Ranked #5 of 9 on /best/email-marketing
Mailchimp
The default email marketing platform for small businesses.
Mailchimp is the most-recognized email marketing platform on the planet, owned by Intuit since 2021. Tier-priced by contact count with a tight free plan, a competitive Standard tier, and a Premium tier that jumps to $350/month for predictive segmentation and phone support. The product covers email, automations, A/B testing, landing pages, and a basic CRM. Many users outgrow it once their list scales because per-contact pricing climbs faster than ConvertKit/Kit or beehiiv at equivalent volumes.
- Category
- Email marketing
- Free plan
- Yes
- Plans
- 4
- Verified
Plans & pricing
Headline prices for each Mailchimp tier, captured from https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/ on .
Free
Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month
- Contacts
- 250 contacts
- Emails / month
- 500 sends (or 250/day)
- Team seats
- 1
- Automations
- ·
- Campaigns
- 1 audience
Included
- Basic email campaigns
- Popup forms
- Limited template library
- Mailchimp branding shown in emails
Not on this plan
- Marketing automation
- A/B testing
- Multiple audiences
- Phone or chat support after first 30 days
Email support is included only for the first 30 days; after that, free users are self-serve.
Essentials
Entry paid tier with A/B testing
- Contacts
- 500 contacts (anchor; scales up)
- Emails / month
- 5,000 sends (10x contacts)
- Team seats
- 3
- Automations
- 4 flow steps
- Campaigns
- 3 audiences
Included
- Email scheduling
- Popup forms
- A/B testing
- Up to 4-step automation flows
- Comparative reporting
- Custom branding
Not on this plan
- Multi-step automations beyond 4 steps
- Multivariate testing
- Predictive segmentation
- Custom reports
- Phone support
14-day free trial. Annual billing offers a discount; 15% off when paid annually at 10,000+ contacts.
Standard
Most popular paid tier
- Contacts
- 500 contacts (anchor; scales up)
- Emails / month
- 6,000 sends (12x contacts)
- Team seats
- 5
- Automations
- 200 flows
- Campaigns
- 5 audiences
Included
- Up to 200 customer-journey automation flows
- A/B testing
- Dynamic content
- Custom-coded reports
- Behavioral targeting
- Send-time optimization
Not on this plan
- Multivariate testing
- Predictive segmentation
- Phone support
- Dedicated onboarding
14-day free trial, no credit card. 15% off paid annually at 10,000+ contacts.
Premium
For high-volume senders and bigger teams
- Contacts
- 10,000 contacts minimum
- Emails / month
- 150,000 sends (15x contacts)
- Team seats
- Unlimited
- Automations
- 200 flows
- Campaigns
- Unlimited
Included
- Predictive segmentation
- Multivariate testing
- Phone and priority support
- Up to 200 automation flows
- Unlimited seats and audiences
- 5 user roles
- Dedicated onboarding specialist
1-month trial for qualified customers. 20% off when billed annually.
Where Mailchimp earns its price
- Most polished onboarding in the email marketing category
- Largest integration ecosystem; nearly every CMS, ecommerce platform, and CRM has a Mailchimp connector
- Free plan exists, even if the limits are tight
- Customer journey builder is genuinely solid on Standard and above
Where it falls short
- Per-contact pricing climbs faster than Kit, beehiiv, or MailerLite at the same list size; you pay for every duplicate or unsubscribed contact
- Premium tier jumps to $350/month, with no middle option between Standard and Premium
- Free plan email support drops off after 30 days, which surprises new users
- Owned by Intuit since 2021; deliverability and product velocity have both received mixed feedback since the acquisition
Best for
- 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
Not for
- 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
Alternatives to Mailchimp
Tools we cover in the same space.
Switching to Mailchimp 2 guides
Long-form migration guides for teams switching to Mailchimp. Each covers the cost math, what you lose by leaving, what you gain by moving, and the pair-specific gotchas that bite during cutover.
Switching from Mailchimp 6 guides
Long-form migration guides for teams leaving Mailchimp. Each covers the cost math, what you lose, what you gain, and the pair-specific gotchas your alternatives shortlist won't surface on its own.
- Mailchimp → MailerLite
- Cost reduction
- Tier-ratchet escape
Read guide - Mailchimp → Kit
- Creator-focused
- Add commerce
Read guide - Mailchimp → beehiiv
- Newsletter-first
- Monetization built-in
Read guide - Mailchimp → Omnisend
- E-commerce native
- SMS unified
Read guide - Mailchimp → Flodesk
- Flat pricing
- Design-led
- Creator-focused
Read guide - Mailchimp → Buttondown
- Cost reduction
- À la carte pricing
- Privacy-first
Read guide
Compare Mailchimp on price
See Mailchimp side by side with every other email marketing tool we track on a single price-only table: email marketing pricing comparison . Free tiers, entry paid plans, and mid-tier plans, all pulled from each vendor's pricing page on the same weekly cadence as the data on this page.
Common questions
- Does Mailchimp have a free plan?
- Yes. Mailchimp offers a free tier. Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month
- How much does Mailchimp cost?
- Mailchimp starts at Free. Plan prices captured April 30, 2026.
- What plans does Mailchimp offer?
- Mailchimp ships 4 plans: Free, Essentials, Standard, Premium. Each plan's anchor price, included features, and limits are listed above. Pricing reflects the snapshot captured on April 30, 2026.
- What are the alternatives to Mailchimp?
- We track 7 in-spine alternatives to Mailchimp with verified pricing: kit, mailerlite, brevo, activecampaign, beehiiv, constant-contact, and more. See the ranked /alternatives/mailchimp page for the full list with derived verdict tags.
Source: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/ · last verified · capture method: manual
TierGauge tracks live pricing for marketing & sales tools. Prices may change between refreshes; confirm at the vendor's pricing page before purchasing.