AWeber vs. Mailchimp: Which email marketing tool is better?

Looking for an email marketing tool with AI growth assistance capability? Try one of these and learn how it works in this AWeber vs. Mailchimp comparison.

Struggling to find untapped sources in your marketing funnels to boost revenues? Start using email marketing software. AWeber and Mailchimp are the OGs and excel at it. 

AWeber focuses on simplicity, while Mailchimp offers an all-inclusive tool. However, how does each perform, and what benefits do they offer?

Let’s find out in this AWeber vs. MailChimp comparison.

AWeber vs. Mailchimp: At a Glance

Criteria	AWeber	Mailchimp	Winner
SMB Guide’s Rating	7.9/10	8/10	Mailchimp
Marketing Automation Capabilities	Complex email sequences	Basic automation	Mailchimp
Email Builder	600+ pre-made email templates	Intuitive, easy-to-use	AWeber
Personalization & Customization	Lacks segmentation options	Basic personalization	Mailchimp
Campaign Performance Tracking	Limited tracking	Standard metrics	Mailchimp
Email Deliverability	✅	✅	Constant Contact
List Management	Standard segmentation	Simple lists	Mailchimp
A/B Testing	✅	✅	Mailchimp
Advanced Reporting & Insights	Attribution has limitations	Basic reports	Mailchimp
Compliance & Security	✅	✅	Tie
User Experience and User Interface	Minimalist interface	User-friendly interface	AWeber
Integrations and Compatibility	750+ integrations	300+ integrations	AWeber
Customer Support	Live chat, phone, and email	Limited support	AWeber
Pricing	Free – $899/mo	Free – $1,600/mo	AWeber
Scalability	✅	✅	Mailchimp

AWeber: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

AWeber is one of the email marketing pioneers and still maintains its classic functionality. It has evolved by adding better and more powerful features for modern software. 

Its focus on automation, flexibility to manage contacts, and email template customization make it stand out. One of its draws is its simplicity and ease of creating campaigns without hidden surprises.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

AWeber pricing is straightforward. It offers four scalable plans, including a freemium. The free plan offers basic functionality and caps subscribers at 500.

Paid plans offer more features and support unlimited subscribers. Billing is monthly or yearly, where annual pre-payments get 4 months off.

The best part is that AWeber includes a money-back guarantee of 30 days.

Here are the plans:

• Free: $0
• Lite: $15 monthly or $150 yearly
• Plus: $30 monthly or $240 annually
• Unlimited: $899 monthly only

Mailchimp: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

Mailchimp is still one of the leading email marketing software for over a decade. With a foundation in email, it has grown to include a native CRM, among other capabilities. 

The platform is also well-known for its powerful e-commerce integration options and automation tools. The combination of all these capabilities makes it an ideal multichannel email marketing software.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

Mailchimp’s pricing structure is simple, offering four scalable plans with a freemium. The free plan offers limited features and caps contacts at 500.

The billing cycle is monthly, and at the moment, the Standard and Premium plans have a 50% off promo.

Here are the plans:

• Free: $0 (500 contacts)
• Essentials: $13 monthly (up to 1500 contacts)
• Standard: $20 monthly (up to 1500 contacts)
• Premium: $350 monthly (10K contacts)

Marketing Automation Capabilities

Mailchimp excels here, offering a more advanced automation builder. It supports intricate workflows with conditional actions and branching logic.

Marketers can create complex email sequences based on set criteria like behavior.

AWeber provides a more basic visual builder for creating workflows. Marketers can create simple automation sequences and autoresponders.

However, it has limitations in using conditional actions and branching logic.

On the range of triggers for automated actions, both offer a broad range. However, Mailchimp offers more granularity. 

Regarding cross-channel automation support, Mailchimp edges AWeber. It extends beyond email, allowing marketers to integrate SMS, social media, and CRMs.

On dynamic content personalization, AWeber allows marketers to use the recipient’s attributes.

However, there are limitations on customization levels. Mailchimp allows personalization based on more attributes, including preferences, purchase history, and more.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Email Builder

AWeber excels here, offering 600+ pre-made email templates that cater to various needs. Marketers can find one for professional use or a newsletter that fits their needs.

The Mailchimp template library is smaller, offering only 100+ industry-specific templates. Although smaller, the templates are visually appealing, responsive, and customizable.

