Compare the 10 best Mailchimp alternatives for 2027, with current vendor pricing, free plan limits and picks for small businesses, creators and newsletters.
Mailchimp is an easy email marketing tool to start with and its templates are polished, but friction tends to arrive once a list grows. Mailchimp’s free plan now caps you at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month (with a daily limit of 250), and sending is paused if you go over. Its pricing page currently shows Essentials from $13 a month and Standard from $20 a month, displayed as 12-month prices, with Premium at $350 a month. Mailchimp’s help center says Essentials starts at 500 contacts and Standard at 500 contacts, so the price climbs quickly as the list grows.
The other common complaint is how contacts are counted. Mailchimp’s own help documentation states that subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts are all included in your contact count, so people who opted out can still push you into a higher tier unless you archive them. Seats are limited too: one on Free, three on Essentials and five on Standard, with unlimited seats only on Premium. For a small team or a solo creator, that can mean paying for features you do not use just to add a collaborator or to stay under a contact ceiling.
None of this makes Mailchimp a bad product. It does mean many small businesses, creators and newsletter writers find a better fit elsewhere: a larger free plan, a platform built around paid newsletters, stronger automation per dollar, or simpler pricing that does not bill for unsubscribed contacts. This guide covers 10 alternatives with pricing taken from each vendor’s own site in October 2026. If you run a Shopify store and mainly need ecommerce flows, our guide to the best Klaviyo alternatives is the better starting point; this list leans toward newsletters, creators and general small business email.
Mailchimp Alternatives At A Glance
Tool
Starting Price
Best For
Standout Feature
Kit
Free up to 10,000 subscribers; Creator $33/mo (1,000 subscribers)
Creators selling digital products
Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers
MailerLite
Free (250 subscribers); Comfort from $12/mo
Budget-conscious small businesses
Websites, forms and digital products in one low-cost plan
beehiiv
Free up to 2,500 subscribers; Lite $49/mo billed yearly
Newsletter publishers
Paid subscriptions with 0% take rate plus ad monetization
Brevo
Free (300 emails/day); Starter from $9/mo
Large contact lists with modest send volume
Store up to 100,000 contacts on the free plan
Sender
Free up to 2,500 subscribers; Standard $9/mo (500 subscribers)
Small businesses wanting a generous free tier
15,000 free emails a month
AWeber
Free (500 subscribers); Lite $15/mo or $12.49/mo annually
Long-running small business newsletters
Optional done-for-you setup service
GetResponse
Starter $19/mo or $15.58/mo annually (1,000 contacts)
Educators and coaches
Webinars and course builder bundled in
ActiveCampaign
$15/mo billed yearly (1,000 contacts)
Automation-heavy small teams
Multi-step marketing automation with AI builders
Constant Contact
Not published; 60-day free trial
Local businesses and nonprofits
Optional personal coaching tier
Omnisend
Free (250 contacts); Standard $16/mo (500 contacts)
Small online stores
Email, SMS and web push in one platform
Best Mailchimp Alternatives For 2027
1. Kit — Free Plan That Covers Up To 10,000 Subscribers
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is an email platform built for creators: writers, podcasters, course makers and anyone who sells digital products to an audience. Its design choices reflect that. Subscribers are organized with tags and segments rather than separate lists, landing pages and forms are unlimited, and you can sell digital products and subscriptions directly from the account.
Pricing on Kit’s site is unusually generous at the bottom end. The Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers and includes unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, and digital product sales. At the 1,000-subscriber tier, Creator costs $33 a month billed monthly or $390 billed yearly, and adds unlimited visual automations and sequences, SMS marketing, integrations, RSS campaigns and removal of Kit branding. Pro lists at $66 a month at that tier, with a first-year promotional price of $50 a month (or $593 billed for the first year), and adds unlimited users, a newsletter referral system, deliverability reporting, subscriber engagement scoring and an insights dashboard.
