Email Marketing

What are the best Mailchimp alternatives in 2026?

Published 2026-10-13 · Researched and price-checked on official sources

Mailchimp alternatives in 2026 split into two pricing camps: contact-priced tools like MailerLite (from $12/mo) and send-priced tools like Brevo (from $9/mo). Both undercut Mailchimp, whose free plan now caps at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month and whose paid plans start at $20/mo.

Key facts

What matters

The free tiers have converged on 250 contacts: Mailchimp, Klaviyo and Omnisend all cap free plans at 250, but the send allowances differ sharply (Mailchimp 500 emails a month, MailerLite 2,500).
Mailchimp's paid tiers are priced in contact bands, with Standard at $20/mo for up to 500 contacts and Premium at $350/mo for 10,000 contacts.
Brevo is the outlier: its published tiers are defined by monthly email volume (Starter from $9/mo at 5,000 emails), not by how many contacts you store.
MailerLite's Power plan ($25/mo, $22.50 billed yearly) removes per-send caps entirely with unlimited monthly emails and unlimited seats at 500 subscribers.
Klaviyo publishes no paid prices at all, so a comparison quote for it cannot be verified: its pricing page shows the free plan and a 'Build a plan' flow only.

What counts as a Mailchimp alternative?

Mailchimp is an email marketing platform that prices its plans by how many contacts you store. A Mailchimp alternative is any tool that still runs campaigns, automations and signup forms for a list, but charges you on a different basis: per subscriber, per email sent, or per active profile.

Which one wins depends entirely on why you are leaving. If your list grew past Mailchimp's free cap, you want the cheapest paid entry. If you hold a large list but email it rarely, a send-priced tool beats every contact-priced one. If you sell products, you want store data wired into the segments and flows. Those three questions point at different tools, and the pricing below is ordered to answer them rather than to rank vendors by payout.

Mailchimp's pricing in 2026, checked on its own site

Start with the baseline, because Mailchimp's own page sets the comparison. As of 7 October 2026 it lists four marketing tiers and breaks pricing into 20 contact bands running from 0-500 up to 1,000,000+.

Free: capped at 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, with a 250-per-day ceiling, one audience, one seat, and no automation.
Standard: starts at $20/mo for the 0-500 contact band, with email sends capped at 12x your contacts.
Premium: $350/mo at the 10,000-contact band, scaling to $800/mo at 100,000 contacts.
Essentials: reaches up to 50,000 contacts on a $385/mo tier, with sends capped at 10x your contacts.

Two notes sit on the pricing page itself. Every paid tier carries the line 'overages apply if contact or email send limit is exceeded', and the free plan pauses sending outright if you cross the contact or send cap. Mailchimp also discounts 15% only on plans at 10,000 contacts or more.

The best Mailchimp alternatives, with prices checked 7 October 2026

MailerLite

Priced by subscriber, and every paid tier carries the full feature set. Free covers 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, two seats, three automations, one website, one landing page and three signup forms. Comfort is $12/mo ($10.80 billed yearly) for up to 500 subscribers, 5,000 emails a month, three seats and up to 50 automations. Power is $25/mo ($22.50 yearly) and removes the send cap: unlimited monthly emails, unlimited seats, unlimited automations and landing pages at the same 500-subscriber band. MailerLite also runs a 14-day trial with no card required.

Brevo

Priced by monthly email volume, and the only tool here whose published tiers are defined by sends rather than by audience size. Starter runs from $9/mo with 5,000 emails a month and a single seat. Standard runs from $18/mo and adds click heatmaps, geography and device reporting plus one landing page. Professional runs from $350/mo with email volume starting at 150,000 a month and 10 seats. Annual billing takes 10% off all three, and a free tier exists with no card required.

GetResponse

Priced by list size, with unlimited monthly email sends on every paid tier. At a 1,000-contact list, Starter is $19/mo ($15.58 billed annually) with three users, ecommerce integrations and one custom automation workflow, and its AI tools are limited to three uses. Marketer is $59/mo ($48.38) and adds unlimited automation workflows, abandoned-cart recovery and sales funnels. Creator is $69/mo ($56.58) and adds webinars, a course builder and premium newsletters. GetResponse also keeps a free account, which its own guide lists as covering up to 500 contacts, and it charges a list extension fee in any month where contacts exceed your tier.

ActiveCampaign

Priced by contacts, with sends capped at 10x your contact count on Starter and Plus, 12x on Pro and 15x on Enterprise. At 1,000 contacts billed annually: Starter is $15/mo with one user and five actions per automation, Plus is $49/mo, Pro is $79/mo with three users, and Enterprise is $145/mo with five users. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and ActiveCampaign backs the paid tiers with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Klaviyo

Priced by active profiles, and the only major option here that does not publish its paid prices. The free plan is unusually specific for a free tier: up to 250 profiles, 500 emails a month, $5 of mobile messages and $5 of Composer usage, with email support for the first 60 days. Every paid step sits behind a 'Build a plan' flow rather than a listed number, so its real cost only becomes concrete once you enter your own profile count and send volume.

Omnisend

Priced by list size and aimed at ecommerce. Free covers 250 contacts, 500 emails a month and 500 web push notifications. Standard is $16/mo for 500 contacts, 6,000 emails and unlimited web push, and Pro is $59/mo for 2,500 contacts with unlimited monthly emails and SMS from roughly $0.007 a message. Omnisend currently shows Standard and Pro as $11.20/mo and $41.30/mo, a 30% cut for paying three months up front, and markets itself as up to 35% cheaper than Klaviyo.

