Mailchimp vs Omnisend Comparison 2026
Mailchimp connects to nearly anything you already run: a shop, a booking tool, a CRM chosen long before the newsletter existed, priced on contacts held rather than emails sent, from $20 a month at 500 contacts after a free plan and a 14-day trial. Omnisend is built specifically around a store: abandoned-cart flows, product recommendations inside the email, and SMS on the same automation, free for 500 emails and then from $11.20 a month at a comparable list size, roughly half Mailchimp's floor. A newsletter with no shop behind it fits neither well; a store looking for cart-recovery emails fits Omnisend exactly.
Email marketing with the longest integration list
Email and SMS for people selling products
At a glance
- Omnisend starts cheaper, at $11.20.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Mailchimp | Omnisend | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $20 | From $11.20 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | 14 days | None |
| API |
Mailchimp
Email marketing with the longest integration list
Mailchimp is the default nobody gets fired for picking, and the reason is that whatever else you run already connects to it. The editor and the reporting are fine rather than good. Its pricing counts contacts rather than sends, so a large list you mail once a month costs the same as one you mail daily, which is the wrong shape for most creators.
Our note
Pick Mailchimp when integrations decide it, and only then. For a newsletter as the main product, beehiiv and Kit both cost less and were designed for the job rather than adapted to it.
Only on this side
- Covers newsletter & email
Omnisend
Email and SMS for people selling products
Omnisend is built around a shop rather than a newsletter: abandoned-cart flows, product recommendations in the email, and SMS on the same automation. For a creator selling merch or digital products through Shopify it does the job that a general email tool leaves to plugins. The free plan is 500 emails a month, which is a test rather than a starting point.
Why people weigh these two
- Omnisend instead of Mailchimp
- Omnisend from $11 with a free tier pairs email with SMS for people selling products, where Mailchimp sells breadth of integrations.
- Mailchimp instead of Omnisend
- Mailchimp connects to more outside tools than almost anything else in email marketing, worth it once a shop needs an integration Omnisend does not have.
Which one should you pick
Pick Mailchimp when integrations decide it: the booking tool, the CRM and the shop were all chosen before the email tool, and Mailchimp is the one connector that already exists for most of them. Standard starts at $20 a month at 500 contacts, and the price rises with the list regardless of how often you actually send.
Pick Omnisend when the email exists to sell something through a store: abandoned-cart recovery, product blocks pulled straight from inventory, SMS on the same flow without a second bill. Standard starts at $11.20 a month at a comparable list size, roughly half of Mailchimp's floor, but a newsletter with no shop behind it is paying for automation it will never fire.
Common questions
- Is Omnisend cheaper than Mailchimp?
- At the entry tier, yes. Omnisend Standard starts at $11.20 a month, roughly half of Mailchimp Standard's $20 floor at a comparable contact count. Both prices rise as the list grows, and both offer a free plan below that.
- Does Mailchimp have abandoned-cart emails like Omnisend?
- Not built in the way Omnisend has them. Omnisend ships abandoned-cart, browse-abandonment and post-purchase flows ready to turn on. Mailchimp's strength is its integration list, so equivalent flows usually arrive through a connected shop platform rather than natively.
- Can Omnisend send SMS as well as email?
- Yes, on the same automation as the email, billed separately from $0.007 a message. Mailchimp's listing here does not describe a comparable native SMS channel.
- Which is the wrong choice for a plain newsletter with no store?
- Omnisend, by its own description: without a shop behind it, most of what the price buys never fires. Mailchimp will work for a newsletter too, but its own materials note that a writer sending one letter a week is paying for machinery built for a bigger stack.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.