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Migration guide

How to move from Mailchimp to MailNesto

Export your contacts and designs from Mailchimp, bring them into MailNesto and send your first campaign — usually within a day.

Start freeMailNesto vs Mailchimp
Overview

Moving from Mailchimp to MailNesto

Teams usually move from Mailchimp to MailNesto for plans in rupees with GST invoices and UPI payments, festival-ready templates, and tools beside email in the same account: a deals board, event ticketing, shopper predictions and agency client workspaces. It’s also a good moment to tidy up, say three audiences that should have been one list.

Contacts, merge fields, tags, groups and the record of who unsubscribed or bounced all come across as CSV files, and so does any template you coded yourself. Some things stay behind: designs built in Mailchimp’s drag-and-drop editor (Mailchimp says these can’t be exported), flows, contact ratings and the open and click history behind your reports. Plan to rebuild the few flows that actually earn money and keep the old reports as downloaded files.

Step by step

Five steps to switch

  1. 1

    Export from Mailchimp

    Audience > (select audience) > Export audience > Export CSV; a ZIP of CSVs (subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed, cleaned) is emailed when ready.

  2. 2

    Import into MailNesto

    Contacts → Import: upload the CSV or Excel file (or paste it), map the columns, choose a list. Import only subscribed people, then paste unsubscribed, bounced and complained addresses into Audience → Suppression list so they never get email again.

  3. 3

    Bring your designs

    Campaigns > Email templates > (template) > More options > Export as template (HTML). Only custom-coded templates; drag-and-drop templates cannot be exported. Then import the .html or .zip in Templates, or start from one of ours.

  4. 4

    Authenticate your domain

    Add the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records MailNesto shows you, then send a test. New senders ramp up gradually to protect your reputation.

  5. 5

    Rebuild automations

    Start from a recipe (welcome, birthday, win-back, abandoned cart) or build your own journey with branches and goals. Note: Merge tags use *|FNAME|* syntax. Drag-and-drop templates, automation flows and reports do not carry over.

Before you cancel Mailchimp

A short checklist

Keep Mailchimp running until your first campaigns from MailNesto look right.

  • Export unsubscribed, bounced and complained contacts too — they must stay suppressed
  • Note when and how people subscribed (consent) and keep it in a field
  • Download reports you want to keep; engagement history doesn’t move between tools
  • Replace merge tags — MailNesto uses {{first_name}} with optional fallbacks {{first_name|there}}
  • Update signup forms on your website to MailNesto’s forms or the WordPress plugin
  • Send to your most engaged people first while the new sender warms up
In Mailchimp

Exporting everything from Mailchimp

Menu names change from time to time — the steps below follow Mailchimp’s own help pages, linked at the bottom.

  1. 1

    Export the whole audience. Click Audience and, if you have more than one, pick it from the Audience drop-down. Click Export audience, then Export CSV. Mailchimp emails you when it’s ready, and it stays under Audience → More options → Export history for 30 days. Only Owners and Admins can export.

  2. 2

    Keep the four files apart. An export with several contact types arrives as a ZIP with one CSV each for subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed and cleaned contacts. Subscribed goes into a MailNesto list. Unsubscribed and cleaned (Mailchimp’s hard bounces) go to the suppression list. Non-subscribed people never opted in to marketing, so leave them out. Archived contacts export separately.

  3. 3

    One file per tag, group or segment. For a tag, open the Tags drop-down, choose the tag, click Save as segment and then Export CSV. For a group, go to More options → Groups, click View Group, click the “# contacts” link, then Export segment. Name each file after its tag or group.

  4. 4

    Download custom-coded templates. Go to Campaigns → Email templates, open the More options menu on a template and choose Export as template to get an HTML file. Drag-and-drop templates can’t be exported, so rebuild only the two or three layouts you send most.

  5. 5

    Save the reports you want to keep. For one campaign: Campaigns → View report → Actions → Export CSV. For all campaigns at once: Campaigns → View analytics → Download All Reports → Generate Export. Flow reports export from Automations → All flows → View Report, using Export CSV in the Step analysis section.

