erLite vs Mailchimp – The ultimate comparison [2024]
Here is the ultimate comparison between MailerLite and Mailchimp.
You need to consider the pros and cons of both services, as well as their ease of use, advanced features, affordability, and more.
This complete comparison will help you choose the best option for your business.
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MailerLite and Mailchimp: A Feature Comparison
MailerLite | Mailchimp | |
Free plan | Yes, | Yes (limited). |
Pricing | $10/month (500 contacts) | $13/month (500 contacts) |
Best for | Startups, small businesses, and SMEs | eCommerce, Publishers, Enterprises |
Email is a powerful tool. | Email editor, customizable templates, landing pages, online forms | Signup forms, landing Pages, Email Builder, templates and pre-made emails |
No, | Audience management and CRM built-in | |
Marketing automation | Autoresponders, multi-trigger automation | Automated workflows, retargeting and product recommendations |
Unique features | Sell digital products with paid newsletter subscriptions | Multivariate testing |
Reporting and Analytics | Unsubscribe count, bounces and spam complaints are essential metrics. | The essential metrics (opens and clicks, average industry open rates, bounces). |
Deliverability | 95% | 91% |
Integrations | 143 | 330 |
Customer support | Support via email, chat, knowledge base and video tutorials | Chat, email, knowledge base, and phone support |
Ease Of Use
In terms of user experience, the setup process and overall ease of using a solution are important. We will start with this.
MailerLite:
MailerLite’s dashboard is one of the most straightforward email marketing platforms available. You can easily navigate the platform thanks to its clean UI. Choose your favorite theme to customize your dashboard.
The initial setup could be “tricky” due to the platform’s long approval process. We were unable to access the email creator without authenticating our domain. It will be difficult for those who want to try the platform out before they commit to a paid subscription.
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp is also easy to use, even for new users. The various UI improvements have certainly helped. We should be aware that some features, such as the double opt-in or reCAPTCHA, seem to be hidden.
The setup is simple and can be completed in just a few moments.
WinnerMailchimp wins this category. MailerLite’s “strict” authentication process confuses new users who are unfamiliar with authentication methods.
Email Builder
You’ll have trouble bringing your email ideas to life without a user-friendly editor. Advanced features can also be very useful depending on what you need. Let’s compare the two competitors.
MailerLite:
MailerLite gives users the option to select from three options: an enhanced version of their drag and drop builder, rich-text editor or a custom HTML Editor (for advanced users). It can be used for a variety of purposes and requirements.
‘s drag-and-drop editor is a smooth. It took a little time to get used to but we soon understood how the categories were organized on the left-side menu. It has some advanced features, such as eCommerce product blocks, timers and surveys. You can include Instagram and Facebook posts in your email campaigns.
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp’s email editor is intuitive and user-friendly, but users can also choose between two different builders based on their preferences. You can quickly and easily customize your campaign by clicking on each block of content and editing it.
You can also add your own HTML code for unique designs. The “Optimize’ option is located on the left-side menu. This allows you to fix errors.
Mailchimp is a great platform, but some of its features are hard to locate. This can make it difficult for beginners to use.
Winner : MailerLite
Both services offer decent email builders that have equal capabilities. They also both feature a clean, intuitive interface. MailerLite, however, is more user-friendly and has put in a lot of effort to create a flawless experience. MailerLite is the winner!
Templates
It’s easy to save time by using pre-made templates for email newsletters. They are also a good starting point for new users. These templates should be easily customizable and responsive to match the brand’s style and tone.
MailerLite:
MailerLite provides 90 designs which are visually pleasing. The templates are organized for easy navigation, including newsletters and events.
We believe that this variety of designs, which is responsive and customizable will be pleasing to the majority of users. users on the free plan do not get access to the templates library.
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp provides 100 email template for you to start your email strategy. These templates are easy to customize and responsive. Sort them by category to find the right template faster. Users of the free plan have access to 8 basic templates.
You have different options depending on which builder you select. Users have also complained that the Classic templates are not responsive. This is not ideal.
The available designs are attractive and will help you create stunning email newsletters to send out to your subscribers.
Winner We have a tie. Both services offer a great collection of email templates with different designs that can be used for a variety of purposes.
Automation
Email marketing tools are also a key part of marketing automation, as it allows businesses reduce repetitive tasks by putting their lead generation, onboarding and segmentation processes on autopilot.
