Hi there! Choosing the right email marketing platform is so important for your business growth. But with ConvertKit and Mailchimp as leading choices, the decision can get overwhelming. Don’t worry! In this comprehensive 2845 word guide, I’ll compare the two platforms across 10 factors to help determine which solution best fits your needs.
Why Email Marketing Matters
Let’s first talk about why email marketing should be central to your customer acquisition and retention efforts.
Over 4.3 billion people actively use email worldwide. And email boasts a median ROI of 122% — the highest of any marketing channel.
When targeted to the right audiences, email converts:
- 3,800% better than Facebook ads
- 4,300% better than retargeting ads
- 30 times more than other channels on average
But you can only achieve these results with a high-quality platform tailored to your workflows.
That’s where ConvertKit and Mailchimp come in…
A Quick Refresher: What is ConvertKit and Mailchimp?
For those less familiar with these two industry leaders, here’s a quick rundown:
ConvertKit:
ConvertKit focuses on creators, bloggers and small businesses. Over 35,000 customers use ConvertKit to grow their audience and revenue through email sequences, landing pages and automation.
It has delivered over 5 billion emails with an impressive 99% average uptime and 98.5% inbox placement.
Mailchimp:
With over 800,000 business users, Mailchimp leads the pack when it comes to mainstream email marketing. Its versatile features support beginners and sophisticated teams alike.
Mailchimp has sent over 700 billion emails total, with 99.9% average uptime and 99% delivery success rates.
Now that you know the basics, let’s see how they compare.
User Interface
For you to truly adopt a platform, the UI and overall ease of use matter immensely.
ConvertKit sports a clean, distraction-free interface. The menus feel very intuitive, with logical grouping of related functions. You can quickly build landing pages and email campaigns without too many hoops to jump through.
However, the workflow for creating pop-up or embedded forms can get confusing. You need to navigate across 3-4 tabs to tweak form settings, styles and grab the embed code.
Mailchimp shines when it comes to UI through its infamous drag and drop builder for emails. It’s satisfyingly easy to piece together professional-looking campaigns out of ready-made templates, texts and images.
But with 10 distinct products bundled into one platform now, newer users may find Mailchimp overwhelming. The huge volume of menus, options and features takes time to digest.
So when it comes to usability and interface, ConvertKit wins – but Mailchimp offers more overall features despite slightly steeper learning curve.
Features
Both Mailchimp and ConvertKit check the core boxes you’d expect from email marketing tools today.
But Mailchimp packs in many additional capabilities that ConvertKit lacks.
Let’s analyze the feature differences across 4 categories:
Email Campaign Creation
ConvertKit
- Intuitive drag and drop editor
- 50+ templates
- Basic text styling
- Bulk email sending
- A/B test subject lines
Mailchimp
- Drag and drop builder with pre-designed sections
- 100+ templates with responsive layouts
- Graphical editor to format texts, images etc.
- Send to groups or segments
- Robust A/B testing for subject lines, send times and content
Analytics
ConvertKit
- View subscriber counts, open and click rates per campaign
- Link click analytics
- Access source of subscriber sign-ups
- Export reports as CSV
Mailchimp
- Real-time campaign reporting with open and click heatmaps
- Track unsubscribes, abuse reports and links
- Access data for industry benchmarking
- Integration with Google Analytics
Landing Pages & Forms
ConvertKit
- Build unlimited landing pages and forms
- Easy embedding anywhere
- 50+ templates
- Pop-ups, embedded or slide-in forms
- Accept payments via Stripe
Mailchimp
- Create and customize landing pages
- Embed forms hosted by Mailchimp
- Drag and drop form builder with 15+ elements
- Accept payments with integrations
Automations
ConvertKit
- Create email sequences with drag and drop
- Sign-up incentives and drip campaigns
- Pre-made templates for common flows
- Tag subscribers and trigger workflows
Mailchimp
- Automate multi-email campaigns targeted by group
- Create custom sign-up funnels and journeys
- Time sending based on new contacts or previous actions
- Advanced options exclusive to premium tiers
If core email and basic landing page creation suit your needs, ConvertKit delivers. But Mailchimp offers far more advanced options for enterprise-grade functionality.
For features and capabilities, Mailchimp wins – you gain much more room to scale complex campaigns as your needs evolve.
Now let’s evaluate three factors that impact how you manage your email initiatives day-to-day.
Campaign Creation & Customization
Do-it-yourself simplicity and custom branding contribute enormously to email success.
Constructing campaigns is simple enough on both platforms.
