We know there are a ton of email marketing platforms to choose from. Selecting the right platform for you, whether new or old, is a choice that can be difficult to make. While we have nothing bad to say about Mailchimp, we do have a lot of good to say about how well Tarvent competes with Mailchimp. Take a deep breath, and dive in.
How does pricing compare?
Tarvent is different. We offer a single plan level, the “Everything Plan.” As the name implies, you get every feature without limits.
Currently, Mailchimp offers 4 plan levels: Free, Essentials, Standard, and Premium. You gain access to more features as you move up in your plan level. This is typical of several Email marketing platforms.
Who is Tarvent and Mailchimp best for?
Mailchimp used to be robust and offer a decent number of features. Since Intuit’s acquisition, it seems Mailchimp has removed many features and is more focused on tiny businesses with limited growth potential.
Tarvent takes a different approach. Instead of removing features and alienating more experienced marketers, Tarvent’s strategy is to make every feature as intuitive as possible so even the most novice marketers can discover and leverage more advanced features as their skills progress. Marketers of all skill levels can leverage a fantastic platform to get the marketing results they expect.
In the end, while Mailchimp seems focused on tiny, stagnant businesses, Tarvent is focused on companies of all sizes and marketers of every skill level. It’s not easy, but we’re often told our platform is “pretty” and intuitive and has a level of features only found in much more expensive tools, making it “existential, yet so accessible.” (What movie is that from?)
Campaign management
Campaign editor in Tarvent
Making sure the right message is delivered at the best time, with a design that complements your brand while looking perfect on any device, is a must. Tarvent’s platform offers some of the most extensive features that make it easy to deliver a perfectly designed message and the best time possible to meet your marketing goals without you having to worry about the details of pulling off a perfectly executed campaign.
| Tarvent |
Mailchimp |
| Send a campaign to an unlimited number of groups and segments within your audience |
Campaigns can only be sent to a single group or segment |
| From name and email address can be pulled from a contacts profile. |
Only the from name can be personalized |
| From domain enforces verification to adhere to new Gmail and Yahoo rules for the best deliverability |
No domain status indication ensuring proper configuration for best deliverability. |
| Subject line supports personalization, conditional content logic, and emojis |
No support for personalization or conditional content |
| AI-powered content generation for subject lines, preheader, and email content |
Limited AI-generation content support and requires expensive plan |
| Inbox preview to see what how your email looks in Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud Mail. |
No inbox preview |
| Custom header support for external system integration |
No custom header support |
| Operational email support allowing you to send emails to unsubscribed contacts when the email is about business operation changes. |
No operational email support |
| Auto-resend rules tell Tarvent to try resending an email if specific bounce types occur, such as a block. |
No manageable rety rules |
| Track replies in Tarvent as well as via email forwarded to a specified email address |
No support for email forwarding |
| Social media share configuration so your emails are shared using image and descriptions you specify |
Limited configuration options |
| Support for drag-and-drop, code, and AMP-based email designers |
No AMP support |
| Drag-and-drop editor has extensive styling options and editing controls including wizard-based personalization and conditional content logic generation so you never have to remember syntax. |
Very limited design control. Everyone’s emails look very similar. |
| Campaign testing with support for custom profiles, multiple email address, and more to see exactly what will be sent each contact based on their profile. |
No campaign testing tool provided. |
| Link checker verifies are your campaign links are working before you send. |
No link checker provided. |
| Campaign previewer to see your email on desktop, tablet, and mobile in landscape and portrait mode with custom profile support. |
Very basic preview only |
| Show more |
Template management
Template editor in Tarvent
Templates are one of the most effective ways to make you more productive, consistent, and memorable to your contacts. Templates give you a reusable base on which your messaging is based. Using pre-built templates is excellent in the beginning to get you up and running fast. However, investing in brand-specific templates that your customers and prospects will immediately recognize is one of the many goals the Tarvent platform helps you achieve.
| Tarvent |
Mailchimp |
| Drag-and-drop, HTML code, plain text, and AMP support |
No custom template support |
| Create a template from scratch or based on a standard template, account template, or a campaign |
Well, you can create a campaign based on another campaign or one of Mailchimp’s templates |
| Set specific areas of the template as read-only so they cannot be changed within a campaign or Journey email using the template. |
No read-only or lock-down support |
| Feature-rich code editor with color coding, and wizard-based tools to insert personalization and conditional content logic. |
Basic code editor |
| Template testing with support for multiple email address, and more to see how the template renders in your various email clients |
No template testing tools provides. |
| Link checker verifies are your template links are working before you send. |
No link checker provided. |
| Template previewer to see your email on desktop, tablet, and mobile in landscape and portrait mode. |
Very basic preview only |
| Show more |
Automation
Journey editor in Tarvent
There cannot be enough said about the power of a robust automation solution. Never missing an opportunity, reacting at the perfect time, and ensuring your contact's experience is perfectly curated can be enabled using Tarvent's incredibly feature-rich automation engine.
