Mailchimp is an email marketing platform offering campaign design, list management, automation journeys, landing pages and reporting. Acquired by Intuit in 2021, it remains the most widely recognised entry point to email marketing, though pricing has moved upmarket over time.
Mailchimp ranking and coverage
- In Marketing
- #6 of 14
- Overall
- #48 of 122 tied
- Terms score
- 5.9 /10
- Referenced here
- 8 pages
Cost position 4.6 · Portability 5 · Subscription flexibility 8 - Ranked on published terms only: entry price against category peers, portability and subscription flexibility, equally weighted. This is not a quality score.How the rank is calculated.
Mailchimp: the short answer
Every line below is drawn from facts verified on 19 August 2026.
- What it is
- Email marketing and automation platform aimed at small and mid-sized businesses
- Best for
- Small businesses sending regular newsletters
- Starts at
- Free plan available; Standard from $20/month at 500 contacts
- Free option
- Free plan available, Standard plan offered free to try; paid tiers often discounted for the first months trial
- Biggest strength
- Very easy to start - free tier, no card, familiar interface
- Biggest drawback
- Pricing scales aggressively with contact count
- Based on
- Primary-source research, not hands-on use
- Closest alternative
- MailerLite - Markedly cheaper at the same list size with a clean automation builder
- True annual cost
- from $240 a year on Standard, the cheapest paid tier ($20 a month)
Mailchimp at a glance
| Best for | Small businesses sending regular newsletters, Ecommerce stores needing basic lifecycle email, Teams wanting design-led campaigns without a developer |
|---|---|
| Category | Marketing, Sales, AI |
| Starting price | Free plan available; Standard from $20/month at 500 contacts |
| Free plan | Yes |
| Free trial | Standard plan offered free to try; paid tiers often discounted for the first months |
| Pricing model | subscription |
| Company | Intuit Mailchimp |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Founders | Ben Chestnut, Dan Kurzius |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android |
| Public API | Yes |
| Browser extension | No |
| Mobile apps | iOS + Android |
| Self-hosting | No |
| Affiliate programme | No |
| Data source | Vendor pricing page and public records |
| Last checked | August 2026 |
Mailchimp pricing
Prices below were read from the vendor's own pricing page on 19 August 2026. Pricing model: subscription. Free trial: Standard plan offered free to try; paid tiers often discounted for the first months.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | per month | Limited contacts and sends; Mailchimp branding applied |
| Essentials | Varies with contact count | per month | - |
| Standard | From $20 | per month | Includes 500 contacts; price scales with audience size |
| Premium | From $135 | per month | Advanced segmentation and multivariate testing. Read from the rendered pricing page, which does not expose plan prices as text |
What Mailchimp actually costs over a year
A monthly price is not the same thing as a monthly contract. These are the plans above resolved both ways, per seat or unit where the plan is charged that way. Where a vendor quotes only a yearly figure it is divided by twelve rather than left out, and the Quoted column says which figure the vendor actually publishes.
| Plan | Quoted | Monthly | Over 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | per month | $20 | $240 |
| Premium | per month | $135 | $1,620 |
Which Mailchimp plan should you buy?
| Your situation | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You are starting a list from nothing | Free | Limited contacts and sends with Mailchimp branding. Adequate to begin, not to grow on. |
| You send regular design-led newsletters | Standard | From $20 a month at 500 contacts, scaling with audience size. |
| You need multivariate testing and advanced segmentation | Premium | From $135 a month, and a large step most senders never need. |
| Your list is large | Price your own contact count first | Every figure scales with audience size, and Mailchimp is the most expensive of the mainstream options at volume. |
| You email a big list infrequently | Consider Brevo instead | Brevo charges on sends rather than contacts, which suits dormant lists far better. |
| You only need transactional email | Do not buy Mailchimp | Postmark or Resend are cheaper and better at that single job. |
Verdict by who you are
Small business sending newslettersCompare first
Perfectly capable, but MailerLite and Brevo do the same work for less. The main reason to choose Mailchimp is familiarity or an existing integration.
