Mailchimp vs Userlist: Detailed Comparison (2026)

Choosing between Mailchimp and Userlist is a common decision for teams evaluating software solutions. Mailchimp positions itself as email marketing and automation platform for growing businesses, while Userlist focuses on being email automation for saas companies. Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing platforms, offering email campaigns, automation, landing pages, and audience management. Known for its ease of use and generous free tier for small lists. Mailchimp has been available since 2001. Both platforms compete in the software space, but they take different approaches to solving user problems.

When it comes to pricing, Mailchimp offers a free plan with a freemium pricing model across Free, Essentials and Standard tiers. Userlist offers plans starting at $149/mo using a subscription-based model. Mailchimp has an advantage here with its free plan, letting you get started without any upfront cost. Userlist offers a free trial period. At the entry level, Mailchimp is the more affordable option starting at $13/mo compared to $149/mo.

Where Mailchimp pulls ahead is with Drag-and-Drop Editor, Email Automation, A/B Testing and 4 more exclusive features. These feature differences often determine which tool is the better fit depending on your team's workflow and priorities.

Users consistently praise Mailchimp for easy to use for beginners, good free plan for small lists, built-in landing page builder. On the other hand, Userlist earns recognition for strong user satisfaction ratings, workflow automation builder, lead scoring and nurturing. In terms of user satisfaction, Mailchimp holds a 4.2/5 rating from 285 reviews, while Userlist has a 4.5/5 rating based on 117 reviews.

Who should choose Mailchimp? Mailchimp tends to be the better pick for mid-market and enterprise organizations that prioritize easy to use for beginners and want to start for free. Who should choose Userlist? Userlist is often preferred by organizations of different scales that value strong user satisfaction ratings.

Ultimately, the choice between Mailchimp and Userlist comes down to your specific requirements, budget, and team size. We recommend signing up for Mailchimp's free plan and Userlist's free trial to test both platforms with your actual workflow before making a final decision. The feature comparison table and user ratings above should give you a solid starting point for narrowing down which software solution fits your needs best.