Mailchimp pricing, price hikes and cheaper alternatives
Mailchimp (mailchimp.com) is a newsletter platform. Tiered by total contacts; sends capped at a multiple of contacts. Free plan: 250 contacts, 500 sends/mo.
What Mailchimp costs
- 1k subscribers: $26.50/mo
- 5k subscribers: $75/mo
- 10k subscribers: $110/mo
- 25k subscribers: $270/mo
- 50k subscribers: $385/mo
- 100k subscribers: $800/mo
Plan compared: Essentials (Standard above 50k). Cheapest paid plan that can send a weekly newsletter to the whole list, billed monthly. Plans priced by emails sent assume one issue a week, about 4.3 emails per subscriber a month.
Mailchimp price hikes
- Mailchimp raised legacy plans 11–13% · Apr 13, 2026
Accounts on legacy plans (from before May 2019) pay 11–13% more on average from their next billing cycle. - Mailchimp halved its free plan again · Jan 2026
Free plan cut to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a 250-a-day cap. - Mailchimp quietly cut what you get · Jun 2025
Classic automation builder retired, so multi-step automations now need Standard. - Mailchimp quietly cut what you get · Feb 2023
Free plan monthly sends cut from 2,500 to 1,000. - Mailchimp cut its free plan 75% and raised prices · 2022
Free plan contacts cut from 2,000 to 500 and scheduling removed; Essentials went from $9.99 to $13 and Standard from $14.99 to $20.
Cheaper alternatives to Mailchimp
At 10k subs, Mailchimp costs $110/mo. 7 newsletter platforms cost less:
- Sendy + SES: $4.30/mo (Self-hosted, SES à la carte at $0.10 per 1k)
- MailCheap: $39/mo (Plan for one issue a week (~4.3 emails per subscriber))
- Flodesk: $72/mo (Lite plan (Pro above 25k))
- Buttondown: $79/mo (Base plan, no add-ons)
- Bento: $79/mo (Marketing Platform)
- MailerLite: $89/mo (Comfort plan)
- Ghost(Pro): $105/mo (Starter (Publisher above 1k))
Mailchimp alternatives: 7 cheaper newsletter platforms compared, at every size.
Every change we logged
- Apr 13, 2026 · Price increase: Accounts on legacy plans (from before May 2019) pay 11–13% more on average from their next billing cycle.
- Jan 2026 · Free tier cut: Free plan cut to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a 250-a-day cap.
- Jun 2025 · Limits cut: Classic automation builder retired, so multi-step automations now need Standard.
- Feb 2023 · Limits cut: Free plan monthly sends cut from 2,500 to 1,000.
- 2022 · Free tier cut: Free plan contacts cut from 2,000 to 500 and scheduling removed; Essentials went from $9.99 to $13 and Standard from $14.99 to $20.
Sources
Pricing page: mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing. Prices last checked Oct 16, 2026. Prices read from Mailchimp's contact-range picker (Oct 16, 2026): the list price after the free trial, for the range each size falls in (1k = 501–1,500). Essentials stops at 50k contacts, so 100k is Standard. Lists of 10k+ contacts get 15% off for the first 12 months. Unsubscribed contacts count toward your plan unless you archive them.