Mailchimp VS SendGrid

If you are doing business in 2023, you would be sending thousands of emails to your customers. Do you send them manually one by one, or do you have an email marketing platform? Well, either way, you have to check out two of the most popular email marketing tools for businesses – SendGrid and MailChimp. Both platforms are capable of sending bulk emails with a high delivery rate. Users can also customize their emails to make them more appealing and they can also gauge the insights to further enhance their strategy.

However, both the software has some differences and are designed to serve slightly differently. SendGrid is aimed at sending bulk emails with a high delivery rate, whereas MailChimp comes packed with abundant digital marketing features. Also, there is a difference in the level of insights that both platforms offer. When it comes to easy handling, customers find it easy to navigate around MailChimp’s interactive UI, whereas SendGrid users need some time to get a hang of it. Also, the cost per email is lower for SendGrid when compared to MailChimp.

Although, both are used as great email marketing tools, which software is best suited for your brand? We will decode every feature and every drawback of both platforms in this MailChimp vs SendGrid comparison, so you can easily decide which email sender is best for you.

MailChimp vs SendGrid: At a Glance

SendGrid and MailChimp are popular email marketing platforms. From sending bulk promotional emails, automated transactional mail, and drip campaigns to understanding how your receivers are interacting with the email, both these platforms can do these tasks with ease.

However, some features are exclusive to one platform only. SendGrid is designed to send high-volume emails with an 86-90% delivery rate. When stacked against SendGrid, MailChimp will yield a lower delivery rate, but it offers a vast range of marketing features, such as lead scoring, and social media management, which is not present on SendGrid. MailChimp aims to be an all-in-one marketing automation solution whereas SendGrid is focused on ensuring that your email reaches your customers every time.

Learn more about the features of these email marketing platforms and choose the best one for you.

MailChimp vs SendGrid: Pros & Cons

• MailChimp's user interface is self-explanatory as compared to other MailChimp alternatives whereas it takes more time to adapt to SendGrid’s UI.
• A plethora of marketing features are offered with MailChimp, and users can easily set up their campaigns. Although, SendGrid has limited features in comparison, such as with no support for social media management or lead management. Setting up a campaign in SendGrid also takes time.
• SendGrid offers deep insights with a focus on optimizing delivery. On the other hand, MailChimp’s insights are more accessible but not as deep as SendGrid’s.
• SendGrid’s free plan offers only ticket support whereas, with MailChimp’s free plan, customer support is available via email only for 30 days.
• SendGrid has better customer segmentation, and you can target multiple segments with one campaign. MailChimp also offers a decent segmentation, but you can only target one segment at a time.
• SendGrid lets you track the users who have unsubscribed from your emails but you don’t get such a feature with MailChimp

MailChimp vs SendGrid: In Terms of Features

Both email marketing platforms are packed with tools and features to boost your email campaigns. Both platforms are ideal for sending email communications to customers and users can access the analytics data to check how customers are reacting to the emails. Check out the features that are the same on both platforms.

• Customized email designs
• Responsive templates
• Engagement statistics
• Customer segmentation
• Automated welcome emails
• 24/7 customer support for paid plans

However, despite all their similarities, both these platforms have their USPs. A detailed features comparison will help you decide which is the right fit for you.

• High-volume & high delivery rate: SendGrid is focused on sending high-volume emails with a high delivery rate as compared to other SendGrid alternatives. The company boasts an 86-90% delivery rate. The company sent 7 billion emails on Cyber Monday alone. The delivery rate on MailChimp is also good but not a match to SendGrid.
• Guaranteed delivery: Just sending bulk emails isn’t enough, SendGrid also ensures that your email reaches the inbox of your customers. It has partnered with Gmail to understand what they punish or value and also offers a dedicated IP address to prevent being marked as Spam. Users don’t get this feature with MailChimp
• Easy-to-use interface: Ease-of-use is a USP of MailChimp. New users find MailChimp very easy when creating their email campaigns. SendGrid is also quite easy to use with the drag-and-drop email builder alongside tips and tricks available throughout the user journey.
• Digital marketing features: MailChimp aims to be an all-in-one marketing solution and offers exclusive features such as social media management, lead scoring, display ads, and more. SendGrid on the other hand includes only the basic versions of these functionalities.
• Easy customer segmentation: Mailchimp automatically creates customer segments based on the likelihood of upselling and the likely amount of money they will spend. This is something customers find missing in SendGrid’s customer segmentation.
• Configure unsubscribe groups: One feature that you will find exclusively inz SendGrid is the ability to configure unsubscribe groups. It helps your unsubscribes step away from the campaigns they don’t like, while they stay in the loop for the ones they love.

