5 Best Mailchimp Alternatives in 2026 (Real Cost Compared)
Mailchimp charges you for people who asked you to stop emailing them.
Unsubscribed contacts still count toward your contact limit. So do non-subscribed ones. Your list grows, the bill climbs, and a meaningful slice of what you’re paying for is people who will never open anything again.
Add the January 2026 free plan cut, down to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, and the reasons to look at Mailchimp alternatives stack up quickly.
Here’s what the switch actually saves, and the ten-minute fix worth trying before you move anything.
Table of contents
What changed with Mailchimp in 2026
The free plan is now a demo. It covers 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, with a 250-per-day cap. In 2022 it was 2,000 contacts and 10,000 emails. There’s no scheduling, no multi-step automation, and Mailchimp branding on every send.
You pay by list size, not by sending. A month where you send nothing costs the same as a month with twenty campaigns. The meter runs on storage.
Unsubscribes stay on the meter. This is the one that catches people. Someone unsubscribes, they’re still in your audience, and they still count toward the tier you’re paying for.
Send caps sit on top of contact caps. Standard limits you to 12 times your contact count per month, so a 5,000-contact list gets 60,000 sends. Weekly emails to a segmented list eat that faster than you’d think.
The advertised $13 on the Mailchimp pricing page is real. It’s also for 500 contacts. At 5,000 that becomes $75, and at 10,000 it’s $110. Standard runs $20, $100 and $135 at those same tiers. That gap is why Mailchimp alternatives get searched for as hard as they do.
Try this before you switch
Open your audience and check how many contacts are unsubscribed, cleaned or non-subscribed. On a list that’s been running a few years, 15 to 30% is normal.
Archive them. Archived contacts stop counting toward your limit, and their history stays intact if you ever need it.
Plenty of people sitting at 5,200 contacts paying $100 a month are actually mailing 3,800 people. Drop below the 5,000 threshold and the bill falls without moving a thing. Do this first. If the number still looks wrong afterwards, then the Mailchimp alternatives below are worth your afternoon.
The best Mailchimp alternatives at a glance
The best Mailchimp alternatives in 2026 are MailerLite for most small lists, Brevo for large lists that email infrequently, GetResponse for automation depth and webinars, Systeme.io if you need funnels and courses alongside email, and ActiveCampaign for complex automation logic.
Some links below are affiliate links. It doesn’t change what you pay, and it doesn’t decide what we recommend. How we make money.
| Tool | Priced by | At 500 contacts | At 10,000 contacts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp Standard | List size | $20/mo | $135/mo |
| MailerLite Comfort | List size | $12/mo | ~$73/mo |
| Brevo Starter | Emails sent | $9/mo | $9/mo* |
| GetResponse Starter | List size | $19/mo | $79/mo |
| Systeme.io Startup | List size | ~$17/mo | ~$97/mo |
Prices verified 1 September 2026, monthly billing. *Brevo bills by email volume rather than contacts, so the figure holds only while your sending stays inside the plan allowance. Annual billing cuts most of these by 15 to 18%.
How we assessed these Mailchimp alternatives: MailerLite and Systeme.io we’ve set up and used. Brevo, GetResponse and ActiveCampaign are researched rather than run in production. See how we test software.
The choice that matters more than the price
Every comparison of email tools ranks them cheapest to dearest. That ranking is meaningless until you know which billing model suits you, because the two models produce opposite answers.
List-based pricing charges for contacts stored. Mailchimp, MailerLite, GetResponse and most of the market work this way. Send as often as you like within the cap.
Send-based pricing charges for emails delivered. Brevo works this way, and contacts are effectively free.
Picture two businesses with 20,000 contacts. One runs a weekly newsletter, so 80,000 sends a month. The other emails customers twice a year, so about 3,300 sends a month.
On list-based pricing, both pay the same. On send-based pricing, the second business pays almost nothing. If you’re sitting on a large list you rarely mail, and you’ve been paying to store it, that’s the fork that decides which of the Mailchimp alternatives fits you.
1. MailerLite: the straightforward replacement
Pricing: free plan for 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Comfort from $12/month, Power from $25/month at 500 subscribers, both about 10% less on annual billing. Around $39 at 5,000 subscribers and $73 at 10,000.
