Mailchimp vs. Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Mailchimp Transactional Email (formerly Mandrill) is designed to allow users to deliver fast, personalized transactional emails using API or SMTP.
$0
per month
Pricing
MailchimpMailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Free
$0
per month
Essentials
$9.99
per month
Standard
$14.99
per month
Premium
$299
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MailchimpMailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
MailchimpMailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Considered Both Products
Mailchimp
Chose Mailchimp
We used MailPoet before moving over to Mailchimp. It's a rather different tool because they have a WordPress plugin, however their feature set was rather limited and didn't really fit into our organization's needs.
Chose Mailchimp
Constant Contact seems to be the most common alternative that people have gravitate towards, and for a low-tech person I would say that's appropriate. AWeber is a great alternative for people like affiliate marketers. Mad Mimi is a semi-popular alternative, but frankly I don't …
Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Chose Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
I haven't personally used Sendgrid or Klaviyo before because we had been using Mandrill already. When I joined the company, however, I believe it's overall functionality paired with their price point was more competitive than other solutions out there at the time. With how …
Chose Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Being first a MailChimp customer, moving to using Mandrill as a transactional API based solution was an easy and obvious solution. At the time of evaluation Mandrill's API was far superior to SendGrid's API.
Chose Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Sendgrid offers a lot of the same features as Mandrill, but goes a lot further in helping you achieve maximum deliverability for your e-mails. They have a respectable free tier for sending as well as receiving emails, and their paid tiers are very reasonably priced.

I don't have …
Chose Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Amazon SES was a service we evaluated before eventually landing on Mandrill. SES is very affordable, but some of our less technically-inclined employees found it difficult to use. We also found the API to be lacking in meeting our needs. And as an existing paid MailChimp …
Chose Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
So we actually work with clients across all of the platforms listed above, but Mandrill has a huge ease of use bonus in its favor, especially when working with clients who are setting up a Cart Recovery style marketing campaign for the first time or are looking for a bit of a …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
MailchimpMailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Mailchimp
8.0
475 Ratings
3% above category average
Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor8.1440 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content7.8423 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content7.9404 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages7.5327 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing8.0358 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization8.1434 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting8.5462 Ratings00 Ratings
List management8.1462 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences7.7319 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Mailchimp
9.1
2 Ratings
16% above category average
Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation6.22 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Mailchimp
8.1
50 Ratings
6% above category average
Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
-
Ratings
Calendaring8.445 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing7.836 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Mailchimp
8.2
44 Ratings
9% above category average
Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns8.342 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration8.135 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Mailchimp
7.6
460 Ratings
1% above category average
Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
-
Ratings
Dashboards7.7123 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports8.0458 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports7.250 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Mailchimp
7.4
44 Ratings
2% below category average
Mailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
-
Ratings
API7.833 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals6.57 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability5.62 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com8.421 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM7.618 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM8.12 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations7.639 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
MailchimpMailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.5 out of 10
Brevo
Brevo
Score 8.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Postmark
Postmark
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
MailchimpMailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(499 ratings)
8.8
(15 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.5
(51 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(373 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
9.5
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.9
(15 ratings)
6.7
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.5
(22 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.5
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
MailchimpMailchimp Transactional Email (Mandrill)
Likelihood to Recommend
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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Mailchimp
Any system that requires transactional email message functionality as an external service. The benefits of a well managed and vetted server to maintain reputation as well as being reliability is well worth the effort needed to integrate towards the API specs
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Pros
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.
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Mailchimp
  • Mandrill is extremely reliable. We switched from using a platform that was very hit-or-miss, but we never had a single deliverability issue with Mandrill's transactional API. Every email was sent reliably and quickly.
  • Mandrill's reporting and debugging features made it easy to ensure that all our messages were getting delivered to the right place in a timely manner. In fact, Mandrill's tools were so robust that we used it as an end-around way of debugging another failing service we were using.
  • Mandrill is a very affordable add-on to an existing MailChimp account. Adding an extra layer of reliability was a no-brainer, and made the cost essentially negligible to our organization.
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Cons
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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Mailchimp
  • The rate-limit system can be troubling. If you are switching providers and already have a large e-mail volume, you're going to want to transition slowly. The per-hour send limits are initially very low, and if you have any deliverability or complaint hiccups, they will plummet quickly. The Mandrill support staff is very helpful in this area - they will not (and claim that they can not) manipulate send limits for any account at any time for any reason.
  • Billing is combined in with a paid MailChimp subscription, which didn't used to be the case.
  • No free tier.
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Likelihood to Renew
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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Mailchimp
No answers on this topic
Usability
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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Mailchimp
Mailchimp does a good job of documenting the service
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Reliability and Availability
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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Mailchimp
No answers on this topic
Performance
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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Mailchimp
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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Mailchimp
I haven't personally reached out to their support team, but the feedback I've heard from our tech support and engineering teams have been that their response to questions has often been they either are unsure or that Mandrill is what it is. For example, when our customers weren't able to see opens and clicks for all emails sent, and we reached out to their support, the response was it is what it is, and they'll send a notification to our app if they can.
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Implementation Rating
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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Mailchimp
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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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Mailchimp
So we actually work with clients across all of the platforms listed above, but Mandrill has a huge ease of use bonus in its favor, especially when working with clients who are setting up a Cart Recovery style marketing campaign for the first time or are looking for a bit of a fire-and-forget setup. With more sophisticated clients (on the scale of global ecommerce companies), who have a larger subscriber/customer base and in-house design teams, we find that Mandrill usually isn't enough
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Scalability
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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Mailchimp
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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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Mailchimp
  • It helped us to grow our customer database substantially in the last quarter.
  • Last week we reached 62% customer engagement in our campaign. This is very good customer engagement for our projects.
  • In the last quarter we achieved our target by 135%.
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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.