Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Which One Is For You in 2022

Mailchimp and Klaviyo are big names in email marketing, and great tools as well. It’s not unusual to look for their comparison when considering solutions for email marketing.

Eventually, you will come up with questions like:

• What is the difference between Mailchimp and Klaviyo?
• Is Klaviyo cheaper than email, or other way round?
• Which tool is right for me? 

We will break down the key features that you should consider and compare. Also, we’ll look at the reviews and go into more details about the pricing.

After you read this post, you will be able to make a clear decision whether to go for Mailchimp, Klaviyo or to search for more alternatives.

Before moving on, there is something you should consider. 

If you’re looking for a beginner-friendly solution that will fit your budget and boost your email marketing, Jellyreach lifetime deal might be the perfect match.

It’s a powerful email and SMS marketing automation with great features, including personalization, segments, drag and drop editor with templates, pre-built scenarios, and many more. For a limited time, you can get forever access to this platform with only one payment.

Now, let’s compare Klaviyo and Mailchimp.

Campaign Editor

Klaviyo

You can create emails in an intuitive drag-and-drop email builder, content blocks, and pre-built email templates. Also, as Klaviyo integrates with your website, they use your logo and colors to personalize your design.

Mailchimp 

There are great layouts, content blocks, and templates. It’s all very easy to use and manage. Creating emails in Mailchimp is something where they really stand out.

Comment 

Klavyio has a great, easy-to-use editor. But, when it comes to this feature, it’s hard to compare Mailchimp editor to any solution, including Klavyio. That simplicity is unmatchable.

Segments

Klaviyo 

In a very flexible way, based on customer data and events you can make customer segments. Klaviyo takes segmentation to the next level with data science and predictive analytics.

Mailchimp 

There is a basic segmentation with Groups and Segments. Segments are lists, and Groups are chunks of customers.

Comment 

If you are interested in advanced segmentation, Klaviyo is your choice. On the other hand, if basic segmentation meets your requirements, Mailchimp will do just fine.

Automation

Klaviyo

There are many pre-built automation workflow templates. This will come in handy if you haven’t worked with marketing automation tools before. Klaviyo automation allows you to see campaign performance on the workflows. 

Mailchimp

You can use the pre-built templates. There are fewer templates and fewer options compared to Klaviyo. Also, I’d say that Mailchimp automation is a bit more intuitive and easy to use.

Comment 

Advanced users that are more familiar with marketing automation will love Klaviyo. If you’re not there yet then Mailchimp automation is definitely better to get started.

Reporting

Klaviyo 

You get to see the details about all important metrics, including Bounced Email, Clicked Email, Dropped Email, Opened Email, and more. Also, you can customize dashboard analytics and see real-time reporting.

Mailchimp

With Mailchimp, you get more simple reporting, but they cover most of the things you need. 

Comment

As a beginner, you might be overwhelmed with Klaviyo reporting. That’s not going to happen with Mailchimp. But if you are looking for predictive analytics, in-depth reporting, Klavyio is miles ahead of Mailchimp. 

Integrations

Klaviyo

Among more than 100 integrations, Klaviyo’s integrations with Shopify stand out. The interesting fact is that for every $1 spent on Klaviyo, Shopify merchants earn $0.85. Obviously, Shopify integration is in their focus. 

Mailchimp

As you might expect, Mailchimp has the most integrations of all solutions - more than 250. But, since 2019 they don’t have integration with Shopify. That is a big drawback if you are using this eCommerce platform.

Comment

Therefore, if you want to stay in a safe zone about sharing your data, then your choice is Mailchimp. But, if you are more comfortable on this matter, and at the same time you want seamless integration with Shopify, then Klaviyo is an obvious choice.

Why does Mailchimp not work with Shopify?

In short, the reason is that Mailchimp restricted access to their client's data. 

Shopify stated that they had growing concerns about Mailchimp’s app because of the poor merchant experience and their refusal to respect our Partner Program Agreement.

From Mailchimp they said that anything that hurts their customers’ privacy was a non-starter for them. You can read more about it here.

Can I connect Shopify to Mailchimp?

Yes. Although Mailchimp and Shopify have gone separate ways, you can still connect these services.

But, there are other ways like Zappier or ShopSync (suggested by Mailchimp) that can help you with this.