MailChimp vs SendGrid: Customer Support

If you looking to connect with the customer support team of SendGrid, you can connect with them over the phone, by Email, and through ticket support. However, if you are on a free plan, you can only connect with customer support via ticket support.

MailChimp also offers robust customer support via Email and Phone. However, for the users on the free plan, you can only get customer support via email for the first 30 days only.

Both platform also offers video tutorials that can be used to troubleshoot your problems.

Which One is Better: SendGrid is better than MailChimp when it comes to customer support for users. SendGrid offers more sources of communication including Tickets, Emails, and Phone.

MailChimp vs SendGrid: Ease of Use

Email Marketing tools are popular among companies of all sizes. Brands today rely on their email campaigns to generate sales, create awareness, and keep customers updated. However, if your brand is new to the practice, you need to have an easy-to-use email marketing platform to optimize your output and use the platform to its full potential.

When it comes to SendGrid, the platform provides a checklist to get you started on the platform. However, these checklists are not the steps you need to take to create an email campaign. These actions include setting up various groups that users can unsubscribe from. This makes SendGrid a little hard to navigate around in the beginning.

MailChimp on the other hand is very easy to use. Its UI is self-explanatory, with lots of hints and tips placed throughout the platform.

Which One is Better: MailChimp with its self-explanatory UI and tips and tricks is easier to use compared to SendGrid.

MailChimp vs SendGrid: Integration

One of the most important aspects you need to look for while choosing an email marketing platform is its ability to integrate with other business functions. Your email campaigns need to be able to integrate with other solutions to provide the best result. For example, if you’re sending an email to your customer asking for payment, your software should be integrated with your payment solution.

SendGrid offers integration with Airtable, Agile CRM, Mercanto, Drupal, Autopilot, Kissmetrics, GitHub, WordPress, and many more platforms. However, it lacks integration with big players such as Google Analytics, WooCommerce, Shopify, Paypal, and Slack.

MailChimp can be integrated with platforms such as Facebook, Square, WooCommerce, Canva, Eventbrite, Magento, ShopSync, and Slack. The platform offers integration with more than 200 software partners.

Which One is Better: MailChimp is the clear winner with its vast list of available integrations. It is also integrated with big players such as WooCommerce, Canva, and Slack.

MailChimp vs SendGrid: Supported Platforms

Availability across platforms is a major determining factor when it comes to picking the best tool for your business. An agile platform should be available across web and mobile devices so users can access it anytime, anywhere.

MailChimp is a web-based platform that is also available on Android and iOS devices. SendGrid is also a web-based device, but it currently doesn’t have a mobile application for users.

MailChimp vs SendGrid: Pricing

When considering the price of an email marketing platform, you need to look beyond the starting price and check if the platform has a free plan or not.

SendGrid offers a free plan where you can store up to 2,000 contacts and send up to 6,000 emails per month. The free plan has limited functions. The paid plan pricing varies as per contacts and the number of emails you send each month. It offers two plans – Basic (starts at Rs. 1240) which offers 7,000 contacts and 15,000 emails per month & Advanced (Rs. 4950) which offers 15,000 contacts and 50,000 emails per month.

MailChimp also offers a free plan where users can send up to 1,000 Emails per month. However, the functionalities are limited on the free plan. There are three paid plan options – Essential (Rs. 770) offers 5,000 emails per month, Standard (Rs. 1,150) offers 6,000 emails per month, and Premium (Rs. 23,000) offers up to 150,000 emails per month. Essential and Standard plans come with a one-month free trial.

Which One is Better: If you compare the cost per email, SendGrid offers a cheaper rate and ensures that your bulk email has a high delivery rate. However, if you compare the price based on features, MailChimp offers more features at the price point.

MailChimp vs SendGrid: Which Is Better?

Both email marketing platforms are great choices to run email campaigns. However, if you aim to send bulk emails and ensure that the email is getting delivered to your customers, SendGrid is the best choice for you. For businesses and individuals who seek an all-in-one marketing solution, MailChimp emerges as the clear winner, offering a multitude of digital marketing tools.