Email Builder
Omnisend and Mailchimp were both developed for email marketing purposes only. They both offer multiple options in terms of email design and an intuitive email-building process.
Omnisend Email Builder
Omnisend’s editor is easy to use. You can create an email campaign by choosing a standard template or a themed one. The themed templates have a professional look, and you can also preview them to make sure their final format is suitable for any device. The editor is quite flexible and allows you to change any element you want: images, fonts, colors, logos, or social links.
You can use different types of content and integrate it in your emails, for example, products from your store or special promotions. The powerful integration with the eCommerce platform allows you to add these elements from your store and include promotional codes in your campaigns. You can then save individual email blocks and use them later on.
MailChimp Email Builder
MailChimp is known for its intuitive email builder. This is one of the main advantages of the platform and a strong reason why Mailchimp is recommended for beginners. MailChimp walks you through all the steps involved in creating an email campaign. You also get tons of design options in terms of layouts and templates that even have responsive designs. You can code your emails from scratch and select layouts for specific campaigns, for example, new product launches or announcements.
Mailchimp allows you to customize your templates by adding different text blocks, social share buttons, videos, images, changing the colors, fonts, or shades.
The verdict
Both platforms offer similar design options, however, Omnisend seems more advanced, especially for its integration with online stores.
Automation
Automation is key to a successful email marketing strategy. By harnessing automated workflows, you can customize your buyers’ journey and save plenty of time.
Omnisend Automation
Omnisend helps you understand where your customers are during the sales funnel to send them targeted messages that speed up the sales process. Automation is based on triggers and can be customized. Omnisend also offers you an array of ready-made workflows that you can easily set up. Since this platform provides multi-channel marketing features, you can automate messages across different channels, including SMS, push notifications, or WhatsApp messages. A variety of automation reports are also available.
Mailchimp Automation
MailChimp features an intuitive automation builder and ready-made workflows such as transactional emails, order notifications, purchase follow-up, or loyalty emails. Useful re-engagement templates are also available.
There are a few steps you need to take to set the workflows up. You can start by filling in your campaign’s details and choosing the desired automation triggers. You can choose things like; a new purchase, an abandoned cart, or a new subscription.
The verdict
Omnisend wins in this round for its powerful automation that is easy to set up.
List Management
A good email marketing platform allows you to easily manage your contacts and segment them according to their behavior or preferences in order to send them targeted emails. Discover what Omnisend vs MailChimp offer in terms of list management.
Omnisend List Management
Omnisend features a smart segmentation process. This platform helps you divide your contact list into multiple categories according to different criteria such as demographic data, the most popular channels they use to engage with you, how they reacted to your campaigns, or their purchasing behavior.
Shopping behavior segmentation is incredibly detailed in Omnisend; you can easily identify and segment your audience based on specific products they’ve purchased or the discount codes they’ve used. Even with the Standard plan, you can create up to 20 segments. With the Professional plan, you have the possibility to create as many as 50 segments.
MailChimp List Management
MailChimp offers advanced list management capabilities. You can even use it as an alternative for your CRM system to manage your contacts. This feature can be found in the Audience section. You can easily import your lists and segment them according to different behavioral criteria. Unlike many of its rivals, MailChimp practically builds the segments automatically.
This platform also features machine learning capabilities that can predict your audience’s behavior, for example by showing you what customers are more likely to purchase from you again, but also how much money they are likely to invest in your products. After making these predictions, the platform builds segments accordingly.
Whether you choose to build your segments manually or allow MailChimp to handle the segmentation process, the segments you get will be dynamic, which means they are automatically managed, without your intervention. Contacts will automatically be added or eliminated from a segment based on their actions.
The verdict
It’s a tie this time.
Forms
Forms help you collect contacts, and they contribute to your audience segmentation process. You can build custom forms both with MailChimp and Omnisend. Here are the options they provide.
Omnisend Forms
Omnisend allows you to build and embed forms anywhere on your website. You can customize these forms according to your necessities and add different call-to-actions. To get more subscribers this platform also helps you with a gamified email capture form.
There are different forms you can choose from: pop-ups, signup boxes, etc. You can also create wheels of fortune to collect customers’ data or embed the forms on landing pages. Every form provides the possibility to use different fields, and there are also multiple pre-made themes you can choose from. Moreover, even if you’re on the free plan, you can still access this feature and publish up to three forms.
MailChimp Forms
MailChimp also helps you grow your audience by using an unlimited number of signup forms. This platform offers more or less the same forms features as Omnisend. It also provides different form types such as pop-ups or built-in forms.
