Mailchimp vs Keap: Features, Pricing and Reviews Compared
- Starting price
- $13/mo · free plan
- Ease of use
- 8.6
- Functionality
- 8.8
- Value for money
- 6.8
- Customer support
- 7.3
Best for
- Small businesses and nonprofits sending newsletters and promotions to a modest list
- Shopify, WooCommerce and Squarespace stores that want abandoned-cart and product-recommendation emails
- Teams without a designer who need templates and a drag-and-drop editor that just work
- Starting price
- $299/mo (usage-based)
- Ease of use
- 7.3
- Functionality
- 7.8
- Value for money
- 5.4
- Customer support
- 7.6
Best for
- Service businesses that need automated follow-up
- Consultants and coaches selling packaged offers
- Marketing agencies managing client lead flows
Our verdict
Mailchimp comes out ahead at 80/100 versus Keap at 70. Easy editor and a huge template library. Mailchimp is the better fit for small businesses that want a familiar, template-driven email tool. Keap makes more sense if you need automation covers marketing, sales, and service follow-up, so one workflow can run from first contact through invoicing and review requests.
On Mailchimp: Mailchimp is still the easiest way for a small business to send a good-looking newsletter and run basic automations, and the template, form and landing-page tools are polished. It is no longer the cheap option: contact-based pricing climbs quickly, the free plan is small, and the automation depth on Essentials is thin. Choose it for ease and ecommerce integrations; choose Brevo or MailerLite if price per contact is the priority.
Features comparison
The 8 email marketing capabilities we check on every product, ordered by importance to buyers.
| Feature | Importance | Mailchimp | Keap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drag-drop editor | 90% | Included | Included |
| Automations | 84% | Included | Included |
| Segmentation | 78% | Included | Included |
| Signup forms | 69% | Included | Included |
| A/B testing | 61% | Included | Included |
| Landing pages | 47% | Included | Included |
| SMS | 39% | Included | Included |
| API access | 31% | Included | Included |
What stands out in each
Email builder and templates
A drag-and-drop editor with a large template library, brand kit, and generative AI for copy and layouts. Emails render reliably across clients, and the creative assistant produces usable designs for people without a designer.
Automations and Customer Journeys
Essentials covers single-trigger automations (welcome, abandoned cart, re-engagement). Standard unlocks the Customer Journey Builder with branching logic, delays and conditions, which is where Mailchimp becomes a real marketing automation tool.
Audience management and segmentation
Tags, groups and behavioural segments; Standard adds predictive segmentation (likely-to-buy, customer lifetime value) using ecommerce data. One audience per account is the recommended model, which simplifies pricing.
Ecommerce integrations
Native connections to Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and others pull order data into the audience for product recommendations, purchase-based segments and revenue reporting per campaign.
KeapAutomated campaign sequences
Users build sequences that trigger on form submissions, tags, and contact activity. Each contact's automation history shows what actions they have received and where they sit in each sequence.
Lead scoring and segmentation
Lead scoring ranks prospects by likelihood to buy, and tags, lists, and saved searches group contacts for targeted messages. This helps teams spend time on the leads most likely to convert.
Landing pages and sales funnels
Branded landing pages and multi-page funnels capture leads and route them into automations. Forms can collect essential information and trigger follow-up as soon as they are completed.
Scheduling and quotes to invoices
Online booking links reflect available times synced with Gmail or Outlook calendars. Quotes can be accepted with one click and converted to invoices, including recurring billing.
Pricing comparison
Mailchimp starts at $13/mo with a free plan; Keap starts at $299/mo (usage-based) (Free trial). Plans are shown as the vendors publish them; the BSR Value subscore reflects what you get for the money.
Free
Up to 500 contacts and 1,000 sends a month with Mailchimp branding.
- 500 contacts
- 1,000 emails/month
- Basic templates
- Forms and landing pages
Essentials
Removes branding, adds scheduling, A/B testing and 24/7 email support.
