Best Mailchimp Alternatives

The Benchmark

Mailchimp became as widely known as it is because it was one of the first tools to create a truly user-friendly email composer. Like many who followed, Mailchimp offers the drag-and-drop campaign builder and offers a variety of “theme” templates to help you get started quickly.

Mailchimp offers a lot of pre-built automation workflows to help you get started, though their workflows are very basic. Instead of a visual workflow that helps you see exactly which message is being sent at which time, you have a simple list of emails that get sent in a sequence.

If you’re ecommerce-focused, their templates can feel a bit too simple. What’s really missing from Mailchimp’s marketing automation workflows is that you can’t add more channels into them. They’re for email, and email only.

Their automation workflows are also a bit basic. They lack a visual composer for automation, relying only on a list of emails in the sequence, which doesn’t give you a lot of options.

Key Features

Mailchimp sets the mark for this list, and we’ll compare each tool feature by feature:

• Smooth visual email campaign composer
• Automated email workflows
• Advanced segmentation for precise targeting
• Email Personalization
• Email capture using popups, static sign up forms, and landing pages
• Product recommendation (but no personalized recommendations)
• A/B testing
• 24/7 customer service for paid users

If Mailchimp doesn’t have what you’re looking for, or you need a more ecommerce-focused platform, it’s probably time to look elsewhere. It’s true that the tool works really well when you’re starting out, but if you need something a bit more robust, there are a ton of Mailchimp alternatives for you to try.

Marketing Automation Built for Ecommerce

Omnisend is probably the best Mailchimp alternative on this list simply because it’s so much more than an email marketing tool. Omnisend harnesses the power of omnichannel marketing by allowing you to connect several channels into the same automated workflow. This means you can save time by consolidating marketing efforts into this one platform.

With that said, email marketing sits at the core of Omnisend, and they certainly do it well. An easy to use drag-and-drop visual email editor allows you to customize nearly any element in your email. Omnisend also provides an array of pre-built templates to make email creation even simpler. They also offer interesting email capture options like landing pages, pop-ups, and lead generation forms that you can use to build your email and SMS list.

However, what really makes Omnisend stand out is its sophisticated automation and segmentation. Omnisend, like many other tools on this list, offers email automation complete with templates that make complex automation setup child’s play. Their advanced segmentation allows you to target your customer in a variety of ways: based on profile data, campaign engagement, and shopping behavior.

Key Features

As one of the most complete tools on this list, Omnisend’s feature list is impressive:

• Integration of email, SMS, and web push notifications all in the same automation workflow
• Visual and customizable automation workflow builder
• Workflow templates for browse and cart abandonment, welcome, order confirmation, and many more ecommerce-specific situations
• Smooth visual email campaign composer
• Advanced segmentation for precise targeting
• Personalization to increase customer engagement and loyalty
• Email capture using popups, static sign up forms, landing pages, and gamified forms
• Product picker for automatic importation into your campaigns
• Ecommerce-ready elements like discount codes and customer rewards
• Live website tracking for behavioral data and A/B testing
• 24/7 customer service

HubSpot offers a reliable and feature-packed email marketing tool that’s suited for growing businesses — for free. The tool allows you to create professional marketing emails that engage and grow your audience. You can start from scratch, with the easy drag-and-drop email builder, or use one of the goal-based templates available.

HubSpot Email Marketing is automatically connected with the HubSpot CRM (free forever), so you can tailor emails (subject lines, content, CTAs)  based on any relevant details you have — such as form submissions and website activity.

Key Features:

• Create beautiful emails, without designers or IT, using the drag-and-drop editor or select one of HubSpot’s goal-based templates.
• You can customize emails using an email subscriber’s lifecycle stage, list membership, or any information in your contact records stored in HubSpot CRM (free-forever, unlimited contacts).
• Maximize engagement with emails automatically tailored to each recipient.
• Optimize email campaigns with A/B tests and analytics.

The Smoothest Email Builder that Exists

Of the email builders tested, Campaign Monitor has the smoothest, most user-friendly builder. What’s particularly interesting is that you can adjust spacing by dragging and extending spaces, text boxes, and images to customize your email exactly the way you want it.

Campaign Monitor put its entire focus into email marketing automation. They offer email capture, but there isn’t potential for popups, which is unfortunate. I actually had a hard time finding where to configure email capture during my test.

However, Campaign Monitor wasn’t built for ecommerce and it shows. Unlike Omnisend and Klaviyo, it doesn’t have a Shopify, BigCommerce, or Volusion app. It does integrate with Magento and Prestashop, however, with a ton of other third-party apps.