Where Kit beats Mailchimp is the free tier (10,000 subscribers against Mailchimp’s 250) and the creator commerce tools baked into the core product. Where it falls short is design: Kit’s email editor is deliberately simple, and businesses that want heavily designed, image-rich promotional emails may find Mailchimp’s templates more flexible. Automations also require the paid Creator plan.
Kit suits solo creators and small creator businesses who want to grow a list without paying until they monetize, and who value text-forward newsletters over design-heavy campaigns.
2. MailerLite — Full Marketing Toolkit From $12 A Month
MailerLite is the closest like-for-like replacement for Mailchimp in this list. It covers email campaigns, automations, signup forms, landing pages, simple websites and digital product sales, with an interface that is easy for non-marketers to pick up. The free plan includes all three of its email editors, which is useful if you want to test the drag-and-drop, rich text and HTML options before paying.
According to MailerLite’s pricing page, the Free plan allows 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month and two user seats. Comfort starts at $12 a month and includes 50 automations, 10 forms, 10 sites, five digital products, three seats, email support, full API access and removal of the MailerLite logo, with monthly sends capped at 10 times the top of your subscriber tier. Power starts at $25 a month and removes most of those caps: unlimited emails under fair use, unlimited automations, forms, sites and seats, multiple automation triggers and live chat support. Yearly billing saves 10%. Enterprise pricing is custom for 200,000-plus subscribers.
MailerLite beats Mailchimp on entry price and seats: two free seats against one, and three on Comfort at a lower starting price than Mailchimp Essentials. The Power plan’s unlimited seats arrive far earlier than Mailchimp’s, which reserves unlimited seats for Premium. Where it falls short is reporting depth and integrations at scale; Mailchimp’s analytics, audience insights and large integration ecosystem are more mature. The free plan’s 250-subscriber cap is also no more generous than Mailchimp’s.
MailerLite suits small businesses that want Mailchimp’s breadth at a lower monthly cost, particularly teams that need more than a handful of people in the account.
3. beehiiv — Paid Subscriptions With A 0% Take Rate
beehiiv was built for newsletters rather than marketing campaigns, and that focus shows across the product. Each publication gets a hosted website, growth tools such as a recommendation network, and monetization options including paid subscriptions and ad placements. If your email list is the product rather than a channel that supports a store, beehiiv is worth a close look.
beehiiv’s pricing page lists a Free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, templates, landing pages, the recommendation network and API access. Lite starts at $49 a month billed yearly and adds paid subscriptions with a 0% take rate, ad monetization, automations, polls and A/B testing. Pro starts at $95 a month billed yearly and adds removal of beehiiv branding, webinars, advanced analytics, webhooks, dynamic content and 24/7 priority support. The page shows only yearly prices for Lite and Pro and says yearly billing saves up to 20% compared with monthly, so expect a higher figure month to month. Team seats run from one on Free to two on Lite and 10 on Pro.
beehiiv beats Mailchimp for anyone who wants to earn money from a newsletter directly: Mailchimp has no comparable built-in ad network or subscription paywall with no revenue share. The free plan is also 10 times larger. Where beehiiv falls short is general marketing: it is not designed for ecommerce flows, complex customer segmentation or transactional email, and businesses using email mainly to sell products will find Mailchimp more complete.
beehiiv suits independent publishers, media startups and creators whose newsletter is the business, especially those planning to sell sponsorships or premium tiers.
4. Brevo — Store Up To 100,000 Contacts Free And Pay By Send Volume
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) takes a different approach to pricing from Mailchimp. Instead of charging mainly by how many contacts you store, its plans are built around how many emails you send. It also bundles SMS, WhatsApp on higher plans, a sales CRM and transactional email into one account, which makes it attractive to businesses that want to consolidate tools.
