iContact and MailChimp are two of the largest names in the world of email marketing services, but which service is right for you? Let’s take a look at what iContact and Mailchimp have to offer, and how they compare to each other.
VERSUS 
Features
MailChimp provides a spam-checking feature for paid subscribers, which allows you to make sure your messages will not end up in hundreds or thousands of spam folders. iContact includes the same spam checking feature as part of its message builder editor, but it provides that feature even for free users.
Both services allow messages to be saved and scheduled for later delivery as well as the ability to post automatic updates on social media websites like Twitter and Facebook. While plugins and widgets are also available for both services, MailChimp alone supports SMS delivery and offers service integrations for Google Analytics, Magento, WordPress, and Zencart. Fortunately, both MailChimp and iContact offer full Drupal integration.
Ease of Use
MailChimp has a minimalistic appearance that appears to give it a simple and approachable user interface. But it is sometimes too simplistic, and finding the feature or option you’re looking for may require wandering around their website or backtracking through your history. iContact takes the opposite approach by displaying virtually every option it offers on your screen simultaneously. At first this can appear cluttered and intimidating, but with a little experience this design ends up offering a more intuitive service and pleasant learning curve.
Both services offer a huge variety of templates for you to paste your messages into, but MailChimp only offers 24 free options while iContact offers 286. Both services also offers modification tools allowing you full creative control over your chosen template, but iContact’s modification service is distinct from MailChimp’s because it allows you to see what your message will look like as you design it. MailChimp’s template modification only allows content previews of the message sections that you’re currently designing, and those previews must be opened in a new window.
Cost
iContact offers three different pricing options while MailChimp offers five. MailChimp’s free option stands out from its competition by offering service for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 messages per month. This dominates iContact’s free plan that supports a maximum of 1,000 subscribers. iContact’s pricing is nearly identical to MailChimp’s pricing for plans between 500 and 5,000 subscribers, but MailChimp offers support for up to 50,000 subscribers while iContact has no comparable service option.
pj says
I wonder if the FREE service has the same delivery rate as the PAID service….
saul meshach says
Don’t use I-contact, I own a legal medical marijuana dispensary and they censored me from sending important information to my patients. This is a violation of freedom of speech fuck you I-contact.