campaigns automatically. Overall, I feel as though their editor is very updated and fresh.
ActiveCampaign Interface and User Experience
While there is more of a learning curve to ActiveCampaign than MailerLite or most other email marketing platforms, they’ve managed to find a nice balance to provide you with a clean and organized interface that makes it easy for users to navigate and access all the features and tools you need.
ActiveCampaign’s UI puts a strong emphasis on customizable views and drag-and-drop functionality, allowing you to personalize your workspace to suit your specific needs. This flexibility enables you to efficiently manage your email marketing campaigns, automation workflows, and contact lists without feeling overwhelmed or restricted by a rigid system.
The user experience is further enhanced by ActiveCampaign’s use of visual cues and well-structured workflows. The platform guides you through each step of setting up campaigns and automations, making it accessible even for those who are new to marketing automation. With a simple and logical flow, you can easily configure triggers, conditions, and actions to create personalized and targeted customer journeys.
ActiveCampaign’s Email Editor and Templates
Ok, so I’m just going to say it, even though I’m an ActiveCampaign Partner, I’m constantly in their feedback portal attempting to get them to give their email editor some love and attention.
It’s not that their editor isn’t powerful; it is, especially with conditional content.
However, even with their template gallery of more than 125 customizable templates, they all feel outdated, and you’re given little control over how things are displayed. If you’re sending simple emails based on automations, ActiveCampaign’s editor may not present any issues for you; however, if you want dynamic content, such as from RSS feeds, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
User Interface & Experience Conclusion
In summary, MailerLite offers a user-friendly interface that is perfect for beginners or even advanced users who just want things to work.
It shouldn’t be a secret that ActiveCampaign provides a more advanced interface, and even with the tutorials and walkthroughs, it would take someone new to learn where everything is and how things connect together.
While I love automation, I only need so much, and MailerLite delivers on that while providing a smooth user experience.
Email Automation and Segmentation
MailerLite Automation & Segmentation Capabilities
MailerLite offers a powerful yet user-friendly automation and segmentation system that allows you to personalize your email marketing campaigns and deliver targeted messages to your subscribers.
Here are some key features of MailerLite’s automation and segmentation capabilities:
- Drag-and-drop automation editor: MailerLite’s automation editor makes it easy for you to create customized, automated email workflows without any coding knowledge. Simply drag-and-drop different elements to build your automation flow. Additionally, you can set up automatic email campaigns from your blog’s RSS feed.
- Segmentation based on subscriber data: With MailerLite, you can segment your subscribers based on various criteria, such as demographics, purchase history, behaviors, and more. This allows you to send highly targeted and relevant emails to different segments of your audience.
- Triggered email campaigns: MailerLite allows you to set up triggered email campaigns based on specific actions or events, such as making a purchase, signing up for a webinar, or abandoning a shopping cart. This helps you engage with your subscribers at the right time and with the right message.
- Personalization tokens: MailerLite offers personalization tokens that allow you to dynamically insert subscriber-specific information, such as their name or location, into your emails. This helps you create a personalized experience for your subscribers.
ActiveCampaign Automation & Segmentation Capabilities
ActiveCampaign is known for its robust automation and segmentation capabilities, which cater to businesses of all sizes.
Here are some key features of ActiveCampaign’s automation and segmentation capabilities:
- Visual automation builder: Similar to MailerLite, ActiveCampaign offers a visual automation builder that allows you to create complex automated workflows with ease. You can drag-and-drop different elements and actions to build your automation sequences.
- Advanced segmentation options: ActiveCampaign provides advanced segmentation options to help you target specific subsets of your subscriber base. You can segment your subscribers based on a wide range of criteria, including demographics, contact history, website traffic, social data, and more.
- Conditional logic: ActiveCampaign’s automation capabilities include powerful conditional logic that allows you to create more complex and personalized automation sequences. You can set conditions based on subscriber behavior and preferences to trigger specific actions or content to show in your email campaigns.
