Cheapest Mailchimp alternatives, without the promo-price trick

Mailchimp's promotional-price problem

Our scenario: single user, monthly billing. Mailchimp's free plan caps out fast — 250 contacts, a maximum of 500 sends a month (or 250 a day), one seat. Its paid tiers are harder to compare honestly: Essentials is advertised at $13/month, but that's a promotional rate for the first 12 months at the lowest contact tier (50% off); the regular ongoing price isn't shown on the page at all. Standard follows the same pattern at $20/month promotional, Premium at $350/month promotional. Until Mailchimp publishes its real renewal price, comparing against its list price means comparing against a number that expires.

Cheap entry tiers that publish an honest number

Moosend's Pro plan is $9/month ($7/month billed annually) at its 500-contact base tier, with 5 seats included — no promo caveat attached. EmailOctopus's Pro tier is $9/month ($108/year) at its entry tier. Omnisend's Standard tier is $11.20/month at the 500-contact tier. Brevo starts at $9/month for 5,000 emails on one seat, moving to $18/month for Standard, which adds marketing automation and A/B testing.

Sender's Standard plan displays at $7/month for 1,000 subscribers (3 seats, up to 12,000 emails/month) — though Sender's own page also lists a 30%-off first-year promo on that same tier, so treat that number the way we treat Mailchimp's: this year's price, not a guaranteed one. MailerLite's Comfort plan is $12/month for 3 seats. Most of these publish honest free tiers too: Sender's Free Forever plan covers 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month on one seat; Brevo's free plan sends up to 300 emails a day, no credit card required; Omnisend's free plan is 500 monthly emails and 250 contacts, though Omnisend branding stays on both emails and forms.

Newsletter tools are a cheaper, narrower product

Buttondown, beehiiv and Kit are newsletter platforms rather than full marketing-automation suites — a smaller job than Mailchimp's, priced like it. Buttondown is free for your first 100 subscribers. beehiiv's Launch plan is free for up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, 3 publications and 1 team member. Kit's free Newsletter plan covers 1,000 subscribers with limited automation; its paid Creator tier is $390/year at that same 1,000-subscriber size ($32.50/month equivalent, or about $39/month billed monthly), and its Pro tier is $790/year at 1,000 subscribers ($65.83/month equivalent) — both scale up with list size from there. If email is a newsletter, not a lifecycle-marketing program, any of these three replace Mailchimp for nothing or close to it.

HubSpot's free tools, and their upgrade cliff

HubSpot Marketing Hub sits in the same category and is worth naming for its free tier: Free Tools covers 2 users indefinitely with basic marketing, sales, service and content tools — HubSpot doesn't itemize what "basic" means for email specifically at that tier. Its Starter tier is $20/month per seat — HubSpot's page currently shows a limited-time promo of $7/month per seat, another example of a headline price that isn't the standing one — for 1,000 marketing contacts. MailerLite's own free plan is worth the same scrutiny: 250 subscribers, 2,500 monthly emails and 2 user seats, before Comfort's $12/month picks up the slack.

Where real automation depth costs more than Mailchimp

ActiveCampaign starts above Mailchimp's promo price and stays there: Starter is $15/month for 1,000 subscribers with only 5 active automations, climbing to $49/month (Plus, unlimited automations) and $79/month (Pro, advanced segmentation). Klaviyo's free plan covers 250 profiles and 500 sends a month; its first paid tier is $45/month at 1,500 profiles — priced for ecommerce revenue attribution, a capability Mailchimp's own listing doesn't confirm. GetResponse's Starter plan is $19/month for 1,000 subscribers ($15.58/month billed annually) — its free plan technically exists too, but only after a 14-day premium trial ends, and it carries a GetResponse badge, with landing pages capped at 1,000 unique visitors a month. None of these undercut Mailchimp's promotional sticker — they're the honest price of automation depth Mailchimp's entry tiers don't have.