Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Which email marketing tool is right for you? 

Mailchimp is one of the oldest and perhaps most well-known email marketing platforms. Developed back in 2001, it remains competitive to this day with various email marketing features. 

Klaviyo, on the other hand, is known for providing both email and SMS campaign tools that are ideal for various businesses, especially eCommerce brands. However, the platform has recently transitioned beyond SMS and email marketing services to offer customer relationship management tools. 

So, which of these platforms is best suited for email marketing? Should you go with the cheaper, more popular option in Mailchimp, or will your business benefit from the more feature-packed alternative, Klaviyo? 

Comparing the features of Klaviyo vs Mailchimp

Here is a quick table comparison of the two email marketing platforms:

	Klaviyo	Mailchimp
Templates	Decent selection; templates sorted by campaign type (e.g., Black Friday, New Year).	300 templates sorted by industry, email purpose, and style. Most advanced templates behind a paywall.
Email editor	Drag-and-drop with styling options for backgrounds, fonts, padding, and links. Email AI feature for premium users. Custom HTML supported.	Easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder with styling controls for colors, fonts, and button designs. Includes preview on desktop & mobile. Custom coding available (paid).
Email marketing campaigns	Has several pre-built campaign drafts (e.g., product promotions, exclusive offers) accessible via the dashboard.Supports SMS marketing.	No pre-built campaigns — must build from scratch using templates and the editor.Supports SMS marketing.
Segmentation	Supports tags and multiple conditions for tailored segments. Only 2 pre-built segments (new & engaged subscribers). Automated list segmentation.	Extensive pre-built segments (e.g., new, engaged, disengaged, repeat customers). More filters, but the free plan is limited to 5 filters.
Automations	12+ pre-built workflows in “Flows.” Custom automations with advanced triggers and rules. Email AI assists with segment creation (premium).	Pre-built customer journeys (welcome messages, cart recovery, win-back). Custom automations based on activity, tags, and purchase data.
AI capabilities	Design with AI for generating email sections, images, buttons, and text. AI-generated segments and automated workflows from descriptions. Predictive analytics (churn, next purchase). A/B test automation and analytics summaries.	Creative Assistant uses uploaded branding assets to design emails. AI-powered copywriting and personalized automated campaigns
Apps & integrations	350+ integrations focused heavily on eCommerce (e.g., Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, POS systems like Square Up, Lightspeed, Mindbody)	Just as many integrations spanning eCommerce, design, analytics, social, scheduling, and loyalty apps (e.g., Shopify, Canva, Google Analytics, Wix, Squarespace, Meta, LinkedIn)
Analytics and reporting	Advanced analytics for campaigns, Flows, and deliverability. Benchmarking against industry data. Predictive analytics (powered by Klaviyo AI). Custom reports.	Advanced analytics dashboard for overall and granular campaign performance. Option to exclude Apple MPP opens for cleaner open rate data. Custom reports available.
A/B testing	Test subject lines, email copy, and send times. Supports 2 variations. Available on the free plan.	Test subject lines, from names, content, and send times. Supports up to 3 variations. Available on paid plans only.
Customer support	Email support (only 60 days on free plan). Resource hub, Help Center, Academy, Community, Partner Directory. Live training on Mondays and Thursdays.	Email support (30 days on free plan). Live chat and phone support on higher plans. Poor customer reviews on support responsiveness.
Pricing	Starts with a free plan for 500 email sends to 250 contacts. Paid plans unlock more features, advanced analytics, and customer support.	Free plan with limitations. Paid plans required for features like A/B testing, advanced analytics, and customer support after the first 30 days.
User reviews	Rated 4.6/5 on G2.Loved for ease of use and integrations.Common complaints: pricing, learning curve, and customer support.	Rated 4.4/5 on G2.Popular for its intuitive interface and templates.Common complaints: steep pricing as lists grow and limited template customization options.

Klaviyo vs MailChimp features

Let’s now get into the details and see what each platform has to offer.

Templates and editors

Both Klaviyo and Mailchimp provide a ton of email templates to help you set up your campaigns in minutes. They also have easy-to-use editors you can use to customize your email design. 

Starting with Klaviyo, the platform provides a decent selection of templates. The platform will ask questions about your business when you first sign up. Your answers will help customize your Klaviyo account, including the types of email templates you’ll see.

You can also search for specific templates or sort them by the type of email campaign. For example, you can pull up templates specifically designed for black friday, back-to-school, Easter, Halloween, New Year, etc.  

