ThemeGrill AuthorIf you own a blog or a website of any kind, marketing is one element that you might have come across every now and then. And among others, email marketing is the one topic that has a lot of users questioning and confused. So what is the answer to all of the dilemma? You might have heard of the newsletter and email marketing, but in this article, we have made sure all of your questions are answered as we dwell on the topic of MailChimp vs Aweber!
When it comes to email marketing, there are a lot of questions among the users. Where do you start and what works best? To answer the age-old question, today in our article we compare two most popular and useful email marketing solutions for WordPress, MailChimp, and Aweber. Here we have the full comparison of both MailChimp and Aweber with all of their functionalities as well as their pricing and everything they have provided as a solution to email marketing.
Why Integrate email Marketing Provider for your Website?
Before we get on to the comparisons, here we have highlighted some of the main reasons that you might want to integrate and use email marketing provider. Although the aim for us is not to convince you to get one for your site, we would surely recommend that you do.
- Email marketing keeps your users updated and well informed.
- It is an important tool to build trust and loyalty among your users.
- Email marketing can be an important tool to build prospects, leads, the current customer as well as past customers.
- It is a way that is convenient for your users as well as yourself as you will be able to communicate with them directly through their inbox.
- You can also use it to deliver the contents of your website directly to the desired audience group.
Comparison: Mailchimp vs Aweber
Looking for the answers but short on time? If you just want a brief comparison, take a look at this table where we have made a comparison of all the basic functionalities.
| Features | Aweber | MailChimp |
| Pricing | $19-$149/mo | $9.99-$299/mo |
| Active Users | Over 120,000 users | Over 7 Million users |
| Setup Fee | None | None |
| Email Design | Premade Templates | Easily Customizable |
| Affiliate Links | Easy to add any affiliate links | Large number of blacklisted links |
| Visit Site | Visit Aweber | Visit MailChimp |
Introduction
Now that you have the basic idea of how these two marketing tools work, let’s get into the detailed and informative introduction and description of them. Since we have already outlined of how email marketing works and how it will be beneficial for you, let’s get right into the details.
Aweber
Developed and launched in 1998, Aweber has been in the constant run for email marketing until now. It is a complete marketing program that takes care of all your online marketing needs. With over 115,000 customers who are the proof of their claim that getting your email to your consumers is their top priority, Aweber is pretty much one of the best marketing solutions for your website!
MailChimp
MailChimp was founded in 2001 and has since been one of the best marketing automating platform as well as an email marketing solution for internet users. It started out as a paid service and later on, it added a freemium option in the year 2009. Because of the awesome platform, it has given the users, MailChimp was also enlisted on the Forbes Cloud 100 in the rank 7th.
Pricing
Now let us talk about the first and foremost important element when it comes to both the service providers, their pricing. So how much investment is required in order to use these two email marketing services in order for them to solve all of your internet marketing dilemmas? Here is a brief overview of what plans that each of them has in line for us!
Aweber Pricing
When it comes to the pricing and plans that Aweber has offered their users, you can say that you have a lot of choices depending on the number of subscribers. The plans are flexible enough to suit the smallest to largest of businesses and corporations.
The lowest rate is $19 per month and is for those who have around 500 subscribers. The highest rates go out to the larger corporations for $149 per month having 10-25 thousand subscribers. But ultimately the choice is yours while choosing which plans works the best for you. Each plan comes with the features like- Unlimited emails, sign-up forms, image hosting, 700+ templates to choose from and customer solutions.
MailChimp Pricing
Talking about MailChimp’s pricing plans for their users, the choice is limited. But it certainly does not mean that it won’t fit your need. MailChimp has three pricing offers ranging from small businesses to bigger corporations. If you are a beginner and simply want one that serves the purpose without any investment, then you can opt for the free plan. But the features are limited compared to other plans.
For the some features beyond the basic ones along with added support then the Essentials Plan might suit you. If you have decided to invest in better marketing experience, then you can either choose from the Standard plan or the Premium Plan. Based on the subscribers you have and the size of your business, you can either pay $9.99/month or $299/month.
So which one is the better choice when it comes to the pricing and plans? Well if you are looking for choices to choose from for your exact business types then Aweber surely has that in line. But with more active users using the email marketing from MailChimp, the plans they have certainly seem worth the investment.
Email Tracking: MailChimp vs Aweber
Now let’s get into the main functionalities of these two marketing solutions. Who has the better email tracking system? One of the basic and most important feature, here is a brief overview of how each of them works.
