Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo

Are you looking for the best email marketing platform for your business? Choose from three of the most popular options as we go over the differences between Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo.

Mailchimp Overview

Mailchimp is one of the oldest and most popular email marketing tools available. The platform is great for small businesses looking for an all-in-one email marketing tool. It’s easy to use, affordable, and supports many integrations for expanded functionality.

However, the free and lower-priced plans may be very limiting for businesses with high demands, especially those that send emails to thousands of contacts. You can remove these limitations by upgrading to one of the more expensive plans, but the prices on those plans are at par with other more advanced email marketing tools.

MailChimp – Pros & Cons
Paid plans start at $13 USD per month, paid monthly

Offers a completely free plan (max. 500 contacts, 1000 email sends per month) with basic email marketing features
Relatively robust automation and segmentation functionality
Over 120 customisable templates, but some may look outdated
Supports over 800 integrations to streamline workflows
Excellent reporting features on paid plans
Higher plans come with a built-in CRM tool
Affiliate marketing is against the platform’s Terms of Use

Verdict: MailChimp is a great entry point into email marketing, but you might be better off with other options once you start scaling up.

ActiveCampaign Overview

ActiveCampaign is an advanced email marketing solution that boasts powerful automation capabilities. The platform also scored the highest position in a 2023 email deliverability test (how likely your emails will successfully arrive in a contact’s inbox and not their spam folder).

ActiveCampaign can also do much more than just email. It can integrate with SMS messaging, website landing pages, social media, and even your CRM software, providing a feature-packed ecosystem to support various marketing initiatives.

That said, ActiveCampaign is not the most accessible or beginner-friendly tool available. It has the steepest learning curve among the three options here, and there is no free plan to test whether it matches your requirements.

ActiveCampaign – Pros & Cons
Plans start at $29 USD per month, paid yearly

No free plan
Highly advanced list management and automation capabilities
Over 250 modern, attractive, and highly customisable templates to choose from
Supports over 850 add-ons and integrations
Excellent reporting features, although custom reports are locked behind higher plans
Does an excellent job at importing contacts from third-party tools
Its A/B testing feature is rather limited

Verdict: ActiveCampaign is the most advanced tool of the three, but it’s only ideal if you can make full use of its entire feature set, especially considering its high cost.

Klaviyo Overview

Klaviyo is the newest software of the three. It’s designed specifically to work with eCommerce sites, able to connect seamlessly with platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento without the need for third-party integrations.

Once connected to your store, Klaviyo can pull customer data, including shopping behaviour, to help you create real-time customer profiles and optimise your marketing campaigns. In terms of ease of use, Klaviyo sits at the median with a moderate learning curve and level of customisation.

Klaviyo – Pros & Cons
Paid plans start at $20 USD per month, paid monthly

Offers a completely free plan (max. 250 contacts, 500 email sends per month) with basic functionality
Highly intuitive platform with customer management and automation features
Over 100 customisable templates
Supports over 300 integrations to streamline your tech stack
Great reporting and analytics features on all plans
Has strong A/B testing tools and features

Verdict: Klaviyo is best suited for eCommerce merchants that can leverage real-time customer data for marketing, but it comes with a hefty price tag.