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Which Platform is Right for You? GetResponse vs. Mailchimp vs. beehiiv
Sharing the Features, Benefits, and Pricing of Each
Tyler Mason
February 20th, 2024
Table of Contents
If you put a lion, an eagle, and a shark against each other in a competition, who would win? It depends.
Comparing email marketing services like GetResponse vs. Mailchimp vs. beehiiv is tough. Each platform has its strengths, and each has features used to solve specific problems.
When viewed side by side, which one is right for you?
In this article, I’ll share the features, pros and cons, and pricing of these three popular platforms.
I’ll also add a few customer reviews for each. By the end of this post, you’ll have all of the context you need to make an informed decision – so you can be confident your email marketing operation will thrive.
Here’s a quick recommendation:
Use Mailchimp if:
Your focus is on sending one-off emails, and promotional or e-commerce messages.
You value ease of use over robust features.
Use GetResponse if:
You want to do everything. You need bells and whistles to handle the most complicated projects.
You don’t need your handheld. You know what you’re doing, and customization is more important than step-by-step tutorials.
Use beehiiv if:
You’re a creator looking for an email marketing service that grows with you.
You want a platform particularly focused on helping you publish, grow, and monetize your email newsletter.
You want a truly free pricing tier to test features before you dive in.
Mailchimp Key Features
Mailchimp has been around since 2001 and has revised and improved as a platform for more than two decades. What we’re left with in 2023 is an easy-to-use email marketing platform with a growing number of time-tested features.
Email Designer With Plenty of Templates
Mailchimp comes with 100+ pre-built templates for almost any email. This makes it a great choice if you’re looking to send:
Promotional emails
E-commerce emails (order confirmations, cart abandonment, VIP discounts)
One-off emails (like a new product launch)
A major benefit to Mailchimp’s email designer is how easy it is to use. The drag-and-drop process allows you to customize templates without HTML, so you can focus on what you say – not how it looks. As someone who hasn’t done more than dipped my toes in coding (but writes a lot of emails), I love this feature.
Pre-built templates are an area where Mailchimp really excels. Though other email marketing platforms offer templates (GetResponse comes with ~150), they’re rarely as eye-catching or easy to implement as Mailchimp’s.
Here are a few popular templates you have access to after signing up:
Automation
With the amount of emails your audience gets every day, automation is more important than ever.
Targeting segments based on their behavior is the best way to ensure people only get emails that matter to them. This is especially the case when monetizing an email newsletter.
Mailchimp’s paid plans include the ability to create a customer journey map, like this:
Integrations
With more than 250 native integrations, Mailchimp does an outstanding job of keeping all your marketing tools in sync. When you visit the integrations page, here’s a few you’ll see right off the bat:
Intuit Quickbooks
Shopify
Salesforce
Typeform
Google Analytics
Canva
Vimeo
Adobe Photoshop
If your program isn’t on the list, Mailchimp works seamlessly with connector services like Zapier and Workato, too.
Multi-User Accounts
Mailchimp allows your team to easily work together creating emails, automations, landing pages, and ads. It includes 5 levels of user permissions to help you control what people can see and do in the account, so nobody steps on anyone’s toes.
You can also connect clients’ Mailchimp accounts with your own. So switching between a few projects doesn’t take more than a couple of clicks.
Geolocation
Targeting segments of your audience based on specific regions or timezones helps to reach people with products and promotions catered to them, at the right time.
The more a contact interacts with your email campaigns (by opening and clicking), the more confident Mailchimp is with their geolocation data. It’s a nice way to ensure you personalize email campaigns not just based on behavior, but by where (and when) contacts are most likely to read.
Ease of Use
Mailchimp’s help center is packed with videos and tutorials to help you quickly create an email marketing strategy or newsletter.
Customer Support
Mailchimp’s support is great – if you’re a paid user. Free accounts don’t get phone support, but can ask for help via email for 30 days. After that, paid users have unlimited access to email and live chat support.
If you prefer talking to someone on the phone, you’ll have to upgrade to Mailchimp’s Premium tier.
Mailchimp Pricing
Bottom line: Mailchimp’s pricing tiers are enticing for people just starting out, but they get quite expensive as your needs grow.
Mailchimp breaks up pricing tiers into four plans. Here are a few points to keep in mind when deciding:
Free: 1,000 monthly email sends for up to one user. No SMS messages allowed. Only support available is via email for the first 30 days.
