As an email marketer, I’ve had my fair share of marketing software. ConvertKit and Mailchimp are two of the most well-known, and they both appeal to small-sized business audiences and make it difficult to choose between them.
In the above article post, I’ll discuss the pros and cons of each application and the advantages of ConvertKit and Mailchimp for your next email campaigns.
ConvertKit Vs. Mailchimp At a Glance
If you’re looking for the best takeaways from this feature, here’s a shorter version of the features comparison:
- ConvertKit is ideal for designers and small-sized online business proprietors. It provides more flexibility in automation than Mailchimp, and its report capabilities leave a lot to be left to be.
- Mailchimp is the ideal choice for small to medium-sized enterprises. The variety of attractive templates allows branding to be easy, and the detailed reports permit marketers to collect vital performance information.
ConvertKit | Mailchimp | |
Pricing | Free version limited to as many as 300 users, and unlimited email sending; Creator as well as Creator Pro versions begin at $15/month and $29/month for 300 subscribers, respectively, and prices rise proportionally to the number of subscribers. | A limited free version that allows a maximum of 500 contacts as well as 1,000 email messages per month. Essentials, as well as Standard plans, begin at $13 or $20/mo for 500 contacts. The prices rise incrementally to 100,000 and 50,000, respectively. |
Email creation | Basic email creation with WYSIWYG editor, using your templates or based upon already-designed Starting Points | Pick between the traditional drag-and-drop editor, templates, the code-your-own option, as well as an AI-enhanced email builder. |
Designs and Templates | Basic text and image capabilities, with 15 templates | Customization of high-end design, 13 common layouts, 100 pre-designed templates, and AI-based assistance for creative ideas |
Testing A/B | Subject lines can only be tested | The free plan does not offer this feature. However, all paid plans allow sending time testing, content, and subject line design. |
Contact Management | Flexible tagging makes it easy to search and segmentation | Tagger system is akin to ConvertKit; however, it has additional options for segmenting contacts' activity, in addition to tags for contact information. |
Automation | Beyond the typical email sequence configuration, It allows you to automate the actions that are triggered by subscriber's purchases, form fills, and more. | Templates are less flexible in their capabilities and are more difficult to modify than ConvertKit's easy and familiar "if this, then that" automatization format. |
The best for | Creators, solo sellers, and customers who value high-quality, flexible automation | Small and small-sized brands that value design and precise reports |
The Even Areas On The Playing Field
Let’s first discuss the things that are not different between these 2 email-based marketing tools. If you’re seeking a tiebreaker, none of these categories can be it.
- Usability: Sure, some people might prefer one over the other, but ultimately, each ConvertKit and Mailchimp are designed to be easy to use.
- Customer assistance: Both companies are accessible via chat or email (for customers who have paid plans). They both offer similar levels of support. Users who are not paying for a subscription may appreciate the help bot from Mailchimp.
- Sequencing emails: Both platforms provide options to automate drip campaigns and sequences of emails, which are very similar in function.
- Deliverability Although each of the providers might claim to have better deliverability rates, actual tests demonstrate that both platforms perform nearly the same.
ConvertKit: Pros And Cons, And More
ConvertKit is a dinner of meat and potatoes at Mailchimp’s buffet that is fully catered. ConvertKit omits a lot of “bells and whistles” features that other email applications offer and instead invests the energy into the most powerful automated contact management and page-building features.
Experienced marketers who are comfortable with email tools and take advantage of the additional tools available may be apprehensive about ConvertKit’s ease of use. However, beginners, as well as intermediate customers, will appreciate that ConvertKit provides everything they require to complete their tasks.
ConvertKit Strengths
Contact management that is flexible: While Mailchimp offers optional tagging capabilities, the ConvertKit contact management system replaces the conventional contact list with segments and tags, making the subscriber database searchable. It also lets users create “lists” customized to their particular needs in the present.
Improved automated capabilities, ConvertKit’s tool for visual automation goes far beyond the basic email sequence configuration and lets users build automation around events, actions, or situations that seamlessly incorporate tags, contacts, templates, and other elements.
