How to switch from Mailchimp to Klaviyo

Most ecommerce brands that switch from Mailchimp to Klaviyo do it because Klaviyo automates around real purchase and browsing data instead of just email opens. Klaviyo's native integration pulls in your Mailchimp contacts, lists, and engagement history automatically. It does not move your flows, segments, forms, or templates, and you rebuild those by hand in Klaviyo.

Should you switch from Mailchimp to Klaviyo

If you run a Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce store and your Mailchimp flows are stuck reacting to email opens instead of what someone bought or browsed, Klaviyo is the tool most ecommerce teams cross-shop for that job. If you're a solo creator, a service business, or a store under 500 contacts that's happy with Mailchimp's built-in Shopify tracking and AI campaign tools, the switch usually isn't worth the rebuild work. Check the full field in our Mailchimp alternatives guide before you commit, since Klaviyo isn't the right swap for every Mailchimp account.

What actually migrates

Klaviyo's own help documentation on migrating from Mailchimp lays out the split plainly. Connecting the native integration automatically pulls over subscriber information, including unsubscribes and cleaned contacts, and your Mailchimp audiences sync over as Klaviyo lists. Engagement data comes with it: email receives, clicks, opens, and Mailchimp's own subscriber ratings. Contact properties like name, email, and location transfer too.

What doesn't come along automatically: Mailchimp tags and custom properties. Those need a manual CSV export and import. Klaviyo also won't sync entire campaigns, flows, or segments, and it only pulls in engagement metrics (receives, clicks, opens) for campaigns sent in roughly the 90 days before you connect the integration, so older send history stays behind in Mailchimp.

What you rebuild by hand

This is the real work of a switch, and it's bigger than most people expect going in.

• Flows. Klaviyo calls automations "flows," and Mailchimp's automation logic doesn't transfer. You recreate welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase, and win-back flows from scratch in Klaviyo's flow builder.
• Segments. Mailchimp segments don't carry over. You rebuild them in Klaviyo using the contact data and behavior signals that did import.
• Signup forms. Popups and embedded forms need to be recreated with Klaviyo's form builder.
• Email templates. You can export the HTML from Mailchimp, but Klaviyo's help center notes you'll be swapping Mailchimp's merge tags, like *|FNAME|*, for Klaviyo's own syntax, like {{ first_name }}, or just rebuilding in Klaviyo's drag-and-drop editor instead. If you import raw HTML, Klaviyo won't accept a marketing template without an unsubscribe tag already in the code, and once it's imported you're editing that HTML directly rather than using the visual builder. Either way, plan on touching every template.

Budget a real week or two for this if you run more than a handful of flows, not an afternoon. Test each rebuilt flow against a small segment before you turn off the Mailchimp version.

What it costs at your contact count

Both tools price by contact count, but they count contacts differently, which matters for the comparison. Mailchimp counts subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts against your plan limit unless you manually archive them. Klaviyo counts "active profiles," meaning any contact it can email through your account, whether or not you've emailed them recently. A large, quiet list can end up costing more on Klaviyo than it did on Mailchimp, since Klaviyo doesn't have a volume-based pricing option the way some competitors do.

Mailchimp's Standard plan starts at $20 a month at 500 contacts and includes up to 200 automation flows and predictive segmentation. Klaviyo's combined Email + SMS plan starts at $35 a month at 251 to 500 active profiles, and every tier gets the same core feature set, so what changes as you scale is your bill, not what you can build. If you only need email, Klaviyo's Email-only plan starts at $20 a month for the same profile range. Both companies' published rates are for monthly billing at the lowest qualifying tier; confirm your own quote on Mailchimp's pricing page and Klaviyo's pricing page before you commit, since your real bill depends on your actual contact count.

One more wrinkle: Klaviyo changed how it counts contacts in February 2025, moving from "people you've recently emailed" to "all active profiles." If you were already on Klaviyo before that change, you'd have an automatic appreciation discount capping the increase at 25% of your prior cost. If you're coming from Mailchimp now, that discount doesn't apply to you. You're quoted at current rates from day one.

Add-ons you didn't have on Mailchimp

Klaviyo's core plan covers email and SMS, but its newer products are priced and billed separately. Customer Hub, a self-service order-tracking widget, starts at $20 a month by active profiles. Helpdesk, a shared inbox across channels, starts at $10 a month by ticket volume. Customer Agent, an AI support agent, starts at $50 a month by resolved conversations. Marketing Analytics starts at $100 a month by active profiles. Composer, Klaviyo's newer AI marketing agent that drafts campaigns and audits your flows and account performance, is still in beta and billed on usage-based AI credits instead of a flat fee; the free plan includes 10,000 Composer credits a month if you want to try it before paying for anything else. None of these are things Mailchimp charges for separately, so if your plan depends on picking any of them up, add that to your cost comparison before you switch.

A migration checklist that works

1. Connect Klaviyo's Mailchimp integration and confirm your lists, contacts, and engagement history land correctly.
2. Export Mailchimp tags and custom fields to CSV and re-import them into Klaviyo, since these don't sync automatically.
3. Rebuild your highest-revenue flows first: abandoned cart, post-purchase, and welcome series. Leave low-traffic flows for later.
4. Recreate signup forms and test them live before you turn off Mailchimp's.
5. Run both platforms in parallel for one send cycle to confirm deliverability and flow logic before you cancel Mailchimp.
6. Cancel Mailchimp only after your first full billing cycle on Klaviyo looks right.

When Mailchimp is still fine

If you're under 500 contacts and already using Mailchimp's Shopify, Wix, or WooCommerce tracking along with its built-in AI campaign tools, rebuilding all of that in Klaviyo usually costs more in time than the switch saves in automation quality. Mailchimp's Standard plan also includes generative AI tools and predictive segmentation at no extra add-on fee, something Klaviyo now charges for piece by piece through Customer Hub, Helpdesk, Composer, and Marketing Analytics. Mailchimp itself keeps adding to that free layer, too: as of May 2026 it expanded its site-tracking pixel to Wix and WooCommerce stores (previously Shopify only) and added a connector so Standard and Premium users can build campaigns with Claude or ChatGPT, all inside the same plan you're already paying for. Stay put until your automation needs outgrow what a 4-step or 200-flow cap can do, or until purchase-based segmentation becomes something your campaigns actually depend on.

For the full lineup of Mailchimp alternatives beyond Klaviyo, including options priced by email volume instead of contact count, see our ranked guide to swapping out Mailchimp.