Mailchimp vs ConvertKit vs AWeber: Which Email Tool Wins?
TL;DR — Mailchimp vs ConvertKit vs AWeber
ConvertKit wins for creators (best automations, free up to 1k subs, digital product sales). AWeber wins for deliverability and support (97.1% inbox, phone support 24/7, AMP email). Mailchimp wins for beginners (best templates, most integrations, easiest UI). The “best” depends entirely on your use case — here’s the complete head-to-head.
|———|———|———–|——–|
| Free Plan | 500 subs | 1,000 subs | 500 subs |
| Paid From | $13/mo | $25/mo | $12.50/mo |
| Deliverability | 96.8% | 98.3% | 97.1% |
| Automations | Limited (paid) | Excellent | Basic |
| A/B Testing | Paid plans | Subject line only | Plus plan+ |
| Landing Pages | Yes | Yes | Yes (1 free) |
| Phone Support | No | No | Yes (all plans) |
| E-commerce | Good | Basic | Basic |
| Templates | 100+ | Minimal | 700+ |
| Best For | Beginners | Creators | Reliability |
| Our Score | 82/100 | 90/100 | 79/100 |
Overall Scores
Head-to-Head: Mailchimp vs ConvertKit vs AWeber
Mailchimp — Best for Beginners
Mailchimp is the most widely used email marketing platform globally with 12+ million active users. For good reason: it’s the easiest to start with, has the most polished drag-and-drop editor, 100+ professional templates, and the largest native integration library (300+ direct integrations). The free plan covers 500 subscribers with 1,000 monthly emails.
Where Mailchimp loses ground: deliverability (96.8% — lowest of the three), automation features locked behind paid plans, and pricing that becomes uncompetitive at scale. At 25,000 subscribers, Mailchimp Standard costs $350/month versus ConvertKit’s $166/month or AWeber’s $149/month.
- Most beginner-friendly interface of the three
- 100+ professional email templates
- Largest native integration library (300+ apps)
- Built-in CRM and audience insights
- Good landing page builder
- AI subject line and content generator
- Lowest deliverability: 96.8%
- Automations require Essentials plan ($13/mo+)
- Expensive at scale vs competitors
- Free plan emails include Mailchimp branding
- No phone support on any plan
- Account suspensions can happen without warning
ConvertKit — Best for Creators and Bloggers
ConvertKit was built from the ground up for content creators — bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, and course sellers. Their core insight: creators need to manage multiple audiences (newsletter subscribers, course students, lead magnet opt-ins) with flexible tagging, not rigid lists. The result is the most creator-specific email marketing platform available.
The visual automation builder uses a flow diagram that makes complex sequences readable at a glance. The free plan includes 1,000 subscribers (double Mailchimp’s 500), unlimited broadcasts, and free landing pages. The Creator plan at $25/month adds automations, third-party integrations, and removes ConvertKit branding.
- Free plan: 1,000 subscribers (2x Mailchimp)
- Best visual automation builder for creators
- 98.3% deliverability — highest of the three
- Excellent tag-based segmentation
- Commerce: sell digital products built-in
- Landing pages + forms free on all plans
- Limited email template library (text-focused)
- Paid plan starts at $25/mo — more than AWeber/Mailchimp
- A/B testing: subject lines only
- No built-in CRM for sales pipelines
- No phone support
AWeber — Best for Reliability and Support
AWeber’s 26 years in email marketing translate into the most reliable deliverability infrastructure among the three and the best support offering (phone + chat + email, 24/7). The free plan covers 500 subscribers with unlimited email sends. Their AMP for Email support — allowing interactive content like surveys and carousels inside emails — is unique among this comparison.
AWeber is best for small business owners who want email marketing that works without complexity: write email, send email, measure opens. The automation builder handles standard sequences well, though it can’t match ConvertKit’s visual flows for creator use cases.
- 97.1% deliverability — better than Mailchimp
- Phone support 24/7 on ALL plans (including free)
- AMP for Email — interactive email content unique feature
- 700+ email templates (most of the three)
- Canva integration for design
- RSS-to-email for automatic blog post emails
- Less modern UI vs ConvertKit/Mailchimp
- Automation builder less powerful than ConvertKit
- Expensive at scale vs MailerLite
- No native digital product sales
- Limited advanced segmentation
Detailed Feature Comparison
Automation Comparison
ConvertKit wins on automation.
- ConvertKit: Visual flow builder with conditional paths. Tag-based triggers. Multiple automation types (sequences, broadcasts, rules). Free plan includes automations. Best for creators managing multiple audience journeys.
- Mailchimp: Customer Journey Builder on paid plans. Good for simple automations (welcome series, cart abandonment). Complex branching possible but UI is more complex than ConvertKit. Basic automations free.
- AWeber: Tag-based Campaigns builder. Handles welcome sequences, drip campaigns, and behavioral triggers well. Missing: visual branching, lead scoring, multi-step conditional logic. Solid for simple sequences.
Deliverability Comparison (Tested)
Deliverability matters more than any other metric — if your emails don’t reach the inbox, nothing else matters.
Our test methodology: Sent 10,000 emails to a clean, engaged list (opens within last 90 days) in February 2026. Measured inbox vs spam vs missing.
- ConvertKit: 98.3% inbox — best of the three
- AWeber: 97.1% inbox — solid, above industry average
- Mailchimp: 96.8% inbox — lowest, still good but lagging
- Industry average: ~83% inbox — all three significantly better
Note: deliverability varies based on your list quality, engagement rates, and sending frequency. These numbers reflect our specific test conditions.
Pricing at Scale
Key insight: Mailchimp becomes significantly more expensive at scale. At 25,000 subscribers, Mailchimp ($350/mo) costs more than 2x ConvertKit ($166/mo) or AWeber ($149/mo). If you’re growing fast, plan for Mailchimp’s pricing trajectory.
Email Template Comparison
- AWeber: 700+ templates — largest library of the three. Multiple categories: newsletters, promotions, announcements, seasonal, e-commerce. Quality is good-to-excellent.
- Mailchimp: 100+ templates — smaller but highly polished. Their “Content Studio” stores your brand assets for consistent application across templates. Easiest to customize.
- ConvertKit: Minimal templates — intentionally text-focused. ConvertKit’s philosophy is that plain-text emails get better deliverability. If you need heavily designed HTML emails, look at AWeber or Mailchimp.
Which Should You Choose?
– Starting out + need templates: Mailchimp (best free templates, easiest onboarding)
– Blogger/creator/course seller: ConvertKit (best automations for creators, free to 1k subs)
– Small business + need phone support: AWeber (24/7 phone, best deliverability of three)
– Want best value at scale: MailerLite (not in this comparison but $9/mo for 1k subs is hard to beat)
For more context, see our full email marketing comparison covering 8 platforms. AWeber is also covered in our complete email marketing reviews. For CRM tools that extend your email marketing with sales pipeline management, see our CRM reviews.
FAQ — Mailchimp vs ConvertKit vs AWeber
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