Mailchimp Review - Is This Popular Email Automaton's Juice Worth the Squeeze?

“Oldie but goodie” doesn’t apply to anything quite as well as it does to email.

It’s the oldest form of online communication—and it’s still the most important one.

Whether you're a blogger sharing slices of life, or an online business owner, email is your workhorse... or, in this case, workchimp!

Join us as we grab the binoculars to take a closer look at the best autoresponder in 2022 in our Mailchimp review below.

What Is Mailchimp

Initially an email automation platform, Mailchimp has since transitioned into a full CRM service. This service is still at its core, though, so we look at a host of features focused on email automation.

Mailchimp does the heavy lifting for you—it helps you generate leads and deliver focused content to them through workflows and the Mailchimp autoresponder.

It also allows you to segment your audiences so you can deliver relevant content and improve your conversion rate optimization (CRO).

Once your emails are flowing, fine-tune your campaigns through analytics and split testing with Mailchimp’s onboard tools.

Mailchimp Best Features

We tested the service extensively to surmise the very best features it provides.

First, we focus on the hard tech powering the mighty Chimp and then move on to analytics before capping off with a look at the mobile app. We also make reference to various integrations throughout the review.

Alright, enough monkeying around, let’s get into it.

Mailchimp Automation

Automated workflows are the heart of any email campaign. Mailchimp allows you to create these “journeys” in a visual flowchart menu.

First, you choose how a journey begins, i.e., a visitor makes a purchase, or it’s their birthday. Then you string together workflow triggers, set follow-up emails and wait periods, and so on.

It’s not drag-and-drop like other workflow builders we’ve used, but we found it a lot more streamlined, namely for this reason.

Mailchimp also offers more specific automation for transactional emails (e.g., promotional emails) and retargeting for new leads or remarketing to existing customers.

Mailchimp automates email messages but can also send physical postcards. Not the most practical feature, but the retro-enthusiast and nostalgists in your audience are sure to appreciate a couple.

Segmentation

Segmentation allows you to divide your audience (mail list) into various demographics for targeted campaigning. You can segment based on activity (how visitors have interacted with your content) or information (location, language, etc.).

The Mailchimp deliverability is 87% on average. With this feature, the service increases your chance of achieving such results, as relevant content is less likely to end up in the spam folder.

There are 22 preset segmentations available—even more can be created via tagging. Advanced segments, which allow more complex audience filtering, are available for the Premium Plan.

At the time of writing, Mailchimp is busy implementing segmentation options focused on GDPR compliance.

Custom Domain

While a Mailchimp WordPress integration is available, signing up for the service will get you a basic domain—even on the free plan.

You can also purchase a custom domain (registered through Tucows) through one of Mailchimp’s paid plans. Most of the top-level domains' prices (i.e., “.com”) start at between $13 to $46, but some run into $100 brackets.

When you purchase a domain through MailChimp, an SSL certification is granted with it. Note that Mailchimp doesn’t offer any country codes (e.g., “.us,” “.ru”) at the time of writing.

Mailchimp Templates

So far, we’ve looked at substance. But what about style? Mailchimp has it in bunches.

Pastel veneers and minimalist cartoons are a mainstay on software websites. But Mailchimp immediately stands out with the offbeat three-thumbed oddities gracing its pages. It’s distinct and offers its users the ability to stand out too.

The Mailchimp templates look good and are easy to modify, with two builders to choose from. The classic builder is a straightforward drag-and-drop editor.

The new builder is a grid-based system in which you make modifications by clicking icons on the page. We found that the rigidity of the new builder actually offers a tad more precision than the classic builder.

Content Studio

The Content Studio is a place for you to store your files—images, your store item catalog, your Instagram page. It also allows you to upload a logo and apply it to all your emails automatically.

Its most notable feature is the Creative Assistant—part of the Mailchimp pro tools ensemble. It connects to your website and creates custom templates consistent with your brand.

This makes it very easy to quickly create emails with everything relevant to your business or brand.

Split Testing

Fine-tune your Mailchimp campaigns by split testing them. Mailchimp allows you to try out up to three variations at once. You can test your emails’ subject line, sender name, content, and sent time.

From the data Mailchimp reviews and presents to you, you can see what’s working and amongst whom. If you’re on the Premium Plan, you’ll get access to multivariate testing that allows for up to eight variations at a time.

Speaking of data...

Analytics

The “baseline” Mailchimp analytics report is a compilation of the performance of all your campaigns across all segments. It provides an average against which to measure the particulars.

