Mailchimp
AWeber
Campaign Monitor
1. User sentiment: AWeber edges out with better user ratings, but both platforms satisfy their core audiences
| Feature | Mailchimp | AWeber | Campaign Monitor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Rating | 4.4/5 (11,000+ reviews) | 4.5/5 (3,500+ reviews) | 4.7/5 (1000+ reviews) |
| Ease of Use Sentiment | Powerful but can feel a bit complex initially as noted in online reviews | Praised for its AI tools, but the interface can sometimes feel complex, according to online reviews. | Consistently praised as intuitive |
| Customer Support Satisfaction | Basic support on lower tiers | 24/7 support across all plans | Highly rated with personalized support |
| User Loyalty | Strong brand recognition | High retention among small businesses | Many users report 10+ years of usage |
| Best for → | Businesses wanting comprehensive marketing stack | Small businesses needing AI assistance | Marketers prioritizing design and usability |
While AWeber and Mailchimp have strong reviews, particularly among small businesses, Campaign Monitor by Marigold consistently receives praise from users who value its intuitive interface and exceptional support.
"LOVE Campaign Monitor... it's very user friendly. The support is exceptional. It helps us reach a large audience in a personal way and a format which drives results above industry benchmarks.”
2. Design & user experience: Mailchimp wins on modern design, but AWeber`s AI-first approach simplifies creation
| Feature | Mailchimp | AWeber | Campaign Monitor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email Editor | New Builder + Classic Builder options | Drag-and-drop email designer with content assistance | Intuitive drag-and-drop email builder with visual focus |
| Template Library | 250+ industry-specific templates | 100+ responsive templates with Canva integration | Mobile-optimized professional templates |
| Design Flexibility | Advanced customization with HTML support | Global control of fonts, colors, and header/footer elements | Balance of simplicity and customization, auto-branding, and HTML support |
| Mobile Optimization | Responsive with mobile preview | Mobile-first design with mobile editor | All templates fully responsive |
| Best for → | Advanced users wanting full control | Beginners needing AI guidance | Professional design without complexity |
Mailchimp takes the lead with its dual-builder approach, offering both modern and classic interfaces plus extensive template variety. The New Builder provides modern UI with undo/redo functionality, while the Classic Builder supports advanced features like RSS blocks.
AWeber also offers a drag-and-drop email designer with responsive templates, along with global control of fonts, colors, and header/footer elements, and mobile editor and keyboard shortcuts
Campaign Monitor offers a drag-and-drop email builder, responsive templates, auto-branding capabilities, and HTML customization support to help create visually appealing campaigns. The platform offers the best balance, with users consistently praising its intuitive drag-and-drop builder that delivers professional results without overwhelming complexity.
"Role Models used Campaign Monitor's drag-and-drop email builder to maintain consistent brand presence across communications, helping them achieve a 23.5% open rate and 12.6% click-through rate, driving a 24% increase in bookings."
3. Automation & journeys: AWeber dominates automation accessibility, while Mailchimp requires premium investment
| Feature | Mailchimp | AWeber | Campaign Monitor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trigger Options | 60+ behavioral triggers | Subscriber actions and wait/delay triggers | Time-based, behavior-based, and event-based triggers (opens, clicks) |
| Prebuilt Workflows | Cart recovery, welcome, review requests | Welcome, abandoned cart, RSS triggers | Welcome series, abandoned cart, anniversaries |
| Journey Complexity | Multi-channel journeys with branching logic | Email-focused | Focused on email-centric journeys |
| Best for → | Businesses needing complex multi-channel journeys | Small businesses wanting unlimited automation | Sophisticated email-centric workflows |
Mailchimp offers 60+ behavioral triggers and visual workflow building. AWeber offers prebuilt workflows like welcome series, abandoned cart, onboarding emails and supports workflow automation with triggers like subscriber actions and wait/delay. Campaign Monitor has this as an intuitive built-in feature for users.
