Keap vs Mailchimp
Trying to choose between Keap vs Mailchimp as your email marketing software? Here's when to choose each tool – and the pros and cons to know about.
Keap
- 2.6/5 on Trustpilot
- 4.1/5 on Capterra
- 4.2/5 on G2
A sales and marketing automation platform catered to small businesses. Has CRM and email and text marketing features.
Pricing
Starts at $159 a month for 1,500 contacts (billed yearly)
Key features
- Email automation
- Drag-and-drop email builder
- Segmentation
- Reporting and analytics
- Integrations with various services
- CRM
- Virtual phone number
Support
24/7 online chat support, email support, and call-in support for the UK, US, and Australia. US call-in support is available on weekdays from 6 am to 7 pm PST.
Mailchimp
- 1.4/5 on TrustPilot
- 4.5/5 on Capterra
- 4.3/5 on G2
An email marketing software with automations and integrations. Plus, a hosting and website and landing pages builder.
Pricing
Starts at $13 a month for 500 contacts
Key features
- Email automation
- Hosting, websites, and online stores
- Landing page builder
- Marketing CRM
- Integrations with various services
- Drag-and-drop email builder
Support
24/7 support via email and chat on paid plans, phone support on Premium. Email support for the first 30 days on the Free plan.
Keap was founded in 2001 by brothers Scott and Eric Martineau and now CEO Clate Mask. The company headquarters is in Chandler, Arizona.
Mailchimp was founded in Atlanta in 2001 by Ben Chestnut, Mark Armstrong, and Dan Kurzius. Headquarters in Atlanta, GA. Was acquired by Intuit in 2021.
Although users can create emails and automations without coding or designing, the platform is vast and can be overwhelming to navigate.
Creating emails doesn’t require design or coding skills. However, the interface can be confusing to novices.
Small businesses that need to constantly keep in touch with clients via not only email but also text and phone.
Small to medium e-commerce companies that want email marketing together with their website hosting.
No free plan, only 14 day free trial.
Has a free plan for up to 500 subscribers and 1,000 emails a month and a daily send limit of 500. It has a lot fewer features than paid plans, fewer available templates, and customer support for 30 days only.
Keap has three plans, billed yearly/monthly:
Pro $159 / $199
- 1,500 contacts
- 2 users
- Email marketing
- Marketing, sales & workflow automation
- CRM
- Quotes, invoices & payments
- Landing pages & online sales
- Text marketing (US)
Max $229 / $289
- 2,500 contacts
- 3 users
- Core features
- Dedicated phone line (US & Canada)
- Appointments
- Enhanced landing pages & sales tools
- E-commerce tools (promo codes, order bumps, etc.)
- Advanced reporting
Ultimate $279 / $349
- 2,500 contacts
- 3 users
- Core features
- Premium CRM & sales management
- Advanced marketing & sales tools (round robin, email health report, etc.)
- Permission levels for users
- Affiliate management & collaboration
- Advanced reporting
Other pricing features:
- 14 days free trial with all the features
- All plans require a mandatory one-time onboarding fee of $999
For up to 500 contacts, billed monthly:
- Essentials $13
- Standard $20
- Premium $350
Other pricing features:
- 1-month free trial for Essentials and Standard
- A Pay As You Go plan
- Two possible pauses of the account’s billing every 12 months
- 15% discount for nonprofit organizations
24/7 online chat support, email support, and call-in support for the UK, US, and Australia. US call-in support is available on weekdays from 6 am to 7 pm PST.
Customer support managers for each user, access to Keap Academy’s live training events and online learning platform, and Knowledge Base.
- Email support on paid plans and 30-day only on a Free plan
- 24/7 chat support on paid plans
- Support phone line for the Premium plan: Mon-Fri 6:30 am — 6:00 pm ET (UTC-5)
- Email and text marketing automation in a drag-and-drop builder
- Segmentation
- Reporting and analytics
- Integrations with various services
- CRM
- A mobile app for iOS and Android for a virtual phone number and leads management
- Forms and landing pages
- Appointments booking and payments
- Email automation with pre-made customer journeys
- Hosting, websites, and landing pages builder
- Online store creator
- Marketing CRM
- Integrations with popular services
- Drag-and-drop email builder and pre-made templates
- A mobile app for iOS and Android to create and send emails, add clients, check analytics, etc.
18+ templates
Templates for one on one email conversations with clients
Templates for:
- Promo emails
- Online stores
- Flash sale
- Healthcare
- Home decor
- Fitness
100+ templates for emails and landing pages
AI assistant for designing
The free plan has a limited number of pre-built templates
Templates for:
- Welcome messages
- Sales
- Newsletter
- Events
- Announcements
- Win-back
29 integrations including Zapier, Jotform, WordPress, Instapage, OptinMonster, and more.
315 integrations including WordPress, Shopify, Facebook, Stripe, LiveChat, Canva, Unsplash, and more.
- Website
- A mobile app for Android and iOS to use a virtual phone number and manage contacts. Available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, U.K., and New Zealand
- No installable solution.
- Website
- A mobile app for iOS and Android to create and send emails, add clients, check analytics, etc.
No installable solution.
English
English
Spanish
Portuguese
Marketing and sales automations:
- Free consultation
- Deal follow-up
- Reminders
- Yearly birthday greetings
- Review request
Many pre-built automations (called customer journeys):
- Welcome series
- Abandoned cart
- Product retargeting
- Lead generation
- Order notifications, and more
- Helpful automations
- Many features (CRM, email marketing, etc.) in one place
- Customer support
- Integrations
- Essential features for small businesses
- 315 integrations
- Website hosting
- A mobile app
- Stylish design and built reputation
- Landing page builder
- No A/B testing
- Difficult to cancel and billing issues
- Steep learning curve
- Software is slow
- Relatively high prices
- Free and Standard plans are very limited
- Limited customization
- Customer support is hard to reach and isn’t very helpful
- Many people find the interface not user-friendly
- Unsubscribed and inactive accounts are still included in sending limits
Pros: Keap Max Classic: It has a lot of features to support businesses that need the room to scale up. It is pretty powerful in what it can do.
Cons: Keap Max Classic: It is convoluted, complex, and confusing. We had to make custom forms and interfaces for our staff because everyone was too confused working directly within Keap. It is also SLOW. Most functions are not snappy. Creating and maintaining campaigns get really confusing really quickly once you graduate from the simplest of campaigns.
What do you dislike about Keap?
Keap is a very robust platform, which means it does have a bit of a learning curve. They provide training and plenty of resources to help you learn, but it takes a little time to understand all its abilities fully.
Keep in mind, though, that their subscription plans are relatively expensive compared to similar newsletter tools.
Perhaps if you’re a business with specific needs, like multilingual software, or use of your own tracking domain, then you may need to look further afield for the correct newsletter tool. But there really is a lot to like from Mailchimp.
Cons: The biggest downside is that the free plan is very limited now compared to when I first started. The free option is really only good for very small lists and basic emails. To do anything more sophisticated with segmentation, automations, or larger lists, you need to pay for one of the monthly subscription plans.
*This information is current as of 01/20/2025. While we regularly update our articles, it`s possible that this article may not contain some of the latest information.