The automation builder is very intuitive, even for the creation of complex funnels with a variety of different conditions. In addition, users can integrate other platforms, such as Zapier, Shopify, Patreon, and Facebook, into automation sequences.
For users who pay, a notable automation feature is the possibility to build unique “if this, then that” rules without the full templated workflow. Technically, it’s possible to create triggers such as those in Visualiser, and it’s also an excellent way to create many of the most popular single-step triggers.
More templates for landing pages: ConvertKit offers over 50 landing page templates, which are easily tweaked by using a user-friendly editor. It’s not as customizable, but given the sheer amount of variation in templates, it should not be a problem for the majority of users.
Value for intermediate usage: For marketers, makers, and sellers who simply want to manage contacts, make simple templates, and automate their campaigns, ConvertKit provides excellent value. Its free version comes with many benefits, and its paid customers will appreciate its simpler pricing, with just two levels that are cheaper than Mailchimp’s premium options.
ConvertKit weak points
Tests with bare bones: Testing the capability is basic. ConvertKit permits you to subject lines A/B test and not images, email content, and send time.
A few reporting options: ConvertKit’s reporting options are limited to the most basic metrics, such as deliverability, click-through rates, and open rates (though advanced deliverability reports are offered at the creator Pro stage).
In contrast, Mailchimp offers highly detailed options for email marketing reports as well as automation reports and reports on campaign performance. However, users who use commerce will appreciate the latest introduction of a more detailed view of transactions that can be exported to sales analysis.
Limits design options: The platform only has around twelve email templates that are basically different versions of the text-plus-image format. You can also utilize HTML to create a totally customized template, but without coding expertise, it’s not a great option.
ConvertKit is the best choice for:
- Users who prefer a text-only style of email
- Marketers looking for advanced automation solutions
- Solo bloggers, newsletter writers, and entrepreneurs
Mailchimp: Pros And Cons, And More
Mailchimp is the most popular email marketing platform used by more established small businesses as well as a full-time marketing staff at small to medium-sized enterprises. Its paid version provides better testing, greater customization options, a wider selection of templates, and many integrations with different tools for marketing. For smaller companies and individuals, the cherries might seem a bit too over the top, but for seasoned email marketers looking for top-quality tools to use, Mailchimp is the right choice to take.
The strengths of the Mailchimp
Highly customizable design: Mailchimp completely outstrips its competitors when it comes to email design.
Mailchimp is renowned for its stylish design templates that users are able to modify to send high-quality emails with no knowledge of design. It provides over 100 themes and templates that can be used for welcome emails, newsletter reminders, photo showcases, and other things.
My personal opinion is that more valuable, however, is the layouts or skeleton-structured templates that can help users create their custom templates from the ground from scratch. If you’re looking for something unique but don’t have the expertise to create templates from scratch, The layouts tool in Mailchimp is a godsend.
What’s more exciting to those who have Marketing Standard plans or higher is that Mailchimp recently introduced an option to build (currently being tested) that includes the “AI-powered creative assistant” to make branding customization easier.
As with the standard builder, This lets you create with a blank template and then code your own or use designs and templates (just more than 30). This feature will automatically apply the essential design elements of your brand, such as colors, logos, and fonts, to your customized templates that fall into typical categories, such as announcements, product highlights, and newsletters.
More extensive test options: In contrast to ConvertKit, which does not allow users to try subject line tests, users with Mailchimp can test subject lines and sender names, as well as email content, images, and even send times.
Reporting dynamically: Mailchimp effortlessly takes top honors (or, in this instance, it’s monkey bread) in terms of reporting. With its custom analysis and AI-powered monitoring, the basic reporting of Mailchimp is superior to ConvertKit’s. It is available on all levels. Premium users can also gain access to comparative reportage to analyze data from multiple campaigns and create reports that can be shared.
Many more Integrations Mailchimp provides native integrations to over 300 apps and enables some interesting applications like Shopify’s Customer Journey Builder as well as Typeform’s solution to tagging. While ConvertKit can be integrated with a large number of software, Mailchimp offers more. Both apps are compatible via Zapier, which means you can connect them with hundreds of other applications.
