TL;DR: Omnisend wins if you sell things online. It costs less at almost every contact tier, the Shopify integration is tighter, and SMS isn’t a fiddly add-on. Mailchimp still has a case for newsletters, charities and general-purpose marketing where ecommerce features would be wasted. For a Shopify store under 25,000 contacts, pick Omnisend. For non-ecommerce or anyone wedded to a familiar interface, Mailchimp will do the job.
How we compared these two
Both tools send email to a list of customers. That is where the similarity stops, and the gap between them opens up fastest around price, ecommerce depth and how each one handles SMS.
So those are the areas we weighed most heavily, alongside integrations, automation and what current users report. Figures come from each platform’s live pricing pages, checked at the time of writing, since both move their rates more often than you would expect. Verdicts lean on verified reviews from Capterra and G2. Where Mailchimp is the better tool, we say so.
Choose Omnisend if
You run a Shopify, WooCommerce or BigCommerce store. You care about abandoned cart and post-purchase flows that drive real revenue. You want email and SMS in the same tool without a credit-pack faff. Your contact list is going to grow into the thousands and you’d rather pay less for an ecommerce-first product than pay more for a recognisable brand.
Choose Mailchimp if
You’re not running an ecommerce store. You send a newsletter, run a charity or manage member updates where the product isn’t tied to a checkout. You already know Mailchimp’s interface and the switching cost isn’t worth it. You want familiar UI and a broader app ecosystem, and the ecommerce features Omnisend ships with would mostly go unused.
What each platform is
Omnisend is the ecommerce specialist. Founded in 2014, it now serves over 150,000 brands. It’s an email, SMS and web push platform built specifically for online stores. The whole product is shaped around ecommerce. Pre-built revenue flows, product picker blocks that pull from your catalogue, and behaviour-based triggers all ship ready to use. The Shopify integration is tight enough to feel native.
Mailchimp is the generalist that became the default. It launched in 2001 and Intuit acquired it in 2021 for around $12 billion. Today it covers email, landing pages and basic SMS for small businesses across every industry. The plus side is breadth and brand recognition. The trade-off is that ecommerce isn’t the core focus. Workflows that ship out of the box on Omnisend require more setup on Mailchimp.
If you’ve ever searched “what is Omnisend,” that’s the short answer. An ecommerce-first marketing platform that bundles the tools other stores cobble together from three or four vendors.
Pricing: where the gap is widest (Omnisend wins)
Both platforms charge by contact count. Both offer a free plan. Both have headlines that hide the real cost.
| Contacts | Mailchimp Standard | Mailchimp Essentials | Omnisend Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 250, 500 emails | 250, 500 emails | 250 contacts, 500 emails |
| 500 | ~$20/mo | ~$13/mo | ~$16/mo |
| 1,000 | ~$30/mo | ~$22/mo | ~$25/mo |
| 5,000 | ~$100/mo | ~$75/mo | ~$65/mo |
| 10,000 | ~$135/mo | ~$110/mo | ~$132/mo |
(Live prices change. Always check the merchant live pricing pages before signing up.)
A few things the table can’t tell you.
Mailchimp’s free plan shrank in 2026. In January, Mailchimp dropped the free plan from 500 contacts to 250 and from 1,000 monthly sends to 500. That brought it level with Omnisend’s free plan. It was a step backwards for anyone on a legacy account.
Mailchimp Essentials looks cheap, but locks out automation. Multi-step automation and behavioural targeting sit on Standard ($20/mo) and Premium ($350/mo). Essentials is the wrong comparison for most ecommerce stores. Standard is.
Omnisend’s Standard plan includes nearly every feature. Advanced automation and segmentation are available on every paid tier. Most of those features are also on Free. Mailchimp gates more behind upgrades.
The Premium cliff hurts Mailchimp. Once a store crosses into Premium, the bill jumps to $350 a month and stays there up to 10,000 contacts. Omnisend’s Pro plan starts at $59 a month and scales smoothly with list size. There’s no equivalent cliff.
