MailChimp vs SendGrid
You want to send marketing emails and newsletters to your community, but you aren’t sure whether to choose SendGrid or MailChimp to help? Allow us to assist with your decision.
Below, we’ve drawn up a comparison so you can see exactly how they differ. By the end, hopefully you can make a decision and choose a solution that works for your business.
1. Introduction
MailChimp
On the one side, we have MailChimp which has long been a favorite for many marketers and professionals. Thanks to their many plans, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a startup or an international company. Either way, you can reach out to consumers, advertise products/services, and compete with others in your niche.
For us, the analytical features are especially impressive and so is the control businesses have over their campaigns. The platform is simple, it’s easy to check emails, subscribers, success rates, and other data points, and there are even templates for beginners.
SendGrid
On the other, SendGrid has grown in reputation over the years after attracting some huge names as clients. This includes:
- HubSpot
- Airbnb
- Spotify
- Uber
According to recent statistics, they send 18 billion emails per month on behalf of clients. As a web-based solution, emails are sent over either SMTP or HTTP. Elsewhere, it’s incredibly simple to use (even if you’ve never used similar software before). Depending on your needs, you can also send emails via the official client libraries.
2. Features
MailChimp
Some of the most useful features with MailChimp include:
- Merge Tags
- RSS to Email
- Email Designer
- Social Sharing
- Email Templates
- A/B Testing
- Multi-User Accounts
- Subscriber Profiles
- App/Tool Integration
- Custom Forms
- Segmentation
- MailChimp Editor
Furthermore, we should note that MailChimp is cloud-based, which means that it will be accessible regardless of the device you choose. In the office, MailChimp will work on both Windows and Mac OS. When on the move, perhaps you’re on the train for a business meeting or in another country entirely, you’ll still have access via iOS and Android.
SendGrid
How does SendGrid compare? Here are the main features:
- Unsubscribe Tracking
- Feedback Loop
- ISP Monitoring
- SMTP API
- Open and Click Tracking
- Email Templates
- Suppression List Management
- Dedicated and Multiple IP Addresses
- Reputation Monitoring
- Domain Level Load Balancing
Rather than on the cloud, SendGrid is based on the web. Although slightly different, this still means that your campaigns will be available with any devices connected to the internet. Regardless of whether it’s on Mac OS, Windows, iOS, or Android.
3. Pricing
Now we’ve seen the features, you probably want to know how much each will cost, right?
MailChimp
Firstly, the MailChimp pricing model starts with a free service. If you’re just starting in business and you’re not expecting to exceed 12,000 emails per month and 2,000 subscribers, you won’t pay a single cent. As soon as you surpass either one of these, a fee will be introduced. We’ve broken down the pricing policy per month (keep in mind that every package comes with unlimited emails);
- $20 per month — Between 1,001 and 1,500 subscribers
- $25 per month — Between 1,501 and 2,000 subscribers
- $30 per month — Between 2,001 and 2,500 subscribers
- $35 per month — Between 2,501 and 2,600 subscribers
For a Pro membership, you’ll pay just under $200. One thing we like about this pricing model is that you only pay for what you use. Not only this, but it’s scalable too. At first, you take advantage of a free service. Then, you pay more as you earn more subscribers. By the time you’re paying the largest rate, you should have the money to pay for it because you’ll have 2,500+ subscribers.
SendGrid
With SendGrid, they also offer a free introductory package, but it differs slightly. For the first month, you can send 40,000 emails for absolutely no charge. Once this first month is up, your allowance will be reduced to 100 emails per day.
After this, there are several packages;
- Essentials 40K — If you plan to send anywhere from 1,000 to 40,000 emails every month, you’ll pay around $14.95.
- Essentials 100K — For anything between 40,000 and 100,000 emails per month, the package is $29.95.
- Pro 100K — With the first Pro package at $79.95, you still get up to 100,000 emails per month, but the features are more advanced. For example, all Pro packages come with dedicated IPs and sub-user management (not available with the two Essentials packages).
- Pro 300K — Planning to send up to 300,000 emails each month? In this case, SendGrid charge $199.95.
- Pro 700K — As we reach packages designed for larger businesses, anything up to 700,000 emails will cost $399.95.
- Pro 1.5M — Finally, $699.95 will get you access to 1.5 million emails every single month.
If this still isn’t enough (well done for creating a business that requires this number of emails per month, by the way), they also have Custom Pricing. Just get in contact with the team and they will send a quote for your requirements.
As you’ve probably noticed, the interesting difference between the pricing structures of the two is that MailChimp charge per subscribers and SendGrid charge per the number of emails. When deciding between the two, this could be a deciding factor.
4. Benefits
If the list of features didn’t really help in the second section, allow us to break this down even further. Here are the benefits of each platform and the reasons why you might choose one over the other.
MailChimp
Simple and Fun — For the longest time, MailChimp has been the go-to solution for marketing teams because it has a simple interface and it’s also designed to be fun. The creators have injected humor into the platform and, despite tremendous growth over the years, the packages have remained affordable.
Depending on what route you want to take, they offer some key features including the ability to publish a newsletter. Furthermore, the detailed reports keep you informed with regards to performance while their mobile apps mean that you can work on long commutes.
Support for Beginners — When it comes to transactional emails and email marketing, we can’t all be experts. MailChimp has recognized this and we think that even those with NO experience will get on just fine; the interface is clean and easy to follow.
Several Other Benefits — Other benefits include features like multi-user accounts, customization, geolocation, A/B testing, RSS to email, segmentation, and plenty more.
SendGrid
Analytics — What messages have been delivered? What percentage of emails have been marked as spam? Whatever you want to know with your email marketing strategy, SendGrid will almost certainly have the answer.
Newsletters and Transactional Emails — In years gone by, businesses have struggled by with two different applications. One would be to send you the automatic messages and emails while the other sent all news, promotions, and newsletters from the marketing team. Now, this is no longer necessary because SendGrid does everything all under one roof.
Simple API — Thirdly, most users find the API extremely intuitive. Once you get started, the documentation is also very useful because it covers absolutely everything you would expect.
5. Drawbacks
In our final section, we want to discuss potential drawbacks you might experience with each. Are there any reasons you should avoid either MailChimp or SendGrid?
MailChimp
Inefficient Sign-Up System — Granted, this isn’t exactly going to make or break your experience once you’re up and running. Yet, we found the sign-up process to be quite tedious. What’s more, the same is true whenever you want to log in.
No Phone Support — As the only other problem we experienced with MailChimp, there’s no phone support. While this might not seem like a big problem, what happens when you encounter an issue and you lack experience with this type of software? Sometimes, you just need to talk with somebody on the phone, and this isn’t possible with MailChimp.
SendGrid
More Advanced — For those who lack experience with these types of software, you’ll be disappointed to hear that SendGrid will require more technical knowledge. This isn’t because of the platform itself, it’s because things like follow-up messages and sign-up forms are omitted from the platform by default.
No Option to View Contents — After sending thousands of emails, you better hope that your memory is good because you won’t be able to access the content of them ever again. You can’t check whether the email was actually sent, and this makes it tough to deal with bugs and other issues.
6. Which is Best?
For many years, MailChimp has been the leader in this niche and it is still used widely today. Affordable, simple to use, and with dozens of cool features, MailChimp works for most. However, we understand that everybody has different needs so you shouldn’t necessarily jump on the bandwagon.
As we saw earlier, SendGrid is used by some huge brand names and this is for a very good reason. Why not try the free versions of both and then decide which suits your business best?
Looking to automate and optimize your campaigns? Let us help!
