Over the past few years I have been doing the continual dance of Aweber vs Mailchimp. Going back and forth between which service I like more. Well, today I want to give you the title fight for 2012 of Aweber vs Mailchimp. This will be a 10 round bout with winner gets your business. Who do you have money on? Ooh.. wait they are starting!
In this corner weighing in at an Alexa ranking of 131- AAAA-Weber!
And in this corner weighing in at an Alexa ranking of 397- Mail to the MailllChimp!
Now I want a good clean fight. Go to your respective corners. And without further delay, Let’s get ready to RUMBLE! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Aweber vs Mailchimp Round 1
Ease of use-I personally believe Mailchimp is too complicated. First you have to decide what type of campaign to do, then you have to fill out your campaign info, choose one of their templates, customize the content in each box they have, do a plain text version, and then confirm the various parts of the email you created earlier. Too much!
Aweber has this all in one box arrangement for setting up emails that you can send out quickly and easily. I always felt that Mailchimp just made this too complicated. Even the Aweber web forms are easy to set up and are basically drag and click options. The only thing I do not like about Aweber is that they made their new upgrades more complicated versus less.
Edge: Aweber
Aweber vs Mailchimp Round 2
Auto-responder- Aweber actually has an auto-responder with all accounts. I love the fact that you can copy and paste an auto-responder from one list into another list with just a few small adjustments. The reason I actually started using Aweber was because I needed an auto-responder series for my business.
For those who have the free version of Mail Chimp you will not have an auto-responder. However, all of the paid accounts have some level of auto-responder.
Edge: Aweber
Aweber vs Mailchimp Round 3
Forms- Aweber has hundreds of different web forms that you can choose from on their site from corporate and business forms to the artistic and retail forms they pretty much have most industries covered with these forms.
MailChimp on the other hand, allows you to create an unlimited number of color variations. Other than that option, I am not that impressed with their customization features. It is just basic features that need to be included.
Edge: Aweber
Aweber vs Mailchimp Round 4
Email Templates-While both of these services have basic email templates I will have to go with MailChimp for their email templates. First- there are more of them and they are easier to customize. Second – They do not all look they same design with just a different color.
Edge: MailChimp
Aweber vs Mailchimp Round 5
Reporting- Aweber’s email reporting is just awesome! They break down opens, bounces, complaints, and click through rates not only by email, but also by campaign, follow up message, broadcast message and a whole slew of other options. I have never had a premium account with Mailchimp, so I am not able to state the exact difference. The one big quality with Mailchimp is that they have a Google analytics integration which allows for the detail of their reporting
Edge: Tie
Aweber vs Mailchimp Round 6
Integration is a huge part of any email marketing service portfolio today. From being able to connect with social media and payment processing systems to event management and analytics. Email marketing integration is huge.
Aweber has some great ties to WordPress, Paypal, Clickbank, and membership plugins like Wishlist and S2. For example, there is an Aweber WordPress plugin
Edge: Tie
Aweber vs Mailchimp Round 7
Pricing-I want to emphasize this. Pricing is important, but making sure that the service gets the job done for you is much more important. The reason I bring this up is because MailChimp has a free and paid version of their service. For a number entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping it, having a free service can be great. Just remember that you should not avoid spending money for the sake of avoiding spending money. If it is not in your budget or you want to spend money on higher returning areas of your business that is fine. Do not just choose Mailchimp, because it is free though.
Edge: MailChimp
Aweber vs Mailchimp Round 8
Affiliates-This one is easy to discuss. Mailchimp has a ban on any accounts that promote affiliate and network marketing products. Aweber allows people in with open arms in those fields as long as the lists are legit.
Edge: Aweber
Aweber vs Mailchimp Round 9
Split Testing- Aweber does allow split testing, but if you want to send a broadcast to multiple lists you have to create an email to split test for each list. That can be a pain when you segment your list as much as I do. I have close to 30 lists, because I divide my sign ups into so many different groups.
Mail Chimp even has a Split Test A/B email campaign that you can create. The benefit being that you can then test as much as you need with Mailchimp versus Aweber. Testing is what makes money in internet marketing. That is why it is nice to be able to use Mailchimp’s A/B test campaign option.
Edge: MailChimp
Aweber vs Mailchimp Round 10
Subscribers-This is about the policy of allowing subscribers into your list.
Aweber can sometimes have a stick up their you know whats about this policy. If you built your list elsewhere there is a 99% chance they will not allow you to move that list over to their service. They might allow you to send out an initial email requesting that your list re-opts in, but that is about it. The challenge with re-opt-ins is that the sign up rate generally will be between 15-30%(list depending). That means a list with 1,000 subscribers will shrink to 150-300.
Mailchimp allows you to upload your list into their database. However, they actually banned an account of my two years ago, because I had 5 people complain out of 1500 people complain over the course of 5 emails.
Edge: Tie
And The Winner Is….
Aweber
This concludes your special showing of Aweber vs MailChimp.
Get started with Aweber!
Please let us know who did you have money on for the Aweber vs Mailchimp match?
Great comparison Jane. In my case, I am actually using MailChimp’s free service. I think it is an excellent alternative for Marketers who are looking for a relatively good autoresponder for free. The only downside I think about free MailChimp is that they apparently do not endorse using the free service for affiliate links. The way around that is to build a nice looking landing page and link to that instead. Aweber, obviously is the right choice for more advanced marketers, as it offers a lot more flexibility and tracking features. In a way, I would say to start with MaiChimp to get familiar with email marketing and then move to Aweber on a later stage.. My two cents
Amrik,
Absolutely! Mailchimp is great for start up marketers and Aweber is for the pros.
Andy
Great information Andy. I didn’t know about Aweber. I was using Mailchimp plug-in, but in time since deactivated it until I have more reasons to interact with my subscribers. Great comparison.
superb information Andy! I love your post. very interesting.
It is Aweber 1…Mail Chimp Never! I used Mail Chimp to begin with and regretted every minute. I have never regretted AWeber. Plus, their customer service is fantastic…thanks for the great comparison
Martin,
Your Welcome! I completely agree with you there. Aweber has awesome customer service. The difference between paid and free.
Andy
I agree…
I think Aweber is the way to go. They have great user interface. Also many people seem to forget there GREAT customer service.
You can call them and talk to someone if you have an issue…super professional!
-Omar
It seems like Aweber wins just on customer service from the responses here.
Andy,
AWeber is the best in the biz as far as I’m concerned.
I made the switch from Mailchimp a little over a year ago and it’s the best thing that every happen to the email side of my business.
I will say this though, I 100% recommend MailChimp if you have no budget. Yes, AWeber charges $19 a month but it really pays for itself in the long run.
Dewane,
100% agree! Mailchimp is great when you have a very limited budget, but it should be one of the first business purchases you make.
Andy
@Amrik totally agree – it’s how I go around including links to partner companies – I write specific posts or pages and link to those instead.
Mail chimp also has an FB and Twitter integration where your new campaigns can be linked. I’m sure Aweber has the same.
@Omar I second their great customer service – mailchimp is definitely not tops in that.