Intercom vs MailChimp
March 15, 2025 | Author: Sandeep Sharma
25★
Customer messaging platform which allows businesses to communicate with prospective and existing customers within their app, on their website, through social media, or via email.
42★
Online email marketing solution to manage contacts, send emails and track results. Offers plug-ins for other programs. Get insight about your subscribers and keep your contacts in one place with subscriber profiles. MailChimp helps you email the right people at the right time. In addition to our built-in segmentation and targeting options, you can automate triggered emails based on your subscribers' website activity.
Both Intercom and MailChimp are much like two slightly eccentric robots at the same intergalactic party, both trying to do their best at keeping humans and their businesses in touch. They both specialize in some form of digital communication, whether it's through email marketing or the rather more personal touch of customer chat. They’ve also got the rather nifty trick of segmenting audiences, so you don’t accidentally send an intergalactic marketing message to the wrong planet. And naturally, they both offer analytics to make sure you’re not talking to yourself.
Now, Intercom, for reasons best known to itself, prefers to think of itself as a sort of cosmic concierge. Since its inception in 2011, it's been quite keen on live chats, offering in-app messaging and what can only be described as an obsession with engaging customers right where they stand (virtually speaking, of course). It's the sort of product you’d use if you’re a business that really wants to have a chat with its customers in the middle of a crisis, rather than just send them emails and hope they’re not too busy to respond. Oh and it’s based in the United States – just in case you were wondering.
MailChimp, on the other hand, was born in 2001, a rather more straightforward fellow in the world of email marketing. It’s been patiently churning out newsletters and email campaigns, always making sure your customers are receiving precisely the right message, even if it’s a bit more formal than a live chat. It’s the marketing tool you’d use if your customers are scattered across planets and you want to make sure the message lands right where it’s supposed to. Lately, MailChimp has branched out, offering landing pages and social media ads, although you could argue it still prefers to stick to what it knows best: email and lots of it. Also, based in the United States, just to keep things neat.
See also: Top 10 Live Chat platforms
Now, Intercom, for reasons best known to itself, prefers to think of itself as a sort of cosmic concierge. Since its inception in 2011, it's been quite keen on live chats, offering in-app messaging and what can only be described as an obsession with engaging customers right where they stand (virtually speaking, of course). It's the sort of product you’d use if you’re a business that really wants to have a chat with its customers in the middle of a crisis, rather than just send them emails and hope they’re not too busy to respond. Oh and it’s based in the United States – just in case you were wondering.
MailChimp, on the other hand, was born in 2001, a rather more straightforward fellow in the world of email marketing. It’s been patiently churning out newsletters and email campaigns, always making sure your customers are receiving precisely the right message, even if it’s a bit more formal than a live chat. It’s the marketing tool you’d use if your customers are scattered across planets and you want to make sure the message lands right where it’s supposed to. Lately, MailChimp has branched out, offering landing pages and social media ads, although you could argue it still prefers to stick to what it knows best: email and lots of it. Also, based in the United States, just to keep things neat.
See also: Top 10 Live Chat platforms