- Dynamic content: ActiveCampaign allows you to create dynamic and personalized content within your emails using merge tags. You can customize your emails based on the subscriber’s data and preferences, providing a more personalized experience.
Automation & Segmentation Capabilities Conclusion
In conclusion, both MailerLite and ActiveCampaign offer powerful automation and segmentation capabilities that can help you deliver targeted and personalized email campaigns.
While MailerLite may be more affordable and user-friendly, ActiveCampaign offers more advanced features and customization options. It ultimately depends on the specific needs and preferences of your business.
When comparing both of these platforms, ActiveCampaign wins out based on its ability to create more dynamic, personalized emails and complex workflows.
Email Templates & Design Options
When it comes to email templates and design customization, both MailerLite and ActiveCampaign offer a range of options to help you create visually appealing and professional-looking emails.
I touched on this subject briefly before, but it deserves to be dug into a bit more as it’s what you’ll primarily be interacting with when using either platform.
Let’s take a closer look at what each platform has to offer:
MailerLite Email Templates & Design Options
MailerLite provides a wide selection of pre-designed email templates that cater to different industries and purposes. These templates are fully customizable, allowing you to add your own branding elements, colors, and images. You can also personalize your emails by adding dynamic content based on subscriber data.
With MailerLite, you have access to their drag-and-drop editor, which makes it easy to create and customize your email designs without any coding skills. The editor offers a range of customization options, including the ability to change fonts, colors, button styles, and more. You can also add and rearrange content blocks, images, and social media links to create a unique email layout.
In addition to the pre-designed templates, MailerLite also offers a rich content library with over 1 million free high-resolution images to enhance your email designs. This feature allows you to add visually appealing images to your emails without having to source them from external sites.
ActiveCampaign Email Templates & Design Options
ActiveCampaign also provides a variety of email templates to choose from, with options for different industries and purposes. These templates can be customized using ActiveCampaign’s drag-and-drop editor, which offers similar design customization options as MailerLite.
ActiveCampaign’s editor allows you to customize the email layout, fonts, colors, and images to match your branding. You can also add dynamic content and personalize your emails based on subscriber data. The editor provides a seamless editing experience and is suitable for both beginners and more advanced users.
One notable feature of ActiveCampaign is its ability to create dynamic emails using conditional content. This allows you to show different content blocks to different segments of your audience based on their preferences or behavior. This feature can help you deliver more personalized and targeted emails to your subscribers.
Email Templates & Design Options Conclusion
In conclusion, both MailerLite and ActiveCampaign offer a range of email templates and design customization options to help you create visually appealing emails.
MailerLite’s drag-and-drop editor and content library provide a user-friendly experience, while ActiveCampaign’s conditional content feature allows for more advanced personalization. Ultimately, your choice will depend on your specific design needs and preferences.
I personally enjoy working with MailerLite’s email editor and it’s design options, whereas with ActiveCampaign I found myself constantly fighting with it for simple emails. However, ActiveCampaign does offer the ability to have conditional content, which can make your emails more dynamic and personalized.
Integrations and Additional Features
This last comparison is a bit more difficult, as it depends on how you define integration. For me, when I look at integrations, I look to see if it’s a native integration or if it integrates through a third-party service such as Zapier, Make.com, or n8n.io.
This is where it’s easy to get caught up in thinking that you can integrate a platform with your CRM or other service, only to find out that you will also have to pay for an additional service to handle that integration.
So, let’s take a look at how MailerLite and ActiveCampaign compare with their integrations and additional features.
MailerLite Integrations and Additional Features
MailerLite offers a range of 123 native, powerful integrations and additional features designed to enhance your email marketing campaigns.
With seamless integrations, you can connect MailerLite with a variety of popular apps and platforms, allowing you to streamline your workflow and automate tasks.
