Mailjet alternatives

I run Reachkit, which makes cold email software. Mailjet mails people who opted in, a job Reachkit doesn’t do, so Reachkit isn’t one of the eight below. I checked every price in October 2026 on the vendor’s own pages; where a vendor only shows its smallest tier, I say the figure comes from review sites.

Mailjet is still a good deal for a big list mailed a few times a month, because from Essential ($19) up it counts only the emails you send, not your contacts. So move for a specific reason, and pick by it:

• The same model with more channels: Brevo, which also bills by sends.
• More free sending: Sender, 15,000 emails a month to 2,500 subscribers.
• A big list mailed often, for less: EmailOctopus, $160 a month billed yearly at 50,000 subscribers.
• A welcome series on a small list: MailerLite, $19 a month at 1,000 subscribers.
• Email triggered by what people do in your app: Customer.io, from $100.
• Automations that branch: ActiveCampaign, from $15 billed yearly.
• A person on the phone: Constant Contact, from $12.
• Store flows and predictive segments: Mailchimp Standard, from $20.

For reference, Mailjet Free sends 6,000 emails a month (200 a day) to 1,000 contacts, and Essential costs $19 a month for 15,000 emails with no contact limit (October 2026).

Of the eight, Brevo works most like Mailjet. It’s French too (based in Paris, founded in 2012 as Sendinblue), and every plan pairs campaigns with transactional email over API, SMTP relay and webhooks, priced by monthly sends. On top come SMS, a sales CRM with a free tier, and WhatsApp and mobile push on Professional.

What it costs (October 2026): Brevo Free has no end date, holds up to 100,000 contacts and sends at most 300 a day. Paid plans open at 5,000 emails a month: $9 on Starter, $18 on Standard. Professional begins at $499 with 150,000 emails. Watch the contact ceilings on the three lowest tiers (500, then 1,500, then 2,500); crossing one bumps you to the next tier on its own.

Strengths:

• Automation workflows are unlimited on Standard, from $18, while Mailjet holds them back for Premium.
• Every paid plan includes Brevo’s hosted MCP server for ChatGPT and Claude. Mailjet’s MCP server is read only and runs on your own computer.

Drawbacks:

• Suspensions come up in 8 of the newest 20 one- and two-star Trustpilot reviews (November 2, 2026), and support that answers with automated replies is the other common complaint.
• Removing Brevo’s logo on Starter costs $12 a month more on its pricing page, though its help center still says $9.

Versus Mailjet: four newsletters a month to 2,000 contacts is 8,000 emails. Mailjet Starter covers that for $9 with its logo, or Essential for $19 without. Brevo’s 10,000-email tier stops at 1,500 contacts, so you’d pay for the 15,000 tier: $25 on Starter plus $12 for the logo, or $49 on Standard. Switch for the channels and the CRM, not the bill. More in the Brevo profile and Brevo alternatives.

Sender is a Lithuanian email and SMS marketing tool for small businesses and shops, run from Vilnius since 2012. As on Mailjet, every plan can send transactional email over API or SMTP, the free one included, and Sender lists EU data residency on all of them.

What it costs (October 2026): Free Forever gives one user 2,500 subscribers and a monthly allowance of 15,000 emails, with Sender’s branding and without SMS. At 500 subscribers Standard is $9 a month and Professional $15, with monthly sends of 12 and 24 times the list. Past 500, Sender’s own figures conflict: its cost calculator says both $33 and $39 for Standard at 5,000.

Strengths:

• No plan has a daily sending limit, and free accounts get 24/7 live chat too.
• Sender holds 4.9 on Trustpilot across 1,586 reviews as of November 2, 2026, and recent ones often thank a chat agent by name.

Drawbacks:

• Before its first send, every account goes through a quality review that can ask for a website matching your sending domain and links to your signup forms. Most one-star reviews, a 2% slice of the total, are about suspensions.
• Sender refunds only when it ends the service itself without cause.

Versus Mailjet: four newsletters a month to 2,000 subscribers adds up to 8,000 emails. That costs nothing on Sender Free, logo included, with 7,000 sends left over. Mailjet Free stops at 1,000 contacts and 200 emails a day, so the same list needs Starter at $9 a month, still with Mailjet’s logo. Sender profile

EmailOctopus, an independent London company launched in 2014, sends newsletters and automations to opted-in lists. Its second product, Connect, routes your email through your own Amazon SES account instead of EmailOctopus’s servers.

What it costs (October 2026): the free Starter plan takes a list of up to 2,500 and mails it up to 10,000 times a month. Pro opens at $10 a month, $9 on a yearly plan, and EmailOctopus’s own blog gives yearly prices of $40 a month for 10,000 subscribers and $160 for 50,000, each with sends of about ten times the list. Connect Pro opens at $8 a month billed yearly; Amazon then charges roughly $0.10 per 1,000 emails. There’s no trial.

