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MARKETING AUTOMATION · MIGRATION GUIDE

Switching from ActiveCampaign to Mailchimp

Neither tool imports the other’s automations automatically. Export contacts as CSV and rebuild your email sequences in Mailchimp’s builder.

Quick verdict: Move to Mailchimp if you want the lower flat price and more included seats, and your automation needs are simple enough for a 4-step builder.

Estimate · your inputs

Switching Cost & Friction Estimator

Most buyers only budget for the new subscription. This estimates the hidden labor, data-cleanup, and retraining cost of actually making the switch.

25,000
10

Estimate assumes: 1 hour of data-mapping/cleaning labor per 2,000 records, a blended $75/hr ops rate, tiered migration & cleaning tooling fees, and 4 hours of retraining per seat at a $45/hr fully-loaded rate.

Estimated Migration Time
Data Friction Rating
Total Hidden Switching Cost $0

    Why teams move from ActiveCampaign to Mailchimp

    Lower flat price

    $13/mo against $15/mo.

    More seats included

    3 against ActiveCampaign Starter’s 1.

    Genuine free plan

    250 contacts, permanent.

    How the migration actually works

    You lose ActiveCampaign’s standard CRM and its deeper automation (15 goals, 5 actions/automation).

    StepWhat you do
    1Export your contact listExport contacts, tags and segments as CSV from the old tool.
    2Create your Mailchimp accountCreate your Mailchimp account and import your contact list as a new audience.
    3Rebuild campaigns and automationsRecreate your email templates and automation journeys using Mailchimp’s builder.
    4Rebuild automationsRecreate email sequences, triggers and automation rules by hand — these do not transfer automatically.
    5Reconnect integrationsReconnect your website forms, e-commerce store or CRM sync to the new tool.
    6Run a real send before cancellingSend one real campaign through the new tool and confirm deliverability before cancelling the old plan.

    What this path doesn’t do for you:

    ActiveCampaign’s CRM and multi-step automation depth have no Mailchimp Essentials equivalent — Mailchimp’s automation is capped at 4 steps at this tier.

    Pricing side by side

    PlanActiveCampaignMailchimp
    Pricing basisPer contact tier, account-widePer contact tier, account-wide
    Entry priceStarter $15/mo (1,000 contacts)Essentials $13/mo (500 contacts)
    CRMStandard CRM includedBasic contact records
    Free planNone, 14-day trial250 contacts

    Standard list prices checked on each vendor’s pricing page on September 23, 2026. HubSpot price is the $20/seat standing rate, not its current new-customer promo.

    Feature parity check

    CapabilityActiveCampaignMailchimp
    CRMIncludedBasic contact records
    Automation15 goals, 5 actions/automation4 steps max (Essentials)
    Price$15/mo$13/mo
    Seats included13

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Does Mailchimp import ActiveCampaign data?

    No dedicated importer; export contacts as CSV and import as a new Mailchimp audience.

    Will I save money?

    Slightly, $2/mo, plus 2 more included seats.

    Do I lose CRM and automation depth?

    Yes — Mailchimp Essentials caps automation at 4 steps and has no full CRM, against ActiveCampaign’s 15 automation goals and standard CRM.

    Do my automations and workflows carry over?

    No. Automation logic, workflows and segmentation rules are specific to each platform’s builder and are rebuilt by hand in the new tool; only contact data moves via export/import.

    Sources

    Prices on this page were recorded from each vendor’s own pricing page on the date shown at the top of the page. Vendors change pricing often — check the live source before you buy.

    Every figure is also in our open dataset (JSON and CSV, CC BY 4.0), with its source page and verification date. See how we research pricing.

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    Built for the leader who owns the selection, answers for the spend, drives the rollout, and lives with the results. HelpCompare covers the whole decision, not just the first step.

    Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
    About the author

    Bill Belcamino

    Founder and author, HelpCompare

    Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent nine years as an engineer at HP, was COO of Auctiva (the number one third-party selling platform on eBay, past 200,000 users) and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. Then he spent 13 years building his own web properties with his own money at stake. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.

    “I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”

    Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. Pricing on this page was last verified on September 23, 2026. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.