Mailchimp vs Omnisend: Ultimate Choice

Mailchimp vs Omnisend: The ultimate choice for your growing business is here. Discover which platform offers the best features, pricing, and ease of use for your needs.

Choosing the right email marketing tool can feel like a big decision, especially when you’re just starting out. You see names like Mailchimp and Omnisend, and they both sound good, but what’s really different? It’s easy to get lost in all the features and pricing plans. This guide cuts through the noise, giving you a clear, simple comparison so you can pick the best email marketing platform for your business with confidence.

What is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp is one of the most well-known names in email marketing, especially for small businesses and beginners. It started as a simple email newsletter tool but has grown into a full marketing platform. Think of it as your friendly, all-in-one marketing assistant. It helps you create attractive emails, manage your contact lists, and even send out social media posts. Mailchimp is often praised for its user-friendly interface, making it easy for anyone to jump in and start sending emails.

What is Omnisend?

Omnisend is a powerful email marketing and automation platform designed with e-commerce businesses in mind. While it offers excellent email marketing capabilities, its real strength lies in its automation features and its ability to integrate seamlessly with online stores. Omnisend helps you connect with your customers across multiple channels, including email, SMS, and push notifications. It’s built to help online stores grow by making marketing smarter and more personalized.

Key Differences at a Glance

Here’s a quick look at how Mailchimp and Omnisend stack up:

• Mailchimp: Great for general small businesses, freelancers, and those new to email marketing. Known for ease of use and a wide range of marketing tools beyond just email.
• Omnisend: Specifically built for e-commerce businesses. Excels in automation, multi-channel marketing (email, SMS), and deep integrations with online stores like Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.

Features Comparison

Let’s dive deeper into what each platform offers. It’s important to see how their features align with what you need to do.

Feature	Mailchimp	Omnisend
Email Campaign Creation	Yes (Drag-and-drop editor, templates)	Yes (Drag-and-drop editor, templates, e-commerce specific)
Automation	Yes (Basic to advanced workflows, welcome series, abandoned cart)	Yes (Advanced, visual workflow builder, email, SMS, push notifications)
E-commerce Integrations	Good (Shopify, WooCommerce, etc., but can be less deep)	Excellent (Deep integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, etc.)
SMS Marketing	Available on higher plans, can be costly	Integrated, more affordable, and central to strategy
Push Notifications	No	Yes
Segmentation	Yes (Based on various data points)	Yes (Advanced segmentation, including e-commerce data)
Landing Pages	Yes	Yes
A/B Testing	Yes	Yes
Reporting & Analytics	Good, easy to understand	Excellent, e-commerce focused metrics

Email Campaign Creation: Both platforms offer user-friendly drag-and-drop editors that make designing emails simple, even if you have no design experience. Mailchimp has a wide variety of templates suitable for many types of businesses. Omnisend’s templates are often geared towards e-commerce, with a focus on product promotion and sales.

Automation: This is where Omnisend really shines, especially for online stores. While Mailchimp offers automation (like welcome emails and abandoned cart reminders), Omnisend’s automation is more robust and integrated. It allows you to build complex customer journeys that trigger emails, SMS messages, and push notifications based on customer behavior. This is crucial for e-commerce to recover lost sales and nurture customer loyalty.

E-commerce Integrations: If you run an online store, Omnisend is typically the stronger choice. Its integrations with platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce are deeper, meaning it can pull more customer data and trigger more sophisticated automations based on purchase history, browsing behavior, and more. Mailchimp integrates well too, but Omnisend is built from the ground up for e-commerce, making these connections more seamless and powerful.

SMS Marketing: Omnisend includes SMS marketing as a core feature, often at a more competitive price point than adding it as an extra to Mailchimp. This is a significant advantage for businesses looking to reach customers through multiple channels. Mailchimp offers SMS, but it’s usually on higher-tier plans and can become expensive quickly.

Push Notifications: Omnisend also offers web push notifications, allowing you to send timely updates directly to your subscribers’ browsers. Mailchimp does not offer this feature.

Reporting & Analytics: Both provide analytics, but Omnisend’s reporting is more focused on e-commerce metrics like revenue generated, average order value, and customer lifetime value. Mailchimp’s reports are more general but still very useful for understanding email engagement.

Pricing Comparison

Understanding pricing is key for small businesses. Let’s compare the general structure of their plans.

