What is Mailchimp?
Mailchimp helps businesses build an audience and market to it by email and text message. Users collect contacts through sign-up forms, landing pages and connected online stores, organize them with tags and segments, and design campaigns in a drag-and-drop editor with templates. Reports show opens, clicks, orders and revenue, and tests compare subject lines, content and send times to find what works best.
Automation accounts for much of its use. Marketers build flows that send welcome series, abandoned-cart reminders and follow-ups based on what a contact does, and predictive analytics flag high-value customers and those at risk of lapsing. Integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, Canva and hundreds of other apps bring in store and design data, while Mailchimp Transactional, the former Mandrill service, sends receipts and other one-to-one emails through an API.
Intuit has added AI and ecommerce tools across the product. In February 2026 Mailchimp introduced an omnichannel dashboard and expanded SMS marketing to 25 more European markets, bringing its total in Europe to 34, and in May it launched Analytics AI, a conversational agent that answers questions about campaign performance, along with Mailchimp apps for ChatGPT and Claude. The same month, Intuit said it was reducing investment in Mailchimp as part of a company-wide restructuring, and since August 2026 it has managed Mailchimp as a separate business segment with roughly flat revenue expected for fiscal 2027. Mailchimp competes with HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo and Constant Contact.
Key features of Mailchimp
- 01
Email campaign builder
A drag-and-drop editor, templates and content blocks let users design emails that adapt to phones and computers, and finished designs from Canva can be imported as ready-to-send campaigns.
- 02
Automation flows
Prebuilt and custom flows send welcome series, abandoned-cart reminders, birthday messages and follow-ups triggered by sign-ups, purchases, site activity and other contact behavior.
- 03
Segmentation and predictive analytics
Tags, groups and segments sort contacts by behavior and attributes, predictive analytics identify high-value and at-risk customers, and an AI segment builder in beta creates segments from plain-language descriptions.
- 04
SMS marketing
Paid plans in supported countries can add text messaging for promotions and automations, with pop-up opt-ins, discount codes and age verification for brands selling regulated products.
- 05
Ecommerce integrations
Connections to Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix and other store platforms sync customer and order data, and a site tracking pixel captures product views and similar actions to trigger timely messages.
- 06
Analytics AI and reporting
Dashboards track email, SMS, automation and ecommerce results together, and Analytics AI, launched in 2026, answers performance questions in plain language and recommends next steps.
- 07
A/B and multivariate testing
Marketers test subject lines, sender names, content and send times against each other, and higher plans support multivariate tests that compare several combinations at once.
- 08
Transactional email API
Mailchimp Transactional, formerly Mandrill, is a paid add-on that lets developers send order confirmations, password resets and other triggered one-to-one emails from their own applications.
Who uses Mailchimp?
- Online retailers connect Shopify or WooCommerce stores to send abandoned-cart reminders, product recommendations and post-purchase follow-ups.
- Local businesses and restaurants send newsletters and promotions to customers who signed up in store or online.
- Nonprofits and independent creators build mailing lists to share updates, promote events and ask supporters for donations.
- Marketing teams at growing companies run email and SMS campaigns and measure which messages lead to sales.
- Developers use Mailchimp Transactional to deliver receipts, account notifications and other automated emails from their applications.
History of Mailchimp
Mailchimp started in Atlanta in 2001 as a side project of the Rocket Science Group, a web design agency run by Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius. The service charged all of its users until 2009, when the addition of a free plan set off rapid growth. The founders never took outside investment, and during the 2010s they expanded Mailchimp from newsletters into automation, transactional email and advertising tools, repositioning it in 2019 as an all-in-one marketing platform for small businesses.
Intuit agreed to buy the company in September 2021 for about $12 billion in cash and stock and completed the deal on November 1 of that year, when Mailchimp had more than 13 million users. Chestnut stepped down as chief executive in 2022, and Intuit connected Mailchimp to QuickBooks and added its Intuit Assist AI features. In 2026 Intuit reduced its investment in Mailchimp and began managing it as a separate segment, while the product gained ecommerce analytics, Analytics AI and apps for AI chatbots.
- 2001
Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius launch Mailchimp in Atlanta as a side project of their web design agency.
- 2009
Mailchimp adds a free plan, which sets off rapid growth in its user base.
- 2019
Mailchimp repositions itself as an all-in-one marketing platform for small businesses.
- 2021
Intuit completes its acquisition of Mailchimp for about $12 billion in cash and stock.
- 2026
Mailchimp launches Analytics AI and becomes a separate operating segment within Intuit.
Mailchimp pricing
Pricing modelFreemium
Free plan with limits on contacts, monthly sends and seats; paid Essentials, Standard and Premium plans are priced mainly by contact count, with SMS sold as an add-on in some countries.
Prices change often. Check the official Mailchimp website for current plans.
Mailchimp alternatives
Profiled on SoftwareLore:
Also considerKlaviyo, Constant Contact, Brevo, ActiveCampaign and Kit
Mailchimp: frequently asked questions
Who owns Mailchimp?
Mailchimp is owned by Intuit, which completed its acquisition of the company on November 1, 2021, for about $12 billion in cash and stock. Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius started Mailchimp in Atlanta in 2001 as a side project of their web design agency and ran it without outside investors until the sale.
What is Mailchimp used for?
Mailchimp is used to send marketing emails and text messages and to automate them. Businesses use it to grow contact lists, design newsletters and promotions, send abandoned-cart and welcome messages, segment customers, test campaigns and measure the opens, clicks, orders and revenue those campaigns produce.
Is Mailchimp free?
Mailchimp has a free plan for very small lists, with limits on contacts, monthly email sends, audiences and user seats and without features such as scheduling and custom reports. Paid Essentials, Standard and Premium plans are priced mainly by the number of contacts and add automation, testing, more seats and higher sending limits.
When was Mailchimp released?
Mailchimp launched in 2001 as a side project of the Rocket Science Group, an Atlanta web design agency. It was a paid-only service until 2009, when a free plan helped it grow quickly, and it became part of Intuit in November 2021.
Is Mailchimp still part of Intuit?
Yes. Mailchimp remains part of Intuit, but since August 1, 2026, Intuit has managed it as a separate operating segment rather than within its Global Business Solutions group, and it will report Mailchimp as its own segment starting in fiscal 2027. Intuit reduced its investment in Mailchimp during a restructuring announced in May 2026.
Sources
- About Mailchimp mailchimp.com
- Mailchimp pricing mailchimp.com
- Intuit Mailchimp launches Analytics AI and expanded data integrations investors.intuit.com
- Intuit Form 10-K for fiscal 2026, SEC sec.gov
- Mailchimp, Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
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