Both software also offer an intuitive email editor with drag-and-drop functionality. The builders support customization, including adding images, blocks, and more.

Regarding template optimization for mobile, both platforms provide the feature. It ensures enhanced user experience across different devices. 

AWeber and MailChimp also offer direct HTML editing capability. Marketers can customize the email templates to fit their brand and even include RSS feeds.

Regarding preview and testing capability, both platforms offer the feature. Marketers can preview the templates to see how they render across clients and devices.

Not only that, marketers can test deliverability through the spam testing feature.

✅ Winner: AWeber

Personalization & Customization

Mailchimp shines here, providing powerful features for personalizing emails. Like AWeber, marketers can insert dynamic content based on recipient attributes.

AWeber also allows marketers to insert merge tags in the content. It then automatically replaces the merge tags with subscriber info.

Mailchimp goes beyond and offers a variety of segmentation options that help create more targeted campaigns, unlike AWeber. 

Both softwares also make inserting subscriber details in emails easy using dynamic personalization tokens. Marketers can use the tokens in greetings, subject lines, and content.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Campaign Performance Tracking

AWeber and Mailchimp offer extensive tracking capability for essential email marketing metrics. Both offer an intuitive dashboard with clear visualizations of CTR, ROI, conversions, and open rates.

However, marketers must upgrade to the Plus plan for advanced tracking and reporting on AWeber. Mailchimp, on the other hand, includes click maps to understand user behavior.

Regarding goal setting and tracking, Mailchimp edges AWeber. It includes more e-commerce integrations and revenue tracking. Not only that, Mailchimp offers automation tools to streamline goal management.

On A/B testing tools, both offer the functionality, allowing testing of various email elements. However, Mailchimp goes on to include multivariate testing and granular performance insights.

Lastly, both software also integrate with analytics tools like Google Analytics.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Email Deliverability

AWeber and Mailchimp offer spam testing tools to identify potential issues with deliverability. Both offer complaint and bounce management functionality to monitor the sender’s reputation. 

AWeber and Mailchimp also offer options to manage user roles and permissions for those who access the account. It ensures that users can respond quickly to unauthorized access or security threats.

✅ Winner: Tie

List Management

AWeber offers a solid foundation for list segmentation based on custom criteria like behavior and demographics. Marketers can create segments based on email engagement, purchase history, and more.

Mailchimp, on the other hand,  offers more advanced segmentation options than AWeber. It includes creating intricate segments depending on multiple criteria through conditional logic.

On list cleaning and maintenance, Mailchimp edges AWeber. It offers marketers tools such as suppression list management and email verification. 

Regarding subscriber preferences, both offer opt-in/out options. The platforms also offer tools for managing subscriber confirmation processes and unsubscribes.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

A/B Testing

AWeber offers basic features that allow marketers to run tests on pre-header text, sending times, subject lines, and email content. Setting up the A/B tests is straightforward, where users can create up to 3 variants for each test.

AWeber also offers a clear report on test performance, making it easy to identify winning variations in real time.

Unlike AWeber, Mailchimp supports A/B testing on a broader range of elements. These include content blocks, subject lines, content, sending times, and more.

Creating the A/B tests is simple, and marketers can run multiple variants. Reporting is where it excels, offering granular analytics on the test performance.

It also includes predictive analytics for future campaigns.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Advanced Reporting and Insights

AWeber offers capable reporting tools that analyze different segment performance. It also allows marketers to link email campaigns to website conversions.

However, attribution has limitations, making pinpointing a campaign’s impact complex.

Mailchimp excels in segmented campaign analysis, offering granular insights into subscriber segment performance.

It also provides advanced tracking across multiple channels, allowing marketers to attribute conversion to specific campaigns.

Regarding predictive analytics, Mailchimp edges AWeber. It incorporates algos to forecast future campaign performance. The algos analyze historical data to find optimization opportunities.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Compliance and Security

Mailchimp edges AWeber here by offering more detailed GDPR features. While both offer tools for managing subscriber consent, Mailchimp goes beyond that.

It also provides templates and data processing agreements. Regarding data encryption, both platforms use SSL/TLS.

The measures ensure subscriber data is safeguarded at all times. On permission-based marketing, AWeber and Mailchimp follow the principles supporting single and double opt-in processes.

It means the platforms only send emails to subscribers who have opted to receive communication.

