Mailchimp Alternatives in 2026: 9 Email Platforms Compared

Key takeaways

• Brevo is our pick for most small businesses: a free plan with 300 emails per day and paid plans from $9 per month that are priced by email volume rather than by contact count.
• Sender gives the biggest free allowance we found (2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month), while Mailchimp's own free plan stops at 250 contacts and 500 emails per month.
• Kit and Flodesk suit creators and brands that care about look and monetization, but both are priced by subscriber count and cost more at 1,000 subscribers than the entry plans from Brevo, MailerLite or GetResponse.
• ActiveCampaign ($15 per month to start) and Omnisend (built for online stores) are the picks if you want automation and ecommerce features beyond newsletters.
• Every paid platform on this list raises its price as your list grows, so check the price at your own list size before you move.

Quick comparison

The best Mailchimp alternatives

Mailchimp is still a capable platform, but its free plan is small and its paid tiers climb as your contact list grows. The nine services below cover cheaper plans, stronger automation and simpler editors, and each one is described from its own pricing and feature pages.

1. Brevo

• Best for: Small businesses that want volume-based pricing
• Starting price: $9 per month
• Free plan: Yes
• Website: brevo.com

Brevo is where we would start for most small businesses. The free plan lets you send 300 emails per day, and the daily limit resets each day. Paid plans begin with Starter at $9 per month and Standard at $18 per month, both priced by how many emails you send rather than how many contacts you store.

That model suits a shop with a big list that emails it once a month. The catch is a newer one. Brevo's pricing reference shows a contact cap of 500 on the smallest sending tier (5,000 emails), so a larger list needs a higher tier. Removing the Brevo logo is included on Starter, and click heatmaps and a landing page arrive on Standard.

If you send in bursts, check the daily cap on the free plan before you plan a campaign. Once you hit 300 sends, the rest of a campaign has to be requeued by hand the next day.

Pros

• Free plan with 300 emails per day
• Paid plans priced by email volume
• Clear public pricing reference

Cons

• Free plan has a daily send cap
• Smallest paid tier limits the number of contacts

2. MailerLite

• Best for: Simple newsletters on a small budget
• Starting price: $12 per month
• Free plan: Yes
• Website: mailerlite.com

MailerLite is the closest like-for-like swap for people who liked Mailchimp's simplicity. The free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails per month, with two user seats, campaigns, automations, one landing page and signup forms. Paid plans are Comfort (from $12 per month) and Power (from $25 per month), and annual billing saves 10%.

New accounts get a 14-day trial of the premium features without a credit card. When the trial ends, your data stays but the paid features switch off unless you upgrade, so use those two weeks to rebuild one real automation.

The honest drawback is size. The free tier is as small as Mailchimp's in contact terms, so growing lists move onto a paid plan quickly, and the price rises with each subscriber band.

Pros

• Free plan includes automations and a landing page
• 14-day trial of premium features
• Clean editor with several email builders

Cons

• Free plan stops at 250 subscribers
• Premium features lock after the trial unless you upgrade

3. Kit

• Best for: Creators selling to an audience
• Starting price: $39 per month
• Free plan: Yes
• Website: kit.com

Kit, formerly known as ConvertKit, is built for people who sell courses, newsletters or memberships. Its free Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited forms, landing pages and email broadcasts, which is far above Mailchimp's free limits. You pay once you want the paid features.

The Creator plan starts at $39 per month for 1,000 subscribers and Creator Pro at $79, according to Kit's help center, with two months free on annual billing. Both paid plans come with a 14-day trial and no card required.

Kit is a good fit if your emails are mostly text and personal. It is less natural for a retail business that wants product blocks, and the paid plans cost more than the entry plans from Brevo or MailerLite at the same list size.

Pros

• Free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers
• Unlimited forms, landing pages and broadcasts
• 14-day trial on paid plans

Cons

• Paid Creator plan costs $39 per month at 1,000 subscribers
• Built around creators more than shops

4. Constant Contact

• Best for: Beginners who prefer a guided setup
• Starting price: $12 per month
• Free plan: Free trial (30 days)
• Website: constantcontact.com

Constant Contact has served small businesses for a long time and still targets owners who want a guided setup. The Lite plan starts at $12 per month for 500 contacts, and Constant Contact's pricing page says paying for 12 months up front brings Lite to $10.20 per month.

