Klaviyo vs Mailchimp – Which One Offers More Value?

Klaviyo vs Mailchimp. The ultimate showdown.

You’ve got your business, you’ve got your audience, and now it’s time to send some emails that actually get opened. But here’s the thing: not all email marketing platforms are created equal.

Mailchimp is easy to use, and Klaviyo has advanced email automation. But which one has got the features that your business exactly needs? Which one’s right for you?

Let’s break it down.

Klaviyo vs Mailchimp – Feature by Feature Comparison

Feature	Klaviyo	Mailchimp
Free Plan	Yes, up to 250 contacts, 500 emails per month. Limited to basic features and branding.	Yes, up to 500 contacts, 1,000 emails per month. Limited features and includes Mailchimp branding.
Pricing Structure	Based on active profiles and email sends. Scales with contact volume and email/SMS usage.	Based on contact volume. Pricing increases as your contact list grows, offering flexibility for small businesses, but can be expensive at scale.
Number of Contacts	Starts at 250 active profiles in the free plan. Scalable, with pricing based on active profiles.	Starts at 500 contacts for the free plan. Can scale with pricing based on the number of contacts.
SMS/MMS Marketing	Yes, included in all plans with up to 150 credits/month on the free plan.	No built-in SMS marketing. Available only through third-party integrations (e.g., Twilio).
Advanced Segmentation	Yes, robust segmentation options based on customer behavior, purchase history, and properties.	Available in higher-tier plans (Standard and Premium). Allows basic segmentation, but advanced options like behavioral targeting are limited in lower plans.
Email Templates	Yes, customizable templates available in all plans. Easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor.	Yes, customizable templates. Mailchimp has a variety of pre-designed templates, especially in paid plans.
Customer Support	Email support in all plans. Higher-tier plans offer phone support. Extensive online documentation and community forums.	24/7 email and chat support. Phone support is available for higher-tier plans (Standard and Premium).
Integrations	Over 150 integrations, including eCommerce platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.), social media, and more.	Extensive integrations, especially for social media, eCommerce platforms, and CRM tools. More integrations in higher-tier plans.
Social Media Integration	Limited integrations focused on eCommerce (Facebook, Instagram, etc.).	Robust integrations with social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and others, available across all plans.
Landing Pages	No built-in landing pages feature; users need third-party apps.	Yes, available across all plans with drag-and-drop functionality for easy page creation.
Pop-Up Forms	Yes, available in all plans. Users can create pop-ups for email collection and engagement.	Yes, available in all plans. Provides customizable pop-up forms for lead generation and conversion.

Here is a detailed comparison of the features of Klaviyo and Mailchimp.

1. Email Automation Workflows

Klaviyo:

Klaviyo offers advanced email automation workflows with multi-step triggers. You can set up complex flows based on customer actions, like cart abandonment, product recommendations, and more. It allows for seamless integration with e-commerce platforms for behavior-based automation.

The email trigger actions in Klaviyo are very advanced compared to Mailchimp. For example, if you are sending a browse abandonment email, you can set up the triggers based on the specifics of the products viewed. In Mailchimp, you can’t do that.

Mailchimp:

Mailchimp’s automation workflows are easy to set up but less advanced. It offers basic automations like welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, and birthday emails, but doesn’t have the same flexibility as Klaviyo for e-commerce-specific triggers.

Winner: Klaviyo

2. Email Templates

Klaviyo:

Klaviyo has a good selection of ecommerce email templates, but they are more basic compared to Mailchimp. You can create custom email template designs, but the template library is smaller.

Mailchimp:

Mailchimp offers a larger library of well-designed templates, with options for various industries and goals. Its drag-and-drop editor makes it easier for users to customize and personalize the emails.

Winner: Mailchimp

3. Ease of Use

Klaviyo:

Klaviyo is powerful, but the interface can be overwhelming for beginners, especially if you’re not familiar with e-commerce. It requires a bit of a learning curve.

