Mailchimp

This Mailchimp review covers what the platform is used for, its key features, Mailchimp pricing and the extra costs to check, where it shines and falls short, and how it compares with other email marketing tools. Mailchimp started in 2001 as a newsletter tool and is now owned by Intuit, the company behind QuickBooks. You collect contacts with signup forms and landing pages, design email campaigns in a drag-and-drop builder, and send them to segments of your audience. Automation workflows send welcome series, abandoned-cart emails and follow-ups on their own. A free plan covers up to 250 contacts, and paid plans are priced by contact count.

What is Mailchimp used for?

Mailchimp is used for email marketing by small businesses, online stores, creators, nonprofits and local services. Typical uses are a monthly newsletter, product announcements, welcome emails for new subscribers, abandoned-cart reminders for Shopify or WooCommerce stores, event invitations and simple SMS marketing. Teams also use it as a light CRM: every contact has tags, activity and purchase data, so you can build segments such as "bought twice" or "opened in the last 30 days".

It suits people who want one marketing platform with templates, forms, automation and reports, without a developer. It is less of a fit for high-volume senders who mostly need transactional emails, or for businesses that need a full sales CRM.

Key features

• Email builder and templates: a drag-and-drop editor with pre built email templates; Standard and Premium plans add custom coded templates.
• Signup forms and landing pages: embedded forms, pop-ups and hosted landing pages to grow the list.
• Marketing automation: customer journeys with triggers, delays and branches. Essentials allows flows of up to 4 steps; Standard and Premium allow up to 200 flows.
• Segmentation: tags, groups and segments, plus predictive segmentation on higher plans that groups contacts by likely spend or purchase.
• Testing and reporting: A/B testing on paid plans, multivariate testing on Premium, and basic reporting on every plan, with comparative reports higher up.
• AI features (Intuit Assist): help to draft subject lines and email copy and to pick send times.
• SMS marketing: text messages sold as SMS credits, as an add on to paid plans.
• Integrations: more than 300 apps, including Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Stripe and Zapier.

Mailchimp pricing

Mailchimp pricing is based on the number of contacts in your account, with a monthly send limit tied to each tier. There are four marketing plans, all paid per month or per year, plus a Pay As You Go plan. The plans below come from the Mailchimp pricing page and help center, checked in September 2026. The page showed euros from our location; US prices are from Email Tool Tester's pricing guide.

Mailchimp's free plan

The free plan costs $0 for up to 250 contacts, with 500 sends a month and a daily limit of 250, one audience and one seat. It has no automation or A/B testing, email support only for the first 30 days, and every email carries Mailchimp branding. If you pass the contact limit or the monthly send limit, sending pauses until you upgrade.

Essentials plan

The Essentials plan starts at about $13 per month for 500 contacts. The monthly email send limit is 10 times your contact limit, with 3 audiences, 3 seats, A/B testing, automation flows of up to 4 steps, 24/7 email and chat support, and no Mailchimp branding.

Standard or Premium plan

The Standard plan starts at about $20 a month for 500 contacts, with 12 times your contacts in monthly email sends, 5 audiences, 5 seats, up to 200 automation flows, predictive segmentation and custom coded templates. Premium plans start at about $350 a month, with 15 times your contacts in sends, unlimited audiences, unlimited users, multivariate testing, phone support and priority support, plus onboarding and premium migration services.

Essentials and Standard come with a 14-day free trial. Third-party guides put Essentials at about $110 and Standard at about $135 a month at 10,000 contacts, and a yearly subscription saves about 15% compared with monthly billing.

Pay As You Go plan and email credits

Instead of a monthly plan you can buy email credits in blocks from 5,000 to 25 million. Each email to one contact uses one credit, credits expire after 12 months, and you get the features of the Essentials plan (Mailchimp Help). The Pay As You Go plan suits people who send a quarterly newsletter or seasonal email campaigns.

Contact limit, send limit and duplicate contacts

The cost surprise to check is how Mailchimp counts contacts. Subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts all count toward your contact total; only archived, cleaned and deleted contacts don't. If you go over your contact limit during a monthly billing cycle, you pay an overage charge instead of being stopped. On the free plan, sending pauses instead. Archive unsubscribed contacts regularly to keep the contact count, and the bill, down. Third-party guides also note that the same person in two audiences counts twice, so one audience with tags is usually cheaper than several. Check how many contacts you have in total before you pick a contact tier.

Mailchimp Transactional, SMS credits and other add ons

Several add ons cost extra on top of a monthly plan or a Pay As You Go plan:

• SMS credits for SMS marketing, available as an add on from the Essentials plan up.
• Mailchimp Transactional (formerly Mandrill) for transactional emails such as receipts, order confirmations and password resets. It is a separate paid add on for a Standard or Premium plan, priced in blocks of emails, and it is the part of Mailchimp built for developers and apps that send transactional emails at volume.

Where Mailchimp shines — and where it falls short

Strengths:

• An easy editor and many pre built email templates.
• One marketing platform for email, forms, landing pages, automation and SMS.
• Strong ecommerce integrations and a large app ecosystem.
• A free plan to start with, and support around the clock on paid plans.

Trade-offs:

• Pricing rises quickly with your contact count, and unsubscribed contacts count toward the bill.
• The free plan is small: 250 contacts, 500 monthly emails and no automation.
• Serious automation and predictive segmentation need the Standard plan.
• Phone support is only on Premium.

How Mailchimp compares

• MailerLite: a cheaper, simpler newsletter tool with a more generous free plan.
• Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): prices by emails sent rather than contacts, which suits large lists that mail rarely.
• Klaviyo: deeper ecommerce data and flows for online stores.
• Kit: email marketing and paid newsletters for creators.
• Flodesk: design-focused emails for small brands.
• ActiveCampaign: more advanced marketing automation and a built-in CRM.
• GetResponse and AWeber: long-running email platforms with webinars and landing pages.
• HubSpot: a full CRM when email is only one part of your marketing needs.

Is Mailchimp worth it?

Mailchimp is worth paying for if you want an easy all-in-one email marketing platform with good templates, ecommerce integrations and automation, and your list is small to medium. The free plan is fine for testing, and the Standard plan is where the useful automation starts. It gets expensive as the contact count grows, so compare the price at 10,000 contacts with MailerLite or Brevo before you commit, and clean out unsubscribed contacts. If you want help to set up automation workflows, move from another tool or connect Mailchimp to your store, the email marketing agencies and developers on LowCodeDevs can take it on.

Sources

• Mailchimp pricing: plans, send limits, seats, audiences, support and testing.
• About Mailchimp pricing plans: what counts as a contact, overages, free plan limits and add ons.
• About the Pay As You Go plan: email credits, expiry and included features.
• Mailchimp pricing, Email Tool Tester: US prices per contact tier.
• Mailchimp pricing, Email Vendor Selection: prices at 10,000 contacts and the annual discount.