Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: The Honest Agency Verdict

Full disclosure: we're a Klaviyo partner agency. We work inside Klaviyo accounts every day. That said, we've also inherited plenty of Mailchimp accounts during client onboarding, so we know both platforms well enough to give you an honest answer.

Here it is: if you sell products online — whether that's DTC ecommerce, B2B ecommerce, or anything with a Shopify store — you should be on Klaviyo. Not because we're biased (though we are), but because Mailchimp genuinely was not built for ecommerce and the gap between the two platforms gets wider every year.

The Short Answer

If you're an ecommerce brand comparing Klaviyo vs Mailchimp, just switch to Klaviyo. The sooner you do it, the less painful it is — because every flow, template, and automation you build on Mailchimp is sunk cost on a platform you're eventually going to leave.

The rest of this article explains why in detail. But if you just came here for the recommendation, that's it.

Why Brands Start on Mailchimp

Mailchimp is probably the most recognized name in email marketing. It was one of the original platforms, it has a generous free tier, and most founders have heard of it before they've heard of anything else. So when a brand is doing its first $1,000/month and needs to send a newsletter, Mailchimp is the obvious starting point.

That's fine. No one is making a bad decision by starting there. The problem is staying there.

Why Ecommerce Brands Leave Mailchimp

The core issue is that Mailchimp was built as a general-purpose email tool. It works for newsletters, nonprofits, restaurants, local businesses — anything where “send email to a list” is the whole job. But ecommerce email marketing is a different animal. You need to know what people bought, what they browsed, when they abandoned a cart, and how much revenue each email generates. Mailchimp's ecommerce reporting, especially with Shopify, is close to non-existent.

The longer a brand stays on Mailchimp, the worse it gets. Not because Mailchimp degrades — but because the sunk cost compounds. You build flows there. You design templates there. You train your team on it. And then one day you realize you have no idea which campaigns are actually driving revenue, your segmentation is limited to five conditions, and your “automation” is a basic drip sequence. Now you have to migrate everything you built, which costs time and money that could have been avoided.

When brands come to us and they're on Mailchimp, the advice is always the same: regardless of whether you work with us, get off Mailchimp as soon as possible.

What Klaviyo Actually Does Better

Every Klaviyo vs Mailchimp comparison talks about “advanced segmentation” and “300+ integrations.” Those claims are true, but they don't mean anything until you see what they look like in practice.

Reporting and Attribution

This is the first thing brands notice after migrating. In Klaviyo, you can see exactly how much revenue each campaign generated, how much each flow generated, and how those numbers trend over time. You can see revenue per recipient, click-through rates, placed order rates — real ecommerce metrics, not just opens and clicks.

In Mailchimp, you get delivery success, opens, clicks, and a basic order count. For a brand doing $50K+/month, that level of reporting is not enough to make decisions. You can't optimize what you can't measure, and Mailchimp makes it very hard to measure what matters.

Segmentation

Mailchimp caps you at five segmentation conditions. Klaviyo is more or less limitless. Here's what that looks like in practice — in Klaviyo, you can build a segment of:

• Customers who purchased Product X but haven't reordered in 45 days
• People who browsed a specific collection but never added to cart
• Subscribers who started checkout but didn't complete it, more than once
• VIP customers with 500+ loyalty points (pulled from Smile or Yotpo)
• People who answered “dry skin” on a post-purchase survey (pushed in as a custom property)

These aren't hypothetical. These are segments we build for clients regularly. Mailchimp simply cannot do this. If you want to build segments like these for your Klaviyo account, our free Klaviyo Audience Builder creates 22 lifecycle segments in one click.

Flows and Automation

Klaviyo's flow system is built around ecommerce events: someone abandons a cart, browses a product, makes a purchase, starts a subscription, submits a review. Each of these can trigger a multi-step sequence with conditional splits, time delays, and A/B tests.

Mailchimp calls its version “Customer Journeys.” They work for basic drip sequences — someone signs up, wait two days, send email — but they lack the depth to build the kind of flows that actually drive revenue for ecommerce brands. There's no real equivalent to a multi-branch post-purchase flow that splits based on what someone bought, whether they're a first-time or repeat buyer, and what they might want next.

If you're evaluating flow capabilities, our Klaviyo Flow Builder deploys proven templates instantly so you can see what a real ecommerce flow system looks like.

Integrations and Ecosystem

Klaviyo integrates with basically every tool in the Shopify ecosystem. Loop (returns), Smile (loyalty), Yotpo and Judge.me (reviews), Recharge (subscriptions), Gorgias (support) — all of them push data into Klaviyo, which means you can use that data for segmentation and automation.

That's genuinely powerful. Instead of having review request emails in Yotpo, loyalty emails in Smile, and marketing emails in your ESP, you can consolidate all of your email communication into one platform. One place to manage templates, one place to see analytics, one place to build segments that combine data from every source.

