Zoho Campaigns vs Mailchimp
Trying to choose between Zoho Campaigns vs Mailchimp as your email marketing software? Here's when to choose each tool – and the pros and cons to know about.
- 4.3 GetApp
- 4.2 Capterra
- 4.3 G2
Average 4.3 / 5
Zoho Campaigns
A complex marketing solution with email campaigns. Features include automations, integrations, and SMS marketing.
Pricing
Starts at $3 a month for 500 contacts (billed yearly)
Key features
- Email automation
- E-commerce workflows
- Mobile app for email sending, reporting, and contacts import
- Integrations with various services
- Drag-and-drop email builder
- Signup forms
Support
Weekdays support during working hours via email, live chat, and phone by default. Limited support during weekends. On the free plan, the support is only available for the first 14 days.
- 1.4 TrustPilot
- 4.5 Capterra
- 4.3 G2
Average 3.4 / 5
Mailchimp
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.
General info about company
Zoho Campaigns
Zoho Campaigns is the product of Zoho Corporation — an Indian-American company. The company was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas. Global headquarters in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, and corporate headquarters outside of Austin in Del Valle, Texas.
Mailchimp
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.
Difficulty
Zoho Campaigns
Possible to create emails and automations without coding or design skills. At the same time, many people find the interface to be not very user-friendly.
Mailchimp
Creating emails doesn’t require design or coding skills. However, the interface can be confusing to novices.
Best for
Zoho Campaigns
E-commerce businesses that require simple, essential workflows like post-purchase emails or digital marketing agencies working with different clients.
Mailchimp
Small to medium e-commerce companies that want email marketing together with their website hosting.
Free plan
Zoho Campaigns
Has a free plan for up to 2,000 subscribers and 6,000 emails a month. The support is only available for the first 14 days. The features are limited. Segmentation, scheduling, and automation are excluded.
Mailchimp
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.
Pricing
Zoho Campaigns
For up to 500 contacts, billed yearly/monthly:
- Standard $3 / $4
- Professional $4.50 / $6
Other pricing features:
- 14 days free trial with all the features
- A Pay As You Go plan
- Discounts for non-profit organizations
Mailchimp
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
Support
Zoho Campaigns
Weekdays support during working hours via email, live chat, and phone by default. Limited support during weekends. The response time is 8 hours depending on the pricing plan.
On the free plan, the support is only available for the first 14 days.
Offers paid additional support packages.
The Premium plan (an additional 20% of the Zoho subscription) includes 24/5 support and a three-hour response time.
The Enterprise plan (an additional 25% of the annual Zoho subscription with additional requirements) includes 24/7 support, one-hour response time, a dedicated technical account manager, a quarterly report, and early access to new features.
Knowledge Base, community forums, text and video guides, virtual classrooms, and self-service support portal.
Mailchimp
- 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)
Features
Zoho Campaigns
- Email automation in a drag-and-drop builder
- Integrations with various services
- SMS campaigns
- E-commerce workflows with content sync between the store and email campaigns and AI product recommendations
- Signup forms
- Drag-and-drop email builder and templates
- A mobile app for Android and iOS to send emails, see reporting, and import contacts
Mailchimp
- 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.
Templates
Zoho Campaigns
240+ email templates including responsive email templates
The free plan doesn’t have advanced responsive templates
Templates for:
- Welcome messages
- Deals and offers
- Newsletter
- Webinars
- E-commerce
- Emergencies and crises
Mailchimp
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
Video/screenshots
Zoho Campaigns
Mailchimp
Integrations
Zoho Campaigns
60 integrations including Zapier, Shopify, Salesforce, Twilio, Flickr, WordPress, Zendesk, and more.
Mailchimp
315 integrations including WordPress, Shopify, Facebook, Stripe, LiveChat, Canva, Unsplash, and more.
Devices
Zoho Campaigns
- Website
- A mobile app for Android and iOS to send emails, see reporting, and import contacts, etc.
- No installable solution.
Mailchimp
- Website
- A mobile app for iOS and Android to create and send emails, add clients, check analytics, etc.
No installable solution.
Languages
Zoho Campaigns
Dutch
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
English
Portuguese
Spanish
Chinese
Danish
Polish
Russian
Turkish
Vietnamese
Hindi
Thai
Indonesian
Swedish
Ukrainian
Bulgarian
Croatian
Czech
Mailchimp
English
Spanish
Portuguese
Automation
Zoho Campaigns
Many pre-built automation workflows:
- Different welcome series
- Reengagement
- Nurture series
- Customer retention
- E-commerce
- Conditional
Mailchimp
Many pre-built automations (called customer journeys):
- Welcome series
- Abandoned cart
- Product retargeting
- Lead generation
- Order notifications, and more
Pros
Zoho Campaigns
- E-commerce-focused features
- Integrations with other services including Zoho CRM
- A lot of templates and pre-built automations
- Various support options
- A mobile app
- Relatively cheap prices
Mailchimp
- Essential features for small businesses
- 315 integrations
- Website hosting
- A mobile app
- Stylish design and built reputation
- Landing page builder
Cons
Zoho Campaigns
- Slow loading times
- Low deliverability
- Design options and the email builder are limited
Mailchimp
- 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
Reviews from experts
Zoho Campaigns
There are occasional glitches in the execution of campaigns but overall it's a fantastic marketing tool that is more user-friendly than it's competitors.
Pros: Zoho Campaigns has readymade templates that can be reused to save time.It is an affordable product in it's category making it a first choice for most businesses. Zoho Campaigns integrates well with other products such as Zoho Analytics, to generate some valuable end user data visualization that can help organizations take better & informed decisions.
Cons: Zoho's problems remain the same irrespective of the product, their customer support is sluggish and query resolution takes much time. Zoho Campaigns uses automation for scheduling campaigns but the user needs to take care of validation errors in advance else the scheduled job will fail.
Best Campaign Tool for Zoho One Users
This tool is connected in the backend to all Zoho Apps which really helps the Marketing team to track a lead in its entirety. We can have the whole life history of the lead and do lead scoring which can help the Sales team to prioritize.
Still, the deliverability is an issue and there are lot more fine-tuning needed in the features. The intelligence metrics that can come as part of a campaigning tool are not fully achieved in Zoho Campaigns
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a perfectly good tool for most English-speaking users, with its ease of use and range of features, as well as their free and pay-as-you-go plans.
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.
The interface is simple and intuitive, and you don't need to be technically savvy to get up and running with email campaigns. I have easily trained non-technical colleagues and elderly clients on how to use Mailchimp to send newsletters. It's easy to add contacts on the go using the Mailchimp mobile app.
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 02/14/2024. While we regularly update our articles, it`s possible that this article may not contain some of the latest information.