Brevo’s help center lists the Free plan with a limit of 300 email sends per day and storage for up to 100,000 contacts, with a “Sent with Brevo” sticker on every email, one user and basic reporting. Paid plans start from $9 a month for Starter, $18 a month for Standard and $499 a month for Professional, with Enterprise priced on request. Starter is listed on the pricing page from 5,000 emails a month and includes advanced segmentation, forms and an AI content generator; Standard adds unlimited automation workflows, A/B testing, send-time optimization and logo removal; Professional starts from 150,000 emails a month and adds WhatsApp, popups, 10 seats and phone support. At the time of checking, the main pricing page did not render dollar figures, so confirm the exact price for your volume before signing up.
Brevo beats Mailchimp for anyone with a large list that they email infrequently: storing 100,000 contacts free is not possible on any Mailchimp plan. The included CRM and multichannel tools are also broader. Where it falls short is the daily cap on the free plan, which means campaigns to more than 300 people must be split across days, and its template designs are generally considered less polished than Mailchimp’s.
Brevo suits small businesses with big but quiet lists, and teams that want email, SMS and a basic CRM under one bill.
5. Sender — 15,000 Free Emails A Month For Up To 2,500 Subscribers
Sender is a lower-profile, value-focused platform offering newsletters, automation, landing pages, popups and transactional email, plus SMS on paid plans, with pricing that undercuts most of the market.
Sender’s pricing page lists a Free Forever plan for up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month, with one seat and Sender branding included. At the 500-subscriber tier, Standard lists at $9 a month and includes up to 6,000 emails a month, three seats, no Sender branding, SMS, A/B testing and ecommerce reports. Professional lists at $15 a month and includes up to 12,000 emails a month, 10 seats, $6 a month in free SMS credits, advanced automation and priority support, with dedicated IPs on plans of 20,000 subscribers and above. At the time of checking, Sender was running a first-time-customer promotion that cut those prices for 24-month prepayment, so the price you see may be lower than the list price.
Sender beats Mailchimp on free allowance by a wide margin: 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month versus 250 contacts and 500 sends. Even the free plan includes automation and transactional email. Where it falls short is ecosystem: it has fewer native integrations and less third-party documentation than Mailchimp, and its brand recognition with agencies and freelancers is lower, which matters if you rely on outside help.
Sender suits small businesses and side projects that want real automation without paying, and growing teams that need more seats on a tight budget.
AWeber is one of the longest-running email providers and is still a common choice for small business owners who want reliable newsletters and autoresponders without a steep learning curve. It also offers something few competitors do: a service where its team builds your initial email setup for you.
AWeber’s free plan page lists up to 500 subscribers and 3,000 emails a month. At the 500-subscriber tier, Lite costs $15 a month billed monthly or $150 a year ($12.49 a month) and includes one email list, three landing pages, three automations, three users and removal of AWeber branding, with sends capped at 10 times your subscriber count. Plus costs $30 a month billed monthly or $240 a year ($19.99 a month) and includes unlimited lists, landing pages, automations, segments and users, priority support and advanced reporting, with sends capped at 12 times your subscriber count. The Done For You plan is listed at $20 a month billed annually plus a setup fee (shown as $79, reduced from $599), and covers a branded template, landing page, signup form and weekly newsletter drafts.
AWeber beats Mailchimp on users and on hands-on help: Plus includes unlimited users at $30 a month, and the done-for-you option suits owners who do not want to learn the tool at all. The free plan is also twice the size of Mailchimp’s. Where AWeber falls short is modern automation depth and design: its interface and templates feel more dated, and Lite’s single list and three automations are restrictive.
AWeber suits small business owners who want a dependable newsletter and simple autoresponders, and anyone who would rather pay for setup than spend evenings building templates.
7. GetResponse — Webinars And Course Builder Bundled Into Email
GetResponse started as an email tool and has grown into a broader marketing suite with landing pages, sales funnels, a website builder, webinars and an AI course creator. For coaches, educators and info-product sellers, that bundle can replace several separate subscriptions.
