beehiiv vs Mailchimp
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for beehiiv and Mailchimp, verified . Both are primarily email marketing tools.
Plans side by side
Every published plan from each vendor, with the headline monthly anchor price. Some prices scale with subscriber count or seats; full detail lives on each tool's page.
beehiiv
- Launch
Free up to 2,500 subscribers
Free - Scale
Monetize and grow
$43/mo - Max
Pro features for larger operators
$96/mo - Enterprise
100,000+ subscribers, custom contracting
Custom
Mailchimp
- Free
Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month
Free - Essentials
Entry paid tier with A/B testing
$13/mo - Standard
Most popular paid tier
$20/mo - Premium
For high-volume senders and bigger teams
$350/mo
Limits at the entry paid tier
Compares Scale (beehiiv) against Essentials (Mailchimp). Both are the lowest-priced non-free, non-custom plan on each side.
| Limit | beehiiv | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | 100,000 subscribers | 500 contacts (anchor; scales up) |
| Emails / month | Unlimited | 5,000 sends (10x contacts) |
| Team seats | 3 | 3 |
| Automations | · | 4 flow steps |
| Campaigns | 3 publications | 3 audiences |
When beehiiv wins
- Newsletter operators who plan to monetize via ads, sponsorships, or paid subscriptions
- Solo creators who want one tool for newsletter, website, and podcast
- Publications under 100k subscribers that value growth networks (recommendations, boosts) over deep automation
Where beehiiv is the wrong fit
- B2B teams that need deep CRM integration or pipeline workflows
- Brands that need granular email design and dev-level template control
- API-first transactional senders (use Postmark or Resend instead)
When Mailchimp wins
- Small businesses that want one tool with a real onboarding flow and a huge integration list
- Teams already living in Intuit (QuickBooks) products
- Operators who want a brand-name vendor for stakeholder approval
Where Mailchimp is the wrong fit
- Creators with growing newsletters; the per-contact tax compounds (Kit, beehiiv, or MailerLite tend to be cheaper at 10k+ subscribers)
- B2B sales teams; the CRM is light versus HubSpot or ActiveCampaign
- Teams needing predictive AI on a budget; you have to jump to the $350 Premium plan
Common questions
- Is beehiiv cheaper than Mailchimp?
- Both beehiiv and Mailchimp have free or custom entry pricing, so a direct entry-tier price comparison is not meaningful.
- Does beehiiv or Mailchimp have a free plan?
- Both have free plans. beehiiv: Free up to 2,500 subscribers. Mailchimp: Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month.
beehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing · Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.