Mailchimp alternatives

Reachkit isn’t listed: it’s a cold email tool, and Mailchimp’s job, newsletters and other email to an opted-in audience, is outside what it does. Prices here come from each vendor’s own pages as of October 2026; where a vendor doesn’t publish a number, I say which review site supplied it.

Pick by what you need Mailchimp to do better:

• A lower bill for the same newsletter: MailerLite, which bills only active subscribers and starts at $12 a month for 500.
• A large list that gets a few sends a month: Brevo. It bills by sends, and from the 20,000-email tier it stores up to 500,000 contacts.
• The largest free plan: EmailOctopus, whose free tier holds 2,500 subscribers and sends 10,000 emails monthly.
• An online store: Klaviyo for segments built on order data, or Omnisend for a lower list price and live chat on every plan.
• Automations triggered by what contacts do: ActiveCampaign.
• A person on the phone from the cheapest plan: Constant Contact.
• An agency or a team that needs many logins: Campaign Monitor, with unlimited users on every plan.
• A WordPress site: MailPoet, a plugin that runs inside WordPress admin.

For a typical newsletter list, entries 1 to 3 undercut Mailchimp. As with Mailchimp, each of the nine needs permission from whoever you email.

Small businesses and creators are MailerLite’s audience. Vercom, a Polish company, has owned it since 2022, and one account handles newsletters, automations, forms, landing pages and websites.

Price (October 2026): the free plan allows 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails. At 500 subscribers, Comfort is $12 a month and Power $25, with 10% off when billed yearly. At 10,000 subscribers, review sites reading MailerLite’s slider list Comfort at $89 and Power at $129. Comfort’s sends stop at 10 times your tier; Power’s are unlimited under a fair use policy.

Strengths:

• Only active subscribers count, so unsubscribed and bounced addresses stay off the bill.
• Reviewers mostly praise its ease and its support; Trustpilot has it at 4.1 from 3,387 reviews.

Drawbacks:

• Among recent one- and two-star Trustpilot reviews, most tell of an account suspended or frozen with no clear reason, and MailerLite’s terms rule out refunds for suspensions over policy breaches.
• Review sites report higher prices since the plan change of June 16, 2026: at 1,000 subscribers, Comfort went from $15 to $19.

Versus Mailchimp: at 10,000 contacts, Comfort’s $89 sits below Essentials at about $110, and Power’s $129 below Standard at about $135 (third-party readings). On the free plans, MailerLite allows 2,500 monthly emails to Mailchimp’s 500. Every plan includes an official MCP server that lets Claude or ChatGPT build segments and draft campaigns, though on Free it can’t send. MailerLite profile

Known as Sendinblue until 2023, Brevo comes out of Paris and bundles email marketing, a CRM, SMS, WhatsApp, push and live chat in one account.

Price (October 2026): monthly sends set the bill. Free allows 300 emails a day and up to 100,000 contacts. 5,000 emails cost $9 on Starter or $18 on Standard, but the two smallest tiers limit contacts too: 500 with 5,000 emails, 2,500 with 15,000. From 20,000 emails ($32 Starter, $69 Standard), the contact ceiling is 500,000. Professional begins at $499 for 150,000 emails.

Strengths:

• From the 20,000 tier, stored contacts stop driving the price, so a large list mailed rarely stays cheap.
• Every plan includes transactional sending over API and SMTP.

Drawbacks:

• Filter Trustpilot to one and two stars and 8 of the 20 reviews on page one (October 26) describe sudden suspensions; Brevo’s replies often link them to results affecting its shared IP addresses. The other recurring complaint is support that starts with a bot.
• Starter shows the Brevo logo unless you pay to remove it ($12 a month in Brevo’s price catalog, $9 in its add-ons article), and WhatsApp messaging and phone support wait for the $499 plan.

Versus Mailchimp: two sends a month to 10,000 contacts adds up to 20,000 emails. Brevo charges $32 on Starter, $44 without the logo, or $69 on Standard; Mailchimp runs about $110 on Essentials and $135 on Standard (third-party figures). Brevo’s Trustpilot score is 3.8 from 7,249 reviews. Brevo profile

EmailOctopus is London-based email marketing for newsletters and small businesses, launched in 2014 and run by Three Hearts Digital Ltd. It sends campaigns and automations to opted-in lists.

Price (October 2026): the free Starter plan takes up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 sends monthly, carries EmailOctopus branding and allows one user. Pro costs $10 a month, or $9 billed yearly, at 500 subscribers. EmailOctopus’s own October 2026 blog puts 10,000 subscribers at $40 a month billed yearly, and Tooltester lists $44.50 month to month. EmailOctopus Connect routes mail via your own Amazon SES account from $8 a month billed yearly; Amazon bills the emails separately.

Strengths:

• Unsubscribed, bounced and complained contacts don’t count toward your tier.
• Price and the free plan draw the praise, with 4.8 on Trustpilot from 335 reviews.

