MailChimp vs. AWeber? Compare and Choose the Best

MailChimp vs. AWeber? Which email marketing software company to choose when setting up a new business? MailChimp is a well-known email marketing software company that has been around for over 10 years. They have grown into the world’s largest email marketing service, with an estimated 12 million users worldwide. One of their biggest competitors is AWeber, who has also been in the industry for over 10 years and are based out of Austin, Texas. MailChimp and AWeber were both created to help businesses communicate with their customers easily by sending them email marketing campaigns about new products or promotions they may be interested in. Mailchimp and AWeber work in a similar way, but which one, MailChimp vs. AWeber is best?

Deep dive comparison between MailChimp Vs. A Weber

Let’s compare. First up; 

AWeber Pros

AWeber has a more robust interface with advanced features. In Aweber you get the ability to schedule emails and send messages later on in time- this is great for when an email may be sent too early or if one wanted to gradually release their campaigns over days or weeks at a time. AWeber also has all of their reports and tracking tools laid out beautifully. AWeber has multiple integrations that make it easier for your business to communicate with customers like MailChimp does (i.e., Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.)

The user interface is very  easy to use and AWeber’s automations are extremely easy to set up. Aweber really makes online marketing for small businesses look good, so this is something they should improve upon if they want people like us to choose them over MailChimp (which requires more work on the users end).

Now we get to the good stuff: where AWeber really shines when compared with Mailchimp is in its powerful autoresponder  and list building tools. AWeber’s autoresponder and email marketing features are so good, they actually make Aweber worth paying for alone! AWeber offers a lot of different types of automation workflows, but the one we like best is their “broadcasts” feature that allows you to send pre-written emails at scheduled dates and times without having to lift a finger. AWeber’s autoresponder also allows you to send unlimited emails unlike MailChimp that only gives customers 2000 free subscribers or 200 contacts per month (which is very limiting if your business does well).

AWeber is the best choice for entrepreneurs who want to save time and improve their business communication with customers by using an effective, easy-to-use mailing tool that makes managing your contacts simple! 

AWeber has been in the email marketing game for over ten years and they are still going strong. 

AWeber Cons

AWeber also doesn’t have a very aesthetically pleasing user interface, but it is still easy to navigate and use Aweber for your email marketing needs. 

AWeber does not have the same advanced segmentation and analytics that you can find in MailChimp (which is a very important feature). AWeber doesn’t offer as many integrations as Mailchimp (i.e., Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.) AWeber doesn’t have the same number of templates that you can find in MailChimp and Aweber’s autoresponder isn’t quite as powerful or easy to use when compared with MailChimp’s. 

Mailchimp Pros

The standout features of Mailchimp are; A/B testing and automation workflows. This email marketing service provider has the ability to automatically add customers from your website or other apps via API (Aweber can’t), the fact that you get 2000 free contacts every month with only a $20 subscription fee per month- this is great for new businesses getting started. 

Mailchimp is  much more aesthetically pleasing than AWeber; however, Aweber’s customer service is better. A Mailchimp competitor that offers similar features to MailChimp (i.e., autoresponders and list management tools) without the need for an additional integration with other services like AWeber does (like Facebook). Although AWeber’s A/B testing feature is very nice, Mailchimp also offers this for free. Link to Google Anaylitics and see the results including the overview of stats such as; email deliverability and purchases in real-time!

Mailchimp Cons

MailChimp vs. AWeber? MailChimp is easy to use but it is not as slick as AWeber. A Mailchimp competitor that offers similar features to Aweber but not as many integrations (i.e., Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.)

MailChimp is a good option until your email list grows  to a certain size and then AWeber is the better choice.

MailChimp doesn’t have Aweber’s powerful automations or premium plans, which really make AWebers feature set stand out from Mailchimp’s paid plan. 

Pricing comparision MailChimp vs. AWeber

How do the pricing plans of AWeber and Mailchimp compare?  MailChimp vs. AWeber? They offer different pricing plans. Awebers’ Personal package starts at $19 per month, while MailChimps is free for up to 2000 subscribers (AWeber costs $20). AWeber offers a Basic Plan that includes 500 contacts with the ability to send 12,000 emails or marketing campaigns per month for $29/month. AWeber offers a Business Plan as well for those who need to manage 1000 contacts and send up to 50,000 emails per month at the unlimited contact level with an Aweber plan costs $49/month, with PayPal. AWeber’s Growth Plan is perfect for larger organizations when your number of subscribers of over 500, it allows you to send unlimited emails and AWeber will automatically scale with your business. Awebers’ Growth plan starts at $197 per month, but there’s also the option of a $297/month plan that includes AWeber services like landing pages, lead capture forms, AWeber email automation workflows (like autoresponders), website A/B testing, AWeber Smart RSS feeds customizable AWeber forms.