MailerLite:
MailerLite’s visual automaton builder is simple to use, and allows you to create multi-step automation journeys even with the free plan . You can either start from scratch, or you can use one of 15 automation templates.
You can choose to target subscribers based on behavior (such a completing a contact form or leaving a product at their cart), custom fields, and segments. There aren’t many triggers that are eCommerce-oriented (unlike Mailchimp). There’s a new A/B test option that allows you to create split-tests.
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp’s Customer Journey Builder is a new feature for automating your audience. This visual workflow editor allows you to create automated sequences and follow ups for your audience. You can start from scratch or use a prebuilt journey (50+ Journeys).
Mailchimp’s plan is limited to single-step automations. You can create welcome emails, reminders for abandoned carts and order notifications. Standard (or higher) plan is required for multi-step automated.
Mailchimp offers multiple actions and rules to create simple or complex sequences.
Winner:Mailchimp Customer Journey Builder’s Customer journey builder is intuitive, advanced and allows both beginners and experts to easily create automated sequences that meet their needs. Mailchimp is the winner here due to its advanced automated options.
List management
We will now move on to the list management section and see how both services can be used to segment their audiences and manage them.
MailerLite:
MailerLite makes it easy to manage your contacts. You can create segments using various parameters, such as signup source, location, time zone and more.
You can also automate the process of removing subscribers from one group when they move to another. Mailchimp doesn’t have this feature.
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp’s list management is more complex. You have audiences (lists), segments, groups and tags. These can be confusing for beginners. Nevertheless, they are very flexible.
You cannot manage all your contacts at once. Every audience (list), therefore, is considered a separate entity. If you have two lists with the same subscriber, then it counts as having two contacts. This means that you are paying twice for the same person.
Mailchimp offers a variety of options to customize your segments.
Winner MailerLite wins easily because Mailchimp lists are divided into silos, which means that you can’t manage your subscribers together.
Reporting & Analytic
Let’s compare the two email marketing tools in terms of important metrics.
MailerLite:
MailerLite offers decent reporting, including open rates, clicks and unsubscribes. It also includes subscriber engagement metrics, devices, as well as opens by location. These are all presented in a clean and simple dashboard.
You can also track your purchases using with Shopify or WooCommerce.
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp has more advanced analytics and reporting options. It offers statistics on social media, email clients, and key metrics. It also has a native integration with Google Analytics, which aids in tracking conversions.
Winner Mailchimp is undoubtedly a more comprehensive analytics tool that allows businesses to optimize their processes, and develop a better business strategy using the data.
Landing Pages & Forms
We’ll then look at how useful the tools are for lead generation offered by each of these solutions.
MailerLite:
MailerLite offers you a variety of options for forms. Popups, embedded forms, full-page forms, and promotional pop-ups are all options. These forms may include countdown timers. This will increase the urgency of your event/webinar or encourage more subscribers.
The platform provides you with 24 pre-made designs.
Click on the Sites tab to access the landing page creator. There are 49 pre-made templates that have been organized into categories to make navigation easier (not available with MailerLite’s Free plan). If you are familiar with the logic of the email builder, you can create a beautiful landing page within minutes.
This is an excellent alternative to Mailchimp or other landing pages builders for boosting your lead generation and product sales.
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp’s ‘Audience tab’ hides these options, making it difficult to create signup forms and landing pages. We would have saved a lot of time if we had known that clicking on the ‘Create” button at the top-left corner could do the trick.
It is easy to use. You can create landing pages, signup forms, and popups. Not all templates are responsive. Also, there are integrations with WordPress and MailOptin.
The landing page builder is easy to use and has drag-and drop functionality. felt like the builder was slow,, and experienced users may find the overall experience disappointing.
You can only edit the landing page templates available.
WinnerMailerLite wins because it has lead generation tools that are more user-friendly and simple, but also have advanced features for both small and large businesses.
MailerLite vs Mailchimp: Email Deliverability
Email Deliverability ensures that your email marketing campaigns are delivered to your subscribers inboxes.
You need to monitor the service regularly in order to determine how well or poorly it delivers emails. Emailtooltester conducted this research, so these are the results.
WinnerAs can be seen, both services have achieved the highest scores in this test of email deliverability. MailerLite, however, has an impressive score 95.41%. This means that using this email marketing service for your email marketing is the best choice.