Mailchimp:

Mailchimp has a user-friendly interface and is designed for beginners. It’s easy to create email campaigns and email automation without needing technical skills.

Its drag-and-drop editor is intuitive, making it accessible for users with no prior experience in email marketing.

Winner: Mailchimp

4. Marketing Channels Supported

Klaviyo:

Klaviyo primarily focuses on email and SMS marketing. It integrates deeply with e-commerce platforms for life-cycle marketing but lacks a broader set of marketing channels.

Mailchimp:

Mailchimp supports a wide range of marketing channels, including email, social media ads, and a landing page builder. This makes it a more versatile tool for businesses that need to manage multiple marketing channels on one platform.

5. Template customization

Klaviyo:

Klaviyo has a very intuitive and easy-to-use drag-and-drop email editor. It has content blocks like reviews, product recommendations to make your emails personalized.

Also, it has a show/hide logic option that allows you to show or hide a particular section of an email to a customer – which is absent in Mailchimp email template customization options.

You can insert customer reviews directly in your email template without any manual effort using the ‘Review’ block in the Klaviyo template editor.

Mailchimp:

Compared to Klaviyo, Mailchimp has similar template customization options and a drag-and-drop email editor as intuitive as Klaviyo’s.

As Klaviyo has a Reviews feature as a standout, Mailchimp has a ‘Survey’ block. You can easily insert a link to a survey created using Mailchimp Surveys as a CTA.

Winner: Klaviyo

5. Segmentation and personalization

Klaviyo:

Klaviyo’s predictive analytics enables advanced email segmentation based on customer behaviors like purchase likelihood, churn prediction, and lifetime value.

It uses machine learning to forecast future actions, helping you to target high-value customers, retain at-risk ones, and personalize email campaigns.

Mailchimp:

Mailchimp allows you to segment users based on basic website activity like page views or clicks. However, it does not have the same advanced website-based email segmentation or personalization capabilities as Klaviyo.

Mailchimp allows segmentation based on clicks, but the logic behind creating follow-up email sequences is not as sophisticated as Klaviyo’s.

Winner: Klaviyo

Klaviyo vs Mailchimp – Pricing Comparison

Compared to Klaviyo pricing, Mailchimp is cheaper. Let’s break down each of the pricing plans and compare.

Comparing Free plan of Klaviyo and Mailchimp.

Here is a comparison of free plans in Klaviyo and Mailchimp.

Feature	Klaviyo Free Plan	Mailchimp Free Plan
Contacts	Up to 250 active profiles.	Up to 500 contacts.
Email Sends	500 emails/month.	1,000 emails/month (500 daily limit).
Email Automation	All automations	Basic automations (e.g., welcome emails).
SMS/MMS Marketing	Not included.	Not included (third-party integrations needed).
Email Templates	Limited pre-built templates	No limit on accessing pre-built templates
A/B Testing	Not included.	Not included in free plan.
Advanced Segmentation	Basic segmentation.	Basic segmentation (advanced segmentation requires paid plans).
Support	Email support for first 60 days	Email support for first 30 days

So, which one has a more generous Free plan?

With Klaviyo’s free plan, you get access to all the features except Generative AI and multi-channel segmentation.

In Mailchimp’s free plan, there are limitations on points in automation workflows, advanced segmentation, pre-built email templates, dynamic content, and more.

Comparing both the free plans, Klaviyo has the more generous one.

Comparing the paid plans of Klaviyo and Mailchimp

Plan	Klaviyo	Mailchimp
Essentials	$45/month for up to 500 contacts, 15,000 email sends. Includes SMS and email marketing features.	$13/month for up to 500 contacts, 5,000 emails/month. Includes email templates, A/B testing.
Standard	$60/month for up to 500 contacts, includes 15,000 email sends. Full access to advanced segmentation, reporting, and automation.	$20/month for up to 500 contacts, 6,000 emails/month. Includes advanced segmentation, automation.
Premium	Pricing varies based on contacts (e.g., $1,000+/month for 100,000 contacts). Includes SMS/MMS and advanced segmentation features.	$350/month for up to 10,000 contacts. Includes multivariate testing, advanced segmentation, and predictive analytics.