MailChimp offers a Free Plan that allows you to send up to 12,000 emails per month with Mailchimp. However, with Mailchimp’s free plan there’s no support for advanced features like Awebers’ autoresponders or list management tools (like AWeber’s A/B testing feature). MailChimp offers a $20/month Pro Plan that includes the ability to send 12,000 emails per month with Awebers’ A/B testing and autoresponders. When you opt for Mailchimp’s cheapest plan is their Business Plan for $50 per month it allows you to manage your email marketing solution with lists of up to 500 contacts and AWeber’s A/B testing, Awebers’ A/B testing and autoresponders.

Customer support comparision AWeber vs. Mailchimp

AWeber customer support  is good for AWeber vs. Mailchimp but the AWeber support staff are not that much educated about AWeber features and functions, which is something you should keep in mind when choosing an email marketing tool.

On the other hand, MailChimp’s customer service team knows everything there is to know about their product (and AWeber’s too). The phone support are courteous, professional and friendly and they actually use the MailChimp service themselves.

Delieverability comparision AWeber vs. Mailchimp 

It’s important to be able to see if you email has firstly been delivered to your customer’s mail box and secondly, has been opened.  Aweber and Mailchimp both provide this feature. AWeber provides a ‘Click Tracking’ which allows you to see when your email has been opened (if the recipient has enabled images in their mail client). AWeber also calculates what percentage of emails have been read, based on how many times an image is clicked. 

Mailchimp provides a ‘Delivery’ and an ‘Opened’ percentage based on data from its own delivery servers. AWeber has the better deliverability checker as it calculates whether your email arrived in the recipients mailbox, their ISP’s spam folder or was blocked entirely by SPAM filters such as Google Mail GASS/Spam Assassin.

Affliliate Links comparision AWeber vs. Mailchimp 

Having the ability to integrate your affiliate links seamlessly into  your AWeber account is a great feature to have. The AWeber custom link integration tool makes it easy for you to manage your affiliate links and creates one click access within AWeber, so that affiliates can send referrals directly from the AWeber interface. MailChimp does not offer this functionality at all, which puts Aweber above Mailchimp in this instance.

What are the main features you’d expect from a digital marketing platform?

Segmentation

Dynamic segmentation is the process of creating separate, smaller email lists for different groups of people. AWeber offers dynamic segmentation that allows you to create targeted campaigns with targeted messages and content based on such things as subscriber activity or behavior (i.e., what they open, click, unsubscribe from etc), Awebers’ A/B testing feature is very nice but Mailchimp also offers this for free.

Advanced Tagging 

Advaned Tagging is the service feature which allows you to tag subscribers based on specific actions they take on your website (i.e., A/B testing, landing page views etc), AWebers’ A/B testing feature is very nice but Mailchimp also offers this for free.

A unified inbox  

This is AWeber’s most notable new feature. It allows you to easily see, organize and act on all your messages in one place (without having to bounce back and forth between multiple tabs).

Templates

Aweber doesn’t offer as many free email templates as MailChimp does.  AWeber only offers three free templates. A few more are available with Aweber’s professional package, but you’ll still have to pay for additional customizations and designs if needed.

Multiple contacts in one list  

A recent AWeber update has made it possible to add multiple contacts into the same email campaign (something MailChimp has been able to do for a while). AWeber also recently updated its landing page templates, which now have the same drag and drop functionality as MailChimp.

Reporting  

Aweber hasn’t updated their reporting interface in years. While Aweber’s reports are by no means bad compared to many other email marketing services, Aweber doesn’t have as many tools and features to help you understand your email campaigns compared to MailChimp. 

List Duplication

List Duplication is a useful AWeber feature that can let you quickly add a list of contacts to AWeber without having them leave their site or blog post – which is great for building your list faster! Unfortunately, AWeber’s List Duplication feature doesn’t have any advanced segmentation options.

A Weebly integration 

This lets you create landing pages, forms and lists without leaving the platform. AWeber provides a Weebly integration that makes AWeber more useful.

Analytics

AWeber’s A/B testing feature is called AWeber Analytics. Aweber provides analytics capabilities that are better than Mailchimp, but not as good as the platform you’d find in other email marketing tools like Customer.io or ActiveCampaign.

Lead Nurturing

Lead Nurturing is the process of  building a relationship with your leads. AWeber provides lead nurturing functionality that lets you send targeted emails, but it’s not as advanced as what you’d find in other tools like Ontraport or Drip.

