Klaviyo vs Mailchimp

Updated October 2026 · AppBreakup editorial

Klaviyo

Email and SMS marketing for online stores, built on detailed customer and purchase data.

Free plan + paid

Visit Klaviyo Klaviyo profile

Mailchimp

The best-known email marketing platform for small businesses, now owned by Intuit.

Free plan + paid

Visit Mailchimp Mailchimp profile

The short answer

Pick Klaviyo if you run an ecommerce store, especially on Shopify, and want email and SMS driven by order and browsing data, with revenue reporting per campaign. Pick Mailchimp if you are a small business or organisation sending newsletters and simple automations to a modest list. The biggest difference is focus: Klaviyo is built for ecommerce revenue, Mailchimp for general small-business marketing.

Klaviyo or Mailchimp: our take

Mailchimp is the email marketing service many small businesses try first. It covers newsletters and campaigns with a drag-and-drop editor and templates, audience tags and segments, automated customer journeys, landing pages, forms, SMS, basic websites and reporting, plus a separate transactional email product. Intuit has owned it since 2021. Klaviyo is built for ecommerce brands: it pulls in orders, browsing and catalogue data and uses it for segmentation, predictive metrics such as expected next order date and lifetime value, product recommendations, and automated flows for abandoned carts, browse abandonment, post-purchase and win-back. Its reporting ties campaigns directly to revenue, and it has grown into a broader B2C CRM with mobile push, WhatsApp, reviews and AI agents.

The free plans are similar in size. Mailchimp's covers 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a daily limit of 250 sends, and its Standard plan has a 14-day trial. Klaviyo's covers 250 profiles and 500 emails a month, plus email, SMS, Customer Hub and reporting, with $5 of SMS or mobile messages per month. Both price paid plans by audience size: Mailchimp by contacts, Klaviyo by active profiles with SMS billed separately. Both get expensive as lists grow, and in Mailchimp unsubscribed or inactive contacts can still count toward the bill unless archived.

In use, Mailchimp is easier to pick up and has a long integration list, including Shopify, WooCommerce, Canva, Stripe and Zapier, but its automation is less flexible at the high end. Klaviyo has a steeper learning curve and is more than most non-ecommerce businesses need.

For online stores that want automation tied to purchases, Klaviyo is the benchmark. For cafés, nonprofits, consultants and other small senders who mainly need newsletters, Mailchimp is the simpler and more familiar choice.

Choose Klaviyo if…

Ecommerce brands that want automation driven by purchase and browsing data
Deep ecommerce data, segmentation and predictive metrics
Strong pre-built flows for carts, browsing and win-back

Choose Mailchimp if…

Small businesses that want a familiar, all-round tool with lots of integrations
Easy editor, templates and a huge integration list
Covers email, SMS, landing pages and simple automations

What is Klaviyo?

Klaviyo is the dominant email and SMS platform for ecommerce brands, especially those on Shopify. It pulls in orders, browsing and product catalogue data and uses it for segmentation, predictive metrics such as expected next order date and lifetime value, product recommendations, and automated flows for abandoned carts, browse abandonment, post-purchase and win-back. Reporting ties campaigns directly to revenue. It has grown into a broader B2C CRM with mobile push, WhatsApp, reviews, a customer hub and AI agents. A free plan covers a small number of profiles and monthly emails; paid plans are priced by active profiles, with SMS billed separately, and costs can climb steeply for large lists. It is more than most non-ecommerce businesses need, and the interface takes time to learn. For stores that want revenue-driven automation, it is the benchmark others are compared with.

What is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp is the email marketing service most small businesses try first. It covers newsletters and campaigns with a drag-and-drop editor and templates, audience management with tags and segments, automated customer journeys, landing pages, sign-up forms, SMS, basic websites and reporting, plus a separate transactional email product. Its integration list is long, with Shopify, WooCommerce, Canva, Stripe and Zapier among hundreds of others. Intuit bought the company in 2021, and it now leans on AI-assisted content and QuickBooks ties. Pricing is based on contacts, with a small free plan and Essentials, Standard and Premium tiers; costs rise quickly as your list grows, and unsubscribed or inactive contacts can still count toward your bill unless you archive them. Automation is capable but less flexible than ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo at the higher end. It is a safe, familiar choice for a small list, and many people move away once their contact count makes the price hard to justify.

Side by side

Attribute	Klaviyo	Mailchimp
Pricing	Free plan + paid	Free plan + paid
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android	Web, iOS, Android
Best for	Ecommerce brands that want automation driven by purchase and browsing data	Small businesses that want a familiar, all-round tool with lots of integrations
Status	Active	Active

Verified facts, compared

Facts both apps publish, checked on each vendor's own site.

Fact	Klaviyo	Mailchimp
Free plan	250 profiles, 500 emails/month	250 contacts, 500 sends/month