SurroHub vs. Mailchimp for surrogacy agencies
Mailchimp is where many agencies send their newsletter and welcome emails. It is a great email marketing tool. But most of what a surrogacy agency sends is not marketing: it is the next step in someone's journey.
Short answer: Mailchimp is excellent for newsletters and marketing campaigns to a list, with polished templates and reporting. A surrogacy agency's most important messages are different: the welcome to a new applicant, a reminder to book her intake call, the records request, the contract to sign, the check-in after transfer. Those depend on where each person is in their journey, often need to be texts, and belong on the profile. SurroHub sends them from workflows and scheduled campaigns, by email and text, from your agency's own sending domain. Many agencies keep Mailchimp for a monthly newsletter.
What Mailchimp does well
Mailchimp's email designer, template library, audience segments and campaign reports are mature and easy to use. For a monthly newsletter to past surrogates, referral partners and prospective intended parents, or a one-off announcement to a big list, it is a strong choice. Its automations can send a welcome series to anyone who joins a list.
Where it strains for an agency
It knows the list, not the journey
Mailchimp knows that someone subscribed. It does not know that she passed prescreening, that her records are overdue or that she was matched yesterday, unless someone updates her tags in two systems. Journey messages that depend on a stage drift out of date quickly.
Applicants answer texts
Many surrogate applicants respond to a text within minutes and an email within days, if at all. Email-only follow-up misses the channel that works best for intake.
Replies land in an inbox, not on the profile
When an applicant replies to a campaign email, the reply goes to whoever sent it. The coordinator handling her never sees it on her record.
Two lists of the same people
Every applicant has to be added to Mailchimp and kept in sync with the spreadsheet or CRM, including unsubscribes and the people you should stop emailing once they are matched or closed.
How messaging works in SurroHub
- Workflow messages. A welcome email, a text reminder, the next form or a contract to sign go out the moment a step starts, or hours later if you prefer.
- Campaigns on every profile. See every email and text scheduled to go to a person, and edit, reschedule or add one.
- Email and text together, from your agency's own texting number, with two-way replies in one thread on the profile.
- Broadcasts when you need to reach a group at once.
- Your brand and your domain. Emails go out in your branded layout, from a sending domain set up for your agency, with unsubscribe handling and link-click reporting.
- In their language. Read and write threads translated into any of 38 languages, and Surro drafts messages for you.
| SurroHub | Mailchimp | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Messages that follow each surrogacy journey | Email marketing to lists |
| Triggers | Workflow steps and stages for each person | List joins, tags and dates |
| Channels | Email and two-way text | Email; SMS on some plans and countries |
| Replies | On the person's profile, in one thread | In the sender's inbox |
| Contacts | Your surrogates, intended parents and egg donors, already there | A separate list to keep in sync |
| Design | Branded layout with your logo and colours | Rich email designer and templates |
When to keep Mailchimp
If you send a designed newsletter to a large list of past clients, partners and the public, Mailchimp remains a good tool for that job, and it does not need to know anyone's journey. Move the journey messages, the ones that depend on a stage, a document or a date, into SurroHub, and let Mailchimp do what it is best at.
This page is part of a series. See the whole surrogacy agency tech stack: every tool agencies juggle, what each one costs, and what replaces it.
What you get with SurroHub
- Four profiles, one place. Surrogates, intended parents, egg donors and matches each get a complete profile: stage and sub-steps, every answer, document and message.
- Workflows that run themselves. Tick a step and the next one starts, messages go out on their own, and late steps are flagged before anyone has to ask.
- Profile sharing. Intended parents browse the surrogates and egg donors you share in their portal; surrogates browse families on their phone.
- Profiles that build themselves. Surro, the built-in AI assistant, lays out a polished profile from what is on file, ready to share as a link or PDF.
- Contracts and e-signatures, messaging in 38 languages, scheduling, and branded portals for surrogates, intended parents and egg donors.
- Live in about a week. Send your spreadsheets, files and forms in any format; we import them and set you up.
See SurroHub for yourself
The surrogacy and egg donor agency platform: one place for surrogates, intended parents, egg donors and matches, with branded portals, workflows, e-sign contracts and a built-in AI assistant.
Frequently asked questions
Do I still need Mailchimp with SurroHub?
Not for journey messages. Welcome sequences, follow-ups, reminders and check-ins run from SurroHub workflows and campaigns by email and text. Some agencies keep Mailchimp for a designed newsletter to a wide list.
Can SurroHub send a welcome sequence to new surrogate applicants?
Yes. When an application arrives, the workflow can send a welcome email and text straight away and follow up on a schedule, and every message shows on her profile.
Does SurroHub send emails from my agency's domain?
Yes. Emails go out in your branded layout from a sending domain set up for your agency, with unsubscribe handling.
Can SurroHub text applicants as well as email them?
Yes. Your agency gets its own texting number, and texts and emails with each person sit in one thread on their profile.