“Giulia, Betty said she didn’t get our welcome email. Can you check what’s wrong?”
“Hey girls, clients aren’t getting their email confirmations… is everything okay?”

We hear this constantly from our ongoing website support clients who use Mailchimp for their email marketing. And no, this is not a post designed to scare you into switching away from Mailchimp. Not at all. We’ve helped many business owners set up their Mailchimp accounts correctly, and we think it’s a solid choice when you’re just starting out and email marketing isn’t high on your priority list.

Let’s face it. Mailchimp makes a pretty good pitch:

• Free for up to 500 contacts
• Easy drag-and-drop editor
• Smooth, beginner-friendly interface
• Basic integrations with Google Analytics, WordPress, Shopify, and hundreds of other mainstream tools

If that sounds like what you need right now, go ahead and sign up for a free account on the Mailchimp website.
And if you’re using Mailchimp, sporadically sending emails to your audience, and are generally happy with how it works, stop reading. This article isn’t for you.

This article is for business owners who are feeling limited by Mailchimp’s functionality, or who are wondering what better options exist when you have a growing contact list and suspect there must be a smarter way to manage it.

Introducing: ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is not an email marketing tool for beginners, casual users, or email marketing specialists who just completed a one-week online course. It’s a powerful platform with enterprise-grade automation, without the enterprise price tag or a 10-month implementation timeline.

I personally started using it in 2019 while researching alternatives for an e-commerce client who had passed 5,000 contacts in Mailchimp. She was looking for a platform that wouldn’t double-count contacts (more on this below) and where 10-step automated email sequences weren’t a problem.
If you’ve used Mailchimp for automations, you know exactly what I’m referring to. Yes, you can set up triggers, actions, and delays, but you’re limited to a basic “if/then” setup and you have to build each step individually. And honestly, the deliverability isn’t what it used to be.

What Is Email Deliverability, and Why Does It Matter?
In simple terms: email deliverability is the percentage of emails that actually reach your subscribers’ inboxes out of the ones you send. The higher, the better.
Mailchimp has an average deliverability rate of 92.6%. ActiveCampaign’s is 93.4%, independently ranked #1 by EmailTooltester.
That might sound like a small difference. But on a list of 10,000 contacts, that’s roughly 800 people who simply never receive your email. The gap matters more than you’d think, especially when you’re running time-sensitive promotions or nurturing leads through a sales funnel.

Back to 2019: My First Experiences with ActiveCampaign

At the time, I had about six years of digital marketing experience, with my email marketing skills built on Mailchimp and Klaviyo. Flodesk wasn’t really a thing yet, and those were simply the tools everyone used.

ActiveCampaign offered a 14-day free trial (they still do — you can start yours here), so I figured that was my window to test whether this new platform could deliver what I was looking for. What caught my eye then is still relevant now:

• Contacts are only counted once, regardless of how many lists they’re on. This is a big deal. Mailchimp charges per subscriber per list, so if the same contact is on three lists, you’re paying three times. ActiveCampaign charges once per contact, full stop. For companies running multiple brands or product lines under one account, this alone can represent significant savings.
• Automations can have unlimited steps and handle complex logic. We’re not talking about a basic drip sequence. ActiveCampaign lets you build multi-step journeys that integrate with tools like WhatsApp, Stripe, and your CRM, with conditions, branching logic, and behavioural triggers built in. Plus, you get access to over 900 automation templates, even on the Starter plan ($15/month, compared to Mailchimp’s $20/month Standard plan for far fewer automation capabilities).
• Pricing is competitive, but the functionality is in a different league. For a similar number of contacts, you’re not paying dramatically more. You’re just getting dramatically more.
• Needless to say, I was sold.

Real Results: What Happens After the Switch

Since 2019, I’ve helped more than a dozen clients get started on ActiveCampaign. The most striking example is an online jewellery-making school that was using Mailchimp for their 650 contacts when I started working with them. After switching to ActiveCampaign and overhauling their digital marketing strategy, they crossed 10,000 contacts with 20+ email automations running seamlessly, all at once. They’re now at 40,000 contacts and counting, and ActiveCampaign remains a core part of their growth engine.
But don’t just take my word for it. The data speaks for itself:

• UN|HUSHED saw a 238% increase in open rates after switching from Mailchimp
• Palmetto Fortis went from 22% open rates with Mailchimp to 52% with ActiveCampaign, alongside 20% year-on-year growth
• Over 600 businesses switch from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign every month

These aren’t outliers. They’re the expected outcome when businesses move from a tool they’ve outgrown to one that’s built to scale with them.

Where ActiveCampaign Genuinely Wins

To be fair, Mailchimp has real strengths. Its free plan, clean interface, and brand recognition make it the obvious starting point for most businesses. There’s a reason so many people begin there.
But here’s where ActiveCampaign pulls ahead, and why it matters:

• Autonomous marketing, not just automation. Mailchimp requires you to manually build every workflow from scratch. ActiveCampaign’s AI agents can build entire campaigns from a single prompt, handling content generation, audience segmentation, and send-time optimisation automatically. Type “increase repeat purchases” and ActiveCampaign builds the campaign. In Mailchimp, you’d be doing that manually, step by step.
• Multi-channel in a way that’s actually integrated. ActiveCampaign offers native WhatsApp automation, SMS, and email in unified journeys. Mailchimp’s SMS capabilities are basic and not fully integrated into the automation builder.
• 950+ integrations vs. Mailchimp’s 250+. If your tech stack is more than just a website and a Shopify store, this matters. ActiveCampaign connects your entire ecosystem: CRM, payments, customer support, membership platforms, all in one place.
• Superior pricing at scale. The double-counting issue aside, ActiveCampaign’s pricing remains transparent as your list grows. Mailchimp’s costs can increase sharply as you scale, with advanced automation features locked behind higher-tier plans.

Is ActiveCampaign Right for You? An Honest Assessment

ActiveCampaign is the better choice if:

• You have more than a few hundred contacts and actively use email to drive revenue
• You want to build multi-step automations that respond to subscriber behaviour
• You’re running multiple brands or lists and don’t want to pay for duplicate contacts
• You use (or plan to use) tools like Stripe, WhatsApp, or a CRM alongside your email platform
• You care about deliverability and want your emails to actually reach people’s inboxes

Mailchimp is still a reasonable choice if:

• You’re just starting out and email is one of many things on your plate
• Your list is small and you send occasional newsletters
• You value simplicity above all else and don’t need sophisticated automation

There’s no shame in starting with Mailchimp. The problem is staying there past the point where it’s serving your business well.

How Girls Who Web Can Help

At Girls Who Web, we specialise in building and supporting websites for small and growing businesses, and email marketing integrations are a core part of what we do. Whether you’re setting up your first Mailchimp account, migrating from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign, or connecting your email platform to your website, CRM, booking system, or e-commerce store, we can handle the technical side so you don’t have to.

We’ve helped clients integrate ActiveCampaign with everything from custom WordPress sites to Shopify stores and Kajabi course platforms. We know where things typically go wrong (deliverability issues, broken automation triggers, forms that don’t sync properly) and how to fix them before they become problems for your business.

If you’re not sure which platform is right for you, or if you’re ready to make the move to ActiveCampaign and want help doing it properly, get in touch with us. We’d love to help.

Ready to Try ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. It’s the best way to explore the platform and see whether it fits how you work.
👉 Start your free trial here

And if you’d like help getting set up, migrating your list, or building your first automations, you know where to find us.

Want to see more case studies of brands who’ve made the switch from Mailchimp? ActiveCampaign has collected dozens of them here.