There are lots of powerful email marketing platforms you can rely on to boost your customer engagement with targeted emails. Drip and MailChimp are two of the most acclaimed options. Discover their features in this comparison.
Written By Henry Walden - Digital Marketing Expert Updated: 09/02/2021 |
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Score | 8/10 | 8.1/10 |
Summary | Drip is a robust platform that offers an intuitive automation builder and great extras such as SMS features. | MailChimp is a user-friendly platform suitable for all levels that features great campaign design and tracking tools. |
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Pros |
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Cons |
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Key Features |
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Pricing |
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Support |
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Ease of Use |
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Best fit for | eCommerce, all types of B2C companies | Beginner or advanced marketers |
A good email marketing platform is one that allows you to easily manage your contacts.
Drip’s list management features are divided into three main options: people, segments, and tags. You can tag people based on the automation functions or rules and merge tags. You can also use different conditions to segment your contacts. Other list management features can be accessed in the Pruning operations section.
MailChimp allows you to build contact lists, segments and use tags to better define your audience according to their interest and create targeted campaigns. To create segments, you need to access the Audience section and select the desired condition.
Drip has more advanced segmentation features.
Both tools offer user-friendly automation editors. Let’s find out more.
Drip’s automation options are divided into workflows and rules. Workflows are the advanced options and represent sequences you can divide into multiple branches based on your contacts’ actions. To create these sequences, you use a highly intuitive, visual automation builder and multiple triggers. You can also add the triggers from other third-party apps that are integrated with your account. Rules represent logical conditions you can customize.
MailChimp features a relatively basic automation builder you can access from the Campaign section. There are different types of automated emails you can create, for example, welcome emails for new subscribers, regular blog updates, or emails triggered by the segmentation process (when you add a tag to a subscriber). There are also useful ready-made workflows for eCommerce (abandoned cart, etc.).
Drip is more advanced.
Testing your emails helps you understand which content is more engaging for your customers or followers.
With drip, you can split test your emails’ subject lines, as well as from names and delivery times. You cannot carry out A/B tests for your emails’ content.
MailChimp allows you to perform different types of A/B tests in order to increase your open rates. You can carry out split tests for subject lines, from names, content, or send time. Multivariate A/B testing is also available. Three email variations can be tested at once and you get to choose on what percentage of your audience.
MailChimp offers more testing possibilities.
| You may also like the following comparison: Drip vs ConvertKit |
Forms are great tools to capture leads. Here is a quick summary of the form options you get with Drip vs MailChimp.
Drip allows you to create opt-in forms, but you cannot create landing pages. There are different text formatting options you can use, and you are able to add or delete fields as you please. The platform also allows you to configure post-signup settings, and choose between embedded, pop-us, or widget forms.
MailChimp allows you to create forms and landing pages pretty easily. You can add as many fields as you like to customize your forms, change the predefined form fields. The visual form builder allows you to get the job done in no time. You can choose to use pop-up forms or embedded forms.
MailChimp wins as it offers the complete set - forms & landing pages.
Let’s compare the two tools by looking at how you can build email campaigns with each one.
With Drip, you don’t get a vast selection of email templates, as you do with other platforms. Drip enables you to use several plain templates and a few basic layouts. The email builder is fluid, and it only takes a few minutes to set up a new campaign.
With MailChimp, you create emails from the Campaigns sections. Here, you first need to select the type of email you want to send: regular, plain text, or automated. Then, you simply need to choose a subject line and a recipient and you can start creating your message by using one of the 100+ nice templates.
MailChimp, since it also offers templates.
Here is a summary of the different pricing options you get with Drip vs MailChimp.
Drip’s price varies according to the number of contacts. For up to 500 contacts, you need to pay $19 per month. 1000 contacts cost $15 per month and for 2,500 contacts, you would pay $49. You can also use the platform for free during a 14-days trial.
This platform is available for free, and you can send a generous number of 10,000 emails with this plan. The paid subscriptions are quite affordable. With the lowest tier’s price starting at $ 9,99 for 500 subscribers, MailChimp is currently one of the most affordable platforms in the email marketing sphere. The next plan (Standard) costs $14.99 and the highest tier (Premium), which is suitable for high-volume senders and unlocks all the platform’s features, costs $299 per month.
