Mailchimp vs Zoho Campaigns: Pricing and Ratings Compared (2026)
Entry prices and free plans as read on each vendor's pricing page, and user ratings as published on review sites, for Mailchimp and Zoho Campaigns side by side. This page compares data; it is not a hands-on review.
On the data: On the data below, Zoho Campaigns leads on higher user rating. We do not name an overall winner for this pair.
Short on time? Here's the quick answer
Based on published vendor pricing and features and on public review data, here's who should pick what:
Mailchimp
Grow your business with email, SMS, and AI marketing
Best for you if:
- • You want intuitive drag-and-drop editor accessible to non-technical users
Zoho Campaigns
Improve your marketing with a unified solution for email and SMS marketing.
Best for you if:
- • You want a fully free tool (Mailchimp requires payment)
| At a Glance | Mailchimp | Zoho Campaigns |
|---|---|---|
Starts at | Free plan, paid from $13/mo, billed monthly Essentials plan | Free 100% free |
Category | Marketing Automation Email Marketing | Marketing Automation Email Marketing |
Rating | 3.9/5 Capterra 4.5 · G2 4.3 · Trustpilot 2.6 31,997 reviews | 4.3/5 G2 4.3 · Capterra 4.3 1,359 reviews |
Free plan | Yes | Yes |
Watch out for | ALL contacts count: subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed, and 'cleaned' contacts all count toward your plan limit. You pay for contacts who unsubscribed last year unless you manually archive them. This inflates costs by 20-40% for most lists | Overage fees for exceeding email/contact limits |
Choose Mailchimp or Zoho Campaigns?
Choose Mailchimp if
- You want intuitive drag-and-drop editor accessible to non-technical users
- You want comprehensive free plan to get started with basic email marketing
Choose Zoho Campaigns if
- You want a fully free tool (Mailchimp requires payment)
- You want combines email and SMS marketing in one platform
- You want offers extensive personalization and automation capabilities
In-Depth Analysis
Mailchimp
Grow your business with email, SMS, and AI marketing
Mailchimp was once the default email marketing tool for small businesses, and its free tier was legendary.
Watch out
ALL contacts count: subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed, and 'cleaned' contacts all count toward your plan limit. You pay for contacts who unsubscribed last year unless you manually archive them. This inflates costs by 20-40% for most lists
Strengths
- Pro: Intuitive drag-and-drop editor accessible to non-technical users
- Pro: Comprehensive free plan to get started with basic email marketing
- Pro: Powerful automation workflows rivaling dedicated automation platforms
- Pro: Extensive template library with mobile-responsive designs
- Pro: Strong deliverability rates backed by Intuit infrastructure
Weaknesses
- Con: Free plan capped at just 250 contacts and 500 sends per month
- Con: Pricing scales steeply as contact lists grow beyond initial tiers
- Con: Advanced segmentation and multivariate testing require higher tiers
- Con: Phone support only available on the highest tier
- Con: Removing Mailchimp branding requires a paid plan
Key features
Zoho Campaigns
Improve your marketing with a unified solution for email and SMS marketing.
The 'Kostenlos' tier for Zoho Campaigns is quite generous, offering 6,000 emails and 2,000 contacts for free, which is more than many competitors provide in their free plans.
Watch out
Overage fees for exceeding email/contact limits
Strengths
- Pro: Combines email and SMS marketing in one platform.
- Pro: Offers extensive personalization and automation capabilities.
- Pro: Provides a wide variety of professional and responsive email templates.
- Pro: Includes robust analytics for campaign performance tracking.
- Pro: Integrates with numerous other platforms, including Zoho CRM and Shopify.
Weaknesses
- Con: The busy, layered interface with many settings and non-obvious concepts like topics gives Zoho Campaigns a steeper learning curve than lighter email tools, so new users need real time to configure and build campaigns.
- Con: Deliverability is a recurring complaint, with reviewers reporting that newsletters often land in the spam folder (especially for Gmail recipients) unless you carefully set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC domain authentication.
- Con: The platform delivers most of its value only when paired with other Zoho products, and third-party integrations outside the Zoho ecosystem get mixed feedback, which limits it for teams built on non-Zoho stacks.
- Con: Email design and template flexibility is restrictive for unique layouts, and reviewers say support can be slow or unhelpful, particularly outside business hours and on lower-tier plans.
Key features
Plans and prices: Mailchimp vs Zoho Campaigns
| Tool | Plans and prices | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp |
| mailchimp.com/pricing read Oct 26, 2026 |
| Zoho Campaigns |
| zoho.com/campaigns read Oct 31, 2026 |
Prices as read on each vendor's own pricing page on the date shown. Plans are listed per tool and are not matched against the other tool's plans: a plan name or price in one column says nothing about the same row in the other. Details on Mailchimp pricing and Zoho Campaigns pricing.
Key Takeaways
Mailchimp
- Choose if you want grow your business with email, SMS, and AI marketing
Zoho Campaigns
- Higher user rating: 4.3/5 vs 3.9/5
What the data shows
On the data below, Zoho Campaigns leads on higher user rating. We do not name an overall winner for this pair.
- Zoho Campaigns has the higher user rating (3.9/5 from 31,997 reviews for Mailchimp, 4.3/5 from 1,359 reviews for Zoho Campaigns).
- Mailchimp starts at $13/mo, billed monthly; Zoho Campaigns has no public paid plan price on file.
- Both have a free plan.
Criteria: user rating (only above 20 reviews on both sides, gap of 0.2 or more), entry price (only on the same billing basis), free plan. How we rate
Frequently Asked Questions
How do Mailchimp and Zoho Campaigns compare in 2026?
On the data below, Zoho Campaigns leads on higher user rating. We do not name an overall winner for this pair. Zoho Campaigns has the higher user rating (3.9/5 from 31,997 reviews for Mailchimp, 4.3/5 from 1,359 reviews for Zoho Campaigns). Mailchimp starts at $13/mo, billed monthly; Zoho Campaigns has no public paid plan price on file. Both have a free plan.
What are Mailchimp and Zoho Campaigns used for?
Mailchimp: Grow your business with email, SMS, and AI marketing. Zoho Campaigns: Improve your marketing with a unified solution for email and SMS marketing.
What does Mailchimp cost vs Zoho Campaigns?
Mailchimp's cheapest paid plan is Essentials at $13/mo, billed monthly; it also has a free plan. Zoho Campaigns is free. Prices read on the vendors' pricing pages, latest check Oct 31, 2026.
What's the main difference between Mailchimp and Zoho Campaigns?
Mailchimp's main strength: intuitive drag-and-drop editor accessible to non-technical users. Zoho Campaigns's main strength: combines email and SMS marketing in one platform.