GetResponse vs MailChimp: A Detailed Comparison Review

In this comparison, we look at the email marketing solutions, MailChimp and GetResponse, and see which comes out on top. While MailChimp seems to be the general fan favorite, with a good deal more users, I know a few very outspoken fans of GetReponse.

If you don’t know what an email marketing solution (also known as autoresponder) is, it’s basically a service that makes it easy for you to collect hundreds, or even thousands of email addresses, and then email these thousands of people. You can even automate whole email sequences to send automated daily/weekly courses or follow-up emails. They just make it easy to do market by email.

GetResponse vs MailChimp

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Pricing (winner: MailChimp)

Okay let’s start with the basics. What do each of the services cost?

Mailchimp has a free option with slightly reduced features where you can collect up to 2000 emails, more than enough space for someone who is starting out, but for someone with a large established audience or heavy traffic might find that they push through quite quickly.

This means that MailChimp is the best choice for those who want to either set everything up in advance, and not have to pay a monthly subscription fee, or those who simply want to run a weekly/monthly newsletter anyway, and have little interest in the extra features.

After that, you’ll have to pay.

Pricing Winner: MailChimp

The fact that GetResponse is $5 cheaper per month in the lower email counts is not what is likely to be the biggest saver here. Instead, it’s more likely that for most people, the money you will save during the time where you have less than 2000 subscribers (or not too much use for the full features either) will probably end up making MailChimp the more economical choice.

However, if you’re a serious marketer/ business owner and you need the advanced features to make complex marketing and sales campaigns, and you have great faith in the future success, you can take advantage of GetResponse’s 18% discount for annual billing.

User Interface (winner: Draw)

To give you a sense of what the two solutions are like, I’m going to give you a visual and usability comparison of two important aspects; email design and form/landing page design.

First off, let’s take a look at GetResponse’s mail builder:

You start off by choosing a few different options, subject lines, ids and if you’d prefer to run an A/B test or not.

After that, you’re brought to choose from a multitude of templates, or start from scratch. These templates make it quick and easy for you to make enticing HTML emails for your audience.

After you pick a template, you’re brought to the visual email drag and drop builder. The builder itself is very intuitive, and I like that it automatically shows you how the email will look on a standard mobile screen. My only complaint, is that when I wanted to edit the style of a single line of text, it kept unselecting itself making me edit the style of nothing or all of the text. But this could be a problem unique to me and my computer.

I decided to do a news style feature on a fake story that a King Kong statue fell over in some town in China. Finding an appropriate template was easy.

I then went back and chose to use the builder from scratch as it was very easy to use. I could have easily improved on this result by spending a few more minutes tweaking the styles of text and perhaps adding a few more blocks.

If you chose to A/B test, you have quite a few different options, and it’s incredibly simple to set up. This was probably the area of GetResponse that stood out to me the most.

After you’ve finished setting up the A/B test of your choice (or none), you’re brought to choose the recipients of the email.

After that, you simply take a look at a summary of your email, along with the email’s spam score, and can then choose to send it to

Let’s compare it to MailChimp’s email builder:

With MailChimp, you start off by choosing the recipients. You can choose entire lists, segment a list based on things like where they signed up from, or you can manually segment a list by pasting emails. (You could use this function to select send an email only to confirmed customers for example.)

Then you type up a little information, like the subject line, your from name and email address, and choose from a multitude of tracking options.

After that, you’re brought to choose from different templates and themes. The themes are neatly arranged in useful categories that makes it easy to pick one that’s right for the purpose of a particular email.

Now that we’ve finally arrived, we can see that the interface is not that different, although there’s less hover options, you find pretty much the same options (along with image editing software) on the right hand side once you’ve selected an element to edit.

As far as user friendliness goes, there’s no clear winner here. They will feel more or less intuitive depending on what kind of interfaces you’re used to already.

Form/Landing Page Builders

The second part of the user interfaces we’re going to take a closer look at, is the form and landing page builders. Starting with…

GetResponse

The GetResponse form creator has a few underwhelming templates, and a less than stellar user interface, quite standard WYSIWIG editor that doesn’t seem to help you get good-looking results.

Where GetResponse stands out, in a very positive way, is it’s fully functional landing page builder. There are some very sleek templates, and it’s a lot easier to improve on something that already looks good and tweek it a little t fit your purposes, than try to make something completely from scratch.

MailChimp

While the user interface of the MailChimp basic form builder might look a little better, there’s no outstanding templates and nothing that really helps you create something good looking. Again it’s just a very basic WYSIWIG editor.

The upside for MailChimp users is that they have a popup form option, that makes it easy to make a simple offer, also offering the option to add a few seconds delay before it shows up for visitors.

The lack of focus on the web-forms from both solutions, may simply be a response to the abundance of plugins that are used across multiple CMS (although perhaps WordPress in particular), as well as sleek innate styling for forms and buttons in many themes.

User Interface Winner: Draw

Both user interfaces are clean and easy to use, the difference in interface design are small and will only make one more appealing than the other if you come into it with a particular preference.

Features (winner: GetResponse)

Both MailChimp and GetResponse offer a multitude of features that cover everything you’d expect from an email marketing solution.