Essentials: 5,000 monthly email sends for up to three users. SMS add-on available. Includes 24/7 email and live chat support (but no phone). Also includes automated customer journeys, pre-built templates, and a personalized onboarding session.
Standard: 6,000 monthly email sends for up to five users. SMS and MMS add-ons are available. Includes email and live chat support (still no phone), customer journeys, and templates. Also includes multivariate testing and advanced segmentation.
Premium: 150,000 monthly email sends for unlimited users, to an unlimited number of audiences. Includes 24/7 support through email, live chat, and phone. Your team also gets four personalized onboarding sessions to bring everyone up to speed.
Mailchimp’s pricing plan is fair. That being said, the free tier isn’t really worth it for creators just starting out.
Any ongoing support is locked behind the Essentials tier and above. The limited reporting and customization makes it hard to test the platform before committing.
Mailchimp Pros and Cons
Pros:
Mailchimp is easy to learn, and has enough features to grow with you.
Email themes are thoughtfully designed and don’t need a whole lot of customizing to look good.
Lower pricing tiers are a good value. The Essentials program comes with most of the tools you need to test before committing.
Extensive reporting and analytics with more details than most businesses need.
Cons:
Higher priced tiers can quickly become costly as your audience grows.
Free plan doesn’t provide much value (even being free) if you’re looking to grow a newsletter audience.
Mailchimp Reviews
I’ve researched email marketing platforms a lot (I won’t admit how many hours I’ve spent). A great way to see how people feel about Mailchimp vs. GetResponse is by reading reviews from people who use it regularly.
“I really like the key features like automation and email marketing, social media marketing, subscription forms, and more. It is more suitable for small businesses and it is the most affordable marketing automation tool available. Mailchimp does not provide many customization options.” - Hemanta Sahu, Ameex Technologies
“Mailchimp is very well suited for email campaigns and publishing newsletters. It is less appropriate for intimate conversations and eyes only business communication.” - Edward Willis, Graceline Community
“In my experience, we have had issues with different customer service representatives providing different answers and sometimes, incorrect answers. Additionally, the audience targeting with tags tends to add or not add the appropriate audience/members. This may not be well-suited for small businesses that do not have a dedicated person for communications.” - Erin Moore, Communications Director
Lack of customization is a common thread in Mailchimp’s user reviews. However, Mailchimp is ultra easy to use. And the extensive library of email themes is reason enough to explore it more fully.
Why Trust Me? I’ve been in the marketing industry for 5 years, and have been a newsletter nerd since they started gaining traction. I write emails and copy for the pet, home improvement, gaming, and SaaS industries. Did I mention I like newsletters?
GetResponse Key Features
GetResponse hasn’t been around for quite as long as Mailchimp, and its advanced features aren’t for everyone. That’s not exactly a bad thing, though. Complexity might turn new users away, but large businesses need a robust platform – and that’s exactly what GetResponse aims to provide.
Advanced Automation
With 40+ pre-built workflow templates, 19 trigger conditions, and 12 actions to target audience segments, GetResponse’s marketing automation is no joke. I will say, though, the user interface isn’t quite as seamless as Mailchimp’s.
GetResponse’s pre-built templates are pretty easy to use. And for certain businesses, the customizations offered make up for any lack of intuitiveness.
GetResponse’s automation also comes with powerful dynamic segment filtering. This is awesome for newsletters looking to target micro segments of a wider audience. Here’s how it works:
Choose a saved segment. You can select up to eight segments for dynamic filtering.
Browse criteria under the properties tab and decide which filters you want to use. This is where dynamic filtering really stands out. Selecting multiple properties to filter your audience allows for ultra-precise targeting.
That’s it. Rinse and repeat as needed.
Advanced CRM Integrations
While GetResponse doesn’t have quite as many native integrations as Mailchimp, what it does have works great. Integrating through GetResponse or Zapier allows seamless contact syncing and profile management.
Segmentation
Detailed segmentation is important for any newsletter, and especially so for those looking to grow in 2023. GetResponse plans come with advanced segmentation that includes 25+ conditions to filter your audience.
I’m particularly fond of the Advanced Search feature, which lets you choose from up to eight conditions and eight condition groups to narrow down search results. For example, you can search for a group of contacts based on:
Subscription date: The date contacts joined your list.