Pricing

Klaviyo

If you are using only an email channel the price is based on your contacts list. It’s free up to 250 contacts. 

Then it scales from $20 contacts for up to 500 contacts to $1,700 for up to 150k contacts. 

If the list is bigger than 150k, you need to get in touch for a quote. Similarly, you can calculate the price for SMS and a combination of Email and SMS.

Mailchimp

Their pricing is based on contacts and available features. They have four plans: Free, Essentials, Standard, and Premium. 

The free plan is up to 2k contacts. After that, you need to move to Essentials, which is $9.99 for 500 contacts and goes up to $270 for 50k contacts. 

The Premium goes to $1.190 for 200k contacts. If your list is bigger, you need to get in touch.

Comment

There are no hidden costs with Klaviyo. For Mailchimp's various features you need to pay extra.

Is Klaviyo cheaper than Mailchimp?

Businesses with a small list of contacts will obviously use Mailchimp, as they have probably the best Free plan on market. 

But as the contact list increases, there will be more requirements for more advanced features. That’s the point where Mailchimp gets costly. 

For example, for 10k contacts Klaviyo costs $150, while Mailchimp plans are Essentials - $78.99, Standard - $105, Premium - $299.

As you can see, Klaviyo is somewhere between Mailchimp Standard and Premium. That is aligned with the features they offer. 

Ratings

Overall

• Klaviyo: Capterra - 4.7 based on 210 reviews; G2 - 4.6 based on 510 reviews
• Mailchimp: Capterra - 4.5 based on +10k reviews; G2 - 4.3 based on 11.2k reviews

Ease of Use

• Klaviyo: Capterra - 4.4; G2 - 8.7
• Mailchimp: Capterra - 4.4; G2 - 8.7 

Customer service (support)

• Klaviyo: Capterra - 4.4; G2 - 8.6
• Mailchimp: Capterra - 4.2; G2 - 8.0 

Comment 

Although the ratings seem to be in favor of Klaviyo, you should notice the number of reviews. The ratings tend to decline as the number of reviews increases. That’s why it’s safe to say that there are no significant differences in the user reviews.

How does Klaviyo compare to Mailchimp?

On the Mailchimp website, you can find an article about their comparison to Klaviyo. Here are some of the things they’ve put it. Klaviyo is focused on email marketing, email automations, analytics, and text messaging. 

Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform that also offers you the ability to publish an online store. Klaviyo gives you more advanced automation. Mailchimp gives you more marketing channels and more integrations. 

Kaviyo gives you email and chat support in English, only. Mailchimp gives you 24/7 email and chat support in English and Spanish.

Similarly, Klaviyo has its view of comparison with Mailchimp. They are more aggressive in their statements. Klaviyo claims that 10,000 Mailchimp customers switched to Klaviyo and that they increased their revenue by 46%.

Is Klaviyo better than Mailchimp?

If you are in eCommerce, especially a Shopify user, interested in advanced automation, analytics, and reporting, Klaviyo is the option.

If you want to have great email marketing, reliable delivery, and a bit more simple marketing automation, you will like Mailchimp better. 

There are other alternatives you should consider. Here are our suggestions with the pricing reference.

• EngageBay Marketing - $24.99 per month - $239.88 per year
• MailerLite - $50.00 per month - $420.00 per year
• Moosend - $44.00 per month - $528.00 per year
• SendX - $59.99 per month - $539.88 per year
• Aweber - $69.99 per month - $793.88 per year
• Constant Contact - $95 per month - $888.25 per year

Alslo, I recommend reading more about Mailchimp alternatives or Klaviyo alternatives.

Conclusion

To put it simply, Mailchimp is the world's biggest email marketing platform and Klaviyo claims to be a leading alternative to Mailchimp.

However, according to Datanyze, Mailchimp's market share is around 70%, and Klaviyo comes in 10th place with a 1.68% market share.

When you think about it, you can expect Klaviyo to be a more focused solution with better customer service.

That is also what Klaviyo points out. In more than one place, they highlight that they are a solution to grow your eCommerce business.

So, what is the right solution for you?

You need to figure out your requirements. If you are going for advanced automation and segmentation, or SMS as a channel, then Klaviyo offers more value for money. 

If you need standard automation without the need for in-depth reporting or data science, Mailchimp lower plans will serve you.