Choosing an email marketing platform is one of those decisions that's easy to get wrong and hard to undo. Migrating an entire email program - with all your lists, automations, templates, and historical data - is a significant project. Getting it right the first time saves you months of work down the track.
This isn't a feature spec comparison. You can find those anywhere. This is an honest breakdown of what each platform is actually built for and who should be using it.
#What you'll learn in this post
- What each platform does best (and where it falls short)
- Which platform suits e-commerce, service businesses, creators, and B2B
- How to think about pricing at different list sizes
- The migration question: when it's worth switching
- A simple decision framework to help you choose
#Klaviyo: built for e-commerce, exceptional at it
Klaviyo is the dominant platform for e-commerce email marketing, and the dominance is earned. It was designed from the ground up around behavioural data from online stores - and that foundation shows in everything it does.
What it's best at: Deep integration with Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. Behavioural automation (abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase, win-back). Granular segmentation based on purchase history, product browsing, and order data. Revenue attribution reporting. SMS alongside email in the same platform.
Who it's right for: Any e-commerce store that's serious about retention and lifecycle marketing. If you're on Shopify and you're not on Klaviyo, it's worth asking why.
Where it falls short: Klaviyo is overkill for service businesses that don't have a product catalogue driving behavioural triggers. The pricing scales with list size and can get expensive at higher volumes. It's also more complex than simpler tools - there's a learning curve, and you need to invest time to set it up properly.
Pricing: Free up to 250 contacts. Paid plans scale with list size. At 10,000 contacts, expect to pay in the range of $150–$200 USD/month. For a store doing meaningful volume, this is usually easy to justify against automation revenue.
#Mailchimp: the household name with a complicated legacy
Mailchimp was the platform that made email marketing accessible for small businesses. It's still widely used, and for the right use case, it's a perfectly good tool. The problem is that many businesses outgrow it and stay on it too long.
What it's best at: Getting started quickly. A clean, accessible interface. Basic newsletter sending. Simple automations for non-e-commerce use cases. A generous free tier for small lists.
Who it's right for: Businesses that are early in their email marketing journey and need a low-friction starting point. Non-profits, small local businesses, and anyone whose email program is primarily a newsletter rather than a behavioural automation engine.
Where it falls short: The e-commerce integration is less deep than Klaviyo - the data layer is thinner and the flow builder is less sophisticated. Pricing has increased significantly in recent years and the value at higher tiers is harder to justify. The free plan has limitations that push you toward paid fairly quickly.
Mailchimp works fine for sending a monthly newsletter to a small list. If you're trying to build a retention-focused e-commerce email program, you'll hit its ceiling.
The honest take on Mailchimp: it's not bad, it's just often used by people who've outgrown it and haven't made the time to switch. That inertia costs more than the migration would.
Pricing: Free up to 500 contacts (with limited features). Paid plans from around $20 USD/month. Pricing becomes less competitive at larger list sizes.
#Kit (formerly ConvertKit): the creator's platform
Kit is built for creators, course sellers, coaches, and digital product businesses. If your business model involves a content library, a membership, paid newsletters, or digital products, Kit is worth serious consideration.
What it's best at: Kit's core strength is list building and subscriber tagging based on content interactions. The automation builder is genuinely intuitive - probably the easiest of the four to use. And for creators who want to monetise directly, the paid newsletter functionality is built in. It also integrates cleanly with platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, and Podia.
Who it's right for: Content creators, coaches, consultants, course sellers, and anyone whose primary relationship with their audience is content-driven rather than product-driven. Also a strong option for service businesses that want simple, effective email marketing without the complexity of a full CRM-linked tool.
Where it falls short: Kit isn't built for e-commerce. There's no deep Shopify integration or cart abandonment logic. If you're selling physical products, it's the wrong tool.
Pricing: Free up to 10,000 subscribers (with limited features). Paid plans from around $29 USD/month. Generally good value for creators and service businesses.
#ActiveCampaign: the CRM-connected option for B2B and service businesses
ActiveCampaign sits at the intersection of email marketing and CRM. It's built for businesses with longer, more complex sales cycles - where the email program needs to work alongside contact records, deal pipelines, and sales team workflows.
What it's best at: CRM integration. Lead scoring. Complex automation sequences with conditional logic. Site tracking (following contacts' behaviour on your website). Sales automations that trigger based on CRM events. Deep personalisation at the contact level.
Who it's right for: B2B businesses, professional services, agencies, and any business where the sales cycle involves multiple touchpoints over weeks or months. If you need your email marketing to connect with a sales pipeline, ActiveCampaign is purpose-built for it.
Where it falls short: It's more complex than the other tools on this list - there's a real learning curve, and the interface isn't as clean as Klaviyo or Kit. For e-commerce, it's not the right fit. For businesses that just want to send a newsletter, it's overkill.
Pricing: Starts from around $29 USD/month for basic email features. The CRM features sit on higher-tier plans. Pricing is competitive for B2B businesses that are using the full feature set.
#How to choose: a simple framework
Answer these questions:
Do you sell physical products online through Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce?
→ Klaviyo. Full stop.
Are you a creator, coach, consultant, or course seller?
→ Kit. It's built for your model.
Do you have a sales team and a pipeline that email needs to connect with?
→ ActiveCampaign.
Are you just getting started and need something simple to send newsletters?
→ Mailchimp is fine to start. Just know you may outgrow it.
Are you a service business that wants proper automation without CRM complexity?
→ Kit or ActiveCampaign depending on whether you need the CRM layer.
#The migration question
If you're on the wrong platform for your business model, switching is worth the short-term pain. A well-set-up Klaviyo account will outperform a badly-set-up Klaviyo account - but it will also outperform a well-set-up Mailchimp account for an e-commerce business, because the platform is fundamentally better suited to the job.
Migration typically involves: exporting your lists, importing them into the new platform, recreating your automations, updating your opt-in forms, and setting up domain authentication in the new tool. For most businesses, it's a two to four week project.
Before migrating, take the opportunity to clean your list. There's no point importing 10,000 contacts if 3,000 of them haven't engaged in two years.
#Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use multiple email platforms at the same time?
Technically yes, but it's not recommended. Splitting your list across platforms creates complexity, makes reporting harder, and can cause people to receive duplicate emails. Pick the right platform and consolidate.
Is it worth paying for a premium email platform if my list is small?
If you're on the right platform for your business model, yes - even at small list sizes. The automations and segmentation you build now will scale as your list grows. Starting on the right platform saves you from migrating later.
How important is deliverability support in choosing a platform?
Very. All four platforms on this list have good deliverability infrastructure, but the level of tooling and support varies. Klaviyo has excellent deliverability reporting. ActiveCampaign has robust deliverability features. Check that your chosen platform supports DKIM authentication and gives you access to bounce and complaint data.
What's the easiest platform to learn?
Mailchimp has the gentlest learning curve. Kit is close behind. Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign have more depth and take longer to master - but the depth is worth it if you're using it for its intended use case.
#Pick the right tool, then use it well
Platform choice matters, but it's not the whole story. The best email platform in the world won't help if your list is dirty, your copy is generic, or your automations are half-built. Choose the right platform for your business model, then invest in setting it up properly.
If you're not sure which platform suits your business, or you're thinking about switching and want a second opinion on the migration plan, that's a conversation worth having with someone who's done it before.
This guide is written by Hedgehog, a DIY digital marketing consultancy specialising in small and medium businesses in Australia. We offer digital marketing consulting, coaching and training.
