Beehiiv vs Mailchimp: Which Is Better for Your Small Business?
Beehiiv vs. Mailchimp: which one is right for your small business?
This is an important question to ask yourself before setting up your email marketing.
While several platforms are out there to start email campaigns, Beehiiv and Mailchimp are among the strongest.
As a small business owner myself, I can attest that choosing between these two platforms depends on which one is more suitable for your specific needs.
Today, we will explore both platforms, diving into their unique features, pricing, ease of use, and more. We will also provide the pros and cons of each platform to help you decide which is better for your small business.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links you’ll find below are affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one of these links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Key TakeAways
Beehiiv allows users to design and create marketing campaigns and helps users build a website. With pre-made templates, users can easily develop a website without any required prior skills.
Mailchimp has professional services that can help increase your success rate. One feature they offer is customer success services.
Both Mailchimp and Beehiiv offer various scalability features. These elements are designed to help you grow a larger audience faster.
Main Features
Both Beehiv and Mailchimp offer impressive marketing tools.
These two platforms cater to various needs, from built-in CRM systems to appealing visuals and detailed dashboards.
However, while similar in many ways, each platform offers its own set of pros and cons.
Beehiiv’s Main Features
Starting off strong, let’s talk about Beehiiv’s user-friendly and intuitive interface.
Users can design websites and send emails without any code or web design skills, using ready-made templates and simple editing tools.
A feature that sets Beehiiv apart is its drag-and-drop automation builder, which creates personalized and targeted email campaigns based on triggers and actions.
Beehiiv is more than just website and email design. The platform also offers its members access to a built-in CRM system that manages contacts and leads and tracks sales and conversions.
Users can also monitor their performance and results with a visual and interactive dashboard that displays key metrics and insights.
It isn’t just analytic tools that set Beehiiv apart from other platforms. They also offer several strategic tools users can use to increase traffic and engagement. They also have built-in tools to help you monetize your newsletter with ease…if you wish to do so.
One setback is Beehiiv's deliverability rate and testing/optimization tools, which are not as good as Mailchimp's. These tools impact performance, which can have a butterfly effect on your subscribers' happiness.
However, the difference is quite minuscule, so don’t dwell on it too much.
Why I Personally Love Beehiiv 🚀
I’m two months into my newsletter journey with Beehiiv and due to their growth and engagement features, I’ve seen some impressive growth:
Total Subscribers increased 254%
Open Rate increased 8.3%
Click Rate increased 99% (my prior click rate was pretty terrible)
Needless to say, I’m a fan. If you do decide to check out Beehiiv, use my link to get a free 30-day trial plus 20% off for the first three months of any paid plan.
Mailchimp’s Main Features
Moving on to Mailchimp, let’s look at some of the advantages it has over Beehiiv.
For instance, there are far more templates offered on Mailchimp. Their email marketing templates also offer more variations, which helps you create more engaging and personalized campaigns.
Moreover, Mailchimp has more predefined automation templates and scenarios, saving you time and hassle when setting up your workflows.
Another advantage is that Mailchimp has more detailed and granular reports. These extra details are important for your business as they give you more insights into your email marketing. This data helps you adjust your strategy more effectively.
Now onto the flaws we found in Mailchimp. When compared to Beehiiv, Mailchimp has a less user-friendly interface, which can make it harder for users to navigate.
Mailchimp also lacks an innate CRM system, so you must rely on third-party integrations or manually sync your contacts and data.
While these are weaknesses, the platform's benefits and capabilities outweigh them by far. Even with these drawbacks, Mailchimp is still nearly at the top of our list for email marketing.
Pricing Insights
Pricing and affordability are important considerations when choosing a platform.
You should compare platform pricing and the different plan tiers offered. Choose a plan that reflects your current rate of growth to avoid overpaying or limiting your ability for a wider audience.
Beehiiv’s plans are based on the number of subscribers and allows unlimited sends. Mailchimp’s pricing is a bit more complicated as it takes both subscribers and number of sent emails per month into account.
Here is a quick pricing example for both platforms:
Beehiiv free plan: $0 for up to 2,500 subscribers (limited features)
Mailchimp free plan: $0 for up to 500 contacts, with a max of 1,000 email sends in a month.
Beehiiv Scale plan: Starting at $79 for up to 5,000 subscribers with unlimited email sends + access to more features including automations, Boosts, Ad Network, and Surveys. 15% off for annual plans.
Mailchimp standard plan: $100 for up to 5,000 contacts (free for the first month, $100 per month after)
Keep in mind that both platforms charge more as your list size grows, but Mailchimp has more flexible pricing options that allow you to pay only for the features you need.
Mailchimp also offers discounts for nonprofits and charities, as well as a pay-as-you-go option for occasional senders.
Depending on your business goals and needs, you may find one platform more suitable than the other.
For more details on pricing, check out both Beehiiv and Mailchimp’s pricing pages.
Beehiiv vs Mailchimp: Comparing Support
Customer support is essential for any small business but is also an important factor often overlooked when choosing a platform. Some platforms will offer email support only, whereas others will offer live chats and phone support at the same time.
Here's how Beehiiv and Mailchimp compare in terms of customer support:
Email Support:
Beehiiv: 24/7 access for all users
Mailchimp: Limited to paid users during business hours; free users get online email support for the first 30 days
Live Chat Support:
Beehiiv: 24/7 access for all users
Mailchimp: Available for paid users with a Standard plan or higher; limited hours on weekends
Phone Support:
Beehiiv: Not available
Mailchimp: Exclusive to Premium users paying $299/month; limited to business hours
Stand-Out Features of Each Platform
Beehiiv: Custom Newsletters + Better Analytics
As we mentioned earlier in the article, one of Beehiiv's advantages is that you can make professional-looking websites without any previous skills.