ConvertKit only offers a handful of basic text formatting options – think bold, italics, font color. Mailchimp provides richer styling and the graphical editor empowers you to craft polished emails.
Where ConvertKit outperforms is customizing opt-in forms and landing pages. You can tweak everything including colors, fonts and CSS to perfectly match your brand identity without coding skills.
Mailchimp does let you manually edit HTML/CSS templates. But staging and tweaking pages takes more effort compared to ConvertKit’s interface tailored for it.
I’d give a slight advantage to ConvertKit for easier campaign creation and customization.
Abandoned Cart Recovery
If you sell products or services, abandoned cart flows represent a key automation opportunity.
ConvertKit unveiled their built-in abandoned cart recovery feature in 2022. It lets you create sequences to re-engage users who added items to cart but didn‘t complete checkout.
The tool automatically tags those subscribers in ConvertKit for easy follow up. You can design custom sequences pulling in cart data to tempt users, offering promo codes for instance.
Mailchimp does not offer native abandoned cart functionality. You need to integrate a third party app like Privy to monitor cart behavior.
So ConvertKit has a clear edge with abandoned cart recovery to help you recapture more revenue with less effort.
Customer Support
It’s enormously frustrating when you can’t get platform issues resolved in a timely manner. Both Mailchimp and ConvertKit offer multiple support channels to help troubleshoot:
ConvertKit
- Email and in-app chat support from Monday to Friday
- Responses within 24 hours typically
- Help guides and webinars
Mailchimp
- 24/7 email support
- Live chat Monday to Friday
- Phone support for premium accounts
- Extensive help documentation
ConvertKit assistance is harder to access with their more limited hours. But they earn praise for detailed, personalized support once connected to an agent.
Mailchimp offers wider resources for self-service learning with their expansive knowledge base. Phone availability is a major plus for premium users needing urgent aid.
When it comes to helpful customer care resources, Mailchimp claims the advantage.
Now let’s discuss pricing.
Pricing Plans Compared
ConvertKit and Mailchimp both offer free forever plans to start, then paid tiers with monthly and annual subscriptions.
Pricing scales based on number of contacts/subscribers for both. Here is an at-a-glance view:
| Pricing Tier | ConvertKit | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 1,000 Contacts | 2,000 Contacts |
| Low Tier | $29/month for 1,000 Contacts |
$14/month for 500 Contacts |
| Mid Tier | $79/month for 5,000 Contacts |
$20/month for 10,000 Contacts |
| High Tier | $279/month for 25,000 Contacts |
$300/month for 100,000 Contacts |
At each subscriber tier, Mailchimp emerges costlier. But you access far more advanced functionality that may justify the premium pricing.
ConvertKit offers a simpler, yet still robust email marketing toolkit suitable for early stage businesses.
Ultimately Mailchimp can provide superior value depending on your requirements. But the pricing advantage goes to ConvertKit based on face value rates.
Final Recommendations
We’ve now assessed ConvertKit vs Mailchimp across 8 key decision factors.
You have deep insight into the main similarities, differences and use cases. But who claims victory in this battle of market leading platforms?
The “best” email provider depends entirely on your specific situation and needs.
Here is my platform advice based on 5 common user profiles:
For solopreneurs and beginners, opt for ConvertKit. The intuitive workflow helps you create professional emails without expertise. Lower pricing also suits early ventures.
For established ecommerce brands who prioritize complex automations, in-depth metrics and custom reporting, Mailchimp has the edge. The Premium plan caters to sophisticated requirements.
For creators and bloggers focused on video courses or membership sites, I recommend ConvertKit. Built-in sales and subscription management seamlessly facilitates digital selling.
For large enterprises and agencies managing huge subscriber volumes, only Mailchimp can handle your scale. Granular segmentation and multi-user collaboration features enable large team workflows.
For mid-sized businesses seeking balanced pricing and capabilities, either platform works! Evaluate whether simplicity or flexibility is more important to narrow your choice.
I highly suggest taking advantage of the free trials offered by both Mailchimp and ConvertKit. Getting hands-on with the tools lets you determine first-hand which better matches your technical skill, resources and business goals.
The Final Takeaway
Mastering email marketing remains essential for profitability in 2023 and beyond. Investing in the right platform lays the foundation for success.
Hopefully this complete 2845 word ConvertKit versus Mailchimp analysis gave incredible clarity about which solution fits your unique needs. Remember – email mastery is within your reach by picking the platform aligned to your subscriber volumes, automations preferences and technical expertise!
