If you work for a small business or you're an entrepreneur that works with email marketing on a regular basis, then you'll know that using a high-quality email marketing tool makes a big difference. There are plenty of email marketing tools out there for you to choose from, with different advanced features and paid plans to boot.
Sometimes choice is a good thing, but like any kid in a candy shop will tell you, having too much choice can be overwhelming. That's why in this article, we've decided to focus on two of the most well-known email marketing platforms currently available and help you make a choice between the two of them.
MailerLite and Mailchimp are arguably the two best-known email marketing software options you have at your disposal. Either tool should help you better manage your email marketing campaigns, however many users you may have, so let's go into the granular detail to ensure that new customers of these tools know exactly what they're getting.
This comprehensive guide will delve into the nuances of MailerLite and Mailchimp, exploring their features, strengths, and weaknesses, helping you to decide between the Mailchimp-MailerLite dichotomy. By the end of our article, you'll know which email marketing tool to choose, whether you need to manage a growing business, consolidate your marketing tools under one platform, or if you're simply looking for the best alternatives to your present system.
Email marketing without scheduling is nothing - Use Calday
Before you get your teeth sunk into our Mailchimp/MailerLite review, we want to point something out first: email marketing won't get you anywhere without proper scheduling. You can create as many email templates as you like, create form submissions that make it easy to convert customers, and do much more besides, but to organize meetings with clients and customers you need a scheduler like Calday.
Our app is one of the best scheduling systems currently available with transparent pricing, unlimited automation, web push notifications, automated booking pages, and email automations all included as standard. It's simple to get started, and with unlimited users at very affordable pricing you can create a scheduling ecosystem for any type of business or personal endeavour you require.
Think about it this way: An email marketing tool works as the "who" and "what" by using advanced segmentation and subscriber lists to find your customers. Calday operates as the "when," ensuring that your valuable leads don't turn into thin air; they turn into local businesses, corporations, organizations, and individuals that can help you generate cash.
Calday has everything you need from a high-quality scheduler, including:
- A generous free plan that includes all key features and limited customization
- A premium plan with unlimited customization at just $10 a month
- Customization options that are only truly limited by your imagination
- The ability to create automations for notifications, reminders, and event updates
- Third-party integrations for web pages and apps, like Google Calendar and Microsoft Teams
- Tools that power users towards improving their personal and business brands
Related
It's easy to get started with Calday. Just follow the link to create a free account and start scheduling stress-free!
MailerLite - A classic email marketing tool
MailerLite has carved out a noticeable niche in the email marketing world, as its appeal to e-commerce businesses, individuals and others requiring an email-focused full marketing platform is apparent. MailerLite users frequently positively highlight the company's automation features, simplicity of use, wide range of pricing plans, and its ability to solve complex email marketing challenges with ease.
Founded in 2005, MailerLite has steadily grown its user base by focusing on core email marketing functionalities while continuously improving its drag-and-drop builder, to the extent that others couldn't keep up. Many MailerLite alternatives that arose in the ensuing time period couldn't match the tool's ability to work as essential email marketing software, and subsequently focused on becoming broader customer relationship management software and e-commerce platforms.
MailerLite remains a popular email marketing assistant that provides both the essential and advanced features required by most businesses. If you need help with your email campaigns or you're struggling with unlimited emails regarding your business, then MailerLite is a solid choice.
Intended audience
Small businesses and startups
Smaller-scale enterprises, whether they're e-commerce businesses, marketing companies, high-tech gadget makers, or others, will find MailerLite to be particularly useful. MailerLite's free plan makes it a particularly great option for those starting their email marketing journey.
Entrepreneurs
Consultants, coaches, artists, and freelancers who need an easy-to-use platform that can connect email marketing with their web pages and landing pages will appreciate MailerLite's intuitive interface and its lack of a steep learning curve.
Bloggers and content creators
Being able to interlink things like your email sequences with social media and landing pages for your various websites is valuable, and MailerLite helps you to achieve this. Bloggers and content creators can also use the tool to create email marketing campaigns for all their platforms.
Charities, campaign groups and event organizers
Do you need unlimited email automation that's cheap or free, and simple to organize? If you run a campaign in your spare time and need advanced features for marketing made easy, then MailerLite is a good call.
Key features
- Drag and drop email builder: MailerLite's intuitive visual editor allows users to create professional-looking emails with ease, and includes user-friendly customization options and content blocks.
- Superb email automation: This email marketing system has automation features that put MailerLite's alternatives to shame, including triggers like new subscriber sign-ups, website visits, or product purchases.
- Landing pages constructor: MailerLite has a great landing page builder that will help you to capture leads, promote offers, or direct traffic. You can even build multiple landing pages on the free plan.
- Webpage builder: Need more than just landing pages? Among its other digital products is MailerLite's webpage builder for simple sites and blogs within your platform.
- Audience segmentation: One of MailerLite's advanced segmentation features, this allows you to segment subscribers based on various criteria such as engagement, demographics, interests (using tags/groups), and more.
