ActiveCampaign vs MailerLite
Both are email marketing tools aimed at creators, coaches and small businesses. They differ most on value for money, free plan and automation.
At a glance
| ActiveCampaign | MailerLite | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 60/100 | 72/100 Higher |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Paid from | $15/mo per month, billed annually | $19/mo monthly; $17.10/mo billed annually |
| Positioning | automation platform | email marketing |
| Launched | — | 2010 |
| Best for | Businesses whose email depends on detailed automation and segmentation, and that expect to grow into a CRM. | Small businesses that want reliable email, landing pages and simple selling at a low monthly price. |
Where each one leads
| Dimension | ActiveCampaign | MailerLite | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 1/5 | 2/5 | MailerLite |
| Ease of use | 3/5 | 4/5 | MailerLite |
| Breadth of features | 3/5 | 3/5 | Tie |
| Value for money | 3/5 | 5/5 | MailerLite |
| Email deliverability | 4/5 | 4/5 | Tie |
| Selling products | 2/5 | 4/5 | MailerLite |
| Course hosting | 1/5 | 1/5 | Tie |
| Automation | 5/5 | 4/5 | ActiveCampaign |
| Support | 3/5 | 4/5 | MailerLite |
Scores are 1–5 per dimension. ActiveCampaign leads on 1 dimension, MailerLite on 5. The overall figure weights these for email marketing generally — see methodology.
Pricing
Plans are listed per tool rather than paired row by row — tiers rarely line up, and putting one vendor's second plan beside another's implies an equivalence that is not there.
| Tool | Plan | Per month | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | Starter | $15 | per month, billed annually |
| Plus | $49 | per month, billed annually | |
| Pro | $79 | per month, billed annually | |
| Enterprise | $145 | per month, billed annually | |
| MailerLite | Free | Free | — |
| Comfort | $19 | monthly; $17.10/mo billed annually | |
| Power | $39 | monthly; $35.10/mo billed annually |
Pricing checked 24 September 2026 against each vendor's own pricing page. ActiveCampaign: Billed in USD. Prices are for 1,000 contacts on annual billing; the pricing page does not show monthly-billing prices. MailerLite: Billed in USD (EUR also offered). Paid prices are for up to 1,000 subscribers and rise with list size; annual billing saves 10%.
Verdict
ActiveCampaign
- +Unlimited automation actions from the Plus plan, with more than 950 ready-made automation recipes.
- +Plus adds landing pages, at $49 a month for 1,000 contacts on annual billing.
- +A 14-day free trial, and a promise of your money back if you see no results in 30 days.
- −No free plan, and published prices are for annual billing only.
- −Starter limits each automation to 5 actions and one user.
MailerLite
- +Paid plans start at $19 a month for 1,000 subscribers, with 10,000 emails a month on Comfort.
- +Comfort includes 10 websites and landing pages on your own domain, 10 signup forms and 50 automations.
- +Sells digital products and bookings, and runs paid newsletters with no sales fee.
- −The free plan is small: 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month.
- −Its plans list no course hosting, so courses need a separate platform.
Common questions
Is ActiveCampaign cheaper than MailerLite?
ActiveCampaign starts at $15/mo (per month, billed annually), and MailerLite starts at $19/mo (monthly; $17.10/mo billed annually) — so ActiveCampaign is the cheaper entry point. Compare what each includes at that tier, and what it renews at, rather than the headline figure alone.
Does ActiveCampaign or MailerLite have a free plan?
ActiveCampaign has no free plan, and MailerLite has a free plan.
Which is better, ActiveCampaign or MailerLite?
On our weighted scoring across the use cases in this category, MailerLite comes out ahead overall. The honest answer is that it depends on the use case — the tables above break the score down by dimension so you can weight it to your own priorities.
Other comparisons
Sources & verification
- activecampaign.com — checked 24 September 2026No free plan; a 14-day free trial.
- mailerlite.com — checked 24 September 2026
- mailerlite.com — checked 24 September 2026No sales fee on paid newsletters; Stripe processes the payments.
- mailerlite.com — checked 24 September 2026Free plan: up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, with 3 automations, 1 website and 1 landing page. Paid newsletters, custom domains and removing the MailerLite logo need a paid plan.