Mailchimp vs Klaviyo (2026): Which Is Better for Marketers?

Klaviyo is the better buy for a store that wants email and SMS tied to what people actually bought. Its Email plan is $20/mo at 500 active profiles, with 5,000 sends included, and every add-on stacks on top of that base. Choose Mailchimp when the list is not an ecommerce list: Essentials starts at $13/mo for around 500 contacts, and it is the cheaper entry price for a service business or a media brand that needs forms, scheduling, and basic automation without store data attached.

Both free plans cap at 250 contacts or profiles. Prices below were verified on 24 September 2026 from Mailchimp's pricing page and Klaviyo's pricing page, both read on the USD toggle.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, evaluated 106 email marketing tools for its September 2026 ranking. Mailchimp lands in the top 5 of that list; Klaviyo sits in the honorable mentions as the named pick for ecommerce brands specifically. The full shelf is the email marketing ranking, with directory profiles for Mailchimp and Klaviyo. Dupple sends its own newsletters, MarketingShot included, on beehiiv, not on Mailchimp or Klaviyo, which is worth knowing before you weigh this verdict.

For transparency: MarketingShot and Dupple's other newsletters are sent on beehiiv, not on either platform compared here.

At a glance

Mailchimp prices by a contact bucket that repeats across every plan tier; Klaviyo prices its Email plan by active profiles on a single slider, and everything else (Composer, Customer Hub, Social marketing, Reviews) is billed as a separate line on top of that base. A "starting at" price on either vendor is the smallest bucket, not what a working list actually pays.

Automations: a 4-step cap versus flows with no published limit

Mailchimp's cheapest paid plan is also its most limited automation builder. Essentials caps a customer journey at 4 steps, which covers a welcome email and a couple of follow-ups but not a branched flow with a wait step, a tag check, and a re-engagement path. Standard and Premium both raise that ceiling to 200 steps, so the move from Essentials to Standard is the real automation upgrade, not a template or seat change.

Klaviyo's pricing page does not publish a step cap for the flows bundled into every paid plan, unlike Mailchimp's stated 4-step limit on Essentials. That difference matters most to a store running abandoned-cart, browse-abandonment, and post-purchase flows at the same time, because those often branch past 4 steps on their own. A marketer choosing between the two on automation depth alone should treat Mailchimp Essentials as a holding plan, not the destination.

What each vendor means by "contact"

A Mailchimp contact is anyone in an audience, subscribed or not, and the free plan stops at 250 of them with sends capped at 500 a month or 250 a day. Cross that line and Essentials becomes the cheapest way back to sending, with three seats and the A/B testing the free plan does not have, the same feature the A/B testing tools roundup covers on its own.

A Klaviyo active profile is anyone Klaviyo can message across email, SMS, or a connected channel, which is a wider definition than a subscribed email address. Free also stops at 250, with 500 emails a month and a $5 monthly credit toward SMS and MMS. Once a store grows past that, the paid Email plan begins at the first 500-profile bucket, and Klaviyo's own comparison table marks real-time segments, personalized product recommendations, and predictive analytics as paid-only features, absent from the free tier entirely.

SMS and the channels beyond email

Klaviyo prices text messaging as a metered add-on on every plan, including Free. US toll-free SMS runs $0.01 plus carrier fees per send, while MMS carries no Klaviyo per-send fee, only carrier fees, on top of the $5 monthly message credit that ships with every tier. That metered structure means a busy SMS month adds a variable line to the invoice rather than a flat per-seat bump.

Mailchimp's marketing pricing page does not list SMS rates alongside the four email plans above, so a marketer who wants text messaging in the same login as email should confirm that channel directly with Mailchimp before assuming it is bundled. Klaviyo's SMS pricing, by contrast, sits on the same pricing page as its email tiers, which is one reason ecommerce brands running both channels default to it. A brand that only needs text and not a full email rebuild is closer to the SMS marketing roundup, and the landing page that a text link sends people to is a separate build covered in the landing page builders roundup.

The extras that stack on top of Klaviyo's base plan

Composer, Klaviyo's AI layer for drafting and analyzing campaigns, is a flat monthly add-on priced the same as the entry Email plan, with higher usage tiers available as you grow. Customer Hub, a self-serve destination for order status and offers, lists at $30/mo for a 500-profile account, cut by an introductory 30% discount running to 30 September 2026. Social marketing, which turns engagement into a growth channel, lists at $50/mo at 10,000 profiles, discounted to $38/mo under the same kind of introductory window. Reviews, the product-review collector, is $25/mo for up to 250 orders a month.

None of those four are required to run Klaviyo's core Email plan, and a store can skip all of them and still send flows. But a marketer budgeting off Klaviyo's headline entry price should know that the full toolkit it markets, AI drafting, a branded self-serve hub, and review collection, is priced separately from that headline number, while Mailchimp's Standard and Premium tiers fold dynamic content and advanced automation into one flat monthly fee instead of a menu of add-ons. Where an AI drafting layer like Composer fits into a weekly send calendar is the AI marketing workflows question, not a pricing one.

Free plan limits

Mailchimp's free plan holds 250 contacts, 500 sends a month or 250 a day, one seat, and one audience, with Mailchimp's own branding staying on every email and no A/B testing available until you pay. Klaviyo's free plan also stops at 250 profiles and 500 emails a month, but it adds a small SMS allowance the Mailchimp free plan does not have, and its support window is explicit: email support for the first 60 days, then Klaviyo Academy, the community, and the help center on your own.