For most people leaving Mailchimp, MailerLite is the answer. Same job, cleaner interface, roughly half the cost at every list size above a few thousand contacts.
Paid plans include unlimited sending, which removes the send-cap arithmetic entirely. Landing pages, forms, popups and a website builder come included, and the automation builder handles what most small businesses need without a manual. Check the current numbers on the MailerLite pricing page, because this market moves.
Worth saying plainly: MailerLite cut its own free plan in 2026 too, from 1,000 subscribers down to 250. It also renamed its plans in June, so articles quoting Growing Business and Advanced are describing tiers that no longer exist under those names. This market is not being generous to anyone right now, and that applies to the Mailchimp alternatives as much as to Mailchimp.
Where it beats Mailchimp: price at every meaningful list size, unlimited sends on paid plans, and an editor that doesn’t fight you.
Where it loses to Mailchimp: the integration ecosystem is smaller, reporting is shallower, and transactional email needs a separate MailerSend plan rather than being bundled. MailerLite also screens new accounts and occasionally rejects them, which is good for deliverability and irritating if you’re the one rejected.
Choose it if you want to pay less for the same job. Skip it if your business runs on a specific Mailchimp integration.
2. Brevo: for big lists you rarely mail
Pricing: free plan with up to 100,000 contacts and 300 emails a day. Starter from $9/month for 5,000 emails. Branding removal costs extra, around $11 a month.
Brevo’s free plan holds 100,000 contacts. Read that again if you’ve just been quoted $135 by Mailchimp for 10,000.
The catch is the 300-a-day sending cap, which works out around 9,000 emails a month. Enough for a modest newsletter to a segment, nowhere near enough to mail a large list weekly. Brevo also does SMS, WhatsApp and a basic sales CRM, which nudges it toward being a small marketing platform rather than an email tool.
Where it beats Mailchimp: storing contacts is effectively free, and for infrequent senders the saving is enormous rather than marginal.
Where it loses to Mailchimp: the add-on pricing. Removing branding costs roughly as much again as the Starter plan itself, which makes the $9 headline misleading. Landing pages sit behind the Business tier, and SMS and WhatsApp run on credits bought separately.
Choose it if your list is large and your sending is occasional. Skip it if you mail weekly, where the send-based model works against you.
3. GetResponse: when you need more than a newsletter
Pricing: free plan for 500 contacts. Starter $19/month, Marketer $59/month, Creator $69/month, all at 1,000 contacts. Starter reaches $79 at 10,000 contacts. Annual billing saves about 18%.
GetResponse bundles things Mailchimp charges separately for or doesn’t do at all: webinars on the Creator plan, course hosting, sales funnels, paid ad management.
Unlimited sends on every tier is the practical advantage. No send-cap maths, no upgrade because you segmented too enthusiastically.
Where it beats Mailchimp: automation depth at a much lower price, unlimited sending, and webinars built in.
Where it loses to Mailchimp: the entry plan is more expensive at small list sizes, $19 against $13. Automation is limited on Starter, so the tier most people actually need is Marketer at $59. And GetResponse doesn’t refund, even a day after you subscribe.
Choose it if email is one part of a wider marketing operation. Skip it if you just send a newsletter, where you’d be paying for a lot of unused platform.
4. Systeme.io: email plus everything else
Pricing: free plan, then around $17/month for Startup and $97/month for Unlimited. Prices scale with contacts.
If you’re paying Mailchimp for email and something else for courses, funnels or checkout, Systeme.io collapses those bills into one. Email, funnels, courses, membership sites, affiliate management, all in a single subscription. Among the Mailchimp alternatives here it’s the only one that replaces more than your email tool.
Two notes on that price. Systeme.io cut Startup from $27 to around $17 and plenty of articles still quote the old number. And the Unlimited plan at $97 is genuinely unlimited on contacts, which changes the arithmetic completely for anyone with a large list.
Where it beats Mailchimp: you stop paying three vendors. For anyone selling digital products, the combined saving is usually larger than the email saving alone.
Where it loses to Mailchimp: the email tool is the weakest part of the bundle. The builder is basic, the templates are plain, and reporting is thin. As a pure email platform it’s a downgrade, and it only makes sense if you’re using the rest.