GetResponse’s pricing page lists prices at the 1,000-contact tier. Starter costs $19 a month billed monthly or $15.58 a month billed yearly, with three users, unlimited monthly sends, AI content generators, one custom automation workflow, a landing page builder and signup forms. Marketer costs $59 a month or $48.38 a month yearly, with five users, unlimited automation workflows, abandoned cart recovery, sales funnels and web push notifications. Creator costs $69 a month or $56.58 a month yearly and adds webinars for up to 100 attendees, a website builder, a course creator and paid newsletter subscriptions. Enterprise is custom priced. After a 14-day trial of premium features, accounts can stay on a limited free tier with GetResponse branding and caps such as 10-person webinars.
GetResponse beats Mailchimp on bundled tools and send limits: unlimited monthly sends from Starter, plus webinars and courses that Mailchimp does not offer at all. Where it falls short is simplicity. The number of features can be overwhelming for someone who just wants a weekly newsletter, and Starter’s single automation workflow is tight compared with Mailchimp Standard.
GetResponse suits coaches, course creators and small education businesses that sell through webinars and want email, funnels and course delivery in one account.
8. ActiveCampaign — Multi-Step Automation With AI Workflow Builders
ActiveCampaign is the automation specialist in this list. Its visual builder handles branching, conditional logic and multi-step journeys, and higher plans add predictive sending, conditional content and attribution. Businesses that outgrow Mailchimp’s customer journey builder often look here next.
At the 1,000-contact tier, billed yearly, ActiveCampaign’s pricing page lists Starter at $15 a month, Plus at $49, Pro at $79 and Enterprise at $145; month-to-month prices were not displayed when we checked. Starter includes one user, multi-step automation, AI automation and campaign builders, 250-plus templates and 10,000 sends a month, limited to email and five actions per automation. Plus adds cross-channel marketing, generative AI for content and images, landing pages and site messages, also with one user and 10,000 sends. Pro adds three users, predictive sending, conditional content, advanced segmentation and attribution, with 12,000 sends. Enterprise adds five users, SSO, HIPAA support, custom objects and 15,000 sends. The CRM, pipelines and sales engagement tools are sold as add-ons.
ActiveCampaign beats Mailchimp on automation sophistication, conditional content and cross-channel journeys. Where it falls short is seats and add-ons: Starter and Plus include only one user (Mailchimp Essentials includes three), and the CRM costs extra. It also has a steeper learning curve for teams that only send newsletters.
ActiveCampaign suits small B2B and service businesses that want detailed lead nurturing and lifecycle automation, and have someone willing to build and maintain workflows.
9. Constant Contact — 60-Day Free Trial And An Optional Personal Coach
Constant Contact has long served local businesses, nonprofits and associations, and leans toward ease of use and support rather than advanced features, with contact management, social sharing and landing pages alongside email.
Constant Contact’s pricing page does not currently list plan names or dollar prices. It describes three tiers: one for basic email campaigns, contact management and social sharing; one with the full toolkit including Plus campaigns with landing pages and detailed tracking; and one with the full toolkit plus a personal coach. The page offers a 60-day free trial with no credit card required, 10% off for prepaying six months or 15% off for a year, and nonprofit discounts of 20% for six months or 30% for a year. To get an exact quote for your list size, you will need to start a trial or contact sales.
Constant Contact beats Mailchimp on trial length (60 days against Mailchimp’s 14-day trials on Essentials and Standard), nonprofit discounts and access to human coaching. Where it falls short is price visibility, since you cannot compare costs on the website, and it has no permanent free plan, whereas Mailchimp lets very small lists stay free indefinitely.
Constant Contact suits local service businesses, nonprofits and community organizations that value support and a long trial over the lowest possible monthly price.
10. Omnisend — Email, SMS And Web Push For Small Online Stores
Omnisend is built for ecommerce, with prebuilt flows for abandoned carts, browse abandonment and post-purchase messages, plus product recommendations and SMS. It earns a place here because many small business owners who use Mailchimp also run a small online store and want those flows without paying enterprise prices.
