Mailchimp vs Mailtrap
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for Mailchimp and Mailtrap, verified . Mailchimp is primarily email marketing; Mailtrap is primarily deliverability.
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.
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
Mailtrap
- Free
4,000 emails per month for hobby projects and early validation
Free - Basic
Entry paid Email API tier scaling from 10k to 100k emails per month
$15/mo - Business
Best value
$85/mo - Enterprise
1.5M+ emails per month with priority support and custom contracting
Custom
Limits at the entry paid tier
Compares Essentials (Mailchimp) against Basic (Mailtrap). Both are the lowest-priced non-free, non-custom plan on each side.
| Limit | Mailchimp | Mailtrap |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | 500 contacts (anchor; scales up) | · |
| Emails / month | 5,000 sends (10x contacts) | 100,000 emails (entry $15 covers 10k; scales to $30 at 100k) |
| Team seats | 3 | 3 |
| Automations | 4 flow steps | · |
| Campaigns | 3 audiences | · |
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
When Mailtrap wins
- Dev teams that want one vendor for both email testing and production sending
- SaaS startups under 100k/month Email API volume who can ride the Basic tier ramp
- Teams that need a dedicated IP without paying for SendGrid Pro or higher
Where Mailtrap is the wrong fit
- Marketing-only teams (use Mailchimp or Kit)
- Buyers who want flat predictable per-tier pricing (Postmark is more predictable)
- Enterprises needing voice or SMS in the same platform (use Twilio or SendGrid)
Common questions
- Is Mailchimp cheaper than Mailtrap?
- Both Mailchimp and Mailtrap have free or custom entry pricing, so a direct entry-tier price comparison is not meaningful.
- Does Mailchimp or Mailtrap have a free plan?
- Both have free plans. Mailchimp: Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month. Mailtrap: 4,000 emails per month for hobby projects and early validation.
Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/ · Mailtrap: https://mailtrap.io/pricing/
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.