Mailchimp vs Klaviyo
Mailchimp or Klaviyo? Here is how they compare on price, free plan, platforms and the jobs each does best, from each vendor's own pages.
| Compared on | Visit | Visit |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Intuit's email and SMS marketing platform, free for 250 contacts, with AI writing on Standard and Premium | B2C CRM for ecommerce email and SMS, billed by active profiles, with a free plan and the Composer AI agent |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $13/mo (Essentials)Mailchimp pricing | $20/mo (Email)Klaviyo pricing |
| What it covers | Starting price for the 0-500 contacts tier; email sends up to 10x the contact count (5,000 a month at 500 contacts); 3 user seats. The price rises with the contact tier, up to $385/month for 50,000 contacts. Overages are billed if contact or send limits are exceeded. Annual plans exist only for Standard and Premium at 10,000+ contacts, through sales. | For 500 active profiles with 5,000 emails a month. The price rises with active profiles, and accounts move to a profile-compliant tier automatically as they grow. A limited-time offer takes $19 off the first month at 500 profiles. No annual price is listed. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of Essentials or Standard (payment details required at sign-up); a 1-month Premium trial for qualified new customers through sales | None stated |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android, API | Web, API |
| Integrations (vendor's figure) | 300+ integrations including Shopify, WooCommerce, Canva, Zapier, Square, Stripe and Salesforce | 350+ integrations including Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, ChatGPT and Claude |
| Open source | No | No |
| Made by | The Rocket Science Group LLC d/b/a Mailchimp (part of Intuit) | Klaviyo, Inc. |
Choose Mailchimp if…
- Price matters: its cheapest paid plan is $13/mo against $20/mo.
- You want a mobile app (iOS and Android).
- The job is small businesses sending regular newsletters to a few thousand contacts.
- The job is ecommerce stores that want automated flows tied to Shopify or WooCommerce data.
Choose Klaviyo if…
- The job is ecommerce brands on Shopify or WooCommerce running behavior-triggered email flows.
- The job is combining email, SMS and WhatsApp marketing on one customer profile.
Still weighing it up?
If neither is quite right, Mailchimp and Klaviyo are also compared with their other rivals: Mailchimp vs Brevo, Mailchimp vs MailerLite and Kit vs Mailchimp.
What Mailchimp does
- Drag-and-drop email builder with pre-built and branded templates; custom-coded templates can be sent on Standard and Premium
- Marketing Automation Flows: up to 4 steps per flow on Essentials, up to 200 steps with branching and multiple starting points on Standard and Premium
- Signup forms, pop-up forms, landing pages and surveys on every plan
- Tags and segmentation, with predictive segments, customer lifetime value and purchase likelihood on Standard and Premium
- Intuit Assist generative AI: Write with AI in the email editor, plus send time and send day optimization (Standard and Premium)
- Subject line helper and suggested next actions on every plan
Watch out for
- The free plan stops at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with no automation flows or scheduling
- Essentials automation flows are limited to 4 steps; generative AI features need Standard or Premium
- Overage charges apply on paid plans when contact or send limits are exceeded
What Klaviyo does
- Email campaigns and automated flows such as welcome series, abandoned cart and post-purchase, with a drag-and-drop editor and templates
- Composer AI marketing agent that audits flows, segments and forms and builds campaigns and flows from a prompt
- Real-time segments and unified customer profiles from the built-in Klaviyo Data Platform
- Predictive analytics such as predicted lifetime value, next order date and churn risk (paid plans)
- Personalized product recommendations, personalized send time and AI-powered A/B experimentation
- Text (SMS and RCS), WhatsApp, mobile push, social and reviews in the same platform
Watch out for
- The free plan stops at 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month
- Generative AI, predictive analytics and logo removal need a paid plan
- SMS, Composer usage beyond the free allowance, Customer Hub, Social and Reviews cost extra
Questions
Is Mailchimp or Klaviyo cheaper?
On published entry prices, Mailchimp is cheaper: $13/mo (Essentials) for Mailchimp against $20/mo (Email) for Klaviyo. What each plan includes differs, so compare the limits too.
Do Mailchimp and Klaviyo have free plans?
Both do. Mailchimp: Up to 250 contacts; 500 email sends a month with no more than 250 a day; 1 user seat and 1 audience; limited pre-built templates; no automation flows, email scheduling or A/B testing; Mailchimp branding stays on; email support for the first 30 days only. Sending pauses if the contact or send limit is exceeded. Klaviyo: Up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month; $5 of mobile messages and $5 of Composer usage a month; web forms, templates, segmentation, flows and reporting; Klaviyo logo stays on emails; email support for the first 60 days only. Sending is blocked once either limit is exceeded until you upgrade.