Subscription method: How contacts joined your list. You can narrow it down to people who subscribed via a landing page, opt-in form, or specific service.
Geolocation: To include or exclude contact based on their location.
Last click and last open date: To search for contacts based on the date of their most recent click or open. You can look for messages clicked/opened before a specific date, after a specific date, or within a range of dates.
Advanced Search also offers a slew of e-commerce related conditions (number of purchases, amount spent etc.) that can further narrow down your search. I can’t think of a situation where this search feature wouldn’t segment an audience enough.
Ease of Use
If I had to compare the two (which I do), GetResponse is easy to learn. Mailchimp is easiest. There are plenty of video and written tutorials available on GetResponse’s website. And dozens of blog articles that cover specific topics.
I jumped in quickly and had no issues grasping the basics of GetResponse. And the 50+ hours of free webinars are a great asset for new and experienced creators.
Customer Support
As is the case with Mailchimp, GetResponse offers excellent customer support – if you pay. Unlike Mailchimp though, free users of GetResponse don’t have access to support via email.
GetResponse makes up for their lack of free support with quick and detailed responses for paid users.
GetResponse Pricing
In general, GetResponse gives you what you pay for. The free tier isn’t really worth exploring (since features are extremely limited), yet when you start comparing higher tiers to Mailchimp, the price gap is noticeable.
Here’s a quick breakdown of some features you get with each tier:
Free: Access to newsletters with 2,500 monthly email sends. Can view pre-built templates. No support of any kind through email, live chat, or phone.
Email Marketing: Unlimited monthly email sends. Includes an AI email generator, A/B testing, and tracking through Google Analytics. Access to support via email and live chat.
Marketing Automation: Build from scratch automation workflows and drip campaigns. Contact tagging, event-based automation, and dynamic segmentation. Limited sends for push notifications. Same support as Email Marketing plan.
Ecommerce Marketing: Abandoned cart trigger, promo codes, and unlimited push notification sends. Can add up to 5 team members. Adds segmentation based on ecommerce conditions.
Max2: Up to 500 accounts and users. Includes SMS marketing with advanced automations. Support via email, live chat, phone, and a dedicated customer experience manager.
If you’re interested in seeing what GetResponse has to offer, I recommend trying the Email Marketing plan for a month. You’ll have access to most of the core features for just over $14.
GetResponse Pros and Cons
Pros:
Same or better value than Mailchimp’s similarly priced tiers.
Massive library of free resources for learning.
Extensive features including advanced segmentation and dynamic filtering.
Cons:
Free plan isn’t worth exploring unless you only want the most basic features.
No phone support unless you commit to the highest pricing plan.
User interface could be a bit more intuitive in some areas.
GetResponse Reviews
Though I’m doing my best to cover the features I feel are most important to consider when choosing a newsletter platform, reading user reviews is essential to get a well-rounded view. Here are a few for GetResponse (taken from SiteJabber):
“Not all autoresponders are definitely created equal. And GetResponse stands out exceptionally! It is very easy to use and even if you have problems, the live chat is right there at your service. The customer support and service is very polite and helpful as well.” - Robert O.
“I love the features of Get Response. The landing pages and forms are easy to use and implement. It is one of the only list managers that you can turn off the opt-in verification so you can migrate your list to GR without having to put people through another "click here" email to get them onto your list, which they have most likely already done once and could be very annoying to have to do again.” - Bob T.
“I was using constant contact as our email marketing solution for years but it was becoming too expensive. I tried out Getresponse and what I didn't like was the lack of customizable options compared to constant contact. If you need to really change the look of your email, then I do not think this is the best option.” - Kevin K.
Most reviews of GetResponse are positive. It’s a good choice for an email marketing service that can handle the complexities of large scale businesses. Is it right for you? That’s up to you and your goals.
beehiiv Key Features
Whether you’re just starting out or are looking to monetize a massive audience, beehiiv is a newsletter platform built for growth. So while beehiiv may not have the same amount of features catered to ecommerce or CRM as other platforms, what it focuses on it does exceptionally well.
SEO Optimization
Like any website, ranking your web posts on Google can be a challenge. beehiiv continues to release new features that handle a lot of the SEO legwork for you. A few best practices from beehiiv’s news section are:
Customize your slug (part of the post URL) with main keywords. So instead of users seeing a URL like myblogpost.com/blog/asdhgi3gaubasdnbpa, they’ll see myblogpost.com/blog/beehiiv-key-features. This is helpful for Google’s algorithm, too.
