Mailchimp vs Klaviyo for Shopify: Which Should You Use?

For most Shopify stores, KlaviyoKlaviyoEmail and SMSKlaviyo is an email and SMS marketing platform that pulls in store data from Shopify and 350+ other apps to build segments, automated flows and campaigns. Free plan, paid from $20/mo.Click for Scout's full analysis is the better choice: its paid Email plan includes predictive analytics, send time optimization and multi-channel flows from the start, at the same $20/month entry price as Mailchimp's Standard plan. MailchimpMailchimpEmail and SMSMailchimp, owned by Intuit, is an email and SMS marketing platform for small businesses, with sign-up forms, landing pages, automations and reporting. Free plan, paid from $13/mo, 14-day trial.Click for Scout's full analysis wins if you want the lowest paid price ($13/month) and mostly send newsletters with a few simple automations.

For the wider field, including free Shopify Email and Omnisend, see our email marketing tools roundup.

Quick comparison

Ratings as listed on the Shopify App Store in November 2026.

Where they really differ

Automation depth at the low end. This is the biggest practical gap for a store. Mailchimp's Essentials plan limits automations to 4 flow steps. That is a tight limit if you want multi-email welcome or abandoned cart series, and it's worth checking how your planned flows would count against it. To get up to 200 flows with branching, you need Standard at $20/month, which is the same entry price as Klaviyo's Email plan.

What you get at $20/month. At that price, Klaviyo's Email plan lists multi-channel segmentation and flows, personalized product recommendations, deliverability tools, email AI, send time optimization, predictive analytics, multi-channel A/B testing and 160+ templates. Mailchimp Standard lists up to 200 flows, send time optimization, behavioral targeting, predictive segments, dynamic content and custom reports. Both are reasonable. Klaviyo's list is more focused on ecommerce data.

Price visibility. Mailchimp shows starting prices for all four plans and lets you pick a contact tier on its pricing page, though when we read it the page didn't show a price for every tier. Klaviyo shows the entry tier on its Shopify listing and leaves the rest to its calculator.

SMS. Klaviyo sells SMS as its own plan, from $15/month for up to 1,250 SMS/MMS credits with carrier fees included, and its SMS features include two-way conversations, transactional SMS and branded links. Mailchimp offers SMS as an add-on on paid plans, with a pre-built SMS abandoned cart automation, but we didn't confirm its SMS rates. If texting is part of your plan, Klaviyo is easier to price.

Overages. Mailchimp's paid plans charge overages automatically if you go over your contact or send limit; on Free, sending pauses. Klaviyo's free plan also stops sending at 500 emails, and paid plans move up with your active profile count.

Klaviyo

KlaviyoKlaviyoEmail and SMSKlaviyo is an email and SMS marketing platform that pulls in store data from Shopify and 350+ other apps to build segments, automated flows and campaigns. Free plan, paid from $20/mo.Click for Scout's full analysis is an email and SMS platform that pulls store data from Shopify and 350+ other apps into segments, flows and campaigns.

Pricing: Free up to 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month, plus $5 of mobile messages. Email from $20/month for 251–500 contacts, rising with active profiles. SMS is a separate plan from $15/month for up to 1,250 SMS/MMS credits, with carrier fees included.

Strengths for Shopify stores: AI-built segments and flow triggers from historical and real-time data, predictive analytics, product recommendations, and SMS that shares the same profiles as email. Its listing also mentions Customer Hub and Customer Agent for turning service conversations into sales.

Watch out: tier prices above 500 contacts weren't shown in a form we could confirm, and free accounts get email support only for the first 60 days.

Skip it if you send one newsletter a month and don't plan to segment.

Mailchimp

MailchimpMailchimpEmail and SMSMailchimp, owned by Intuit, is an email and SMS marketing platform for small businesses, with sign-up forms, landing pages, automations and reporting. Free plan, paid from $13/mo, 14-day trial.Click for Scout's full analysis, owned by Intuit, is an email and SMS platform for small businesses, with sign-up forms, landing pages, automations and reporting. Its Shopify app syncs customers and events.

Pricing (from Mailchimp's pricing page and Shopify listing):

• Free: 250 contacts, 500 sends a month (250 a day). No marketing automation flows. Sending pauses if you exceed limits.
• Essentials: from $13/month. Sends up to 10× contacts, automations up to 4 flow steps, 24/7 email and chat support, SMS add-on.
• Standard: from $20/month. Up to 6,000 sends at the base tier, up to 200 flows, send time optimization, behavioral targeting and predictive segments.
• Premium: from $350/month, base covers 10,000 contacts. Up to 150,000 sends, advanced segmentation, multivariate testing, unlimited seats and phone support.

The pricing page also showed 15% off the first 12 months on plans of 10,000+ contacts, and a 14-day free trial on Essentials and Standard.