Key Features

Campaign Monitor focuses its feature set on email marketing:

• Segmentation based on campaign engagement, shopping behavior, and demographics
• The smoothest visual composer for email creation
• A very user-friendly automation workflow creator
• Advanced data tracking, including a world view map to visualize where your customers are
• 24/7 Email support

Basic Email Marketing Without the Frills

Constant Contact put everything they had into email marketing, and it shows. While not the most revolutionary product on this list, for those who need basic email marketing and automation, Constant Contact can be a decent Mailchimp alternative.

Where Constant Contact could improve is their annex features, as they don’t feel like the focus of the tool, but just afterthoughts. They offer more basic segmentation as well, as they don’t integrate natively with ecommerce platforms, sending cart abandonment recovery campaigns is off the table.

They also offer email capture, including popups that are time-based and exit intent, which is already a step above Campaign Monitor, for example, as well as Facebook and Instagram Ads,

that capture the attention of a targeted group of Facebook and Instagram users to expand marketing reach and drive traffic to your website.

Constant Contact’s features are mainly focused on email:

• Segmentation based on campaign engagement and demographics
• Very nice visual email composer that gives you a lot of freedom and control
• Email automation
• A/B Testing
• Live support

For Those Who Need Just Email Marketing

Aweber has long been a classic email marketing tool. In the time that they’ve been an industry leader, Aweber has perfected their visual campaign builder. They offer more templates than any other tool on this list, and each template comes with a few different palettes for even easier creation. From there, each template is completely customizable.

For email capture, you can create rudimentary popups, but exit intent isn’t possible. There’s also no hosting for the landing pages Aweber provides, so you’ll have to copy and paste codes to

implement landing pages and popups on your site.

The biggest drawback of Aweber however, is what seems to be a lack of segmentation.

While there are a lot of things to add, there aren’t really a lot of options for customization. Aweber might work as a general email marketing tool, but it might be better to look elsewhere if you run an online shop.

Key Features

Aweber’s features stick strictly to email:

• Several templates for easy email creation
• Very basic email automation
• A/B Testing
• Live support

Aweber is great if you’re looking for something hyper basic and you’re a small business. Otherwise, it might be better to look elsewhere.

Ideal for Content Creators

ConvertKit is a comprehensive and intuitive platform, designed specifically to make email easier and more robust for professional bloggers.

Featuring advanced automation, an innovative tagging system for segmentation, and a handy landing page editor, it certainly seems to justify its comparatively pricey fee at first glance.

However, a focus on blogging leaves those who are looking to create visually-striking emails a little short — they offer very few, mainly text-based templates with little option to create your own.

ConvertKit integrates well with Shopify and a host of content-focused platforms and offers an excellent support system, both in their tutorials and when contacting them via customer service.

While ConverKit is limited to email marketing only, if that’s all you need and you are primarily a content creator, this might be a tool worth looking into. However, if you want to provide a better, more visual experience and incorporate other channels, it might be time to look elsewhere.

Key Features

• Landing page templates
• Visual text-based editor
• Customizable landing page design
• WYSIWYG interface
• Drip email marketing
• Custom segmenting
• Automation rules
• Open rate tracking

Email Marketing for Beginner

Mailjet offers simple email marketing and automation for small businesses. Like many others on this list, they offer a simple drag-and-drop visual builder. There are a lot of templates to choose from, but if I’m speaking honestly, they all tend to look the same.

The biggest flaw with MailJet is that it’s a simple tool that’s not simple to use. Some of their features feel hidden, and at times, the language around certain parts of MailJet is really difficult to understand.

Automation in MailJet is basic enough. You can automate your campaigns to send welcome emails, custom emails, and date-based emails. Apparently, anniversary/birthday emails are coming soon.

Key Features

MailJet’s feature list:

• Basic segmentation on campaign behavior and profile data
• Basic automated drip campaigns
• Embeddable sign up forms with code
• A/B Testing
• 24/7 support

• What are some free/cheaper alternatives to Mailchimp?

Alternatives to MailChimp that include a freemium option include Omnisend, CampaignMonitor, Aweber, and Hubspot.

• What are better Mailchimp alternatives for marketing automation?

Omnisend offers multiple channels, complex automation, and segmentation options, and seamless integration with Shopify and many other ecommerce platforms.

• How much does Mailchimp cost?

Mailchimp offers a ‘Forever Free’ plan that allows up to 2000 contacts and 10K emails. Other plans are based on a combination of features you use and the number of contacts you have, so you’ll have to consider this when making a Mailchimp price comparison.What is the best alternative to Mailchimp (feature for feature)?

Omnisend is a clear winner here. It offers all the features you can expect from Mailchimp, with the addition of SMS, Push Notifications, and more. Omnisend is the complete solution to ecommerce marketing.

• Who should be looking for MailChimp alternatives?

Anyone from beginners on a tight budget looking for solid freemium capabilities, to those who have outgrown the email-only focus of Mailchimp and now need multiple channels, complex automation, and impressive landing pages.