App and software trials
Buyers of a trial checkout get an App trial tag and a started_trial event. The Customer Journey sends the onboarding emails, and the tag lets you leave current trialists out of the sales newsletter.
Native integration
Stripe + Mailchimp integration
Stripe takes the payment, and the paid Plandalf checkout adds the buyer to your Mailchimp audience, tags them and starts the right Customer Journey.
No credit card required. No coding required.
Stripe
MailchimpDoes Stripe integrate with Mailchimp?
Plandalf connects them with native Mailchimp steps; Plandalf does not sync Stripe with Mailchimp directly. A Plandalf checkout takes payment through your Stripe account, then a sequence adds the contact to an audience, tags them and records an event. Mailchimp events can also start Plandalf sequences.
What moves between Stripe and Mailchimp
| Event | From and to | Through | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checkout completed | Plandalf (paid via Stripe) → Mailchimp | Native step | Add Tags to Contact puts the buyer in the audience first if they are not there, so no separate create step is needed. A tag typed into the step can include variables such as the offer name. |
| Checkout completed, event recorded | Plandalf (paid via Stripe) → Mailchimp | Native step | Record Event sends a custom event such as started_trial that a Customer Journey can begin on. Mailchimp events carry no revenue and Plandalf does not use Mailchimp's ecommerce API, so the sale does not show up as a Mailchimp order. |
| Invoice paid | Plandalf (paid via Stripe) → Mailchimp | Native step | Covers renewals and invoices you send. Add or Update Contact can write a merge field such as PLAN each time, as long as the field already exists on the audience. |
| Invoice refunded | Stripe → Mailchimp | Native step | Remove Tags from Contact takes off the tags the purchase sequence added. If the email is not in the audience the step is skipped instead of failing. |
| Contact subscribed | Mailchimp → Plandalf | Native step | Saving the trigger adds a webhook to the audience that you can see under Audience, Settings, Webhooks. A common follow-on is Enroll in Promo, which starts a countdown for each new subscriber. |
| Unsubscribe step | Plandalf → Mailchimp | Native step | Unsubscribe Contact ends marketing email for a contact while leaving them in the audience as unsubscribed. It is skipped when the email is not in the audience. |
Tag Stripe buyers in Mailchimp and start a Customer Journey
You need a Stripe account and a Mailchimp login that can open Extras, then API keys.
Connect Stripe and publish the checkout
Authorize your Stripe account in Plandalf, attach a Stripe-backed price to an offer and publish it. Payments are processed by Stripe and paid out to your Stripe account.
Create a Mailchimp API key
In Mailchimp open your profile menu, then Extras, then API keys, and choose Create A Key. Copy the whole key, including the data-centre ending such as
-us21, because Plandalf needs that part to find your account.Connect Mailchimp
In Plandalf open Automation, then Marketplace, and click Connect on Mailchimp under Available now. Paste the key into API Key. Plandalf loads your account to check it and shows Mailchimp connected.
Tag the buyer
Create a sequence under My Sequences with Plandalf, Checkout Completed and your checkout under Offer. Add Mailchimp, Add Tags to Contact, pick the Audience, set Email Address to
{{trigger.customer_email}}, add a tag such as App trial and set First Name to{{trigger.customer_first_name}}.Record the event
Add Mailchimp, Record Event on the same audience and email. Set Event Name to
started_trialand add an Event Properties pair ofplanand{{trigger.line_items_summary}}. Then, in Mailchimp, build a Customer Journey with an Event starting point that uses exactly that name.Take the tag back on refund
Under Automation, then Templates, add Remove access on refund for the same checkout and set its Remove Tags from Contact step to the Audience and tags you applied. The trigger fires on a full refund only, including one made in the Stripe dashboard.
Test with a Stripe test card
Turn on Run on test purchases, buy through the test link with a Stripe test card, then check the contact, tag and journey entry in Mailchimp and turn the setting off. A step test on its own changes a real contact, so use your own address.
What sellers do with Stripe and Mailchimp
Product line segments in one audience
A shop with several digital products keeps a single audience and adds one tag per product from separate sequences filtered by Offer. A merge field such as PLAN, filled by Add or Update Contact, covers anything a tag is too coarse for.
Waitlist with a deadline
Contact Subscribed on the waitlist audience starts a sequence that enrolls the new subscriber in a promo, so each person sees their own countdown. When they pay, the purchase sequence tags them and the waitlist emails can stop.
Limits and gotchas
- Sales are not sent to Mailchimp as orders or products, and events carry no revenue. Put what was bought in an event property or a merge field, and segment with tags.
- Mailchimp does not create a merge field when a value is first sent for it. Add the field to the audience first, or the step fails with Mailchimp's own error.
- The API key must keep the part after the dash. A key pasted without
-us21or similar is rejected before it is saved. - New contacts can be Subscribed, Pending (Mailchimp asks them to confirm) or Transactional. Existing contacts keep their status, so these steps never resubscribe someone who opted out.
- A Plandalf sequence that adds buyers to an audience also fires Contact Subscribed for that audience, so check a Mailchimp-triggered sequence on the same audience does not loop back.
- Mailchimp allows 10 simultaneous connections per API key. Plandalf retries a rate-limited step twice, and after that you re-run it once the burst has passed.
Stripe and Mailchimp: common questions
- Does Stripe integrate with Mailchimp?
- Plandalf links them rather than the two syncing directly. Stripe processes the payment inside a Plandalf checkout, and a Plandalf sequence then tags the buyer in Mailchimp or records an event on them. See Mailchimp's own integrations list for anything it offers with Stripe itself.
- How do I connect Stripe to Mailchimp?
- Connect Stripe to Plandalf and publish a checkout, create a Mailchimp API key under Extras, then API keys, and connect it in Automation under Marketplace. A sequence that starts on Checkout Completed then runs Add Tags to Contact.
- Will my Stripe sales appear as orders in Mailchimp?
- No. Plandalf records a purchase as a custom event on the contact and does not use Mailchimp's ecommerce API, so there are no Mailchimp orders or product records. Tags, event properties and merge fields hold the purchase details.
- How do I start a Mailchimp Customer Journey after a Stripe payment?
- Add a Record Event step to the purchase sequence and give it the event name your journey starts on, written the same way in both places. Event names are 2 to 30 letters, numbers, dashes or underscores.
Guides for this pair
- Plandalf with Stripe
- Plandalf with Mailchimp
- Mailchimp setup guide
- Automations overview
- Connect Stripe to Plandalf
More from Stripe and Mailchimp
- Stripe + ShopifyA button in your Shopify theme opens a Plandalf checkout that charges through your own Stripe account, while Shopify keeps its cart and catalog.
- Stripe + SlackYour team sees each Stripe sale, renewal, upsell and refund in a Slack channel, and failed automations are reported there as well.
- Stripe + TeachableThe course is sold in a Plandalf checkout and paid through Stripe. Teachable delivers it, enrolling the student on payment and removing them on a refund.
- Next.js + MailchimpNext.js hosts the buying action, Plandalf takes payment, and native steps put the buyer in a Mailchimp audience with tags and an event.
- PayPal + MailchimpA PayPal payment on a Plandalf checkout can add the buyer to your Mailchimp audience, tag them and start a Customer Journey.
- Shopify + MailchimpMailchimp's Shopify app handles the store. A Plandalf offer opened from a Shopify page adds its buyers to the same audience, tagged and ready for a journey.
Checked October 26, 2026 against Plandalf's own setup guides.