ConvertKit vs Mailchimp is a common comparison among marketers exploring the best tools for email marketing. When it comes to building and managing campaigns, there’s no shortage of platforms to choose from—but these two are often top of mind. Having worked with both tools myself, I can confidently say that while they target the same audience—small business owners and online marketers—they approach email marketing in distinctly different ways.
In this blog, I’ll walk you through a comprehensive ConvertKit vs Mailchimp comparison, covering their strengths, weaknesses, pricing, automation features, and more. By the end, you’ll have a clear idea of which platform is better suited for your marketing strategy.
Editor’s Note: ConvertKit has recently rebranded as “Kit.” However, for consistency and clarity, we’ll continue referring to it as ConvertKit throughout this article.
ConvertKit vs Mailchimp: At a glance
If you don’t have much time to spare and would like a brief comparison to help you pick the right tool for your email marketing campaigns, here’s a quick ConvertKit vs Mailchimp summary to guide your decision:
ConvertKit is ideal for creators, bloggers, and small-scale eCommerce business owners. It stands out for its strong automation features that deliver precise emails based on user actions. However, it falls short when it comes to advanced analytics and testing capabilities.
Mailchimp, on the other hand, suits small and medium-sized enterprises that prioritize visually appealing email marketing campaigns and detailed performance tracking. With more templates, enhanced reporting, and greater design flexibility, it’s a great option for branding- and campaign-driven teams.
Pricing Breakdown
ConvertKit
- Offers a free plan with 300 subscribers and unlimited email sends
- Paid plans start at $15/month (Creator) and $29/month (Creator Pro) for 300 subscribers
Mailchimp
- Free plan includes 500 contacts and 1,000 sends per month
- Paid plans begin at $13/month (Essentials) and $20/month (Standard) and go up to $350/month for Premium
Email Creation & Design
The ConvertKit editor is stripped down and uses either plain templates or custom HTML. Mailchimp, however, gives customers access to a rich set of features, including drag-and-drop builders, pre-designed templates, and even AI-based tools for designing emails.
- ConvertKit: Basic email composer with a few style options
- Mailchimp: Complete design editor with full layout and AI support
Design & Templates
Visually, ConvertKit is boring, with just 15 plain templates. Mailchimp does better, with over 130 stunning templates and a clever helper that can import brand assets straight from your website.
- ConvertKit: Basic but limited design tools
- Mailchimp: Very flexible and creative-friendly interface
A/B Testing Features
ConvertKit: Subject line A/B testing only
Mailchimp: Subject lines, design, content, and timing tested (paid plans only)
Contact Management
Both provide tagging systems, but ConvertKit’s contact organization is extremely customizable. Mailchimp provides more behavior and interaction segmentation choices.
- ConvertKit: Tag-based flexibility
- Mailchimp: Advanced activity-based segmentation
Email Automation
This is where ConvertKit shines. You can build simple automation flows with ease through visual builders, and it has smooth integrations with Shopify, Zapier, Facebook, and Patreon. While Mailchimp’s customer journey builder is good but limited.
- ConvertKit: Simple automation logic and easy visual flow
- Mailchimp: More limited and harder to customize
What They Have in Common
Before choosing one over the other, consider that some features are equally matched to one another:
- Ease of Use: While users will have personal preferences, both apps are designed for ease of use and enhance simplicity.
- Customer Support: Both have chat and email support for paid subscribers, while free subscribers have self-service and restricted access.
- Email Sequencing: Both allow you to build auto series and drip campaigns with decent flexibility.
- Email Deliverability: Radically different claims aside, real-world performance at inbox delivery is essentially identical between the two.
ConvertKit: Pros & Cons
Strengths
Best-in-Class Automation Tools
ConvertKit is great at automation. You can build advanced, graphically-based workflows from user activity such as email opens, link clicks, purchases, or form submissions. This enables you to build smart, responsive email funnels easily without needing technical expertise.
Tag-Based Segmentation
Instead of static subscriber lists, ConvertKit supports a dynamic tagging approach. This allows marketers to build dynamic, custom segments based on user behavior, interest, or action, giving them more control over who gets what messages and when.
One-Off Automation Rules
Aside from full automation workflows, ConvertKit also lets you easily build one-time automation rules. The “if this, then that” triggers are useful for simple workflows—like applying a tag when someone subscribes to a form—without needing to build out a full automation pipeline.
Landing Page Variety
ConvertKit features over 50 clean, responsive landing page templates meant for lead capture, promotion of an offer, or sharing of content. They are easily set up with their simple editor and are ideal for creators and marketers who require a speedy, trouble-free setup.
Reasonable Pricing
With a free option supporting up to 300 subscribers and unlimited sends, ConvertKit is a bargain. Its paid options are easy (Creator and Creator Pro) and less expensive than most competitors, especially for growing creators or tiny eCommerce stores.
Zapier Integrations
ConvertKit can seamlessly integrate with thousands of apps with Zapier, such as Google Sheets, webinar apps, CRM tools, and payment gateways. This allows users to automate app-to-app workflows and have a more integrated marketing setup.
Weaknesses
No Built-In AI Features
Unlike Mailchimp, ConvertKit doesn’t have its own AI-based tools for content creation or design. To incorporate AI functionality—like smart content recommendations or branding—you’ll need to rely on third-party integrations such as MindStudio or use Zapier to connect external AI apps.
Minimal Testing Options
ConvertKit’s A/B testing capabilities are limited to subject lines only. You can’t test different content versions, images, or send times, making it harder to optimize campaigns through experimentation, especially for advanced marketers looking for performance data.
Basic Reporting Functionality
Reporting is ConvertKit’s major weakness. It gets to the fundamentals like open rates, click-through rates, and deliverability, but more nuanced insights (like acquisition source or campaign comparison) are absent unless you’re on the Creator Pro plan. Even there, advanced analytics is beta.
