Omnisend vs Mailchimp: Which is Best for Email Marketing?

Last Updated on April 22, 2023 by Ewen Finser

If you need a good email marketing platform for your latest venture, our Omnisend vs Mailchimp comparison may be able to help you out.

Worldwide email use is set to grow to 4.3 billion users in 2023 (according to this study by Statista).

It’s more important than ever to utilize email marketing – and with both the platforms we’re looking at today, you can encompass a wide range of marketing tools and automation to make your life much easier when it comes to attracting new customers to your store or business.

We’ll be looking at the main differences and similarities between Omnisend and Mailchimp, as well as their features in more detail. If you’re stuck between them, keep reading – we’ll go into their pros and cons so you can decide which one is best for you.

Bottom Line Up Front Summary: Mailchimp is a solid option if you need to start with FREE, but most users (particularly ecommerce store owners) will quickly outgrow it’s limitations and want to upgrade to the more capable marketing automation suite offer by Omnisend here. 

Main Differences Between Omnisend vs Mailchimp

The main differences between Omnisend vs Mailchimp are: 

• Omnisend has SMS campaigns, whereas Mailchimp Mailchimp has a lot of choices for support.
• Omnisend has a marketing automation builder that integrates all areas of the platform, whereas Mailchimp offers social media ads or postcard ads
• Omnisend doesn’t analyze customer behavior to estimate the likelihood of them making a purchase, whereas Mailchimp does.
• Omnisend doesn’t have a mobile app, whereas Mailchimp doe. 
• Omnisend doesn’t have a website builder, whereas Mailchimp does

The main thing that stood out while we reviewed them both is the marketing automation – this is much easier and more flexible using Omnisend. You can use everything from the platform to create detailed, customized marketing automation.

Whereas Mailchimp only offers pre-made automations that are quite strict in their boundaries (for example, sending an email marketing campaign OR starting an ad campaign). If you want to utilize marketing automation, Omnisend is the better choice.

They also offer different features. Omnisend has SMS messaging, which is a great way to reach potential customers, whereas Mailchimp has social media and Google ads as well as postcard ads. In fact, Mailchimp has more features in general – including its mobile app and the free website builder.

Omnisend vs Mailchimp: The Similarities

They do have a lot in common, too:

• They both offer email templates
• They both offer contact segmentation
• They both have form builders
• They both offer integrations with eCommerce platforms
• They both have a useful blog with marketing tips
• They both have good reporting

They’re both useful platforms. We tried them both, so you can see their features in more depth. Let’s start with a quick overview, and then we’ll look into them both in more detail.

What is Omnisend?

Omnisend was launched in 2014 (previously known as Soundest). It offers email marketing services alongside more advanced tools, like segmentation, marketing automation, SMS marketing, and a form builder.

It’s aimed at any-sized eCommerce business wanting to utilize a series of marketing tools in one platform. You do need to link to an eCommerce platform to use a lot of their features, meaning it’s not as suitable for individuals setting up an email newsletter or mailing lists. You could still use it for that purpose, but you’ll be missing out on a lot of Omnisend’s features.

What is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp was launched in 2001. It’s a popular email marketing service with features like marketing CRM, tagging and segmentation, behavioral marketing, digital ads, postcard ads, and more.

It’s aimed at anyone – from individuals to big businesses – wanting to reach out to their audience to advertise their services.

Omnisend – the Main Features

Email Campaigns

To send an email campaign, you have to verify your sender’s email address. Once that’s done, you can start to create a marketing campaign.

You can choose between a standard template or a themed template. The themed templates (pictured above) are very nice to look at – you can preview them before you choose one.

The editor is incredibly easy to use. Just click on a section on the left to adjust it – you can change everything from fonts, to social links, to logos, to images. Once you’re happy with the finished email, you can choose to send it to all your contacts, send it to a particular segment, or schedule it for a later date.

You can also split test your emails, allowing you to easily measure which email performs best. To do this, you must connect your Omnisend account to your eCommerce store.

