Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued) vs. Mailchimp

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
The Bronto Marketing Platform was an email marketing solution from Oracle which was acquired from NetSuite in 2016. It was optimized for creating automated, yet personalized emails, and subscriber profile segments, analyzing click and visit behavior, and tracking geolocation. It has since been discontinued.N/A
Mailchimp
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Mailchimp is the email marketing and marketing automation platform. Most email marketing platforms tell you how your campaigns perform, but Mailchimp goes a step beyond and tells you why by analyzing the data from half a billion emails sent through the platform every day to offer personalized recommendations for improving content, targeting, automations, and driving revenue using emails
$0
per month
Pricing
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)Mailchimp
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)Mailchimp
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsRequest pricing at info@bronto.com.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)Mailchimp
Considered Both Products
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Bronto is not cheap, but it's valuable if you use it correctly. MailChimp has a better message editor and better third party apps, and is cheaper than Bronto and it more honest and transparent in pricing (very important for a partner!). Bronto has better segmentation tools and …
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Harris was not suitable for our needs and was not user-friendly... the interface (of the version we had) seemed data and generally had limited capabilities, especially with regard to email design.

MailChimp (note: I can only speak to my experience using the free version) was …
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Bronto is way more vast and has a lot more segmentation options than MailChimp. We also selected Bronto because MailChimp was not able to do mobile design. MailChimp does have a better email editor as far as drag and drop goes; if you plan on using HTML in the creation of your …
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Bronto is more powerful in segmentation and campaigns, and it also allows for emails to be custom-designed without knowing HTML. MailChimp didn't have as much power but the design and user-interface was much more user-friendly. MailChimp felt like they were there to guide you …
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
The only other email marketing platform I have used is MailChimp, and I feel that Bronto is much more sophisticated and has far greater customization options.
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Bronto Marketing Platform is much more of an enterprise solution than I believe many of these other options are within the email marketing campaign world. Their amount of features, data collection, and management and even help support was impressive. This was especially true …
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Main reason we elected to utilize Bronto was the integration with our ERP system. Secondary consideration was the ease of creating marketing automation through workflows.
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Bronto does all of it in one platform, including product recommendations. The only system that comes close is Zaius, and it’s twice the price and doesn’t do social posting.
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
There's a lot of email marketing software out there, and our company works with a lot of different programs. It's what we're known for, and it's how we've done business for a long time. My job is to figure out what software best suits what company we're working for. Bronto is …
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
They have a strong Magento integration, which is a great thing for B2C Magento e-commerce business. Also, they have all the automation features, which allows you to automatize the sendings depending on your strategy, but Bronto charges additional for each new features.
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Bronto has been the best because of the price point and the ease of use, but yet it is still very powerful.
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
We've found that the list management and automation functionality better suited our needs at the time of evaluation.
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Although it may not appear to be as modern as other email marketing platforms, Bronto's backend capabilities are solid and produce results that drive sales. Simply put, Bronto is a great example of how looks aren't everything.
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
MailChimp is more user-friendly and has more applicable layout templates, but Bronto's list management is more effective
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Bronto is perfect for us right now because we are not simply sending out large email blasts, there is a bit of finesse but not on a massive scale yet.
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Bronto is a far more powerful tool and offers the superior customer service and personalized attention to our account that we need.
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Bronto has much better suited personalized customer support. You work with your account manager who helps you get up and running, and then (optional) you can book time with a strategist that will go over your program goals and help you figure out what tasks to tackle first to …
Chose Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
Bronto is the cadillac of email programs. But for most people a Jetta, or even a Ford Focus is just fine. After helping clients use several platforms, we chose MailChimp to use for our company and for any new clients who want our help for email.