Strengths:

• Low prices as the list grows, and unlimited users on Pro.
• Trustpilot gives 4.8 from 347 reviews (November 2, 2026), with price, ease and support the usual praise.

Drawbacks:

• The toolset is thinner: Email Tool Tester reports no A/B testing and no automations started by an open or a click, and EmailOctopus offers no AI writing help or official MCP server.
• Accounts are vetted before their first send, and that vetting, including campaigns held for review, is the complaint that comes up most.

Versus Mailjet: a weekly email to 50,000 subscribers is about 216,500 sends. Mailjet’s Essential stops at 50,000 emails, so that’s Premium 250K at $265 a month, or $238.50 a month billed yearly. EmailOctopus Pro at 50,000 subscribers is $160 billed yearly. Mail the same list once a month, though, and Mailjet Essential 50K does it for $40. EmailOctopus profile

MailerLite, which Poland’s Vercom bought in 2022, covers newsletters, automations, forms, landing pages and websites for small businesses and creators, and keeps its data in the EU.

What it costs (October 2026): the price follows your subscriber count. The free tier stops at 250 people and 2,500 sends a month. For 500 subscribers Comfort is $12 and Power $25; review sites reading the slider give $19 and $39 at 1,000, and $49 and $69 at 5,000. Comfort allows sends of up to ten times the tier, and Power has no send cap under fair use. This price list applies to plans bought or changed since June 16, 2026; older accounts move to it at renewal.

Strengths:

• G2 reviewers praise ease of use more than anything else.
• An official MCP server comes with every plan, so Claude or ChatGPT can build segments and draft campaigns (Free can’t send through it).

Drawbacks:

• Frozen or closed accounts drive its complaints: 10 of the 15 latest one- and two-star Trustpilot reviews on November 2, 2026.
• MailerLite doesn’t send receipts or password resets itself; those go through MailerSend, a sister product billed separately.

Versus Mailjet: take 1,000 subscribers, a weekly newsletter and a welcome series. MailerLite Comfort covers both for $19 a month. On Mailjet the newsletter fits Starter at $9, but the welcome series needs Premium at $29. More in the MailerLite profile and MailerLite alternatives.

Customer.io, started in 2012 and led by a CEO based in Portland, Oregon, sends email, push, in-app messages, SMS and WhatsApp from the events and data your product sends it. Transactional email is part of every plan.

What it costs (October 2026): Essentials costs $100 a month, which buys 5,000 profiles, a million emails and as many seats as you like. Each profile beyond that adds $0.009, so 10,000 profiles come to $145 and 20,000 to $235, and email past the million costs $0.12 per 1,000. Premium begins at $1,000 a month on a yearly contract. You get no free plan, but a 14-day trial needs no card.

Strengths:

• G2’s review summary praises its automation and how flexibly it segments.
• You can keep Mailjet underneath: Customer.io sends through your own SMTP server, reads delivery, spam and bounce data from Mailjet, and doesn’t count those emails against your plan (its docs, updated October 22, 2026).

Drawbacks:

• Every profile counts at the month’s peak, active or not, and test workspaces count too.
• Reviewers mention a learning curve and needing a developer to set up, and Trustpilot shows 2.3 from only 26 reviews.

Versus Mailjet: an app with 5,000 users sending 100,000 emails a month pays $112 on Mailjet Premium 100K, or $100 on Customer.io Essentials, which adds event triggers, push and in-app messages. At 20,000 users Customer.io costs $235, while Mailjet’s price stays put because it doesn’t count contacts. Customer.io profile

ActiveCampaign, founded in 2003 and headquartered in Chicago, centers on automation: flows set off by behavior that split by what each contact does. A sales CRM, SMS and WhatsApp cost extra, and app email is a paid add-on that runs through Postmark, which ActiveCampaign owns.

What it costs (October 2026): Starter costs $15 a month billed yearly for 1,000 contacts; Plus, Pro and Enterprise cost $49, $79 and $145 on the same terms. On monthly billing, third parties report $19 for Starter. You can try it for 14 days without a card, but no free plan exists. Monthly sends are capped at 10 to 15 times your contact tier depending on plan, and every send over the cap costs $0.005.

Strengths:

• Reviewers on G2 and Capterra rate its automation highest; Pro also offers predictive sending and conditional content.
• Its remote MCP server lets Claude or ChatGPT add contacts, pull campaign results and send campaigns.

Drawbacks:

• On accounts opened since November 3, 2025, unsubscribed, unconfirmed and bounced contacts all count toward your tier.
• Trustpilot shows 2.8 from 1,458 reviews (October 30, 2026), with hard-to-reach support a recurring theme.

