Beehiiv vs Mailchimp 2024: Which is Better for Newsletters?

If you are looking to setup a newsletter and want to find out between Beehiiv vs Mailchimp which is a better fit, then you are in the right place.

In my opinion, Beehiiv is more easier to use; no complex learning curve and it comes with all the must-have newsletter publishing tools.

Let's be real.

For a successful newsletter publishing you need powerful tools and they include stuff like;

• A platform that allows you create and share content with your readers with ease
• Growth tools to grow your audience fast
• Monetization models you can use to make money with those newsletter subscribers and more.

This is why there are newsletter platforms such as Beehiiv and Mailchimp

Both Beehiiv and Mailchimp are two newsletter platforms that allow you manage your newsletter but the question remains;

• Which one should you use?
• Which is best for beginners?
• Which is cheaper and at the same time offers quality?

This is why I've decided to create this unbiased comparison article on Beehiiv and Mailchimp.

In this article I'm going to cover;

• What Beehiiv and Mailchimp are best for
• The features
• Pricing plans
• Pros and cons and more.

I'm also going to give a final verdict showing you which is the better platform for newsletters.

Without wasting time, let's quickly jump into the comparison.

If you don't have a lot of time on your hands, here is a quick summary to help you make decision ASAP!

Mailchimp vs Beehiiv Summary

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Mailchimp is originally known as an email service provider (compared to a newsletter) and it is best if you are into the business of eCommerce or you are looking to send promotional emails to your subscribers.

It comes with a generous free plan but it is very expensive when you start to add subscribers to access its premium services.

Also, it lacks growth tools a newsletter publisher/writer needs to grow.

In other words, Mailchimp is more of an email-marketing tool.

Beehiiv is focused heavily on Newsletters; It offers you powerful and advanced tools to setup a newsletter, grow it and also monetize it with different monetization models.

The most expensive plan from Beehiiv (Scale) is only $99 per month where you get full access to all features needed for a successful newsletter publishing.

It is very affordable.

Amazingly, you can try the Beehiiv Scale plan for absolutely free for 30 days and then decide.

Overall, Beehiiv is the best fit for Newsletters while Mailchimp is an email marketing platform.

If you are looking to publish newsletter, go for Beehiiv. If you are looking for an email marketing tool, go for Mailchimp.

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Now let's get into the deets of todays article.

Beehiiv vs Mailchimp [Unbiased Comparison]: Which is the Better Newsletter Platform?

First, we are going to take a look at an overview to see exactly what each platform is and what it offers.

Overview

Winner: Beehiiv (For newsletter needs)

What is Beehiiv?

Beehiiv is a trending newsletter platform that was launched in 2021 by “newsletter people” for newsletter people. It is owned by Tyler Denk and the platform gives you everything you need for a successful newsletter writing.

It comes with a suite of tools ranging from blogging, to growth, to monetization.

This means you can have a blog for your newsletter, with various tools you can use to grow your newsletter fast and powerful monetization models to make money with your newsletter.

This is done from one single dashboard.

In summary you can write content, get newsletter subscribers, email them regularly and also earn a living.

Here is the dashboard of Beehiiv that shows a glance of everything you should expect when you are in.

You can also check my Beehiiv review if you want to learn more about Beehiiv

What is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp is a highly popular all-in-one email marketing platform founded in 2001. It helps you manage and talk to your customers and clients. In deed, this is true as reported in our b2b email marketing statistics, about 65% of small businesses reach their customers via email.

Mailchimp comes with a lot of tools for marketing such as campaign manager, email builders, automations and more.

Here is how the Mailchimp dashboard looks like so you can get a feel.

Beehiiv vs Mailchimp: Features

Winner: Beehiiv

Let's take a look at the benefits and features that come with these tools.