- Remove Mailchimp branding
- A/B testing
- Scheduled sends
- Basic automations
Standard
Customer journeys, send-time optimisation, dynamic content and predictive segmentation.
- Customer Journey Builder
- Send-time optimisation
- Dynamic content
- Predictive segmentation
Premium
Advanced segmentation, multivariate testing, phone support and unlimited seats.
- Unlimited seats and roles
- Multivariate testing
- Advanced segmentation
- Phone and priority support
Prices scale with contact count, and unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts have historically counted toward the total. Monthly send limits apply per plan (for example 10x contacts on Essentials). Overages are billed automatically. Transactional email (Mailchimp Transactional) is a separate paid product.
Value for money: 6.8/10 · Monthly, Pay as you go credits, Cancel anytime · Vendor pricing page ↗
KeapStarting at $299/mo (usage-based). Plan breakdown not published yet.
Pricing starts at $299 per month billed monthly, or $2,988 per year billed annually, and the page notes ask about current promotional offers. Required implementation services are included in the setup process, and the site offers a way to save on implementation by chatting with the team. A 14-day free trial is available with no credit card required.
Value for money: 5.4/10
Integrations comparison
7 integrations in common · 9 only in Mailchimp · 61 only in Keap. Logos link to our review when we cover the tool.
Both connect to
Shopify
SquarespaceOnly Keap61Which one is best for my use case?
Who each product is built for, who should look elsewhere, and the jobs it gets bought for, from our editorial review and the vendor's own customer profile.
Ideal for
- Small businesses and nonprofits sending newsletters and promotions to a modest list
- Shopify, WooCommerce and Squarespace stores that want abandoned-cart and product-recommendation emails
- Teams without a designer who need templates and a drag-and-drop editor that just work
Not for
- Lists over ~20,000 contacts, where per-contact pricing gets expensive
- Businesses that need SMS, WhatsApp and transactional email on one bill (Brevo does this)
- Marketers who need multi-branch automation on the lower tiers
Common use cases
Sells to: Freelancers, Small businesses, Nonprofits, Mid-size companies. Common industries: Ecommerce, Retail, Nonprofits, Creative and media, Hospitality, Education.
KeapIdeal for
- Service businesses that need automated follow-up
- Consultants and coaches selling packaged offers
- Marketing agencies managing client lead flows
Not for
- Solo users who want a free plan
- Teams that need text marketing outside the U.S.
Common use cases
Sells to: Freelancers, Small businesses, Mid size businesses, Enterprises.
Support, training and setup
How you get help, how you learn the product, and how fast you can be running.
- Support score
- 7.3/10
- Ease of use
- 8.6/10Leads
- Support channels
- Email and chat (paid plans)
- Phone (Premium)
- Help center
- Onboarding specialist (Standard+)
- Training
- Documentation
- Video tutorials
- Webinars
- Mailchimp Academy
- Deployment
- Cloud / SaaS
- iOS app
- Android app
- Typical setup
- Same day
- Languages
- English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian
Keap- Support score
- 7.6/10Leads
- Ease of use
- 7.3/10
- Support channels
- Email/Help Desk
- FAQs/Forum
- Knowledge Base
- Phone Support
- 24/7 (Live rep)
- Chat
- Training
- In Person
- Live Online
- Webinars
- Documentation
- Videos
- Deployment
- Web
- Typical setup
- Not published
- Languages
- Not published
Security and reliability
Certifications and controls as published by each vendor. We list them; we don't audit them.
- Security
- GDPR
- Two-factor authentication
- SOC 2 (via Intuit)
- Data encrypted in transit and at rest
- Public API
- Yes
- Mobile apps
- iOS · Android
- Company
- Atlanta, GA · 1,000+ employees · founded 2001
Keap- Security
- Custom user roles, groups, and permissions
- Access controls for records and user interaction
- CAN-SPAM compliance
- Public API
- Yes
- Mobile apps
- None published
- Company
- Grapevine, TX, USA · 323 employees · founded 2001
Pros and cons
Our editors' pros and cons for each product. No user reviews have been published for these products yet.