Campaign Monitor offers prebuilt journeys (welcome series, abandoned cart, anniversaries), along with visual logic and core triggers (opens, clicks, etc.). While Mailchimp offers multi-channel support, Campaign Monitor has perfected email for over two decades, focusing on delivering maximum success in this powerhouse channel.
"...Having used MailChimp and Hubspot, Campaign Monitor has the best workflow tool, allowing you to create different workflows based on various customer interactions."
4. Deliverability & performance: AWeber leads with superior delivery rates and dedicated expertise
| Feature | Mailchimp | AWeber | Campaign Monitor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery Rate | 99% deliverability rate | 99.8% delivery rate | 99% delivery rate |
| Inbox Placement | Industry-standard placement | Dedicated deliverability team | Strong reputation with providers |
| Deliverability Tools | Content optimizer and anomaly detection | In-house deliverability experts | Inbox previews, spam testing, and deliverability experts |
| Sending Reliability | High performance | Well-regarding for high performance | Consistently high performance |
| Best for → | Businesses needing AI-powered optimization | Users wanting expert deliverability guidance | Consistent reliable delivery |
AWeber offers dedicated in-house deliverability specialists, while Mailchimp offers solid deliverability with Content optimizer and anomaly detection, but advanced deliverability features require higher-tier plans.
Campaign Monitor offers accessible deliverability support, real-time tracking, inbox previews, spam testing, and non-human click filtering that removes bot (non-human) activity from reports. This combination of reliable infrastructure and expert support makes it ideal for businesses that want excellent deliverability without technical complexity.
"We use Campaign Monitor because it is quite easy to use. It is also very reasonably priced. We haven't had any problems with deliverability or in creating the emails."
5. Segmentation & personalization: Mailchimp excels in advanced targeting, but AWeber offers practical personalization
| Feature | Mailchimp | AWeber | Campaign Monitor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Segmentation Options | Predictive and behavioral segmentation | Segmentation using search criteria, tags, and custom fields | Custom fields and advanced segmentation using demographic and behavioral data |
| Dynamic Content | Dynamic content with conditional logic and product recommendations | Dynamic content using tags and custom fields | Dynamic content blocks using if/else logic and custom fields |
| Personalization Depth | Demographics, CLV, Purchase Likelihood | Personalization using subscriber`s info (e.g., name, email) and custom fields | Supports default tags (name, email) and up to 50 custom fields (birthday, country) |
| Targeting Precision | AI-driven personalized product recommendations | Strong targeting using search criteria, tags, and custom fields | Strong targeting by engagement, behavior, demographics, and preferences |
| Best for → | Advanced predictive marketing | Simpler personalization and segmentation needs | Marketer-friendly personalization |
Mailchimp offers predictive segmentation that can forecast customer behavior and lifetime value. The platform's predictive demographics feature can estimate age and gender even without direct customer input. AWeber also supports segmentation through custom fields (name, email), dynamic content, and a subscriber preference center
Campaign Monitor delivers segmentation and personalization tools through a structured and user-friendly platform built for marketers. The platform provides intuitive personalization with custom fields, dynamic content ( showing different content based on a subscriber’s interests), and customizable preference centers (e.g., letting users choose email frequency, preferred topics, or update personal details).
The Australian Red Cross used Campaign Monitor's preference center and smart segmentation to achieve a 68% increase in open rates, a 201% increase in click-through rates, and a 75% increase in conversions from a single personalized email campaign.
6. Integration ecosystem: AWeber offers more integrations numerically
| Feature | Mailchimp | AWeber | Campaign Monitor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Integrations | 300+ integrations | 750+ integrations | 250+ integrations |
| E-commerce Focus | Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace | Shopify, WooCommerce, PayPal | Shopify, WooCommerce, MailSync |
| CRM Connections | Salesforce, Pipedrive | Open API and webhooks | Integrations with various CRM platforms (Salesforce, Zoho, Zapier) |
| Automation Tools | Zapier, Make.com | Zapier with 750+ connections | Custom API access |
| Best for → | Comprehensive marketing stack connections | Extensive third-party connectivity | Quality integrations with key platforms |
While Mailchimp and AWeber offer a broader integration variety, Campaign Monitor delivers a more structured, marketer-focused experience with deeper connections to core marketing tools.