✅ Winner: Tie

User Interface and User Experience

AWeber excels here with its minimalist and straightforward interface. While it may lack the visual appeal of Mailchimp, it’s simple design makes it easy to navigate.

Mailchimp’s interface is modern and appealing, unlike AWeber’s classic one. It also offers a well-organized design. However, beginners will find it overwhelming due to the accumulation of its features.

On email creation and design, both software offer a drag-and-drop builder. However, AWeber has an edge over Mailchimp, offering 600+ premade templates compared to Mailchimp’s 100.

On customization, Mailchimp provides more flexibility with a broader range of elements.

Both platforms also offer preview and testing capabilities for marketers to see how the templates render. The spam testing tools also allow checking for email deliverability.

✅ Winner: AWeber

Integrations and Compatibility

AWeber and MailChimp integrate with various CRMs, including HubSpot and Zoho. Not only that, there are other options for specialized CRMs and small businesses.

However, Mailchimp has an edge in data syncing and automation.

On API availability, AWeber edges Mailvhimp on the variety. Marketers can pick from 6 APIs, including Zapier, to integrate custom systems. 

Regarding e-commerce integration, both platforms support Shopify and WooCommerce.

However, Mailchimp includes more integration options and advanced features like abandoned cart recovery.

On social media integration, both offer connections with Facebook, TiTok, Instagram, and X. Marketers can also advertise and sync their audiences across channels. 

Regarding mobile apps, Mailchimp edges AWeber. It offers a dedicated mobile app for iOS and Android, making it easy to access workflows remotely.

✅ Winner: AWeber

Customer Support

AWeber stands out here by offering 24/7 live chat, phone, and email support. The response rate is decent, with live chat taking less than 4 minutes, while phone and email take less than half an hour. 

Mailchimp mainly offers live chat and email to reach support.  Live chat provides quick replies within 6 minutes, while email can take up to 24 hours.

Regarding self-help resources, AWeber edges out Mailchimp. It offers a knowledge base, blog, and video tutorials. The content is comprehensive and covers topics related to the software’s inner workings. 

Mailchimp only has a help center with guides and tutorials on marketing.

✅ Winner: AWeber

Pricing

Aweber offers four scalable plans, including a forever-free package. However, the free plan has limited features. Paid plans start at a competitive price point with clear tiers.

The plans offer a good entry point for startups and SMBs. Mailchimp offers four scalable plans, including a freemium. Unlike AWeber, the free plan offers more generous limits.

Paid plans also start at a lower price point and include pay-as-you-go packages. Its plans suit all business types with fluctuating subscriber lists.

✅ Winner: AWeber

Scalability

AWeber offers plans that can accommodate rising subscriber numbers. The platform also offers add-on features as you upgrade.

However, the plans can only handle moderate growth because of feature limitations. Mailchimp excels here with pay-as-you-go packages.

It gives businesses flexible options to adapt to changing business needs. It also accommodates rapid growth without significant price jumps.

✅ Winner: Mailchimp

Standout Features of AWeber

AWeber offers more than an opt-in email marketing service for small businesses. Here are two unique features that make it stand out include:

• Landing page builder: Marketers can now set up landing pages or use the sign-up form builder to collect emails from their websites. The best part is that AWeber integrates with social networks, which offers more reach for lead generation.
• Web push notifications: AWeber allows marketers to drive more traffic to their website to grow their business through push notifications. The good thing is that the feature is available across all plans with no added cost.

Standout Features of Mailchimp

Besides being an automation software for boosting clicks and sales, MailChimp offers two unique features.

They include:

• Generative AI: It is a newly added feature that helps marketers simplify their marketing processes. It analyzes data, turns it into actionable insights, and helps create bulk content.
• Marketing CRM: One of the core features of MailChimp that helps businesses build better relationships with their customers. Through it, companies can find new ways to market to their audiences.

AWeber vs. Mailchimp: SMB Guide’s Verdict

Our AWeber vs. Mailchimp comparison shows that both software share many similarities. However, Mailchimp edges AWeber in most categories. That’s why it’s our pick as the winner!

MailChimp offers more comprehensive software with better automation tools, integrations, and reporting. It has added generative AI to its packages to help marketers create bulk content and analyze data.

These impressive features, among others, are why it wins this duel.

Choose Mailchimp If:

You need an all-rounded email marketing software with a CRM and powerful automation.

Choose AWeber If:

You are a startup looking for simple email marketing software with automation and e-commerce integration.