Buffer vs Mailchimp | TrustRadius

What users are saying about

Score 8.1 out of 10

Based on 327 reviews and ratings

Score 8.2 out of 10

Based on 2189 reviews and ratings

Feature Rating Comparison

Buffer

Mailchimp

Content planning and scheduling

Content optimization

Workflow management

Buffer

Mailchimp

Campaign success analytics

Buffer

Mailchimp

Role-based user permissions & privileges

Mobile access

Buffer

Mailchimp

WYSIWYG email editor

Dynamic content

Ability to test dynamic content

Landing pages

A/B testing

Mobile optimization

Email deliverability reporting

List management

Triggered drip sequences

Buffer

Mailchimp

Lead nurturing

Lead scoring and grading

Data quality management

Automated sales alerts and tasks

Buffer

Mailchimp

Calendaring

Event/webinar marketing

Buffer

Mailchimp

Social sharing and campaigns

Social profile integration

Buffer

Mailchimp

Dashboards

Standard reports

Custom reports

Buffer

Mailchimp

API

Role-based workflow & approvals

Customizability

Integration with Salesforce.com

Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Integration with SugarCRM

Pros

I can plan and publish content on social channels.
Buffer's interface is quite tidy and generates the necessary facilities to save us time in publishing consistent content.
It has a special price; it is pretty affordable.
It has the possibility of integrating with other tools to improve its functions.

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Senior SEO Project Manager

Ignite VisibilityMarketing & Advertising, 51-200 employees

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Lead forms and Landing Pages are easy to create and manage
It's possible to customize the email templates within the HTML for a truly custom experience, if wanted.
The option to use journeys, which is available in most of the larger email platforms like HubSpot or SalesForce Marketing Cloud, is really handy, and much more affordable than using some of the larger platforms.
It easily integrates with most other major digital tools.

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Annette Giordano

Owner and Principal

Blue Horse Digital Marketing, LLCMarketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees

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Cons

Expensive Analytics: The upgrade you need to access your analytics is quite expensive, and I have come across other tools that provide the same or even more for a lesser priced plan.
No Media Library: The one feature I have found on another social media planning tool that I wish Buffer had is a media library. This allows you to upload photos you aren't using right away to have them readily available when you do decide to use them. This is not a feature in Buffer.

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Marketing Specialist - Writer

Mid-America Christian UniversityHigher Education, 51-200 employees

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Tagging and audiences could be improved upon. while easy to workaround (if you have the brain for that), I do wish I were able to segment subscribers a bit better.
While I understand the pricing, I wish it were tiered differently. Getting penalized for being more successful and increasing your audience size is both a blessing and a curse. If anything, I wish the tiers were divided into more levels, allowing for someone to increase subscribers but not have to pay a substantial amount more until they reach the next tier limit
marketing automations would be something worth developing more.

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Verified User

Employee in Other

Financial Services Company, 51-200 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

Buffer 7.5

Based on 14 answers

I am giving buffer this rating because of a couple issues that it has compared to other platforms. It does not always post to instagram and you will need to go in an manually post. Also, one of the biggest qualms that we have with buffer is the price it costs to have robust analytics

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Director of Social Marketing

Mid-America Christian UniversityEducation Management, 51-200 employees

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Mailchimp 9.1

Based on 49 answers

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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Harrison Pershing

Digital Marketing Strategist

CaseMetrixLegal Services, 1-10 employees

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Usability

Buffer 8.8

Based on 20 answers

Easy enough to use even my boss got it right away. It helps to off-set the workload to less active times, and we can preschedule way in advance, which also helps to keep the team on track as we know what we have planned and want to reach our milestones before posts go online.

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entspannter erfolgreichInformation Services, 1-10 employees

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Mailchimp 8.6

Based on 267 answers

The UI is not intuitive at first, but once you get going you figure out where things are. When we first started using MailChimp for the onboarding process there was a lot of confusion as they had just changed their terminology and the support team was out of sync with the documentation.

