Email tools comparison: Campaign Monitor vs. Mailchimp vs. Omnisend

Are you looking to get started with email marketing?

Or are you looking for an alternative to Mailchimp?

Finding the best email marketing service can be hard. There are many options to choose from, and finding the right one is not as easy as saying: “This one is the best for all.”

Depending on the kind of business you run, there are better and worse options. We want to make sure you find the right solution for you and your email campaign.

In this article, we will compare Mailchimp to two common email software alternatives: Campaign Monitor and Omnisend.

A quick glance at Omnisend, Campaign Monitor, and Mailchimp

Before we get into the Omnisend vs. Mailchimp vs. Campaign Monitor debate, let’s discuss who these marketing tools are perfect for.

Omnisend

An innovative email and SMS marketing automation platform, Omnisend helps small businesses and start-ups boost their revenue.

Omnisend does this via incredible features, including user interface, catchy email templates, captivating marketing campaigns, insightful knowledge base, marketing automation, and 24/7 customer service.

With the help of Omnisend, you can drive organic traffic and better workflow towards your brand.

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor assists users in setting up and managing their email campaigns by providing an array of incredible features. Not only does it provide an easy-to-use interface, but its excellent functionality makes it a fantastic marketing tool.

You can benefit from its marketing campaign features, marketing automation, and segmentation. Campaign Monitor’s customer service is also an excellent choice, and you can use its training videos and webinars.

Campaign Monitor is perfect for experienced marketers planning to design a complex email campaign. Consider reading Campaign Monitor reviews to decide whether it’s right for you.

Mailchimp

Curate the perfect marketing campaign with Mailchimp and its fantastic usability. This campaign manager and email marketing platform provides all users with a fantastic user experience, boasting various skill sets. 

In addition, you can choose from multiple pricing plans to suit one according to your budget and needs. Eventually, you’ll benefit from its email campaigns, automation, and A/B testing.

All in all, Omnisend, Campaign Monitor, and Mailchimp are all excellent email marketing platforms depending on your specific needs.

1. Campaign Monitor vs. Mailchimp vs. Omnisend comparison chart

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Now, there’s a lot to unpack here.

Let’s go line by line:

2. Pricing comparison

Pricing is an important consideration when choosing your ESP. While you don’t want to skimp on the price and end up with the worst of the bunch, you also don’t want to overpay for features you don’t need or are offered at a better price at a competitor.

Among the three email autoresponders compared, Campaign Monitor is more expensive across most payment plans. Mailchimp, despite often criticism about pricing increases, offers a better price at all service levels. Campaign Monitor offers the most affordable standard plan, followed closely by Mailchimp.

For higher level plans, Mailchimp offers a better price at a low subscriber level while at a higher ones (>10,000 contacts) Omnisend provides additional services (like SMS marketing) for only a slight price increase.

Omnisend Free Version vs. Campaign Monitor vs. Mailchimp

A free or “freemium” plan is great for people just getting into email marketing.

It gives you the opportunity to get a feel for the ESP and try it out without risk.

Among the three ESPs we compared, Omnisend offers the best free plan at 500 emails per month plus the ability to use all features absolutely for free. Mailchimp limits their free plan to 10,000 emails to a maximum of 2,000 contacts, plus restrictions on the features you can use. Campaign Monitor doesn’t offer a free plan.

3. Feature comparison

Email marketing apps have come a long way since their heyday. The list of expected features is quite long and includes automation, campaigns, drag-and-drop email editors, form builders, audience segments, reporting & analytics, and others.

Omnisend, Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor all offer the basic and quite a few advanced features. Here, we will look at some unique features that might affect your choice.

Customize email templates

Mailchimp’s interface is super easy; however, customizing its email editor is a little complicated. This means that it’s best suited for proficient marketers.

On the flip side, Campaign Monitor provides users with a drag and drop email builder to curate attractive templates. Plus, its excellent user interfaced and team-orientated permissions allow you to enhance efficiency. 

Lastly, Omnisend provides you with an array of themed templates including a drag and drop option. This makes customizing your templates an easy and fun-filled task. Plus, you can enjoy saving and reusing the template multiple times.

Customer feedback (Omnisend only)

Omnisend has the option of getting valuable feedback from your customers right inside the email. With the others, you would need to send a customer survey—and we all know how much we like those.

Omnichannel integration

Email marketing has been around for a long time—and it’s here to stay. However, there has been an increase in direct-to-consumer channels one can reach their customers on: SMS/MMS, push notifications and others give marketers the option to create a more well-rounded targeting plan for their business.