Drawbacks:

• Each new account is reviewed before it can send, and some one-star reviews describe campaigns or accounts held without a clear explanation.
• Fewer features: per Tooltester, there’s no A/B testing, and automations can’t trigger on opens or clicks. One person on two lists counts twice.

Versus Mailchimp: at 10,000 subscribers you’d pay $40 to $44.50 a month against about $110 on Essentials, and the free plan holds ten times Mailchimp’s 250 contacts. Mailchimp includes A/B tests from Essentials, which EmailOctopus doesn’t offer. EmailOctopus profile

Entries 4 and 5 are built for online stores and pull customers and orders in from Shopify, WooCommerce and other platforms.

Klaviyo is email and SMS marketing for ecommerce, traded on the NYSE since September 2023. It turns a store’s customers, orders and browsing into profiles, then sends by email, SMS, WhatsApp, RCS and push.

Price (October 2026): free for 250 active profiles and 500 sends a month. Klaviyo’s Shopify App Store listing prices the Email plan from $20 a month at 500 profiles, and Kanal and Yocto read its calculator as $150 at 10,000 profiles and $350 at 15,000. Texting is a separate prepaid messaging plan, charged per message for new customers since July 13, 2026.

Strengths:

• Segments and flows run on real purchase and browsing history, which G2 and Capterra reviewers single out.
• Composer, live since October 13, 2026, builds the audience, copy and timing for a campaign, and Klaviyo says nothing goes live without your approval.

Drawbacks:

• Every profile Klaviyo can email counts, engaged or not, and the tier moves up by itself at the end of the cycle.
• Trustpilot shows 1.6 from 370 reviews, mostly about billing and support, against 4.7 from 3,413 on the Shopify App Store.

Versus Mailchimp: suppressed profiles drop out of Klaviyo’s count, while Mailchimp bills unsubscribed contacts until you archive them. At 10,000 profiles the Email plan’s $150 is close to Mailchimp Standard’s $135, but Klaviyo’s price more than doubles on the way to 15,000. Klaviyo profile

Founded in Lithuania in 2014 as Soundest, Omnisend handles ecommerce email, SMS and web push. It syncs customer, order and browsing data from Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix and others.

Price (October 2026): the free plan gives 250 contacts and 500 monthly emails. Standard is $16 for 500 contacts, Pro $59 for 2,500. Kanal and Email Tool Tester read the calculator at $132 on Standard and $150 on Pro for 10,000 contacts. Since May 4, 2026, new subscriptions can only add texting on Pro, at $0.009 per US text below $50 of monthly spend.

Strengths:

• Live chat and email support run 24/7 on every plan including Free, and Trustpilot’s review summary mentions support first.
• Ratings stay high across sites, with 4.7 on the Shopify App Store (3,197 reviews) and 4.4 on Trustpilot (510).

Drawbacks:

• Contacts include non-subscribers who receive automated messages, for example buyers who never opted in.
• Some Shopify App Store reviewers report bills that climbed as lists grew, and texting now needs Pro ($59 a month and up) plus SMS credits from $10 a month.

Versus Mailchimp: at 10,000 contacts Standard’s $132 is about the same as Mailchimp Standard’s $135, so the reasons to move are the store tooling and the support rather than price. Unsubscribes don’t count at Omnisend; at Mailchimp they do. Omnisend profile

Entries 6 to 9 each fit one way of working: automation, a phone line, many logins, or WordPress.

Founded in Chicago in 2003, ActiveCampaign is a platform for email marketing and automation. Contacts come in through forms, landing pages, integrations or imports, and multi-step flows start when someone signs up, clicks or buys, then branch on what they do next.

Price (October 2026): billed yearly for 1,000 contacts, the plans run $15 a month for Starter, $49 for Plus, $79 for Pro and $145 for Enterprise. Paid monthly, Starter is $19 according to review sites. No free plan exists; the 14-day trial asks for no card. Venture Harbour puts Plus at about $189 a month for 10,000 contacts.

Strengths:

• Automation depth is what reviewers praise first, and Pro adds predictive sending and conditional content.
• An API with a free developer sandbox, plus a remote MCP server that lets Claude or ChatGPT add contacts, fetch campaign results and send campaigns.

Drawbacks:

• For accounts opened since November 3, 2025, every unsubscribed, unconfirmed and bounced contact counts, so moving here won’t fix Mailchimp’s way of counting.
• Support is hard to reach in recent Trustpilot reviews, where ActiveCampaign rates 2.7 from 1,449.

Versus Mailchimp: Mailchimp Essentials stops flows at 4 steps and keeps branching for Standard and Premium, while ActiveCampaign Starter allows 5 actions per automation. The bigger plans cost more as lists grow: Plus at 10,000 contacts is about $189 against roughly $135 for Mailchimp Standard. ActiveCampaign profile

Built for small businesses, nonprofits and franchises, Constant Contact puts email marketing, SMS, social posting, event registration and surveys in one account.

Price (October 2026): for the smallest list, Lite is $12 a month, Standard $35 and Premium $80; prepaying a year lowers those to $10.20, $29.75 and $68 a month. Third-party checks from September 2026 put 10,000 contacts at $120, $160 and $275.