Pros
- Easy editor and a huge template library
- Integrates with almost every e-commerce and CRM platform
- Free plan to get started
Cons
- Costs rise steeply as the contact list grows
- Free plan has become very limited
- Phone support only on the top tier
KeapPros
- Automation covers marketing, sales, and service follow-up, so one workflow can run from first contact through invoicing and review requests.
- Implementation support includes a dedicated implementation manager, data migration services, and a customer success manager.
- The 14-day free trial requires no credit card, so buyers can test the automation builder before committing.
- Native payment processing for U.S. accounts lets invoices, checkout forms, and recurring payments sit inside the CRM.
Cons
- Pricing starts at $299 per month, and there is no free plan.
- Required implementation services add to the cost of getting started, and their price is not shown on the pricing page.
- Text broadcasts and automated texts are available only for U.S. accounts, and 1:1 texts cover the U.S. and Canada.
Full side-by-side table
Mailchimp leads in 6 of 7 rows where they differ. Green marks the leader in each row.
Keap 70Leads 1 of 7 rows · Best for small service businesses that want automated follow-up, scheduling, and invoicing in one platform| Feature | Mailchimp Best for small businesses that want a familiar, template-driven email tool | Keap Best for small service businesses that want automated follow-up, scheduling, and invoicing in one platform |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| BSR score | 80 | 70 |
| Ease | 8.6 | 7.3 |
| Features | 8.8 | 7.8 |
| Value | 6.8 | 5.4 |
| Support | 7.3 | 7.6 |
| Pricing | ||
| Starting price | $13/mo | $299/mo (usage-based) |
| Free plan | Included | Not included |
| Free trial | — | Free trial |
| Features | ||
| Features included | 8 / 8 | 8 / 8 |
| Drag-drop editor | Included | Included |
| Automations | Included | Included |
| A/B testing | Included | Included |
| Landing pages | Included | Included |
| SMS | Included | Included |
| Segmentation | Included | Included |
| Signup forms | Included | Included |
| API access | Included | Included |
| Details | ||
| Biggest strength | Easy editor and a huge template library | Automation covers marketing, sales, and service follow-up, so one workflow can run from first contact through invoicing and review requests. |
| Biggest weakness | Costs rise steeply as the contact list grows | Pricing starts at $299 per month, and there is no free plan. |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web |
| Best fit | 1–50 users | Freelancers, Small businesses, Mid size businesses, Enterprises |
Not a match?
Other email marketing software we list, ranked by BSR score.
Mailchimp vs Keap: FAQs
Is Mailchimp better than Keap?
Mailchimp scores 80/100 against Keap's 70, a 10-point lead. Easy editor and a huge template library. Keap is the better pick if automation covers marketing, sales, and service follow-up, so one workflow can run from first contact through invoicing and review requests matters more to you.
Which is cheaper, Mailchimp or Keap?
Mailchimp has the lowest starting price at $13/mo and offers a free plan. Keap starts at $299/mo (usage-based). Per-user pricing, annual discounts and add-ons change the real total, so price out your actual seat count.
Which has more features?
Mailchimp covers 8 of the 8 email marketing features we track.
Do Mailchimp and Keap integrate with the same tools?
Both connect to Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, QuickBooks Online, Zapier and 2 more. Only Mailchimp lists Squarespace, Wix, Stripe; Only Keap lists Zendesk Suite, Mobiniti, Meta for Business.
How this comparison was made
Each product was scored on the same four subscores (Ease, Features, Value, Support) from the vendor's published pricing and documentation, our editorial review, then combined into a 100-point BSR score. Hands-on tested: Mailchimp. Feature checks use one list per category; plans, integrations, support and security come from what each vendor publishes and are refreshed when listings change. Green marks the leader in a row. Sponsored placements are labeled elsewhere on the site and never touch a comparison. Full methodology →