2026-06-09 · 12 min read
ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp vs GetResponse vs Brevo: Which Email Tool Actually Fits (2026)
Four tools come up again and again when a small business outgrows “just send a newsletter”: ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, GetResponse and Brevo. They look interchangeable on a feature grid and they are not. The real differences are three: whether there's a genuinely free plan, how brutally the price climbs as your list grows, and how much automation you actually get for the money. This compares them on exactly those, with no thumb on the scale.
Disclosure up front: we earn a commission if you start an ActiveCampaign trial through our link. So here is the honest part — three of the four verdicts below do not go to ActiveCampaign. It wins one specific job. If that's not your job, one of the others is the better buy, and we'll say which.
The 30-second answer
- You mainly send broadcasts and want it free →Brevo (real free tier, 300 emails/day) or Kit if you're a creator. Not on this page, but honest.
- You want the easiest possible start and brand familiarity → Mailchimp — but know its free plan was gutted in February 2026 (250 contacts, 500 sends/month).
- You want a free plan plus built-in webinars and funnels → GetResponse.
- You run behaviour-based automations that branch on what people do → ActiveCampaign. This is the one job it wins outright.
Free tiers — who actually gives you one
This is where the marketing pages mislead the most, so here it is plainly. Prices are annual-billing, verified June 2026; spot-check before you buy, because SaaS pricing drifts.
| Tool | Genuinely free? | Entry paid (~1k contacts) |
|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | No — 14-day trial, 100 contacts, no card | $15 Starter / $49 Plus / $79 Pro |
| Mailchimp | Barely — 250 contacts, 500 sends/mo (cut Feb 2026) | $13 Essentials; $20 Standard for real automation |
| GetResponse | Yes — 500 contacts forever (they bury it) | $19 Starter |
| Brevo | Yes — the best free tier: 300 emails/day, big stored list | $9 Starter (priced on sends, not contacts) |
The standout fact: ActiveCampaign has no free plan at all.Brevo gives you a real one (and charges on emails sent, not contacts stored — so a big, quiet list costs nothing). GetResponse's free tier exists but is deliberately hard to find on their pricing page. Mailchimp's once-useful free plan is now close to a demo.
The price climb — the number nobody quotes you
ActiveCampaign's “$15/month” is real only at 1,000 contacts on the most basic plan. Contact count is the meter, and it spins fast. On the Starter plan (verified 2026):
| Contacts | Starter | Plus | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $15 | $49 | $79 |
| 5,000 | $79 | $145 | $205 |
| 10,000 | $149 | $189 | $375 |
| 20,000 | $311 | $329 | $549 |
And two costs the table hides. The CRM and SMS are add-ons, not bundled — Pipelines starts around $49/month, SMS around $21 for 1,000 credits. And from 3 November 2025, accounts created on or after that date are charged for everycontact — including unsubscribed, bounced and unconfirmed ones. Older accounts only pay for active contacts. So a new customer with a messy list pays more than this table implies, and more than a grandfathered user with the identical list. Brevo sidesteps the whole problem by pricing on sends; that's its genuine structural advantage.
heard on G2 & Capterra (aggregate, 17k+ reviews)
Across thousands of reviews, the two loudest complaints about ActiveCampaign are “expensive” and “learning curve” — in that order. The two loudest praises are the depth of its automation and its segmentation. Both halves are true at once: it's powerful, and you pay for the power in money and time.
Automation — where ActiveCampaign earns its keep
If all you do is email a list on Tuesdays, none of this matters and you should buy on price. The moment your marketing needs to react to behaviour, the tools split hard. ActiveCampaign's automation builder does true if/then/else branching, goals, split-tests inside a workflow, and lets one automation send an email, change a tag, move a deal in the CRM and notify a salesperson in a single flow. Real examples people build with it: abandoned-cart sequences that branch by cart value, webinar follow-ups that differ for live-attended vs replay vs no-show, lead-scoring flows that auto-create and assign deals.
Mailchimp's automation is shallow by comparison (its lead “scoring” is a 1–5 star rating). GetResponse is capable but not as deep. Brevo's is basic. So the honest framing: you are not paying ActiveCampaign for email — you're paying it for automation that branches, and a light CRM in the same box. If you don't need that, you're overpaying.
Who each one is genuinely for
Brevo — the budget and free-tier winner
The honest pick if you're cost-led, pre-revenue, or sit on a large list you email infrequently. Real free tier, send-based pricing, transactional email built in. Automation is basic — but if you don't need deep automation, that's not a flaw.
Mailchimp — easiest start, familiar brand
Fine for beginners and very small lists who value the gentlest onboarding over power. Go in knowing the free plan is now barely usable and that you'll hit its automation ceiling fast if you grow.
GetResponse — free tier plus webinars and funnels
Strong if your model is webinar- or funnel-led, or you want a real free tier with a landing-page builder attached. Often cheaper than ActiveCampaign in the middle tiers.
ActiveCampaign — behaviour-based automation for growing B2B and service businesses
The right call once your list is past a few thousand contacts andyou actually run branching automations, want lead scoring, and would like a light CRM without paying HubSpot-Professional money. For coaches, course creators, agencies, SaaS and service businesses, it's the most capable automation you can get at a small-business price. Just budget for the real number — at 5,000 contacts on Plus you're at $145/month, not $15 — and start with the 14-day trial before you commit.
One thing this page won't do: pretend ActiveCampaign is for everyone. If you run a Shopify store, Klaviyo will out-earn it with less setup. If you're a solo creator, Kit's free tier (10,000 subscribers) is the better home. We get paid when AC wins — but it only wins the automation job, and we'd rather tell you that than lose your trust on the click.
See the full, free-tier-honest roundup on our AI marketing assistants page, or jump to the genuinely-free options in free AI marketing tools.
Choosing tools after the policy?
Every tool we recommend comes with the exact truth about its free tier — start with the free AI marketing tools that are actually free.