When you hear side hustle, do you think of surveys, or Etsy, or something similar? How about Mailchimp? Every business starts somewhere, and that’s exactly what Mailchimp did.

The Growth of Mailchimp

Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius started a web design agency called the Rocket Science Group back in 2000, which successfully serviced big corporate clients.

At the time, email software was expensive and clunky, and it wasn’t the same market it is now. Remember the spam in your inbox in the early 2000’s? Email marketing hadn’t quite figured out how to work just yet.

Chestnut and Kurzius set out to offer an alternative to small businesses that would let them gain the same advantages of email marketing as their smaller counterparts. It started off small – a small database of emails for a small fee, headed by a friendly monkey logo that made it feel approachable. Mailchimp was born.

It took a few years to become more than a side hustle for its founders, and they got smart with their own marketing over the years, positioning themselves as the best used in the business with as little as a logo at the bottom of the emails their clients were sending, and huge with giant marketing campaigns of their own.

One of their more recent campaigns saw them building whale song generators, giving away 200,000 bags of crushed chips, and singing about Mail Shrimp. No, really!

That was in 2001 – and by 2021, Intuit bought Mailchimp for $12 billion. Not bad for a monkey!

Why Mailchimp?

Mailchimp got in early and rode the wave with a beginner friendly product. They appealed to a new audience in a growing niche, and the bet really paid off, as email marketing is an astonishing revenue provider nowadays. Many people even outside of digital marketing can name Mailchimp as a brand, making them a go-to when you first start looking for a provider.

They continued to innovate over the years, allowing more and more opportunities for users to do more in a straightforward way.

Originally all levels of usage cost but moving to a free entry level also meant that users would try before buying. No one likes to change their system at the best of times, so being able to be certain it has the functions you need, being able to find a foothold in a system before upgrading to its premium level, is important. The fact that it’s so beginner friendly lures users in, and the amount you can do on it increases as your understanding grows.

Over the years, it’s been a snowball – so many people use Mailchimp, that companies prefer to keep Mailchimp, as new and old employees have trained on its use.

Why not Mailchimp?

Well, Mailchimp is great, but it can also be expensive. Which means that whilst yes, the free plan is super useful and well worth using, once you start being particularly successful, you’ll inevitably end up needing to upgrade. And actually, there’s a fair amount of competition nowadays for the email marketing space, that might offer areas to you that Mailchimp doesn’t, that suit your needs more…and is probably cheaper.

Mailchimp Alternatives

If you’re looking for something a little different, the main areas to research are:

• Price: Most alternatives will be cheaper than Mailchimp, but it often depends on your subscriber count or number of emails you want to send.
• Ability: Can the alternatives produce what you need? Often the answer is yes, though the feedback often is a loss of reporting ability – you’ll need to prioritize the areas you need.
• Customer Service: Can you reach them when you need to? Do their options suit you for communicating with them if you need a little extra help?
• Reviews: Places like Reddit are a fantastic source of reviews and options from real users, who can both answer questions you may have, but also highlight areas you may not have thought of. Need one specific function, but can’t tell if it’s available? Ask some of its users. Need some opinions? Scour the channels.

We’ve listed some alternatives below.

EmailOctopus

“Not Mailchimp, but better” is the marketing line of EmailOctopus. It’s a little less user friendly; you’ll need to be a touch more hands on but is seemingly much cheaper than its counterpart.

ConstantContact

A simple to use option, great for beginners who don’t need a ton of options, ConstantContact offers a straightforward solution to email marketing. It has a whole load of pre-made templates that you can use, though admittedly it will look a little more streamlined in Mailchimp. It has a lot of the same functionality, but for a cheaper price.

MailerLite

MailerLite is happy to show they’re cheaper than Mailchimp, whilst also showing allowing unlimited monthly sends on its plans, or its free plan allowing for 12,000 monthly emails to up to 1,000 subscribers. The only downside is that Mailchimp has arguably better reporting, but user /lachynicolson on Reddit said it has “all the same features a MailChimp (except it’s easier to use!)”

AWeber

AWeber offers some very cool integrations that are on Mailchimp’s to-do list, such as Canva, and AI, but for lists below 100,000 subscribers, AWeber is much cheaper (and then about the same thereafter). It is slightly easier to use than Mailchimp, but with a little bit less of the same features.

Brevo

Brevo is one that has a great free plan, offering unlimited contacts (unlike Mailchimp), but it really shines in its automation ability, as well as the support tools you can find. The biggest downside is that the design tools aren’t as extensive, and the support has been seen as a little slower.

SendPulse

A messaging platform, rather than specifically email, SendPulse offers multi-channel marketing – email originally, but then SMS, web notifications, chatbots, etc. It’s also – unsurprisingly, given the pattern of alternatives so far – cheaper than Mailchimp.

Loops

The new kid on the block, Loops is named as such because that’s what it calls automated workflows, something which it does extremely well, with some great available integrations too. It’s super easy to use… but only has a rich text editor. It feels a little like Notion. We find this works well for smaller, more personal brands, but gets a bit tricker for bigger ones.

SensorPro

SensorPro does a lot of things well, but it’s really embraced AI – meaning you can do things like convert blog posts into emails, or create content from ideas. It’s a flexible system that works well for people who really know their stuff, and those who aren’t sure. Its servers are based in Dublin, Ireland, meaning also that if your data needs to stay in the EU, it can.

Kit (Formerly ConvertKit)

Kit is a much more direct, this-is-what-you-need style platform, which is a pro and a con – on the one hand, it may feel limiting, but on the other, it streamlines the core processes you’ll need. It does some great automation, is cheaper… but doesn’t have the same strength in reporting and testing as Mailchimp or alternatives offer. It’s not long rebranded though, with an exciting roadmap ahead.

MailCoach

Whilst MailCoach doesn’t offer a free plan (rather a 14 day free trial), what you pay for gives you some great segmentation, analytics, and split testing, allowing you to maximize the return on your effort, but in an easy way. It comes in cheaper than Mailchimp for up to 2,000 emails a month, charging for additional emails as needed.

Conclusion

Mailchimp did something incredible by carving out a market for themselves and putting their brand front and center of it. They’ve created a robust, exciting platform that thousands upon thousands have used or experienced, and all from a tiny side hustle twenty or so years ago. However, if you’re a smaller business, or have less all-round requirements, you can save your budget by looking at some alternatives. 

Need help with your email marketing? Reach out to Anthem Communications today!