Who each tool is really for
ActiveCampaign is for businesses where email is part of a sales and marketing system. Contacts get tagged by behavior, site tracking records which pages they visit, lead scores rise, and at some point a deal is created for a salesperson. Automations are the core product, and the CRM sits next to them.
MailerLite is for businesses where email is the marketing system. You grow a list with forms, pop-ups and landing pages, send a regular newsletter, run a few automations, and maybe sell a digital product or paid newsletter. The tool stays out of your way.
Both can send a welcome series and a monthly newsletter. The difference shows when the workflow gets complicated or when the bill arrives.
An example: a free trial for a consulting service
Say you offer a free audit and want to convert it into a paid engagement.
In ActiveCampaign, a form submission starts an automation. The contact gets an email with the audit booking link. If they visit the pricing page twice in a week, their lead score goes up. When the score passes a threshold, the automation creates a deal in the pipeline and notifies a salesperson. If they book a call, a different branch sends prep material. If nothing happens in 10 days, a re-engagement branch runs, split-tested between two subject lines.
In MailerLite, the form adds the subscriber to a group and starts an automation with the booking link. You can branch on whether they opened or clicked, add them to another group, and send a follow-up series. Handing off to a salesperson means a separate CRM or an integration. It is simpler to build, and for many businesses simple is enough.
What the 2026 MailerLite repricing changed
MailerLite's pricing moved in June 2026. Paid plans were renamed from Growing Business and Advanced to Comfort and Power, prices rose across subscriber bands, and the free plan dropped to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, with feature caps added from August 2026. Existing accounts move to the new plans at renewal.
Comfort starts at $12/month and caps sends at 10x your subscriber tier. Power starts at $25/month and adds unlimited sends, unlimited automations, unlimited seats and 24/7 support. At 10,000 subscribers, Comfort lands at roughly $73/month; confirm on MailerLite's slider, as prices vary by band.
The gap with ActiveCampaign is smaller than it used to be, but still wide.
Cost at 10,000 contacts
| ActiveCampaign (annual) | MailerLite | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry tier | Starter $149 | Comfort, roughly $73 |
| Tier most teams need | Plus $189 ($239 monthly) | Comfort, or Power for unlimited sends |
| Advanced tier | Pro $375, Enterprise $589 | Power |
| Free option | 14-day trial | Free plan, 250 subscribers |
| Seats | 1 on Starter/Plus, 3 on Pro, 5 on Enterprise | Unlimited on Power |
ActiveCampaign's Starter plan is cheaper than Plus but limits automation, so teams buying ActiveCampaign for its automation usually land on Plus or Pro.
The Comfort send cap: a worked example
MailerLite's Comfort plan caps monthly sends at 10 times your subscriber tier. For a list of 10,000 subscribers, that is 100,000 emails a month.
- A weekly newsletter plus a few automations sends roughly 45,000 to 60,000 emails a month. Comfort covers that comfortably.
- A business that emails three times a week, plus automations, sends 130,000 or more. That exceeds Comfort's cap, and the realistic options become Power (unlimited sending under fair use, at a higher price) or sending less.
ActiveCampaign prices by contacts and plan rather than by a send multiple, so frequency is less of a pricing lever. The practical rule: if you send more than about twice a week, price MailerLite Power, not Comfort, before comparing it with ActiveCampaign Plus at $189/month annually.
Where ActiveCampaign earns the extra cost
- Automations that branch on site visits, deal stages, lead scores and custom fields.
- A sales CRM connected to marketing automation.
- Split testing inside automations, not just campaigns.
- SMS credits used in the same workflows as email.
If you will not use at least two of these, you are likely paying for capability you do not need.
Where MailerLite is the better choice
- Newsletters and promotional campaigns where design and speed matter more than branching logic.
- Websites, landing pages, blogs and pop-ups hosted with your email tool.
- Selling digital products and paid newsletter subscriptions.