Omnisend SMS Campaigns

SMS campaigns also require you to connect with your eCommerce store. The text messaging campaigns are detailed and link nicely with the marketing automation features we’ll talk about later.

Example texts you can send include cart abandonment texts reminding your customers to complete their purchase, sales texts, order and shipping confirmation texts, and birthday texts. These are pre-made, allowing you to use them immediately.

You can easily collect visitors’ phone numbers using the form builder (more on that later too). SMS marketing comes at an extra cost, but this is a subscription tier system starting at $20 of SMS credits per month. If you are on the Pro or Enterprise plan, you get a certain amount of SMS credits for free.

Omnisend Marketing Automation

There are a few basic automation templates to choose from. These include welcome emails for new subscribers, abandoned cart recovery, and browse abandonment.

The automation email builder is fairly straightforward. The box at the top shows the start and end conditions for the automation, and each step is laid out underneath. Clicking on the steps allows you to alter them (for example, you can alter the length of time for a ‘wait’ action). All possible actions are shown on the left; you can click and drag them onto the timeline to add them to your automation.

You can utilize all the areas of Omnisend using the automation – for example, you can incorporate email, SMS, and push notifications.

Contacts

Omnisend offers a lot of ways to capture new subscribers, but if you want, you can import existing contacts from another platform. You can import contacts from .xls, .ods, and .csv files, or you can import them from Mailchimp.

Segmentation is pretty detailed in Omnisend. You can use shopping behavior to segment your customers – for example, you can identify and segment customers who bought a certain product, or customers using a certain discount code. You can also segment them by demographics. You can choose to send very targeted emails to specific segments this way.

Omnisend Form Builder

You can choose from four types of forms:

• Popup – customers can enter their contact details in a popup form
• Signup box – create a signup widget that is always visible on every page of your website
• Wheel of fortune – create a wheel of fortune to capture visitor information
• Landing page – create a dedicated landing page to capture information

Each form can be customized with custom fields. They have pre-made themes to choose from.

It’s very straightforward to use.

Omnisend Analytics

You can view your revenue and contacts on the dashboard, quickly comparing revenue from campaigns and automations. You can switch between email and SMS lists to see their growth, or you can use their advanced reporting to track things in more detail.

The stats are pretty in-depth, allowing you to carefully track which campaigns have performed better using a variety of criteria. This allows you to see why certain campaigns have worked well – using site tracking and behavioral data as well as data for each individual campaign.

Omnisend Integrations

Most of Omnisend’s features require you to connect with an eCommerce platform. They offer one-click integration with Shopify, ShopifyPlus, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. They also offer integration via API with any other eCommerce platform (but this is a bit more complex to set up).

They integrate with some other services too, including coupon creation, lead generation, and analytics, and segmentation platforms.

MailChimp – the Main Features

Email Campaigns

There are many plain templates to choose from using MailChimp, or you can choose one of their pre-made themes. They have more choice than Omnisend in this regard, but Omnisend’s email themes feel a little more modern and stylish.

You can add new blocks of content to your emails (including text, dividers, images, image groups, share buttons, videos, and sections of code). Then, you can click on each block to edit it. This is very easy to do.

Once you’ve created an individual email, you can send a preview to yourself, so you can view how it will look to your contacts. You can choose which segment of customers you’d like to send it to, schedule it for sending later or send it immediately, and get a link to your campaign to share on social media. You can split-test emails to track their performance.

Postcard and Digital Ads

MailChimp doesn’t offer SMS campaigns within their own platform – you’ll have to use their SimpleTexting integration if you want to incorporate SMS into your marketing campaigns.

However, they do offer postcard ads and digital ads.

Postcard ads might seem a bit old-school but used right they can still attract new customers.

You can use MailChimp’s’ address finder to look up the addresses of existing contacts – if there are contact details missing, they may be able to fill in those gaps. The lookalike finder is also a useful tool. This helps you to target people who aren’t yet customers but share similar interests with your existing contacts.

You can choose to send one-off campaigns, recurring campaigns, or abandoned cart campaigns. You can order a free sample postcard to check out how it looks. Pricing starts from $0.75 per card.

