Customer.io vs Mailchimp
Pricing
Customer.io: From $100/mo
Mailchimp: Free tier (250 contacts), Standard from $20/mo
Description
Customer.io: Behavior-based email and push for SaaS
Mailchimp: Email marketing platform with campaigns, automation flows, landing pages and sign-up forms, owned by Intuit
Pros
- Powerful segmentation
- Multi-channel (email, SMS, push)
- Great for product-led growth
- Landing pages, pop-up forms and social posting are included on every plan, Free too
- Automation flows on Standard can run up to 200 steps with branching
- 14-day free trial of the Standard plan
Cons
- Expensive for small lists
- Steep learning curve
- The Free plan is small: 250 contacts, 500 sends a month (250 a day), one user and Mailchimp branding
- Going over your contact or send limit adds overage charges automatically
- Automations on Free are a preview only, and Essentials caps each flow at 4 steps
Details
Customer.io sends messages based on what users actually do in your product. Founded by Colin Nederkoorn, “fundstrapped” (took some money but runs like bootstrapped). Took 18 months to hit $10k MRR, now at $100M ARR. Great for SaaS doing product-led growth.
Mailchimp covers newsletters, automated email flows, landing pages, sign-up forms and basic social posting, with 100+ email templates. It is owned by Intuit, which also makes QuickBooks.
It suits founders who want one marketing tool for email, forms and simple landing pages, and who expect to use automations.
Pricing grows with your contact list. Free stops at 250 contacts. Standard starts at $20/month for 500 contacts and lets you send 12 emails per contact a month. Outside the US the site shows prices as estimates based on exchange rates, and taxes come on top.
Customer.io verified
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