Guide · UK · food and drink

Klaviyo vs Mailchimp for wine and spirits brands

Both send email. The differences that matter to a drinks brand are the alcohol rules for SMS and WhatsApp, how deep each goes into your web shop, and what you pay as the list grows.

By Pasi Sipilä, founder of Ziild · Prices and features checked 6 October 2026

Short answer

Selling mainly through your own Shopify shop: Klaviyo. It goes deeper into your orders and catalogue, has back-in-stock and reviews, and has real drinks customers (The Bottle Club, yellow tail, Pinter). A smaller list on a tighter budget: Mailchimp, from £9.92 a month and about £76 at 5,000 contacts on Standard.

Both allow alcohol email. UK alcohol SMS needs an age gate on both. WhatsApp alcohol promotion to UK numbers isn't allowed under Meta's policy on any platform. If most of your sales are in supermarkets, neither tool sees them.

Disclosure: We make Ziild CMO, which appears below as a third option. It isn't an email platform: it runs your marketing on top of one. Klaviyo and Mailchimp are both good tools, and for most drinks brands one of them is the right email platform. All facts come from the vendors' and regulators' own pages.

Can a wine or spirits brand use them?

Yes, for email. The rules tighten for text messages and WhatsApp:

Email: neither Klaviyo's nor Mailchimp's acceptable use policy prohibits alcohol brands.
SMS on Klaviyo: alcohol is only allowed with age-gating, which in the UK means 18+, and the age gate must collect a date of birth; a yes/no question isn't enough. Brands are submitted for approval during SMS setup.
SMS on Mailchimp: alcohol is only allowed in age-gated programmes (UK minimum age 18), on a paid plan with the SMS add-on. Age-gating can only be switched on when the SMS programme is first registered; an existing programme can't be converted.
WhatsApp: Meta lists alcohol as restricted and the United Kingdom isn't on its allowed-countries list, so alcohol promotion to UK WhatsApp numbers is off the table, whichever platform sends it.
Consent: under PECR, marketing email and SMS need consent, or the soft opt-in for existing customers, with an easy opt-out in every message.
Content: the CAP Code covers email and SMS too. No particular appeal to under-18s, no list where more than 25% are under 18, nobody under or looking under 25. This is a summary, not legal advice.

At a glance

	Klaviyo	Mailchimp
Alcohol email	Allowed	Allowed
Alcohol SMS in the UK	Age gate with date of birth, 18+	Age gate set at SMS registration, 18+
WhatsApp	Offered, but UK alcohol promotion isn't allowed by Meta	No native WhatsApp channel
Shopify data	Deep: orders, catalogue, browsing events	Native app (data synced not listed)
Back-in-stock alerts	Shopify and BigCommerce	Connected Shopify store
Reviews	Klaviyo Reviews, billed separately	Via Judge.me integration
Product recommendations	Free and paid plans	All plans; personalised needs 500 orders a year
Email, 5,000 contacts	$100 a month	£76.29 a month (Standard)
Email, 10,000 contacts	$150 a month	£103 a month (Standard)
What you're billed on	Profiles you can email	All contacts, incl. unsubscribed
Drinks customer stories	The Bottle Club, yellow tail, Pinter	Independent wine shops

Prices from each vendor's own calculator on 6 October 2026, email only, billed monthly. Klaviyo showed US dollars; Mailchimp's £ figures are its own estimates from USD and exclude VAT.

01Klaviyo

E-commerce email, SMS and WhatsApp marketing, built on your shop's order and browsing data.

Pick it if: You sell direct through Shopify and want flows that run on what people bought and browsed: back-in-stock, low inventory, win-back, reviews.
Skip it if: Most sales go through supermarkets and merchants. Its best features run on your own shop's data, so you'd pay for profiles and use little of the commerce automation.
AI features: K:AI, Composer, Customer Agent, predictive analytics and AI segments (paid plans).
Price: Free up to 250 active profiles. Email $100 a month at 5,000 profiles, $150 at 10,000. SMS from $0.061 a send in the UK. Reviews from $25 a month.
Website: www.klaviyo.com/uk/pricing

02Mailchimp

Email marketing with landing pages, SMS add-on and Shopify integration, owned by Intuit.

Pick it if: You want a familiar, cheaper tool for a smaller list, with landing pages included and simple automations.
Skip it if: You want deep Shopify personalisation: personalised recommendations need 500 orders, 50 customers and 10 products a year, and you pay for unsubscribed contacts too.
AI features: Intuit Assist (beta), generative AI features, predictive segments: Standard and Premium.
Price: Free under 250 contacts. Essentials from £9.92 a month. Standard £76.29 a month at 5,000 contacts, £103 at 10,000. UK SMS 5 credits per message.
Website: mailchimp.com/en-gb/pricing/marketing

03Ziild CMOOURS

An AI marketing department. It isn't an email platform: it plans, writes and sends your newsletters through one, checks the claims, and ties each send to what sold, including retail sales where data exists.

Pick it if: The email platform isn't the problem; nobody has time to write good newsletters every week, keep them lawful, and pick wines that are actually in stock.
Skip it if: You only need an email tool. Pick Klaviyo or Mailchimp above.
AI features: Built on Claude. House rules in code: verified ratings only, alcohol copy product-first, nothing sent without approval. Runs today for a Nordic importer with 80,000 readers per newsletter.
Price: Content engine £1,250 a month (one site, 20 answer pages a month, videos and posts on 3 channels). Campaigns + £750 a month. Content network of up to 5 sites £5,000 a month, all-in. Full CMO scoped per company. Ex VAT.
Website: ziild.co.uk

How we chose

We compared the two email platforms UK drinks brands ask about most, on what matters to alcohol: the rules for email, SMS and WhatsApp.
We read each vendor's acceptable use policy and SMS help pages, Meta's WhatsApp policy, the ICO's PECR guidance and the CAP Code.
We priced both at 5,000 and 10,000 contacts with each vendor's own calculator.
We checked each vendor's customer stories for real drinks brands.

Questions people ask

Is Klaviyo or Mailchimp better for a wine brand?

Klaviyo if you sell mainly through your own Shopify shop: deeper order data, back-in-stock, reviews and drinks customers like The Bottle Club and yellow tail. Mailchimp if your list is smaller and budget matters more.

Can alcohol brands send SMS marketing in the UK?

Yes, with consent and an age gate. Klaviyo requires the gate to collect a date of birth (18+ in the UK). Mailchimp requires age-gating to be switched on when the SMS programme is first registered.

Can I promote alcohol on WhatsApp in the UK?

Not under Meta's current WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy: alcohol is restricted and the UK isn't on the allowed-countries list.

Does the CAP Code apply to marketing emails?

Yes. The CAP Code covers emails and text messages. Alcohol marketing must not appeal particularly to under-18s, must not go to a list where more than 25% are under 18, and must not show anyone who is or looks under 25.

Which is cheaper at 10,000 contacts?

Mailchimp Standard: about £103 a month, against $150 for Klaviyo email. But Mailchimp counts unsubscribed contacts too, so clean your list.

Sources

Prices change. We re-check this page every month; last check 6 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us: pasi@ziild.co.uk