How it worksPricingLog InSign Up Free

Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: real pricing, compared

Both vendors' own published rules, run against the same contacts and send volume, with the promo traps and bracket rules that a vendor's own pricing page does not put side by side.

Klaviyo checked September 4, 2026, Mailchimp checked September 7, 2026. Both vendors set their own prices and can change them any time.

At 10,000 contacts and 20,000 emails a month
Klaviyo Marketing (Email)
$150/mo

100,000 sends included, fixed to this bracket.

Mailchimp Essentials
$85.38/mo

100,000 sends included on this plan.

$64.62/mo apart at this workload.

Monthly list pricing on both sides. Neither figure is a promo, and neither is extrapolated past its own published ladder.

The shape of the bill

Both bills, as a list grows

1 line each, every point resolved by the same pricing engine the calculator below runs. Mailchimp's line follows whichever of its 3 plans is cheapest at that contact count, the same rule every other figure on this page uses, so a step in its line can be a plan change as well as a bracket change.

$0$200$400$600$8001k11k21k30k40k50kContacts10kKlaviyoMailchimp
$0$200$400$600$8001k26k50kContacts10k

The dotted line marks 10,000 contacts, and each price beside a vendor above is that vendor at that point. Lines show the monthly list price at 2 emails per contact a month. A line that stops has run past that vendor’s own published ladder; nothing here is extrapolated. Move the calculator further down the page and the marked position moves with it.

At a glance

Price at 5 workloads, no calculator required

Monthly list pricing, computed once for each fixed point below, not re-run interactively.

WorkloadKlaviyoMailchimp
1,000 contacts / 5,000 sends$30.00/mo$22.72/mo
5,000 contacts / 40,000 sends$100.00/mo$57.97/mo
10,000 contacts / 80,000 sends$150.00/mo$85.38/mo
25,000 contacts / 150,000 sends$400.00/mo$211.50/mo
50,000 contacts / 300,000 sends$720.00/mo$289.84/mo

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

The work itself

3 real tasks, compared in both products

Pricing tells you the bill. It does not tell you what building the thing actually takes. Here is the same task, checked against both vendors' own help documentation, with the plan or condition each one needs.

Task 1

Building an abandoned checkout sequence

KlaviyoTriggers on the "Started Checkout" event (or "Added to Cart" on integrations that track it). Flow-building is not gated by plan: the same flow builder is available at every tier, since Klaviyo prices by active-profile bracket and channel volume, not by feature access.
MailchimpTriggers on "Abandons cart" under Shopping Activity in the Customer Journey Builder, and needs a connected, supported ecommerce integration. The builder itself is plan-gated: no flows at all on Free, up to 4 flow steps total on Essentials, and up to 200 flows only on Standard and Premium.

Both vendors document a native trigger for this task, so the question is not whether it is possible, it is which plan holds it. Klaviyo’s abandoned-checkout flow is available on every paid tier because flows are not plan-gated there; on Mailchimp the same sequence is only fully buildable once you are on Standard or Premium, since Essentials caps a whole flow at 4 steps.

Task 2

Creating a purchase-based segment

KlaviyoThe Segment Builder includes purchase-history conditions (order value, specific items, brands) natively, and segments update in real time. Predictive conditions (churn risk, predicted lifetime value) are also available once an account has enough order history: 180 days of orders, at least 1 order in the last 30 days, and at least 500 customers who have ordered.
MailchimpOnce a store is connected, purchase-activity segmentation is native: total amount spent, amount per order, purchase date, specific products and number of orders are all documented conditions. A separate Customer Lifetime Value and Purchase Likelihood feature also exists; we have not compared it here beyond confirming it is real.

Both natively support segmenting by what someone bought and how much they spent, once a store is connected; neither makes you buy a separate segmentation product for it. Klaviyo’s predictive conditions are gated by how much order history the account has, not by plan tier.

Task 3

Reading a campaign report

KlaviyoOpen rate and click rate show directly on the campaigns list without opening a report. Opening a specific campaign adds a full performance overview: conversion rate and conversion value (revenue attributed to that send), graphed.
MailchimpOpen the Campaigns tab, select the send, then its report: open rate, click rate, revenue and unsubscribes are all there. Automations get their own report, with series-level performance plus a per-email breakdown.

This is the one task where the honest finding is similarity, not a difference: both report the same core numbers, open rate, click rate and revenue. The documented gap is one click, not one capability. Klaviyo surfaces open and click rate on the campaign list itself; Mailchimp shows the same figures one level in, on the campaign’s own report.

Recommendation

Choose Klaviyo, or choose Mailchimp

2 recommendations, not 1 ranking: which one fits depends on which of the reasons below is actually yours.