The one difference that decides your bill

Sort these tools by feature list and they blur together. Sort them by what moves the price and the choice gets simple.

Mailchimp, MailerLite, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo and Omnisend all charge on the size of your audience, whether they call it contacts, subscribers, list size or active profiles. Your bill changes when the list grows, even if you email the same amount. Brevo runs the opposite way: its published tiers are defined by monthly email volume, from 5,000 emails on Starter up to 150,000-plus on Professional, so its price tracks how much you send rather than how many people you store.

That single axis explains most 'why is my bill so high' cases. A 10,000-name list mailed once a month is the worst case for contact pricing and the best case for send pricing. A 2,000-name list mailed daily is the reverse. Before picking a tool, work out which number is bigger in your account, contacts or sends, and buy the tool that bills the smaller one.

Which Mailchimp alternative fits your list?

Under 250 contacts, light sending: stay on a free tier. MailerLite's free plan gives the most headroom at 2,500 emails a month versus Mailchimp, Klaviyo and Omnisend at 500.
1,000-5,000 contacts on a monthly or fortnightly newsletter: Brevo, because the price is set by sends, not by stored names.
Growing list you email often, with automation on a budget: MailerLite Comfort, or Power if you want the send cap gone.
Ecommerce or a Shopify store: Klaviyo for the deepest store data, or Omnisend if you want a published price instead of a quote.
A fixed contact tier where you send a lot: GetResponse, since every paid tier carries unlimited monthly sends.
Automation depth and a CRM in one: ActiveCampaign, though its entry tier limits automation to five actions per workflow.

How these prices were checked

Every number above comes from the vendor's own pricing page or pricing API on 7 October 2026, not from a comparison blog: Mailchimp's compare-plans page, MailerLite's pricing page, Brevo's pricing API, GetResponse's pricing page and terms, Klaviyo's pricing page, ActiveCampaign's pricing page and Omnisend's pricing page.

Two quirks in that set are worth flagging. First, several vendors render prices per contact band, so an entry price and a headline price can be different rows on the same page: Mailchimp's Standard tier is $20/mo at 0-500 contacts but $800/mo at 100,000. Second, some headline figures are promotional rather than standing rates. Omnisend's $11.20/mo and $41.30/mo assume you prepay three months, while Klaviyo publishes no figure to compare against at all.

The date matters, because free tiers in this category move. Mailchimp's free plan allows fewer contacts and sends than it did a few years ago, and its mainstream rivals have converged on the same 250-contact ceiling while diverging on how many emails they hand you. A comparison without a date is reporting a limit that may already be gone.

The catches worth knowing before you switch

Klaviyo's price is unpublished. You cannot compare it from a table, and no third-party figure can be checked against the vendor, so get a quote before you commit.
GetResponse's free account is not the trial. The 14-day trial unlocks premium features; after it, GetResponse's terms say the free account continues 'on an ongoing basis but with limited features'.
ActiveCampaign has no free plan. Only a 14-day trial, and the $15/mo Starter tier allows a single custom automation workflow built from five actions.
Omnisend's headline prices are a prepay discount. $11.20/mo and $41.30/mo reflect 30% off for paying three months up front; after three months you are billed monthly at the standard rate.
Mailchimp's annual discount is narrow. The 15% saving applies at 10,000 contacts and above, not on entry tiers.

At a glance

Tool	Entry paid price	Free tier	What your bill tracks
Mailchimp	$20/mo (Standard, 0-500 contacts)	250 contacts, 500 emails/mo	Contacts stored
MailerLite	$12/mo (Comfort, 500 subscribers)	250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo	Subscribers
Brevo	$9/mo (Starter, 5,000 emails)	Free tier, no card required	Emails sent
GetResponse	$19/mo (Starter, 1,000 contacts)	Free account, up to 500 contacts	List size
ActiveCampaign	$15/mo (Starter, 1,000 contacts, annual)	14-day trial only	Contacts
Klaviyo	Not published (build a plan)	250 profiles, 500 emails/mo	Active profiles
Omnisend	$16/mo (Standard, 500 contacts)	250 contacts, 500 emails/mo	List size

Mailchimp alternatives compared by billing basis (prices checked 7 October 2026)

FAQ

Is there a free Mailchimp alternative?

Yes. MailerLite, Brevo, Klaviyo, Omnisend and GetResponse all keep a free tier, but they differ on sends: MailerLite's free plan allows 2,500 emails a month to 250 subscribers, while Mailchimp, Klaviyo and Omnisend cap free plans at 500 sends. ActiveCampaign has no free plan, only a 14-day trial.

Is Brevo cheaper than Mailchimp?

On published entry prices, yes: Brevo's Starter tier is $9/mo for 5,000 emails a month, against Mailchimp Standard at $20/mo for up to 500 contacts. The gap also widens as a list grows, because Brevo's published tiers are set by monthly email volume rather than by contact count.

Which Mailchimp alternative is best for ecommerce?

Klaviyo and Omnisend are the ecommerce-focused pair. Klaviyo does not publish paid prices, so you build a plan, while Omnisend lists Standard at $16/mo for 500 contacts and 6,000 emails and markets itself as up to 35% cheaper than Klaviyo.