Worked example. A small Shopify store with 5,000 contacts running an abandoned cart flow, a post-purchase series and weekly campaigns will pay about $65 a month on Omnisend Standard. The same setup on Mailchimp Standard runs around $100. Over a year, that’s roughly $420 in the customer’s pocket before the 10% recurring Rewardio cashback comes off the top.
Across the contact ranges where ecommerce stores actually live, Mailchimp is more expensive than Omnisend.
Ecommerce focus and integrations (Omnisend wins)
Both connect to Shopify. The difference is depth.
Omnisend integrates natively with Shopify and WooCommerce, plus BigCommerce and several other major store platforms. Its App Market lists more than 200 third-party apps across loyalty, reviews and shipping. Install Omnisend on Shopify and it begins syncing products, orders and customer events in minutes. Pre-built abandoned cart and post-purchase flows fire automatically. The Shopify integration is built for stores from day one.
Mailchimp has broader general-business reach with 300+ integrations across PayPal, Slack and Salesforce. It’s a stronger fit for a non-ecommerce business plugging marketing into a wider stack. The Shopify story is more mixed. Mailchimp had a public falling-out with Shopify in 2019. A current integration exists, but the depth doesn’t match a tool built for Shopify from day one.
If you’re asking which type of company Omnisend is best for, the answer is consistent. Small to mid-sized ecommerce brands selling physical or digital products, especially on Shopify and WooCommerce. If you don’t run a store, much of what you pay for is wasted.
SMS, push and omnichannel reach (Omnisend wins)
SMS is the cleanest cost-of-ownership gap between these two.
Omnisend keeps SMS inside the platform. On the Pro plan, you add SMS with volume-based pricing starting at $0.007 per message to US and Canadian recipients. Discounted rates kick in at higher monthly spend. Coverage stretches across more than 200 countries through the same dashboard. Web push notifications come bundled on every paid tier.
Mailchimp treats SMS as a credit-based add-on. You have to apply for it, get approved, then buy credits in monthly blocks. Credits expire each month and don’t roll over. Country coverage is limited to the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Push notifications aren’t a native channel.
For any store thinking seriously about email plus SMS, Omnisend is easier to budget for and easier to send from.
Automation, templates and the rest (mixed)
Mailchimp isn’t a write-off. It still does several things better.
Where Mailchimp wins. Brand recognition is genuinely useful when you’re hiring a freelancer who already knows the tool. The template library is bigger and slightly more polished for non-ecommerce campaigns. The Free plan, despite the 2026 cuts, is still a fine place to start a small newsletter. Mailchimp also offers a 15% discount for verified charities and nonprofits, which Omnisend doesn’t match.
Where Omnisend wins. The pre-built ecommerce automation library is the strongest in this price range. Workflows for abandoned cart, browse abandonment and post-purchase ship ready to switch on. The product blocks pull directly from your store. AI personalisation on Pro adds dynamic content and product recommendations. The AI-powered help widget is genuinely useful for nuanced support questions.
Mailchimp’s email editor still has known friction points around image and text controls. The Capterra base flags formatting glitches, deliverability complaints and Premium-only features as the recurring criticism.
What real users say
The review sites split fairly cleanly along audience lines.
Omnisend holds 4.7 out of 5 across 836 Capterra reviews, with 98% of reviewers rating it above 4 stars. On G2 it sits at 4.6 across roughly 1,190 reviews. Recurring praise points to fast support and value for money. Weaknesses cluster around template flexibility and analytics depth.
Mailchimp holds 4.5 out of 5 across more than 17,600 Capterra reviews, and 4.3 on G2 across more than 12,800 reviews. The criticism clusters on price increases under Intuit, billing for non-subscribers and slow support on lower tiers. Phone support sits behind the Premium plan.
A higher absolute review count doesn’t mean a better product. It usually just means an older brand. Read what people are unhappy about, not the average.
Pros and cons at a glance
Omnisend
Best for: small and mid-sized ecommerce stores that want ecommerce-first marketing without enterprise pricing.
What it does well
- Email, SMS and web push in one tool, with deep Shopify and WooCommerce integrations.