How affordable is MailChimp compared to Klaviyo?

Sending 10,000 emails costs $19.40, while Klaviyo costs $35.

Here is a comparison of the email volume you get when the pricing scales in Klaviyo and Mailchimp.

Email Volume	Klaviyo Pricing (Email Plan)	Mailchimp pricing (Standard plan)
5000	$20/month	$13.28/month
10,000	$30/month	$30.04/month
30,000	$70/month	$44.48/month
50,000	$100/month	$67/month
100,000	$150/month	$87.8/month
250,000	$400/month	$196/month

The Verdict – Which one to choose?

Klaviyo: It’s ideal for e-commerce email marketing, especially those with larger email lists, seeking advanced segmentation, deep analytics, and SMS integration. However, the pricing can be steep as your list grows, particularly for smaller businesses.

Mailchimp: Best for small businesses or those with smaller contact lists, as its pricing is more budget-friendly for these segments. While it lacks certain e-commerce-specific integrations and advanced features, Mailchimp’s ease of use and social media integrations make it a solid choice.

Best Alternatives to Klaviyo and Mailchimp

There are email marketing platforms that can be best suited for your marketing needs. Here are the top alternatives to Klaviyo and Mailchimp you can consider.

1. Retainful

Retainful is the best Klaviyo and Mailchimp alternative for e-commerce email marketing.

It is affordable, easy to use, and has simple pricing that doesn’t puzzle you every month.

Retainful has an easy-to-setup email automation and visual automation builder, so you can automate emails in minutes, not hours.

Its abandoned cart recovery feature has recovered up to 30% of abandoned carts for many e-commerce merchants.

Here is how Retainful compares to Klaviyo.

Here is how Retainful compares to Mailchimp:

Price tiers and Email Volume:

• Forever Free plan: 500 Emails (with access to all the features and email support)
• $19/month: 20,000 Emails
• $49/month: 50,000 Emails

2. Omnisend

Omnisend is an omnichannel marketing platform that supports emails, SMS, and push notifications. Unlike Mailchimp and Klaviyo, Omnisend offers push notifications.

It has easy-to-set-up features, cross-channel automation workflows so that you can automate messages across all channels in one place.

Omnisend provides pre-built automation workflows for e-commerce use cases like abandoned carts, browse abandonment, post-purchase emails, and more.

Price tiers and Email Volume:

• Free plan: 500 Emails
• $16/month: 6000 Emails
• $59/month: Unlimited Emails

3. Yotpo

Yotpo is an e-commerce marketing platform that specializes email automation, SMS, collecting customer reviews and building loyalty programs.

Yotpo’s core strength lies in collecting and showcasing customer-generated content, such as reviews, ratings, photos, and videos.

Yotpo offers a comprehensive loyalty and referral program, which is not available at either Mailchimp or Klaviyo on the same scale.

While Klaviyo is known for its advanced SMS capabilities, Yotpo provides similar SMS features, but with the added benefit of integrating loyalty and review features into the messaging, something Mailchimp lacks.

Price tiers and Email Volume:

• 10,000 emails – Free
• 50,000 emails – $60/month

Wrapping up!!

While deciding between Klaviyo vs Mailchimp, if you’re looking to personalize every touchpoint and drive conversions through every email, Klaviyo’s your go-to. But it does come with a price tag that reflects its premium features.

Mailchimp, on the other hand, is like the friendly, easy-to-use tool for anyone who needs solid email marketing. If you’re just starting out and need something straightforward and cost-effective, go for Mailchimp.

Frequently Asked Questions