Detailed analytics Unlike some of MailerLite's alternatives, the tool allows you to track key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribes, and more, to a high level of detail.
Pros
- User friendly interface: Based intuitively on user behaviour, MailerLite's interface is very simple to use for almost anyone.
- Inclusive pricing: MailerLite offers a very competitive pricing structure, especially for smaller email lists, and a generous free plan.
- Good customer support: MailerLite has won plaudits for its live chat support and is good at staying in constant contact with its customers.
- Strong automation features: Advanced automation features come with MailerLite as standard, across its payment pricing structure.
- All in one functionality: With this email marketing software you won't need any additional systems or plugins.
Cons
- Stringent approval process: New accounts will likely undergo a user behavior review process, which can sometimes delay getting started.
- Limited customization for forms: As MailerLite isn't a full-blown CRM, it doesn't have the best customization for forms, which could be off-putting for e-commerce businesses.
- Free plan limitations: The MailerLite free plan is pretty good, but it's not as good as its paid plans and lacks advanced features.
- Some analytics features lack depth: Some users report that some of the analytics and reporting features lack the depth compared to enterprise solutions.
Pricing information
Free plan
- Up to 1,000 subscribers
- 12,000 emails per month
- Includes core email marketing features, basic automation, landing pages (up to 10), and sign-up forms.
- Limited customer support (email only, no 24/7 chat)
Growing business plan
- Starts around $10/month for 0-1,000 subscribers (price increases with more subscribers)
- Unlimited monthly emails
- Includes everything in Free, plus unlimited landing pages, unlimited websites, more advanced automation, 24/7 email and chat support
Advanced plan
- Starts around $20/month for 0-1,000 subscribers (price increases with more subscribers)
- Unlimited monthly emails
- Includes everything in the plan above, plus HTML editor, AI writing assistant for email content, A/B testing for pop-ups, multivariate campaigns, and dedicated IP address options for larger senders
Enterprise plan
Custom pricing for large businesses with specific needs, offering dedicated support, higher sending limits, and tailored solutions.
Mailchimp - An email marketing platform that's not for monkeys
Arguably one of the most well-known MailerLite alternatives, Mailchimp users have been enjoying its services since 2001. Originally designed for small businesses, Mailchimp's subscriber count has since increased to cover a wide range of entities, including ecommerce stores, charitable organizations, startups, corner shops, and many more.
Over the years, Mailchimp has evolved from a purely email marketing and SMS marketing service into a more comprehensive "all-in-one" marketing system, unlike MailerLite, which has continued to operate as a more specific email marketing tool since it was launched. As such, Mailchimp lets its users control a number of key marketing functions in one place, including CRM functionalities, website building, and social media management.
This means that Mailchimp makes a big difference to organizations and individuals working on a tight budget that need to access core marketing functions without signing up for several other tools for the same results at more cost. Owned by Intuit since 2021, there's no sign that Mailchimp will change its primary core functions that appeal to so many of its users.
Intended audience
Small and medium sized businesses
Similarly to MailerLite, Mailchimp is also actively targeted at smaller-sized businesses, but there's a key difference here. Unlike MailerLite, this focus also extends to medium-sized companies that need access to more marketing tools, whereas MailerLite is more startup-focused.
Ecommerce businesses
Mailchimp is heavily involved in targeting e-commerce platforms as it includes third-party integrations like Shopify and WooCommerce, making it well-suited for online stores looking to automate things like product recommendations and abandoned cart emails.
Marketing companies
As you can imagine, marketing companies are big aficionados of Mailchimp, and its ability to carry the right message through emails while managing their essential functions in one place is a good choice.
Those who need integrations for email campaigns
Mailchimp's system allows Mailchimp users to add more integrations to its system, allowing them to create a unique all-in-one marketing system that can also act as an email editor. If you want to connect your email marketing software to other apps, then Mailchimp's for you.
Key features
- Custom journey builder: One of Mailchimp's key features is its custom journey builder which can create automated workflows. You can create multi-step customer journeys triggered by various customer behaviors, including website activity, purchases, and email engagement.
- Landing page builder: The Mailchimp system allows you to build customized landing pages to capture leads and direct traffic. You can also take advantage of Mailchimp's website builder if you want to build up your online presence. Different users can access these builders via the app's real-time collaboration.
- Analytics and reporting: Getting the right message for your branding requires a deep level of analytics to understand as much as you can about your customers. Mailchimp helps you to achieve this via high-quality data analytics that you can process to create a knowledge base about your users.
- Mailchimp Transactional Email: This additional feature allows you to create email templates and process them via an email editor to send automated, non-marketing emails like order confirmations, shipping notifications, and password resets.
Pros
- Extensive feature set: Whatever marketing problem you face Mailchimp probably has something to deal with it, and even Mailchimp's free plan has a number of robust features
- Powerful automation: Mailchimp's customer journey builder is pretty powerful and offers some of the more effective advanced automation options we've seen on the market.
