AWeber vs Mailchimp

Both of these are the biggest names in the industry, and both seem to be pretty confident that they are “the best.” This makes it somewhat difficult to choose the winner, so how do you pick between AWeber vs Mailchimp?

The reality is that not all email solutions are created equal. Therefore, it’s easier to make the decision when you understand more about the costs, features, and customer support that each one offers.

In this post, I’ll take a closer look at the differences between these two tools. Then, we’ll provide a clear winner to help you choose the right tool for your business. Let’s get started!

AWeber vs Mailchimp at a glance

MailchimpAWeber
Price from$13.00$12.50
Rating7/108/10
Unlimited emailsNoYes
Multiple email listsYesYes
Free planYesYes
Best forSmall websites (fewer than 500 subscribers) that want in-depth reportsBeginners and medium-sized businesses (500–50,000 contacts)
Visit Go to Mailchimp Go to AWeber
Other optionsBest Mailchimp alternativesBest AWeber alternatives

My quick recommendation

If you don’t have time to read this article, here’s my recommendation of whether to use AWeber or Mailchimp:

  • AWeber wins for ease of use and customer support, making it best for beginners. Plus, the AWeber plans work out cheaper for websites with 500–50,000 subscribers. Additionally, with AWeber, automation is easier to set up (albeit more basic), and you can send emails to multiple lists at once.
  • Mailchimp offers the most value for your money if you have a small website and an email list of fewer than 500 subscribers. While your monthly emails will be limited, you can access some great features like landing page tracking, send-time optimization, and in-depth reports.

AWeber vs Mailchimp IN DETAIL

Now, let’s dive right into the individual parts of our comparison:

1. Key features

To kickstart this, let’s take a look at the key features available with each of these solutions. We’ll cover automation, reports, deliverability, and more.

Automation

When choosing an email marketing solution, one of the most important features to look at is automation. This enables you to send emails to your subscribers at pre-defined intervals.

For example, when people sign up to your mailing list, you can make sure they receive an automated welcome email. Or, when they purchase a product, you might want to send a thank you message.

The good news is that both AWeber and Mailchimp allow you to create email sequences based on time intervals. In particular, AWeber makes this very easy to do using the Campaigns tool:

Automate emails with AWeber

Whereas it’s slightly trickier with Mailchimp, due to the number of options you have to configure.

However, Mailchimp offers more functionality in terms of marketing automation. You can use the Customer Journey tool to trigger conditional email sequences based on user behavior like purchases, clicks, and abandoned carts:

Comparing AWeber vs Mailchimp in terms of automation

On the other hand, AWeber’s automation feature is more basic in nature, so you can only use tags and clicks to set up automated user journeys. But, with both of these tools, you’ll need the more expensive plans (Plus and Standard) to access more than three or four customer journeys/automations.

Reports

Now, let’s consider AWeber and Mailchimp in terms of reports. Mailchimp offers in-depth analytics for the paid plans (and basic reporting with the free plan).

Better yet, it provides a clear reporting interface and a more feature-packed service:

Comparing AWeber vs Mailchimp in terms of reports

This enables you to dive deeper into different layers of email data. For example, you might want to view newsletter activity in terms of URL clicks, opens, social activity, ecommerce, and Google Analytics. What’s more, you can track the performance of your messages across different geographical zones.

Additionally, Mailchimp offers reports for members of your mailing list, so you can see how engaged your subscribers are (through opens, clicks, and purchases). Then, it assigns them a member rating (from 1 to 5), which enables you to target these specific members and craft personalized messages.

Plus, if you tell Mailchimp what sort of business you run, it will show you how your campaigns stack up against similar businesses. And you’ll receive smart recommendations and send-time optimizations.

With AWeber, you’ll get access to simpler reports with more straightforward statistics, like open rates and sales. This can be good for beginners and small businesses. But you’ll need a paid plan to access these reports.

Furthermore, you can segment your email list directly from your reports based on different criteria (like purchases and open rates). This way, you can target similar subscribers with new communication on the spot. This is much trickier (and more time-consuming) to do with Mailchimp.