 Message types

Aweber offers  several message types such as; A/B testing, Blog broadcasting, AWeber ads, RSS to email and Welcome series. Aweber provides message types for businesses at every stage of the sales funnel. Mailchimp has a small number of AWeber message types.

Landing Pages and Forms

Aweber’s Landing Pages are simple, but they let you create A/B tests with your landing pages to find out which one is converting better. Aweber provides the most standard form templates that can be embedded on any website or blog post with just  a few clicks. AWeber’s landing pages are more powerful than MailChimp, but not as useful as other tools like Leadpages or Instapage.

A/B split test 

Split testing is a great way to increase your email open rates and Aweber provides trial users with the ability to run A/B tests on  their campaigns with AWeber’s A/B split test feature. Aweber provides a simple A/B testing system, but not as effective as what you’d find in other email marketing tools like Drip or Customer.io

Social sharing 

AWeber doesn’t provide an option to share your messages on Facebook and Twitter directly  from AWeber’s platform. Aweber doesn’t provide a social sharing button for your email messages, but MailChimp does.

Drag & Drop builder

A Drag & Drop builder makes it easy to build landing pages that look great on any screen without having design skills or HTML knowledge. 

Unsubscribers

AWeber lets you know when someone unsubscribed by adding an Unsubscribe link to every message sent with AWeber but Mailchimp doesn’t.

Live chat 

You can add AWeber’s widget to any website or blog post so visitors can start  a conversation with you right away. AWeber offers live chat, but Mailchimp doesn’t.

What are the alternatives to Aweber and Mailchimp?

Sendinblue 

You can use Sendinblue as an alternative to AWeber or Mailchimp for your email marketing needs. It ‘s a great email marketing tool that provides AWeber and Mailchimp like features at AWeber rates.

Sendinblue is free for up to 400 emails per month, making it an affordable alternative to Aweber or MailChimp if you’re just starting out with your own business.

Active Campaign 

You can also use AWeber’s main competitor, Active Campaign. It is a great email marketing tool that provides Aweber and Mailchimp like features at AWeber rates. In fact , some people say it’s even better than AWeber because of its robust automation capabilities.

Customer.io 

Another alternative  to Aweber or Mailchimp is Customer.io, which provides AWeber and MailChimp like functionality for much cheaper than AWeber prices.

Customer.io’s pricing starts at $49 per month if you subscribe monthly, making it a more affordable alternative to Aweber or MailChimp if you want advanced features without  AWeber’s high AWeber rates.

List Builder 

Customer.io offers a list builder plugin that is similar to Aweber’s List Duplication feature, but with more advanced segmentation options and better automation capabilities . It also provides AWeber like functionality for much cheaper than Aweber prices.

GetResponse

You can also consider AWeber’s main competitor, GetResponse. Aweber provides AWeber like features at AWeber rates. The downside is that Getresponse charges extra for advanced automation capabilities such as integrating Shopify or use of their Drop Editor.

MailerLite 

 This is another good Aweber alternative that has all the necessary email marketing features you’ll need. It positions itself in direct competition with Aweber and offers pricing plans that are very competitive.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is a good Aweber alternative and is aimed at creators like musicians, podcasters, and YouTubers. If your email list isn’t super large, the ConvertKit Free plan might be perfect for your needs because it comes with Aweber-like features and tools, like autoresponders. It allows you to reach your audience directly across all of their different channels.

HubSpot Email

If your email list isn’t super large, the HubSpot Marketing Free plan might be perfect for your needs because it comes  with Aweber-like features and tools, like autoresponders.

Marketo

Marketo is Aweber alternative for mid-sized businesses. It’s a little more expensive than AWeber, but it has better features and tools like customer journeys and marketing automation capabilities.

iContact

iContact is Aweber alternative for mid-sized businesses. It’s a little more expensive than AWeber, but it has better features and tools like marketing automation capabilities.

InfusionSoft

AWeber Alternative Infusionsoft is Aweber equivalent product that mainly aimed at small business owners who are looking to automate their online sales and marketing. 

Our overall winner 

AWeber is our clear winner in this Aweber vs Mailchimp battle. AWeber has better customer service, an easier to use interface (in general), more robust features, easy list building tools, powerful autoresponder features that allow you to schedule  messages to be sent out without having to lift a finger, AWeber has more integrations with other services like MailChimp does (like Facebook), Aweber makes it easy for small businesses to create professional-looking landing pages and dashboard, AWeber has better list building tools than Mailchimp does. 

The AWeber vs Mailchimp debate is an endless one, but the truth of the matter is that no email software can beat either AWeber or MailChimp in terms of features and ease-of-use combined. It all comes down to which platform offers what you need at  a price you can afford. 

Aweber wins our vote hands down for email marketing strategy.