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When it comes to reaching your subscribers and re-engaging them, your newsletter is key. So which of the Big Four companies is right for your needs? Constant Contact, MailChimp, Mad Mimi, or Get Response?
Free Accounts
- Constant Contact: Your free trial gives you 60 days to send to list of up to 10 contacts.
- MailChimp: If you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers, you can send up to 12,000 emails per month absolutely free.
- Mad Mimi: Lets you store 2,500 contacts and send 12,500 emails per month.
- Get Response: Within the 30-Day Free Trial you may host up to 250 Subscribers in your mailing list.
Prices
- Constant Contact: $30/mo for 2,500 contacts
- MailChimp: $30/mo for 2,500 contacts
- Mad Mimi: $16/mo for 2,500 contacts (with unlimited emails)
- Get Response: $20.50/mo for 2,5000 contacts
Features
- Constant Contact: Customizable templates, image editing, contact management, social integration, & analytics.
- MailChimp: Customizable templates, list segmentation, widespread service integration, & analytics.
- Mad Mimi: Customizable templates, widespread service integration, & analytics.
- Get Response: Customizable templates, A/B testing, form builder, inbox preview, & analytics.
So far so good?
Just looking at the basics, I’d begin by choosing either MailChimp or Mad Mimi – they both let me start with my small list and begin a paid plan as my needs expand, meaning I can get comfortable with the service without feeling like I’m actively trying to trial it before it ends. So let’s look into those further.
Templates
- MailChimp: Hundreds of templates to choose from. While some are too niche for a normal newsletter, there are plenty of others that can be branded to your site.
- Mad Mimi: No templates in the traditional sense. Instead there are pre-made color schemes to choose from and an easy template builder to use.
Ease of Use
- MailChimp: Better for the advanced user, MailChimp can be a little difficult to navigate, and some of the features aren’t explained in such a way that you understand exactly how useful they are!
- Mad Mimi: Quite easy to use, from setting up a campaign to taking advantage of their ‘addons’ which are powerful features made simple.
Other Considerations
- MailChimp has list segmentation, and A/B testing.
- Mad Mimi has a not-so-pretty web form for sign-ups.
The Verdict
That’s up to you, of course. How powerful do you need your email marketing to be? What do you want it to accomplish? What should your template look like?
I think for a lot of basic newsletters, with less technically inclined owners, Mad Mimi is the easier service to navigate, and won’t have you pulling your hair out. They’ve simplified a lot, and if you’re OK with a basic template as well as sign-up forms, you’ll probably find the fancier features easier to delve in to.
Honestly, I am a techie person, and I think Mad Mimi is probably my best fit. Even as someone whose first email marketing was with MailChimp.
Thoughts from the audience?
If you’re using MailChimp or Mad Mimi, why did you choose them as your service? And if you’ve used both – what are your opinions?
Good overview of a complicated and vendor-rich (many!) field. MailChimp started as a very “hip” alternative to Constant Contact but got corporate super-fast and so now, it’s way too muscle bound for all but the savviest users or those with ridiculously easy “campaigns” to launch. Their customer service is just about 100% “give us a day or 2,” and given the glitches and (sometimes pointless) complexity of the product, that’s just plain inadequate. Mad Mimi has some formidable competitors out there (not mentioned here), but MailChimp has long ceased to be one of them.
Thanks for posting this comparison Lauren.
You can actually self-host an email list but it is a bit of a pain. It’s ideal for non-profits with tight budgets though.
Hello Lauren,
I was wondering if you can help me to include the genesis enews extended in every post.
By the way I really like your social sharing icons, do you use a specific pluggin for it? Can you tell me the one you use?
Thank you so much for your help.
Best Regards,
Pablo
Hey Pablo,
To include the enews widget at the end of every post, I installed a custom widget area. You can read about this and see an example at my previous article here: http://www.oncecoupled.com/2014/01/24/adding-custom-widget-areas/.
My sharing icons are set up and styled manually using a service called Po.st – I’ll share my code on this today or tomorrow, just check back. 🙂
Let me know if I can help you out any more!
Thank you Google for leading me here!
Great comparison and exactly what I needed. I am a current user of Constant Contact which my company pays for BUT for my non-profit clients it seems that Mad Mimi is perfect. I have been trying to decide between MM and Mail Chimp – you just helped me finalize the decision! Glad I found your site!
First off, let me say I love your site and your posts! I am in the process of switching my wife’s site over from WordPress.com to .org and your posts have helped a lot. Especially the one about the social icons. Need to get Bloglovin’ in there! My question for you is, have you tried MailPoet yet? I had Mailchimp at first, but I think I’m going to make the switch. It’s pretty clean and seems integrated, very, very well with WordPress. Do yo uhave any thoughts on it?
Keep up the awesome work! Your site has inspired me to try and sell myself and services up here in Minneapolis.
I’m glad to hear all the good news Nate! I haven’t tried MailPoet myself, I’m using MailChimp right now because of the many integrations it supports. Not to mention I’m on a pretty low quality hosting plan, so I try to take the load off my server whenever possible. Will you write back to me later and let me know how it’s working for you? I’d love to hear more about it – I can already think of one client who may need exactly this!
I think Mad mimi will be better but Mail-chimp already gained Reputation..
Why you don’t want to use GetResponse? In my opinuon is the best email marketing stuff.