Klaviyo has a pretty standard email editor. The drag-and-drop editor helps you move around elements like images, text, and buttons. You also get many styling options to customize the template background, background image, width, padding, font, and even the color of your links. 

You can also add custom HTML.

Finally, Klaviyo has an email AI feature. This AI tool allows you to describe the email design you have in mind. It then proceeds to design that email section for you. You can still edit and customize the final output, but you’ll need a premium plan to use this feature.

Let’s talk about Mailchimp’s templates and editor next.

Mailchimp has around 300 email templates in total. You can sort these templates by industry, email purpose (e.g., newsletter vs. welcome email vs. thank you email), and style (bold vs. colorful vs. neutral vs. bold). 

This should enhance your workflows and make it easier for you to find the right template for the specific email campaign you’re building.

Although Mailchimp has a free plan, you will notice that only a handful of the templates are available on the free plan. Most of the more advanced templates require upgrading to the paid version of the software. 

That’s one of the constant complaints with Mailchimp. Though the platform has a free plan and a low starting price, they’ve locked helpful tools and resources behind paywalls.

Besides the email templates, Mailchimp also lets you code your own email design. This paid feature is a great option for any team that wants to create a unique design. 

As for the email editor, Mailchimp’s email builder is one of the easiest to use. You can drag and drop elements almost anywhere. The editor also gives you different styling options to customize the colors (both background and body colors), fonts, and button shapes, sizes, borders, and fonts. 

You can also preview your email on desktop and mobile right from the editor, so you know how your email will look while you’re still designing it.  

One of the unique features in the Mailchimp email editor is the creative assistant. This assistant can speed up the email design process by deploying your existing branding style into your email designs. But to use it, you must first upload your branding elements.  

Both Mailchimp and Klaviyo have fairly easy-to-use email editors. They also have a good selection of email templates for different industries and campaigns. 

However, one tiny issue we noticed with Klaviyo is that it asks quite a lot of questions before giving you access to the templates and the editor. 

You must select the type of campaign, choose an audience and tracking option, and set your email message (subject line, preview text, sender name, and sender email address). These are too many clicks that can slow down your creative process. Some of the stuff, e.g., picking the email list, could be selected after creating your email.

Email campaigns

Klaviyo outperforms Mailchimp just slightly when it comes to creating email campaigns. 

Klaviyo has a section dedicated to campaigns. Under this section, you will find pre-built drafts complete with a message template and the targeted segment for that particular campaign. 

You can quickly access this section from the Home dashboard under “Campaigns” and “View Library.”

They have several pre-built campaigns for promoting new products, exclusive offers, engaging subscribers, and launching a sale. 

Mailchimp doesn’t provide such campaigns. Instead, you must click to create an email as usual, choose an appropriate email template, and then design an email that matches your campaign needs. 

Segmentation

Email segmentation is vital for successful email marketing campaigns. The best email marketing software helps you create specific segments for different campaigns. These tools can also automate some of the segmentation workflows to reduce your manual workload so that you can focus on the more creative processes.

Klaviyo lets you add tags to create various email list segments. You can choose conditions subscribers must meet to be placed in specific segments. 

It also lets you set multiple conditions if you want to create very tailored segments. 

Mailchimp makes it really easy to create an email list segment. For starters, they provide pre-built segments right out of the box. 

For example, you will find segments for new subscribers, engaged subscribers, disengaged subscribers, repeat customers, and recent customers. These are some of the most popular segments used by most email marketers. 

In comparison, Klaviyo only has two pre-built segments: new subscribers and engaged subscribers. Under engaged subscribers, you can segment audiences based on whether they’ve been engaged within the last 30, 60, or 90 days. 

In addition to the pre-built segments, Mailchimp provides a fine segment builder with a ton of filters. You can create segments based on contact details, like birthday, email address, email client, company, phone number, predicted location, VIP status, and contact rating.

You can also create segments based on SMS, email, and automation activity, how the contacts were acquired, and conversation activities (has replied vs has not replied).

Mailchimp also lets you layer multiple filters to zero in on a very specific group of your target audience. However, the free plan limits you to only five filters. You’ll need a premium plan to get unlimited filters. 

Though both platforms offer excellent contact management and segmentation options, Klaviyo is slightly better because it supports automated list segmentation. After creating your segments, you can set up for new contacts to be added to specific segments if they meet your criteria. 

