Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: A Side-by-Side Comparison to Pick the Right Email Platform
Is Mailchimp similar to Klaviyo?
What is Klaviyo best known for?
You might have analyzed these questions to help you select the best email marketing software for your business. We’ll show you a side-by-side comparison of Klaviyo vs Mailchimp to help narrow your options.
Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform focused on e-commerce stores. Users can store, analyze, and access transactional and behavioral data for targeted customer communication. With custom web tracking and data access from 300 integrations, users can segment audiences and create targeted campaigns based on customer data.
Mailchimp is one of the best-known email marketing platforms on the market, with tracking, custom reporting, and subscriber management features. Users can create custom templates or choose from their pre-made campaign templates. Mailchimp offers several integrations, web service choices, and a freemium solution for testing compatibility.
Although Klaviyo and Mailchimp provide similar features, their differences can make one platform a better fit for your use case. Let’s explore each app, and compare their strengths and weaknesses, pricing, and exclusive features to help you make an informed decision.
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: An Overview of the Best Features
Klaviyo and Mailchimp offer overlapping features, including strategic email campaigns and automated customer communication. However, if you want exclusive features for the price point, you may find vast differences between the tools.
We’ll look at the following features of these tools to help you make a comprehensive choice:
- Email deliverability,
- Ease of use,
- Exclusive features,
- Customer support,
- Segmentation,
- Automation,
- Pricing.
Feature 1: Email Deliverability
Your email’s likelihood of successfully being delivered to recipient inboxes determines the overall ROI for your email campaigns. Klaviyo and Mailchimp take critical measures to ensure deliverability; let’s look at how they compare.
Although the numbers aren’t explicit, Klaviyo has a reputation for high deliverability rates. New users must warm up their dedicated IP domain, reputation, and clean their lists before syncing over existing email lists.
Overall, Mailchimp has a 95.5% email deliverability rate, amongst which only 2.5% of emails end up in spam. The platform claims to deliver 1 million emails in 45 minutes, where major ISPs batch and postpone delivery to prevent spam.
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Deliverability Features Compared
| Feature | Klaviyo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Deliverability rate | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| IP warm-up | Mandatory | Optional |
| List cleaning | Manual | Automatic |
The verdict: Mailchimp clearly has a higher deliverability rate than Klaviyo.
Campaign Refinery has achieved the highest deliverability rate on the market through robust features and tools. Clients state a 600% increase in inbox placement after using the platform.
Feature 2: Ease of Use
Both platforms offer intuitive interfaces and user-friendly features, but you’ll still find a lot of differences between them.
Klaviyo’s email builder is pretty straightforward, with a left-hand menu showing tabs for campaigns, audience, content, and analytics. Tooltips and popups appear when browsing through the dashboard, alongside a ‘Get started’ section that shows the steps to set up the account.
Mailchimp is known for its user-friendly design and intuitive interface, making it suitable for beginners in email marketing. The platform has a drag-and-drop email builder, pre-designed templates, and simple campaign creation tools. You can also find a handy checklist that runs you through, from importing contacts to building your first email campaign.
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Usability Features Compared
| Feature | Klaviyo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Email editor | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Templates | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
The verdict: Mailchimp has a broader range of email templates for non e-commerce businesses.
Campaign Refinery boasts a simple and clean dashboard design with quick access to campaign creation, subscriber management, and reporting. The intuitive workflow builder allows users to perform actions, usually with a click.
Feature 3: Exclusive Marketing Features
If you’re looking for unique features such as third-party integration, postcard creator, or multi-channel marketing opportunities, Klaviyo and Mailchimp provide them.
Klaviyo has released 130 new features in the last year alone. Their webhooks in ‘flows’ (a way to send information to third-party apps) allow users to connect to other tools in the tech stack. The platform offers newer API endpoints, Google Ads Integration, an advanced email template editor, built-in AI assistance, and virtual contact cards. The platform also provides a direct Shopify integration instead of a third-party application.
Mailchimp offers a landing page builder and a postcard creator that you can use to print, stamp, and mail customizable postcards even outside the US. The software also provides AI tools such as predictive demographics, smart recommendations, and subject line helper. Users can also use the send time optimization tool to send emails across different time zones.
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Marketing features, compared
| Feature | Klaviyo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| API endpoints | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Landing page builder | ⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Built-in AI assistance | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
The verdict: Both platforms offer API endpoints and AI assistance, but Mailchimp provides extra features such as landing page builder and postcards, making it the clear winner.
Campaign Refinery’s exclusive features include Engagement Gamification, Integrated List Hygiene, advanced segmentation and automation, smart sequences, credit system, and Evergreen Flash Sales. We’ll look at them in detail in the below sections.
Feature 4: Customer Support
Klaviyo and Mailchimp have built-in self-help guides and tutorials, and they offer different contact options for users.
