Mailchimp

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Mailchimp is one of the most widely used email marketing platforms in the world, with millions of users ranging from solo bloggers to established small businesses. It offers email campaign creation, list management, marketing automation, landing pages, and basic CRM features in a platform that has been a starting point for email marketing for over two decades.

This review covers what Mailchimp does, who it fits, and where its limits are.

Key Takeaways

• Household name in email marketing: Mailchimp is widely recognised and has extensive tutorials, integrations, and community resources built up over many years.
• All-in-one marketing platform: beyond email, Mailchimp includes landing pages, social posting, postcards, and basic CRM, positioning itself as a small business marketing hub.
• Automation included on paid plans: welcome series, abandoned cart emails, and behaviour-triggered campaigns are available on paid plans.
• Best for small businesses doing general email marketing: businesses that need a reliable, well-documented email marketing tool with broad integration support are the core audience.
• Free plan for up to 500 contacts: the free plan covers basic email sending; paid plans start at $13/month and scale with contact count.

What Is Mailchimp and What Does It Do?

Mailchimp is a small business marketing platform centred on email marketing, offering campaign creation, list management, automation, landing pages, and audience analytics in one platform that has been widely adopted as the starting point for email marketing across industries.

Mailchimp has expanded from email to position itself as a broader marketing tool for small businesses.

• Email campaign builder: create email campaigns using a drag-and-drop block editor or a code editor for custom HTML; use pre-built templates or start from a blank canvas; preview on desktop and mobile before sending.
• Audience management: import and manage subscriber lists with tags and segments; use Mailchimp's audience insights to understand subscriber demographics, engagement patterns, and predicted behaviour.
• Automation and journeys: build multi-step automation sequences using the Customer Journey builder; set up welcome series, birthday emails, re-engagement campaigns, and e-commerce triggers like abandoned cart and post-purchase follow-up.

Mailchimp is most useful for small businesses that want a recognisable, well-documented email platform with broad integration support and a familiar interface.

Who Is Mailchimp Built For?

Mailchimp is built for small business owners, bloggers, nonprofit organisations, and e-commerce stores that want to send professional email campaigns, manage their subscriber list, and automate basic follow-up sequences without a dedicated email marketing specialist.

The platform's broad recognition and resource library make it a practical first email marketing choice.

• Small e-commerce businesses: online shops use Mailchimp's Shopify and WooCommerce integrations for abandoned cart emails, post-purchase sequences, and product recommendation campaigns.
• Nonprofit organisations: nonprofits sending donor updates, event invitations, and fundraising appeals use Mailchimp's free plan and nonprofit pricing to stay within limited marketing budgets.
• Local and service businesses: restaurants, fitness studios, and professional service businesses that send regular updates, promotions, and newsletters to their customer list use Mailchimp as a straightforward all-in-one option.

Businesses with large subscriber lists, advanced automation requirements, or deep e-commerce marketing needs will find Mailchimp's pricing and feature depth less competitive than Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign.

How Does Mailchimp Work?

You create a Mailchimp account, import your contact list or connect a sign-up form to grow it, choose a template or build an email in the drag-and-drop editor, configure a send schedule or automation trigger, and send to your full audience or a defined segment.

The workflow is familiar to most small business owners after a short learning period.

• List import and management: import a CSV of existing contacts or use Mailchimp's embedded sign-up forms; assign tags to organise subscribers into relevant groups for targeted sending.
• Campaign creation: choose a campaign type (regular, automated, or A/B test), select a template, customise the content in the drag-and-drop editor, set the audience, and schedule or send immediately.
• Automation setup: use the Customer Journey builder to create multi-step sequences with triggers, delays, and conditional branches; connect e-commerce triggers through the Mailchimp integration with your store platform.

Getting the first email campaign sent takes an hour or less for a new Mailchimp user.

What Are Mailchimp's Real Strengths?

Mailchimp's biggest strengths are the extensive template library, the broad integration ecosystem built up over years, the wealth of third-party tutorials and community resources, and the all-in-one positioning that covers email, landing pages, and basic CRM in one account.

For small businesses starting their email marketing, these practical advantages are significant.

• Thousands of integrations: Mailchimp integrates natively with Shopify, WooCommerce, Salesforce, Stripe, WordPress, and hundreds of other tools; connecting email marketing to the rest of the business's tools is straightforward without needing Zapier.
• Extensive learning resources: Mailchimp has one of the most complete libraries of help documentation, tutorials, and marketing guides in the email category; new users can find answers to almost any question without contacting support.
• Generous free plan for starting out: 500 contacts and basic campaigns on the free plan allow new businesses to start sending email marketing and building a list before investing in a paid subscription.
• A/B testing on paid plans: testing subject lines, send times, and email content on audience segments is available from the Standard plan, which allows data-driven optimisation without advanced tools.

These strengths make Mailchimp the most practical starting point for small businesses that value a familiar, well-supported platform over cutting-edge features.

Where Does Mailchimp Fall Short?

Mailchimp's pricing escalates sharply with contact count, the automation builder is less advanced than dedicated platforms, deliverability concerns have emerged as the platform has grown, and the interface has become more complex as features have been added.

These limitations become significant as a business's email marketing matures.

