Mailchimp vs Klaviyo (2026)
Pick Klaviyo if you run an online store and your email revenue comes from flows like abandoned cart, browse abandonment and post-purchase. Pick Mailchimp if you send newsletters and campaigns across a broader business and want the lower bill. Both are hosted, both charge by contact, and both get expensive as a list grows.
Price
Monthly list prices on each platform’s main email plan:
| Contacts | Mailchimp Standard | Klaviyo Email |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | About $40 | $30 |
| 10,000 | $135 | $150 |
| 50,000 | $450 | $720 |
Klaviyo is cheaper at the very bottom and pulls well ahead in price as the list grows. Full tables: Mailchimp pricing and Klaviyo pricing.
How contacts are counted matters as much as the price. Mailchimp counts unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts toward your plan unless you archive them. Klaviyo counts active profiles, anyone who can receive marketing email, and has billed on the total since February 2025.
Side by side
| Mailchimp | Klaviyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Any business sending campaigns and newsletters | Ecommerce stores |
| Store data | Integrations with Shopify and others | Deep: orders, products, browsing events, predicted lifetime value |
| Automations | Up to 4 steps on Essentials, 200 on Standard | Flows with ecommerce triggers on every paid plan |
| SMS | Add-on | Built in, on the Email and SMS plan |
| Free plan | 250 contacts, 500 emails a month | 250 profiles, 500 emails a month |
| Integrations | Very large directory | Strong for ecommerce, narrower elsewhere |
Which to pick
Online store with meaningful revenue from email: Klaviyo. Its flows use purchase and browsing data Mailchimp can’t match, and a few percent more revenue pays for the difference.
Service business, publisher, nonprofit or SaaS: Mailchimp, or a cheaper option. You don’t need Klaviyo’s ecommerce depth.
Large list, mostly newsletters, cost matters: neither. Both charge by contact, so the bill grows with every subscriber. A self-hosted tool like Broadcast costs $250 once and sends through Amazon SES at about $0.10 per 1,000 emails. It doesn’t have Klaviyo’s Shopify data, so it fits content and campaign email better than store automation. See the pricing calculator to compare all three at your size.
Frequently asked questions
Is Klaviyo better than Mailchimp?
For ecommerce, usually yes. For general newsletters and campaigns, Mailchimp does the job for less.
Is Klaviyo more expensive than Mailchimp?
At 10,000 contacts Klaviyo’s email plan is about $150 a month and Mailchimp Standard about $135. At 50,000, Klaviyo is about $720 and Mailchimp $450.
Can I use Mailchimp with Shopify?
Yes, through integrations, but the data it gets is shallower than Klaviyo’s. For stores that live on email flows, Klaviyo is the stronger fit.