Omnisend’s pricing page lists a Free plan for 250 contacts, 500 emails a month and 500 web push notifications, with core features such as forms, automation and segmentation available within those limits. Standard covers 500 contacts and 6,000 emails a month and is shown at $48 for three months billed monthly ($16 a month), or $11.20 a month with a 30% discount for paying three months upfront. Pro covers 2,500 contacts with unlimited emails under fair use and is shown at $177 for three months ($59 a month), or $41.30 a month with the same prepay discount, and includes SMS credits and AI tools for forms, chat and send timing. All plans include free migration and 24/7 support.
Omnisend beats Mailchimp on ecommerce depth: SMS and web push in the same workflows, and store-focused automation templates. Where it falls short is non-commerce use. Newsletter publishers and service businesses will not use most of its features, and the free plan is the same size as Mailchimp’s. For a deeper look at how it compares with the other big ecommerce option, see our Omnisend vs Klaviyo comparison.
Omnisend suits small Shopify, WooCommerce and similar stores that want email, SMS and push from one tool at a lower entry price than enterprise ecommerce platforms.
How To Choose A Mailchimp Alternative
Is Your Newsletter The Product Or A Sales Channel?
This is the first fork in the road. If readers pay for or are the product, choose a publishing platform such as beehiiv or Kit, which include paid subscriptions, referral programs and recommendation networks. If email exists to sell something else, such as services, products or event tickets, a marketing platform like MailerLite, Brevo or GetResponse will serve you better. Email is one part of a broader mix, and it helps to be clear about whether you are running permission-based campaigns or prospecting; our explainer on inbound vs outbound marketing covers that distinction.
How Does Each Tool Count Contacts And Sends?
Pricing models differ more than headline prices suggest. Mailchimp counts unsubscribed contacts toward your total. Brevo prices mainly by send volume, which favors large lists you email rarely. Kit, beehiiv and Sender give you thousands of free subscribers, while MailerLite and Omnisend cap free plans at 250. Before you switch, export your list, count active subscribers and estimate your monthly sends, then price each shortlist candidate at that exact tier.
How Many People Need Access?
Seat limits are an easy cost to miss. Mailchimp includes three seats on Essentials and five on Standard. MailerLite Power, AWeber Plus and Kit Pro offer unlimited users, while ActiveCampaign Starter and Plus include only one. If a freelancer, assistant or co-founder needs to log in, factor that into the comparison.
How Much Automation Will You Really Build?
A welcome sequence and a monthly newsletter need very little automation, and almost every tool here handles that. Branching nurture journeys, lead scoring and conditional content are a different matter, and that is where ActiveCampaign and GetResponse Marketer earn their price.
Do You Need SMS, Webinars Or A Store Connection?
Bundled channels can replace other subscriptions. Omnisend and Brevo combine email with SMS, GetResponse includes webinars and courses, and Kit and MailerLite let you sell digital products. If you already pay for these elsewhere, a simpler email tool may be cheaper overall; if not, a bundle can lower your total software bill.
How Hard Will Migration Be?
Moving a list is straightforward, but rebuilding templates, forms and automations takes time. Omnisend advertises free migration on all plans, and AWeber’s Done For You plan handles setup. Whatever you pick, run the new platform in parallel for a few sends, warm up your sending domain and check deliverability before you cancel Mailchimp.
Conclusion
Mailchimp remains a capable, well-designed platform, but its small free plan, contact counting that includes unsubscribes and limited seats on lower tiers push many small businesses and creators to look elsewhere.
For creators, Kit’s free plan up to 10,000 subscribers is hard to beat, and beehiiv is the clear choice if you want to earn money from the newsletter itself. Small businesses looking for a direct Mailchimp replacement should start with MailerLite or Sender, while Brevo fits large lists with low send volume. GetResponse suits educators who sell through webinars, ActiveCampaign suits teams that want serious automation, and Constant Contact and AWeber suit owners who value support. Small stores should look at Omnisend.
Prices in this guide come from each vendor’s site in October 2026, and several vendors run time-limited promotions, so confirm the figure for your exact list size before you commit. Most of these tools offer a free plan or trial, which makes it easy to test two or three side by side with a real campaign before you move your whole list.
