We may earn a commission if you buy through links on this page. It never changes a score or a ranking. How we make money
It's a split decision.
Choose Mailchimp for email and SMS campaigns, audience segmentation and marketing automation; its Free plan costs $0 and caps you at 250 contacts and 500 monthly emails. Choose Pipedrive for sales pipelines, lead management and follow-up automation; Lite starts at $14 per seat monthly, billed annually, and there is no free plan. These are different tools, not direct substitutes. Pipedrive’s monthly-billing prices are not published; Mailchimp’s listed paid rates are 12-month promotional prices.
01Side by side
| Mailchimp | Pipedrive | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $0; paid plans from $13/month promotional rate | $14 per seat/month, billed annually |
| Free plan | Yes; 250 contacts and 500 emails/month | No; 14-day free trial |
| Best for | Email and SMS marketing | Sales pipelines and deal management |
| Core strength | Campaigns, segmentation and marketing automation | Lead management, pipelines and sales follow-ups |
| Learning curve | Review ease-of-use score: 6.5/10 | Review ease-of-use score: 7.5/10 |
| Integrations and data | Real-time behavioral audience data | 500+ integrations; lead routing and enrichment |
| Team and seat costs | 1–unlimited seats, depending on plan | $14–$79 per seat/month, billed annually |
| Support | Email support varies by plan; Premium adds phone support | Extended phone support on Ultimate |
Mailchimp Choose Mailchimp if
- Choose Mailchimp if you need email and SMS campaigns in one platform.
- Choose Mailchimp if a free plan and a 250-contact cap fit.
- Choose Mailchimp if you want marketing automations and audience segmentation.
Pipedrive Choose Pipedrive if
- Choose Pipedrive if your team needs a visual sales pipeline.
- Choose Pipedrive if you want lead routing and sales follow-up automation.
- Choose Pipedrive if you need CRM reporting, forecasts and deal management.
02Pricing compared
Mailchimp is cheaper to start: its Free plan costs $0, but caps you at 250 contacts, 500 emails a month (or 250 a day), one seat and one audience. SMS is not included. Its listed paid rates—Essentials at $13/month, Standard at $20/month and Premium at $350/month—are promotional prices for 12 months, not guaranteed ongoing rates. Essentials and Standard include a 14-day trial.
Pipedrive has no free plan. Lite starts at $14 per seat/month, billed annually, and includes a 14-day trial. Growth, Premium and Ultimate list at $39, $59 and $79 per seat/month, respectively, with annual billing. Monthly-billing prices are not published. Pipedrive add-ons cost extra: Campaigns starts at $13.33 and LeadBooster at $32.50, though their billing periods are not published.
03Features and depth
These platforms solve different jobs. Mailchimp is built for email and SMS marketing: it supports campaigns, audience segmentation, behavioral data and marketing automations. A/B and multivariate testing, plus predictive segmentation, are listed as Premium features. SMS is a paid add-on on eligible plans, not part of Free.
Pipedrive centers on sales pipelines, leads, deals and follow-ups. Its tools include customizable pipelines, lead routing, workflow automation, reports and forecasts. It can sync up to five email accounts and connect a business calendar. Meeting intelligence can brief reps, record and transcribe calls, then draft CRM updates for review. Plan depth matters: Lite includes pipeline management and meeting intelligence; Growth adds email tracking, automations and nurturing sequences; Premium adds lead routing and scoring. Mailchimp may support marketing contact data and segmentation, but the published product details describe it as a marketing platform, not a sales pipeline CRM. Pipedrive is not presented here as a dedicated email marketing platform.
04Ease of use and learning curve
The simpler starting point depends on the work. Mailchimp’s Free plan gives a small team a way to send basic campaigns, but the 250-contact and 500-email monthly caps make it a limited test rather than a roomy free tier. More advanced segmentation and testing sit higher in the plans.
Pipedrive’s visual pipelines organize deals and activities, while automation and reporting add more to configure as teams move up plans. Its entry price is per seat, and add-ons can complicate the total. The published review calls Mailchimp a workable starter tool and rates ease of use 6.5/10; Pipedrive’s review rates it 7.5/10. Those scores are editorial assessments, not a guarantee of setup time.
Questions people ask
Does Mailchimp do CRM?
Mailchimp manages audiences and uses behavioral data for marketing segmentation and re-engagement, according to the published product details. Those details do not describe it as a sales CRM for managing deal pipelines and sales activities. If you need pipeline and lead management, Pipedrive is the more direct fit here.
Which CRM is better, Pipedrive or HubSpot?
The published information covers Pipedrive, not HubSpot, so we can’t make a sourced feature or price comparison between them. Pipedrive is described as a sales CRM with pipelines, lead management and follow-up automation. Compare HubSpot’s current plan limits and pricing before choosing between the two.
Why are people leaving Mailchimp?
The published review says ecommerce users on Reddit keep moving toward Klaviyo and Omnisend instead, but it does not establish why users leave or how common that is. Mailchimp’s Free plan also has firm limits—250 contacts and 500 monthly emails—which may not suit every growing sender.
What are the top 3 email marketing tools?
The published information doesn’t compare enough email marketing tools to rank a top three. It describes Mailchimp’s email and SMS campaigns, segmentation and automation, and notes that ecommerce users on Reddit mention Klaviyo and Omnisend as alternatives. Treat that as a lead for further comparison, not a ranking.