Forms

There are many ways to build your email lists, but the easiest way is to place registration forms on your web pages. Fortunately, you can create simple forms with both AWeber and Mailchimp.

With Mailchimp, you can design forms using a drag-and-drop editor, which makes it easy for beginners:

Creating a form with Mailchimp

You’ll also get access to a range of different fields, and you can even pre-segment your audience.

Better yet, you can create full opt-in and thank-you pages. However, customizing the designs (e.g., selecting color options) isn’t as intuitive as it could be.

With AWeber, you’ll also get access to custom fields and thank-you pages, along some neat features that make the tool stand out from its competitors:

AWeber signup page

For instance, you can add video and audio files to your forms. And it’s really easy to change the fonts, colors, and backgrounds.

Deliverability

If you’re wondering which is better when it comes to these tools, deliverability is another important factor to consider. This refers to the number/percentage of emails that reach the subscriber’s inbox.

Based on research conducted by EmailToolTester, Mailchimp has a notably better score than AWeber. The average figures from three rounds of bi-annual deliverability tests resulted in an overall deliverability rate of 91.2% for Mailchimp and 87.8% for AWeber.

While EmailToolTester concluded that Mailchimp received an “excellent deliverability” score, AWeber was categorized as having “acceptable deliverability” status. And, since AWeber doesn’t provide spam testing, this rate may indicate that AWeber emails are more likely to land in the spam folder.

Landing page builder

Many email marketing providers now offer website building tools along with their mailing services. And the good news is that both AWeber and Mailchimp even offer landing pages with their free plans.

Mailchimp’s landing page builder is very easy to use. However, there are only ~ten templates to choose from (compared with 160+ for AWeber):

Mailchimp landing page builder

But, with Mailchimp, you’ll find a range of SEO tools to boost your search engine rankings (and some of these are even available with the free plan).

Plus, you’re also able to track the performance of your pages. But, with AWeber, you’ll need to track hits and conversions manually using other tools like Google Analytics.

It’s worth noting that Mailchimp’s ecommerce functionality (and appointment scheduling) has now been discontinued. Therefore, if you want to take payments on your site, you’ll be better off using AWeber. This way, you can also sell subscriptions and accept donations.

Email lists

If you’re looking for an email marketing tool, you might want to be able to create multiple email lists and segment your lists to send relevant campaigns. The bad news is that you’ll need at least the AWeber Plus plan (which costs $20) to create more than one email list.

However, while Mailchimp’s free plan is limited to one email list, you’ll get three email lists with the cheapest plan, five with the Standard plan (which costs $20), and like AWeber, you’ll get unlimited lists with the top-tier plan.

What’s more, both AWeber and Mailchimp enable you to create segments based on different criteria. Plus, Mailchimp provides some advanced segmentation functionality with the Standard plan (with unlimited conditions) and predictive segmentation.

On the other hand, AWeber lets you broadcast newsletters across a variety of individual lists, which is something you can’t do with Mailchimp. Although it is usually more effective to use one email list and segment it properly, so this may not be an issue for you.

2. Ease of use

Since you might be working with your preferred email tool on a daily basis, it’s important that it’s easy to use and navigate. If you’re new to email marketing (or have a small list of contacts), Mailchimp is super easy to set up.

To register for an account, all you have to do is complete a straightforward sign-up form and follow the rest of the setup instructions to get started. Meanwhile, AWeber’s setup procedure is slightly more involved (and there are a few more steps associated with importing lists).

Once you make it through the initial setup, Mailchimp presents a clean user interface, but it can take a while to find exactly what you’re looking for (like specific reporting data). However, with AWeber, the traditional user interface means that all the options are immediately accessible when you login.

3. Templates and design

If you’re looking for a quick way to build campaigns and newsletters, you can use pre-built templates and then customize them with your content. With this in mind, we’re now going to compare AWeber and Mailchimp in terms of templates.

