Inside this Article
Features
GoDaddy Has Email Marketing Essentials; Mailchimp Is More Full-Featured
The two platforms have a long list of features, including a native website builder and subscription forms. But when it comes to the number of email marketing features offered, Mailchimp ranks higher thanks to its visual automation builder and numerous app integrations.Email Templates
Neither Mailchimp nor GoDaddy give you much to work with in terms of email templates. GoDaddy has far fewer layouts overall, but Mailchimp’s designs are horribly outdated. With either platform, you’re going to need some design skills so you can create something workable. GoDaddy has by far the fewest premade templates I’ve ever encountered. You can choose from just three (!) GoDaddy Email Marketing templates – which are serviceable at best. I do like that you can choose the “style” of any layout, which essentially changes the color scheme. However, I’d much rather have better template designs to begin with.

Marketing Automations
Mailchimp and GoDaddy both have automated workflows, but the latter only allows a single use case. Mailchimp is the winner here, but you could do a lot better if you truly want to automate your marketing. Out of all the email marketing services I’ve tested, ActiveCampaign is the most impressive when it comes to automations. It has more than 250 automation templates and dozens of integrations to save you time and hassle. First, the good news: GoDaddy Email Marketing does let you create autoresponders with multiple steps so you can connect with subscribers over weeks or months. Now for the bad news: the only automation trigger that GoDaddy supports is a new subscriber signup. As our GoDaddy Email Marketing review explains, the workflow feature is so basic that you can’t create autoresponders for engaged subscribers, e-commerce customers, or other behavior-based groups.

App Integrations
Integrating other marketing apps with your email marketing provider can help you do more efficiently. Both Mailchimp and GoDaddy Email Marketing have app integrations, but once again the latter offers far fewer. GoDaddy only has about a half-dozen app integrations, including Google Analytics, Eventbrite, and Etsy. The platform doesn’t work with Zapier, so you can’t easily access third-party integrations. Essentially, you’d have to go without app integrations, which could seriously impact your marketing team’s productivity and the value you get from the platform. This is a pretty major drawback, as almost every dedicated email marketing service I’ve tested – from ActiveCampaign to Sendinblue – works with Zapier.

Ease of Use
Mailchimp Is More Intuitive; GoDaddy Has Better Tutorials
Whether you use Mailchimp or GoDaddy Email Marketing, you can import subscribers and start sending simple campaigns within a few minutes. But if you want to streamline your work and save time, you won’t find either platform particularly helpful.Template Editors
In my experience, drag-and-drop editors tend to be easier to navigate than their point-and-click counterparts. Mailchimp’s editor is definitely easier to use, but ultimately it doesn’t have much more functionality than GoDaddy’s. GoDaddy’s point-and-click editor has all the basic capabilities: letting you add images, text, and buttons. However, I’d find it much more usable if it were located in the sidebar rather than at the very bottom of the page.

Style and Branding
Why resupply the same brand colors and logos for every campaign when you can make your email marketing service do the work? The two platforms each have a branding feature, but I found both challenging to use. GoDaddy Email Marketing claims to be able to identify your brand colors, fonts, and logos from your website URL. In my experience, this usability feature didn’t really work, as it pulled the wrong fonts and an incomplete list of colors. I was happy to see that I could manually enter and save all the style details instead, even though this workaround took some time.

Guides and Tutorials
Easily accessible tutorials are key for usability. Both Mailchimp and GoDaddy Email Marketing offer guidance, but I found GoDaddy more helpful. GoDaddy places its tutorials front and center every time you use a feature that’s new to you. I found the explainer videos and links especially helpful as a new user who wanted to learn the platform quickly.

Reporting and Analytics
GoDaddy Analytics Is Far Superior and Much Cheaper Than Mailchimp
Email marketing reports aren’t very useful unless they allow comparisons or include marketing insights. GoDaddy’s standard reports do both, and technically Mailchimp does too – as long as you don’t mind spending at least $299 per month. Still with me after experiencing that shock? Mailchimp’s standard reports include all the essential stats like open and click-through rates as well as e-commerce data and audience analytics.