Talking about Aweber, you have the flexibility to check who has opened your email and which links they have clicked on as well as the exact time they did so. It also does a great job when it comes to tracking clicks on the email. If you use a link in an email with the tracking enabled, it will display the link using the exact URL from your domain. It also provides conversion tracking, which means that if you sell products then you will also be able to track how each user transverse throughout your website using the email campaign.
Now let’s talk about MailChimp and their email tracking feature. MailChimp used to put stars next to each of the subscribers which were how they provided the vague measurement of the interest of your users. But now they have upgraded the functionality of letting you know who has opened your email and when? Another drawback about MailChimp is that it uses the super long and obscure link which then finally redirects the readers to the site.
So, here is our conclusion for who has a better email tracking system. When it comes to email tracking, Aweber definitely takes the MailChimp probably has more setbacks making it less powerful.
Auto Responders: MailChimp vs Aweber
Autoresponders are basically a program that automatically answers or replies to the email sent to it. So talking about Aweber and MailChimp, who has the better auto-responders and how do each of them work? Both of the providers allow you to create simple “Time Bases” autoresponders; so where do they differ?
Talking about Aweber, it has a system that tags each and every one of your subscribers with a message number that shows which follow-up messages is already sent to them. To prevent the repetitions on the message to be sent, you must set the message number of your subscriber to be higher than the email sequence number. That is a tedious task sometimes compared to what MailChimp provides.
Getting into MailChimp, you can set up autoresponders that send emails to your subscribers depending on when the users subscribed to your newsletter. This simplifies the whole process of replying to your users. But you have the option to integrate with other web services like Salesforce, to save databases and simply use MailChimp to send emails.
Comparing each one side-by-side, we have concluded that if you want an accurate data about who received your emails, preventing repetition, and managing follow-ups then Aweber is the way to go. But if you are looking for a simpler and easier and less time-consuming way to do it, then MailChimp has obviously taken the cake on that one!
Support
So what if you come across any problems after investing in their marketing plans? Don’t worry because both these sites come with excellent customer support which will not only help you get rid of the problem but will also clear any confusions if you have any. But the question is, which one has better support. To answer the question, let’s get into the detail.
Aweber
With Aweber, you get their super friendly and willing-to-help Customer Support whether you want it through phone calls or via emails during the normal office hours. This means that if you have a query, you can contact the support immediately and solve your dilemma.
MailChimp
Here Aweber clearly takes the win, because, with MailChimp, you only get customer support via email. This means that if you have a query that needs immediate attention, you might have to wait few hours or days until they finally get to you.
Talking about the Support System, the drawback of MailChimp and their support clearly puts Aweber in the spotlight when it comes to the Support they offer their users.
Templates and Form Design: MailChimp vs Aweber
Now let’s dwell on designing and the templates made available to the users in terms of both Aweber and MailChimp. Who has better designing tools and how easy is it to create one or both?
With Aweber, you have the option to choose from their pre-designed form templates. You also get to have as many forms as you want per subscriber list and you can even track the performances of each one after you use it! However, if you are not a professional, and you want to change certain aspects of the form, although not entirely impossible, it might take a while.
But with MailChimp, the interface is much more flexible as it provides the option to either build a form from scratch or use their GUI to design a great looking form. They even provide you pre-built templates but if you wish, they provide you with the raw codes and you have the full freedom to design it as you wish.
Concluding, if you wish to build a form entirely from scratch, MailChimp is probably the right choice for you. But since both these platforms provide templates to choose from if you don’t want to design one yourself, it is up to you to decide which one to go for!
Conclusion: Which Email Marketing Service is Better?
Getting into the details and each and every element of Aweber and MailChimp, both of them are one of the leading and most used marketing tool when it comes to email and newsletter marketing. Judging and concluding, both of these two have a fair share of drawbacks and a fair share of advantages.
While Aweber has better support and variation of pricing and plans for the flexibility of users and companies, MailChimp wins the battle of better form designing and higher user rate. So the decision is up to you? What are you looking for and what are your needs? We have outlined all the pros and cons of both the marketing tools so that it is easier for you to now make your decision.
We hope this article was worth the read so do let us down in the comment section what do you think of it. Was it helpful? And what did we miss out on? If this was useful to you, why not check out some of our other articles of us comparing other WordPress products!
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