Mailchimp Marketing Review 2024 — Is It Right for Your Startup?

Man at desk on laptop with Mailchimp rating on the left.

Email marketing tools are invaluable to a startup's marketing arsenal. Mailchimp Marketing packs in more than just email marketing features in their all-in-one platform, boasting features for digital ads, social media, and custom landing pages. 

If you’re trying to decide whether Mailchimp Marketing is the right addition to your startup’s tech stack, you’re in the right place. We'll explore pros and cons, pricing, and how the service stacks up to alternatives in this Mailchimp Marketing review.

Recommended: Boost your marketing strategy today with Mailchimp Marketing.

Pros and Cons of Mailchimp Marketing

Pros

  • Great for Beginners: Mailchimp Marketing is super easy to use making it a great marketing tool for beginners. 
  • Free Plan Available: Entrepreneurs or single-person teams can use Mailchimp’s free plan to get started with their email marketing campaigns. 
  • Personalize Customer Journeys: The platform boasts a Customer Journey Builder that allows users to map out personalized customer flows. 

Cons

  • May Not Be Ideal for Larger Companies: Mailchimp is a great tool for small email marketing campaigns, however, users may experience difficulty using the platform as they scale. 
  • Campaigns are Basic: Users looking to build photo-rich, highly customized email campaigns may not be well suited to the Mailchimp Marketing platform. 

Enhance Your Marketing Strategies

Mailchimp Marketing is an all-in-one marketing platform built to optimize marketing efforts from email campaigns to digital advertising. 

Try it Out

Mailchimp Marketing Pricing and Features

Mailchimp Marketing boasts several plans including a free version of their platform. The most important factors that change plan-to-plan are the amount of users, audiences, and emails that can be sent as well as  the type of customer support included with the plan. 

Here are Mailchimp Marketing’s core package offerings: 

Core Packages

  • Free —$0 
    • 1,000 monthly email sends 
    • One user 
    • Over 300 integrations 
    • Forms and landing pages 
  • Essentials — $13/month 
    • 5,000 monthly email sends 
    • Three users 
    • 24/7 email and chat support 
    • Pre-built email templates 
  • Standard — $20/month  
    • Generative AI features 
    • 6,000 monthly email sends 
    • Five users 
    • Reporting and analytics 
  • Premium — $350/month  
    • 150,000 monthly email sends 
    • Unlimited users
    • Unlimited audiences 
    • Phone and priority support  

For entrepreneurs looking for a basic email marketing tool, Mailchimp’s free plan is a steal, providing you with the essentials for running a successful email campaign and more. However, as your email subscriber list or team grows, you will need to upgrade to a higher tier plan. 

Mailchimp Marketing Reviews

Mailchimp’s marketing platform has a relatively high rating from verified customers at 7.9 out of 10 on TrustRadius. Several customers rated the platform well, sharing that the ease of use and results generated from using the platform such as success building email lists and running basic campaigns. Many customers noted limited functionality for larger businesses, citing that the service is likely better suited to small to mid-sized businesses or simple use cases. 

Here are some verified customer reviews from TrustRadius about Mailchimp Marketing: 

“We built a site for launching a new spa retail location and it helped building a mailing list. We integrated it with Privy pop-up tool and included in all promos, flyers, etc. to get signups. Also for another client we had a contest where signing up enters them into a draw to win a prize and that worked even better.”

“It is well suited for simple to moderately detailed newsletters, but less appropriate for photo-heavy newsletters. Good for basic to moderate newsletters, harder to add too much customization so we often use a third-party editing site to create our needed graphics/info graphs and then add them into Mailchimp to send out to the audience.” 

“Mailchimp was very well suited for our DTC brand that ran email campaigns based on cart abandonment. With the automation Mailchimp provided, we were able to target users based on if they removed a product or left the page and sent a follow up email with some type of promotional offer, which lead us to getting more purchases & an increase in revenue.”

Mailchimp Marketing Alternatives

Mailchimp Marketing is an easy-to-use and effective marketing tool but how does it match up against the competition? See how Mailchimp Marketing compares to competitor HubSpot based on price and how it is best suited for. 

Mailchimp Marketing

Free to $350 per month. 

Best For: Startups seeking an easy-to-use tool for email marketing and beyond. 

HubSpot

Free to $3,600 per month, billed annually. 

Best For: Startups looking for a comprehensive marketing solution for all channels. 

Final Thoughts on Mailchimp Marketing

While Mailchimp Marketing’s platform is built to support businesses in a variety of marketing channels, the primary function of the tool is email marketing. Businesses starting to build their email marketing lists that want powerful tools to boost conversions and engage more effectively with their customer base will appreciate the tools offered by Mailchimp Marketing. 

However,  companies with large subscriber counts, in need of features for complex email marketing campaigns, may need to look elsewhere or integrate Mailchimp to another service for higher functionality. 

Recommended: Start enhancing your marketing strategy today with Mailchimp Marketing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it worth paying for Mailchimp?

Mailchimp Marketing is a worthwhile investment for businesses looking for a tool to help manage, create, and launch effective marketing campaigns, especially email marketing campaigns. However, if you’re not ready to commit, you can also opt for Mailchimp Marketing’s free plan. 

Is Mailchimp actually free?

Yes, Mailchimp Marketing offers a free plan for up to one user. The platform also offers one month free for their paid plans. 

What exactly does Mailchimp do?

Mailchimp is known for their email marketing tools. However, their all-in-one marketing platform, Mailchimp Marketing, offers tools for more than email marketing including social media, landing pages, and digital advertising. 

What is the best tool for email marketing?

Our top choice for email marketing is Mailchimp for businesses just getting started on their email marketing strategy.