ActiveCampaign built its name on marketing automation, and automations are a big part of Mailburger too. The difference is mostly in scope and price. ActiveCampaign is a broad platform with CRM, SMS and AI agents; Mailburger is a focused email marketing tool. Here is how they compare in October 2026.
The short answer
ActiveCampaign suits businesses that want automation at the centre of everything, with 950+ recipes, CRM add-ons, SMS and WhatsApp, and a choice of US, EU or Australian data centres. Mailburger suits teams that want branching automations, A/B tests, more seats and single sign-on at a much lower monthly price, with a free plan and no charge for unsubscribed contacts. At 10,000 contacts ActiveCampaign Starter is $189 a month on monthly billing; Mailburger Pro is €20 for up to 50,000 contacts.
The plan-by-plan tables are on Mailburger vs ActiveCampaign.
What each one is
ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation platform for small and mid-sized businesses, now marketed as an autonomous marketing platform where AI agents run email, SMS and WhatsApp. Its plans are Starter, Plus, Pro and Enterprise. CRM pipelines, SMS, WhatsApp and transactional email (powered by Postmark, which ActiveCampaign owns) are paid add-ons.
Mailburger is an email marketing tool for newsletters, signup forms and automations, running on its own delivery engine. Every plan includes a drag-and-drop editor, templates, signup forms with double opt-in, segments and campaign reports. Paid plans add automations, A/B tests, contact scoring, AI help and a REST API. Plans are priced in euros, billed monthly with no contract, and only subscribed contacts count.
Features side by side
| Feature | Mailburger | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 500 contacts, 2,500 emails a month | None; 14-day trial with 100 sends |
| Contacts that count | Subscribed and pending double opt-in | All contacts on accounts created since 3 November 2025 |
| Automations | Grow and up, with branches, random splits, goals and webhooks | All plans; Starter limited to 5 actions, email only |
| Automation recipes | Yes, plus Create with AI | 950+ recipes |
| A/B tests | Grow and up, up to 4 variants with automatic winner | Email tests on all plans; automation split tests on Pro and up |
| Landing pages | No | Plus and up |
| Team members | 1 on Free, 3 on Grow, unlimited on Pro | 1, 1, 3 or 5 included; extra seats paid |
| SAML single sign-on | Pro, €20 | Enterprise only |
| Transactional email | No, keep an API provider | Postmark-powered add-on from $15 a month |
| Drag-and-drop editor | All plans | All plans |
Automations in detail. ActiveCampaign's builder covers every plan, but Starter is limited to 5 actions per automation and to email only; Plus and up get unlimited actions and cross-channel steps, and split testing inside automations needs Pro. Its library has more than 950 recipes.
Mailburger's automations start on Grow. Triggers include subscribing, a tag being added or removed, a form submission, a date field, entering a segment, a custom event from the API, a field change and unsubscribing. Steps include delays, send email, if/else branches, random splits, waits for an open or click, waits until a date, goals, go-to steps, tags, field updates, audience changes and webhooks. You can start from a recipe or describe what you want to Create with AI, then edit the result.
Pricing at 1,000, 10,000 and 50,000 contacts
| Contacts | Mailburger | Starter | Plus | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | €5 (Grow) | $19 | $59 | $99 |
| 10,000 | €20 (Pro) | $189 | $239 | $469 |
| 50,000 | €20 (Pro) | Not available | $759 | $1,209 |
Monthly billing. Enterprise is $179, $739 and $1,459 at the same sizes.
How ActiveCampaign bills. You choose a contact tier, and each plan caps monthly sends at a multiple of it: 10 times on Starter and Plus, 12 on Pro and 15 on Enterprise. Sends over the cap cost $0.005 each, and if overage reaches three times your limit, sending is switched off until the next month. Accounts created on or after 3 November 2025 pay for every contact, including unsubscribed, bounced and unconfirmed ones; older accounts count active contacts only. Starter stops at 25,000 contacts, and above 50,000 the pricing page asks you to request a quote. Extra seats are paid: the first one costs $15 a month on Plus, $30 on Pro and $40 on Enterprise.
One thing to watch: the pricing page shows annual-billed figures. Starter at 10,000 contacts appears as $149 a month, but that is the yearly total divided by 12; on monthly billing it is $189. The page also advertises a 30-day money-back guarantee, while the help centre refund policy says no refunds are given.
How Mailburger bills. Plans count subscribed contacts and contacts pending double opt-in. Unsubscribed and bounced contacts do not count, and test sends and confirmation emails do not use your email allowance. Grow covers 5,000 contacts and 50,000 emails a month for €5, and Pro covers 50,000 contacts and 500,000 emails for €20, both billed monthly. See our pricing page for every plan.
Deliverability and sending
ActiveCampaign includes a spam check on all plans and inbox previews on Plus and up (5 a month on Plus and Pro, unlimited on Enterprise). It requires sending-domain verification and documents SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Predictive sending is on Pro and up. A dedicated IP is available on any plan once you have 100,000 active, opted-in, engaged contacts, at $750 per IP. ActiveCampaign does not offer an SMTP relay.
Mailburger sends through its own delivery engine. You verify your sending domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, campaigns carry one-click unsubscribe headers, and signup forms support double opt-in, business-email validation and spam protection with a built-in proof-of-work check or Cloudflare Turnstile. A contact score that decays over time helps you find the people still reading. Mailburger does not offer dedicated IPs.
Team, security and agencies
ActiveCampaign includes 1 seat on Starter and Plus, 3 on Pro and 5 on Enterprise, with custom permissions from Plus. Single sign-on is Enterprise only. Your account's data centre, in the US, the EU or Australia, is set at signup and cannot be changed later. Agencies can resell ActiveCampaign at a 25% to 55% discount, but each client is a separate account.
Mailburger includes 3 team members on Grow and unlimited members on Pro, with SAML single sign-on and a workspace audit log. The Agency plan at €49 pools 100,000 contacts and 1,000,000 emails across up to 25 client workspaces, and Agency Plus at €149 pools 500,000 contacts and 5,000,000 emails with unlimited clients. Both are white label, with your own logo, colour, sign-in link and system emails.
Support
ActiveCampaign offers basic email and chat support on Starter and Plus, priority support on Pro, and a dedicated account team with an uptime SLA on Enterprise. Onboarding and contact migration help are included on every plan.
Mailburger offers email support on every plan, with priority support on Pro.
Who should choose which
Choose ActiveCampaign if:
- you want a very large recipe library and cross-channel automation with SMS and WhatsApp,
- you need CRM pipelines next to your marketing,
- you need your data in a specific region such as the EU or Australia.
Choose Mailburger if:
- you want branching automations and A/B tests for €5 a month,
- you want a free plan to start on,
- several people work on your email and you need seats or single sign-on without Enterprise,
- you would rather not pay for unsubscribed or bounced contacts.
Switching from ActiveCampaign
Export your contacts as a CSV, recreate your custom fields and import each list into an audience, mapping your tags as you go. Personalisation tags such as %FIRSTNAME% become {{first_name}}, with fallbacks such as {{first_name|there}}. Rebuild your automations from recipes or with Create with AI, then verify your sending domain and warm it up. The full checklist is on Mailburger vs ActiveCampaign.
Prices checked on 13 October 2026 from each vendor's public pricing pages.