Both platforms offer a free plan for lists under about 250 people, list Shopify as an integration and sell SMS as an add-on. Klaviyo prices by active profiles, starting at $20 a month for its Email plan; Mailchimp prices by contacts, with Standard from $13.36 a month at the smallest tier after an introductory offer. Price both at your list size and test your flows.
Free plans
Klaviyo's pricing page lists a free plan for up to 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month. Mailchimp's pricing page says the platform is free under 250 contacts, with sends capped at 500 a month or 250 a day. Either free plan is enough to set up a welcome flow and learn the tool; a growing store will outgrow it.
Paid plans and how the price grows
On 12 November 2026, Klaviyo's Email plan started at $20 a month, including 500 active profiles and 5,000 emails a month, with the price rising on a slider by active profiles.
Mailchimp lists four plans: Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium. In the US dollar view, the Standard plan at 0 to 500 contacts was shown at $6.68 a month for 12 months, then from $13.36 a month. Monthly sends are set as a multiple of contacts: 10 times on Essentials, 12 times on Standard and 15 times on Premium.
Both prices climb with list size and change with offers, so read them as a snapshot. Price both platforms at your actual list size, and at the size you expect in a year.
How each counts your list
The unit you pay for differs. Klaviyo charges by active profiles, and Mailchimp by contacts. Before you compare prices, check on each page which people count toward the bill, how unsubscribed or inactive people are treated, and what happens when you go over the limit; Mailchimp's page notes that overages apply when the contact or send limit is exceeded.
SMS and Shopify
Both pages list a Shopify integration. Both sell SMS as an add-on: Klaviyo's comparison table lists SMS and MMS as an add-on and includes a small mobile-message credit on the free plan, and Mailchimp says SMS is an add-on to paid plans in select countries. If text messages matter to you, check SMS availability and pricing in your country on both pages before you choose.
How to choose
A six-step way to decide, from our own working practice:
- List the flows you need: welcome, browse and cart abandonment, post-purchase, win-back, and any SMS.
- Price both at your list size today and in a year, on each live pricing page.
- Test the flows in each free plan or trial with your real store connected.
- Check the data: which store events each platform receives, and how segments use them.
- Check reporting: whether revenue per email and per flow is reported the way you measure it.
- Plan the move: export lists with consent records, rebuild flows, and warm up the new sending domain.
Moving between them
A platform move is a deliverability event as much as a software change. Keep consent records with every exported address, rebuild flows before switching off the old ones, authenticate the new sending setup with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and ramp sending volume up over a few weeks. Our guide to email deliverability covers the authentication and warm-up steps.
Conclusion
Klaviyo and Mailchimp both offer free plans for small lists, Shopify integrations and SMS add-ons. Klaviyo prices by active profiles, with its Email plan from $20 a month; Mailchimp prices by contacts, with Standard from $13.36 a month at the smallest tier after an introductory offer, as published on 12 November 2026. Price both at your real list size, test the flows you need, and plan any move around deliverability.
PromotEdge International is an international strategy, technology, marketing and design company, and our delivery team is in India. We are not a partner of Klaviyo or Mailchimp. Our email marketing team builds flows and campaigns in your own account on the platform you choose, as part of wider ecommerce marketing.
Facts we rely on: see our company facts for what we state about ourselves and where each fact comes from.