Whether you need to synchronize your contacts, track conversions, or create personalized email campaigns, MailerLite has got you covered.
Let’s explore some of the notable integrations and additional features that MailerLite has to offer.
MailerLite Integrations
- E-commerce Integrations: MailerLite integrates effortlessly with leading e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. This integration enables you to synchronize your customer information, automate campaigns based on purchase behavior, and create targeted email campaigns aimed at boosting sales and engaging your customers.
- CRM Integrations: By connecting your CRM software, such as HubSpot or Salesforce, to MailerLite, you can synchronize your contact data, track customer interactions, and create segmented lists for targeted campaigns.
- Social Media Integrations: With MailerLite’s social media integrations, you can easily share your email campaigns or signup forms on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This feature helps expand your reach and engage your social media audience, leading to increased email subscribers and potential customers.
- WordPress Plugin Integrations: MailerLite natively integrates with 21 different WordPress Plugins ranging from pop-up builders, form builders, membership plugins, and more. These integrations will help you grow your subscriber list as more visitors interact with your site.
Workflow Automation Tools That Integrate with MailerLite
MailerLite Additional Features
- Advanced Reporting: Monitor open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and subscriber growth in real-time. With these analytics, you can make data-driven decisions, optimize your campaigns, and continuously improve your email marketing strategy.
- A/B Testing: MailerLite allows you to test different variations of your email campaigns to see which performs better in terms of open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
- Advanced Segmentation: With MailerLite, you can segment your subscribers based on their demographics, behaviors, and preferences, allowing you to send targeted and personalized emails.
- Landing Pages: Create stunning landing pages without the need for coding or design skills. Use pre-designed templates and customize them to match your brand.
- Pop-ups and Embedded Forms: Increase your subscriber list by utilizing visually appealing pop-ups and embedded forms on your website.
- Automation: Automate your email marketing campaigns based on triggers, such as sign-ups, purchases, or specific actions taken by your subscribers.
Overall, MailerLite’s integrations and additional features empower you to create personalized, automated, and effective email marketing campaigns. Whether you’re an e-commerce business, a digital agency, or a small business owner, MailerLite provides the tools you need to engage your audience, drive conversions, and grow your business.
ActiveCampaign Integrations and Additional Features
ActiveCampaign takes a different, and, in my opinion, a slightly misleading approach by saying “with over 930+ apps, you can connect with the tools that make the most sense for your business.” However, they actually natively integrate with 98 different apps or services, the rest of them rely on you having a Zapier account.
As I’ve mentioned in my “60+ No-Code Automation Tools To Spark Your Curiosity” post, I’m not a fan of Zapier because of their pricing model and how quickly it can add up, or you’ll suddenly find a surprise bill when you’ve gone over your allotted “Zaps.”
When I first signed up for ActiveCampaign, I fell for this marketing tactic and was excited about all the integration possibilities. So that’s something to be aware of; however, also keep in mind that their are other alternatives to Zapier that do work with ActiveCampaign. With that said, ActiveCampaign’s native integrations work seamlessly within their platform and can truly make it an all-in-one platform.
ActiveCampaign Integrations
- E-commerce Integrations: ActiveCampaign also connects with platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento. You can track customer behavior, segment your subscribers, and send targeted emails to increase conversions and drive sales. Additionally, you can establish automated workflows to be triggered in the event someone abandons their cart, reminding them about your site.
- CRM Integrations: ActiveCampaign also integrates with CRM platforms like Salesforce, Pipedrive, HubSpot, and ZenDesk Sell. Though not every CRM integration is the same, for example, with HubSpot, you can sync your subscriber data, and then, from within HubSpot, you can get a holistic view of a customer. Whereas with ZenDesk Sell and Support, there’s a tighter integration that can be implemented at the workflow level from within ActiveCampaign.
