Moving from Mailchimp to Taildove takes less time than most people expect. Your contacts, tags, and sending history come with you. Here's the exact process.
What You'll Need
- Your Mailchimp account credentials
- Access to your domain's DNS settings (for about 10 minutes)
- A Taildove account (free trial, no credit card)
Total time: 30–60 minutes depending on list size.
Step 1: Export Your Contacts from Mailchimp
- Log into Mailchimp
- Go to Audience → All Contacts
- Click Export Audience (top right)
- Choose Export as CSV
- Mailchimp will email you a download link
The export includes email addresses, names, tags, and any merge fields (custom fields) you've set up.
Exporting specific segments? Go to Audience → Segments, select the segment, and use the export option there. Repeat for each segment you want to bring over.
Step 2: Create Your Taildove Account
Go to taildove.com and start your free trial. No credit card required.
During onboarding, you'll be asked to connect your sending domain. This is the same domain you used in Mailchimp — do this before importing your contacts.
Step 3: Connect Your Sending Domain
- In Taildove, go to Settings → Domain
- Enter your sending domain (e.g.,
yourcompany.com) - Taildove will generate DNS records to add to your domain's DNS settings
- Add the records in your DNS provider (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)
- Click Verify — Taildove confirms your authentication is live
This configures your authentication automatically. You don't need to manually set up SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records.
DNS changes typically propagate within 30 minutes, though it can take up to 24 hours depending on your provider.
Step 4: Import Your Contacts
- In Taildove, go to Contacts → Import
- Upload the CSV you exported from Mailchimp
- Map the columns to Taildove fields (email, first name, last name, tags, custom fields)
- Taildove will automatically:
- Deduplicate contacts
- Flag invalid email addresses
- Suppress known hard bounces
Your contacts will be imported within minutes for most list sizes.
Importing tags? If your Mailchimp export includes tags as a column, map that column during import. Tagged contacts will be tagged in Taildove automatically.
Step 5: Recreate Your Groups and Segments
In Mailchimp, audiences and segments work differently than in Taildove. Here's how they map:
| Mailchimp | Taildove |
|---|---|
| Audience | Account (one per Taildove account) |
| Group | Group |
| Segment | Segment |
| Tags | Tags |
| Merge fields | Custom fields |
Create your groups in Taildove (Contacts → Groups), then add contacts to them. If you exported segmented lists separately, import each one and assign it to the appropriate group.
Step 6: Set Up Your First Campaign
- Go to Campaigns → New Campaign
- Choose your audience (all contacts, a group, or a segment)
- Write your subject line and email body
- Send a test email to yourself
- Schedule or send immediately
Your first campaign from Taildove will be sent through your authenticated domain with bounce suppression active.
What You Don't Need to Rebuild
- Authentication: Taildove configures this automatically when you connect your domain
- Bounce suppression: Active by default
- Unsubscribe handling: Taildove handles opt-outs automatically
A Note on Sender Reputation
If you've been sending from Mailchimp's shared IP pool, your new Taildove sends will come from Taildove's infrastructure. Your domain reputation travels with you (since it's tied to your domain, not the IP), but you may want to start with a slightly lower volume for your first few campaigns and ramp up over a week or two.
This is especially true if you're migrating a large list (10,000+ contacts). Gradual sending helps inbox providers calibrate to your new sending pattern.
Cancelling Mailchimp
Once you've confirmed your contacts are in Taildove and your first campaign has sent successfully, you can cancel Mailchimp.
Mailchimp allows you to export your data at any time. Taildove also allows you to export your full contact list at any time — no lock-in on either side.
The whole migration takes under an hour for most teams. If you run into anything, email us at [email protected] — we'll help you through it.