Email marketing is an affordable and evergreen strategy that can help you engage customers and boost your ROI. With a robust email marketing platform, you can make the most out of this strategy. Discover two of the best options compared for 2021 - MailerLite vs ActiveCampaign.
Written by Ria du Plessis - Digital Marketing Expert Updated 9/1/2021 |
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Score | 8.1/10 | 8.4/10 |
Summary | This robust platform provides an intuitive editor, email templates, and landing pages, among others. | ActiveCampaign is a user-friendly platform that features excellent automation features, templates, and reports. |
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Pros |
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Cons |
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Key Features |
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Pricing |
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Support |
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Ease of Use |
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Best fit for | Beginners or more advanced marketers | Small companies |
Email templates are a great addition that you definitely want to have with your future email marketing platform because they help you speed up the campaign creation process.
With MailerLite, you can start creating campaigns by using three main options: rich text, drag, and drop, or HTML. If you don't want to build everything from scratch, the platform also offers you a good selection of approximately 60 customizable templates. Depending on your needs you can customize by using different images, video columns, content blocks, social media buttons, and even countdown timers. The templates you create by adding personal content can also be saved for future use.
ActiveCampaign outperforms its competitor in terms of email library, as it offers more than 100 modern and attractive templates. The flexible email builder also provides you the same three main types of email campaigns available with MailerLite, as well as the possibility to customize your content. You can easily drag and drop elements to create your emails or use conditional blocks displaying the content more suitable for your audience.
Winner
ActiveCampaign is stronger here, as it offers more customization options.
Learn how MailerLite and ActiveCampaign can help you generate more leads by using forms and landing pages.
The same builder helps you create both landing pages and forms on this platform. The section you need to access is forms. Mobile responsive forms are available in different formats - pop-ups, inline, floating boxes, bars, full-page forms. You can easily customize your form fields.
In terms of landing pages, MailerLite offers a selection of 30+ templates and the possibility to easily customize them by using content blocks.
ActiveCampaign also allows you to create forms and embed them anywhere on your landing pages. As for the landing pages, if you can’t embed them on your website, the platform offers the possibility to host them. The customization options are similar to those on most platforms. You can choose from 4 types of forms: inline, floating bar, floating box, modal.
As for the landing pages, there is no limit to how many you can create by using a simple drag-and-drop builder. You can use one of the 40+ templates or design everything from scratch.
Winner
It’s a tie.
Automated workflows help you save a lot of time by sending ready-made emails to your audience, based on their specific actions.
MailerLite sticks to its simple and user-friendly approach regarding its automation functionality. The simple visual automation builder allows you to create an email sequence within minutes. You can choose how many steps you want to include, and you can build rather complex flows. Some of the available options are adding or removing actions and conditions, moving subscribers to different groups, or updating their data. You can use several trigger actions, such as submitted forms, clicked links, special dates, etc.
ActiveCampaign is hard to top when it comes to automation features. Besides a multitude of actions you can use and combine the way you want to, the platform also features an intelligent tagging system. The system allows you to create highly targeted workflows based on your audience. A visual automation builder carries out the automation building process. Additionally, ready-made workflow templates are available. They mainly aim to help you speed up your sales process. Most of these templates target eCommerce companies.
Winner
ActiveCampaign is once again more complex.
| You may also like the following comparison: ActiveCampaign vs Constant Contact |
Let's see how MailerLite vs. ActiveCampaign allows you to manage your contact list.
With MailerLite, you get two main options - creating groups or segments. You can use specific rules to divide your audience into segments. The rules are reasonably flexible. You can easily select and combine them. Groups are similar to what other platforms call tags. You can create groups using automated rules, or add people to specific groups manually. Your contacts are included in certain groups based on their actions and behavior.
ActiveCampaign also features two options - lists and tags. You get to choose which one to use. You can add tags manually or automatically. Since this platform also tracks the activity on your website, the tags can be applied automatically depending on what your contacts do when browsing through your online store, for example.
Winner
Both platforms feature an easy and efficient list management process.
A/B testing allows you to see how your audience reacts to different versions of your email and choose the one that gets the best results.
With MailerLite, you can test different essential elements of your campaigns, including subject lines, form names, or email content. You can put two versions to the test, and there is flexibility in choosing the portion of your contact list you want to use for your tests. The best one is determined automatically, but you can also set a favorite email manually.
ActiveCampaign also goes the extra mile with its A/B testing tools, but let us start by mentioning that this software provides an easy-to-use spam testing function. In terms of split testing, ActiveCampaign allows you to use an unlimited number of email variables. Some of the elements you can test include subject lines, images, CTAs, sender details. You can test up to 5 emails simultaneously. You can choose the portion of your audience you want to include in the test or allow the platform to select it automatically. Many conditions will determine the winning email.