Mailchimp
Chose Mailchimp
I've used other email programs but MailChimp seems to be the most intuitive, cleanest interface, and easiest to use. Embedding the email sign up is straightforward and I don't have to go to a marketplace to buy a program (like Constant Contact) if I want more than a simple sign …
Chose Mailchimp
Generally, Mailchimp is substantially cheaper for smaller companies compared to the Enterprise level email marketing systems. Additionally, Mailchimp offers the agency-focused advantages of programs like Campaign Monitor, but with an easier billing system and lower monthly …
Chose Mailchimp
Our company actually uses a couple different pieces of email marketing software, as different verticals are different sizes and have different needs. Mailchimp is used by one of our smaller divisions since we don't need anything too fancy and want to keep overhead costs low. …
Chose Mailchimp
Mailchimp is the most cost effective solution. The ease of use, the look of the emails, the options Mailchimp gives you, and the price of it all. There is no reason you should go with iContact or Constant Contact when Mailchimp is an option. They are just too easy to use and …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)Mailchimp
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
7.4
58 Ratings
10% below category average
Mailchimp
8.0
472 Ratings
3% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor7.050 Ratings8.1437 Ratings
Dynamic content6.450 Ratings7.8420 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content6.449 Ratings7.9401 Ratings
Landing pages4.525 Ratings7.5325 Ratings
A/B testing9.055 Ratings8.0356 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.850 Ratings8.1431 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.458 Ratings8.5459 Ratings
List management7.456 Ratings8.1459 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences8.448 Ratings7.7317 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
7.6
57 Ratings
3% below category average
Mailchimp
7.5
457 Ratings
0% above category average
Dashboards7.857 Ratings7.7120 Ratings
Standard reports7.856 Ratings8.0455 Ratings
Custom reports7.143 Ratings6.948 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
-
Ratings
Mailchimp
9.1
2 Ratings
17% above category average
Lead nurturing automation00 Ratings6.22 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Data quality management00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
-
Ratings
Mailchimp
8.1
48 Ratings
6% above category average
Calendaring00 Ratings8.443 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing00 Ratings7.734 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
-
Ratings
Mailchimp
8.2
42 Ratings
9% above category average
Social sharing and campaigns00 Ratings8.340 Ratings
Social profile integration00 Ratings8.134 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
-
Ratings
Mailchimp
7.3
41 Ratings
4% below category average
API00 Ratings7.831 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals00 Ratings6.26 Ratings
Customizability00 Ratings5.62 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com00 Ratings8.320 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM00 Ratings7.517 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM00 Ratings8.12 Ratings
Third-party software integrations00 Ratings7.636 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)Mailchimp
Small Businesses
ReachMail
ReachMail
Score 10.0 out of 10
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Emma by Marigold
Emma by Marigold
Score 8.6 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)Mailchimp
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(60 ratings)
8.1
(496 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(5 ratings)
8.5
(51 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.4
(373 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
2.0
(2 ratings)
7.8
(14 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
7.5
(22 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)Mailchimp
Likelihood to Recommend
The Bronto Marketing Platform
If you're a mid-size to larger business and rely on regular email engagement from customers, then Bronto Marketing Platform could be a potentially great partner if not game-changer for how you've been doing email campaign management previously. Their automation tools and development interface is amicable. The amount of data that's collected and available from engagement with subscribers through their tools can be overwhelming. Still, if you enjoy digging into every kernel of possible user activity information, you'll love it.
Read full review
Mailchimp
With Mailchimp we are able to revive and enhance our personal connect with the customers. The easy-to-use tools allows us to personalize the email content, segregate and target important leads & send relevant messages. Also, it offers interactive analysis on the performance of a particular campaign. We can judge the effectiveness of our mailers in real time.
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Pros
The Bronto Marketing Platform
  • It's easy to work with – it has seamless integration across all platforms, which helps when you're working with big clientele.
  • It's logically organized, which can't be said of all ESP's.
  • It has the LIVE CHAT support. A lot of email marketing clients simply don't have that. It's the little things!
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Mailchimp
  • Mailchimp allows you to manage your mailing list really well. You can subscribe people, unsubscribe people manage the mailing list directly into segments, and what not.
  • Mailchimp has features where you can create campaigns based on your mailing lists and send out newsletters to your subscribers based on a multitude of parameters that you can setup. Such as send email daily, weekly, monthly and they also have event based mails that you can send out.
  • Mailchimp also has a feature where you can design your emails. The look and aesthetics are very important when sending emails to your subscribers and all those needs are addressed here.
Read full review
Cons
The Bronto Marketing Platform
  • Segmenting- although there's a lot that can be done with segmenting audiences, there's a bit of a learning curve when it comes to setting up segments. Wish it was more intuitive.
  • Workflows- setting up automation workflows requires some practice and I've needed to consult a Bronto support person each time I set up a new workflow.
  • Bronto Pop-up manager- we use this feature, not sure how common it is among Bronto clients, but there is overall some improvement needed with this tool. There is limited capability to update the look and feel of the pop-up manager, and we've run into some conflicts with other pop-ups on our website interfering with the Bronto pop-up.
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Mailchimp
  • The interface remains a cluttered, non-intuitive mess. That's true from the haphazard way features are organized to the actual email layout.
  • Analytics have never been a priority, and I don't see that changing with Intuit's new ownership. I'm very frustrated over the limited choices for reporting, even when using third-party solutions. If I needed that function, I would not use MailChimp.
  • I would love to develop a workflow screen that lets me focus on the things that I use all the time. Customizing the interface where the content actually goes into the software would help.
  • I never understood why we couldn't import a document into a MC template. At best, we're spending time copying-and-pasting from one app into MC.
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Likelihood to Renew
The Bronto Marketing Platform
Never really had any issues that caused out-of-the-ordinary frustration levels. Of course, you'll have days where the learning curve of using a tool gets challenging. Still, I don't remember ever really coming across an obstacle or roadblock while using the tool because of a feature or function it just couldn't do successfully or at all. Customer support was always available as needed, and it was generally easy to find answers to questions when they arose.
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Mailchimp
We've had Mailchimp for about ten years, I want to say. I started with the company about four years ago, and I don't see us ever diverting to another source. It's easy for us to use, and we have all our clients already built into the database. I imagine we'll use them for as long as we have the company.
