Overview
Mailjet and ActiveCampaign serve different market segments. Mailjet is a budget-friendly email platform with transactional and marketing combined. ActiveCampaign is the industry leader in marketing automation with sophisticated CRM. See our ActiveCampaign comparison for more alternatives.
The 2x price difference at 10k contacts ($35-50 vs $79) reflects different value propositions.
The Automation Gap
ActiveCampaign's automation is genuinely the best in email marketing:
- Advanced conditional branching
- Split testing within automations
- Predictive sending
- Lead scoring
- Automation maps for visualization
Mailjet's automation (Premium plan required) is functional but basic. Standard triggers, linear workflows, limited conditions. For sophisticated automation, ActiveCampaign is on another level.
Note: ActiveCampaign's Starter plan limits automations to 5 steps. Real automation power requires Plus plan or higher.
Transactional Email
Mailjet includes transactional email in the main product. API, SMTP, and marketing in one unified platform.
ActiveCampaign acquired Postmark for transactional, but it's a separate product with separate pricing. For teams needing both email types, Mailjet is simpler and cheaper.
CRM and Sales
ActiveCampaign has a full CRM:
- Sales pipelines
- Deal management
- Lead scoring
- Sales automation
Mailjet has no CRM. It's focused on email only. For sales-driven organizations, ActiveCampaign's unified CRM + email is valuable.
Real-Time Collaboration
Mailjet's Passport editor allows multiple people to edit emails simultaneously. It's unique and useful for marketing/design teams. ActiveCampaign doesn't have this feature.
Pricing Reality
At 10,000 contacts:
- Mailjet: $35-50/month with automation (Premium)
- ActiveCampaign: $79/month (Starter) to $159/month (Plus)
Mailjet is roughly half the price. For teams where budget matters more than automation sophistication, that's significant savings.
For SaaS Companies
Both can work for SaaS, but neither is built for it. ActiveCampaign has powerful automation but doesn't understand subscriptions. Mailjet is affordable but also general-purpose.
If you're SaaS with Stripe billing, consider Sequenzy. We offer native Stripe integration for payment-triggered emails and SaaS-focused automation at $49/month for 10k contacts.
Making the Choice
Choose Mailjet for budget email with good transactional support and real-time collaboration. Choose ActiveCampaign for industry-leading automation and CRM integration. For SaaS with Stripe, consider Sequenzy.