# Mailchimp — Email and SMS marketing platform with automation, AI content tools, and a free tier for up to 250 contacts.

By Noah — last updated & pricing verified September 15, 2026.

> **Mailchimp** is a marketing platform centered on email and SMS campaigns, built around a drag-and-drop email builder, audience segmentation, and workflow-based automation. Beyond sending campaigns, it includes a lightweight CRM for tracking contacts and their activity, AI-assisted content generation, popup and landing-page forms for lead capture, and analytics for measuring campaign ROI.

Mailchimp integrates with more than 300 third-party tools, including e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, letting stores trigger automated emails (abandoned cart, order confirmations) from purchase data. It serves small businesses and solo marketers on its lower tiers and scales up to larger e-commerce and enterprise teams that need predictive segmentation, multi-step automation, and dedicated onboarding support on its higher tiers.

## Facts

- Website: https://mailchimp.com
- Pricing: Free tier · paid from $13/mo (verified undefined NaN, NaN)
- License: Freemium
- Platforms: web, ios, android
- Best for: small businesses and e-commerce brands that want to run email and SMS campaigns with built-in automation and AI content tools without a separate marketing stack
- Standout feature: A drag-and-drop email builder combined with e-commerce automation triggers (abandoned cart, order follow-up) and AI content tools, backed by 300+ third-party integrations.
- Biggest weakness: Pricing scales with contact-list size and jumps sharply between tiers ($13 to $20 to $350/month), so growing lists get expensive fast, and reviewers describe the cost as disproportionate to list growth on the higher tiers; the Free plan's support is email-only and expires after 30 days.
- Third-party ratings: Capterra 4.5/5 (17,674 reviews)
- Categories: [Email Marketing & Newsletters](https://findalternative.to/categories/email-marketing)

## Pricing snapshot

| Plan | Price | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0/mo | Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month (max 250/day), 1 audience, 1 seat, basic templates; email support for the first 30 days only. |
| Essentials | $13/mo | 10x contacts in monthly sends, A/B testing, email scheduling, 3 audiences, 3 seats, 24/7 email and chat support. 14-day free trial. |
| Standard | $20/mo | 12x contacts in monthly sends (up to 6,000), marketing automations (up to 200 flows), AI tools, custom templates, 5 audiences, 5 seats, 1 onboarding session. |
| Premium | $350/mo | 15x contacts in monthly sends (up to 150,000), advanced automations, predictive segmentation, unlimited audiences, phone support, 4 onboarding sessions. |

## Pros and cons

- Pro: Free tier is genuinely usable for small lists up to 250 contacts.
- Pro: Drag-and-drop builder and template library make campaign creation fast for beginners.
- Pro: Deep e-commerce integrations (Shopify, WooCommerce) enable automated triggers like abandoned-cart emails.
- Pro: AI content and automation tools are included starting at the Standard tier.
- Con: Pricing climbs steeply as contact count grows, with users calling the cost disproportionate at scale.
- Con: Advanced automation flows and predictive segmentation are gated behind Standard and Premium tiers.
- Con: Free plan email support ends after the first 30 days.
- Con: Premium tier jumps to $350/month, a large gap from Standard's $20/month.

## AI summary

- Mailchimp's Free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends/month.
- Essentials starts at $13/month; Standard is $20/month; Premium is $350/month.
- Mailchimp holds a 4.5/5 rating from 17,674 reviews on Capterra.
- Standard tier includes up to 200 automation flows and AI content tools.
- Mailchimp is owned by Intuit.
- Best for: small businesses and e-commerce brands running email/SMS campaigns with built-in automation
- Pricing: Free up to 250 contacts; Essentials from $13/month; Standard from $20/month; Premium from $350/month.
- Top alternatives: Constant Contact, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Kit
- Limitation: Pricing rises steeply as contact list size grows.
- Limitation: Advanced automation and predictive segmentation require Standard or Premium.
- Limitation: Free plan's email support ends after the first 30 days.

## Alternatives

5 vetted alternatives to Mailchimp: https://findalternative.to/mailchimp — top picks: Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, Brevo

## Comparisons

- https://findalternative.to/compare/activecampaign-vs-mailchimp
- https://findalternative.to/compare/brevo-vs-mailchimp
- https://findalternative.to/compare/kit-vs-mailchimp
- https://findalternative.to/compare/klaviyo-vs-mailchimp

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