| Tarvent |
Mailchimp |
| Create journeys based on previous journeys, standard journey templates, or from scratch. |
Same level of support, but with fewer standard journey templates. |
| Unlimited entry triggers can be created to control how contacts enter the journey. |
Only 3 “starting points” can be added. |
| Unlimited exit triggers to remove a contact from a journey when specific conditions are met or events occur |
No exit trigger support |
| 16+ journey actions can be performed |
Only 9 actions supported |
| 9+ journey flow controls are supported, including more advanced engagement splits, decision splits, and more. |
Only 4 rules (flow controls) are supported |
| Split flow controls support up to 10 different paths |
Limited to true/false paths |
| Ability to add step conditions allowing a step to be performed only if conditions are met. Otherwise, the contact skips the step and moves on the next stop. |
No step conditions supported |
| True multivariate email testing allowed multiple variations to be automatically tested, with the winning varioation going to future journey contacts. |
No multivariate or A/B testing support |
| Create goals and conversions either globally to the journey or at a specific point in the journey to better track progress of each contact. |
No support for goals and conversions. |
| Ability to allow contacts to enter a journey multiple times simultaneously. |
No support for contacts to be in a journey more than once simultaneously. |
| Flow report shows the most popular path as well as the conversion and attrition rate for each step in the journey to quickly identify areas of improvement. |
No flow reporting supported |
| Detailed reporting for the overall journey as well as robust campaign-level reporting for each email sent within a journey. |
Only basic reporting provided. |
| Show more |
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Landing pages
Landing page editor in Tarvent
Growing your audience base is a primary goal of many marketers. Landing pages enable you to optimize your lead acquisition and even lead retention by effectively pairing ads and landing pages to collect your prospect's information and permission to communicate with them using the marketing channel with the highest ROI, email marketing.
| Tarvent |
Mailchimp |
| Ability to create landing pages from standard templates, previously created landing pages, or from scratch. |
Provides same level of support |
| Extensive page customization including SEO tags, favicon, page width, and more. |
Only basic customization allowed |
| Multiple Calls-to-Action (CTAs) supported aand allowed on a single page including forms, buttons, and image links. |
Only a single form CTA allowed |
| Support for personalization and conditional content |
No support for personalization or conditional content |
| Ability to display an inline confirmation message, dialog-based confirmation message, a completely customizable confirmation page, or navigate to an external confirmation page. |
Only supports inline confirmation messages. |
| Ability to preview your landing page on mobile, tablet, or desktop in landscape or portrait mode from your browser. |
No preview tool other than to see what it looks like on the device you’re using at the time. |
| Ability to add sent a notification emails, including form data, so you know when someone has submitted the form |
No support for notification emails |
| Journey integration when specific landing page-related events occur. |
Limited journey integration |
| Detailed reporting for each form or other CTA, as well as page-level reporting |
Very limited report |
| Show more |
Surveys
Survey editor in Tarvent
Have you ever heard that the most intelligent people ask more questions and talk less? Surveys are our way of providing you with the tools you need to ask questions and give your customers a voice. Learn what your customers like about your products or services. Even better, learn what you can improve to gain even more customers.
| Tarvent |
Mailchimp |
| Ability to create surveys from standard templates, previously created surveys, or from scratch. |
Provides same level of support |
| Extensive page customization including SEO tags, favicon, page width, and more. |
Only basic customization allowed |
| 9+ question types including matrix-style questions, birthday, and more. |
Only 5 question types with no support for matrix-style questions |
| Optionally map survey questions to audience data fields allowing known contact’s profiles to be updated and unknown contacts to be added. |
No support for linking answers to a contact’s profile. |
| Ability to display an inline confirmation message, dialog-based confirmation message, a completely customizable confirmation page, or navigate to an external confirmation page. |
Only supports inline confirmation messages. |
| Ability to preview your survey on mobile, tablet, or desktop in landscape or portrait mode from your browser. |
No preview tool other than to see what it looks like on the device you’re using at the time. |
| Ability to add sent a notification emails, including form data, so you know when someone has submitted the form |
No support for notification emails |
| Complete control over every aspect that interacts with the visitor for consistant branding and customer experience. |
Extremely limited customization |
| Journey integration when specific survey-related events occur. |
Limited journey integration |
| Detailed reporting including page bounces, partial/complete submissions, and question and answer-level reporting details |
Basic reporting |
| Show more |
Digital asset management
Image library in Tarvent
Whether you have been in email marketing for a short period or years, managing all the images, files, and related content can be challenging. Tarvent’s library gives you the organizational tools to organize your digital assets into folders, using tags and more.