Design Limitations
ConvertKit’s email and landing page editors are easy to use but don’t offer design choices. All templates are minimalist and plain, and while that may be good for some, it will not suit those who desire richer graphics or more customization, where they will have to fall back on HTML coding, which is a far cry from user-friendly for beginners.
Mailchimp: Pros & Cons
Strengths
Exceptional Template Design
Mailchimp is renowned for having a vast library of professionally designed email templates. With over 130 highly editable, visually appealing designs, it caters to nearly every profession and use case, ranging from welcome and newsletters to promotions and product releases. Templates can then be further edited through Mailchimp’s drag-and-drop designer, making it easy even for non-designers to create gorgeous, on-brand campaigns in a flash.
AI-Powered Branding Creative Assistant
One of the strong points of Mailchimp is its Creative Assistant, which is AI-driven. The feature takes branding to another level by sourcing your logo, color palette, fonts, and images straight from your site. It then uses these to generate on-brand images that integrate beautifully with your emails. This saves designers a lot of time and ensures brand consistency in messages.
Advanced A/B Testing Features
Unlike most platforms, Mailchimp does much more than subject line testing. Its multi-variable testing feature lets you test different sender names, content types, layouts, images, and send times—especially helpful for email performance scaling. These A/B testing features are available on every paid plan, allowing you to gain more insight into how to maximize engagement.
In-depth Analytics & Reporting
Mailchimp possesses a few of the email marketing sector’s most robust reporting tools. Whether core performance metrics like open and click-through rates or more advanced ones like comparative campaign reports, anomaly notifications, or audience engagement tracking, it provides marketers with the actionable data they need to refocus strategy. Even premium users can create tailored shareable reports, so success with campaigns can be easily communicated to clients or stakeholders.
More Than 300 Native Integrations
Another huge benefit is Mailchimp’s enormous set of native integrations—more than 300 natively integrated apps. These include mighty applications such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Typeform, Canva, Salesforce, and many more. This wide support ensures it is simple to bring your whole marketing tech stack together. And for all else, Mailchimp also has Zapier compatibility, allowing hundreds of automated processes between platforms.
Weaknesses
Limited Complexity of Automation
Mailchimp’s Customer Journey builder is clean and easy to use, but it lacks the in-depth logic and flexibility that advanced marketers may need. If you’re looking to build complex workflows with detailed triggers and branching paths, ConvertKit offers a more powerful automation experience.
Email Send Limits on Free Plans
In contrast to ConvertKit, Mailchimp’s free plan has strict send limits—1,000 messages per month to a total of 500 contacts. This limit can be an obstacle for expanding brands or busy campaigns, tending to compel users to upgrade sooner than anticipated.
Tier Complexity and Pricing
Mailchimp’s pricing is confusing, especially for newcomers. While the beginner plans may seem nominal, gaining access to features like advanced segmentation, advanced reports, and testing tools is limited to more expensive plans, which may be unsuitable for startups or solo creators.
Conclusion
ConvertKit and Mailchimp are both strong contenders in the email marketing world, but they cater to different needs. ConvertKit is a better fit for solo creators, bloggers, and small eCommerce businesses who value ease of use, strong automation, and simple pricing. On the other hand, Mailchimp is more suitable for small to mid-sized businesses that focus heavily on visual branding, need detailed analytics, and want access to a wide range of design templates and integrations. When it comes to ConvertKit vs Mailchimp, the smarter choice depends on your priorities. If you value automation and simplicity, ConvertKit stands out. But if advanced design and performance tracking matter more, Mailchimp could be a better fit. Ultimately, the right platform depends on your business goals and marketing style.
FAQ’s
Is Mailchimp or ConvertKit better for beginners?
It depends on whether you’re a certain kind of beginner. If you’re a blogger or creator who just wants a plain tool you can quickly deploy to send emails automatically, ConvertKit is more accessible and less obnoxious. But if you prefer design-oriented emails built with visually-minded drag-and-drop interfaces and plenty of templates, Mailchimp could be more of a beginner’s option, though it gets overwhelming with its broader set of capabilities.
Is ConvertKit really worth it if I’m just starting my email list?
Yes, especially if you’re building a list from zero and wish to automate low-level sequences like welcome emails or lead magnet delivery. ConvertKit’s free plan is incredibly generous, with a limit of 300 subscribers and unlimited emails. Further, it gives you the automation functionality even in the free plan, which is unusual. You won’t have to shell out too much unless your list starts growing.
How difficult is it to switch from ConvertKit to Mailchimp (or vice versa)?
You can switch, and both services offer guides or support to help you import your subscribers. Just be prepared to recreate your automations and email templates manually. So if you’ve already got a sophisticated customer journey or branded templates, factor in some setup time into your calculation.
Which platform has higher deliverability rates?
When it comes to deliverability, ConvertKit vs Mailchimp is nearly a tie. Both platforms perform equally well in getting your emails into inboxes. In reality, deliverability depends more on how you manage your email list—avoiding spammy content, keeping your subscriber list clean, and maintaining proper engagement—than on the tool itself. Neither platform holds a clear advantage in this area.
What if I want visual appeal but also require robust automation?
That’s a classic ConvertKit vs Mailchimp dilemma! Mailchimp clearly stands out in terms of visual design and branding flexibility, while ConvertKit shines in automation logic and workflow simplicity. If you’re looking for a blend of both, it really comes down to your priorities. For instance, you could design your emails using Canva or Mailchimp, then use ConvertKit to manage delivery and automation—or the other way around. However, if budget isn’t a major concern, Mailchimp’s paid plans do offer a more balanced approach that covers both design and automation fairly well.