Crisp vs Mailchimp
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for Crisp and Mailchimp, verified . Crisp is primarily live chat; Mailchimp is primarily email marketing.
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.
Crisp
- Free
2 agents, unlimited conversations, forever free
Free - Mini
Per-workspace flat $45/mo
$45/mo - Essentials
Omnichannel inbox, AI chatbot, knowledge base
$95/mo - Plus
Best Value
$295/mo
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 Mini (Crisp) against Essentials (Mailchimp). Both are the lowest-priced non-free, non-custom plan on each side.
| Limit | Crisp | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | · | 500 contacts (anchor; scales up) |
| Emails / month | · | 5,000 sends (10x contacts) |
| Team seats | 4 agents | 3 |
| Automations | · | 4 flow steps |
| Campaigns | · | 3 audiences |
When Crisp wins
- SaaS startups and small teams that want chat and email in one tool
- E-commerce stores that want WhatsApp and Instagram DM unified with web chat
- Companies migrating off Intercom for cost reasons
Where Crisp is the wrong fit
- Solo operators (the Free plan already covers them)
- Enterprises with strict procurement and SSO requirements (HIPAA and SAML are not headline features)
- Teams that need deep ticket-form customization
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 Crisp cheaper than Mailchimp?
- Both Crisp and Mailchimp have free or custom entry pricing, so a direct entry-tier price comparison is not meaningful.
- Does Crisp or Mailchimp have a free plan?
- Both have free plans. Crisp: 2 agents, unlimited conversations, forever free. Mailchimp: Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month.
- Are Crisp and Mailchimp in the same category?
- No. Crisp is primarily a live chat tool; Mailchimp is primarily a email marketing tool. They overlap on use case but sit in different primary categories, so the comparison is between adjacent tools rather than direct competitors.
- Which has more plans, Crisp or Mailchimp?
- Both Crisp and Mailchimp ship 4 plans. Tier counts match; the differentiation is in features and pricing structure rather than tier ladder depth.
- Where can I see alternatives to Crisp or Mailchimp?
- Each tool has a dedicated alternatives page on TierGauge with ranked options and verified pricing: /alternatives/crisp for Crisp and /alternatives/mailchimp for Mailchimp. Alternatives are derived from each tool's editor-flagged competitors plus same-category tools we track.
Crisp: https://crisp.chat/en/pricing/ · Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.