Also, Klaviyo’s Email AI can help you create an email segment quickly by simply describing the audiences you want in that segment. 

Automation

Automation is one of the key factors behind the high ROI of email marketing. That’s why you must pick an email software that supports advanced automations to reduce your workload without compromising customer interactions. 

The good news is that both Klaviyo and Mailchimp support various automated workflows.

For example, Klaviyo has over a dozen pre-built automation workflows under the “Flows” menu.

Use these Flows to send messages automatically when users perform specific actions like abandoning carts, signing up for your newsletter, or completing a purchase.

You can also create a custom workflow from scratch using the customer journey builder. For example, you can connect your store and then target specific subscribers based on several triggers and rules. The flow below retargets website visitors and subscribers who have viewed specific products, for instance. 

Mailchimp offers several pre-built customer journeys. They provide a welcome email series, cart abandonment recovery sequence, and win-back series. 

They have pre-built journeys for transactional emails, such as order confirmation, refund confirmation, payment confirmation, and shipping confirmation. 

You can use Mailchimp to build custom automation journeys. It lets you customize the journey based on contact activity, like their tags and purchase history.

Mailchimp also supports if/else, split paths, wait for trigger, and time-delay rules. 

Both Klaviyo and Mailchimp let you add tags and use custom rules to create targeted automated workflows. You can also track key dates like birthdays and anniversaries to deploy relevant emails automatically. 

AI capabilities

Klaviyo and Mailchimp have both embraced AI to enhance the user experience.

Klaviyo, for example, deployed the Design with AI feature available on the email editor. This tool helps you generate an email section within the editor. You just need to describe what the section is about. The Email AI tool from Klaviyo can generate buttons, images, and text. 

Therefore, not only can this tool help with designing emails, but it also has generative AI capabilities to help with email copywriting.

In addition to copywriting and designing emails, Klaviyo AI can automatically create segments based on your description. Moreover, it can generate a flow (automated workflow) from a simple written description.  

Finally, Klaviyo AI can help you automate A/B tests, summarize analytics, and predict customer behavior, such as their next purchase and risk of churn.

Mailchimp has not been left behind either. The platform has a creative assistant baked right into the email editor. This assistant uses your uploaded branding assets to customize your email design and ensure branding consistency. 

Mailchimp’s AI can also help write content and create personalized automated campaigns. 

Apps and integrations

Klaviyo supports more than 350 integrations. It integrates with many different applications, especially eCommerce apps. 

Some of the popular Klaviyo eCommerce integrations include:

• Shopify
• WooCommerce
• BigCommerce
• Triple Whale
• Order Desk

It also connects with Point of Sale systems like Square Up, Mindbody, Heartland, Sociavore, and Lightspeed.

Mailchimp has just as many integrations. The email marketing service connects with Shopify, WooCommerce, Canva, Google Analytics, Wix, Squarespace, Stripe, Meta, and LinkedIn. 

You’ll find integrations for different business functions like customer service, subscription management, analytics, booking & scheduling, customer loyalty, and developer tools.

The best practice to follow here is to look at your existing tech stack. What tools does your team use the most? Make sure that those tools can connect with the email software you’re eyeing.  

That said, both platforms can connect with Zapier. That means you can use Zapier for any integration limitations you may run into. 

Analytics and reporting

Klaviyo provides advanced analytics with data on conversions, campaign performance, Flows performance, and email deliverability. 

You can also jump into specific campaigns or Flows to gain insights into things like open rates, click rate, and active on site rate. 

You can also analyze campaign performance by specific metrics. For example, you can look at the total number of bounced emails within a given duration. 

Besides your own campaign performance, Klaviyo also provides Benchmark data. You can use this to compare your campaign against industry benchmarks. You simply need to select your industry and vertical under the “Benchmarks” menu. 

There’s also predictive analytics powered by Kalviyo AI, which most business owners, especially eCommerce owners, will find super helpful. 

Like Klaviyo, Mailchimp also provides advanced analytics to show campaign performance. It gives you a bird’s-eye view of your overall performance through total sends, open rate, click rate, and unsubscribe rate. 

You can also get granular and analyze specific campaigns or check performance over a specific period. 

One interesting analytics feature by Mailchimp is the ability to exclude Apple MPP users from your reports. This is a great filter you can use to get an accurate picture of your campaign’s performance. That’s because Apple made some privacy changes, where Apple automatically opens emails sent to Apple Mail users. This can inflate open rate data, which is why you may want to exclude the Apple MPP open data from your reports. 

