Mailchimp
All-in-one marketing platform with email, automation, landing pages, and more.
Best for
- Small businesses
- Beginners
- Ecommerce
- Content creators
Not ideal for
- Expensive at scale
- Limited automation on free
- Pricing by contacts
- Support limited on lower tiers
Try Mailchimp Free
Free plan available · 4 plans available
Visit Mailchimp →Mailchimp Overview
Mailchimp vs Top Alternatives
| Software | Rating | Starting Price | Free Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMailchimp | 4.4 ★ | Free | Yes | |
| AwAWeber | 4.9 ★ | $15/mo | No | Compare → |
| Bhbeehiiv | 4.9 ★ | Free | Yes | Compare → |
| CConvertKit | 4.7 ★ | $39/mo | Yes | Compare → |
| KlKlaviyo | 4.7 ★ | Free | Yes | Compare → |
| ACActiveCampaign | 4.6 ★ | $15/mo | No | Compare → |
Mailchimp Features
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Easy to use
- Great free tier
- All-in-one features
- Good templates
- Strong integrations
Cons
- Expensive at scale
- Limited automation on free
- Pricing by contacts
- Support limited on lower tiers
Pricing Plans
Free
- 500 contacts
- 1000 emails/month
- Basic templates
Essentials
- 500 contacts
- 5000 emails/month
- Email templates
Standard
- 500 contacts
- 6000 emails/month
- Automations
- A/B testing
Premium
- Unlimited contacts
- Unlimited emails
- Advanced segmentation
Mailchimp Integrations
Mailchimp connects with 5 services to extend your workflow.
Who Should Use Mailchimp?
Small Businesses and E-commerce Companies
Mailchimp is designed primarily for small businesses that need to manage email marketing campaigns and segment their audiences. The platform supports businesses across various industries by allowing them to create targeted campaigns based on customer data.
RecommendedB2C Companies with Customer Segmentation Needs
The platform serves B2C companies using Mailchimp's people audience capabilities to target frequent buyers, cart abandoners, and other customer segments based on purchasing behavior. Marketing teams use audience segmentation to break audiences into smaller groups based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.
RecommendedRetailers with Physical Locations
Physical retailers utilize Mailchimp extensively for location-based segments. For instance, a store owner could segment contacts who live within 25 miles of their location, are tagged as product enthusiasts, haven't made recent purchases, and regularly engage with emails.
RecommendedGrowing Businesses Beyond 2,000 Contacts
Once businesses move to paid plans, they're limited to just 500 contacts for $10.25+/month, and pricing jumps above $100/month when exceeding this. Mailchimp charges for duplicate and 'cleaned' contacts you can't actually send to, making the per-contact cost deceptive.
Not idealWhen to Consider Alternatives
When you need sophisticated marketing automation
Mailchimp's automation is 'basic and outdated,' lacking the sophistication and advanced segmentation modern marketers need. It offers both 'automated emails' and 'customer journeys' in different locations, creating confusion about whether you're sending duplicates.
Consider ActiveCampaign instead →When your business grows beyond the free tier pricing
The free plan supports 2,000 subscribers but only 2,500 emails total. Once you move to paid plans, pricing becomes prohibitively expensive and jumps above $100/month quickly. Users report pricing adds up fast once you scale.
Consider ActiveCampaign instead →When you need comprehensive CRM functionality
As Reddit users noted, 'It was pretty much never the best CRM solution. ActiveCampaign is probably your best budget option, while Hubspot is still king.' Mailchimp's contact management is limited - you can only organize contacts by category or tags, not by name, date, or source.
Consider HubSpot instead →When you need reliable customer support
Free and low-tier users get no human support—only chatbots and self-serve articles. Even paid users face 30-day limitations; after that, support becomes unavailable. There's no guaranteed response time for free users.
Consider ConvertKit instead →Top Mailchimp Alternatives
AWeber
Email marketing platform designed for small businesses with drag-and-drop editors, automation tools, landing pages, and award-winning support. Powers over 1 million customers with 26 years of experience.
beehiiv
All-in-one newsletter platform that combines email creation, audience growth, website building, and monetization tools for creators and businesses.
ConvertKit
Email marketing platform designed for creators with powerful automation and landing pages.
Klaviyo
Klaviyo is an AI-powered email and SMS marketing platform for B2C brands, unifying customer data for personalized campaigns, flows, and omnichannel experiences that drive 63x avg ROI. It combines marketing automation, service agents, and analytics in one tool for ecommerce growth.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a cloud-based customer experience automation platform that combines email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, SMS, and WhatsApp messaging into a unified solution. It serves over 180,000 customers across 170+ countries with powerful automation capabilities and AI-powered features.
HubSpot
All-in-one CRM platform with marketing, sales, and service tools for growing businesses.
Brevo
All-in-one AI-powered customer engagement platform offering email marketing, SMS, WhatsApp, CRM, live chat, and marketing automation with volume-based pricing.
Drip
Drip is an email marketing automation platform designed for B2C ecommerce businesses, using smart segmentation, workflows, and personalization to send targeted messages that drive conversions and revenue.
GetResponse
GetResponse is an AI-powered email marketing and automation platform offering unlimited sends, landing pages, webinars, and tools for ecommerce and lead growth. Trusted by 350K+ users, it emphasizes high deliverability, drag-and-drop ease, and advanced features like SMS and funnels for businesses scaling revenue.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact provides an accessible platform for small businesses to create, send, and track email, SMS, and digital marketing campaigns using intuitive tools like drag-and-drop editors and AI assistance. It emphasizes ease for beginners while scaling for pros with automation and support.