Strengths for Shopify stores: automated welcome, abandoned cart and back-in-stock emails, segments from Shopify customer events, automated single-use discount codes, pop-up forms and attributed revenue tracking inside Shopify. It also has the higher App Store rating of the two.

Watch out: Essentials' 4-step limit, automatic overage charges, and premium features like advanced segmentation sitting on a $350/month plan.

Skip it if you want behavior-driven flows and customer data to be the heart of your marketing.

What it costs at two store sizes

Published prices only.

500 contacts, about 4,000 emails a month:

• MailchimpMailchimpEmail and SMSMailchimp, owned by Intuit, is an email and SMS marketing platform for small businesses, with sign-up forms, landing pages, automations and reporting. Free plan, paid from $13/mo, 14-day trial.Click for Scout's full analysis Essentials: $13/month (up to 5,000 sends), if 4-step automations are enough.
• MailchimpMailchimpEmail and SMSMailchimp, owned by Intuit, is an email and SMS marketing platform for small businesses, with sign-up forms, landing pages, automations and reporting. Free plan, paid from $13/mo, 14-day trial.Click for Scout's full analysis Standard: $20/month (up to 6,000 sends).
• KlaviyoKlaviyoEmail and SMSKlaviyo is an email and SMS marketing platform that pulls in store data from Shopify and 350+ other apps to build segments, automated flows and campaigns. Free plan, paid from $20/mo.Click for Scout's full analysis Email: $20/month.

So the real choice at this size is Mailchimp Standard versus Klaviyo Email, both at $20.

10,000 contacts, weekly campaigns plus flows:

• MailchimpMailchimpEmail and SMSMailchimp, owned by Intuit, is an email and SMS marketing platform for small businesses, with sign-up forms, landing pages, automations and reporting. Free plan, paid from $13/mo, 14-day trial.Click for Scout's full analysis Premium: from $350/month, which covers 10,000 contacts and up to 150,000 sends. Standard is also available at 10,000 contacts, but the pricing page didn't show that tier's price in a form we could confirm.
• KlaviyoKlaviyoEmail and SMSKlaviyo is an email and SMS marketing platform that pulls in store data from Shopify and 350+ other apps to build segments, automated flows and campaigns. Free plan, paid from $20/mo.Click for Scout's full analysis: not published in a form we could confirm. Use its calculator.

Get both quotes at your real list size before deciding; at larger lists the published entry prices tell you little.

Which one should you choose?

• Choose KlaviyoKlaviyoEmail and SMSKlaviyo is an email and SMS marketing platform that pulls in store data from Shopify and 350+ other apps to build segments, automated flows and campaigns. Free plan, paid from $20/mo.Click for Scout's full analysis if you sell on Shopify and want flows and segments driven by customer behavior and purchase history, or plan to add SMS.
• Choose MailchimpMailchimpEmail and SMSMailchimp, owned by Intuit, is an email and SMS marketing platform for small businesses, with sign-up forms, landing pages, automations and reporting. Free plan, paid from $13/mo, 14-day trial.Click for Scout's full analysis if you want the cheapest paid plan and mostly send newsletters, or your business also sells outside Shopify and you know Mailchimp already.
• Consider OmnisendOmnisendEmail and SMSOmnisend is an email, SMS and web push marketing tool built for online stores, with signup forms, pre-built ecommerce automations and campaign templates. Free plan, paid from $16/mo.Click for Scout's full analysis if you like Klaviyo's ecommerce focus but want a lower starting price. See Klaviyo vs Omnisend and our list of Klaviyo alternatives.

Common questions

Is Mailchimp cheaper than Klaviyo for Shopify? At entry level, yes: Mailchimp Essentials starts at $13/month and Klaviyo's Email plan at $20/month. But Mailchimp's comparable Standard plan, with up to 200 flows, is also $20/month.

Does Mailchimp's free plan include automations? No. Mailchimp's pricing page lists marketing automation flows as not included on Free. Klaviyo's Shopify listing describes its free plan as covering forms, emails and flows, within its 250-profile and 500-email limits.

Which has better Shopify App Store reviews? Mailchimp is rated 4.8 with 1,549 reviews, and Klaviyo 4.7 with 3,427 reviews, as listed on the Shopify App Store in November 2026.

Can I send SMS from both? Yes. Klaviyo sells a separate SMS plan from $15/month for up to 1,250 credits. Mailchimp offers SMS as an add-on on paid plans; we didn't confirm its SMS rates.

How we put this together

We did not test Mailchimp or Klaviyo hands-on. Facts and prices come from Mailchimp's pricing page and Shopify App Store listing, and from Klaviyo's Shopify App Store listing and pricing page, all read in November 2026, plus our tracked fact sheets for both tools (checked November 2, 2026). Both tools price by list size, so confirm current prices for your contact count before you sign up.