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| Dimension | MailerLite | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month | No |
| Free trial | 14 days of premium features, no payment method (capped at 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails) | 14 days with Professional-plan features, no credit card, up to 100 email sends |
| Who counts toward the price | Active subscribers only; unsubscribed and bounced don’t count | Every contact on accounts created on or after Nov 3, 2025; active contacts only on older accounts |
| Cheapest paid plan | Comfort from $12/month (500 subscribers) | Starter from $15/month billed annually (1,000 contacts) |
| Automation limits | Free: 3 automations, 5 steps. Comfort: 50, 100 steps. Power: unlimited, 100 steps, multiple triggers | Starter: 5 actions per automation. Plus, Pro, Enterprise: unlimited actions. Multiple triggers on all plans |
| Monthly sends | Comfort: 10× your tier. Power: unlimited (fair use) | 10× contact limit (Starter, Plus), 12× (Pro), 15× (Enterprise); $0.005 per send over |
| CRM | Subscriber profiles; deals and pipelines aren’t listed | Contact profiles on all plans; deals, pipelines and lead scoring in a paid add-on (Plus and up) |
| Paid newsletters | Comfort and Power, through Stripe | Not listed on the pricing page |
| Users | 2 (Free), 3 (Comfort), unlimited (Power) | 1 (Starter, Plus), 3 (Pro), 5 (Enterprise) |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Each cell shows the monthly price, then the per-month price on yearly billing. MailerLite publishes both. For ActiveCampaign, the per-month yearly figures are shown on its pricing page for each contact count (checked October 7, 2026); the monthly prices come from the price data the page loads.
| List size | MailerLite Comfort | MailerLite Power | ActiveCampaign Starter | ActiveCampaign Plus | ActiveCampaign Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $19 / $17.10 | $39 / $35.10 | $19 / $15 | $59 / $49 | $99 / $79 |
| 2,500 | $33 / $29.70 | $49 / $44.10 | $49 / $39 | $119 / $95 | $189 / $149 |
| 5,000 | $49 / $44.10 | $69 / $62.10 | $99 / $79 | $179 / $145 | $259 / $205 |
| 10,000 | $89 / $80.10 | $129 / $116.10 | $189 / $149 | $239 / $189 | $469 / $375 |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
MailerLite tiers are “up to” that many active subscribers; ActiveCampaign tiers are that many contacts. Exact ActiveCampaign prices for your list are in ActiveCampaign’s pricing calculator; every tier up to 50,000 contacts is in our ActiveCampaign pricing guide. MailerLite says its prices may be subject to applicable taxes. MailerLite prices checked on mailerlite.com/pricing, October 7, 2026.
What a year costs, by our arithmetic, on yearly billing:
For every MailerLite tier, see our MailerLite pricing guide.
Example, by our arithmetic: 900 active subscribers plus 200 who unsubscribed before your current billing cycle. MailerLite counts 900 (it counts anyone who was active at any point in the current cycle, so recent unsubscribes still count until your billing date), which fits the up-to-1,000 tier. A new ActiveCampaign account counts 1,100, which needs its next tier, 2,500 contacts, unless you delete the unsubscribed contacts.
MailerLite Free covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, with 3 automations, 1 website and 1 landing page, and 2 seats. Going over 250 locks sending until you upgrade or remove subscribers. New accounts also get a 14-day trial of many paid features with no payment method. The trial keeps the 250-subscriber and 2,500-email caps, and the account drops back to Free afterwards without losing data. See our MailerLite free plan guide.
ActiveCampaign has no free plan. Its 14-day trial needs no credit card and matches Professional-plan features, with 1 user and up to 100 email sends. ActiveCampaign’s pages disagree on contacts: its FAQ says up to 100, while its help center (updated July 7, 2026) says as many as you need. After you pay, a 30-day money-back guarantee applies to first-time paid subscribers.
MailerLite’s visual builder is on every plan: 3 active automations on Free (5 steps), 50 on Comfort and unlimited on Power, with up to 100 steps on paid plans and multiple triggers on Power. ActiveCampaign limits Starter to 5 actions per automation and removes the cap from Plus up. It also lists multiple triggers on every plan, 950+ prebuilt recipes, and automation A/B tests on Pro.
MailerLite includes unlimited dynamic segments, groups and tags on every plan, and dynamic (conditional) email content on Comfort and Power. ActiveCampaign tiers its segmentation (limited on Starter, advanced on Pro, premium on Enterprise) and adds site tracking on all plans, site messages from Plus, and conditional content and predictive sending on Pro.
This is ActiveCampaign’s clearest advantage. Contact profiles are on every plan, and the Pipelines add-on (Plus and up, priced separately) adds deal records, pipeline management and lead scoring. Enterprise adds Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics integrations. MailerLite has subscriber profiles, but its pricing page doesn’t list deals or pipelines.
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Still deciding between creator-first tools? Read Kit vs MailerLite or our best email marketing for beginners roundup.
Usually. At 1,000 contacts, MailerLite Comfort is $19 a month against ActiveCampaign Plus at $59. ActiveCampaign Starter is $15 a month billed yearly against Comfort’s $17.10, but Starter allows only 5 actions per automation. From 2,500 contacts up, Comfort costs less than Starter too (checked October 7, 2026).
No. ActiveCampaign offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card. MailerLite has a Free plan for up to 250 subscribers plus a 14-day premium trial.
Not on MailerLite. On ActiveCampaign, yes, for accounts created on or after November 3, 2025; older accounts count only active contacts.
For complex automation, yes: unlimited actions from Plus, more segmentation depth, site messages, predictive sending on Pro and CRM add-ons. For welcome sequences and simple funnels, MailerLite’s 50 automations of up to 100 steps on Comfort cover most creators.
Its pricing page doesn’t list a paid-newsletter feature. Pro and up list “recurring payments,” which ActiveCampaign describes as syncing subscription information from a supported ecommerce store or integration. MailerLite lists paid newsletters on Comfort and Power, through Stripe.
MailerLite and ActiveCampaign are trademarks of their owners. We run Creator Mail Stack independently, and it is not endorsed by either company. We’re in both companies’ affiliate programs, as described in the disclosure. Found something out of date? Tell us.
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