Create a custom page title for your post.
Write compelling meta descriptions. These won’t always appear in search results, but it’s a good idea to write something that enhances the title and makes readers click.
Register sitemaps and pay attention to the keywords that are helping your newsletter grow.
3D Analytics
Knowing how your email marketing stats stack up against the competition is an important part of growing a newsletter. We live in a world where:
More than 4.3 billion people read emails
Each $1 spent in sending emails generates ~$40 in sales
Email is nearly 40 times more effective in acquiring new customers than social media
As a standard, most email marketing platforms track open, bounce, spam, and unsubscribe rates. beehiiv takes analytics to another level by tracking metrics specifically designed for growth. When you open your beehiiv analytics dashboard, you’ll see things like:
Subscriber segmentation
Click-through rates
Referral rates
Active subscribers
Total impressions
To put it bluntly: If you’re serious about growing your newsletter, you can’t afford to let metrics slip. beehiiv streamlines the reporting and analytics process with an intuitive dashboard that houses a slew of advanced tools.
That’s not to say GetResponse and Mailchimp don’t have similar features. They do. Yet the advanced analytics you’ll see on beehiiv are designed specifically to help you scale.
Ad Network Program
Displaying ads is an ideal step towards monetizing your newsletter. But handling ad placement all on your own takes time. Just to start, you’ll have to:
Find advertisers
Negotiate a price
Write the ad copy and submit it for review
Report back to the advertisers with your results
Imagine doing that for EVERY ad slot on top of writing and managing your newsletter.
beehiiv’s Ad Network Program solves that issue by giving creators the ability to easily connect with top sponsors – and start earning revenue from ads. Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Apply for access to beehiiv’s ad network
Step 2: Review and accept suggested ads
Step 3: Get paid
I love this feature of beehiiv. As a creator myself, monetizing a newsletter has always felt a bit daunting. And learning to incorporate ads is just another job I’ve had on my to-do list. That’s not necessary with beehiiv’s Ad Network.
For an idea of how much you could potentially earn from using beehiiv’s ad network, beehiiv created an ad calculator.
Referral Program
Alright, this one’s extra cool. Let readers grow your newsletter audience for you. And instead of relying on your audience to spread the word out of the goodness of their hearts, beehiiv lets you reward them.
The Referral Program makes it easy for creators to offer incentives to readers who love (and share) their newsletter. Incentives like:
Discounts
Free products
Company merchandise
Like most features, customizing your own referral program on beehiiv’s platform is pretty straightforward. Here’s a video of Tyler Denk (beehiiv’s CEO) explaining how to set it up:
I said I loved beehiiv’s introduction of the Ad Network feature (and I do). But the referral program is a no-brainer, and it’s something I want to personally make use of in the coming months.
Impressive Customization Options
beehiiv gives creators the ability to customize almost every aspect of their newsletter. Drag-and-drop design templates are easy for anyone to implement, regardless of your technical expertise. And if you’re a bit more HTML savvy, you’ll have even more options available through the HTML/CSS editor.
Magic Links
In the marketing world, the less friction you cause an end-user, the more likely they are to follow through with a purchase (or sign-up). beehiiv’s introduction of magic links allows readers to quickly sign up for your newsletter – without having to fill out a form on your website.
Again, here’s a video showing how you can create your own:
And here’s what your reader will see after clicking a magic link:
beehiiv AI
Just this year, beehiiv rolled out its own suite of AI tools built for newsletter creators. It’s the first newsletter platform to jump on the AI editor bandwagon. There are a couple of noteworthy features here:
AI Writing Assistant to boost your writing efficiency. Allows you to specify the topic, length, and tone of voice to keep things flowing nicely.
AI Text Tools for easier editing. It can auto-complete sentences, fix spelling and grammar issues, and simplify your writing.
AI Image Tool for image generation. Included directly in the text editor for easy access.
AI Translator lets you translate your content into popular languages. Great for newsletters with a worldwide audience.
Simple Onboarding Process
Starting with GetResponse is easy. Mailchimp is easier. beehiiv combines the two with a massive library of videos and written tutorials (and if you want to go more in depth, an extensive course called NewsletterXP). In fact, most beehiiv user reviews I’ve come across have mentioned how easy the onboarding process was.