Both Klaviyo and Mailchimp support custom reports generated from the raw data on the platform. This provides a quick and easy way to generate campaign performance reports for your manager or clients.

A/B testing

A/B tests (also known as multivariate tests) are crucial for optimizing your campaign performance. Mailchimp and Klaviyo support A/B testing by allowing you to alter different elements of your email to see which ones perform best with your target audience.

Mailchimp lets you test the email subject line, from name, content, and send time. You can test one variable with up to three variations. For example, you can test up to three variations of an email subject line. 

The platform also lets you decide how many people to send the test email to and how long the test should last. 

Finally, you can choose how the winning variation will be determined. You could automate this process by selecting a specific metric to be used to determine the winner, e.g., click rate, open rate, or total revenue. Alternatively, you can choose the manual option to select the winning variation yourself. 

Klaviyo, too, lets you test your content and send time. Under “Test content,” you can test your subject lines and the email copy. The platform also lets you pick the winning metric, which can either be “open rate” or “click rate.” 

You can then select the percentage of subscribers that will randomly receive the test emails. Klaviyo will automatically send the winning version to the rest of the recipients (provided you didn’t select 100% for the test audience).

One of the key differences between Klaviyo and Mailchimp’s A/B testing tools is that Klaviyo lets you test only two variations compared to Mailchimp’s three. On the other hand, Klaviyo provides A/B testing on the free plan, whereas you must be on a paid package to access the feature on Mailchimp.

Ease of use

Both Klaviyo and Mailchimp are relatively easy to use. Their email design editors are pretty similar, so there isn’t much to separate them there. Both of them also provide AI tools to help with designing and writing emails. 

However, Klaviyo has approached several processes differently, adding a bit of friction. For example, getting to the email editor is a multi-step process, which we don’t think is necessary. 

That said, both platforms offer a relatively decent onboarding experience. Klaviyo will walk you through what you need to do to connect your store, create your email list, and set up your first campaign. 

Customer support

Klaviyo provides virtual assistance and email support. However, the email support option is only available for the first 60 days if you’re on the free plan. Afterward, you’ll need to upgrade to the paid plans to access it.

In addition to the two customer support channels, Klaviyo has a resource library with different types of content for some of the issues you may encounter. They have a help center, an academy, a community, and a partner directory, and conduct live training sessions on Mondays and Thursdays.

Unfortunately, free Mailchimp users only get email support for the first 30 days. Afterward, you must be on one of the paid plans to access email and live chat support. Users on the premium plan also get phone and priority support. 

Generally speaking, Mailchimp’s customer support is not ideal. You’ll see the same sentiments when you go through user reviews on G2 and Capterra.

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Things are not very different when you look at Klaviyo reviews around customer support. Many users also complain of unresponsive support or the support team taking too long to resolve issues.

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In comparison, our platform, GetResponse, is consistently praised for having one of the best customer support teams of any email marketing and marketing automation platform. We provide multiple customer service channels, including email support and live chat. 

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Our live chat virtual assistant is also available to free users, which is why we’re one of the best alternatives to Mailchimp!

Pricing

Klaviyo starts with a free plan, giving you 500 monthly email sends with 250 active profiles. You also get 150 SMS/MMS credits each month and a reporting dashboard. All emails sent on the free plan will have the Klaviyo branding at the bottom.

Paid plans start at $45 per month. This unlocks more features, including email support, generative AI for content creation, and 350+ built-in integrations. You’ll also get 15,000 email sends per month.

Finally, there’s the Email + SMS plan, which costs $60/mo. This plan supports multi-channel segmentation and lets you send 15,000 emails and 1250 MMS/SMS messages monthly.

Klaviyo has a few other tools that are sold as separate add-ons. For example, you can get marketing analytics for an extra $100 per month, Advanced Klaviyo Customer Data Platform for $500/mo, and Reviews for $25/mo. 

Here’s what they each have to offer.

Mailchimp’s free plan lets you send 1,000 emails/mo or 500/day. You only get one seat and up to 500 contacts. Reporting and analytics are also limited on both the free plan and the entry-level paid package.

Speaking of which, paid plans start with the Essential Package, which costs $13/mo. This supports 500 contacts, up to 4 journey points, and three seats. The plan also removes the Mailchimp branding and gives you access to 24/7 email and chat support.

The Standard plan costs $20/mo and gives you access to 200 journey points, 6,000 email sends, five seats, advanced segmentation, and behavioral targeting. Unfortunately, you still only get 500 contacts at this price point.