Fortunately, both AWeber and Mailchimp provide a range of them. However, the templates available with the free version of Mailchimp are limited:

AWeber vs Mailchimp in terms of template options

Plus, even with the paid plans, AWeber offers a much wider selection (around 160 compared to 130 for Mailchimp).

It’s worth mentioning that both AWeber and Mailchimp provide responsive templates, so your emails will adjust automatically to different screen sizes. And both offer a preview mode, so you can check how your emails look on different devices before sending them:

Preview emails with AWeber

Similarly, both email services allow you to customize the templates easily. You can even code your own templates. However, you’ll require a paid plan to create custom templates with Mailchimp.

4. Customer support

It’s important to find an email marketing solution that offers customer support so that any issues get resolved promptly. The good news is that even with AWeber’s free plan, you can access basic email support and utilize the customer solutions AI assistant (AJ) on the website.

However, with the paid plans, you’ll get 24/7 customer support via email, live chat, and phone support. Plus, the top-tier plans (Plus and Unlimited) also get priority support.

On the other hand, Mailchimp only provides email support for the first 30 days of the free plan. This obviously isn’t ideal since you’ll have to rely on just support guides and tutorials if issues arise further down the line.

Meanwhile, the paid plans offer email and chat support 24/7, but you’re only able to access phone support with the Premium plan (which is very expensive). Plus, priority support doesn’t kick in until this level, but AWeber offers priority support with the $20 Plus plan.

Therefore, if you’re completely new to email marketing and need help setting up your campaigns, the availability of phone support with AWeber is a huge advantage. Better yet, it’s super easy to access via a clear link at the bottom of the interface, which leads you to AWeber’s contact details.

However, with Mailchimp, you can only access support after being redirected to their Help Center. Although this does provide lots of information and tutorials on various topics.

5. Pricing

Lastly, let’s take a look at AWeber and Mailchimp in terms of pricing. Both solutions offer four plans (including a free plan). However, what you get for your money with each of these providers is slightly different.

Let’s start with the free plan. With AWeber, you can host up to 500 subscribers and send 3,000 messages per month. You’re also able to create one email list, one landing page, one email automation, and access basic support:

AWeber pricing

However, while Mailchimp’s free plan also supports 500 contacts, you’re limited to 1,000 email sends per month (with a daily limit of 500). Like with AWeber, you can access limited email automation (single-step sequences), but there’s no support available (with the exception of guides and tutorials).

If we turn our attention to the paid plans, AWeber offers the following:

  • Lite: $12.50 per month
  • Plus: $20 per month
  • Unlimited: $899 per month

All of these support an unlimited number of subscribers, while the top-tier plans (Plus and Unlimited) also give you unlimited email lists and automations. Additionally, you’ll be able to access 24/7 support, custom segments, and advanced message analytics.

On the other hand, Mailchimp also gives you the choice between three paid plans:

  • Essentials: $13.00 per month
  • Standard: $20 per month
  • Premium: $350 per month

However, you’ll still find limits on your email sends (even with the Premium plan):

Mailchimp pricing

But, the two top-tier plans also provide access to some pretty cool features like generative AI, personalized onboarding, and multivariate testing.

So, Mailchimp offers a greater selection of features for the price, but AWeber removes subscriber and message limits. Therefore, if you have between 500 and 50,000 contacts, AWeber is probably your best bet. But for smaller businesses, Mailchimp may be better.

Final verdict

Now, here’s the final verdict:

  • AWeber wins across multiple areas, like ease of use and customer support. Plus, its easy setup, intuitive interface, and basic automation tool make it very accessible to beginners. What’s more, AWeber is great for slightly larger websites since only the free plan limits the number of subscribers. Meanwhile, the two top-tier plans give you access to unlimited email lists.
  • However, smaller online businesses with small emailing lists might prefer Mailchimp, since it works out slightly cheaper if you have fewer than 500 contacts. Additionally, there are more sophisticated features available like advanced segmentation and landing page tracking if you choose a paid plan.

Do you have any questions about this comparison? Let us know in the comments section below!

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