  6. 6

    Take a full backup before you close. From your profile icon go to Account → Settings → Manage my data, tick what you want and click Export Data. You get one ZIP with audiences, campaign HTML, templates, reports and e-commerce data. Large exports can take up to 24 hours, so start early.

Translation guide

Mailchimp terms and merge tags in MailNesto

In MailchimpIn MailNestoNotes
AudienceListEach list has its own sender details, sign-up pages and double opt-in setting.
TagsTagsUnlimited, and usable as automation triggers, segment rules and conditions on email blocks.
GroupsLists shown as topics, or tagsIf subscribers pick groups themselves, make each one a list so it appears as a topic in the preference centre.
SegmentsSegmentsRebuild the rules; you can also segment on orders, page visits, lead score and predictions.
*|FNAME|*{{first_name|there}}The text after the pipe is the fallback for people without a first name.
*|LNAME|* and *|EMAIL|*{{last_name}} and {{email}}
*|UNSUB|*{{unsubscribe_url}}
*|UPDATE_PROFILE|*{{preferences_url}}Opens the preference centre with topics, snooze and data requests.
*|LIST:ADDRESS|*{{company_address}}
Custom merge fields and *|IF:|* blocks{{field_key}} and conditional blocksCreate the field under Audience → Custom fields, then show or hide builder blocks by field value or tag.
Automations

Rebuilding your Mailchimp automations

  • Welcome flow → the Welcome series recipe: a welcome email, then a thank-you offer for people who open it or a “second chance” email for those who don’t. Use Welcome offer instead if your Mailchimp welcome carried a discount code.
  • Abandoned cart flow → Abandoned cart recovery, which starts an hour after a Shopify cart is left and sends two reminders a day apart with the store’s own recovery link.
  • Birthday flow → Birthday treat, sent at 9 am on the day. Import the birthday column into a Birthday field first.
  • Re-engagement flow → Win back inactive (no opens in 90 days), then Sunset unengaged subscribers.
Watch out for

Common mistakes when leaving Mailchimp

  • Paste cleaned contacts into Audience → Suppression list with the reason “Bounced”. Never import them into a list: a file import adds everyone in it as subscribed.
  • MailNesto birthday fields read MM-DD and date fields YYYY-MM-DD. Convert Mailchimp’s birthday column to match before importing, or the Birthday treat goes out on the wrong day.
  • Tags in a column aren’t turned into tags on import. Import one file per tag and type the tag on the import screen (up to 10 per import); someone who appears in several files simply collects all the tags.
  • If the list you import into already starts a live automation, the import screen names it. Tick “Don’t start automations for this import” so people who have been reading your newsletter for years don’t get a welcome email.
  • Mailchimp’s store data (orders and products) doesn’t come with the audience file. Connect Shopify or WooCommerce under Integrations and bring in past orders from the Past data tab, so revenue segments and predictions start with real history.
FAQ

Questions about moving from Mailchimp

Can my Mailchimp sign-up form keep running while I switch?

Yes, for a few days. Just before you swap it for a MailNesto form, export once more and import that file; duplicates are merged.

Will my subscribers need to confirm again?

No. People who opted in on Mailchimp are imported as subscribed. Keep the opt-in time and source columns as custom fields as a record of consent.

Can I keep my brand look?

Save your logo, colours, fonts and footer once in the Brand kit and every new email starts on-brand, whether you rebuild an old design or start from a template.

Do I lose open and click history?

It stays in your Mailchimp reports, so download what you need. Engagement-based segments in MailNesto, such as “not opened in 90 days”, only count activity from MailNesto, so wait about three months before sunsetting anyone.

Where these facts come from (29 sources)

Mailchimp is a trademark of its owner. This comparison is our own, made from public information on each vendor’s website (checked November 2026); we aren’t affiliated with them. Plans and prices change — check the vendor’s site before you decide, and tell us if something here is out of date and we’ll fix it.