You must spend at least $350/mo on the Premium plan to get support for 10,000 contacts. This plan provides phone and priority support, custom-coded templates, and five roles.  

One issue with Mailchimp is that it limits your contact list size as well as the number of emails you can send. You spend $13 per month but can only have an email list of 500 contacts and send them 5,000 emails monthly. 

Mailchimp’s Audiences also charges you based on the number of contact lists. For example, the Essentials plan supports only three audiences, while the Standard package supports five audiences. The worst part is that Mailchimp will charge you separately for having the same contact on multiple lists. This can be very expensive, especially for businesses like eCommerce stores that can have the same customers on multiple lists or audiences.

Klaviyo, on the other hand, lets you send 15,000 emails (which is a decent limit even for an eCommerce business), but it charges you $45/mo. Plus, you’ll need to spend extra if you want detailed analytics.

It’s for these reasons that a Mailchimp and Klaviyo alternative like GetResponse becomes the better option. Yes, that’s our platform, but check this out.

For only $15.58 per month (a fraction of what Klaviyo charges you), you can send unlimited emails to your contact list of up to 1,000 subscribers. That’s more than what you get with Mailchimp’s $20/mo plan. 

Plus, you’ll get access to our best-in-class customer support as well as our other marketing tools, such as AI email generator, unlimited autoresponders, AI landing pages, and sign-up forms & popups.    

You can start using our software today for free with our free forever plan that accommodates up to 500 contacts and supports up to 2,500 newsletters per month.

User reviews

Both Klaviyo and Mailchimp have generally positive reviews online, with a few issues here and there. 

Most people like Klaviyo for its ease of use and extensive integrations. The platform has an average G2 rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars, which is pretty good.

Mailchimp is a popular option in the email marketing space thanks to its intuitive interface and a good selection of templates. Mailchimp’s rating is equally impressive at 4.4 out of 5. 

In terms of complaints, most Klaviyo complaints revolve around the steep pricing, learning curve, and poor customer support.

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Meanwhile, Mailchimp users complain that Mailchimp tends to get expensive as your email list grows and that some features (like template customizations) are limited.

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Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: How do they compare to GetResponse

Both Klaviyo and Mailchimp are impressive in their own way. Klaviyo is generally considered a great email marketing platform for eCommerce platforms.

Meanwhile, Mailchimp is believed to be a great option for small businesses and solopreneurs. 

However, both platforms have a few shortcomings you cannot ignore. For example, Klaviyo is pretty expensive, and you’ll have to spend extra on add-ons to unlock more functionality like the customer data platform and advanced analytics. 

Mailchimp, on the other hand, is a good option as long as your email list stays small and your business needs do not expand. Because the moment you’ll want to send more emails or customize your campaigns extensively, the platform will fail to meet your needs. Plus, it’ll get expensive without giving you much in return. 

Both platforms also perform extremely poorly when it comes to customer support. 

Meanwhile, GetResponse gives you more for a fraction of the cost. We have an intuitive email editor and an extensive templates library with email templates for different industries. 

We also provide a suite of AI tools, including an AI email generator, a subject line generator, AI product recommendations, and perfect timing, which makes sure your emails are delivered at the right time for each recipient. 

You can also create autoresponders to send behavioral trigger emails and set up automation workflows to recover lost sales, recommend popular products, nurture new signups, and use behavioral targeting to connect with your customers effectively. And the best part is that you get unlimited monthly email sends and paid plans start at only $15.58/mo.

Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: The final pick

The choice between Mailchimp vs Klaviyo will ultimately come down to your business needs and budget. 

However, the problem is that Klaviyo and Mailchimp get expensive quickly when your business needs grow. The difference is that Klaviyo will give you more in return, whereas Mailchimp will charge more while still giving you less in terms of performance and functionality.

But as you’ve seen in the review, your options are not limited to Mailchimp and Klaviyo. Other alternatives like GetResponse can give you the high performance and functionality you need without the steep pricing. 

For example, GetResponse’s $15.58/mo plan gives you unlimited email sends, audience segmentation, and both email and chat support. None of that is available on the $45/mo Klaviyo plan. 

Ultimately, you can go with Mailchimp if you’re a solopreneur with limited needs and don’t see those needs changing anytime soon. Klaviyo is a decent option if you’re an eCommerce store and won’t mind the high price tag. GetResponse is an excellent option if you want more value for your money.