There is no free plan, only a trial. Pricing depends on both contacts and email sends, and Lite caps your monthly sends at ten times your contact count, with overage fees if you go beyond that. Third-party reviews also note that Lite leaves out A/B testing and advanced segmentation.

It makes sense if you want a familiar, hand-held product and are fine paying for it. If your main goal is the lowest bill, the cheaper entries on this list will go further.

Pros

• Lite plan from $12 per month
• 30-day free trial
• Long-standing small business focus

Cons

• No free plan
• Lite lacks A/B testing and advanced segmentation

5. ActiveCampaign

• Best for: Businesses that want deep automation
• Starting price: $15 per month
• Free plan: Free trial (14 days)
• Website: activecampaign.com

ActiveCampaign is the step up for anyone whose Mailchimp flows have become too basic. Its own comparison page lists Starter at $15 per month for 1,000 contacts, Plus at $49, Pro at $79 and Enterprise at $145. Starter allows five actions per automation and email only, while Plus and above allow unlimited actions and cross-channel messaging.

The standout is the built-in CRM and behavior-based segmentation, which suits a business where a sale involves follow-up. The trial runs 14 days with no credit card.

The catch is cost at scale. ActiveCampaign's own blog puts Starter at $149 per month at 10,000 contacts, so the low entry price is for small lists. It is also more to learn than a simple newsletter tool.

Pros

• Multi-step, branching automations
• Built-in sales CRM
• Email, WhatsApp, SMS and site messaging

Cons

• No free plan
• Price climbs quickly with list size

6. GetResponse

• Best for: Email plus webinars and landing pages
• Starting price: $19 per month
• Free plan: Free trial (14 days)
• Website: getresponse.com

GetResponse bundles email with landing pages, webinars and courses. Starter is $19 per month for 1,000 contacts with unlimited monthly sends, and the yearly price drops to about $15.58 per month. Marketer is $59 and Creator is $69 at the same contact tier on monthly billing.

New accounts get 14 days of premium features. After that the account falls back to a free version with caps, such as a limit on landing page visitors and a GetResponse badge on emails.

It is a good choice if you plan to run webinars or sell a course alongside your newsletter. For plain newsletters, you would pay for tools you do not use.

Pros

• Starter plan includes unlimited monthly sends
• Landing pages, webinars and web push in one account
• 18% off with yearly billing

Cons

• Starter is pricier than Brevo or MailerLite
• Free version after the trial is limited

7. Omnisend

• Best for: Online stores sending to shoppers
• Starting price: Free
• Free plan: Yes
• Website: omnisend.com

Omnisend is aimed at online stores. The free plan includes 250 contacts and 500 emails per month with no card needed, and it does not expire. Standard lists 6,000 emails and 500 contacts, and Pro offers unlimited emails (fair use) from the 2,500-contact tier.

The pricing page shows Standard at $11.20 per month with a 3-month prepay discount, which works out to $16 per month before the discount ($48 for three months). Pro is $41.30 per month on the same discounted basis ($59 per month before it). After the three months, the plans bill monthly.

If you run a Shopify-style store, an ecommerce-first tool is easier to justify than a general sender. If you only send newsletters, you will not use most of it.

Pros

• Free plan with no expiry
• Web push on every plan
• Built around ecommerce

Cons

• Free plan is capped at 250 contacts and 500 emails per month
• Paid pricing shown with a 3-month prepay discount

8. Flodesk

• Best for: Brands that care about email design
• Starting price: Free
• Free plan: Yes
• Website: flodesk.com

Flodesk is for people who judge email by how it looks. Its free plan covers forms, landing pages, designer templates, segmentation and email sending. The three paid plans send without limits and are priced by active subscribers.

For up to 1,000 subscribers, Flodesk's page lists Lite at $25 per month, Pro at $28 and Everything at $54, with lower rates on annual billing (one month free). Pro adds unlimited workflows and advanced analytics, and Everything adds checkout and ecommerce tools such as abandoned cart automations.

The compromise is automation depth. If your emails need heavy branching, ActiveCampaign is the better engine. If you want polished newsletters with little fuss, Flodesk is a pleasant choice.