Mailchimp drawbacks
Limited automation: Mailchimp’s templates for automation (or “Customer Journeys”) are less flexible in their functionality and harder to edit than ConvertKit’s straightforward and well-known “if this, then that” automation format. The platform for creating journeys is fairly intuitive by itself; however, I’ve discovered it is less than ConvertKit’s and somewhat less efficient.
Limits on sending: Whereas ConvertKit charges per subscriber, Mailchimp has subscriber limits, and it restricts the number of emails that can be sent out per month. (Presumably, it’s less about money and more about stopping users from using Mailchimp to deliver spam messages. However, it could nevertheless be a hassle.)
For users who pay, the issue is not as much of a problem. Limits on sends start at 10 times the plan’s limit on contacts, which is greater frequency than the majority of campaigns (at least, the majority of campaigns don’t immediately bother everyone out of their subscribers and then result in a flood of unsubscribers).
For free subscribers, the limit on sends could be limited, with just 1,000 messages per month for a maximum of 500 contacts.
It’s important to note that these free plan limits were put into effect on the 20th of March, 2023, for accounts not in the legacy category (aka, the free plans began with their prior free plan changes that took place on the 15th of May, 2019 ). The free plans for legacy accounts are more expansive and allow users to keep more than 2,000 contacts in addition to sending up to 12,000 emails each month. Therefore, without the option of a time machine, potential users who are currently free have to accept the new limitations.
Mailchimp is ideal for:
- Subscribers with bigger audiences and more subscribers
- Tiny and middle-sized businesses that have strong branding
- Marketers who want to maximize the number of features
ConvertKit vs. Mailchimp Final Word
The latter, however, is not the best choice. Mailchimp or ConvertKit is a superior option for email marketing. Still, neither is too restricted in any way that it shouldn’t be considered disqualified from being used in any campaign. That’s why there aren’t “wrong” choices here so that you can relax.
If you’re a smaller company owner or a new email marketing professional, ConvertKit is certainly the best choice. The free version of the program offers an entire suite of tools for designing email campaigns and sending and automating messages to smaller audiences, as design or testing restrictions aren’t as much of a problem for smaller campaigns.
If you’re planning to launch an extensive campaign and you know that you’ll need an expensive plan, Mailchimp is likely going give you the best value for your money. By integrating more features, better reporting, and greater flexibility, it will be possible to tailor and scale your campaigns much more quickly than with ConvertKit.
FAQs
My business is a small company, and I’m looking for an affordable, forever-free plan. Which one would you recommend? Mailchimp as well as ConvertKit?
The two ConvertKit and Mailchimp offer unlimited free plans. In terms of capabilities, ConvertKit is better.
In contrast, Mailchimp will consider your “duplicated” contacts, even in the event that they’re on separate lists as a single contact, and reduce your number of contacts.
I’m not a WordPress user. However, I own my domain, and I would like to place our landing page. However, I do not want to spend excessively. What should I do?
If you’re not a WordPress user and don’t plan to be one, you should consider Mailchimp as the best option, even though it’s on the expensive side.
If you’re worried regarding price and would like to secure money, you can try alternatives such as SendX.
I’m looking for an automated editor that is flexible and lets me choose from a variety of pre-made choices. Which one should I pick, Mailchimp and ConvertKit?
Convertkit does not just provide visual automation and workflow but also a tool that allows you to visualize your email sequences.
If so, this can be an excellent idea or alternatively. There are a lot of existing sequences that you can select from, change, and apply.
As a company grows and expands, it is crucial to ensure that the message that you distribute is vital. Therefore, we require an efficient HTML editor. Which one should I pick from the two options: Mailchimp and ConvertKit?
It’s a simple choice, as Mailchimp editor is among the best available. It’s the highest line.
What happens if I want to add this individual to several lists? Do I count it as one or 2.
If you’re in search of an ESP that is based on this parameter and you are looking for a solution, ConvertKit is the best option.
Mailchimp counts contacts as an individual one for each list, which means it counts as two contacts even if it has identical contacts in two different lists. Contrarily, Convertkit counts it as only one contact.
Does ConvertKit provide a free migration service?
Yes. ConvertKit also provides a cost-free concierge service for migration, where they manage the transfer of all your forms of marketing automation, as well as subscribers, for no cost.
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