To save you a search, here are the links to beehiiv’s blog, academy, and YouTube channel:
beehiiv Blog: https://blog.beehiiv.com/
beehiiv Academy: https://academy.beehiiv.com/
beehiiv YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@beehiiv
If you need help after browsing beehiiv’s library, submit a ticket through your account and the support team will help however they can.
beehiiv Pricing
beehiiv’s pricing structure is simple. And where GetResponse and Mailchimp do have “free” tiers, beehiiv offers a free plan that’s actually worth exploring. You’ll get access to plenty of features perfect for new creators.
Here are a few more features included with beehiiv’s various plans:
Launch (free): For creators just getting started. Unlimited sending for up to 2,500 subscribers. SEO optimized web hosting. Audience segmentation, campaign & subscriber analytics, and real-time email verification.
Grow: For creators serious about growing their newsletter. Unlimited sending for up to 10,000 subscribers. Custom email and web domains. A/B subject line testing, unlimited audience segmentation, audience polls, and the ability to bring in team members.
Scale: For the world’s top newsletters. Unlimited sending for up to 100,000 subscribers. Access to an integrated referral program. Automated customer journeys, 3D analytics, full A/B test optimization, and an advanced web builder.
Bottom line: If you’re a new creator looking to build an audience, beehiiv’s totally free launch plan is the way to go. You’ll have access to all the features you need (and many more) to start growing your newsletter. As your audience grows, beehiiv grows with you.
beehiiv Pros and Cons
Pros:
beehiiv is the most capable platform to help you scale and monetize your newsletter.
The Referral and Ad Network programs make it easy to start earning money without the hassle of handling everything manually.
The free “Launch” tier is more extensive than any newsletter platform I’ve come across. Even if beehiiv isn’t right for you down the road, it’s without a doubt the best way to get started.
Constant growth means beehiiv listens to feedback, and continues to add new features to help creators thrive.
Cons:
Relatively new in the email marketing space, so beehiiv doesn’t have the same exposure as Mailchimp or GetResponse.
Focused on being the best platform to help you scale and monetize a newsletter. beehiiv isn’t designed specifically for ecom, so you may find a few features lacking if that’s your goal.
beehiiv Reviews
I rely heavily on user reviews when considering a new service. And when it comes to providing honest feedback (and praise), beehiiv’s user base says it best.
Here’s what I found with a quick search on Google:
“I'm co-founder & CEO, I had never written a newsletter before. I set up our first investor newsletter and was ready to go in around 50 minutes, almost the same time as writing it down on email without format/photos/logo. With beehiiv, our first newsletter definitely does not look like first-time founders.” - Nicolas
“I’ve been on beehiiv for under 24 hours and I’m already a raving fan. As a complete beginner, I was able to set it up in a day. And when I needed help, my support request was answered almost immediately.” - Valeria Rosito, The Friendly Artist
“I had an issue with verification. I submitted a ticket to their help desk and we were able to resolve the issue very quickly over email. No hassle, excellent service.” - Daniel Polehn
“I switched 4 newsletters of about 15k to 20k subs over to beehiiv. Our open rate went from 11% to 45%. The new editor was the key selling point. I love the Notion like feel, social media embeds, and engagement features like polls.” - Jon Kurtis, Digital Marketing Manager
“Super simple to use and extremely generous starter package. Would recommend to anyone wanting to deliver a clean looking newsletter.” - Fabi Lara, The Next Big Rush
“It’s been a month since I switched to beehiiv and it has been fantastic. I love the features in beehiiv. I’m still using the free version while I experiment to find what works and race to get to 2500 subs. Once I feel confident of the value I’m offering then I can switch up to grow faster.” - Letters by Elgwaro
From what I’ve gathered, the only real issue people have experienced with beehiiv has been the verification process. And even then – beehiiv’s users rave about how quickly customer service solved their issue.
Mailchimp vs. GetResponse vs. beehiiv: Which One Wins?
To wrap things up, I’ll leave you with a comparison chart for Mailchimp vs. GetResponse vs. beehiiv. Decide which features are most important to you, choose a pricing plan that fits your audience (or start with a free one), and pick the platform that best suits your needs.
Just a reminder: If you’re a new creator, the free plan at beehiiv is the way to go. Simply put, beehiiv is built for growth. So as you scale your audience, the grow, scale, and enterprise plans at beehiiv will continue to meet your needs.
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