Email marketing software helps individuals, SMBs, and enterprises execute successful email marketing campaigns. Klaviyo and Mailchimp are both popular email marketing software tools that offer common email marketing software features like A/B testing, data integration and storage, email editor, drip campaigns, and marketing automation.
Below we differentiate each tool based on similar features, the unique features each solution offers, and how each perform for small businesses.
Table of Contents
What is Klaviyo?
Klaviyo was founded by Andrew Bialecki in 2012 and today is used by over 50,000 businesses. Its mission is to offer the best personalized experiences, infinitely scalable customer infrastructure, expert guidance, and complete ownership of data and relationships. While any business can take advantage of Klaviyo, what is unique about its platform is that it is primarily used by e-commerce businesses.
Klaviyo’s pricing ranges from $30 to $1700 per month, which depends on the number of contacts a user has. Klaviyo is free to use up to 250 contacts and offers unlimited email sends. Compared to Mailchimp though, Klaviyo falls on the more expensive side.
What is Mailchimp?
Mailchimp was founded in 2001 by Ben Chestnut and Mark Armstrong and today is used by over 14 million users. Its mission is to empower millions of customers around the world to start and grow their businesses with their smart marketing technology, award-winning support and inspiring content. Compared to Klaviyo, Mailchimp is considered more of an all-in-one solution.
In terms of pricing, Mailchimp ranges from $9.99 per month to $420 per month. Mailchimp offers a free plan and three paid plans. Mailchimp’s free plan offers up to 2,000 contacts and 10,000 email sends a month and 2000 email sends daily.
Features Shared by Klaviyo and Mailchimp
Whether a user chooses Klaviyo or Mailchimp, both platforms share common email marketing software features. However, they differ in terms of quality. Let’s dive deeper and take a look at how they differentiate in terms of similar features.
A/B Testing
Both Klaviyo and Mailchimp offer an A/B testing tool where users can optimize their email content and subject lines. Marketers can create multiple versions of an email, and the platform will automatically send every version to a portion of one’s customers. Below is a table that highlights the differences between each solution’s A/B testing tools:
| Klaviyo | Mailchimp | |
| Variables | Subject lines, content, send times | Email content, from name, send time, subject line |
| Email Variations | Up to 25 versions | Up to 3 versions |
| Testing Length Period | 1 to 96 hours | Virtually unlimited |
| Winning Metrics | Open rate, unique clicks | Click rate, open rate, total revenue |
A major difference between Klaviyo and Mailchimp is that Mailchimp offers multivariate testing. This feature in Mailchimp lets users test multiple variables across 8 different email variations in a single test.
Email Editor
Klaviyo and Mailchimp both offer an email editor that lets users create custom and professional emails. Both offer drag-and-drop capability and an email template library. Overall, this feature in both platforms are very similar in advancedness and functionality.
However, Klaviyo supports placeholder URLs and variable sequences for dynamic images, which can be used to personalize images to each recipient. Mailchimp on the other hand offers a storage library for images that have been previously used. This is a time-saver if users need to insert the same image multiple times, like a company logo, across multiple emails.
Marketing Automation
Klaviyo and Mailchimp both let users create drip campaigns that can send a series of automated messages to contacts and customers. Drip campaigns are usually triggered by an action performed by a customer, and can include branches that further target specific customer sets.
However, the two solutions do differ in terms of pre-built flows:
- Klaviyo
- Browse abandonment
- Post-purchase thank you message
- Product review & cross sell
- Welcome series for new subscribers
- Mailchimp
- Buys a specific product
- Clicks specific link in email
- Opens email
- Recurring date
- Sign ups
- Time since last purchase
Unique Features of Klaviyo and Mailchimp
While Klaviyo and Mailchimp share many similar email marketing software features, they also offer features of their own. Klaviyo offers a seamless integration with Shopify and SMS marketing. Mailchimp on the other hand offers a landing page and post card creator.
Klaviyo Shopify Integration
When it comes to Klaviyo vs Mailchimp for Shopify, Klaviyo is the winner. This is because Klaviyo does not need a third-party application to integrate with Shopify unlike Mailchimp. This integration lets users directly collect and store customer data from their website.
Klaviyo SMS Marketing
Klaviyo also offers an SMS marketing tool that lets users send SMS and MMS messages. This is advantageous for users who have customers that prefer mobile messages as a communication channel. Users can send targeted text messages to segments of customers and create flows that send text messages at different branch points in a campaign.
Mailchimp Landing Page Creator
Mailchimp offers a landing page builder that lets its users create unlimited landing pages for free. Landing pages are great for gathering leads, provide targeted content for search engine ads, or promote a single event. Mailchimp’s landing page creator operates similarly to its email builder, and comes with a template library.
Mailchimp Post Card Creator
Mailchimp also includes a postcard creator that lets users print, stamp, and mail customizable postcards. Sending postcards costs from $0.75 to $0.99 per card within the U.S., and $0.82 to $1.58 per card outside of the U.S.
How to Use Klaviyo and Mailchimp for Your Small Business
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp, how one uses these platforms depends on the needs of their small business. For example, small businesses that are categorized as ecommerce businesses and use Shopify, would take advantage of Klaviyo’s seamless integration with Shopify. Also, small businesses who prefer a range of marketing tools beyond email marketing, might take advantage of Klaviyo’s SMS marketing tool.
On the other hand, small businesses who only prioritize email marketing, should consider Mailchimp because the platform prioritizes email marketing features. Also, if a small business’s marketing budget is low, they should consider taking advantage of Mailchimp’s free plan.
To learn more about the top email marketing software products, check out our Top Email Marketing Software & Platforms guide on Small Business Computing!