Choose Klaviyo if
  • You want the larger ecommerce integration and agency ecosystem of the pair.
  • Your list is small enough for the free plan (under 250 contacts) and you want an email specialist as you grow.
  • You send heavily and are fine with a single flat 10x sends-per-contact ratio.
Choose Mailchimp if
  • You want the lower list price at most contact counts we checked.
  • You also want landing pages, social ad management or direct-mail postcards in the same account.
  • You qualify for the "Save 15%" promo and are comfortable renegotiating before the 12 months lapse.
Mechanics

How each one actually prices

  1. Klaviyo: 1 plan, 1 axisA single "Marketing (Email)" plan, priced purely on active-profile brackets. Included sends are always about 10x the profile count; crossing a bracket ceiling auto-upgrades you to the next one.
  2. Mailchimp: 3 plans, 3 multiplesEssentials, Standard and Premium each have their own contact ladder and their own included-sends multiple (10x, 12x and 15x), so the cheapest plan at 1 contact count is not always the cheapest at another.
  3. Emails included, side by sideAt 10,000 contacts, Klaviyo includes 100,000 sends/mo; Mailchimp's Essentials includes 100,000/mo on the plan that wins on price at this contact count.
Verified differences

What is actually different, not marketing copy

Overage behaviour
Klaviyo does not publish a per-email overage rate; exceeding a bracket auto-upgrades the account. Mailchimp's plans use a per-unit overage model, but no per-unit rate is published in our data, so in practice the effect is the same: no way to pay per extra email at a stated rate.
Free plan
Both publish a free plan at 250 contacts and roughly 500 sends/mo. Neither free plan is a promo; both are the standing entry tier.
Billing interval
Our verified data covers monthly list pricing for both. Neither vendor's self-serve annual pricing (if any) is in the verified dataset behind this page, so this comparison does not claim one either way.
Read the fine print

Billing traps worth knowing before you commit

Mailchimp's "Save 15%" is a first-year, new-customer promo
It applies only at 10,000+ contacts, only for the first 12 months, only to new customers (or free customers within 90 days), and it ends immediately if your contact count drops below 10,000. Budget for the full list price from month 13.
Klaviyo auto-upgrades you across bracket lines
There is no published way to stay on a cheaper bracket once your profile count crosses its ceiling; the account moves to the next tier automatically.
Both publish a downgrade path, and both delay it a cycle
Mailchimp: Account, then Billing, then Change Plan, then Downgrade; you can move down to Free once over the life of an account, and a mid-cycle downgrade takes effect at the start of the next billing cycle. Klaviyo: the new tier has to cover your current active-profile count, and the change takes effect next billing cycle too, so it has to be requested more than 24 hours before renewal or it will not apply in time.
Best fit

By merchant type

Very small list, under 250 contactsEither free plan works; there is no price difference to argue about yet.
Growing ecommerce brand wanting deep automationKlaviyo's ecosystem and SMS depth are the more mature choice, at a higher list price.
Team that also needs landing pages or social adsMailchimp is the only vendor here that sells those in the same account.
Cost-sensitive list over 10,000 contactsAt this size Mailchimp's Essentials plan priced lower in our check ($85.38/mo against Klaviyo's $150.00/mo), before weighing feature differences.
Calculator

Price both at your own numbers

Scoped to just Klaviyo and Mailchimp, so this stays a comparison between those two and not a wider pitch.

The buttons above fill this in from your contact count. 4x means 4 emails a month per contact.

Billing basis

We use the audience number entered above as the billable contact, profile or subscriber count for each platform. Vendors define billable audiences differently, and a real count after migration can differ.

Estimated monthly cost by vendor for 10,000 contacts and 20,000 emails a month, monthly list pricing, cheapest first.
VendorEstimated pricePlanFits workloadPricing basisDetails
MailchimpLowest costPromo available$85.38/moEssentialsFitsBy contacts
Klaviyo$150.00/moMarketing (Email)FitsBy contacts

Pricing is not feature equivalence. These estimates show what each platform charges for the workload you entered. Plans can include different automation, segmentation, SMS, support, ecommerce, and other features.

Curious how either compares against OnVoard specifically? Klaviyo vs OnVoard or Mailchimp vs OnVoard, or see every vendor at once in the full pricing calculator.

Methodology

How this page was built

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Klaviyo or Mailchimp cheaper?

At 10,000 contacts and 20,000 sends/mo, Mailchimp's Essentials plan ($85.38/mo) prices below Klaviyo ($150.00/mo). That ranking is not fixed across every contact count; see the chart and the static examples above for other workloads.

Does Mailchimp's "Save 15%" promo change the cheapest answer?

No. The 15% discount only applies at 10,000+ contacts, for the first 12 months, to new customers (or free customers within 90 days), and it ends immediately if contacts drop below 10,000. It is real, but it is a promo, not the list price, so it is never used to decide which vendor is cheapest on this page.

What is the real difference between how they price?

Both price on active contact brackets, but the included-sends multiple differs: Klaviyo is a flat 10x across its whole ladder. Mailchimp's multiple changes by plan, from 10x on Essentials up to 15x on Premium, so the same contact count can include a different number of sends depending which Mailchimp plan you are on.

How was this page's pricing checked?

Both ladders were read directly off each vendor's own public pricing page and re-verified independently; see Sources below. Klaviyo was checked September 4, 2026, Mailchimp September 7, 2026.

Related

The rest of the comparison cluster

See it against your own numbers.

Set your contacts and sends in the calculator above, or compare both against OnVoard below.