- Strong analytics: Whether it's for ecommerce platforms, large businesses, or individual entrepreneurs, Mailchimp provides solid analytics to help you understand your business better.
- Effective scalability: As you can add third-party integrations to Mailchimp, it is a pretty good tool to help scale your businesses.
Cons
- Steep learning curve: Like other all in one tools it can be difficult to get to grips with Mailchimp as the integrations, added tools etc can be complex.
- The paid plans can scale quickly: While Mailchimp is certainly a good tool for scaling this also means that the cost of its paid plans can increase quickly, especially if you want its advanced features.
- No live chat support on free plans: If you want constant contact with Mailchimp's customer support then you better be ready to pay extra as only paying customers get priority support.
Pricing info
Free Plan
- Up to 500 contacts
- 1,000 monthly email sends (with a daily limit of 500)
- Includes basic email templates, signup forms, and a website builder
- Limited automation (single-step workflows only) and support (email for first 30 days)
Essentials Plan
- Starts around $13-$15/month for 500 contacts (price scales with contacts)
- Monthly email sends are 10x your contact count
- Includes A/B testing, 24/7 email and chat support, and more email templates
- Basic segmentation and single-step automation
Standard Plan
- Starts around $20-$23/month for 500 contacts (price scales significantly with contacts)
- Monthly email sends are 12x your contact count
- Includes advanced automation (Customer Journey Builder), predictive segmentation, behavioral targeting, custom-coded templates, and enhanced reporting
Premium Plan
- Starts at $350+/month for 10,000 contacts (scales to very high levels)
- Monthly email sends are 15x your contact count
- Offers unlimited users, unlimited audiences, and advanced segmentation with unlimited conditions
Pay-As-You-Go
Mailchimp also offers a credit system for occasional senders, where you purchase credits to send emails.
MailerLite or Mailchimp? Which email marketing platform is right for you?
It's clear that while both MailerLite and Mailchimp operate broadly on the same plane, as they take care of email campaigns, subject lines, and more, there are key differences between them too. Finding the best alternatives to things in life takes research, and we're happy to say we've been able to work out which tool works best for which audiences.
While the intended audiences of both MailerLite and Mailchimp did broadly align with what we found, we also discovered that other groups would benefit from the tool they might not be associated with, and vice versa. Regardless of this, everyone who uses an email marketing assistant can stand to benefit from the scheduling services Calday offers, so don't forget to sign up!
Related
Calday offers key functionalities like third-party app integration, custom booking pages and automated reminders. Click on to find out more!
MailerLite alternatives can go hang for these groups:
The budget conscious
We found that MailerLite's free plan is significantly superior to Mailchimp's offering, which will allow companies and individuals new to the market to grow their email base without breaking the bank. MailerLite's premium plans are also more affordable than Mailchimp, so overall this is the best option if every penny's a prisoner.
Those needing easy access
Both of the tools we've reviewed are fairly user-friendly, but as Mailchimp's system is more complex it can be significantly more difficult to adapt to than MailerLite. As such, if ease of access is an issue for you and you want to get started without being in constant contact with customer support, then this is the option for you.
Customer support appreciators
Having said all that, if you like having constant contact with high-quality customer support and don't want to end up in the spam filters of support agents, then MailerLite is definitely the choice for you. MailerLite users constantly report that the help on offer is of the highest quality, for both free plan and premium plan customers.
Mailchimp makes sense for these groups
Those needing an all in one tool
If you need more than an email marketing system, and want something that can consolidate email marketing, social media, ads, and a more robust website builder under one roof, then there's only one choice: Mailchimp. If you select this tool, then most of your marketing needs as a small business or entrepreneur will be taken care of.
You want the power and you want it now
There's no denying that Mailchimp can deliver on providing a wide range of tools, many of which have powerful features. Granted, there's a steep learning curve for some, but if you're prepared to put in the time to learn how to use the system properly and make the app your own, then Mailchimp can deliver some seriously impressive performance.
Automation appreciators
Things like push notifications, subscriber lists, and email campaigns can be automated by both tools, but unlike MailerLite, Mailchimp automation can be applied to a wider range of features that overlap with the system's marketing functions. Mailchimp's Customer Journey Builder, for example, offers extensive customization for complex workflows that can be automated much more than MailerLite's flagship tool.
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Sign up with Calday for advanced features and custom form submissions
At Calday we believe in keeping things simple: We focus on scheduling, making sure you don't miss your meetings and appointments whether you're a large corporation or an individual entrepreneur. We offer transparent pricing, great customer support, and some of the best key features currently available.
Combing our scheduling system with your email marketing assistant of choice is a great next step towards boosting your business profile and growing your customer base. With our custom reminders, booking pages and more, you can create a truly unique marketing and booking ecosystem.
It's easy to get started, all you need to do is follow the link and you'll be taken to a contact form. Simply enter your details to create an account and you'll then be able to link it with whatever calendar app you're currently using. Welcome to stress free scheduling!
