To increase lead generation and sales revenue in your ecommerce business, you want to invest in the right email marketing tool. Amongst the top rated marketing tools in the market, Convertkit and MailChimp don’t miss the mark! However, to gauge which tool is right for your business, you want to check our Convertkit vs. MailChimp comparison.
Whilst both online marketing tools deliver effective performance without having to dig deep into your pockets, they each have their own unique features that make them stand out. In this Convertkit vs. MailChimp comparison, we will share an in-depth look into each tool to allow you to make an informed decision about which online marketing tool is right for your business.
Main Features
Let’s start by looking at the main features. Both Convertkit and MailChimp are built with powerful email campaign builders, forms, subscriber settings, automation, reporting features, and countless integration options. However, there are some limitations. When it comes to email delivery, Convertkit does a better job at delivering multi opt-in incentives.
In the form building area, both MailChimp and Convertkit offer standard customized form builders, mobile-responsive forms, and custom fields. However, Convertkit also offers multiple form options per list and easy form specific opt-in designs. When setting up for subscribers, Convertkit allows for tagging subscribers and offers duplicate subscriber automation.
In automation, Convertkit offers link trigger and single window automated email editing features. This doesn’t mean that you should underestimate MailChimp. The tool is also capacitated with superior multi-step automation workflows, contact tagging, and superior segmentation. Unlike Convertkit, MailChimp offers advanced marketing automation features.
Winner: In overall main features, each tool has its own forte – leaving us with a tie.
Design & Editor
Convertkit is built with a simple design that allows you to build plain text emails. Thus, you will not have to navigate through complicated code- improving the chances of your emails being read. The user interface itself is quite friendly and free of clutter.
You can edit a series of parameters such as the font, color, alignment, or add a link – all from a single block formatting bar. You can even remove the bar from the page when you are not using it. Furthermore, the user interface gives you quick access to lists, personalized headers, and even frequently used images to save time on creating campaigns.
Plus, for the tech-savvies who want to get more technical, you are covered! You can opt to use an HTML box to customize your content. Convertkit allows you to create responsive email templates for every campaign – whether you work on 10 or 10,000. Plus, the content you create will be easily read from a tablet, laptop, or phone.
If you want to take your creativity a step further, MailChimp is the way to go. The MailChimp platform offers a creative studio dedicated to assisting you with creating your campaigns. The content studio allows you to sync store, and edit your images and files in one place. A newly designed creative assistant allows you to curate your brand image on your campaigns for an exclusive and unique experience for your customers.
The platform also offers personalized content blocks within your emails whilst subject line helpers step in to give your real time feedback on how to refine your subject lines. Whilst Convertkit only has 3 pre-designed template options, MailChimp offers 100+ pre-designed templates. Nonetheless, each tool allows you to customize pre-existing templates and build as many new ones as you want.
Winner: When it comes to ease of use and design possibilities, MailChimp stands out. Convertkit allows you the creativity to build your templates with or without code. However, it is not anywhere near the abundance of pre-designed templates and customization tools for new designs that MailChimp offers.
Marketing and Automation Features
ConvertKit offers adequate marketing features. As mentioned above, setting up campaigns is an easy process thanks to the easy-to-built templates and clutter-free writing and editing tools – think of it this way – you can create and send a form with incentives to over 50,000 subscribers in less than 5 minutes. ConvertKit tool allows you to send both email broadcast and automated emails.
When using ConvertKit, you can add tags automatically based on your subscribers’ actions and even create customizable segments. Furthermore, the ConvertKit tool offers automated email funnels to better improve the effectiveness of your campaigns. It allows you to build custom paths related to events, actions, and conditions – making it easy to send targeted content at the right time.
Its funnel processes also prevent your business from looking like it’s run by an incompetent team thanks to the smart filters – allowing you to control who receives your campaign. You don’t have to send your pitch to a customer who has already bought the product!
Convertkit offers reasonable email automation as well. Using the tool, you can set up multiple rules and funnels to ensure your campaigns get to the right recipients and at the right time. Furthermore, you customize your subscriber’s paths based on their paths and segment your audience based on their journey.
Mailchimp on the other end offers superior marketing features. To target the right audience with the right content, you can design a personalized customer and subscriber experience based on conditional logic and branching points. Furthermore, the tool allows you to send out informational and trigger-based transactional emails using the tools’ API or SMTP.
Additionally, MailChimp triumphs in subscriber management, automation, and CRM features. You will enjoy extensive segmentation and behavioral targeting features – which allow you to improve your campaigns based on customer purchase behavior and activities.
Winner: When it comes to marketing features, MailChimp offers more powerful and advanced tools – allowing you to offer your customers more and learn more about what they want.
Reporting
Convertkit offers both basic and advanced reporting. You can check anything from basic open rated and click rates to advanced qualitative data to tell you how your business is doing. Additionally, you can even conduct A/B testing to ensure your content is always on point. MailChimp offers adequate reporting as well.
You can use the in-house analytics tool to get insights into your customers and also keep track of customer behavior based on customizable tags. Mailchimp offers advanced A/B testing as well. You can even use the built-in survey features to gauge your customer;’s views and interests in your site.