Klaviyo’s help center includes guides and tutorials and access to Klaviyo Academy, live training sessions, and community forums. Users can access support via virtual assistant and email. While email support is available 24/7, chat assistance is limited to business hours.
Mailchimp users on the paid plan get access to priority support, including access to dedicated support specialists. Support is also available through phone, email, or virtual assistance. Mailchimp offers tons of guidance on getting started on the platform through tutorials, checklists, and articles. However, Mailchimp may have limited support during non-business hours, especially via phone and chat.
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Customer support side-by-side comparison
| Feature | Klaviyo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in self-help guides | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Live training sessions | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Access to Academy | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ |
The verdict: It’s a tie — both platforms offer 24/7 support and access to guides and tutorials. However, only Klaviyo offers access to academy.
Campaign Refinery’s customer support aims to provide its users with responsive assistance, personalized guidance, and extensive resources to help them succeed in their email marketing efforts. Our support team responds to client queries in under a few hours.
Feature 5: Segmentation
Email segmentation is an essential tool for sending personalized messages to your audience. Fortunately, both Klaviyo and Mailchimp make segmentation fairly easy.
Klaviyo groups contacts into audience segments that update in real-time. You can also access lists, segments, and customer profiles in the dashboard. The software also gives suggestions on how to segment your audiences based on their engagement levels and behavior and creates segments for SMS and email campaigns simultaneously.
On the Mailchimp dashboard, you can assign tags, create sign-up forms, and filter contacts based on shared data. Beginners can use the pre-built segmentation or segmentation suggestions based on new subscriber activity, purchase behavior, and so on. Their AI feature predicts the demographics of your contacts and divides customers accordingly. However, Mailchimp does not support real-time behavior tracking and lacks predictive analytics support as well.
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Segmentation feature comparison
| Feature | Klaviyo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time updation | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Pre-built segmentation | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Predictive behavior analysis | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐ |
The verdict: Klaviyo offers AI assistance and real-time behavior tracking, and is the winner.
Campaign Refinery offers segmentation at a granular level — users can use personalization tokens, advanced segmentation criteria, integrate with external data sources, and automate campaigns based on specific segmentation criteria.
Feature 6: Automation
Klaviyo and Mailchimp’s automation capabilities enable users to build personalized campaigns based on specific criteria.
With Klaviyo, you can send behavioral-trigger emails, create segments in real time, and get attribution. You can also integrate with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Magento, and Woocommerce to fuel your automation workflows based on customer data and purchase behavior. Klaviyo uses a flow builder to create an automation journey, allowing you to set up conditional splits and webhooks for customer journeys. However, setting up advanced automation can be challenging if you’re new to email marketing.
Mailchimp’s automation is pretty straightforward; you can build an automation flow from scratch or choose a pre-built customer journey flow. The platform offers four major types of automation flows: customer journey builder, transactional emails, retargeting ads, and integrations. You can also create event-based messages such as birthday wishes or welcome messages.
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Automation feature compared
| Feature | Klaviyo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Real time segmentation | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Pre-built customer journey | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Advanced triggers | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
The verdict: It’s a tie — Klaviyo and Mailchimp offer robust automation functionality, including creating event-based messages.
With Campaign Refinery, users can automate pretty much anything — from email broadcasts to delivering super smart nurture campaigns. The automation rules are dead simple, including goal functions, lists, and tags that enable hyper-targeted customer communication.
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Which Pricing Model is Right For You?
If your decision depends on the pricing, Mailchimp may be more affordable than Klaviyo, mainly for setting up drip campaigns and email sequences.
Here’s a comprehensive view of Klaviyo’s pricing plans for 1000-1500 contacts.
| Klaviyo Pricing Plan | Price | Features Included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | ‣ 500 monthly email sends ‣ 150 free SMS/MMS credits ‣ Email support for first 60 days |
| Starting at $45 / month | ‣ Depends on the number of contacts ‣ Starting at 15,000 monthly email sends ‣ 150 free SMS/MMS credits ‣ Email and chat support | |
| Email & SMS | $60 / month | ‣ Depends on the number of contacts ‣ Starting at 15,000 monthly email sends ‣ Mobile push notifications ‣ Email and chat support |
Mailchimp offers a free plan, but the pricing could change depending on the number of contacts. Below is the pricing for 5000 contacts.
| Mailchimp Pricing Plan | Price | Features Included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | ‣ 1000 monthly email sends1 user1 audience ‣ Email support for the first 30 days ‣ Limited pre-built email templates ‣ Limited creative assistant and reporting and analytics |
| Essentials | Starts at $ 23.05 / month | ‣ 50,000 monthly email sends ‣ 3 users ‣ 3 Audiences ‣ 24/7 Email and chat support ‣ Pre-built templates, integrations, analytics ‣ 4 automated journey points |
| Standard | Starts at $34.73 / month | ‣ Generative AI features ‣ 60,000 monthly email sends ‣ 5 users ‣ 5 audiences ‣ 4 – role-based access ‣ Up to 200 journey points ‣ 1 personalized onboarding session |
| Premium | Starts at $137.75 / month | ‣ All features of standard plan ‣ 150,000 monthly email sends ‣ Phone and priority support ‣ Premium migration services |
The verdict: Overall, Mailchimp is cheaper, but you might have to pay extra for advanced features such as multivariate testing or access to a dedicated onboarding specialist.
Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Who’s the Winner?
If you’re looking for something simple and straightforward, Mailchimp is the right choice for the pricing. However, if your business needs advanced features or is already established in the e-commerce space, Klaviyo is the way to go.
| Features | Klaviyo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| AI content creation | ✅ | ✅ |
| AB testing | ✅ | ✅ |
| Behavioral analytics | ✅ | ✅ |
| Landing page/web forms | ✅ | ✅ |
| SMS messaging | ✅ | ❌ |
| To-do list | ❌ | ✅ |
| Real-time reporting | ✅ | ✅ |
| Multivariate testing | ✅ | ✅ |
| Unsubscribe database | ❌ | ✅ |
If you’re a non e-commerce business, Mailchimp is the better option. Mailchimp also provides social media analytics that Klaviyo doesn’t. However, if you need advanced features and integration with third-party tools, opt for Klaviyo.
If you want advanced features with higher email deliverability, Campaign Refinery is the best choice.
Campaign Refinery is the Optimal Blend of Both Platforms. Here’s why:
Campaign Refinery aims to help serious email marketers succeed with email marketing — we follow email marketing best practices to give you the highest email deliverability on the market. That’s why we made domain authentication mandatory for users in the first place. This safeguards your sender reputation and keeps your email list away from malicious attacks.
If you notice below-standard results from your campaigns, it’s time to use our integrated email list cleaning feature for better campaign results. This means you can enjoy the highest inbox placement with premium tools for monthly pricing with unlimited contacts. Plus, our high-performance automation system helps you send email campaigns effortlessly.
Why Should You Opt For Campaign Refinery vs Klaviyo or Mailchimp
The powerful combination of email deliverability and sophisticated features enables you to attain your email marketing goals relatively quickly. That’s how we powered a business from $0 to $3.6m in under 12 months.
You’ll get the following benefits as a Campaign Refinery client:
- Automatic list cleaning: This tool cleans your lists every 30 – 180 days, depending on the schedule you set.
- Engagement Gamification: Allows your subscribers to accumulate points for every action they take on your emails.
- Credit system: Get incentivized to send emails to highly engaged subscribers.
- Mandatory domain authentication: As a safety rule, we require our clients to undergo domain verification before they onboard with us.
- Best deliverability rate: Get the highest email deliverability rate — our clients consistently see a 600% increase in inbox placement after working with us.
Is Campaign Refinery an affordable option?
The answer really depends on your use case — we charge clients based on the number of emails sent instead of their email list size. So, there’s enough room for you to grow your revenue with unlimited contacts per month.
Take a closer look at our overall pricing in the table below.
| Campaign Refinery Pricing Tier | Pricing | Features Included | Credits Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business plan | Starts at $99 / month | ‣ Unlimited Contacts ‣ Built-in Contact Cleaning ‣ Engaged Delivery System ‣ Automation Rule Builder ‣ Free Campaign Library ‣ Custom Audience Builder ‣ Evergreen Flash Sale | 50 K |
| Growth plan | Starts at $299 / month | ‣ Everything in the Business plan, ‣ Turn off ”powered by” Text ‣ Reduced Overage Cost ‣ Increased API Volume Limits | 200 K |
| Enterprise plan | Starts at $1k+ / month | ‣ Everything in the Growth plan, ‣ Dedicated success manager ‣ Lowest Overage Cost ‣ Custom API volume | 1 M |
Is it Easy to Migrate to Campaign Refinery?
Absolutely, yes! Campaign Refinery allows you to move your opted-in email lists. This means no purchased lists or re-importing unsubscribes.
We go through a strict vetting process to ensure compatibility and provide the highest safety standards for clients and their subscribers.
Once you become a client, it takes a few steps to set up your account:
- Authenticate your domain,
- Import valid email addresses from your existing provider,
- Add custom fields, tags, and automate your email campaigns,
- Use the campaign library with pre-made assets,
- Start sending your email campaigns,
- Track and optimize for higher conversion rates!
Get the highest email deliverability, advanced features, unlimited contacts, and 24/7 customer support — apply now to become a top sender with Campaign Refinery!
