What is a good Mailchimp alternative?

You've started email marketing. You're reaching customers, increasing your sales and building relationships. You're growing. Nice, but with Mailchimp you are now running into some limitations. So what is a good Mailchimp alternative? Or do you just go for a more expensive subscription with more features?

At OMA, we have experience with many different email programs, including Mailchimp. While Mailchimp is a strong tool, we have a clear preference for one particular Mailchimp alternative: ActiveCampaign. In this blog, we explain why and show the key differences.

Why switch to a Mailchimp alternative?

Mailchimp is an excellent choice for beginners. The tool is user-friendly, has a free entry plan and provides a good foundation for e-mail marketing. But as your business grows and you want to achieve more with e-mail marketing, you soon run into some problems.

For example, Mailchimp has limited automations and fewer options for customization and personalization. If you want more features, you end up with the more expensive subscriptions. Not a big deal and for some businesses this is enough. But if you want to make serious strides, a more powerful alternative is often a better choice.

Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is one of the tools we at OMA often recommend as an alternative to Mailchimp. After all, this tool offers more possibilities and grows more easily with your company or organization. Below we list the most important differences.

1. Usability

Ease of use is one of the reasons Mailchimp is so popular. The drag-and-drop editor lets you quickly create beautiful emails, and most customizations are easily done via a toolbar. Nice and clear for beginners.

ActiveCampaign works a little differently. Here you make adjustments directly in the email itself , without having to go to a taskbar. This feels more intuitive and faster, especially if you draft emails more often. It may take some getting used to at first, but ultimately it offers more flexibility than Mailchimp's editor.

2. Automation

Mailchimp offers basic automations that work great for simple workflows. Think welcome emails or reminders for abandoned shopping carts. For companies starting out with e-mail marketing, this is often enough.

ActiveCampaign takes automation a step further. The tool allows you to create more complex workflows with advanced automation options such as branching, conditional logic and automated scoring systems that allow you to make emails even more personal and better connected. In short, much more control and flexibility when setting up your marketing flows.

In addition, ActiveCampaign offers site tracking. This allows you to track behavior on your website and respond accordingly with emails. For example, does someone visit a product page? Then you can automatically send a targeted e-mail. By the way, Mailchimp also has site tracking, but the possibilities are more limited and less in-depth than with ActiveCampaign.

3. Custom fields and customer data

Another big advantage of ActiveCampaign is the ability to store additional customer information via custom fields. With Mailchimp you only use tags to segment customers, but with ActiveCampaign you can also store additional information specific to your business. Think of preferences, customer numbers or important notes that you can use for even more personalized marketing campaigns.

This means you can send emails based not only on interactions, but also on specific customer data. This makes segmentation and personalization a lot easier ... and more effective.

4. Integration with web shops and customer behavior

If you have an online store, interacting with your store is an important part of your email strategy. Mailchimp offers basic integrations with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce, but ActiveCampaign takes this a step further as well.

With ActiveCampaign, for example, you can quickly see what products a customer has purchased and set up personalized campaigns based on those purchases. For example, you can send automatic emails with recommendations for additional products or discounts based on previous purchases. This makes it much easier to get customers to return to your webshop and thus increase your sales.

5. Mobile adaptations

More and more people are reading their emails on mobile devices. Therefore, it is important that your emails look good on any device. Mailchimp does support mobile optimization, but the options are limited. Not everything can be fine-tuned for mobile. In addition, the preview of the mobile view can only be seen in the MailChimp app.

ActiveCampaign gives you more control over how your emails look on smaller screens. This can make a big difference if your target audience primarily views their mail on mobile.

6. Subscriptions

Mailchimp allows you to add multiple users (seats) at no extra cost. Handy for teams. Just keep in mind that with ActiveCampaign, you pay for each user individually, which can increase the cost if you have a large team. Or you have to share the password, of course.

Both programs offer four different subscription options. Mailchimp has a free plan, but its functionalities are very limited. ActiveCampaign does not offer a free plan, but the entry-level version again includes more advanced features.

Subscriptions correspond as follows:

• Mailchimp Essentials vs. ActiveCampaign Starter: Both include basic email marketing functionality and simple automations.

• Mailchimp Standard vs. ActiveCampaign Plus: More advanced automations and better segmentation capabilities.

• ActiveCampaign Pro-: an intermediate option that Mailchimp does not offer.

• Both platforms have Premium subscriptions with extensive functionality for large companies.

Which option is cheapest depends on the number of contacts in your list. The fee structure varies by platform, so it's good to compare beforehand.

Also keep in mind here that with ActiveCampaign's Starter and Plus subscriptions, you pay for each user individually while with Mailchimp you can work with 3 to 5 different users in the account at no extra cost.

7. AI and personalization

Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign both have smart AI features, but they are very different in this. With Mailchimp, you can easily customize photos and turn them into banners. In addition, Mailchimp provides useful tips, such as suggestions for subject lines or the best time to send your emails.

With ActiveCampaign, the focus is more on smartly designing your campaigns and automations. For example, AI helps you determine which customer segments to target and when it's best to send emails. It is less focused on visuals, but just top for companies that want to make their email marketing more personal and effective.

Migration from Mailchimp to an alternative

Switching from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign does not have to be a complicated process. We can easily migrate all contacts and customer data, including lists, tags and segments. This keeps all valuable data and allows you to continue your email marketing without interruption. This ensures that you can immediately benefit from ActiveCampaign's more advanced capabilities without losing time rebuilding your contact structure.

Mailchimp vs Activecampaign: the conclusion 

ActiveCampaign is a powerful Mailchimp alternative for businesses looking to scale up. It offers advanced automations, better integrations and more flexibility than Mailchimp. In our opinion, a logical choice for companies looking to grow further and get more out of their email marketing.

At OMA, we're happy to help you switch. We make sure that your customer data remains secure and that no carefully constructed data is lost. In addition, we guide you in setting up new workflows so that you can immediately benefit from the advantages of ActiveCampaign.

Need help switching to a MailChimp alternative? 

Want to learn more about ActiveCampaign as a Mailchimp alternative or direct help with migration? Get in touch with us. Together we will reach your leads and customers even more effectively.