You can also create digital ads. These can be Facebook ads, Instagram ads, or Google remarketing ads. You can add five images and a description to your ads, choose your audience, and set your total budget.

Mailchimp Marketing Automation

You have to choose between email campaigns and ad campaigns – so you don’t have the option of pulling in all the features of MailChimp into one campaign. It also lacks the drag-and-drop automation builder, instead of presenting you with a list format. So, it’s a bit less flexible overall.

They do have a lot of templates, including abandoned cart recovery, new subscriber welcome, birthday and anniversary emails, and loyal customer rewards emails.

You can also create social media campaigns, publishing the same post to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (or all three). You can then track the performance of your posts (for Facebook and Instagram only), including your post’s reach, impressions, likes, and shares. You can do all this within Mailchimp’s platform, which is useful.

Contacts

You can add contacts manually, capture them using forms, or import them from .csv or .txt files. You can also import them from Google Drive, Constant Contact, Zoho, and other platforms.

Mailchimp has a lot of options for contact management. You can segment customers based on demographics, location, email engagement, and more. You can add tags to contacts to

They also analyze past purchase behavior to predict the customer’s CLV (customer lifetime value). Customers can have high, moderate, or low CLV. This allows you to target certain levels with certain things, for example, enticing customers with a high CLV to make a purchase.

Mailchimp Form Builders

You can choose to create an embedded form, a popup form, or a signup landing page. The form builder is a little less intuitive to use than Omnisend’s form builder.

Mailchimp Website Builder

You can build websites using Mailchimp.

You can drag and drop blocks into each page and then edit them – it’s pretty flexible but easy to use. The website builder is free, and you get a .com domain for free for up to five years.

They don’t have any pre-made themes to choose from, but given that it’s a free tool, that’s not much of a problem. Plus, it’s easy to use even for beginners.

Mailchimp Analytics

You can track the performance of your campaigns using the desktop or mobile app. They offer growth, engagement, and revenue reports – allowing you to see how well your campaigns are performing.

You can also track how your emails are doing against your competitors – you can compare your numbers to the stats of companies within your industry. Benchmarks will appear in your email reports, so you can see what you need to work towards.

You can also monitor ROI using their revenue reports.

Mailchimp Integrations and Mobile App

Mailchimp have a lot of integrations, including some eCommerce platforms (like WooCommerce, 3DCart, and BigCommerce). They also integrate with many other services, including analytics, social media, ticketing and event management, and finance and accounting platforms.

They also have a mobile app – this allows you to view your reports, monitor your audience, and create emails on the go.

Omnisend vs MailChimp – Customer Support

Omnisend Customer Support

If you need support from Omnisend, you can contact them via email. But you may be able to find the answer in their knowledge base, which has a few articles and guides on how to make the most of Omnisend.

They also have a useful and regularly updated blog, giving you free marketing tips.

Mailchimp Customer Support

Mailchimp has very accessible customer service, with chat, email, or phone options for contacting them. Every plan gives you 24/7 access to support.

They also have a knowledge base with information on how to use Mailchimp, as well as a regularly updated blog with marketing tips.

Omnisend vs Mailchimp – Pricing

Omnisend Pricing

Omnisend has four price plans.

Free Plan – $0 per month

This gives a marketer access to a few features, including:

• 500 emails per month
• Email campaigns
• Signup forms, boxes, and pop-ups
• Reports

Standard Plan – from $16 per month

This gives you everything in the Free plan, plus:

• SMS campaigns and email marketing automation
• Automated email workflows (automated workflow)
• Audience segmentation
• 24/7 email and chat support

Pro Plan – from $59 per month

This includes everything in the Standard plan, plus:

• Push notifications
• $99 in SMS credits per month
• Facebook custom audiences
• Google customer match
• Priority support
• Advanced reporting

Mailchimp Pricing Plans

Mailchimp has four pricing plans:

Free Plan – $0 per month

This has a few features, including:

• 7 marketing channels
• 1-click automation
• Basic templates
• Marketing CRM
• Surveys
• Websites
• Custom domains