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Verified User

Employee in Customer Service

Retail Company, 11-50 employees

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Reliability and Availability

Buffer 8.5

Based on 3 answers

Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages

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Art Relations

Art PluggedEntertainment, 1-10 employees

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Mailchimp 10.0

Based on 8 answers

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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Risk Manager, and Insurance Agent

Hummel and Plum Insurance Agency Inc.Insurance, 11-50 employees

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Performance

Buffer 8.0

Based on 3 answers

Buffer performs well on both desktop and mobile platforms. The one area as I have stated before is that it does not always want to automatically push to Instagram and the user will have to go do it manually. Buffer works very well pushing to other platforms. The instagram issue is the only reason buffer does not get a 10 on this section

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Director of Social Marketing

Mid-America Christian UniversityEducation Management, 51-200 employees

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Mailchimp 10.0

Based on 10 answers

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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Risk Manager, and Insurance Agent

Hummel and Plum Insurance Agency Inc.Insurance, 11-50 employees

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Support Rating

Buffer 9.4

Based on 21 answers

It really helped to my business to grow online.
I was able to take actions mindfully as the analytics are damn good.
Also used for managing clients social media accounts and it proved to be a best resource.
Clients were really happy as they got high demand and growth on internet and the secret is Buffer.
The user interface is really easy to understand and manage. Support is 24/7 available to help.

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Verified User

Employee in Marketing

Marketing & Advertising Company, 11-50 employees

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Mailchimp 10.0

Based on 16 answers

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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Owner

Patterson-Robbins and Company LLCMarket Research, 1-10 employees

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Implementation Rating

Buffer 8.3

Based on 2 answers

We were very satisfied with the implementation of Buffer. We had no issues switching from the platform that we were using over to buffer. Our staff did not even miss a beat when it came to posting content. It was an easy transition and I feel that is something that buffer has really done well. They have an "out of the box" usability platform

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Director of Social Marketing

Mid-America Christian UniversityEducation Management, 51-200 employees

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Mailchimp 8.8

Based on 40 answers

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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Digital Marketing Specialist

Thoughtprocess InteractiveInternet, 11-50 employees

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Alternatives Considered

The reason for selecting Buffer was mainly due to good UI and easy to use functionality. Hootsuite was not that user friendly and a bit complicated. Buffer is more straight forward and easy to use when you compare it with Hootsuite. Also, I like Buffer's mobile friendliness more than Hootsuite.

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Harsh Hingorani ⚡️

Product Marketing Manager

Harbour and Hills Financial Services LimitedFinancial Services, 11-50 employees

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I used MailKitchen earlier but my experience was very bad with it. That was not at all user friendly software. The email bounce rate was very high in that software. After that I signed up in Mailchimp and I was amazed to see its user interface. Its very easy to understand and It has all the features to create a good email campaign.

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Vijendr Warankar

Insurance Professional

Vila ConsultingInsurance, 1-10 employees

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Scalability

Buffer 8.6

Based on 2 answers

Buffer does what it say on tin as they say! you can always count on Buffer. Buffer can be scale to 25 social account with 2,000 scheduled post which is enough for most agencies or businesses

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Art Relations

Art PluggedEntertainment, 1-10 employees

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Mailchimp 9.3

Based on 4 answers

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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Risk Manager, and Insurance Agent

Hummel and Plum Insurance Agency Inc.Insurance, 11-50 employees

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Return on Investment

It has saved money by allowing us to automate our social using one person
It allows us to connect one channel at a time instead of wasting money on larger account management tools
We are making money, because it has already delivered several clients

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President and Director of Marketing

Hum JAMMarketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees

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It has allowed us to save over $100/month that we were paying another email platform, wherein we could just use the free version of Mailchimp
It has improved communication with reps and therefore less time and money spent on distractions and unnecessary communications.

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Verified User

Manager in Marketing

Information Technology & Services Company, 11-50 employees

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Screenshots

See All (6) Buffer Screenshots

See All (6) Mailchimp Screenshots

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Buffer Editions & Modules

Edition

Publish Pro	$15¹
Publish Premium	$65¹
Publish Business	$99¹
Analyze Pro	$35¹
Analyze Premium	$50¹

per month

Additional Pricing Details

Here are the prices of our various plans: Pro: $15/month Small Business: $99/month Medium Business: $199/month Large Business: $399/month Enterprise: Feel free to get in touch with us at onboarding@buffer.com. All plans can be paid on either a monthly or yearly basis. If you choose to pay yearly, you would receive a 15% discount, which works out to be approximately two months free per year.

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Mailchimp Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

Rating Summary

Buffer

Mailchimp

Buffer

Mailchimp

Buffer

Mailchimp

Buffer

Mailchimp

Buffer

Mailchimp

Buffer

Mailchimp

Buffer

Mailchimp

Buffer

Mailchimp

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