Girls Who Code leveraged Campaign Monitor's Salesforce integration with custom fields for deeper list precision, helping them achieve a 40% email open rate, 22% click-to-open rate, and a 150% increase in student applications.
7. AI-powered features: Mailchimp offers more AI tools.
| Feature | Mailchimp | AWeber | Campaign Monitor |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Content Creation | Intuit Assist for copy generation and optimization | AI writing assistant for full emails and subject lines | Content creation with AI writer |
| Design Intelligence | Creative Assistant for multi-channel asset creation | Mobile editor and Canva integration, automated design suggestions | Personalized copy suggestions (adapt your content for specific audiences), auto-branding |
| Optimization Tools | Content Optimizer and send time optimization | Subject line assistant, content optimization | A/B testing with insights & goals (increase open-rates, click-through rates, and visits to a URL) |
| Predictive Features | Customer lifetime value and purchase likelihood | Limited | Send time recommendation & time zone sending feature |
| Best for → | Comprehensive AI suite (higher plans) | Accessible AI | Focused AI assistance for marketers |
Mailchimp offers Creative Assistant for multi-channel design and Content Optimizer for quality evaluation. However, these require significant investment in higher-tier plans. AWeber offers an AI writer to generate email drafts and subject lines, link previews, and a mobile editor.
While Mailchimp offers more AI tools, Campaign Monitor's approach provides practical assistance that integrates seamlessly into the workflow without requiring extensive setup or configuration.
Campaign Monitor offers focused AI tools for marketers—like AI writer to create content and refine copy, link review, send time optimization (sending emails when a subscriber is most likely to engage), and a time zone sending feature that adjusts delivery times to match each subscriber’s local time.
8. Pricing & scalability: Both platforms offer flexible pricing based on your contact and month send needs.
| Feature | Mailchimp | AWeber | Campaign Monitor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | $0 ( 500 contacts) | 14-day free trial | $0 (500 contacts) |
| Entry Level | Essentials: Starts at $13/month | Lite: Starts at $15/month | Lite: Starts at $12 USD/month |
| Mid-Tier | Standard: Starts at $20/month | Plus: Starts at $30/month | Essentials: Starts at $29 USD/month |
| Premium Tier | Premium: Starts at $350/month | Unlimited: $899/month | Premier: Starts at $159 USD/month |
| Best for → | Feature-rich mid-tier option | High-volume senders | Predictable contact-based pricing |
Campaign Monitor, Mailchimp, and AWeber offer flexible pricing based on your contact and month send needs.
9. Support & resources: AWeber provides great support accessibility
| Feature | Mailchimp | AWeber | Campaign Monitor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support Availability | 24/7 chat and email on Essentials+, phone on Premium | 24/7 support via email, live chat, and phone | 24/5 global support via multiple channels (email support on all tiers, phone support on Premium) |
| Response Quality | Well-regarded for helpful support | Well-regarded for helpful support | Fast response times praised |
| Onboarding Help | Personalized onboarding (Standard+) | Free migration | Professional services team |
| Best for → | Self-sufficient teams | Small businesses needing guidance | Businesses valuing responsive support |
AWeber offers 24/7 support via email, live chat, and phone, along with a knowledge base and personalized account management (premium plan), while Mailchimp offers chat and email support on paid plans, plus phone support on higher tiers.
Campaign Monitor, on the other hand, 24/5 global support via email and phone (premium plan), access to deliverability experts, onboarding assistance, and extensive resources like training videos and an email academy.
"Been working with Campaign Monitor for 10+ years… Not only does the platform make sending highly-customized emails easy and fun, their support team is phenomenal… Highly recommend."
