If you’re scouring the market for a reliable email marketing platform that will help grow your business, then you’ve probably come across these two names: GetResponse and Mailchimp. While both have become very popular among digital marketers, by no means are they interchangeable. For one, Mailchimp is an email marketing platform while GetResponse is a full-service marketing platform. So how do you choose between the two? It all really depends on what your business needs as well as how much you’re willing to spend. To help you choose wisely, here’s an in-depth comparison of GetResponse and Mailchimp, taking things like automation capabilities, template design, list management, deliverability, and pricing into consideration.
Table of Contents
GetResponse vs Mailchimp Comparison Chart
| Model | GetResponse | Mailchimp |
 |  | |
| Price | Check Price at GetResponse | Check Price at Mailchimp |
| Lead Scoring | Yes | Yes |
| Lead Segmentation | Yes | No |
| SMS Marketing | No | No |
| Split Testing | Yes | No |
| Bulk Social Media Testing | No | No |
| Sales Reports | Yes | Yes |
| Real-Time Sales Alerts | Yes | No |
| Social CRM | Yes | No |
| Mobile App | Yes | No |
| Web Activity Tracking | Yes | Yes |
Marketing Automation
GetResponse beats Mailchimp when it comes to marketing automation.
Both GetResponse and Mailchimp are capable of marketing automation. So whichever one you end up choosing, you’ll be able to create automation workflows and send emails based on triggers. Mailchimp, for example, offers triggers such as someone subscribing to your newsletter, a customer leaving an item in their cart without checking out, and a visitor clicking a specific URL on your site. GetResponse functions in the same way although you’ll find that these two platforms are very different when it comes to their automation builder.
When it comes to creating automation workflows, GetResponse is so much more pleasant to use than Mailchimp. This is because GetResponse displays your workflows in a visually appealing manner, made up of different pathways and triggers. This makes it extra easy to view your workflows as a whole and determine which element needs to go where. As for Mailchimp, it presents its triggers in a simple list and so you don’t really get to see how things flow into each other. For this reason, GetResponse is the clear winner in the area of marketing automation.
Template Designs
Mailchimp wins against GetResponse when it comes to template designs.
If you don’t want the hassle of creating your emails from scratch or you’re not too confident about your coding skills, templates will be your new best friend. Fortunately, both GetResponse and Mailchimp provide users with a nice range of pre-made templates that are professional and pleasing to the eyes, making your emails look like you spent hours designing them. Mailchimp, however, does seem to be the winner of this round for a couple of reasons.
GetResponse has a much wider range of templates compared to Mailchimp. They have a template for practically everyone regardless if you’re a fitness blogger or a travel influencer. It has designs for landing pages, emails, newsletters, you name it. It’s convenient too that it organizes its templates into categories, making it easy for users to find a design that suits their business. The only drawback is that its templates look kind of dated and there are some issues as well when it comes to flexibility of design.
As for Mailchimp, they don’t have as extensive of a range as GetResponse. That said, its templates are a lot more fresh and modern-looking, making them more appealing to customers. Its templates are grouped into categories as well and so you won’t have a hard time finding what you’re looking for. The coolest thing about Mailchimp, however, would have to be the fact that you can have your templates customized for you (for a fee, of course). This way, you can make sure that they suit your branding perfectly.
List Management
GetResponse is the better choice over Mailchimp when it comes to list management.
One of the most important things you need to be able to do with your email marketing platform is to segment your contacts based on certain conditions. You should also be able to transfer or copy your contacts to and from your different lists with ease. With Mailchimp, you can perform basic segmentation such as combining different positive and negative conditions. If you’re looking for more complex segmentation capabilities, however, you’re not going to get that with Mailchimp. Because each contact is locked down to just one list, you can’t have the same contact appear in another group.
GetResponsone is a lot more sophisticated in the area of list management, allowing to you carry out more advanced segmentation. You can, for example, break down a list into smaller segments, which further increases the effectiveness of your email campaigns and boosts your profits. Let’s say you have a “Sports Enthusiasts” list. You can make three more segments with it such as “Yoga”, “Crossfit”, and “Spinning”. Also, its contacts aren’t siloed so you can place your contacts in different groups instead of just one. For these reasons, GetResponse is easily the winner of this category.
Deliverability
GetResponse is slightly better than Mailchimp when it comes to deliverability.
Deliverability is one of the most important things you need to look into when you’re choosing an email marketing platform. After all, what’s the point of paying tons of money for one when your emails don’t even reach your customers? Aside from actually landing in your customers’ inboxes, it’s crucial that your emails don’t just get dropped off in the spam or promotions folders. Unfortunately, both GetResponse and Mailchimp aren’t the highest scorers when it comes to deliverability. Other platforms out there, such as ActiveCampaign and Sendinblue, are able to perform better in this area.
But for the sake of comparison, GetResponse does perform a little bit better than Mailchimp. GetResponse’s overall deliverability rate is at 85% while Mailchimp’s is at 81%. If you’re wondering how many of your emails will land in the primary inbox, GetResponse has a rate of 73% while Mailchimp’s is at 76%. As for emails that will end up in the promotions tab, GetResponse comes in at 24% while Mailchimp is at 27%. When it comes to the dreaded spam folder, GetResponse is at 16% while Mailchimp is at 14%. As for undelivered emails, GetResponse scores a 4% while Mailchimp is at 1%.
Pricing
Mailchimp is more affordable than GetResponse.
The great thing about Mailchimp is that they offer a free plan. With it, you already get 2,000 subscribers plus you can send out up to 10,000 emails a month. This isn’t bad at all, especially if you own a business that’s on the smaller side and you’re only after basic automation and segmentation. As for its paid plans, there’s the Essentials ($9.99/month), the Standard ($14.99/month), and the Premium ($299/month).
GetReponse offers four pricing tiers as well although it doesn’t have a free plan like Mailchimp does. Its most affordable package is the Basic plan which comes in at $15/month. With it, you can only have 1,000 subscribers, which is just half of what you’ll get with Mailchimp’s free plan. Its other packages are the Plus ($49/month), Professional ($99/month), and Max (custom pricing), and they all come with 1,000 subscribers as well.
That said, Mailchimp is the obvious winner when it comes to affordability. If you want more advanced tools, however, you’d have to shell out more for GetResponse’s capabilities.
Verdict
Choose Mailchimp if you want to save but pick GetResponse if you want to grow.
GetResponse is able to tick off more boxes than Mailchimp, particularly when it comes to marketing automation, list management, and deliverability. It’s pretty much the complete package, allowing users to create complex automation workflows, segment their contacts via more advanced methods, build landing pages, and send out stunning email campaigns. It’s the much better option if your goal is to keep expanding your business because it will be able to support you as you grow. As for Mailchimp, it’s a good choice for small businesses whose priority is to save.
