Mailchimp Pricing 2026: What Changed and 5 Cheaper Alternatives

In January 2026, Mailchimp cut its free tier from 500 contacts to 250 contacts — the third time in four years it has reduced what free users get. In 2022, the free plan covered 2,000 contacts. Today it covers 250. That's an 87.5% reduction in free tier value over 36 months.

If you're on Mailchimp's free plan and growing past 250 contacts, here's what you'll pay — and five alternatives that beat Mailchimp on price at every tier.

Last updated: March 2026 | Data source: Email Marketing Tool Pricing Dataset 2026

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Mailchimp Current Pricing (March 2026)

Plan	Price	Contacts	Emails/Month	Notable Limits
Free	$0	250	500	Mailchimp branding; 1 audience; basic templates only
Essentials	~$20/mo	500	~5,000	3 audiences; A/B testing; custom branding
Standard	~$35/mo	500	~6,000	Automation journeys; retargeting; 5 audiences
Premium	~$350/mo	10,000	150,000	Multivariate testing; unlimited audiences; phone support

At 1,000 contacts, Mailchimp Essentials costs approximately $45/mo. At 5,000 contacts, it's around $75/mo. At 10,000 contacts, expect $110–$130/mo on Standard.

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The Free Tier Shrinkage Timeline

Year	Mailchimp Free Tier Contact Limit
2019–2022	2,000 contacts
2023	500 contacts
January 2026	250 contacts

Each reduction came with a blog post about "focusing on what matters." The pattern is clear: Mailchimp is converting free users to paid users by making the free plan progressively less usable.

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5 Cheaper Alternatives to Mailchimp

Brevo — Best for large lists, low send frequency

Brevo charges by emails sent, not by contact count. This makes it dramatically cheaper for businesses with large lists who don't email frequently.

Plan	Price	Contacts	Emails/Month
Free	$0	Unlimited stored	~9,000 (300/day)
Starter	$9/mo	Unlimited	5,000+
Business	$18/mo	Unlimited	5,000+

Real comparison: 10,000 contacts, 1 email/month. Mailchimp Standard: ~$110/mo. Brevo Starter: $9–25/mo. You'd save $1,000+/year doing the same sends.

MailerLite — Best direct Mailchimp substitute

Tier	MailerLite	Mailchimp Essentials
500 subscribers	~$10/mo	~$20/mo
1,000 subscribers	~$15/mo	~$45/mo
5,000 subscribers	~$39/mo	~$75/mo

Free tier: 500 contacts, 12,000 emails/month. That's twice Mailchimp's current free limit with 24x more sends.

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) — Best for creators

Kit's free tier allows 10,000 subscribers — 40x Mailchimp's free contact limit.

Omnisend — Best for e-commerce

Built for Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. Includes SMS credits and e-commerce automation that Mailchimp charges extra for.

Buttondown — Best for developers

$9/mo for up to 1,000 subscribers with clean markdown email and solid deliverability.

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Head-to-Head Comparison

Tool	Free Contacts	Starter at 1,000 contacts	Best For
Mailchimp	250	~$45/mo	Brand recognition buyers
Brevo	Unlimited stored	$9–25/mo	Large lists, low frequency
MailerLite	500	~$15/mo	Direct Mailchimp substitute
Kit	10,000	$33/mo	Creators, course sellers
Omnisend	250 reachable	~$16/mo	E-commerce stores
Buttondown	100	$9/mo	Developers, technical newsletters

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The Pricing Model Decision

Before picking any email tool, decide which pricing model fits:

• Per contact (list size): Pay based on how many subscribers you have. Mailchimp, MailerLite, Kit, Klaviyo.
• Per email sent (volume): Pay based on how many emails you send. Brevo, Mailjet, Amazon SES.

Rule of thumb: large list, low frequency = per-email pricing saves money. Small list, high frequency = per-contact is usually cheaper.

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Full Email Marketing Pricing Dataset

The Email Marketing Tool Pricing Dataset 2026 covers 55 tools across 7 categories — ESPs, cold email platforms, newsletter tools, marketing automation, and enterprise marketing clouds. Every free tier limit and paid tier price verified March 2026.

→ Get the full dataset — $39