Pros

• Strong template library
• Unlimited sends on paid plans
• Free plan available

Cons

• Paid plans scale with subscriber count
• Some features sit behind the higher plans

9. Sender

• Best for: The biggest free plan
• Starting price: $7 per month
• Free plan: Yes
• Website: sender.net

Sender has the largest free allowance on this list. Its Free Forever plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month and never expires, and new accounts get 14 days of the Professional plan before reverting to free.

Free-plan forms, popups and newsletters carry Sender branding, which paid plans remove. Sender's Standard plan page says it starts at $7 per month, though pricing differs by list size and we found different entry figures on other Sender pages, so check the calculator for your own list.

For a business that wants to send a lot of email without paying, Sender is the one to test first. Check deliverability with your own audience before moving a large list.

Pros

• Free plan with 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month
• Paid Standard plan from $7 per month
• 14-day Professional trial on new accounts

Cons

• Free plan carries Sender branding
• Public pricing varies across its own pages

How we picked these

We looked for services that a small US business could realistically use as a Mailchimp replacement today, and we included both big names and smaller specialists. We compared each vendor's official pricing page, feature pages and help center, along with Mailchimp's own pricing page for the baseline. We did not run hands-on tests, so where a price or limit could not be confirmed on the vendor's site, we say so.

We weighted the free plan, the starting price at a small list size, how pricing changes as your list grows, and what kind of sender each product suits. Prices are US dollars as of 24 October 2026 and change often.

How to choose and move without losing subscribers

Start with your list size and how often you send. Mailchimp's free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 emails per month, and its paid plans rise by contact tier. Brevo charges by volume, while Kit, Flodesk and MailerLite charge by subscriber count, so the cheapest tool for 500 contacts is rarely the cheapest for 5,000.

Compare price at your real list size

Look up the price at your own contact count, not the "starting at" number. Entry prices apply to the smallest tier, and monthly versus annual billing can change the figure by 10% to 18%. Check overage rules too, because some plans bill extra when you send more than your tier allows.

Check automation and integrations before you commit

List the automations you use today, such as welcome series, abandoned cart or tag-based follow-ups, and rebuild one on a trial. Also check that your website, store and payment tools connect to the platform you pick.

Plan the move

Export your audience, including unsubscribes and tags, and keep suppression lists intact so people who opted out do not get emailed. Authenticate your sending domain on the new platform, and send to your most engaged contacts first so inbox providers see healthy engagement. Keep your Mailchimp account open until you have confirmed that automations and forms work.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest Mailchimp alternative?

For free, Sender allows 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month, and Kit allows up to 10,000 subscribers. For paid plans, Sender starts at $7 per month and Brevo at $9 per month, though both rise with list size or send volume.

What are the best free alternatives to Mailchimp?

Sender, Kit, Brevo, MailerLite, Omnisend and Flodesk all offer a free plan. Free plans differ in limits, so compare subscribers, monthly emails, automations and branding rather than the headline price.

Which Mailchimp alternative is best for ecommerce?

Omnisend is built for online stores and includes web push on every plan. Flodesk's Everything plan adds abandoned cart automations and checkout tools, and ActiveCampaign can fit stores that want deeper automation and a CRM.

Is Brevo better than Mailchimp?

It depends on what you send. Brevo prices by email volume and has a free plan with 300 emails per day, which can be cheaper for large lists that send rarely. Mailchimp may feel simpler if you only need basic newsletters and already use it.

Can I move my list from Mailchimp to another tool?

Yes. Export your audience and keep unsubscribes and tags, then import to the new platform. Authenticate your sending domain first and warm up with your most engaged contacts.

Sources

1. https://www.mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/
2. https://www.brevo.com/pricing.md
3. https://help.brevo.com/hc/en-us/articles/208580669-FAQs-What-are-the-limits-of-the-Free-plan
4. https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing
5. https://help.kit.com/en/articles/4494683-creator-plan-vs-creator-pro
6. https://help.kit.com/en/articles/9053602-the-kit-newsletter-plan
7. https://www.constantcontact.com/pricing
8. https://www.activecampaign.com/compare/mailchimp
9. https://www.activecampaign.com/pricing
10. https://www.getresponse.com/pricing
11. https://www.omnisend.com/pricing/
12. https://flodesk.com/pricing
13. https://www.sender.net/pricing/
14. https://www.sender.net/pricing/standard-plan/