Grow your business with email, SMS, and AI marketing
Visit WebsiteThe Bottom Line
Entry price
Free plan available, paid tiers above
Biggest pro
Intuitive drag-and-drop editor accessible to non-technical users
Biggest con
Free plan capped at just 250 contacts and 500 sends per month
TL;DR - Mailchimp
- Leading email marketing platform with AI-powered automation, used by millions of businesses worldwide
- Free plan supports up to 250 contacts and 500 emails/month; paid plans offer various tiers
- Includes drag-and-drop builder, audience segmentation, A/B testing, SMS marketing, and 300+ integrations
What is Mailchimp?
Available on: Web
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Intuitive drag-and-drop editor accessible to non-technical users
- Comprehensive free plan to get started with basic email marketing
- Powerful automation workflows rivaling dedicated automation platforms
- Extensive template library with mobile-responsive designs
- Strong deliverability rates backed by Intuit infrastructure
- Built-in AI tools for subject lines, content, and send-time optimization
Cons
- Free plan capped at just 250 contacts and 500 sends per month
- Pricing scales steeply as contact lists grow beyond initial tiers
- Advanced segmentation and multivariate testing require higher tiers
- Phone support only available on the highest tier
- Removing Mailchimp branding requires a paid plan
Ratings Across the Web
Mailchimp holds an aggregate rating of 3.9 out of 5 from 31,952 reviews across Trustpilot, G2 and Capterra, last checked July 17, 2026.
What people say
“Mailchimp customer service has failed immensely, and their deceptive practice of trying to force people off the free tier is disgraceful.”via Trustpilot
“Mailchimp helps me manage my email campaigns, and I can easily connect everything to Shopify, Canva, and more.”via G2
“I have used Mailchimp for years now for my coaching business and I am extremely happy. It is the only service I recommend to my clients to help them connect with their database.”via Capterra
Ratings aggregated from independent review platforms. Learn more
Preview
Key Features
Pricing Plans
Free TrialPricing checked Aug 25, 2026
Free
- Up to 250 contacts
- 500 email sends/month (250/day limit)
- 1 audience
- 1 seat
- Basic email templates
- Abandoned cart automation
- Landing pages
Essentials
$13/month
- Up to 50,000 contacts
- 10x contact limit monthly sends
- 3 audiences
- 3 seats
- Email and chat support 24/7
- A/B testing
- Single email automations and 4-step journeys
- Remove Mailchimp branding
Standard
$20/month
- Up to 100,000 contacts
- 12x contact limit monthly sends
- 5 audiences
- 5 seats
- Advanced segmentation
- Dynamic content
- Custom-coded templates
- Behavioral targeting
Premium
$350/month
- Up to 200,000+ contacts (custom plans above)
- 15x contact limit monthly sends
- Unlimited audiences and seats
- Multivariate testing
- Predictive segmentation
- Phone and priority support
- Dedicated integration specialist
- Advanced analytics
Is Mailchimp worth the price?
Mailchimp was once the default email marketing tool for small businesses, and its free tier was legendary.
Not anymore. The Free plan now caps at 250 contacts and 500 emails/month, barely enough to test the platform.
Essentials at $13/mo for 500 contacts is the real entry point, and costs scale aggressively: 10K contacts costs $110/mo on Essentials, $135/mo on Standard. The worst gotcha: ALL contacts count toward your bill, subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed.
You pay for dead contacts unless you manually archive them. For pure email marketing, cheaper alternatives (Brevo, Mailerlite, ConvertKit) send more emails to more contacts for less money.
Mailchimp's advantage is its breadth: email + landing pages + ads + CRM + automations in one platform. But at Mailchimp's current pricing, that bundling is increasingly hard to justify.
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
ALL contacts count
subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed, and 'cleaned' contacts all count toward your plan limit. You pay for contacts who unsubscribed last year unless you manually archive them. This inflates costs by 20-40% for most lists
Free plan is a demo
250 contacts and 500 emails/month is enough for about 2 sends to a tiny list. Any real business needs Essentials ($13+/mo) from day one
Contact-based pricing scales steeply
500 contacts = $13/mo (Essentials), 2,500 = $45/mo, 10,000 = $110/mo, 50,000 = $385/mo. Costs roughly triple every 4x contact increase
Monthly email send limits
Essentials gets 10x your contact count (500 contacts = 5,000 emails). Standard gets 12x. Premium gets 15x. Going over requires upgrading or paying overages
Intuit Mailchimp branding on all Free emails
the 'Sent via Mailchimp' footer only disappears on paid plans
Landing pages and ads features sound free but require paid plans for useful functionality: A/B testing, behavioral automations, and advanced analytics are Standard+
Mailchimp charges for contact-based add-ons
Website Builder is included but Transactional Email (Mandrill) is a separate $20/mo + per-email cost on top of your marketing plan
No refunds for mid-cycle downgrades
if you downgrade from Standard to Essentials, you pay the full Standard rate through the billing cycle
How Mailchimp Compares to Competitors
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue, $0 free, $9-18/mo paid) charges by emails sent, not contacts stored. A list of 10K contacts sending 20K emails/month costs $18/mo on Brevo vs $135/mo on Mailchimp Standard, 7.5x cheaper. Brevo also includes SMS and WhatsApp marketing. For cost-sensitive businesses, Brevo is the clear winner. MailerLite ($0 free 1K subscribers, $10-21/mo paid) offers a generous free tier (1K subscribers, 12K emails/mo) that beats Mailchimp's 250-contact cap. Paid plans at $10/mo for 500 subscribers include automation, landing pages, and A/B testing, 23% cheaper than Mailchimp Essentials. ConvertKit (now Kit, $0 free 10K subscribers, $25+/mo) targets creators with the most generous free tier in email marketing: 10K subscribers with unlimited sends. Paid plans add automations and sequences. Better for bloggers and creators; less suited for e-commerce. ActiveCampaign ($15-259/mo) offers more powerful automation at comparable pricing. No free plan, but the automation builder, CRM integration, and lead scoring justify the price for sophisticated marketing teams. Mailchimp's automation is basic by comparison.
Klaviyo ($0 free 250 contacts, $20+/mo) dominates e-commerce email marketing with Shopify-native integration, advanced segmentation, and revenue attribution. If you sell on Shopify, Klaviyo is the better choice despite similar pricing.
Reviews
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Still deciding?
Most buyers shortlist 2 or 3 tools before committing. Pull a side-by-side comparison or browse the full alternatives shortlist below.
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Mailchimp FAQ
How does Mailchimp help businesses manage their email campaigns?
Which teams benefit most from using Mailchimp?
How is Mailchimp priced?
What kind of limitations does the free plan have?
Can Mailchimp integrate with other business tools?
How does Mailchimp compare to a competitor like ActiveCampaign?
Does Mailchimp offer advanced testing capabilities?
Source: mailchimp.com
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