- Social Media Integrations: ActiveCampaign also integrates with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. These integrations enable you to sync contact details, track social media interactions, and run targeted campaigns to engage with your subscribers across different channels by creating “custom audiences” or “look-alike audiences” based on your subscriber’s demographics.
- Site Tracking: No matter what platform you’re using for your website, you can easily integrate ActiveCampaign’s site tracking feature. Granted, if you’re using WordPress, it helps to use a form plugin such as Fluent Forms or Gravity Forms, as they automatically implement site tracking for you. When a visitor completes a form and opts in to receive your newsletter or further communication, a cookie is associated with that visitor, and you’ll be able to track what pages they’ve visited, how frequently they’ve researched a particular topic, etc., and then be able to establish automated workflows to get triggered at certain points.
- SMS & WhatsApp Marketing: This is where ActiveCampaign differs from MailerLite, as ActiveCampaign delivers on their “customer experience automation” by either using ActiveCampaign SMS capabilities natively or through the integrations with Twilio, MessageBird (for SMS and WhatsApp messaging), BulkSMS, and more.
Workflow Automation Tools That Integrate with ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign’s Additional Features
All of the “additional features” from MailerLite you’ll also find in ActiveCampaign, but here are a couple standout features on top of what MailerLite offers.
- Advanced Automation: ActiveCampaign provides robust automation capabilities, allowing you to create complex workflows based on various triggers and actions, and customize your customer’s journey.
- Dynamic Content: With ActiveCampaign, you can personalize your emails with dynamic content based on each subscriber’s preferences, location, or past interactions.
- Basic CRM Capabilities: ActiveCampaign is, first and foremost, a customer experience and messaging platform. However, it’s more than capable of providing basic CRM functionality without the need for additional software. For example, you can set up and manage your sales funnel, deals, etc. You can log calls, notes, and emails that you’ve had with customers, regardless of whether they’re subscribers or not, by utilizing separate lists or list segmentation.
Integrations and Additional Features Conclusion
Overall, both MailerLite and ActiveCampaign offer a wide range of integrations and additional features to enhance your email marketing efforts. MailerLite focuses on affordability and ease of use, while ActiveCampaign provides powerful automation capabilities and CRM functionalities. Choose the platform that best aligns with your needs and budget.
That said, at this point, you probably recognize that we’re comparing apples to oranges if you look at the total offerings from either platform. If we compare the two platforms based on their similarities, I believe a winner can be declared!
MailerLite wins in this case because they offer more native integrations in regard to an email marketing platform. Additionally, when you compare the features that line up with ActiveCampaign vs. the total overall costs, MailerLite comes out on top. For many of ActiveCampaign’s integrations, you’ll need a Zapier account.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, MailerLite and ActiveCampaign offer unique features and benefits, and it boils down to what exactly you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a great email marketing platform, then MailerLite is the winner. If you’re looking for a complete, omni-channel, customer experience automation tool and have the budget, ActiveCampaign is a great choice.
Which platform is best for your business?
Choose MailerLite If…
- You have a smaller budget and need an affordable email marketing solution
- You prioritize a user-friendly interface and ease of use
- You want access to advanced features like automation and landing pages without breaking the bank
- You value reliable customer support and quick response times
Choose ActiveCampaign If…
- You have a larger budget and require a more robust marketing automation platform
- You need advanced CRM functionality to manage complex customer relationships
- You have the resources and technical expertise to navigate a more complex interface
- You prioritize powerful segmentation and personalization options for your email marketing campaigns
In the end, the best platform for your business will depend on your specific requirements and priorities. Consider your budget, desired features, and technical capabilities when making your decision. Whichever platform you choose, both MailerLite and ActiveCampaign have proven track records and can help you achieve your email marketing goals.
MailerLite
Summary
Overall, MailerLite prioritizes a positive user experience by ensuring simplicity, functionality, and ease of use. The platform continuously refines its user interface, making it intuitive and delivering a robust set of features that empower users to create effective email marketing campaigns.