MailerLite vs ActiveCampaign: Which One Is Actually Better?

Both MailerLite and ActiveCampaign are excellent email marketing tools. Both are well-priced. Both are used by thousands of businesses. If you're choosing between them, you're already making a smart shortlist.

But they're not the same tool. They're built for different priorities, and picking the wrong one means paying for features you don't need, or missing the ones you do. This comparison breaks down exactly where each tool shines, where it falls short, and which one you should actually choose based on what matters to your business.

At a Glance

	MailerLite	ActiveCampaign
Free plan	Yes, up to 500 contacts	No
Paid plans start at	$10/month	$15/month
Automation depth	Strong	Best in class
Lead scoring	Basic	Advanced
Interface	Very clean and simple	Intuitive but more complex
Landing pages	Yes, included	No
Best for	Clean, straightforward email marketing	Serious automation and lead scoring

Pricing

MailerLite has the edge here, especially if you're just getting started. The free plan covers up to 500 contacts with automation included. No credit card, no trial countdown. When you're ready to scale, paid plans start at $10/month for the Growing Business tier and $20/month for Advanced.

ActiveCampaign doesn't offer a free plan. Paid plans start at $15/month, which is still affordable, but it means you're committing from day one. The good news is that $15/month gets you significantly more automation capability than most tools offer at any price.

For small businesses or solo operators who want to test before they spend, MailerLite wins on pricing. For businesses that already know they need serious automation and are ready to invest, the $15/month ActiveCampaign entry point is hard to beat for what you get.

Automation

This is where the two tools diverge the most, and where the decision usually gets made.

MailerLite's automation is solid. You can build multi-step sequences, set triggers based on email behavior, and create branching flows. For welcome series, nurture campaigns, and standard follow-up sequences, it does everything you need. The builder is visual and intuitive; you can have something running in minutes.

ActiveCampaign's automation is in a different league. Multiple triggers per workflow. Deep branching based on email behavior, site activity, deal stage, and custom attributes, all at once. Conditional logic that updates in real time as contacts move through your funnel. If you need workflows that are genuinely complex, not just linear sequences but multi-layered, behavior-driven campaigns, ActiveCampaign is the clear choice.

Think of it this way: MailerLite handles automation well. ActiveCampaign handles automation better than almost anything else on the market.

Lead Scoring

ActiveCampaign has a significant advantage here. It tracks behavior across email and your website: opens, clicks, site visits, page views, and scores each contact automatically based on engagement. The scores update dynamically as behavior changes. High-value leads surface at the top, and your team stops guessing about who's ready to buy.

MailerLite offers basic lead scoring, but it's not as granular or as responsive. If lead scoring is a core part of how your sales team operates, ActiveCampaign is the better tool.

Interface and Ease of Use

MailerLite wins here. The interface is one of the cleanest in the email marketing space. Everything is where you'd expect it to be. Setup is fast, and you don't need to dig through menus or read documentation to figure out basic tasks. For teams that value simplicity and want to spend time on marketing, not on learning a tool, MailerLite is hard to beat.

ActiveCampaign is intuitive, but it's more complex. That complexity is a feature, not a bug. It's there because the tool does more. But it does mean there's a slightly steeper learning curve, especially if you're building advanced workflows for the first time. Most users adjust within a week or two, but it's worth factoring into your decision.

Everything Else

MailerLite includes landing pages and a website builder in all plans, including free. If you need a simple landing page to capture leads alongside your email marketing, you don't need a separate tool. ActiveCampaign doesn't offer this.

ActiveCampaign integrates with a wider range of CRM and sales tools out of the box, which matters if you're running a more complex sales process. It's also consistently top-rated on G2, used by over 185,000 businesses, and has strong customer support.

Which One Should You Choose?

Choose MailerLite if:

You want clean, reliable email marketing without overpaying. You're running standard campaigns: welcome flows, newsletters, nurture sequences, and you don't need enterprise-level automation. You want a free plan to start with, or you want the simplest possible interface.

Choose ActiveCampaign if:

Automation is the priority. You need complex, multi-step workflows with behavioral triggers, lead scoring, and deep branching logic. You're building a serious marketing funnel and you need a tool that can keep up with it.

The Bottom Line

MailerLite and ActiveCampaign are both strong tools. The choice comes down to one question: how complex does your automation need to be?

If the answer is "straightforward sequences that run on their own," go with MailerLite. It's cleaner, cheaper, and does the job exceptionally well.

If the answer is "multi-layered, behavior-driven workflows with lead scoring," go with ActiveCampaign. It's the best automation tool in the space at any price, and $15/month is an absurd entry point for what you get.

Either way, you're making a good choice. Both tools are significantly better than what most businesses are currently using.

→ Go to MailerLite

→ Go to ActiveCampaign

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