Mailchimp has integrations too, but they're shallower. The data that flows in is more limited, and the things you can do with it are more constrained.

SMS

Klaviyo's SMS is built into the same platform as email. Same segments, same flows, same reporting. You can build a flow that sends an email, waits two days, checks if they opened it, and sends an SMS if they didn't — all in one sequence.

Mailchimp added SMS later and it shows. It's a separate feature bolted on, not a native part of the automation engine. For brands that want email and SMS working together (which, in 2026, should be every ecommerce brand), Klaviyo is the clear choice. For a deeper look at the standalone SMS options, we compared Klaviyo SMS strategy for Shopify brands in a separate guide.

The Migration: What It Actually Looks Like

The fear of switching is usually worse than the switch itself. Here's what actually happens:

Your list doesn't disappear. If you're on Shopify, your subscribers reintegrate automatically through the Klaviyo-Shopify connection. You can also export from Mailchimp and import into Klaviyo. Your data is safe.

The basic setup takes a couple hours. Install the Klaviyo app, connect your Shopify store, verify your sending domain, import your list. Not complicated.

The real pain is rebuilding flows and templates. This is the legitimate cost of migrating late. You can't press a button and import your Mailchimp automations into Klaviyo. You have to rebuild the logic (triggers, conditions, timing) and recreate the email designs. If you don't have the original design files, you're essentially starting from scratch on the creative side.

This is exactly why we tell brands to switch early. A brand with two Mailchimp automations and a basic template migrates in an afternoon. A brand with 15 flows and custom designs across all of them is looking at a week of rebuilding.

Pricing: The Real Comparison

Mailchimp's free plan supports up to 500 contacts and 1,000 monthly sends. Klaviyo's free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 email sends, plus 150 SMS credits. Both are enough to get started.

On paid plans, Mailchimp starts around $13/month and Klaviyo starts at $20/month. Mailchimp looks cheaper on paper, but the useful features (advanced automations, A/B testing, custom segmentation) are locked behind higher tiers. By the time you're paying for a Mailchimp plan that can do what Klaviyo's base plan does, the price difference narrows or disappears.

Both platforms charge based on contact count. As your list grows, your bill grows. Klaviyo tends to cost more at scale, but it also drives more revenue at scale — the reporting alone helps you identify what's working and stop wasting sends on disengaged subscribers. If you're already on Klaviyo and want to optimize costs, our Klaviyo Bill Reducer identifies inactive profiles you can suppress to cut your bill by 20-30%.

When Mailchimp Is Fine

We're not saying Mailchimp is bad at everything. If you're a non-ecommerce business — a restaurant, a nonprofit, a local service business, a content creator — Mailchimp works fine. It's easy to use, the free tier is generous, and you don't need ecommerce-specific features. It's still not our favorite platform even for those use cases, but it gets the job done.

But if you're selling products online? There is no scenario where we'd recommend Mailchimp over Klaviyo. The reporting gap alone makes it a dealbreaker.

The Bottom Line

Most “Klaviyo vs Mailchimp” articles hedge with “it depends on your needs.” We won't do that. If you run an ecommerce store, Klaviyo is the better platform. Better reporting, better segmentation, better automation, better integrations, better SMS. Mailchimp is a fine general-purpose email tool, but it is not an ecommerce email platform.

The best time to switch was before you built a bunch of infrastructure on Mailchimp. The second best time is now.

For more platform comparisons, read our Klaviyo vs Omnisend comparison or our overview of top Klaviyo alternatives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I lose my email list if I switch from Mailchimp to Klaviyo?

No. If you're on Shopify, your subscribers sync automatically through the Klaviyo-Shopify integration. You can also export your list from Mailchimp and import it into Klaviyo directly. Your subscriber data, including engagement history, is preserved.

How long does it take to migrate from Mailchimp to Klaviyo?

The basic setup (connecting Shopify, importing your list, verifying your domain) takes a couple of hours. The time-consuming part is rebuilding your flows and email templates, which can take anywhere from an afternoon to a week depending on how much you've built on Mailchimp.

Is Klaviyo worth it for a small ecommerce store?

Yes. Klaviyo's free plan covers up to 250 contacts. Even at that size, you get better reporting, better segmentation, and better automation than Mailchimp's paid plans. The earlier you start on the right platform, the less you'll have to rebuild later.

Is Mailchimp cheaper than Klaviyo?

At the entry level, yes — Mailchimp starts at $13/month vs Klaviyo's $20/month. But Mailchimp locks its most useful features (advanced automations, full A/B testing) behind higher-tier plans. By the time you're paying for equivalent functionality, the difference is marginal, and Klaviyo drives more revenue through better targeting and reporting.

Can I use Mailchimp with Shopify?

Technically yes, but the integration is limited compared to Klaviyo's native Shopify connection. Mailchimp's ecommerce reporting with Shopify is minimal — you won't get the revenue attribution, product-level analytics, or behavioral triggers that Klaviyo provides out of the box.