MailerLite and Mailchimp: Integrations
Your email marketing service should integrate with all of the apps that you use for digital marketing. The more integrations that a service provides, the better!
MailerLite:
MailerLite integrates 143 popular apps such as Shopify Stripe WordPress Woocommerce CRM and social networks.
MailerLite API can be used to connect with other applications. A developer is required.
Zapier can be used to connect the ESP and other tools if there isn’t a native integration.
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp’s Integrations Directory has 330 integrations. They can help you connect to eCommerce, CRM, Analytics, and Accounting tools.
Winner:Mailchimp has twice as many integrations than MailerLite. The number of integrations provided by both services are acceptable.
Support MailerLite and Mailchimp
No one wants to be kept waiting for hours in the event of an emergency. Let’s find out how these two contestants will help you in an emergency.
Both companies offer similar channels of support (emails, live chats, knowledge bases, tutorials). The plan you have will determine whether or not you can access these channels.
MailerLite:
MailerLite support was fast and reliable . Support is available 24 hours a day. Live chat support is only available with the top-tier plan. The free plan gives you access to chat and email support for 30 days. There is no phone support.
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp has similar support channels as we have already mentioned. Users of the free plan can only access email support during 30 days, but they have access to an extensive knowledgebase. Live chat support is available 24/7 for all paid plan subscribers. Priority phone support is available to Premium Plan users.
Winner: Due to Mailchimp’s slower response times (according to the users themselves), MailerLite has won the category for customer support.
MailerLite vs Mailchimp: Pricing
MailerLite:
Email marketing offers four different plans for its users. All paid plans offer unlimited monthly emails campaigns. The pricing is -based and based on subscribers. MailerLite offers a generous free plan, which includes 12,000 emails per month for up to 1,000 users, as well as signup forms and landing pages.
As you can see, MailerLite premium plans offer more advanced marketing tools.
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp offers four plans, which are: Standard, Free, and Essentials. Pricing is based on contacts, which is similar to MailerLite. The only difference is that users are charged for contacts who have not confirmed their opt-in and unsubscribed.
Mailchimp has monthly email limits and charges for overage, while MailerLite allows unlimited monthly emails.
MailerLite prices are higher, especially as the number of subscribers increases. After the price changes, the free plan is now severely restricted. It only allows up to 1,000 monthly sends and 500 subscribers. It’s the same with features.
Winner While Mailchimp may not be the most affordable email marketing solution on the market, MailerLite offers a lot for a low price. MailerLite is also a winner because of its generous free plan, which allows small businesses to test the service with no restrictions.
Alternatives to MailerLite and Mailchimp
Both email services have a range of features to suit the needs of businesses. It’s good to be aware of other options, even if you didn’t plan on them.
1. Moosend
Pricing: Plans starting at $9/month with a 30-day free trial. ( Signup here )
Best Feature Easy to implement marketing automation
Moosend offers an affordable email marketing solution with a drag-and drop editor, and advanced features for creating high-converting campaigns. This service is unique because it offers easy-to-use automation. It allows even beginners to create automated journeys that will boost lead generation and sales. The platform is rich in reporting and analytics, and has a fantastic customer service team that can help with any questions you may have.
2. ConvertKit
Pricing: Paid plans starting at $15/month; free plan
Best feature: User friendly segmentation options
ConvertKit offers a powerful alternative to the standard HTML solution. It is designed primarily for bloggers and creators. The platform’s simple and clean interface helps new users to learn it very quickly. ConvertKit allows you to directly sell products through the platform. The visual workflow builder, which is also very powerful, allows users to create complex paths using various actions, conditions, and events.
3. Constant Contact
Pricing: Paid plans starting at $12/month with a 60-day trial.
Best Feature : Event Management Tools
Constant contact can be a great alternative to for a simple email marketing platform. The platform has a CRM that stores all of your contacts’ data, as well as handy social media tools for creating a multichannel marketing strategy. The platform also has a simple user interface, and many integrations so that you can integrate with your favorite apps.
MailerLite and Mailchimp: A Final Thought
This detailed comparison of the two email marketing platforms will hopefully help you choose which is right for your business. You should consider your budget, features that you absolutely need for your business, email deliverability, and the responsiveness of customer service teams.
You can try out Moosend’s platform for FREE to see how affordable and powerful an email marketing tool can be.
The post MailerLite and Mailchimp: Ultimate Comparison [2024] first appeared on Email Marketing Platform for Thriving Business.