- Teams with several people who need access, thanks to unlimited seats on Power.
Setup and upkeep
ActiveCampaign rewards investment. Getting value from it means installing site tracking, designing a tag and field structure, defining a lead scoring model and keeping automations tidy as they multiply. Teams without someone to own that tend to end up with overlapping automations and tags nobody trusts.
MailerLite asks for less. A single person can set up forms, a landing page, a welcome automation and a newsletter template in an afternoon, and maintenance is light. The trade-off is that when you want smarter targeting, the tool runs out of options sooner.
Moving between them
ActiveCampaign to MailerLite. Export contacts with tags, custom fields and unsubscribe status. In MailerLite, tags usually become groups and custom fields become fields. Import unsubscribed contacts so they remain suppressed. Rebuild automations with simpler logic: site-tracking, deal and lead-score conditions have no MailerLite equivalent, so replace them with opens, clicks and group membership. Move deals and pipeline data to a separate CRM before cancelling. Recreate templates and forms, and authenticate your sending domain.
MailerLite to ActiveCampaign. Export subscribers with groups, fields and unsubscribes, import them as contacts with tags and custom fields, and suppress the unsubscribed. Install ActiveCampaign site tracking so behavior-based automations have data. Rebuild automations to take advantage of goals, branches and scoring rather than copying them one to one. Plan new homes for websites and landing pages hosted on MailerLite, and for digital product sales.
Business types and the better fit
| Situation | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Agency or consultancy with a sales pipeline | ActiveCampaign | CRM, deals and scoring connected to automation |
| Creator selling a digital product and a paid newsletter | MailerLite | Digital products and paid subscriptions built in |
| Small business with a website, blog and weekly newsletter | MailerLite | Website, blog, landing pages and email together |
| B2B nurture that reacts to pricing-page visits | ActiveCampaign | Site tracking and branching on behavior |
| Team of several marketers sharing one account | MailerLite | Unlimited seats on Power |
| Store that wants SMS inside automations | ActiveCampaign | SMS credits used in the same workflows |
Switching workstreams
| Workstream | ActiveCampaign to MailerLite | MailerLite to ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | Export with tags, custom fields and unsubscribe status | Export subscribers with groups, fields and unsubscribes |
| Segmentation | Turn tags into groups, fields into MailerLite fields | Turn groups into tags and custom fields |
| Automations | Simplify; replace site, deal and score conditions | Rebuild using goals, branches and scoring |
| CRM | Move deals and pipeline to a separate CRM first | Set up pipelines and deal stages |
| Tracking | Remove site tracking code | Install site tracking for behavior-based automations |
| Sites and shop | Build pages, website and products in MailerLite if wanted | Rehome MailerLite websites, blogs and digital products |
| Sending | Authenticate domain; pick Comfort or Power by send volume | Authenticate domain; pick plan by automation needs |
Where Sequenzy fits
Sequenzy is relevant for SaaS teams comparing these two. ActiveCampaign's depth is organized around leads and deals, and MailerLite's around subscribers and content. Neither reacts natively to subscription billing. Sequenzy connects to Stripe, Paddle and Polar, triggers trial, upgrade, dunning and cancellation sequences, and sends transactional and marketing email from one account, priced by emails sent with unlimited contacts, typically $49/month for 60k emails (unlimited subscribers). It does not include a sales CRM like ActiveCampaign or a website builder and digital product sales like MailerLite.
Decision checklist
- Do automations need to react to site visits, deal stages or lead scores? ActiveCampaign.
- Is a sales team working deals from marketing leads? ActiveCampaign's CRM earns its cost.
- Are newsletters, landing pages and simple automations the job? MailerLite.
- Do you send more than about twice a week? Price MailerLite Power, not Comfort.
- Do several people need access on a small budget? MailerLite Power's unlimited seats help.
- Product-led SaaS with billing-driven lifecycle email? Consider a SaaS email tool.