The platform has a variety of unique and attractive templates where you can host your newsletter, sell products, run a blog, and more. You just have to pick a template, customize it with your brand guidelines, colors, and content, and publish it with a single click.
Beehiiv also lets you create custom builds on their newsletters, unlike Mailchimp. So, if you are a creative who wants more control over how your newsletter looks, this feature might be important to you.
I also particularly find that Beehiiv is a much more cohesive and attractive analytic page. Beehiiv’s analytics tool allows you to dive deep into your stats and subscribers. With more ways to understand your audience, you can better strategize and learn what is and isn’t working for your newsletter.
Mailchimp: Professional and Success Services
Mailchimp's customer success services (CSM) might be a good option if you need more hands-on support and guidance for your marketing campaigns.
They offer a range of professional services, from strategic planning to technical assistance, that can help you get the most out of its platform. Customer success management is valuable for small businesses that want to improve their marketing.
One of the main features of Mailchimp's customer success services is the customer success management program. This proactive service gives you access to a team of expert customer success managers who will help you achieve your marketing goals. You can benefit from this service if you have a Standard or Premium plan with Mailchimp.
Integration Capabilities and Third-Party Tools
Let’s detour and explore these two platforms' integration capabilities. By connecting different tools and platforms, you can enhance the functionality of your email marketing software, streamlining your workload and process.
Beehiiv Integrations
Beehiiv offers the ability to join together additional tools and platforms that will help you optimize your email marketing and e-commerce sector. Some platforms you can integrate are Shopify, Magento, and Prestashop.
Once connected, you can easily import your product data, order history, customer information, and more into your email campaigns. This allows you to create more personalized emails targeting your audience and their shopping habits and interests.
Beehiiv also lets you connect with CRM systems like Zapier and Privvy to manage your contacts and leads and email them relevant messages. It also works with social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, so you can spread your email content on different platforms and attract more people.
Mailchimp Integrations
Like Beehiiv, Mailchimp also offers the ability to integrate its platform with other tools and platforms. This includes e-commerce, CRM, social media, and analytics aspects. You can link up platforms such as WooCommerce, Shopify, and Squarespace.
This allows you to automate email marketing based on customers' purchase behavior and preferences.
Another integration tool that Mailchimp users often find beneficial is the ability to include CRM systems they are already using. For example, users can combine their contact data and email lists from 300+ integration platforms. This creates an easier integration of tools and platforms, keeping everything organized.
Furthermore, like Beehiiv, Mailchimp can combine your dashboard with social media tools like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. This allows you to create and manage your ads, grow your audience, and track your performance from one cohesive spot.
Which Platforms Offer Better Scalability?
Scalability is an enormous factor to consider when choosing an email marketing platform. Scalability refers to a platform's ability to handle increasing amounts of work and data without compromising on performance, quality, or functionality.
As your business grows and your marketing needs become more complex, you want a platform that can support your growth and keep up with the demand.
Beehiiv’s Scalability
Beehiiv supports scalability by offering advanced features that help you grow your business. These features include automation tools, artificial intelligence, segmentation, and analytics. One such tool is the platform's audience polls, which allow you to adjust your strategy according to real-time polls. These polls engage your readers and make them more likely to return.
Two notable and unique features of Beehiiv include the Referral Program and Boosts. With the referral program, subscribers can establish targets for how many people they need to recommend your newsletter to in order to get a prize. A referral program is an intelligent and effective way to increase your audience.
Beehiiv’s Boosts feature supports growth by leveraging paid recommendations to attract high-quality subscribers. Publishers can set their own prices, access a network of qualified newsletters, and earn money through recommendations. This feature ensures cost-efficient audience expansion and monetization.
How it Works:
Boost Your Newsletter: You can increase your newsletter's exposure on the Beehiiv network by choosing a budget and targeting criteria.
Boost Others: Apply to boost other newsletters and earn revenue from each new subscriber you bring in.
I recently started a newsletter on Beehiiv and have seen my subscriber list increase 2.5x in the first two months. Part of this is organic, but by tapping into boosts, I’ve been able to scale much more aggressively.
The cost of boosting is offset by boosting other newsletters, so a win-win in my book.
Mailchimp’s Scalability
Mailchimp is also known for its scalability features. One of its prominent components is its ability to keep up with a fast-growing subscriber list. Mailchimp also offers a flexible pricing model that will adjust to reflect your audience count and email volume.
To help advance your growth, Mailchimp’s analytics allow you to access comprehensive reports and insights on your email campaigns.
These reports give you insights into subscribers’ behavior, such as opens, clicks, conversions, purchases, and revenue. You can also use analytics to test and optimize different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, content, design, and timing.
Finally, with Mailchimp and its automation tools, you can send emails triggered by specific events or conditions, such as sign-ups, birthdays, purchases, or feedback.
You can also use automation to create email sequences that nurture your leads and customers throughout their journey, such as a welcome series, onboarding series, product education series, or reactivation series.
Beehiiv vs Mailchimp: What’s The Verdict?
Both Beehiiv and Mailchimp are powerful email marketing platforms used by thousands of small business owners.
These two platforms are known for their extensive range of features and benefits for casting a wider net. However, when choosing the right platform for you, you will need to consider your specific needs and goals, as one platform may suit your business better than the other.
If you are having difficulty deciding, I’d recommend you give them both a try and see which works better for you. Both platforms offer free trials, so you can explore their features and functionalities without investing money.
From my personal experience as a small business owner, I’d recommend Beehiiv. It’s been a game-changer for my newsletter and it’s just getting started.
If you do decide to check out Beehiiv, use my link to get a free 30-day trial plus 20% off for the first three months of any paid plan.