• Pricing scales aggressively with list size: Mailchimp charges by contact count; a list of 10,000 contacts on the Standard plan costs significantly more than alternatives like Kit or Flodesk at the same list size, making Mailchimp increasingly expensive as the audience grows.
• Automation less advanced than competitors: the Customer Journey builder covers common sequences but lacks the conditional logic depth and behavioural trigger sophistication of ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo for complex multi-path automation.
• Interface complexity has grown: years of added features have made Mailchimp's interface more complex to navigate than it once was; new users sometimes find it harder to find settings and features than in cleaner, newer platforms.
• Not optimal for e-commerce: while Mailchimp has e-commerce integrations and revenue tracking, it lacks the depth of e-commerce-specific features, product recommendation AI, and predictive segmentation that Klaviyo provides for online stores.

Mailchimp is a strong start but many businesses outgrow it as their list and automation needs grow. Planning for migration before reaching that point is easier than migrating after.

How Much Does Mailchimp Cost?

Mailchimp's free plan covers up to 500 contacts and 1,000 monthly sends. Paid plans start at $13/month for the Essentials plan, scaling significantly with contact count. The Standard plan, which includes automation and A/B testing, starts at $20/month for 500 contacts.

Pricing rises steeply with contact count; calculate the actual cost at your list size before committing rather than going by the lowest advertised price.

How Does Mailchimp Compare to Other Email Platforms?

Mailchimp competes with Kit for creator-focused email, Klaviyo for e-commerce, ActiveCampaign for automation depth, and Flodesk for design-first email. It is the best-known option in the category but not the best value for most specific use cases at scale.

The right choice depends on list size, automation needs, and whether e-commerce triggers are required.

Mailchimp wins on brand recognition, integration breadth, and resource library. Kit wins for creators. Klaviyo wins for e-commerce. ActiveCampaign wins for automation.

Is Mailchimp Good for E-commerce Email Marketing?

Mailchimp covers the basics of e-commerce email marketing through its Shopify and WooCommerce integrations, but it is not the strongest platform for stores that want to fully leverage customer purchase behaviour, product recommendations, and predictive segmentation.

E-commerce email marketing has specific requirements that Mailchimp partially meets.

• Abandoned cart emails: Mailchimp's Shopify integration supports abandoned cart emails, which is the highest-ROI automation for most e-commerce stores.
• Post-purchase sequences: follow-up emails after a purchase for review requests, upsells, and loyalty building are available through the Customer Journey builder with an e-commerce integration.
• Limitation at scale: for stores with significant email revenue and complex segmentation needs, Klaviyo's product recommendation AI, predictive churn models, and e-commerce-first data model deliver better results than Mailchimp's general-purpose approach.

At LOW/CODE Agency, when e-commerce clients ask about email marketing, we often see Mailchimp as the starting point and Klaviyo as the migration destination once the store is generating enough revenue to justify the platform's pricing and investment.

What Are the Common Mistakes When Using Mailchimp?

The most common Mailchimp mistakes are not cleaning the subscriber list regularly, staying on the free plan past its contact limits, and ignoring the automation features in favour of manual sends only.

These mistakes reduce deliverability, increase costs, and miss the platform's most valuable capabilities.

• Not cleaning the list: inactive subscribers with poor open rates damage deliverability; use Mailchimp's engagement filters to identify and remove subscribers who have not opened emails in six months or more.
• Staying on the free plan too long: the free plan's feature limitations and contact cap make it unsuitable once email marketing is a real business channel; upgrade to at least the Standard plan to access automation and A/B testing.
• Sending only manual campaigns: automation is where email marketing delivers its highest return; setting up a welcome series, abandoned cart, and re-engagement sequence captures value that manual-send-only approaches miss entirely.
• Not segmenting the audience: sending the same campaign to the entire list regardless of purchase history, interests, or engagement level produces lower performance than targeted sends to relevant segments.

Cleaning the list regularly, using automation from the start, and segmenting for relevant sends produces consistently better results from Mailchimp.

Conclusion

Mailchimp is the most widely recognised email marketing platform for small businesses, with a practical free starting point, thousands of integrations, and extensive learning resources. It covers the core email marketing needs of most small businesses competently.

It is not the best choice for e-commerce stores that want to fully leverage purchase data, for creators who want a generous free plan, or for businesses that need deep automation. For businesses starting email marketing and wanting a familiar, well-documented platform, Mailchimp is a practical first choice with a clear migration path as needs grow.

Need a Custom Email System or Marketing Automation Built for Your Business?

Mailchimp handles standard email marketing. When your business needs a custom email workflow, a marketing automation system connected to your product data, or a campaign infrastructure built around your specific customer journey, professional development delivers what a newsletter platform cannot.

At LOW/CODE Agency, we build scalable digital products and marketing integrations for growing businesses. We have completed 450+ projects for clients including Medtronic, American Express, and Zapier.

If your email marketing needs a proper build, let's talk.

FAQs

What is Mailchimp used for?

Mailchimp is used to send email campaigns, manage subscriber lists, build automated sequences, and create landing pages for small business marketing.

Is Mailchimp free to use?

Yes. Mailchimp's free plan covers up to 500 contacts and basic email campaigns. Paid plans start at $13/month for more features and contacts.

How does Mailchimp compare to Klaviyo?

Klaviyo has stronger e-commerce integrations, predictive analytics, and automation. Mailchimp has more integrations overall and a more accessible starting price for non-e-commerce businesses.

Can Mailchimp send abandoned cart emails?

Yes. Mailchimp supports abandoned cart emails through its Shopify and WooCommerce integrations on paid plans.

Does Mailchimp support A/B testing?

Yes. A/B testing for subject lines, send times, and email content is available on the Standard plan and above.

Is Mailchimp good for large email lists?

It depends on the budget. Mailchimp pricing scales steeply with contact count; at 10,000+ contacts, alternatives like Kit or ActiveCampaign often offer better value.