Pricing
Mailchimp Gets Pricey Fast; GoDaddy Is More Affordable – With a Catch
Mailchimp and GoDaddy Email Marketing have similar starting costs. However, the sending capacities and pricing methods are completely different, and Mailchimp’s highest-tier plan is exponentially more expensive.Here’s What You Get For Free
GoDaddy Email Marketing doesn’t have a free plan beyond the Starter plan, which is more of a free trial with up to 50 email sends. In contrast, Mailchimp’s Free plan lets you send up to 10,000 emails per month to as many as 2,000 subscribers. It includes customizable automations and about a dozen responsive templates, but it lacks key features like advanced reports and A/B testing. After testing out several dedicated email marketing platforms, I can confirm that there are much better free options. Sendinblue’s Free plan lets you add unlimited contacts, customize beautifully designed templates, and create automated workflows. You can also send more targeted messages with advanced segmentation and use the sales-focused customer relationship management (CRM) tool to track leads.Here’s What You Get If You Pay
Before you sign up for a paid plan, calculate your costs carefully. Each GoDaddy Email Marketing plan has fixed costs, and you only pay more if you make the choice to upgrade. Mailchimp has contact-based pricing, so every time you reach a new subscriber limit you have to pay more – even if you don’t need to upgrade to the next plan level. Even though GoDaddy Email Marketing seems inexpensive, it might cost more than you think. The cheapest plan is so restrictive it’s for beginners only, so the mid-tier plan is where most marketers should start. Beware that once you reach 5,000 subscribers, it’s impossible to add more or upgrade your GoDaddy Email Marketing plan further. If you anticipate building a big list, you’re better off choosing another service to begin with.- Beginner: Up to 500 subscribers and 5,000 email sends per month, but no automations. Price: $9.99 per month.
- Up & Running: Up to 2,500 subscribers and 25,000 email sends per month, and comes with automations. Price: $14.99 per month.
- Pro: Up to 5,000 subscribers and 50,000 email sends per month, and comes with date-triggered emails. Price: $29.99 per month.
- Essentials: Up to 50,000 subscribers and 500,000 email sends per month, and comes with customizable automations. Pricing starts at $20.00 per month.
- Standard: Up to 100,000 subscribers and 1.2 million email sends per month, and comes with branched automations. Pricing starts at $14.99 per month.
- Premium: Up to 200,000 subscribers and 3 million email sends per month, and comes with comparative analytics and multivariate testing. Pricing starts at $0 per month.
Plan | # Subscribers | # Email Sends | Automations | Support | Monthly Price |
GoDaddy Email Marketing: Beginner | 500 | 2,500 emails per month | limited autoresponders | 24/7 live chat and phone support | $9.99 per month |
Mailchimp: Essentials | 500 | 5,000 emails per month | multi-step automations | 24/7 email & live chat support | $20.00 to start |
Sendinblue: Free | Unlimited | 300 emails per day (approx. 9,000 emails per month) | customizable multi-step workflows | 24/7 email support | $0 |
Support
Mailchimp Can Be Slow; GoDaddy May Not Give an Accurate Response
GoDaddy and Mailchimp both have reasonable support options, at least in theory. GoDaddy has 24/7 phone and live chat support for all plans. Mailchimp has 24/7 email and live chat support for most paid plans and phone support for the highest-tier plan. Yet I had issues with both platforms’ support methods. First, I used GoDaddy’s live chat to ask about personalizing emails with content or subscribers’ names. The support rep had a lot of trouble understanding what I was asking and then ultimately told me it wasn’t possible to do what I wanted. After a few hours of testing the platform, I found that it absolutely is possible to personalize GoDaddy emails with subscriber names and other details – you just have to know where to look.

Consider a Powerful, Dedicated Email Marketing Service Instead
GoDaddy Email Marketing has better analytics and usability, while Mailchimp has more advanced features and reliable support. However, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend either option. After all, if you want to grow your business, you need a dedicated email marketing service that has the powerful features you need at a price you can afford. If you have a small list or a strict budget, I suggest Sendinblue. You can get started at no cost with the Free plan, and when you’re ready for features like A/B testing or unlimited email sending, you can upgrade to an affordable paid plan. If you have a bigger list or you’re committed to marketing automation, I recommend ActiveCampaign. All plans come with automated funnels and autoresponders to boost efficiency as well as plenty of email, landing page, and webform templates to save time.Platform
GoDaddy Email Marketing
Mailchimp
Sendinblue
Features
3 email templates, limited automations, 5 app integrations
Approx. 85 email templates, premade & custom automations, approx. 250 app integrations
140+ email templates, 100+ app integrations, premade automations
Ease of Use
Sometimes clunky interface with good tutorials
Nicely designed interface that’s easy to navigate
Clear, user-friendly design suitable for beginners
Reporting
Insightful analytics and comparative reports
Relatively basic reports with advanced insights for highest-tier plan
Basic reports, advanced options on the Lite plan
Support
24/7 live chat and phone support
24/7 email & chat support for all paid plans and phone support for highest-tier plan
Email and phone support only
Pricing
No free plan; flat-rate plans have subscriber and sending limits
Free plan available; paid plan pricing is subscriber-based
Free plan available, paid plan pricing increases based on email rather than contacts