Last Updated on January 2, 2022
Klaviyo and Mailchimp are excellent email marketing tools that help automate your marketing efforts and establish strong connections with your customers. However for selecting the right tool for your business, it would be best best to compare Klaviyo vs Mailchimp.
Mailchimp serves more than 1.1 million websites, whereas Klaviyo serves only about 23,000 websites (per the report from datanyze).
However, a few Mailchimp customers who switched to Klaviyo have witnessed an increase of 46% in their revenue.
We understand the situation when you narrowed down two email automation tools, but still confused which one is right for your business.
Although Mailchimp and Klaviyo are similar software, there are a set of minor differences which make one platform suitable over another for your needs.
In this guide we have compared Klaviyo vs Mailchimp based on their features, user interface, ease of use, automation, deliverability, integration, customer support, and pricing to help you pick the right one for your business.
User Interface
The user interface of Mailchimp and Klaviyo is similar. Klaviyo integrates with your eCommerce platform easily.
To find the vital information on Klaviyo, the user doesn’t need to switch the tabs. All the data present under one dashboard.
On the other hand, Mailchimp has a minimalistic dashboard with a unique look.
Though the UI of Mailchimp is pretty impressive, it still lacks in certain aspects compared to Klaviyo.
For example, the uninspiring colors of Mailchimp lead to lesser conversion, while Klaviyo has appealing colors.
Klaviyo has an intuitive drag and drop builder that helps in setting up automated workflows quickly.
On the other hand, Mailchimp’s drag and drop editor also offers the users plenty of templates to quickly set up one from scratch.
Winner: In Klaviyo vs Mailchimp comparison for user interface, Klaviyo scores better than Mailchimp because of its ease of use, excellent navigability, and intuitive editor.
Email Templates
Klaviyo has an impressive collection of email templates that provides super high conversion rates. All you need to do is, pick an email template that suits your business needs.
Because Klaviyo automatically integrates with your website and grabs the website logo and colors to give an extra personal touch to the email audience.
But if you are looking for email marketing software to design email templates from scratch, Mailchimp is the right fit.
Mailchimp is versatile and easy to adapt to because of its drag-and-drop template builder.
Winner: If you want to start building the template right away from scratch without many complex customizations, Mailchimp is the right fit.
Because of its ease of use, Mailchimp stands as a clear winner in terms of email templates.
Opt-in Forms
Mailchimp opt-in forms work based on a list, whereas Klaviyo works based on desire.
All the opt-in forms on Klaviyo can be pointed to one list, whereas Mailchimp needs a new subscriber list for every opt-in form created.
Winner: In this case, Klaviyo is a clear winner because of its opt-in form flexibility.
Segmentation
Segmentation refers to breaking down the email subscribers into smaller groups.
Mailchimp pulls out the data only from a specific list, whereas Klaviyo pulls the entire account for segmentation.
For example, if you want to create a segment for persons who purchased an iPhone, Mailchimp only shows the data of the people who were put on the list while creating the segment.
In short, Klaviyo segmentation is global, and Mailchimp segmentation is associated with a specific list.
Winner: In this case, Klaviyo takes an edge over Mailchimp because of its robust segmentation based on the information fed.
Automation
Like Segmentation, Klaviyo excels in automation features as well. With the help of easy-to-use templates and workflow, it is easy to set up the automation on Klaviyo.
One of the best things about Klaviyo automation is that the customer can create email workflows with multiple routes based on their behavior.
On the other hand, for the pricing it comes, Mailchimp also offers impressive email automation features.
Users can build effective automation from scratch within few minutes.
Winner: Klaviyo wins over Mailchimp in automation as well because of its advanced automation flows.
Mailchimp provides easy automation templates, the level of automation offered in Klaviyo is advanced.
A/B Testing
In Klaviyo, the A/B testing feature allows the user to refine messaging and content.
The flows section helps in testing a specific metric.
The conditional split component in Klaviyo is valuable in A/B testing individual mails and the flow of branches.
Mailchimp offers a similar kind of A/B testing functionality.
However, the plans of Mailchimp decide the type of automation you will get.
Another con of Mailchimp is that you cannot A/B test your landing pages, but possibly in Klaviyo.
Winner: Klaviyo stands as a clear winner in A/B testing because of its ability to send multivariant mails (with variations in subject lines, HTML, etc.).