Winner: Reporting ends up in a tie. However, you must remember that the ConvertKit free plan doesn’t offer any reporting.
Integration
ConvertiKit integrates with over 200 apps – covering areas such as ecommerce, lead capture, CRM, social media, and surveys. Some of the common apps include Facebook, Shopify, Zapier, LeadsTunnerl and even, Google Analytics. The Mailchimp tool offers up to 900+ native integrations with ecommerce, social media, analytics, and other apps.
Some of the common apps include WoCommerce, Facebook, WordPress, and Google Analytics. Amongst the controversies that follow MailChimp is that it doesn’t offer native integration with Shopify. Nevertheless, you can still enjoy the integration for free using Shopsync or through paid third party apps such as Zapier and Automatie.io.
Winner: With twice as many native integrations as ConvertKit, MailChimp is the obvious winner. Even without a native integration, you can still enjoy full Shopify features when using MailChimp.
Deliverability
Thanks to the responsive email design templates with their simplicity, ConvertKit offers a deliverability rate of up to 98%. MailChimp employs a series of steps to ensure their campaigns boast high deliverability rates.
Amongst them include memberships with prominent industry wide organizations that are dedicated to maintaining a healthy email ecosystem such as the ESPC, responsive spam complaint handling, abuse detection technology, authentication, and even two step, double opt-in sign up forms. With this MailChimp offer incredibly high deliverability rates of between 96% and 99%.
Winner: Both MailChimp and ConvertKit boast high deliverability rates. However, MailChimp boasts comprehensive quality control measures to ensure high delivery rates – making it the obvious winner.
Pricing
Convertkit offers a free plan – allowing you to reach up to 1,000 subscribers. With more than 1,000 subscribers, a business has to opt for a paid plan. Each paid plan comes with the advantage of a 7-day free trial period to check whether the tool works for you or not. The tool has two key plans. The Creator plan costs a minimum of $29 per month and the Creator Pro plan covers a minimum of $59 per month. Both plans cover up to 1,000 subscribers but boast different features.
For example, the free plan doesn’t allow you to add a team member, the Creator plan allows you to add one team member whilst the Creator pro plan offers unlimited team member support. Nonetheless, the subscriber limit for the free plan is 1,000. So, with 10,000 subscribers, for example, you will only have the option of Creator and Creator Plus – costing you $119 and $167 per month, respectively. MailChimp offers a free plan with up to 2,000 subscribers per month and 1 audience.
With the free plan, you will also receive basic marketing CRM, design, MailChimp domain, and landing page features. Alternatively, you can opt for the three aid plans. The essential plan which offers up to 50,000 subscribers and 3 audiences costs $9.99 per month. The standard plan which offers up to 100,000 subscribers and 5 audiences costs $14.99 per month.
The premium plan which offers up to 200,000 subscribers and unlimited audiences costs a minimum of $299 per month. Each plan offers extra features whilst their pricing also varies as the subscriber number increases.
Per monthConvertKitMailChimp1,000 suubscribersFree – $59Free10,000 subscribers$119 – $169$9.99100,000 subscribers$619 – $807$14.99
Winner: It goes without saying that MailChimp is the winner. Whilst it is more affordable compared to ConvertKit, even its free plan offers 1,000 subscribers more than Convertkit.
Customer Support
Customer support for Convertkit depends on the plan you have. To access the Creator community forum, businesses at any plan will be able to do so. Furthermore, ConvertKit offers email support. The free plan only enjoys basic email support whilst the Creator and Creator Plus plans enjoy priority and premium support, respectively. However, convert it doesn’t offer phone or live chat customer support.
MailChimp offers community support access where you can ask questions to fellow members. Additionally, the tool offers email, live chat, and phone support. However, not all plans enjoy the same service. The premium plan enjoys phone and priority support. The essential and premium plans on the other end along with the premium plan enjoy email and live chat support with the availability of English, Spanish, and French speaking support staff.
Feature Comparison
Whilst one platform may appear to triumph over the other, both MailChimp and ConvertKit still offer excellent functionality. We’ve summarized below the ratings for each feature the platforms offer in the ConverKit vs MailChimp comparison.
ConvertKit MailChimpMain features 4.74.7Design and editor4.64.8Marketing and automation features4.64.8Reporting4.54.5Integration 4.54.8Deliverability4.74.8Pricing4.54.8Customer Support4.54.64.584.73
Which Is Better – ConvertKit vs. MailChimp?
The ConvertKit vs. MailChimp comparison proves just how resourceful each tool is. However, it is undeniable that MailChimp offers superior usability. Whilst ConvertKit offers prolific and top notch features, MailChimp offers to take them a step higher. This is whether you decide to focus on the deeper automation and CRM features or its 100+ creative pre-designed templates or the resources you are presented with to create your own designs.
Furthermore, whilst MailChimp offers incredible features, it still manages to remain across a reasonable price band. Nevertheless, this is not to say that ConvertKit is not worth a try. After all, it still offers powerful design features – particularly the ability to create your campaigns how you want them (perfect for the creatives and web builders).