Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Which Email Platform Actually Fits Your Store in 2026

Intro

You have a store, a contact list, and a nagging sense that your email tool is either too expensive for what you use, or too thin for what you need. The two names that come up first are almost always the same: Klaviyo and Mailchimp.

They are not the same kind of tool. Mailchimp started as an email newsletter platform and grew into a broad small-business marketing suite. Klaviyo started as an ecommerce data and email platform and stayed laser-focused on online stores. That difference shapes everything: pricing, automation depth, how well each one reads your Shopify data, and which one you outgrow first.

This is a straight comparison for ecommerce operators. No fluff, no "it depends on your needs" cop-out. You will get pricing pulled from each vendor's live pages, a feature-by-feature breakdown, and a clear read on who each tool is actually for.

The short version

If you run an ecommerce store and email is a real revenue channel, Klaviyo is built for you and it shows in the segmentation and flows. If you are a smaller business, send lighter volumes, or want one tool that also handles a website, social posts, and basic CRM, Mailchimp is cheaper to start and easier to learn.

The catch nobody mentions: both tools hand the work back to you. They give you the canvas. You still build the flows, write the copy, watch the reports, and decide what to change. That is where the real cost lives, and it is the part this comparison ends on.

Pricing: what each one actually costs

Both platforms offer a permanent free plan capped at 500 email sends per month, so the entry point is identical. After that they diverge: Mailchimp prices on contacts, Klaviyo on active profiles.

Mailchimp's published starting prices (from its marketing pricing page):

• Free - up to 250 contacts, 500 sends per month, 1 seat
• Essentials - starts at $13 per month
• Standard - starts at $20 per month
• Premium - starts at $350 per month

Mailchimp's monthly send limit scales with your tier: Essentials allows 10x your contact count, Standard 12x, Premium 15x. Prices climb as your contact tier grows, and overage charges apply if you pass your send or contact limit.

Klaviyo prices by active profiles, and its paid tiers scale continuously rather than in named packages. Its live page confirms the free plan (up to 250 profiles, 500 email sends per month, 150 SMS credits), then paid Email plans start around $20 per month for the 251-500 profile tier, climb to roughly $60 per month at 2,500 profiles, and reach about $150 per month at 10,000 profiles. Because pricing scales continuously with your exact profile count, check the Klaviyo pricing page at your real list size before you commit.

The practical rule: at small list sizes Mailchimp is usually the cheaper entry point. As your list grows and email becomes a major revenue line, Klaviyo's pricing rises faster but buys you ecommerce-specific depth that Mailchimp charges Premium rates to approach.

Automation and flows

This is where the gap is widest.

Klaviyo was designed around ecommerce triggers. Its flows react to real store behavior - products viewed, carts started, orders placed, predicted next purchase, time since last order. Segmentation is built on the same event data, so you can target "bought twice, not in 60 days, viewed category X" without exporting anything.

Mailchimp's automation has improved a lot. Its Marketing Automation Flows (rebranded from Customer Journey Builder in June 2025) support up to 200 steps per flow on Standard and Premium, with multiple branching points. Essentials caps at 4 steps per flow. For welcome series, basic abandonment, and post-purchase, Mailchimp's flows are perfectly capable. For deep behavioral segmentation tied to product-level data, Klaviyo still pulls ahead.

Shopify and ecommerce fit

If you sell on Shopify, this section may decide it for you.

Klaviyo's Shopify integration syncs deep store data by default: full order history, product catalog, browsing behavior, and customer lifetime value, all available as segmentation and flow triggers. Klaviyo has historically been the default email partner for serious Shopify stores for exactly this reason.

Mailchimp integrates with Shopify and over 300 other apps, but the relationship is lighter. You get the core sync, popup forms, and reporting, and it works well, but you do not get the same product-level behavioral depth without more manual setup.

If email-driven revenue is central to your store and you want segmentation tied to what people actually browse and buy, Klaviyo's ecommerce wiring is the stronger fit. If email is one of several channels and you value a simpler, broader toolset, Mailchimp holds up.

Ease of use and support

Mailchimp is the friendlier on-ramp. The editor is approachable, the templates are plentiful, and a small team can get a campaign out the door fast. Support includes 24/7 email and chat on paid plans, with phone and priority support reserved for Premium. The free tier includes email support for the first 30 days.

Klaviyo is more powerful and, fairly, more to learn. The payoff is control: once you understand its segment and flow logic, you can build targeting that Mailchimp simply cannot match. Klaviyo's free plan includes email support for the first 60 days, then shifts to community and self-service resources.

Neither is hard to use badly. Both reward the time you put into setup, and both punish a "set it and forget it" approach with stale flows and declining open rates.

Who should pick which

Pick Klaviyo if:

• You run a Shopify or ecommerce store where email and SMS drive real revenue
• You want segmentation and flows built on product-level behavior
• You are willing to invest setup time for more control

Pick Mailchimp if:

• You are a smaller business or send lighter volumes
• You want one tool for email plus website, social, and light CRM
• You value a lower entry price and a gentler learning curve

The part both tools leave to you

Here is the honest caveat. Klaviyo and Mailchimp are both excellent at giving you a place to build. Neither one does the building.

You still write the welcome series. You still notice the post-purchase flow has not been touched since 2024. You still pull the weekly report, spot the dip, and decide what to test. The platform is the workshop, not the worker. For a lean store, that gap is exactly where email revenue quietly leaks, because the flows that need attention never get it.

How Hubi changes the math

Hubi is an AI coworker for ecommerce, not another email platform you have to operate. Instead of handing you a canvas, it takes the goal and does the work: it reads your Shopify catalog, drafts the campaign, sets up the flow in your existing tool, schedules the send, watches the open and click rates, and reports back to you in Slack. You stay in control by chatting with it in plain language: you point it at a goal, review what it drafts, and approve before anything ships.

So this comparison is not really Hubi versus Klaviyo or Hubi versus Mailchimp. Keep whichever email platform fits your store from the breakdown above. Hubi sits on top and runs it, so the flows that usually go stale actually get built, shipped, and improved. Honest caveat: Hubi is the operator, not the sending infrastructure, so you still need an email platform underneath it. The difference is you stop being the one stuck doing every step of the build yourself: you direct, Hubi operates.

Takeaway

For most ecommerce stores where email is a serious revenue channel, Klaviyo's ecommerce depth wins. For smaller or multi-channel businesses that want a cheaper, broader, easier tool, Mailchimp is the better start. Check both pricing pages at your real list size before deciding, because the gap narrows or widens fast depending on contact count.

Then ask the harder question: once you have picked the platform, who is actually going to run it every week? If the answer is "me, when I get to it," that is the leak worth fixing. Start a free trial of Hubi and let it operate the email platform you already chose.