Overview
Mailchimp is definitely one of the cheapest provider on the market. With the Forever Free plan for up to 2,000 contacts and 12,000 emails per month (with ads).
Then for the Growing Business plan, it starts at $10 per month for 500 contacts and unlimited emails. The last plan, Pro Marketer, adds more advanced email marketing features to your current plan for $199 per month.
If automation is a key feature of what you are looking for, you should directly check out ActiveCampaign pricing. As this one of the most advance ESP in that regards.
Pricing details
Free
START FOR
$0/mo
Grow
START FOR
$99/mo
Pro
START FOR
$199/mo
Additional remarks about MailChimp pricing
MailChimp follows 2 pricing model: the main one being on the number of subscribers you have. The second being useful only if you are sending emails occasionally, they offer a system of Email Credits
Pay-per-subscriber model details
| Total Subscribers | Emails per month | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| 0 - 2,000 | 12,000 | Free |
| 0 - 500 | Unlimited | $10.00 |
| 501 - 1,000 | Unlimited | $15.00 |
| 1,001 - 1,500 | Unlimited | $20.00 |
| 1,501 - 2,500 | Unlimited | $30.00 |
| 2,501 - 2,600 | Unlimited | $35.00 |
| 2,601 - 2,700 | Unlimited | $40.00 |
| 2,701 - 5,000 | Unlimited | $50.00 |
| 5,001 - 5,200 | Unlimited | $55.00 |
| 5,201 - 5,600 | Unlimited | $65.00 |
| 5,601 - 10,000 | Unlimited | $75.00 |
| 10,001 - 10,200 | Unlimited | $80.00 |
| 10,201 - 10,600 | Unlimited | $90.00 |
| 29,501 - 31,000 | Unlimited | $225.00 |
| 31,001 - 52,000 | Unlimited | $250.00 |
| 52,001 - 54,000 | 648,000 | $275.00 |
| 54,001 - 56,000 | 672,000 | $300.00 |
| 90,001 - 100,000 | 1,200,000 | $475.00 |
| 100,001 - 105,000 | 1,260,000 | $500.00 |
| 105,001 - 110,000 | 1,320,000 | $525.00 |
MailChimp's Email Credits pricing model details
| Email Credits | Price per email | Prepay amount |
|---|---|---|
| 50,000 | 0.01 | $500.00 |
| 75,000 | 0.01 | $750.00 |
| 200,000 | 0.005 | $1,000.00 |
| 2,000,000 | 0.00125 | $2,500.00 |
| 5,000,000 | 0.001 | $5,000.00 |
Features by plan
| Features | Free | Grow | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscribers | 2,000 | Unlimited* | Unlimited* |
| Emails per Month | 12,000 | Unlimited* | Unlimited* |
| Multi-User Accounts | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Guides and Tutorials | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Remove Mailchimp Footer | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Email and Chat Support | First 30 days (email only) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Premium Support | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| CREATE | Free | Grow | Pro |
| Email Campaigns | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Landing Pages | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Use Custom Domains | $99/year | $99/year | $99/year |
| Pop-up Forms | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Postcards | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Address Finder | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Google Remarketing Ads | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Facebook Ads | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Instagram Ads | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Marketing Automation | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Abandoned Cart | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Product Recommendations | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Order Notifications | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Welcome Emails | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Date-based Automations | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Segmentation and Tagging | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Basic Reports | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| A/B Testing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Send Time Optimization | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Delivery by Time Zone | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Predicted Demographics | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Advanced Segmentation | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Comparative Reports | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Multivariate Testing | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Conclusion
If you are just getting started with email marketing or need a simple tool to send emails to a couple hundreds of subscribers, MailChimp free plan will be perfect for you.
The other good alternatives would be to consider Benchmark or MailerLite.
Just remember that every email you send will have MailChimp's logo at the footer of your email.
Looking for more features and more flexibility? You can always opt in for a MailChimp paid plan.
Though some other email service providers offer more features for less in their paid plans. The best example being GetResponse which is cheaper than MailChimp for 10,000 subscribers.