MailChimp is more affordable.
Let’s see how easy it is to use Drip vs MailChimp.
Drip stands out from this perspective thanks to its visual workflow builder that’s based on a drag-and-drop editor. Besides this feature, Drip’s interface is generally easy to use. The email builder also features a visual approach and almost all the main functions of the platform can easily be accessed from the top bar.
Overall, MailChimp is well-organized for ease of use. However, it does have a steep learning curve if you want to learn the ins and outs of this software. You have to work a bit more on building your emails by using templates and it also limits you to sending email campaigns to one list at a time. The good part is that the platform offers great assistance, the language used to guide you through the interface is easy to follow and there are numerous guides.
Drip seems a bit easier to get used to than MailChimp.
Integrations represent connections you can create between your email marketing platforms and other third-party services.
Drip offers around 50 native integrations. Some of the tools it can integrate with include Google Analytics, Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, GoSquared, Facebook, PayPal. An API is also available if you want to create additional integrations.
MailChimp allows you to connect more than 350 apps and tools to your account from different domains such as marketing, content management, social channels, or eCommerce. Some of the popular integrations include Drupal, Shopware, Etsy, BigCommerce, WordPress, PayPal, Stripe, Eventribe, Facebook, etc. Nonetheless, some users say that the integration with WordPress isn’t always excellent.
MailChimp offers more integrations.
Reports are essential as they allow you to track your progress and improve your results. Discover Drip vs MailChimp’s reporting.
Drip offers a robust set of reports and allows you to track every essential aspect related to your campaigns’ progress including open rates, emails sent, clicked links, etc. you can also sort the campaign analytics based on time/date/status. Engagement reports, heat maps, social media, and ROI analytics are also available.
MailChimp offers a reliable suite of reports that allows you to keep track of your campaigns. All the essential metrics on how many emails were opened, how many links were clicked, new subscribers, or unsubscribes are present. More advanced reports such as click maps, social media analytics, geo-location analytics, or emails sent per email provider are also available, along with different reports for online stores.
Drip seems to offer more advanced reports.
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You shouldn’t overlook the customer support service your future email marketing software can provide you. Whether you opt for Mailchimp or Drip, you should be able to get prompt and professional help when needed.
MailChimp performs great in terms of customer support, with most client reviews showing their agents are prompt and helpful. However, as it often happens with email marketing platforms, you only get to enjoy ‘human’ support if you’ve got a paid subscription. In this case, you can benefit from 24/7 email or live chat support. Phone support is also available, but only with the priciest plan. Their knowledge base, on the other hand, is available for all users and contains everything you need in order to learn how to navigate the platform.
Drip offers 24/7 customer support via email or live chat. Moreover, it boasts a vast knowledge base full of guides, user manuals, API documentation, and plenty of other useful resources.
MailChimp gets our vote as it also offers phone support.
Each one of these tools is more suitable for a particular audience.
Drip has a clear audience and that is B2B companies. Drip offers a rich set of features for these companies such as targeted emails, visual workflows, SMS marketing, or list segmentation features.
MailChimp is designed to meet the needs of both beginner and advanced marketers, and given its affordable prices, it is a good option for small companies. If you’re at least a bit tech-savvy and patient, you can definitely learn to navigate the interface with no problems using the free guides and in-app tips.
Here is a summary of these platforms’ pros and cons.
Among this platform’s pros, we can mention the fact that it allows you to import your own templates. It offers a plethora of integrations, great reporting features, including click maps and comparative reports, and numerous support options. However, the learning curve can be steep for non-experienced users and the platform also reserves the right to suspend or cancel accounts.
Drip offers excellent automations and the ability to easily build them using a user-friendly editor. You can easily customize your content according to each segment of your audience and use pop-up forms or widgets to grab more leads, and even SMS messages. However, Drip is more expensive than many of its rivals and can be difficult to get used to at first.
If you’re looking for more options before deciding which email marketing platform to use, here are two great alternatives to Drip or MailChimp.
We appreciate MailChimp’s templates and email design options, form builder, as well as its affordability and multiple support options. We, therefore, consider it the final winner.
Check out our other comparisons
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