Versus Mailjet: at 1,000 contacts, Starter’s $15 billed yearly undercuts Mailjet Premium at $26.10 billed yearly, though Starter allows only 5 actions per automation. A bigger list flips it: for 10,000 contacts Venture Harbour lists Starter at $149 a month billed yearly, while a weekly newsletter to them fits Mailjet Premium 50K at $53.10. More in the ActiveCampaign profile and ActiveCampaign alternatives.

Constant Contact, a Waltham, Massachusetts company that has been around for about 30 years, sells email, SMS, social posting and event registration to small businesses, nonprofits and franchises.

What it costs (October 2026): for the smallest list, Lite starts at $12, Standard at $35 and Premium at $80 a month, or 15% less prepaid for a year. At 2,500 contacts the three plans run $50, $75 and $150, per third-party checks from September 2026. In each cycle, every contact in your tier can get 10 emails on Lite, 12 on Standard or 24 on Premium; beyond that it’s $2 per 1,000, and automated welcome or cart emails don’t count. No free plan; the trial needs no card.

Strengths:

• Lite already includes live one-on-one onboarding plus phone and chat support.
• A 30-day money-back guarantee covers the first monthly payment, once you’ve uploaded contacts and sent an email.

Drawbacks:

• Billing, renewals and cancelling lead its Trustpilot complaints (4.0 from 2,119 reviews, October 2026).
• Your tier rises with the list, and lowering it takes a call to Billing, allowed once.

Versus Mailjet: Mailjet offers phone and chat support only from Premium 50K, at $59 a month. A weekly newsletter to 2,500 contacts is about 10,800 emails: $19 on Mailjet Essential, against $50 on Constant Contact Lite or $75 on Standard. The gap buys a human on the line, plus SMS and events. More in the Constant Contact profile and Constant Contact alternatives.

Intuit has owned Mailchimp since 2021. Built for small businesses and online shops, its Standard and Premium plans add predictive segments, customer lifetime value and purchase likelihood drawn from store data.

What it costs (October 2026): the free tier allows 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. At 500 contacts Essentials is $13 and Standard $20, while Premium opens at $350 with 10,000. For a 10,000-contact list, third-party price tables give $110 on Essentials and $135 on Standard, and unsubscribed contacts count toward the bill. Transactional email, formerly Mandrill, costs extra and works only with Standard and Premium: $20 for each 25,000-email block.

Strengths:

• It connects to more than 300 apps, and its ChatGPT and Claude app, offered in the US, Canada, Britain and Australia, drafts campaigns from a prompt.
• Essentials and Standard come with 24/7 email and chat support.

Drawbacks:

• Paying per contact makes a big, quiet list expensive.
• Trustpilot shows 2.5 from 1,557 reviews (October 30, 2026), and its summary mentions long support waits and account lockouts.

Versus Mailjet: 10,000 contacts mailed twice a month is 20,000 emails. Mailjet charges $31.90 on Essential 15K with overage, or $40 on Essential 50K; Mailchimp charges $110 on Essentials or $135 on Standard. Choose Mailchimp for what Standard does with store data or for an integration Mailjet lacks. More in the Mailchimp profile and Mailchimp alternatives.

Start from what Mailjet does for you now, and price each tool at your list size and sending rhythm: Mailjet bills by sends, most of these by contacts.

• You only use Mailjet’s Send API or SMTP relay. An email API fits better than any tool here: see Mailgun alternatives and Mailgun vs Postmark.
• Newsletters and app email go out from one account. Brevo or Sender.
• A large list goes out weekly or more. EmailOctopus.
• You want a welcome series without paying for Premium. MailerLite, or ActiveCampaign if the flows need branches.
• Your emails should react to what users do in your product. Customer.io.
• You want to call someone. Constant Contact.
• You run a store. Mailchimp Standard.

Expect a check on the way in: Sender and EmailOctopus review new accounts before the first campaign goes out, MailerLite has you request approval, and Brevo can suspend accounts whose results hurt its shared IP addresses. Keep Mailjet running until the new account has sent.

I’d stay on Mailjet for a big list mailed a few times a month, since Essential stops counting contacts at $19 (October 2026). I’d leave for a clear reason: Sender or Brevo for more free room or more channels, EmailOctopus when a large list goes out weekly, MailerLite for a cheap welcome series, Customer.io when product events should trigger the email, and Constant Contact for a phone line.

If Mailjet blocked you for writing to people who never signed up, none of these will take that list either. That’s cold email, which is what Reachkit, my product, is for, sent from separate domains and inboxes away from your newsletter account (why that setup matters).

Related: the Mailjet profile, Brevo alternatives and Mailgun alternatives.