Neither free plan is built to run a real launch. They exist to let a small list, or a store still testing the platform, see the editor and the reporting before the first paid tier arrives.

Who should pick which

Pick Klaviyo when the business is ecommerce and the win condition is revenue per email, not opens. The Email plan folds real-time segments and predictive analytics into its entry tier, unlike Mailchimp's Essentials plan, and the SMS pricing sits next to the email pricing instead of somewhere else. Budget for Composer, Customer Hub, or Social marketing separately if you want those, because none of the three ship inside the base plan.

Pick Mailchimp when the list is not tied to a storefront, the automations needed fit in 4 steps or you are ready to move up to Standard's 200-step builder, and a lower entry price matters more than profile-based flexibility. A service business, a local brand, or a media newsletter that needs forms, scheduling, and a landing page without store data attached is closer to what Mailchimp Essentials was built for than what Klaviyo's ecommerce-first pricing rewards, and growing that list from zero is the how to grow a newsletter question.

Pick neither when the list has to sit inside a CRM with sales automation attached; the ActiveCampaign review is the next read for that buyer. A list under a few thousand names that wants the cheapest possible seat belongs in the email marketing for small business roundup, and a list that has outgrown a 4-step flow entirely is the lifecycle marketing roundup. Still comparing broadly before narrowing to these two names is the email marketing software roundup.

How we compared

We read Mailchimp's marketing pricing page and Klaviyo's pricing page, both on the USD toggle, on 24 September 2026. Automation step limits for Mailchimp came from the plan comparison on that same page. Klaviyo's SMS and MMS per-send rates and its Composer, Customer Hub, Social marketing, and Reviews add-on prices came from the live pricing calculator on klaviyo.com, read the same day.

Neither vendor paid for a mention, and neither has an active affiliate program in our records, so no link on this page earns a commission. This is a pricing and plan-structure comparison, not a hands-on send test of either product. Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple, edited the verdict. Re-check both pricing pages before you commit to a plan, because list-based and profile-based pricing both move as your account grows.

FAQ

Which should a marketer choose in 2026, Mailchimp or Klaviyo?

Choose Klaviyo if the list is an ecommerce store's customer list and revenue attribution matters, because its Email plan bundles real-time segments and predictive analytics into the entry tier from the first paid dollar. Choose Mailchimp if the list is not tied to a storefront and a lower entry price matters more, because Essentials starts at $13/mo. Toolradar's September 2026 email marketing ranking, 106 tools evaluated, places Mailchimp in the top 5 and names Klaviyo as its ecommerce pick.

How much does Mailchimp cost compared with Klaviyo?

Mailchimp's paid tiers are Essentials at $13/mo, Standard at $20/mo, and Premium at $350/mo, each priced by a contact bucket that grows with your list. Klaviyo's Email plan opens at that same headline price for up to 500 active profiles and scales on the same slider as your list grows; Composer, Customer Hub, Social marketing, and Reviews are separate add-ons on top of that base. Mailchimp's 15% introductory offer applies only to accounts with 10,000+ contacts, and Klaviyo quotes every plan per month with no published annual discount, so re-check the live pages before budgeting a year at once.

Which free plan lasts longer?

Both free plans cap at 250 contacts or profiles, so neither lasts longer by list size. Mailchimp's free plan sends up to 500 emails a month or 250 a day, with no A/B testing. Klaviyo's free plan matches that send volume and adds a $5 monthly SMS credit, but email support only lasts the first 60 days, after which you are on the community and help center like everyone else on that tier.

Does either tool include SMS marketing?

Klaviyo prices SMS and MMS as a metered add-on on every plan, including Free, at $0.01 plus carrier fees per US toll-free SMS send, with a $5 monthly credit included on each tier. Mailchimp's marketing pricing page, the one carrying the four plans in this comparison, does not list SMS rates, so a marketer who needs text messaging inside Mailchimp should confirm that separately rather than assume it is bundled at these prices.

Which one is better for ecommerce automation?

Klaviyo is built around the ecommerce case: its Email plan does not publish a step limit on the flows bundled into every paid tier, and predictive analytics and real-time segments are paid-plan features from the first dollar. Mailchimp's cheapest paid plan, Essentials, caps a journey at 4 steps, and a marketer who needs more has to move up to Standard for 200-step automations, a separate upgrade from anything Klaviyo's profile-based pricing controls.

What do the paid add-ons cost on Klaviyo?

Composer is a flat monthly add-on, with higher usage tiers available as you grow. Customer Hub lists at $30/mo for a 500-profile account, cut under an introductory 30% discount running to 30 September 2026. Social marketing lists at $50/mo at 10,000 profiles, discounted to $38/mo under a similar introductory offer. Reviews is $25/mo for up to 250 orders a month. None of the four are required to run Klaviyo's base Email plan.

Is there a trial, and what does it leave out?

Mailchimp offers a 14-day free trial on Essentials and Standard, with a payment method required before full sending starts; Premium is not listed with the same trial on the pricing page. Klaviyo's free plan has no time limit while you stay inside its 250-profile cap, so there is no separate countdown trial for the Email plan itself. Neither vendor's entry offer shows what predictive analytics or a 200-step automation actually looks like in practice, since both sit behind a paid tier.

Cite this: MarketingShot, "Mailchimp vs Klaviyo (2026): Which Is Better for Marketers?", September 2026.

MarketingShot is the daily brief for marketers weighing an email-platform switch. Join at marketingshot.com.