Plan Level	Mailchimp (Approximate)	Omnisend (Approximate)
Free Plan	Yes (Limited contacts & sends, basic features)	Yes (Limited contacts & sends, core features, but no SMS)
Entry-Level Paid	Essentials/Standard (More contacts, advanced automation, more templates)	Standard (More contacts, advanced automation, SMS included at a cost)
Mid-Tier Paid	Premium (All features, advanced segmentation, dedicated IP)	Pro (All features, higher SMS limits, advanced reporting)
E-commerce Focus	Can be good, but SMS/advanced features cost extra	Built-in SMS, strong e-commerce automation are core

Mailchimp Pricing: Mailchimp offers a free plan that’s great for testing the waters. As you grow, their paid plans scale based on the number of contacts and features needed. For businesses with many contacts or those who need advanced automation and SMS marketing, Mailchimp’s pricing can become quite high, especially when adding on features like SMS. You can find their detailed pricing on the Mailchimp pricing page.

Omnisend Pricing: Omnisend also has a free plan, which is generous in terms of features, though limited in contacts and sends. Their paid plans are structured to be very competitive for e-commerce. SMS marketing is integrated into their plans, and you pay for the credits you use, which can be more predictable than Mailchimp’s approach for some businesses. Their focus on e-commerce means you often get more of the specific tools you need for online sales at a more accessible price point. Check out the Omnisend pricing page for the latest details.

Key Pricing Takeaway: For businesses that are heavily e-commerce focused and plan to use SMS marketing, Omnisend often offers better value. For general small businesses or those who only need basic email and don’t plan on extensive SMS use, Mailchimp’s pricing might be more manageable, especially at the lower tiers.

Ease of Use & Customer Support

When you’re busy running a business, you don’t want to spend hours learning a new tool. Both Mailchimp and Omnisend aim to be user-friendly.

Mailchimp: Mailchimp is widely recognized for its intuitive interface. It’s very beginner-friendly, with clear navigation and helpful tutorials. Setting up your first campaign is usually straightforward. Their customer support is available via email and live chat on paid plans, and they have an extensive knowledge base.

Omnisend: Omnisend is also designed with ease of use in mind, particularly for e-commerce workflows. Their visual automation builder is quite intuitive. While it might have a slightly steeper learning curve than Mailchimp if you’re completely new to automation, it’s still very accessible. Omnisend offers email and chat support on most plans, and their support team is often praised for being knowledgeable and responsive, especially regarding e-commerce specific questions.

Pros & Cons of Mailchimp

• Pros:
• Extremely user-friendly and easy to learn for beginners.
• Offers a wide range of marketing tools beyond email (social posting, landing pages, etc.).
• Generous free plan to get started.
• Large template library for various industries.
• Strong brand recognition and a large user base.
• Cons:
• Can become expensive as your contact list grows or if you need advanced features.
• E-commerce automation and SMS features can be less integrated and more costly than competitors.
• Deliverability can sometimes be an issue for some users, though this is often related to list hygiene.
• Customer support can be limited on lower-tier plans.

Pros & Cons of Omnisend

• Pros:
• Exceptional for e-commerce businesses with deep integrations.
• Powerful and integrated automation workflows (email, SMS, push).
• SMS marketing is a core, well-priced feature.
• Good value for money, especially for online stores.
• User-friendly interface, especially for automation building.
• Strong reporting focused on e-commerce ROI.
• Cons:
• May have a slightly steeper learning curve than Mailchimp for absolute beginners to marketing automation.
• Less ideal for businesses that are not e-commerce focused.
• The free plan is limited in contacts and sends, similar to Mailchimp, but doesn’t include SMS.

User Reviews & Case Studies

Hearing from real users can offer valuable insights. Based on reviews from platforms like G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot:

Mailchimp Users Often Praise:

• Its ease of use and simple interface, making it perfect for small business owners who are new to email marketing.
• The availability of many pre-designed templates.
• The free plan, which is a great way to start growing an email list.

Mailchimp Users Sometimes Criticize:

• The cost increasing significantly as their list grows.
• The automation features feeling a bit basic compared to more specialized platforms.
• Occasional issues with email deliverability or account suspensions if not carefully managed.

Omnisend Users Often Praise:

• Its powerful automation capabilities, especially for abandoned carts and welcome series, directly impacting sales.
• Seamless integration with e-commerce platforms like Shopify.
• The inclusion and affordability of SMS marketing.
• The platform’s ability to provide a unified customer experience across email and SMS.