Team wanting design-led campaignsYes
The template editor and design tooling remain among the best in the category.
High-volume senderNo
Per-contact pricing makes this the costliest mainstream option as lists grow.
B2B marketer with complex lifecycle needsNo
Automation is shallower than HubSpot's for account-based nurture.
Should you buy Mailchimp?
Buy Mailchimp if…
- Small businesses sending regular newsletters
- Ecommerce stores needing basic lifecycle email
- Teams wanting design-led campaigns without a developer
Do not buy Mailchimp if…
- High-volume senders sensitive to per-contact pricing
- Complex B2B lifecycle automation
- Transactional-only email needs
Key features
- Drag-and-drop email builder with a large template library
- Customer Journey Builder for multi-step automation
- Audience segmentation and tagging
- Landing pages and signup forms
- A/B and multivariate testing on higher tiers
- Ecommerce automations for abandoned carts and post-purchase
- Reporting with revenue attribution
- Transactional email via Mailchimp Transactional
Integrations
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- WordPress
- Canva
- QuickBooks
- Zapier
- Mailchimp Marketing API
Mailchimp screenshots
Captured by us in August 2026 at 1440px, unedited. Interfaces change, so these show the product as it looked on the date we verified this profile. Pricing pages are captured from a US vantage point, so the currency shown matches the USD figures recorded above.
Our assessment
Mailchimp is still a reasonable first email platform: the builder is good, the free tier lets you start without a card, and almost every ecommerce and website tool integrates with it. The criticism that has stuck is pricing. Costs scale with total contacts including unsubscribed and non-opening addresses on some plans, and the jump between tiers is steep. Many growing senders find the same capability elsewhere for materially less, and the migration gets harder the longer they wait.
What works in Mailchimp
- Very easy to start - free tier, no card, familiar interface
- Widest integration ecosystem in small-business email
- Solid template library and a genuinely good drag-and-drop builder
- Reporting is clear enough for non-marketers to act on
What doesn't
- Pricing scales aggressively with contact count
- Automation is limited compared with purpose-built lifecycle tools
- Free plan applies Mailchimp branding to every send
- No public affiliate programme for independent publishers
EveryAny Decision Score
3 of these 8 dimensions are calculated from verified facts; the rest are our judgement, shown as a band rather than a figure unless something specific sits behind them. How each score works.
- Cost position4.6/10
derivedentry tier at $20 a month against a category median of $20 a month across 13 comparable tools
- Portability5/10
derivedpublic API
- Subscription flexibility8/10
derivedfree plan, free trial, subscription, monthly billing
- Feature depthHigh
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- Ease of learningHigh
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- CollaborationHigh
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- AI capabilityModerate
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- Professional adoptionVery high
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
What leaving Mailchimp would cost
moderate lock-in
Mailchimp scores on public API. Portability 5/10 ; lock-in is the inverse. How this is calculated.
Mailchimp competitors and alternatives
| Alternative | Why you might pick it instead |
|---|---|
| MailerLite | Markedly cheaper at the same list size with a clean automation builder. |
| Klaviyo | The stronger choice for ecommerce, with deeper store data and attribution. |
| Brevo | Combines email and SMS with send-based rather than contact-based pricing. |
HubSpot
Sales
CRM platform bundling marketing, sales, service and CMS around one contact record.
Checked Aug 2026
What you are really paying for
Mailchimp charges primarily on contact count. That means the cost of a list grows whether or not the people on it open anything. Two practical consequences: clean your list regularly, and check whether your plan counts unsubscribed contacts before you assume a quoted price applies to you.
The free plan is a real starting point
500 contacts and a modest monthly send limit is enough to validate that email is worth doing at all. The trade is Mailchimp branding in the footer of every send, which for a business audience reads as early-stage. Treat free as a testing tier, not a launch tier.
Where it stops being the right answer
Two signals that you have outgrown it. First, your automation requirements involve branching on behaviour across several products - that is a lifecycle tool’s job. Second, your list has passed a few tens of thousands of contacts, at which point competitors are usually substantially cheaper for the same sends. See our guide to the best email marketing software.
