5 Cheaper Mailchimp Alternatives in 2026 After the Free Plan Was Cut to 250 Contacts

Mailchimp was the first email tool for millions of small businesses, largely because of its generous free plan. That era is over. In January 2026 Mailchimp cut its free plan to 250 contacts and 500 sends per month. Paid plans start at around $13/month for Essentials and $20/month for Standard with 500 contacts, rising to roughly $75–100/month at 5,000 contacts, and Premium starts at $350/month. Mailchimp also counts unsubscribed contacts toward your bill unless you archive them.

Email marketing is a crowded market, and almost every competitor now offers more contacts for less money. Here are five worth switching to.

What Mailchimp actually costs in 2026

Legacy plans created before 2019 also saw price increases in 2026. The current tiers are listed on Mailchimp's official pricing page.

The 5 cheaper alternatives at a glance

How we picked these alternatives

We compared free-plan limits, price at 1,000 and 5,000 subscribers, automation, landing pages and deliverability reputation. We also checked how each counts contacts. Prices checked 27 October 2026.

1. MailerLite

Price: Free for up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month. Comfort from $12/month (500 subscribers, ten times your tier in monthly sends); Power from $25/month (unlimited sends). 10% off annual billing. See MailerLite's official pricing page for current plans.

MailerLite, founded in Lithuania, is the tool most often recommended to people leaving Mailchimp. It offers a cleaner interface, strong deliverability and almost all of Mailchimp's features at a lower price. In 2025–26 it renamed its plans from Growing Business and Advanced to Comfort and Power.

MailerLite pricing in detail

What you get

• Three editors — drag-and-drop, rich text and custom HTML.
• Visual automation builder for welcome series, abandoned carts and re-engagement.
• Landing pages, websites, pop-ups and forms.
• Sell digital products and paid newsletters directly.
• Strong deliverability thanks to strict account approval.

Where it falls short

• Account approval can delay new users.
• Free plan is now the same 250-subscriber size as Mailchimp's.

Who it's best for

Small businesses and creators who want Mailchimp's features without its price. Skip it if you need advanced e-commerce product recommendations.

2. Brevo

Price: Free with unlimited contacts and 300 emails/day. Starter from $9/month; Standard from $18/month. See Brevo's official pricing page for current plans.

Brevo (called Sendinblue until 2023) is a French marketing platform with more than half a million customers. Its pricing turns Mailchimp's model upside down: instead of charging for every contact on your list — including inactive and unsubscribed ones — Brevo charges for how many emails you send each month. You can store as many contacts as you like on any plan, even the free one.

Brevo pricing in detail

Removing the Brevo logo from emails is an add-on on lower tiers.

What you get

• Unlimited contacts on every plan — your bill does not grow just because your list does.
• Email campaigns with a drag-and-drop editor, templates and personalisation.
• SMS and WhatsApp campaigns from the same dashboard, billed per message.
• Transactional email (order confirmations, password resets) through an API and SMTP relay — something Mailchimp sells separately as Mandrill.
• Marketing automation on Standard, with welcome series, abandoned-cart and birthday workflows.
• Free sales CRM and meeting scheduler.

Where it falls short

• The free plan caps sending at 300 emails per day, so you cannot send one campaign to a large list without upgrading.
• Brevo branding appears on lower tiers unless you pay to remove it.
• E-commerce reporting is less detailed than Mailchimp's.

Good to know

A business with 10,000 contacts that sends two newsletters a month needs about 20,000 emails — well within Brevo's lower tiers, while Mailchimp would charge for all 10,000 contacts.

Who it's best for

Businesses with large lists that email a few times a month, and anyone who also needs transactional email or SMS. Skip it if you send daily campaigns to your whole list.

3. Sender

Price: Free for up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails/month. Standard from about $7/month for 1,000 contacts and about $23/month at 5,000. See Sender's official pricing page for current plans.

Sender, a company with teams in Lithuania and the UK, competes on one thing above all: generosity. Its free plan supports ten times as many subscribers as Mailchimp's 250-contact free tier, and its paid plans are among the cheapest of any mainstream email tool.

Sender pricing in detail

New accounts get a 14-day Professional trial with no credit card. Prices exclude VAT.

What you get

• 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month free — enough for many small businesses to never pay.
• Drag-and-drop editor with responsive templates.
• Automation workflows for welcome series, abandoned carts and re-engagement.
• Pop-ups and signup forms to grow your list.
• SMS campaigns on higher plans.
• E-commerce integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce and others.
• Dedicated IP on request for senders above about 500,000 emails a month.

Where it falls short

• Sender branding on free-plan emails, forms and pop-ups.
• Fewer integrations than Mailchimp's large marketplace.
• Reporting is solid but less detailed.

Good to know

At 5,000 contacts, Sender Standard costs roughly a quarter of Mailchimp Standard.