Omnisend Users Sometimes Criticize:

• The interface, while good, might require a bit more learning for complete beginners compared to Mailchimp’s absolute simplicity.
• The reporting, while e-commerce focused, might not offer the breadth of general marketing metrics some users prefer.

Case Study Example:

Consider “The Cozy Corner Cafe,” a small business that sells handmade mugs and coffee beans online. Initially, they used Mailchimp for their monthly newsletter. They found it easy to send out updates about new products. However, they noticed that many customers would add items to their cart but not complete the purchase. When they switched to Omnisend, they set up an automated workflow: if a customer abandoned their cart, they’d receive a reminder email (and later an SMS) offering a small discount. This simple automation increased their abandoned cart recovery rate by 15% within the first month, significantly boosting their sales without much extra effort. This highlights how Omnisend’s e-commerce focus can drive direct revenue.

Which One Should You Choose?

The “ultimate choice” depends entirely on your business type and your goals. Here’s a breakdown to help you decide:

Choose Mailchimp if:

• You are a small business, freelancer, blogger, or non-profit that needs a straightforward way to send newsletters and promotional emails.
• You are completely new to email marketing and want the absolute easiest platform to learn.
• Your primary goal is list building and sending regular email updates, rather than complex sales funnels.
• You don’t plan to heavily use SMS marketing or need advanced e-commerce specific automations.
• You are on a very tight budget and need a robust free plan to start.

Choose Omnisend if:

• You run an e-commerce store (Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.) and want to maximize sales and customer loyalty.
• You want to leverage powerful automation to recover abandoned carts, send post-purchase follow-ups, and re-engage customers.
• You plan to use or want the option to use SMS marketing alongside email to reach your audience.
• You need deep integrations with your online store to personalize campaigns based on purchase history.
• You’re looking for a platform that can grow with your e-commerce business and offer a more unified customer experience.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: Is Mailchimp free?

A1: Yes, Mailchimp offers a free plan that allows you to send emails to a limited number of contacts each month. It’s a great way to start, but it has limitations on features and the number of subscribers.

Q2: Does Omnisend support automation?

A2: Absolutely! Omnisend is known for its powerful automation capabilities. You can set up complex workflows based on customer behavior, including welcome series, abandoned cart reminders, and more, often integrating email, SMS, and push notifications.

Q3: Which is better for small businesses?

A3: For general small businesses or those new to email marketing, Mailchimp is often considered easier to start with. However, if your small business is an e-commerce store, Omnisend’s specialized features and pricing can make it a better long-term choice for growth.

Q4: Can I switch from Mailchimp to Omnisend?

A4: Yes, you can switch between email marketing platforms. Most platforms, including Omnisend, offer tools or guides to help you import your existing subscriber list from Mailchimp.

Q5: Is Omnisend worth it for Shopify stores?

A5: For most Shopify stores, Omnisend is highly recommended. Its deep integration with Shopify allows for advanced segmentation and automation that can significantly boost sales and customer retention. Many Shopify store owners find it offers excellent value and features specifically tailored for their needs.

Q6: What is email deliverability?

A6: Email deliverability refers to how successfully your emails reach your subscribers’ inboxes rather than ending up in spam folders. Both Mailchimp and Omnisend work to maintain good deliverability, but it also depends heavily on your list quality and sending practices.

Conclusion

When comparing Mailchimp vs Omnisend, the best choice boils down to your business model and your primary marketing goals. Mailchimp remains a strong contender for general small businesses due to its ease of use and broad marketing tools. It’s a fantastic starting point for building an email list and sending out newsletters.

However, if you are an e-commerce business looking to drive sales, recover lost revenue, and engage customers across multiple channels, Omnisend is the clear winner. Its specialized e-commerce features, integrated SMS marketing, and powerful automation workflows are designed to help online stores thrive.

Here’s a final recommendation framework:

• Choose Mailchimp if: You need a simple, user-friendly tool for newsletters and basic campaigns, and e-commerce specific features or SMS are not your top priority.
• Choose Omnisend if: You run an online store and want to leverage sophisticated automation, SMS marketing, and deep e-commerce integrations to boost sales and customer loyalty.

Ultimately, the best way to decide is to try them out. Both Mailchimp and Omnisend offer free plans or trials. Sign up, explore the features, and see which one feels like the right fit for your business and your future growth.