You can connect these forms to your CRM or your website and choose the time when you want them to appear on each page. You can also embed the forms on other websites and personalize them according to your preferences. To increase your forms’ engagement, you can easily share them anywhere across all your channels.
The verdict
We consider it a tie this time too.
eCommerce Features
If you work in eCommerce, you surely need an email marketing platform that can integrate with your store to make it easier for you to share data on customers and products. Here is what you get from Omnisend vs MailChimp.
Omnisend eCommerce Features
Omnisend provides numerous features for online stores. You can easily automate email campaigns for this purpose using the platform’s pre-built templates. Reminders, abandoned cart emails, product reviews, discount codes, or welcome emails are just some of the features geared toward this niche.
Omnisend integrates seamlessly with major eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, and its email builder also provides useful integrations that allow you to drag and drop elements from your store into your emails or easily add discount codes.
MailChimp eCommerce Features
MailChimp is mainly geared toward small companies, not eCommerce. For this reason, it is not as advanced as Omnisend when it comes to its eCommerce features. Although this platform integrates with some of the more important eCommerce platforms, it no longer connects to Shopify. In terms of automation, MailChimp also provides several workflows for eCommerce: abandoned cart, welcome emails, etc.
The verdict
In this round, Omnisend wins as it provides multiple features for eCommerce.
Ease of Use
Ease of use is one of the most important factors you should consider when choosing an email marketing platform. Let’s see how Omnisend vs MailChimp perform from this perspective.
Omnisend Ease of Use
Omnisend makes email marketing easy and is a very straightforward platform. The email and form-building processes are fast and intuitive. The automation builder, despite its advanced features, is also easy to leverage.
Omnisend provides a drag-and-drop interface, which offers the simplest way to create campaigns. It also makes it very easy to import content from other platforms. The visual composer allows you to pull in content that interests you.
Mailchimp Ease of Use
Thanks to MailChimp’s user-friendly approach, getting started with this platform is easy to get used to. The platform uses fun and engaging language and appealing graphics that make the onboarding journey pleasurable.
The interface is designed based on a checklist approach, which allows you to build campaigns or segment your list. This user-oriented platform offers you support along the way and helps you with personalized tips. Whether you want to create your first campaign or set up your first sign-up form, the platform will guide you during your first journey. At every step of the process, MailChimp will suggest the next steps you should take.
The verdict
Overall, we consider MailChimp easier to use, especially for beginners.
Pricing
If price is one of the main factors that will influence your email marketing platform choice, here are the plans you can access with Omnisend and MailChimp.
Omnisend Pricing
Omnisend offers 4 plans. First comes the free plan, which gives you access to a few tools (email builder, forms, reports). You can send 15,000 emails per month with this plan.
The first paid plan is the Standard plan, and it costs $26 per month. It also includes SMS campaigns, automated workflows, and segmentation features.
The Pro plan costs $99 per month and brings additional features such as push notifications, Google customer match, and advanced reports. The final tier is the Enterprise plan whose pricing is customized. Some of its extra features are account manager support, deliverability support, or custom IP address.
Mailchimp Pricing
MailChimp also provides 4 pricing plans. The free plan offers basic templates, automation, CRM, among other features.
The Essential plan's price starts at $9.99 per month. The essential plan provides you access to all the available templates, A/B tests, custom branding, and support.
The Standard plan costs $14.99, and grants access to advanced reporting, retargeting, or ads behavioral targeting features.
The price for the Premium plan starts at $299 per month. Some of its extra features include advanced segmentation, role-based access, and multivariate testing.
The verdict
MailChimp’s basic plan is more affordable.
Integrations
Integrations are essential if you use multiple tools for your marketing strategy and you want to be able to transfer information between them. Here is a quick overview of Omnisend vs MailChim’s integrations.
Omnisend Integrations
Omnisend focuses on eCommerce and can therefore integrate with most eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, PresaShop, WooCommerce, Big Cartel. Magento, Drupal, Volusion, Smile, ReCharge, LoialtyLion, Yotpo, or Miva are other platforms that integrate with Omnisend. Omnisend provides more than 30 native integrations.
Mailchimp Integrations
MailChimp offers 250+ native integrations. Whether you need to connect this tool to a content management system, a social platform, an eCommerce platform, a productivity tool, or a CRM, you will find your desired tool in MailChimp’s integrations list. The tools included by Mailchimp include GoogleAnalytics, WordPress, Facebook, Linkedin, Zendesk Activity, Mixpanel, Reportei, Vimeo, Shopware, ShopSync, WooCommerce, Chargebee, Humanitix, and plenty more.
Reporting
To know how well your email campaigns work, you should be able to access different reports. Both MailChimp and Omnisend offer a great suite of reports.