On deliverability
Mailchimp’s shared sending infrastructure is well maintained and its reputation is good. Most deliverability problems on the platform trace back to list acquisition, not to Mailchimp. Set up authentication properly, use a real reply-to address, and send to people who asked.
Mailchimp questions, answered
- Is Mailchimp worth it?
- Mailchimp is still a reasonable first email platform: the builder is good, the free tier lets you start without a card, and almost every ecommerce and website tool integrates with it.
- How much does Mailchimp cost?
- Free plan available; Standard from $20/month at 500 contacts. The cheapest paid tier we recorded is Standard, published at $20 a month, which works out at $20 a month or $240 over a year. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
- Does Mailchimp have a free plan or free trial?
- Mailchimp has a free plan. A free trial is available: Standard plan offered free to try; paid tiers often discounted for the first months.
- What is the best Mailchimp alternative?
- It depends on the job. MailerLite: Markedly cheaper at the same list size with a clean automation builder. Klaviyo: The stronger choice for ecommerce, with deeper store data and attribution. Brevo: Combines email and SMS with send-based rather than contact-based pricing.
- Can I self-host Mailchimp?
- No. Mailchimp is a hosted service only, so your data lives on the vendor's infrastructure.
What this profile is based on
Every claim below is about our work, not about Mailchimp. A "no" is recorded rather than omitted, because the difference between a tested review and careful desk research is the reader's to weigh. How we research a profile.
-
Prices read from the vendor : yes
Read from Mailchimp's own pricing page on 19 August 2026
-
Plans and terms recorded : yes
4 rows, each with its billing period
-
Original screenshots : yes
2 captured by us: homepage, pricing page
-
Sources cited and dated : yes
2 primary sources, each with the date it was read
-
Product used first-hand : no
Not tested. This profile is desk research from primary sources
-
Alternatives used first-hand : no
None, so comparisons here rest on published facts rather than use
-
Vendor contacted : no
Not contacted for this profile
Where Mailchimp appears on this site
8 other pages here reference Mailchimp. Every one is listed below, so the figure can be checked rather than taken.
- Buyer guide Best email marketing software in 2026, measured at your list size ranked #5
- Article What Is Software as a Service (SaaS)? A Plain Definition listed as related
- Another profile Brevo names it as a competitor
- Another profile HubSpot names it as a competitor
- Another profile Kit names it as a competitor
- Another profile Klaviyo names it as a competitor
- Another profile MailerLite names it as a competitor
- Another profile Omnisend names it as a competitor
Counts pages on this site that name the product by choice - buyer guides, articles, deal records and other profiles. Category and directory indexes list everything automatically and are not counted.
One-click Google setting
Get our writing surfaced first on Google
If this was useful, add EveryAny.One as a preferred source in Google. Our profiles and best-of guides will appear ahead of the rest in Top Stories, AI Mode and AI Overviews when you search for software.
- Our reviews get a "preferred" badge in Top Stories and AI Overviews.
- AI Mode leans on the sources you've chosen when it answers.
- Change it back any time from the same Google page.
Opens Google's source preferences in a new tab.
Provenance and freshness
When each fact was last checked
- Pricing ·
- Plans ·
- Free trial
- Features
- Platforms
- Integrations
- Affiliate programme
- Company details
What has changed
-
August 2026
- Ladder re-measured across all 20 contact bands; Essentials is $27 at 501-1,500, $110 at 5,001-10,000 and $385 at 40,001-50,000
- Recorded that Essentials refuses contact counts above 50,000, showing a contact-limit-exceeded notice instead of a price
-
August 2026
- Pricing verified, noting figures scale with contact count
- Added plan picker and verdicts
Sources & verification
Facts on this page were read from the sources below on the dates shown. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, we record it as not disclosed rather than estimating it.
- Mailchimp pricing page - checked 19 August 2026
- Intuit press release on the Mailchimp acquisition - checked 19 August 2026
Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we will re-check it. Corrections are logged on the page.