• Email builders to quickly create well-designed emails.
• Extensive automation options. (For example, sending emails to people automatically if they don’t open the emails you send for a long time. Or sending special deals to 1 year members, or automatically moving people who purchased something to a list of confirmed customers.)
• A/B Testing (GetResponse offers the more extensive A/B testing options with 5 different testable areas).
• Segmentation of lists
• Support for multiple lists
• Detailed reports and stats on how campaigns go
• Only GetResponse sports a complete landing page builder.

Features Winner: GetResponse

The table says it all. While MailChimp certainly offers more than enough features for a regular user, if you’re a seasoned marketer or business owner and want the option for sophisticated a/b tests, GetResponse is the obvious choice.

Conclusion

Summary:

Just as the category summary shows, there’s no clear winner in this contest. If MailChimp’s free plan was full featured indefinitely until you reached 2000 emails, I would wholeheartedly recommend MailChimp as the undeniable best choice here, although I understand it’s a little too much to ask for for free.

But since it’s not (which again, I do understand MailChimp), it seems like it is with email marketing service providers, as with most other things in life; there’s no clear, universal better choice for everyone. Some people will prefer MailChimp, while other will undoubtedly like GetResponse more.

GetResponse and Mailchimp Alternatives

There are many other email marketing solutions out there. Prices, features and the overall feel of the service can have an impact on whether you feel it’s right for you and your business. Although GetResponse and Mailchimp are excellent choices, we’ve listed a few alternatives for you to consider.

1. Sendinblue

Sendinblue is a good service that’s easy to use, but it prices its service differently to its competitors. With Sendinblue, you can have an unlimited number of subscribers, even on its free plan. Instead, its pricing is based on a monthly email limit and features.

Its free version limits you to 300 emails per day and only includes certain features. For extra features, such as A/B testing, you’ll need to upgrade to the paid plan. There are 4 paid plans to choose from. Its Lite plan is the same as the free version, but you can send up to 40,000 emails per month. That’ll cost you $25 per month, but for an extra $10 per month, you can have the Essential plan, which comes with A/B testing and a 60,000 monthly email limit.

The Premium plan is next, but comes in 2 flavors; $66 per month for 120,000 emails or $173 per month for 350,000 emails. You can also create a landing page with the Premium plan. Its last plan, Enterprise, is reserved for those that need a more advanced and customized plan, and Sendinblue will give you a quote.

Another option with Sendinblue is purchasing email credits outside of your normal plan. So, if you’re on the Essential plan but your email schedule exceeds the 60,000 limit, you can purchase more. The minimum is 5,000 and costs $40, but you can go all the way up to 1 million for $1,995. Plus, they don’t expire.

Other features include pre-made templates, being able to create dynamic email lists for targeting groups, SMS marketing, a drag and drop editor, signup forms, and retargeting tools. Plus, you can send emails like a newsletter or schedule emails with the automated system, and you can track results in real-time.

2. Constant Contact

Another decent email marketing service is Constant Contact. It is loaded with tools and is easy to use, but it’s quite pricey when compared to other services. It has 2 plans; Email starting at $20 per month and Email Plus starting at $45 per month.

Both let you send an unlimited number of emails per month, however, its lowest prices only cover up to 500 subscribers. For a more worthy number of 2,500 subscribers, you’ll need to spend at least $45 per month. Its basic plan goes all the way up to 10,000 subscribers, but if you want more, you’ll have no choice but to upgrade to Email Plus. Its top plan for Email Plus includes 50,000 subscribers for a whopping $335 per month.

It comes with a lot of features, though, such as customizable templates, pop up forms, A/B testing, surveys, and landing pages. Plus, it comes with tracking and reporting.

Although Constant Contact is expensive, it provides a decent service that is used by many. Plus, you can use its free trial to take it for a spin, and there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee for peace of mind.

3. Drip

Drip is a top contender in the email marketing world, but it’s not your typical service. Drip can integrate with many third-party tools, plugins, and eCommerce platforms. It can also collect information from all of those integrations, giving you a ton of powerful information. You can then use that information for retargeting, and earn more revenue.

Its cost depends on how many subscribers you have. For up to 2,500, you’ll pay $49 per month, which doesn’t seem too bad. However, for 50,000 subscribers, it costs $680 per month, which is way more expensive than our other suggestions. That said, depending on your type of business, Drip can provide you with some valuable insights that could turn your business into a high earner. Here, it’s more about value than cost.

Features include opt-in forms, split testing, a visual email builder, forms, as well as its insights and analytics. If you want to try Drip and see what it can do for you, you can use its 14-day trial, or set up a walk-through demo.

So Which Email Marketing Solution is Best?

MailChimp seems to be the best option for beginners. Sporting the unlimited free option with reduced features makes it ideal for someone wanting to create a simple newsletter, or a blogger that just wants a way to build a steady audience that comes back every week.

GetResponse on the other hand, sports the most features, the best split testing options, and even the possibility of adding on a state-of-the-art landing page builder (for 15$ a month) which makes it the ideal choice for a business owner or marketer with serious email marketing plans and needs.

But in the end it doesn’t matter what I think(at least not that much). The only person who can decide which option is better for you, is yourself. So the last step is, go the distance and actually test the two different services, or give the one you feel should be the better option for you a go.

GetResponse’s 30 day free trial offers full features, and doesn’t require credit card information to start.

And MailChimp’s unlimited free trial doesn’t require credit card information either.

Have you used either of these services before? Both? What have been your experience?