Strengths:

• Every plan, Lite included, lists live onboarding plus phone and chat support.
• Hitting the send cap doesn’t pause a campaign; each extra 1,000 sends costs $2.

Drawbacks:

• Lite is thin: a single user, segment and automation template, with no way to schedule.
• You pay for the highest contact tier you’ve reached until Billing agrees to lower it, a one-time courtesy in Constant Contact’s words. Refund and cancellation complaints repeat on Trustpilot.

Versus Mailchimp: Mailchimp keeps phone support for Premium at $350 a month; Constant Contact offers it from $12. At 10,000 contacts the bills are close ($160 on Standard against about $135 on Mailchimp Standard), and Constant Contact has no free plan, only a trial. Trustpilot scores it 4.0 from 2,113 reviews. Constant Contact profile

Campaign Monitor is Marigold’s email marketing platform, sold for more than two decades and known for its templates. It sends newsletters, automated Journeys and transactional email.

Price (October 2026): for 500 contacts billed yearly, the US pricing page shows $11.70 a month for Lite, $27.90 for Essentials and $153.90 for Premier. On monthly billing, third-party trackers report $13, $31 and $171, and at 10,000 contacts $117, $182 and $300. Lite sends five times your tier; the pricing page lists unlimited sends on Essentials and Premier.

Strengths:

• Unlimited users on every plan, plus client sub-accounts and admin dashboards for agencies.
• Reviewers and editors praise the templates and the reporting.

Drawbacks:

• Someone on three lists is counted three times, and the billing help page says scheduled and automated sends over your tier move you up without a prompt, though the pricing page promises a notice first.
• Several Trustpilot reviewers since December 2025 say an inactive account was deleted without warning. Its Trustpilot score is 2.2 from 200 reviews.

Versus Mailchimp: Mailchimp Essentials includes 3 seats and Standard 5, while Campaign Monitor has no seat limit and doesn’t count unsubscribes. It costs the same or more as the list grows: at 10,000 contacts, Lite is $117 and Essentials $182, against about $110 for Mailchimp Essentials. Campaign Monitor profile

MailPoet is a WordPress plugin, owned by WooCommerce since December 2020, that sends newsletters, post notifications and store emails from WordPress admin. It reports 500,000+ active installs and can import an existing Mailchimp list.

Price (October 2026): the free Starter plan sends 5,000 emails a month to up to 500 subscribers through the MailPoet Sending Service. MailPoet’s own prices didn’t load when checked, so these are third-party readings: at 500 subscribers, Creator costs $8 a month (you send through your host or an SMTP provider), Business $10 and Agency $30 for up to 50 sites. Business reaches about $80 at 10,000.

Strengths:

• Abandoned cart, first purchase and review follow-up emails for WooCommerce are built in.
• Setup is easy: in search listings, G2 reviewers give it 9.4 out of 10.

Drawbacks:

• WordPress users, WooCommerce customers and unconfirmed signups count toward your tier unless you exclude them.
• Hard bounces above 10% get a Sending Service account suspended, and on Trustpilot, suspensions and slow approvals lead the complaints. Refunds on Business and Agency happen only in the exceptions MailPoet lists.

Versus Mailchimp: the free plan holds twice Mailchimp’s contacts (500 against 250) with ten times the sends, and unsubscribed contacts don’t count. It only works on a WordPress site. On wordpress.org it rates 4.4 from 1,434 reviews. MailPoet profile

Start with the size of your list and how often you mail it:

• Under 2,500 subscribers and no budget. EmailOctopus’s free plan, or MailPoet’s (500 subscribers) if your site runs on WordPress.
• A few thousand subscribers and a weekly newsletter. MailerLite Comfort or EmailOctopus Pro, both below Mailchimp at the same list size.
• A big list that gets one or two sends a month. Brevo, whose bill tracks sends.
• An online store. Klaviyo if you’ll use its segments and flows heavily, Omnisend if you want lower list prices and live chat.
• Customers who expect a phone call, or event sign-ups. Constant Contact.
• An agency, or a team that needs many logins. Campaign Monitor, or MailPoet Agency if every client site runs WordPress.
• Automation as the main job. ActiveCampaign, priced on every stored contact.

While both run, archive the Mailchimp contacts you’ve stopped mailing; archived ones aren’t counted. Export the audience, then authenticate your sending domain in the new tool before its first campaign. More on Mailchimp’s plans and limits in our Mailchimp profile.

I’d only move when you can name what Mailchimp is costing you. If it’s unsubscribed contacts on the bill, archive them first and see whether the price still hurts. If it does, MailerLite or EmailOctopus is where I’d test a newsletter, and Brevo for a big list you mail rarely. For a store, I’d price Klaviyo and Omnisend side by side at my real profile count, since both bills grow with the list.

One case none of these covers: emailing prospects who never signed up. Mailchimp’s rules forbid it, and so do the rules of every tool above. That’s cold email. It goes out from separate domains and inboxes, and handling that is why I built Reachkit (how that setup works).

See also the MailerLite, Brevo and Klaviyo profiles.