Also, Mailchimp does not allow A/B testing of the flow of branches, whereas Klaviyo allows it.
Reporting and Analytics
For a beginner, Klaviyo’s reporting and analytics options may be tricky or too advance
However, Klaviyo offers super-easy customizations on its analytics dashboard that help users dive into every possible metric to increase their ROI.
Klaviyo’s ability to integrate on eCommerce platforms helps in tracking the real-time data.
For a more straightforward dashboard with all the essential information (like CTR, subscribers, open rate, etc.), Mailchimp is the right option.
Without much switching of tabs, a beginner can get all the essential information in one go.
Winner: Klaviyo scores high in reporting and analytics because of its state-of-art analytics dashboard.
It helps you to track customer LTV (Lifetime Value), which isn’t present in Mailchimp.
However, for a simple analytics dashboard, users can always pick Mailchimp.
Deliverability
Mailchimp has an excellent deliverability rate of 87%, which is higher than the score of Klaviyo.
It means most of the emails sent through Mailchimp land in the primary inbox of your user email client.
On the other hand, the emails of Klaviyo have a spam rate higher than 15%.
Winner: Because of its high sending rate, Mailchimp is the best in terms of delivery rate than Klaviyo.
Integrations
Klaviyo offers a good level of integrations for eCommerce users.
On the dashboard of Klaviyo, you can find a variety of marketing and CRM tools like Eventbrite, GetSiteControl, Magento, and many others. If you are a Shopify user, then Klaviyo integrates seamlessly.
On the other hand, Mailchimp does not allow direct Shopify integration currently. Excluding Shopify, Mailchimp offers a lot of integrations than Klaviyo.
You can easily integrate with platforms like Stripe, Woocommerce, Calendly, etc., using Mailchimp.
Winner: Mailchimp wins over Klaviyo in terms of integrations.
However, if you are into Shopify and require in-depth integration, Klaviyo would be the right option.
Support
Klaviyo offers email and chats support from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (EST), Monday to Friday. Klaviyo free plan members can avail themselves only of email support.
For additional help, Klaviyo has published a starter guide for beginners and on-demand training videos to help the users get comfortable with the Klaviyo platform.
Mailchimp offers email and chats support 24/7, right from the essential plan. However, premium plan users can unlock phone support.
Moreover, Mailchimp has won more than four international awards for its excellent customer service.
Winner: Mailchimp has better customer support compared to Klaviyo. Also, Mailchimp offers its guides in Spanish, German, Portuguese, and French.
The longer opening hours for support lines make Mailchimp a clear win in terms of customer support.
Pricing
Pricing plays a crucial role in any tool selection.
Depending on the number of contacts and the services you wish to enlist, Klaviyo offers flexible pricing. There are no hidden fees involved in Klaviyo pricing.
If you have less than 250 contacts or are just starting, the Klaviyo free plan is the best bet.
However, once you reach the monthly threshold, you must upgrade the plan to enjoy many premium features.
The pricing of Klaviyo starts from $20/month for 500 contacts and goes up to $150/month for 10,000 contacts.
On the other hand, Mailchimp as well offers free plans like Klaviyo.
However, if you are looking for premium features, the basic plan starts from $9.99/month and goes up to $299/month for 10,000 contacts.
Winner: For the features offered by Klaviyo, it stands as a clear winner in pricing. Also, the pricing is fair and no hidden costs involved in Klaviyo.
On the other end, Mailchimp wants you to push for expensive subscriptions to get similar features offered by Klaviyo.
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp – Feature Comparison Table
To better understand which area each tool having the edge over another, check the feature comparison table of Klaviyo vs Mailchimp below.
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp – Which is Better?
Mailchimp and Klaviyo have their own set of pros and cons. However, if you look for reliability and advanced features, both stand out from the competition.
Overall, if you are looking for an email marketing platform for your eCommerce store, Klaviyo is the right pick. With Klaviyo, you will get seamless integration with eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento.
On the other hand, if email marketing is the only focus of your business, Mailchimp is the right choice. Mailchimp is best suitable for informational-based businesses rather than eCommerce.
However, Mailchimp or Klaviyo is not the only email marketing platforms available in the market. There are other services that may best for your business depends on your use case.