Beehiiv Features

Since beehiiv is focused more on newsletters, it offers features that allow you build a successful newsletter. These features include the following;

• Website + Newsletter (To create an SEO friendly blog where you can share content + a newsletter feature to build your newsletter list)
• Publishing tools such as Email text editor, automations, AI writing assistant
• Growth tools to grow your newsletter such as Referral Programs, Popups, Subscribe forms, recommendations and more
• Monetization models to make money with your newsletter such as Ad Network, Premium Subscriptions and Boosts.
• Analytics tools for detailed reporting such as segmentation, polls, survey forms, and 3D analytics

These features from Beehiiv is everything you need to launch, grow and monetize your newsletter with ease.

Start Using Beehiiv 

Mailchimp Features

Since mailchimp isn't tailored to newsletters but email marketing, it provides features that allow for a successful email marketing business;

let's take a look at the features it offers.

• Marketing essentials for an effective marketing such as campaign manager, email builder, email marketing, landing pages and websites, etc.
• Content creation tools to create content such as templates, subject line helper, generative AI and more.
• Audience management tools for managing your audience such as segmentation, surveys to gather customer feedback, sign up forms and more.
• Customer automation tools to automate your campaigns, integrations, webhooks, etc.
• Analytics and reporting

These features from Mailchimp all help you build a powerful email marketing presence.

Explore Mailchimp

Mailchimp vs Beehiiv: Pricing

Winner: Beehiiv (More affordable pricing)

Both Beehiiv and Mailchimp are powerful tools but how much do they cost?

Let's see the pricing plans they offer and what is included.

Mailchimp Pricing

Mailchimp offers four pricing plans and they include:

• Free
• Essentials
• Standard
• Premium

The more the number of subscribers you have, the more you pay.

Let's expand on each of these plans and what comes with them;

Free Plan

Obviously you don't pay a dime for this plan and it gives you access to 500 subscribers and 1,000 monthly email sends. If you exceed the subscribers limit then you have to upgrade and sending will be paused.

Mailchimp free gives you access to the following:

• 1,000 monthly email sends
• 1 user seat
• 1 audience
• First 30 days email customer support
• Limited pre-built email templates
• 300+ integrations
• Limited reporting and analytics
• Forms and landing pages
• Limited creative assistant features

Essentials Plan

This is the first paid plan from Mailchimp and it starts at $6.50 per month (discounted for 1 year subscription). It is limited to 500 subscribers but you will pay more depending on the number of subscribers you want. For example, you will pay $13.25 per month if you need 1,500 subscribers.

It comes with the following things:

• 5000 monthly email sends (more sends depends on number of subscribers)
• 3 user seats
• 3 audiences
• 24/7 email and chat support
• Prebuilt email templates
• 300+ integrations
• Reporting and analytics is limited
• Landing pages and forms
• Creative assistant is limited
• 2 role based access
• Remove Mailchimp branding
• A/B testing
• Email scheduling
• Up to 4 automated customer journeys

Standard Plan

The standard plan from Mailchimp starts at $10 per month (discounted for 1 year subscription). It is also capped at 500 subscribers so you have to pay more if you need to use more subscribers.  You get 6,000 monthly email sends

Standard gives you access to everything and more in free and essentials plan plus new features such as the following;

• Personalized onboarding
• Custom coded templates
• Send time optimization
• Predictive and advanced segmentation
• Content optimizer
• Multivariate testing

Standard plan adds more of some personalization and optimization features.

Premium Plan

This is the most expensive plan from Mailchimp and pricing starts at $175 per month (discounted for 1 year subscription). Unlike standard and essentials, it is capped at 10,000 subscribers. If you want more subscribers, you have to pay.

You get 150,000 monthly email sends and majority of features are unlimited plus advanced tools for a successful email marketing business.

Explore Mailchimp 

Beehiiv Pricing

Beehiiv offers up to four pricing plans and they include:

• Launch
• Grow and
• Scale
• Enterprise

Let's expand on these pricing packages to see what they include.

Launch Plan

Beehiiv launch is also known as the free plan and it gives you access to 2,500 subscribers forever free plus access to the following things;

• Unlimited email sends
• Webhosting
• Custom newsletters
• Campaign analytics
• Recommendation network
• Optimized deliverability

Grow

Grow plan from Beehiiv costs $49 per month or $42/mo when you pay annually.