Winner
You get more options with ActiveCampaign.
Discover each platform’s pricing plans.
MailerLite offers a free plan for up to 12000 emails and 1,000 subscribers. However, this plan does not include templates. The paid plans vary in price based on your contact list. For up to 1,000 contacts, with the paid plan you have to pay $10.
ActiveCampaign offers four pricing plans. The starting point is the Lite plan, which costs only $9 per month for up to 500 contacts. The prices grow as you get access to various additional features. The highest plan is the Enterprise, which costs $229 per month.
Winner
MailerLite offers a free plan and is more affordable.
Each one of these platforms is easy to use. Let’s see who the winner is.
It’s hard to come across a platform that’s easier to use than MailerLite. The approval process during the initial set-up is relatively fast. You don’t need to watch tutorials or read long guides to be able to use MailerLite. The interface is clean and clear, with all the main functions displayed at a glance, so you can start working as soon as you get a subscription. Building campaigns and automations come effortlessly, even for beginners.
Active Campaign features a modern and engaging interface. It is easy to build emails, and landing pages using drag-and-drop functionality. The visual automation builder also helps you set up workflows reasonably fast. However, given its multitude of features, this platform has a steeper learning curve.
MailerLite is easier to use.
Integrations are a must these days, as they allow more efficient contact and content management by connecting multiple platforms.
MailerLite is not the most robust tool when it comes to integrations. However, it does offer a set of great integrations that work rather well, including different CRMs, content management tools, and eCommerce platforms. Some examples include PayPal, Zapier, Facebook, Slack, Shopify, WooCommerce, ClickFunnels, Trello, Google Docs Sheets, Forms, etc. An API is also available if you want to create further integrations.
ActiveCampaign offers 500+ integrations with popular content management tools, social media platforms, or eCommerce. Some examples include WordPress, Facebook, Shopify, Zapier, PayPal, Stripe, etc.
Winner
ActiveCampaign takes the lead once more.
Reports
If you don't monitor your campaign results through monitoring, it will be hard to improve them. Here is a quick ActiveCampaign vs. MailerLite reporting comparison.
MailerLite Reports
With MailerLite, you can monitor all the essential aspects concerning your email performance from the campaign dashboard. Email opens, new subscribers, bounces, clicked links, or submitted forms are available.
If you want to dive deeper into your campaign performance, you can also access click maps or Google Analytics reports.
ActiveCampaign Reports
This platform doesn't stop at offering essential campaign data such as open rates or clicked links. Additional analysis features help you track your customers' replies through the Reply Tracking option or the actions your visitors take on your website. Likewise, you get Google Analytics reporting.
ActiveCampaign is once again more advanced.
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Discover the different pricing options you can access with MailerLite and ActiveCampaign.
MailerLite offers email and live chat support 24/7. Moreover, their support is available in 12 languages. Additionally, you also get a knowledge base with video tutorials and helpful training materials.
With ActiveCampaign, you can enjoy email, live chat, or phone support. The latter being available only for the highest plan. This platform also offers a rich knowledge base where you can find guides, articles, or tutorials. You can also interact with their community of users via Facebook.
ActiveCampaign offers more support options.
Depending on your circumstances, each platform could be more suitable for you.
MailerLite is ideal for small companies, beginners, and anyone looking for a user-friendly email marketing tool with numerous templates and affordable plans.
ActiveCampaign is an all-in-one email marketing platform you can undeniably benefit from if you already have some experience using similar tools. It is suitable for small to medium companies.
Let's take a look at ActiveCampaign vs. MailerLite pros and cons.
ActiveCampaign's pros include the numerous email templates, a great visual automation builder, landing pages templates, and great segmentation features. However, this platform has limited support, especially for the lower plans, and there is a learning curve for beginners.
This platform has a very easy-to-use interface. The automated workflows are also easy to use. There are plenty of handy landing pages and form templates, and you get 24/7 support. Moreover, the platform offers affordable prices. On the other hand, it lacks the complexity and fluid functionality you get with ActiveCampaign.
Here are two great alternatives for ActiveCampaign or MailerLite.
Sendinblue allows you to customize your emails according to your audience's interests due to its rich segmentation features. You also get various types of ready-made emails, such as transactional emails. The in-built CRM is another considerable addition, especially for eCommerce.
MailChimp is a great alternative too. It offers an excellent array of templates, a website builder tool, outstanding segmentation features, and reliable reporting.
In this MailerLite vs. ActiveCampaign comparison, ActiveCampaign is our final winner since it won most rounds, including reporting, support, integrations, or A/B testing.
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