Mailchimp also offers integration for both Facebook Pixels and Google Analytics. Through them, you’ll be able to see open, click-through, and bounce rates, and so on.

Viewing these measures by segment allows you to adjust your strategies case by case rather than attempting to find a one size fits all solution. What one group of people ignores, another may respond to.

Mailchimp Mobile App

This app, which is available for iOS and Android, has all the basic features of the web app. It allows you to create emails, monitor statistics, and make mobile-optimized landing pages on the go.

A feature unique to the app is the business card scanner.

You’re at a conference and want to generate leads quickly? Just hold the business cards you gather in front of your mobile’s camera. When the scanner function is active, Mailchimp reviews and captures the needed information.

What We Disliked

We don’t have a lot to complain about in terms of the tech, but we did have a little trouble with customer support and the entry-level contact limits.

Mailchimp Support

We had a question about integrations, so we submitted a support ticket… only to receive no response until we sent a follow-up request the next day.

We go into more detail a little later in our Mailchimp review.

Default Contact Limit

By default, you are allowed to have up to 500 contacts. Most other services we’ve looked at start you off with 1,000—double Mailchimp’s offering.

It’s by no means a deal-breaker, given everything else Mailchimp offers, but it does seem a little low in comparison.

Mailchimp Price Plans

Mailchimp has a free plan and four different paid subscriptions. All plans but the Premium start with a limit of 500 contacts and offer several scaling options until an upgrade is necessary.

Monthly send limits scale per plan according to the contact limit. With the Essential package, the number of emails you can send is 10x the number of contacts allowed—i.e., if you have a 500 contact limit, you can send 5,000 emails. The Standard subscription allows for 12x and Premium—for 15x the contact limit.

Mailchimp offers a 15% discount for nonprofit organizations.

All prices are region-dependent. The costs listed here are specific to the United States of America.

Mailchimp Customer Service

Mailchimp’s customer service is generally good... when you finally reach them. As we mentioned above, we received no response after submitting a support ticket. It was only upon submitting a follow-up ticket that our needs were attended to.

Considering how great Mailchimp is overall, it’s a bit disappointing that its customer service isn’t on par. Admittedly, the agents are very busy, as they said in their apology, so the occasional delay is normal.

Plus, support is prioritized by payment plan. If you’re a high roller, you can expect quicker response times.

Mailchimp User Reviews

We wanted to see how others were finding the solution, so we took a look at some user reviews. The outlook on the service is overwhelmingly positive. Mailchimp holds a rating of 4.5 stars on Capterra, 4.5 stars on G2, and four stars on Trustradius.

Users praise the simplicity and customizability of the email marketing and autoresponder software. In terms of criticism, some people don’t like the way costs scale, while others reported syncing issues at certain turns.

Looking at some older reviews, we noticed the features that clients requested have since been added—like “customer journeys,” for example. This shows Mailchimp reads reviews and is dedicated to giving users what they want.

The average Mailchimp review on Reddit is positive, generally reflecting the sentiments in rating sites.

Is Mailchimp Worth The Cost?

Mailchimp is an all-around winner, which provides you with everything you need to foster great customer relations through email automation. It gives you the software, analytics, and seamlessly draws on any existing structures you have in place.

The only downsides are the sometimes slow customer support and the lower-than-average entry cap on contact limits.

Mailchimp Alternatives

If you’re still not sold on the king of the email automation jungle, consider some of these alternative services.

GetResponse vs Mailchimp

Mailchimp beats GetResponse in that it has a free plan and allows for multiple users on entry-level paid packages. GetResponse wins out in that it comes with more contacts for a start.

Both services are probably in the top three of email automation tools, so whatever you choose, you won’t be disappointed.

Constant Contact vs Mailchimp

Both services offer similar functionality and website-building capabilities. The main difference between the two is in the cost.

Mailchimp’s entry price is lower, but Constant Contact doesn’t enforce any send limits. In short, the former delivers high-quality solutions, while the latter focuses on quantity.

Mailchimp vs AWeber

Mailchimp’s basic plan is cheaper than that of AWeber while also offering split testing. If you opt for a more expensive Mailchimp plan, you’ll also get access to a level of analytics that AWeber doesn’t offer.

The only real advantage AWeber has over Mailchimp is that it has more native integrations and doesn’t impose send limits.

Our Final Verdict

That does it for our Mailchimp review for 2022! Hopefully, by now, it’s apparent why Mailchimp just keeps coming up when you look at email automation and marketing solutions.

It’s the industry leader, delivering not just the tools needed to create email campaigns but to fine-tune them too—all with a stylish polish your visitors are sure to appreciate.