Who it's best for

Start-ups and small shops that want to grow a list to a few thousand subscribers without paying. Skip it if you depend on niche Mailchimp integrations.

4. EmailOctopus

Price: Free for up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails/month. Pro from about $18/month at 2,500 subscribers. See EmailOctopus' official pricing page for current plans.

EmailOctopus is a UK company that set out to make email marketing simple and cheap. It is especially popular with newsletter writers, charities and small organisations that want a clean tool without Mailchimp's complexity or price.

EmailOctopus pricing in detail

Prices rise gradually with list size, staying low per subscriber at larger sizes.

What you get

• A fast, uncluttered editor with good templates.
• Landing pages and signup forms to collect subscribers.
• Automations for welcome emails and drip sequences.
• Segmentation by fields, tags and activity.
• Integrations with Zapier and popular apps.
• Low cost per subscriber as your list grows.

Where it falls short

• No built-in CRM and simpler segmentation than Mailchimp.
• Limited e-commerce features — no product recommendations.
• Free plan includes branding.

Good to know

EmailOctopus's free plan supports ten times as many subscribers as Mailchimp's free plan does since January 2026.

Who it's best for

Newsletters, non-profits and small organisations. Skip it if you run an online store that needs product-driven emails.

5. Kit (formerly ConvertKit)

Price: Newsletter plan free for up to 10,000 subscribers. Creator from about $33/month annual ($39 monthly) at 1,000 subscribers. See Kit's official pricing page for current plans.

Kit, which rebranded from ConvertKit in 2024, is built for creators: newsletter writers, YouTubers, podcasters, authors and course sellers. Its free plan is by far the most generous of any tool here — up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited sends.

Kit pricing in detail

Paid prices increase with subscriber count; Kit raised Creator prices in 2025.

What you get

• A free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited emails.
• Paid newsletters and tip jars to earn money from your audience.
• Digital product sales for ebooks, presets and courses.
• Creator Network recommendations to grow your list through other creators.
• Visual automations and email sequences on Creator.
• Tag-based subscriber management that is simpler than lists and groups.

Where it falls short

• Paid plans get expensive at larger list sizes.
• Limited e-commerce features for physical-product stores.
• Fewer design options in the email editor.

Good to know

A creator with 8,000 subscribers pays nothing on Kit's Newsletter plan, versus well over $100 a month on Mailchimp Standard.

Who it's best for

Newsletter writers and creators. Skip it if you run a large online store.

What you pay at 5,000 subscribers

How to switch without losing your work

1. Export your audience from Mailchimp, including tags, merge fields and unsubscribed contacts (to keep them suppressed).
2. Clean the list: remove hard bounces and long-inactive subscribers — it lowers your cost and improves deliverability.
3. Authenticate your domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) in the new platform.
4. Rebuild your signup forms and automations, starting with your welcome sequence.
5. Send to your most engaged subscribers first to warm up your sending reputation.

Which one should you choose?

• You want the closest experience to Mailchimp, but cheaper and cleaner: MailerLite.
• You have a big list but only send a few campaigns a month: Brevo, because you pay for emails sent, not contacts stored.
• You want to grow to a few thousand subscribers without paying: Sender (2,500 free) or EmailOctopus (2,500 free).
• You write a newsletter and want to monetise it: Kit, which is free up to 10,000 subscribers.
• You run an online store: MailerLite or Brevo both integrate with Shopify and WooCommerce for abandoned-cart and product emails.

Hidden costs and gotchas

• Unsubscribed contacts. Mailchimp bills for them unless archived — and several competitors do the same. Clean your list regularly whichever tool you use.
• Sending limits. Free plans cap monthly or daily sends. Check the limit against your real sending frequency, not just your list size.
• Branding. Free plans usually add the provider's logo to emails and forms; removing it requires a paid plan.
• Dedicated IPs. High-volume senders may want a dedicated IP, which is an add-on on most platforms.
• E-commerce automations. Product recommendations and abandoned-cart flows are often limited to higher tiers. Confirm before migrating a store.

Our verdict

MailerLite is the best all-round Mailchimp replacement. Choose Brevo if you have a big list and email infrequently, Sender for the most generous free plan, EmailOctopus for simple, cheap newsletters, and Kit if you are a creator building a newsletter — free up to 10,000 subscribers.

More cheaper alternatives: see our breakdowns of the cheaper options to HubSpot, Typeform and Hootsuite.

Related reading: Is a Newsletter Worth It?, Why Your Emails Go to Spam and What Is a Marketing Funnel?.

Planning a switch, or not sure which tool fits the way your team works? Book a free call and we will look at your stack with you.

Prices are US list prices in USD unless marked, checked on 27 October 2026. "Annual" means the per-month price when billed yearly. Vendors change pricing often, so confirm on the vendor's site before buying. Product names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here for identification only.

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