You will get everything in the free plan as well as the following things;

• Manage up to 10k subscribers
• Custom domains
• Premium subscriptions newsletter monetization model
• Ability to create segments
• Audience polls
• Survey forms to grow your audience
• Invite multiple team members
• Access to use the API
• Exclusive newsletter community

Scale Plan

This is the third plan from Beehiiv and it gives you full access to all the features and benefits. It costs $99 per month but you can pay $84/mo if you go for annual subscription instead of monthly.

You get access to everything in Grow plan plus the following things;

• Up to 100k newsletter subscribers
• Advanced web builder
• Advertising network to monetize your newsletter
• Referral program feature to grow your subscribers list
• Publish to segments
• Automations
• Boosts to grow your newsletter super fast or monetize it
• 3D analytics (for full glance into your newsletter performance)
• Beehiiv AI to create content with ease
• A/B testing
• Priority support

Enterprise Plan

This plan is available on request.

It gives you almost everything unlimited and it is best if you are a newsletter agency/powerhouse.

You get access to the following;

• Dedicated account manager
• Early feature access
• Dedicated IP address for sending
• More subscribers
• More publications
• 250 monthly AI credits
• Advanced security and more.

Also Read: Beehiiv Pricing 2024: Which Plan is the Best?

Try Beehiiv Today

Beehiiv vs Mailchimp: Inbox Deliverability 

Who wants to waste time sending emails that don't reach inbox. So how do these platforms perform in terms of delivering your emails to inbox?

Beehiiv Inbox Deliverability

It's hard to know the deliverability rate of a particular email sender unless you test it yourself. I've tried Beehiiv myself and it delivers mostly inbox.

Another major plus is the fact that Beehiiv was developed by “newsletter people”. This means they know pretty well what it means to get your newsletters delivered and are working hard to make sure the emails deliver.

Mailchimp Inbox Deliverability

Mailchimp performs well when it comes to delivering into the inbox but majority of the time I've noticed my emails go into promotions/spam.

From a lot of reddit users, they've reported good deliverability. So you won't really know unless you've tried it yourself.

According to recent study, Mailchimp reported 73+% deliverability rate.

Mailchimp vs Beehiiv: Pros and Cons

Are there drawbacks? Advantages and disadvantages against each other? Let's see in the pros and cons.

Beehiiv Pros:

• Heavily focused on Newsletters
• Straight forward pricing structure
• Affordable
• Generous 30 days premium free trial to test full features
• Ease of use and beginner friendly

Beehiiv Cons:

• No customer support in free plan
• There is room for improvement

Mailchimp Pros:

• Option for pay-as-you-go
• Full suite of email marketing tools
• Popular platform
• Free forever plan

Mailchimp Cons:

• Not the best fit for Newsletters
• Highly expensive and complex pricing structure
• Unnecessary Limits

Who’s our Winner? Beehiiv or Mailchimp?

You've seen the comparison.

So who's the winner?

It's not hard to choose the best fit for your newsletter needs from the comparison so far.

Indeed, Mailchimp is a great platform but it is tailored mainly to email marketing.

Beehiiv is a hard core newsletter platform that provides everything you need to launch your newsletter, grow it and make money.

The winner?

None other than: Beehiiv

Final Verdict

Both Beehiiv and Mailchimp are powerful platforms but they have different focuses.

If what you are looking for is to send emails to your customers on a regular basis, Mailchimp is a great fit. They offer you all the tools needed.

If what you are looking for is to publish newsletters and also share content with your readers using a platform like a blog all in one place, and also monetize the newsletter, your best bet is Beehiiv.

Beehiiv provides you with everything needed to setup your newsletter, grow and monetize it.

So does this Beehiiv vs Mailchimp comparison help you decide which platform is a better fit for your newsletters? Which one are you going to choose? Have any questions? Please let me know in the comments section.