Short answer: Klaviyo suits Shopify shops that sell repeatedly to the same customers and want automations driven by order data. Mailchimp suits shops that send mostly newsletters and want something simple. The details below decide it.
Both send email well. The difference is what they know about your customers. Klaviyo was built around ecommerce data and pulls detailed order, product and browsing information from Shopify. Mailchimp is a general-purpose tool with a Shopify connection, friendlier to start with and less deep once you want to segment on what people bought.
If you are not sure, the platform finder asks seven questions about how you work and suggests three platforms.
Klaviyo’s Shopify integration passes through orders, products viewed, items in basket and customer history in detail, and makes it easy to build segments like “bought twice, nothing in 90 days” or “viewed this collection, never bought”. It also offers predicted figures such as expected next order date.
Mailchimp can segment on purchase activity too, but it is less detailed and less central to how the tool works. For a shop that sells one-off gifts, that may not matter. For a shop that lives on repeat orders, it does.
Both cover the flows that earn most: welcome, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase and winback. Klaviyo gives more control over branching on order data and timing. Mailchimp’s journey builder is easier to pick up and covers the basics well.
What matters more than the tool is whether the flows exist and are looked after. The flows page sets out the order to build them in.
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Get the free auditSee pricingMailchimp is generally quicker to learn and its templates render reliably. Klaviyo’s editor has improved and is perfectly usable, but it expects you to spend a bit of time learning where things are. If you are running email yourself and do not want to think about it, that difference is real.
Both price mainly on contacts. Klaviyo tends to get more expensive as the list grows, which is fine if the list is engaged and earning, and painful if it is full of dead addresses. Mailchimp is often cheaper at the same size but charges for features that Klaviyo includes. Check current pricing on each site for your exact list size, and suppress unengaged contacts either way.
Switching costs time: rebuilding flows, templates, segments and forms, and warming up sending. It is worth it when your current tool cannot do something that would earn real money, such as segmenting on repeat purchase. It is not worth it because a competitor uses the other one. Details for each are on the Klaviyo and Mailchimp pages.
For shops that rely on repeat orders and want to segment on purchase data, usually yes. For simple newsletters on a small list, Mailchimp is often enough.
Often, as the list grows. The gap narrows once you compare the features you actually need.
Only if something you need is missing. Fix the flows you already have first.
Yes. I build in both, and in ten other platforms, inside your own account.