- Nearly every feature available on every paid tier, with most on Free too.
- 27 pre-built ecommerce automations fire revenue flows out of the box.
- Volume-based SMS pricing from $0.007 per message on Pro.
Where it falls short
- Billable contacts include non-subscribers, so a bloated list raises your bill.
- Advanced reporting and AI personalisation are Pro-only.
- Template customisation is less flexible than several competitors.
- Not the right pick for non-ecommerce or content-first businesses.
Mailchimp
Best for: small businesses, charities and content brands that want familiar, general-purpose marketing.
What it does well
- Broadest brand recognition and the deepest pool of freelancers who already know it.
- 300+ integrations across business tools beyond ecommerce.
- 15% nonprofit discount for verified charities.
- Familiar drag-and-drop editor with a wide template library.
Where it falls short
- More expensive than Omnisend at comparable contact tiers.
- Sharp Premium cliff at $350 a month, with no smooth scaling.
- SMS is a credit-based add-on with limited country coverage.
- Phone support locked to the $350/mo Premium plan.
How the cashback works
Omnisend is the only one of the two on Rewardio, so head to its page there and follow the link across before you upgrade, because a plan started straight on Omnisend’s own site leaves nothing for us to track. Start on Free if you want to test, then come back through Rewardio when you move to Standard or Pro. The 10% lands in your balance as pending while Omnisend confirms the sale, which takes a few weeks, then it is yours to withdraw. It repeats every billing cycle you stay subscribed, and it stacks with the 30% Omnisend takes off for paying three months upfront. Mailchimp is not on Rewardio, so there is no cashback there.
So, which is better?
For an ecommerce store, this isn’t close. Omnisend wins on price, on integrations and on bundled SMS. The automation library does the actual revenue work out of the box. Stores already on Shopify or WooCommerce will spend less, ship faster and have fewer add-ons to manage.
Mailchimp keeps a real case in the categories it was built for. Newsletters, charities and general business marketing where the product isn’t tied to a cart. That’s where the brand familiarity, the broader integrations and the nonprofit discount earn their keep. If you’re weighing Omnisend against the other ecommerce heavyweight instead, our Omnisend vs Klaviyo breakdown covers that head-to-head.
If you sell things online, pick Omnisend. If you don’t, Mailchimp will probably do the job.
And if Omnisend ends up the answer, you can claim 10% recurring cashback on it through Rewardio. That’s paid every billing cycle for as long as the subscription stays active, on top of the 30% Omnisend offers for paying three months upfront.
FAQ
Is Omnisend cheaper than Mailchimp?
At almost every contact tier that matters to a store, yes. At 5,000 contacts you pay about $65 a month on Omnisend Standard against roughly $100 on Mailchimp Standard. The gap widens once Mailchimp pushes you onto Premium at $350 a month.
Does Mailchimp still have a free plan?
Yes, but a smaller one than it used to be. Mailchimp cut it in January 2026 to 250 contacts and 500 monthly sends, which puts it level with Omnisend’s free plan rather than ahead of it.
Which works better with Shopify?
Omnisend. It syncs products, orders and customer events within minutes of install, and the abandoned cart and post-purchase flows fire without setup. Mailchimp has a working Shopify integration, but it does not match a tool built around stores from the start.
Can I send SMS on both?
Both offer it, though differently. Omnisend keeps SMS in the platform with volume-based pricing and coverage across more than 200 countries. Mailchimp treats it as a credit-based add-on you apply for, with credits that expire monthly and coverage limited to four countries.
Is Mailchimp ever the better choice?
For non-ecommerce work, often. Newsletters, charities and member communications get little value from cart flows and product blocks. Mailchimp also runs a 15% nonprofit discount and has a far deeper pool of freelancers who already know the tool.
Rewardio is a cashback platform. If you buy Omnisend through our links, we earn a commission and pass a share of it back to you as cashback. Either way, our aim is an honest, impartial comparison, so we’re upfront about where each option falls short, not just where it performs well. We’d rather earn your trust than a single click.