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Usability
The Bronto Marketing Platform
Usability is great. Very intuitive drag-and-drip metaphor for building automations. And the UI is very user-centric. It constantly prompts you with suggestions and next steps such that you hardly have to refer to the (excellent) documentation.
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Mailchimp
Our team use Mailchimp almost every week. Overall UI is simple for anyone to get started with it. The resource library around using particular features is also there, so we don't have to train our team on this product. We also used a lot of other features as well.
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Reliability and Availability
The Bronto Marketing Platform
I never experienced any downtime.
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Mailchimp
I have, in the 4+ years that I've used Mailchimp, never seen an issue that restricted the use of their software/tools. I don't know of a single time when they're system crashed or went down. I could be wrong, but I honestly haven't experienced any issues with outages, errors or unplanned downtime
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Performance
The Bronto Marketing Platform
No issues.
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Mailchimp
I haven't noticed any slow speeds from Mailchimp or their tools. I think the landing pages load quickly and look nice. The email reports and editing operates smoothly and doesn't take time to load. Additionally, when I use Mailchimp in conjunction with Zapier + Hubspot I don't notice any drag between any of these tools
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Support Rating
The Bronto Marketing Platform
They used to be good, but they've evolved into a monolithic bureaucratic nightmare after the Netsuite / Oracle acquisition. Can't talk to anyone that actually knows the system and support tickets seem to go days or weeks without responses and resolution.
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Mailchimp
Website tools were easy to use and understand so a novice can easily meet or exceed their client's expectations! Loved that we were able to totally customize so that the e-mail we created conveyed our client's overall messaging consistent with their branding! Client love that we can provide turnkey services to support their sales and marketing teams!
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Online Training
The Bronto Marketing Platform
They have lots of videos on list importing / segmentation / report customization etc. when you sign on they give a link to online tutorials and documentation which is very helpful. They have very helpful PDFs on how to import / set up platform
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Mailchimp
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
The Bronto Marketing Platform
Easy to set up.
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Mailchimp
It's pretty easy to get up and running! There's a slight learning curve on a few things, but once you find where everything is located, you can import your list and send your first email. It really makes our clients feel great to see how quickly they can get that first email out.
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Alternatives Considered
The Bronto Marketing Platform
Bronto hits the sweet spot for us. It is most similar to the Salesforce family of products. Salesforce however can feel cluttered and configuration and setup can be time consuming and confusing. Bronto is much more streamlined and also has features built in that may require additional purchases in the Salesforce world. Adobe Campaign is a very powerful solution and can do many things hard to achieve in Bronto. However, Campaign is much more of a developer tool where Bronto is easy to learn and use right out of the box.
Read full review
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a means to an end and a way to stay within GDPR laws. We may not use it if this wasn't a requirement. Other platforms are better for design or management of contacts, but Mailchimp offers that secure storage of data that is required. I have not tried other bulk mail applications, so am unable to compare these.
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Scalability
The Bronto Marketing Platform
No answers on this topic
Mailchimp
Mailchimp over the years I've used it has grown in leaps and bounds. They have added so many additional features than were previously available. They are truly an all-in-one marketing platform now. If you're a small operation and just want to add email to your marketing efforts, they're there for you. If you're a larger operation and want to start sending postcard advertisements, they can do that. If you'd good with that and want to kick up your marketing by going social, you can do that on their platform. They are truly able to be as small as you need, but also get quite large in whatever it is you'd like to do through their system.
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Return on Investment
The Bronto Marketing Platform
  • Offering great reporting for tracking everything. I can see what emails are working (I track on a monthly basis) and what people are clicking.
  • A/B split testing lets us try different things. Try this and that.
  • Creating lists and segments of subscribers lets us look at who is the best performing contacts. Really get 'into the data' and understand what is working and what is not.
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Mailchimp
  • Mailchimp has allowed us to communicate effectively with thousands of customers with ease.
  • Mailchimp's use during our second year of business helped us expand our list of brands considerably (almost 30% YTD) because of regular interactions that we've launched.
  • Mailchimp ramp-up time is minimal for new users so I can turn things over to junior staff - saving me time and money.
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ScreenShots

Mailchimp Screenshots

Screenshot of Mailchimp's advanced analytics and reporting tools. These are used to monitor trends, track performance, and get actionable insights that help users to create better campaigns and drive customer engagement.Screenshot of Mailchimp's precise audience segmentation. Its AI simplifies the workflow by generating complex customer segments for highly personalized campaigns.Screenshot of omnichannel marketing. Campaigns can be built across multiple channels, and then managed from one convenient place.Screenshot of marketing automations with the Customer Journey Builder. This is used to reach the right people with the right message at exactly the right time, which helps to drive more repeat business, increase customer retention, and see more orders.Screenshot of Mailchimp's SMS marketing. SMS can be integrated into email, automations, and social campaigns.Screenshot of Mailchimp's AI, used to deliver relevant content faster. It can generate professionally written, on-brand marketing emails with the press of a button. The user only needs to review, edit, and send.