Compare Mailchimp's Email Builders

Mailchimp has 2 email builders to help you create and design your emails: the new builder and the legacy builder. Both share core features, though they differ slightly in appearance, use, and capability.

In this article, you’ll learn the differences between the new email builder and the legacy email builder, and find resources for both.

About the builders

When you create an email or email template with Mailchimp, design it with the new builder or the legacy builder. Create beautiful marketing emails for your audience, including drag-and-drop content blocks in custom or pre-built templates.

The new builder is our updated email designer with a refined interface. Use the Apps content block to pull in content from other platforms. Use the Content Optimizer to create marketing content. Add a Survey content block to get feedback from your customers. You can also undo or redo edits to your email in your draft. To learn how to use the new builder for these features and more, check out Design an Email with the New Builder.

Use the legacy builder to custom-code an email template. To learn how to use the legacy builder, check out Design an Email with the Classic Builder.

The legacy builder is available to Mailchimp customers with an account created before March 2024. The new builder is available to all Mailchimp customers, and it continues to expand with new features.

For more resources on both of the email builders, check out these articles.

Create a Regular Email Campaign
Create an Email Template
Save and Use an Email Template
Replicate a Template
Add or Remove Referral Badge

Legacy builder vs. new builder

While many features are available in both builders, there are some differences.

These are the features available in each email builder.

Feature	Feature description	Legacy builder	New builder
Templates	Create emails from pre-designed email layouts. The legacy builder has ~100 templates, and the new builder has 250+ templates.
Custom-coded templates	Create your own email template with a custom code.
Content blocks	Use content blocks to add or edit text, images, products, promo codes, and more.
Text content blocks	Use Text content blocks to add written information and links to your email.
Paragraph content blocks	Use Paragraph content blocks to add text and links to your email.
Heading content blocks	Use Heading content blocks to emphasize text and organize your emails.
Button content blocks	The Button content block creates a button in your email or page that links to a website or file to download.
Divider content blocks	The Divider content block creates space between sections of content in your email.
Spacer content blocks	Use Spacer content blocks to edit the amount of space between blocks in your email.
Image content blocks	Add visuals to your emails with Image content blocks.
Image Card content blocks	Use an Image Card content block to add a single image with a caption to your email.
Image Group content blocks	Use an Image Group content block to add 2–5 images to your email.
Video content blocks	Use a Video content block to add a video link to your email.
Social content blocks	Add the Social content block to your layout to make it easier for people to share your email on social media.
Survey content blocks	Use Survey content blocks to add a button to your email that links to one of your Mailchimp surveys.*
Code content blocks	Use Code blocks to add custom HTML directly into your email. This block is useful if you want more control of your design than what our other content blocks provide.
Apps content blocks	The Apps content block adds information from connected services, websites, or applications outside of your Mailchimp account to your email.
E-commerce content blocks	Use e-commerce content blocks to advertise new products, or remind customers when they leave a product in their store cart.You must connect a supported e-commerce store or custom API 3.0 integration to use this content block.
Product content blocks	Add a Product content block to your email to promote up to 4 products.
Product Recommendations content blocks	Use Product Recommendation content blocks in your email to send product suggestions from your online store to your contacts.
Review Product content blocks	Use Review Product content blocks in your email to seek customer feedback on their most recent purchase.
Promo Code content blocks	Add a Promo Code content block to your email to promote special offers and increase orders in your online store.
Editing options	Undo/redo changes while you edit your email.
Collaboration	Add comments to a specific section of an email.
Anchor links	Use anchor links to jump to a specific section in an email.
Mobile editing	By default, mobile and desktop settings are linked. Make device-specific changes for content blocks like image, paragraph, and logo by un-linking the devices in block settings.
Desktop/mobile view	Switch between desktop and mobile views to make sure your email looks great on all devices.
Content block editing/controls	Each content block in the new builder can be styled separately.
Sections	Set a header, body, and footer in an email.
Dynamic content	Combine up to 5 logic rules to filter contacts. Use "or" logic between groups. Filter with birthday, SMS, and tags, and more. Search for specific contacts to make sure the right contacts see your content.
Optimization	Pre-send optimization
	Fix an error, check links/merge tags
	Link checker
Intuit Assist	Generate contention for email copy, subject line, or preview text.
Sending/preview	Preview mode
	Send a test email
	Test different email clients via Litmus