Choose it if email is one line on a bill that has several. Skip it if email is the whole job.
5. ActiveCampaign: for automation that gets complicated
Pricing: we’re not quoting a figure here. ActiveCampaign restructured its tiers and we couldn’t verify current pricing to the standard we hold ourselves to. Check their pricing page directly.
What we can say is what it’s for. ActiveCampaign is the tool people move to when their automation outgrows what Mailchimp’s journey builder can express: conditional branching several layers deep, lead scoring, CRM integration, behaviour triggered off site activity rather than email opens.
It’s the most expensive of the Mailchimp alternatives on this page and the most complicated to learn. Both of those are the point. If you know why you need it, you already know.
Where it beats Mailchimp: automation that can actually model a sales process, and a CRM that isn’t an afterthought.
Where it loses to Mailchimp: price and learning curve. For a newsletter, it’s an expensive way to press send.
Choose it if your automation has outgrown the tool. Skip it if you’re not sure whether it has.
When Mailchimp is still worth it
Stay if you’re under 500 contacts. At $13 or $20 a month, the saving from moving is a few pounds and the migration costs you an evening.
Stay if a critical integration only exists for Mailchimp. It has the largest integration library in the category by some distance, and rebuilding a working connection to your store or booking system is rarely worth twenty a month.
Stay if you’re deep in the Intuit ecosystem and the data flowing between products is doing real work.
And archive your unsubscribes first. Every time.
Moving your list without losing it
Export from Mailchimp as CSV, including tags and signup dates. Both matter more than they look.
Four things to handle:
- Clean before you import. Don’t carry unsubscribes to the new platform. Beyond the ethics, it starts your sending reputation from a worse place.
- Rebuild automations by hand. No export path exists between platforms. Screenshot your existing journeys before you cancel anything.
- Warm up gradually. Sending to 10,000 people from a new platform on day one gets you filtered. Start with your most engaged segment and build over two or three weeks.
- Update your signup forms. Every form, popup and landing page still pointing at Mailchimp is quietly filling a list you’re about to stop paying for.
Keep the Mailchimp account alive for a month after you move. Cheap insurance.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best free Mailchimp alternatives?
Brevo, if you have a large list. Its free plan holds up to 100,000 contacts with a 300-a-day sending limit. MailerLite’s free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, which is the same ceiling Mailchimp now offers.
Is MailerLite cheaper than Mailchimp?
Yes, and the gap widens as your list grows. At 5,000 subscribers MailerLite runs about $39 against Mailchimp Standard’s $100. At 10,000 it’s roughly $73 against $135.
Does Mailchimp charge for unsubscribed contacts?
Unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts count toward your contact limit unless you archive them. Archiving removes them from the count while preserving their history, and on an older list it can drop you a full pricing tier.
Why did Mailchimp cut its free plan?
Mailchimp hasn’t explained it publicly. The observable pattern: the free tier has shrunk repeatedly since the Intuit acquisition, from 2,000 contacts and 10,000 monthly emails in 2022 to 250 contacts and 500 emails as of January 2026.
Can I move my list to one of these Mailchimp alternatives?
Yes. Export as CSV with tags intact and import to the new tool. Automations have to be rebuilt manually, and you should warm up your sending gradually rather than mailing everyone on day one.
Which Mailchimp alternative has the best automation?
ActiveCampaign for genuinely complex logic, GetResponse for a strong middle ground at lower cost. MailerLite handles what most small businesses need without either the price or the learning curve.
How to choose your Mailchimp alternative
Archive your unsubscribes and look at the bill again. If it still bothers you, MailerLite is the answer for most people: same job, roughly half the price, nothing to relearn.
Large list you rarely mail, Brevo. Email is part of a wider marketing operation, GetResponse. Selling courses or running funnels alongside, Systeme.io and stop paying two vendors. Automation that’s outgrown the tool, ActiveCampaign and budget accordingly.
Under 500 contacts, ignore the Mailchimp alternatives entirely and stay where you are. The saving is a coffee a week and the migration is an evening you won’t get back.
Pricing verified 1 September 2026. Some links on this page are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Read our full affiliate disclosure. Something out of date? hello@saasandstacks.com