Omnisend Reporting
Different metrics are available such as the number of opened emails, new subscribers, or clicked links. Basically, all the campaign reports you want are available with Omnisend, and this platform also focuses on in-depth analysis. You can get customized reports for your signup forms, which will help you drill down into the precise interests of your audience. Some of the detailed reports this platform can generate based on user behavior include language preferences, locations, or preferred devices.
MailChimp Reporting
MailChimp also offers a variety of reports. All the basic insights into your campaigns are also available with this platform: open rates, the number of unopened emails, bounces, new subscribers, clicks, etc. Moreover, MailChimp also helps you understand how each campaign contributes to your overall marketing strategy by analyzing its ROI. You can track the revenue each campaign has brought you and get accurate, real-time data about the number of orders it generated and the total revenue.
The verdict
Both platforms offer advanced reporting. We consider it a tie.
Customer Support
Even tech-savvy marketers need support every now and then. Here are the support options you benefit from with MailChimp and Omnisend.
Omnisend Customer Support
Omnisend's support team can be contacted via email or live chat, which is available 24/7 with the standard plan. You can find plenty of training resources in their knowledge base, which contains articles and guides. Moreover, the platform has a blog where they constantly add useful articles. For Pro or Enterprise customers, a dedicated account manager is also available.
Mailchimp Customer Support
MailChimp offers customer support via chat, email, or phone. You will find that support agents are available 24/7, but phone support is only available for the highest tier. The platform also features a vast knowledge base with training resources and a regularly updated blog.
The verdict
MailChimp wins in this round as it also offers phone support.
Omnisend vs MailChimp Differences and Similarities
Omnisend and MailChimp have multiple similar features. Here are some of them:
Good email templates and design options
Multiple segmentation features
Intuitive email builders
Comprehensive reporting
Integrations with multiple eCommerce platforms
Numerous blog articles and training resources
Some of the aspects that make the two platforms different include:
Omnisend can integrate with Shopify while MailChimp can’t
Mailchimp offers more integrations than Omnisend
MailChimp allows you to predict when customers are likely to make a purchase, while Omnisend doesn’t
MailChimp features a website builder tool and Omnisend doesn’t
Omnisend offers SMS marketing, a feature that’s not present in Mailchimp
You can integrate Omnisend's integration with all the platform’s functionalities
With MailChimp, you get social media ads and postcard ads or Google ads
MailChimp also features a mobile app, unlike Omnisend
When to Choose Each
Here is a quick overview that will help you understand which tool is more suitable for your needs.
When to Use Omnisend
Omnisend is mainly geared toward eCommerce. Therefore, it is a good option if you sell products online. If you are looking for advanced automation or beautiful and modern email templates, this software is also a great option.
When to Use Mailchimp
MailChimp focuses a lot on list management, therefore it can be very suitable for businesses that look for an alternative to a CRM system. MailChimp is also an intuitive tool, which makes it suitable for marketers of any level. This platform also offers advanced analytics. So, it is also good for anyone who’s looking for in-depth reports.
Pros and Cons
Each one of the two platforms we’re focusing on in this comparison has its pros and cons and you can learn more about them by reading the full article. Here is just a quick summary.
Omnisend Pros vs Cons
Some of Omnisend’s pros include the fact that it seamlessly integrates with major eCommerce platforms and their email editor also provides specific features for this domain (e.g.: product picker, gift boxes). Their automation builder is pretty intuitive, and the platform also helps you track your sales. However, the reports are not very complex and the platform doesn’t offer a large array of integrations.
MailChimp Pros vs Cons
MailChimp offers all the basic tools you need to create attractive and responsive email campaigns and track their progress. This platform offers thorough reporting capabilities and useful automated templates, as well as some extras such as Google or postcard ads, a website builder, or a mobile app. However, this platform no longer integrates with Shopify, and it also lags behind Omnisend a bit in terms of email design and segmentation features.
Alternatives to Omnisend or MailChimp
If you are still looking for alternatives to the two platforms we compared in this article, here are two reliable options:
- MailerLite: this software features a well-organized interface that makes navigation easy. It allows you to create four different types of campaigns: regular, A/B split campaigns, RSS campaigns, autoresponders. The platform’s forms functionality is pretty awesome.
- ConvertKit: this platform offers an intuitive interface, a great and reliable integration with WordPress, an easy subscribers management process based on tags, autoresponders, dynamic emails, and good customer support.
Final Winner:
Both email marketing software options we focused on in this comparison are powerful and reliable choices. However, we choose Omnisend as the final winner of the competition due to its advanced reporting and automation, great integrations with eCommerce, and multiple segmentation features.
Check out our other comparisons