Email marketing
Mailchimp alternatives
4 credible replacements for Mailchimp, compared on price, capability and the reasons teams actually leave. None are cheaper per seat, so the case for moving has to be capability rather than price.
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The honest case
Why teams replace Mailchimp
Mailchimp is the best-known all-rounder for broadcasts and basic automation. These are the specific reasons it stops fitting.
- 01
You pay for unengaged contacts unless you prune the list yourself
- 02
Automation is shallow next to purpose-built lifecycle tools
- 03
Price increases at each contact tier have pushed many teams to leave
If none of those describe your situation, staying is probably the right answer. Switching costs real weeks, and a tool that merely annoys you is usually cheaper to keep than to replace.
4 alternatives
What to replace Mailchimp with
Ranked here by price. Ranked properly once you tell us about your team.
Send-volume pricing plus SMS, chat and a light CRM, hosted in the EU.
free · same price than Mailchimp
Creator-focused email with tag-based automation and strong deliverability.
free · same price than Mailchimp
Ecommerce lifecycle marketing with revenue attribution per flow.
free · same price than Mailchimp
Developer-first email API with React-based templates and a light broadcast layer.
free · same price than Mailchimp
Prices are unverified estimates — useful for comparing orders of magnitude, not for budgeting. Confirm the current figure with the vendor before you commit to anything.
In detail
What each one is actually good at
And what it costs you in exchange — every tool here trades something away.
Brevo
freeSend-volume pricing plus SMS, chat and a light CRM, hosted in the EU.
- Priced on emails sent, not contacts stored — a large saving for big lists
- EU-hosted with GDPR posture as a selling point
- Marketing, transactional, SMS and CRM under one bill
Watch outBreadth over depth — each module is capable rather than best in class.
Kit (ConvertKit)
freeCreator-focused email with tag-based automation and strong deliverability.
- Visual automations that are genuinely easy to reason about
- Deliverability reputation is among the best in the category
- Free up to 10,000 subscribers
Watch outPlain-text-first design philosophy — heavy template design is not the point.
Klaviyo
freeEcommerce lifecycle marketing with revenue attribution per flow.
- Attributes revenue to individual flows, so spend is defensible
- Behavioural segmentation on real store data
- Email and SMS in one platform with shared profiles
Watch outBuilt around ecommerce — a poor fit for B2B or content newsletters.
Resend
freeDeveloper-first email API with React-based templates and a light broadcast layer.
- Templates authored in React and versioned in your repo
- Clean API and excellent deliverability tooling
- Very cheap at moderate volume
Watch outEngineering owns email here — there is no rich marketer-facing builder.
Questions
Mailchimp alternatives, answered
What is the best alternative to Mailchimp?
There is no single answer — it depends on your team size, budget and non-negotiables. In email marketing the credible alternatives are Brevo, Kit (ConvertKit), Klaviyo, Resend. Brevo is the most common starting point because send-volume pricing plus SMS, chat and a light CRM, hosted in the EU. Our three-minute questionnaire ranks all of them against your specific answers rather than guessing.
Is there a free alternative to Mailchimp?
Yes. Brevo, Kit (ConvertKit), Klaviyo, Resend all offer a free tier, though the limits differ significantly — usually on history, seats, or exactly the features that pass a security review. Check what the free tier withholds before you plan around it.
Why do teams stop using Mailchimp?
The recurring reasons are: You pay for unengaged contacts unless you prune the list yourself; Automation is shallow next to purpose-built lifecycle tools; Price increases at each contact tier have pushed many teams to leave. None of these mean Mailchimp is a bad product — they mean it stops fitting certain teams as those teams change shape.
How much does Mailchimp cost?
Mailchimp is priced on usage rather than headcount, so there is no single figure. What you pay tracks volume — contacts, events or tickets — which means the honest answer is to model it against your own numbers.
How hard is it to migrate off Mailchimp?
It depends on history, integrations and headcount far more than on the tool itself. For a team of 50 with a handful of integrations, expect a few weeks of elapsed time and one to two weeks of actual work. Above 200 people, or with compliance in scope, plan a quarter. The questionnaire produces a scoped estimate with line items if you would rather not run it yourself.
Which of these is right for your team?
A price table cannot tell you. Answer about a dozen questions and get these 4 ranked against your team size, budget and requirements — plus what it would cost to move off Mailchimp.
Rank them for my team