While email marketing is the core of all three, they additionally offer other services.

SMS marketing

All three compared ESPs offer SMS marketing: Omnisend does this by default, while Mailchimp uses a plug-in integration and Campaign Monitor uses third-party software.

Omnisend also offers the most SMS marketing options, including worldwide reach as well as a full suite for automated text messages & campaigns (pre-built automation workflows, campaigns and list building tools). For Omnisend marketers on Pro and Enterprise plans, text messages are for free.

Push notifications (Omnisend only)

The value of push notifications is clear: you can interact with your customers right as they are busy browsing – in other words, when they are in a prime buying mood.

It is also a great complement to email marketing: for example, recovering abandoned carts can be done instantaneously while they are browsing. Combined with an abandoned cart recovery email (also standard in Omnisend), you can get even more customers to complete their purchases.

Omnisend offers push notifications integrated with all other channels.

Ease of use

When you’re just familiarizing yourself with various marketing tools, you must consider whether they’re easy to use or not.

Luckily, in the Mailchimp vs. Campaign Monitor debate, both are easy-to-use marketing tools offering drag-and-drop functionality. In addition, Campaign Monitor gives users a personalized dashboard, step-by-step tasks list, and an internally built knowledge base. 

On the other hand, Mailchimp offers you a checklist-style, easy-to-navigate user interface, and personalized tips and assistance.

4. App & Web service integrations

Omnisend, Campaign Monitor, and Mailchimp all have long lists of apps and web services they integrate with. Such tools enable you to customize how you do your business online or help you work more efficiently. You just need to make sure that the email marketing software you choose integrates seamlessly with the apps and web services you need.

Here’s how the three compare in terms of the most useful categories for digital businesses:

Ecommerce

Omnisend was built specifically for ecommerce, so it’s no surprise that it works seamlessly with some of the most popular ecommerce apps. These include BigCommerce, Magento, Shopify, Shopify Plus, and WooCommerce. In contrast, Mailchimp doesn’t support Shopify, while Campaign Monitor lacks in BigCommerce and Magento support.

Furthermore, Omnisend integrates with a variety of other apps that support other ecommerce functionality such as sales optimization, customer support, and shipping & logistics. On the other hand, Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor have several analytics tools and perform as the perfect email marketing solution.

Here’s a summary of how these three email marketing services compare in terms of their integrations:

Customer Relations Management (CRM)

Campaign Monitor has the undeniable advantage when it comes to CRM, with Mailchimp following closely behind. Both work well with Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and Zapier, while Campaign Monitor has the additional advantage of working seamlessly with the popular CRM solution HubSpot.

In contrast, Omnisend has a robust CRM functionality built into the platform itself. Even if it supports fewer CRM applications, it enables you to create detailed customer segments and benefit from AI-assisted features for optimum engagement and conversions, right out of the box.

Loyalty & Referral

Loyalty and Referral applications are critical to increasing customer lifetime value. These apps encourage your customers to keep engaging with your brand and spend more on your products and services. On this front, Omnisend is the clear winner as it integrates with a greater number of relevant apps and web services.

In contrast, Campaign Monitor only integrates with the contest and giveaway app Gleam. At least Mailchimp supports several others, including Smile.io, ViralSweep, and Yotpo.

5. Customer service comparison

Navigating the complex world of email and omnichannel marketing can be difficult.

Problems do arise, and when they do, it is crucial that you get answers as fast as possible – your business may depend on it. That is why customer service is an important part of choosing your ESP.

All compared services offer email support on all plans. Mailchimp offers chat support on some of their paid plans and phone support for the subscribers of their $299,99+ per month premium service. Campaign Monitor reviews show that their customers are satisfied with their support. This provider offers different support for different packages with more options for the higher priced ones.

Omnisend is the only provider of the three to offer 24/7 email and chat support in their standard plan (starting at $16 per month).

Final verdict—Campaign Monitor vs. Mailchimp vs. Omnisend

When compared on the basis of pricing, functionality, integrations, and customer support, Omnisend emerges as the clear better option. Campaign Monitor automation features might be comparable, but the steep investment and limited integrations for ecommerce businesses puts it at a disadvantage. Mailchimp, on the other hand, might be affordable, but lack in features and access to customer service.

Not only does Omnisend offer competitive pricing and the best customer support, but it also gives you the most features to build your business with and create a true omnichannel experience for your customers.