| Tarvent |
Mailchimp |
| List and folder view with support for multiple folder levels |
Basic list and folder view. No parent/child folders. |
| Tagging support enabling view filtering for all assets with specific tags. |
No tag support |
| Store images, PDFs, content blocks, and more |
Limited only to images |
| Content blocks allow for standardized reusable content such as email footers, page headers, and more. |
No concept of content blocks supported |
| Ability to search for a file based on the system-generated URL, which is helpful when working with code-your-own templates. |
Very limited search options |
| Ability to overwrite existing images and files with newer versions so templates, campaigns, and other items don’t have to be updated when a new version of a file is uploaded. This works with images for emails that have already been sent too! |
No overwrite support provided |
Transactional email
Transaction code generator in Tarvent
Have you ever forgotten a password or ordered a product online? Those emails you receive are considered transactional emails and are instrumental in promptly providing your customers and prospects with the information they request. Tarvent’s transactional email platform allows you to send emails from any third-party application, whether web-based, mobile, or desktop application or an internal application behind firewalls. Let the marketing team manage the look and feel of the email. At the same time, developers provide the transactional data your contacts need.
| Tarvent |
Mailchimp |
| Integrated transactional email support |
No integrated support. Must use a separate Mailchimp app. |
| Extensive integration with templates allowing the same functionality as campaigns but with transactional email |
Basic template support |
| Drag-and-drop template and code-your-own editors |
Only code-your-own editor supported, requiring HTML knowledge. |
| Data formatters provide extensive formatting options for your data, including defaults if data is missing |
No support for data formatting |
| Wizards assist in inserting transactional data variables, conditional content, and data formatting options |
No wizards provided. You must learn their proprietary syntax. |
| Suppression list support for both transactional and marketing emails managed at the account level |
No suppression list support |
| Form-based code generator and testing tools, which support every option, allowing developers to send their first email in minutes with no need for documentation review. |
No code generater. Read, code, and pray it works. |
| Extensive reporting based on your custom-defined email types, sender domain, recipient domain, custom meta data, tags, and more. |
Very limited reporting for opens, clicks, device types, and other basic attributes. |
| Customizable auto-rety rules to handle bounce issues that should be retried, such as temporary blocks. |
No auto-rety support |
| Show more |
Reporting
Edit contact screen in Tarvent
Some marketers view reporting as the ultimate tool to determine whether their marketing efforts are working. We’re pretty sure the strongest believers of reporting have used Tarvent, demanded more, and delivered. We leave no rock unturned, no question unanswered, and more importantly, provide every bit of data in a way that isn’t overwhelming to the novice, as well as not aggravating to the pro marketing that needs immense data immediately. Our reporting aims always to provide the clearest picture so you can make the most informed decisions.
| Tarvent |
Mailchimp |
| Extensive reporting leaving no question unanswered with every detail available online or via exports. |
Limited detailed reporting, not sufficient for experienced marketings needing a clear picture. |
| Report center providing access to all reports in a single location |
No concept of a report center |
| Report-only user support allowing executives a simple-to-use Tarvent interface that is limited to just the reports |
No report-only access |
| Custom reports developed by Tarvent based on your specific needs. You control distribution and if the report should run while we take care of the data preparation and security for Personal Indentifiable Information (PII). |
No custom reporting options |
Conclusion
As you can see, Tarvent is a robust platform geared towards companies of every size with no risk of outgrowing the platform. Mailchimp offers an easy-to-use platform that is great for small companies with minimal email marketing requirements.
One aspect we should have discussed in this comparison is security. We didn't focus on security due to the extensive security controls Tarvent provides that Mailchimp doesn't offer. Tarvent's granular control outshines Mailchimp's basic security, primarily due to the difference in focus between the two platforms.
While Tarvent's features are extensive, we provide an intuitive platform where novice and advanced marketers can be productive without getting lost. As you learn, you can discover the never-ending number of features Tarvent delivers, giving you the ultimate control over every touchpoint made with your contacts.
TL;DR
Too much to read? We get it. We wanted to be thorough, almost to a fault.
The bottom line is that while Mailchimp is an excellent solution for those with minimal marketing needs, Tarvent focuses on providing an intuitive and affordable platform for marketing at every skill level. You can start small and never worry about outgrowing Tarvent and moving to a bigger platform.
Tarvent is inexpensive, has a single "Everything plan," and affords you some obvious add-ons as you dive deeper into marketing. Don't worry, though; like you, we hate add-ons for every little thing you want to try. Our add-ons are only for significant functionality, such as Transactional email, that some people won't use.
We've got you covered if you want a platform with all the bells and whistles, including some of the most extensive reporting you can find.
If you would like to know more about the differences between Tarvent and MailChimp, we have a few options for you:
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