Essentials Plan – from $9.99 per month

This has all the features of the Free plan, plus:

• All email templates
• A/B testing
• Custom branding
• 24/7 award-winning support

Standard Plan – from $14.99 per month

This includes everything in the Essentials plan, plus:

• Advanced audience insights
• Retargeting ads
• Custom templates
• Behavioral targeting automation series

Premium Plan – from $299 per month

This includes everything in the Standard plan, plus:

• Advanced segmentation
• Multivariate testing
• Unlimited seats and role-based access
• Phone support

Prices vary depending on how many contacts you have (prices above are based at 500 contacts). They don’t have a free trial, but you can give their Free plan a go – click here to find out more.

How Much is Mailchimp Pay as You Go?

Mailchimp has always had an interesting “pay as you go” model. This is how it works.

Each email send to an existing subscriber costs 1 credit and you only pay for the emails you send (no monthly recurring charges). It’s a fairly simple system that allows you to only pay for what you actually use.

It’s a great place to start if you don’t know how important email marketing is going to be (yet), but want to give it a low risk shot. 

Best Omnisend Discount Codes

Omnisend tends to be more generous with their promotion codes and deals compared to Mailchimp. 

Here are some of the top Omnisend deals I’m tracking right now:

• Switch from Klaviyo to Omnisend: Save 30% off your first 3 months + get full migration support. If you want to be sneaky, migrate to Klaviyo from your current platform and then apply for the discount (might not be worth the hassle for everyone).
• Save 10% Off: Take 10% off your first 3 months with code “YOUFOUNDIT” at checkout.

Omnisend vs Mailchimp – Pros and Cons

Omnisend Pros

• Marketing automation is really easy to use and utilizes everything in the platform
• Email templates look great
• Emails are very easy to put together
• Good reporting
• SMS campaigns are easy to use

Omnisend Cons

• Doesn’t have as many features as Mailchimp
• Customer service could offer more contact options

Mailchimp Pros

• Emails are easy to create
• Facebook, Instagram and Google ads work really well
• It’s handy to be able to post on social media channels using one platform
• The reporting, particularly the industry standard comparison, is very detailed
• Being able to see the CLV of each customer is useful
• The free website builder is great

Mailchimp Cons

• The automations aren’t as flexible or intuitive to build as Omnisend’s automations
• Not as many up-to-date templates on the Free plan

FAQs About Omnisend vs Mailchimp

Omnisend vs Mailchimp Conclusion – Which One is Best?

It’s hard to decide which one is best here, as they’re actually pretty different.nd

Mailchimp is great for a lot of reasons. It has a lot of features that Omnisend doesn’t offer. The free website builder is brilliant, and being able to post on social media using the Mailchimp platform is really useful.

Plus, you have the option of ads using Facebook, Instagram, or Google. The free plan is pretty generous, and they have a good selection of templates. Plus, their mobile app is useful.

However, our favorite today has to be Omnisend, especially if you are sending transactional email campaigns.

It may not have the social media integration that Mailchimp offers, but the templates are great, the option for SMS marketing campaigns are useful, and the form builder is a bit easier to use than Mailchimp’s.

The crucial thing is the automation builder – it’s so easy to use as an email marketing tool, even for beginners, and it pulls in all the features across Omnisend’s platform. It allows you to build a completely personalized campaign that works exactly the way you need it for your business with omnichannel marketing.

Bottom Line Up Summary: Mailchimp is a solid option if you need to start with FREE, but most users (particularly ecommerce store owners) will quickly outgrow it’s limitations and want to upgrade to the more capable marketing automation suite offer by Omnisend here. 

However, they’re both great platforms, and thanks to the free plans, it’s easy to try them both out to decide which one you like best. Do you use Omnisend or Mailchimp? Let us know what you think of them in the comments – we’d like to know if you agree with our verdict or not!

Further Reading on Email Automation

Still stuck? Worried about making the wrong choice and ruining your business forever?

Just kidding. It’s not THAT serious. Still, it’s a big decision. Check out some of our direct comparisons between Mailchimp and Omnisend vs other tools.

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