MailChimp vs SurveyMonkey: What are the differences?

Introduction

MailChimp and SurveyMonkey are two popular online platforms that serve different purposes. MailChimp is primarily an email marketing service, while SurveyMonkey specializes in online survey creation and analysis. Although both platforms offer some similar features, there are key differences that set them apart in terms of their functionalities and target audiences.

1. Integration and Automation Abilities: MailChimp offers robust integration capabilities, allowing users to connect with various third-party apps and services, such as CRMs and e-commerce platforms. It also provides automation features, like email autoresponders and workflows, to enhance marketing campaigns. On the other hand, SurveyMonkey provides limited integration options, mostly focused on sharing survey responses with other tools, and lacks advanced automation features.

2. Primary Purpose and Target Audience: MailChimp is primarily designed for businesses and organizations to manage email marketing campaigns, build customer relationships, and grow their subscriber base. Its target audience includes marketers, small businesses, and e-commerce enterprises. In contrast, SurveyMonkey's main focus is on creating and conducting online surveys. It targets researchers, educators, HR professionals, and businesses looking to gain insights and collect feedback from their audience.

3. Survey Creation and Question Types: In terms of survey creation, SurveyMonkey provides a wide range of pre-built templates and question types, making it easy to create visually appealing surveys with various question formats. It offers advanced question types like matrix questions and branch logic. MailChimp, on the other hand, does not provide extensive survey creation capabilities and offers only basic email capture forms.

4. Data Analysis and Reporting: SurveyMonkey offers comprehensive data analysis and reporting features, allowing users to analyze responses with built-in tools, create custom reports, and export data in various formats. It provides features like cross-tabulation, visualization options, and sentiment analysis. MailChimp, on the other hand, focuses more on email campaign monitoring and provides basic reporting features like open rates, click-through rates, and subscriber behavior.

5. Pricing and Plans: MailChimp offers various pricing plans based on the number of subscribers, providing free and paid options with different features. It also offers flexible pay-as-you-go options. SurveyMonkey, on the other hand, offers both free and paid plans based on survey response limit, with additional advanced features available in higher-tier plans. Pricing for SurveyMonkey is primarily based on survey response quantity.

In Summary, MailChimp and SurveyMonkey differ in terms of integration and automation abilities, their primary purposes and target audiences, survey creation and question types, data analysis and reporting features, and pricing and plans. While MailChimp is focused on email marketing and offers more extensive integration and automation options, SurveyMonkey specializes in survey creation and provides advanced survey features and comprehensive data analysis capabilities.