At 5,000 subscribers, Mailchimp's Standard plan charges roughly $100/month. Four platforms on this list charge under $35 for the same list size. That $65/month gap, or $780/year, funds an entire year of a different tool with money left over.
The math only gets worse as you grow. Mailchimp's contact-based pricing scales costs with list size, automatic overage charges hit without warning, and advanced automation stays locked behind premium tiers. For solopreneurs and small business owners watching every dollar, these costs directly cut into margins that should fund marketing, inventory, or product development.
This guide evaluates ten Mailchimp alternatives across three dimensions: pricing model (contact-based vs. email-based), automation depth (what's included vs. locked behind premium tiers), and ease of use (learning curve and support quality). Each platform addresses different business models, from newsletter simplicity to ecommerce automation to custom development with tools like Lovable. Whether you're launching your first newsletter or scaling an established store, these Mailchimp alternatives deliver comparable functionality at a fraction of the cost.
1. Brevo: Best for Large Lists With Moderate Send Frequency
Brevo charges based on emails sent rather than contacts stored, starting at $9/month for 5,000 emails. At 10,000 contacts sending 20,000 emails monthly, Brevo costs significantly less than Mailchimp's contact-based pricing at the same scale: a potential savings of 60–75%.
Brevo's free tier provides 300 emails per day (approximately 9,000 emails monthly) with storage for up to 100,000 contacts. Mailchimp's free plan caps at 500 contacts with just 1,000 emails per month. You can grow your contact list well beyond what Mailchimp allows for free: costs only increase when you send more emails.
- Free: 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts (up to 100K), Brevo branding included.
- Starter: From $9/month for 5,000 emails, no daily sending limit.
- Standard: From $18/month for 5,000 emails, adds landing pages and automation.
Watch out for: Branding removal costs $9/month extra on Starter plans. SMS/WhatsApp credits require separate purchase.
2. MailerLite: Best for Selling Digital Products
MailerLite includes native digital product sales with 0% platform commission across all plans. The free plan supports 1,000 subscribers with 12,000 monthly emails and one digital product: enough to test whether your ebook or course sells before investing in paid plans.
- Free: 1,000 subscribers, 12,000 emails/month, one digital product.
- Growing Business: From $10/month (500 subscribers), scaling to $39/month (5,000 subscribers). Unlimited email sends on all paid plans.
- Advanced: From $20/month, scaling to $59/month (5,000 subscribers). Adds Facebook integration, auto-resend, and promotion pop-ups.
Watch out for: A rolling 14-day sending window policy caps how many subscribers you can reach within two weeks. For weekly newsletters, this rarely matters. For segmented campaigns sent multiple times per week, verify this limit matches your sending patterns before committing.
3. Moosend: Best for Budget Automation
Moosend charges $16/month at 2,500 subscribers. User reviews on G2 (4.7/5 from 700+ reviews) and Capterra (4.6/5) consistently praise the balance of affordability and capability. The platform excels at providing marketing automation workflows typically found in more expensive tools: welcome sequences, anniversary emails, and behavioral triggers based on subscriber activity.
- Pro Plan: From $9/month (500 subscribers), scales to $16/month at 2,500 subscribers.
- 30-day free trial included with all features.
Watch out for: Documentation contains contradictions about entry-level automation limits. Request written confirmation of specific features before committing, and use the free trial to verify automation access at your intended tier.
4. Sender: Best for Ecommerce on a Budget
Sender delivers the most generous free tier for ecommerce: 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails monthly with product-based automations included: ten times more subscribers than Mailchimp's free offering at $0/month.
The platform handles abandoned cart recovery, welcome series, and product-triggered campaigns on the free tier. Native Shopify integration syncs product catalogs and customer data automatically. The Professional tier at $14/month bundles SMS credits worth $14, coordinating email and text campaigns from one dashboard.
- Free: 2,500 subscribers, 15,000 emails/month, ecommerce automations included.
- Standard: From $7/month with increased sending limits.
- Professional: $14/month, includes $14/month SMS credit value.
Watch out for: International SMS rates vary significantly and are difficult to verify in advance. Test with actual volumes before committing to multi-channel campaigns.
5. EmailOctopus: Best for Newsletter Simplicity
EmailOctopus offers a free tier for up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends: no monthly caps, just straightforward newsletter delivery. Paid plans start at $9/month for 500 subscribers, scaling to $24/month at 5,000 subscribers and $44.50/month at 10,000 subscribers.
The platform uses a deliberately simplified feature set designed to reduce learning curves. Capterra reviewers highlight accessibility for solo operators, and Trustpilot feedback consistently praises support quality.
- Free: 2,500 subscribers, unlimited emails.
- Paid plans: From $9/month (500 subscribers), $24/month (5,000 subscribers), $44.50/month (10,000 subscribers).
Watch out for: EmailOctopus intentionally limits advanced features. If you need complex workflow automation or sophisticated segmentation logic, mid-tier platforms like GetResponse ($54/month at 5,000 subscribers) offer significantly more capability at higher cost and complexity.
6. Omnisend: Best for Shopify Store Owners
Omnisend builds everything around shopping behavior. Pre-built workflow templates for abandoned carts, welcome series, and customer win-back campaigns get you running within minutes. The native 1-click Shopify integration syncs products, customer profiles, and purchase history in real-time.
Beyond email, Omnisend coordinates SMS and web push notifications in unified workflows: a customer abandoning a cart might receive an email, then an SMS reminder, then a push notification when they return to the site.
- Free: 500 emails/month, 250 contacts.
- Standard: From $16/month, scales to $65/month at 5,000 contacts.
- Pro: $90/month at 5,000 contacts, adds advanced reporting and SMS credits.
Watch out for: The free tier's 250-contact limit constrains early testing. More generous alternatives exist: Sender allows 2,500 subscribers free, and EmailOctopus permits 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends.
7. GetResponse: Best for All-in-One Marketing
GetResponse bundles email marketing with landing pages and marketing automation across tiered plans. The Starter plan (~$19/month for 1,000 subscribers) includes landing pages and email campaigns. The Marketer plan ($59/month) adds marketing automation. Webinars supporting 300 attendees are included only in the Creator plan ($119/month for 1,000 contacts). For businesses running educational content or product demonstrations, the integrated webinar feature removes the need for separate tools.
- Starter: $19/month (1,000 subscribers), includes landing pages.
- Marketer: $59/month, adds marketing automation.
- Creator: $119/month (1,000 contacts), includes webinars for 300 attendees.
- At 5,000 subscribers: Starter costs approximately $54/month.
Watch out for: Scaling to 10,000 contacts costs significantly more than the 1,000-contact price. Budget for growth carefully, and compare against other Mailchimp alternatives at your projected list size.
8. Kit: Best for Creators Monetizing Audiences
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) targets creators building revenue from their subscriber lists. The free tier supports up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited sends, significantly more generous than most Mailchimp alternatives. Paid plans start at $39/month for 1,000 subscribers.
Digital product sales and paid newsletter subscriptions are available on the free plan, letting creators validate revenue models at $0/month before platform costs begin.
- Newsletter Plan: Free for up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited sends.
- Creator Plan: From $39/month (1,000 subscribers), $199/month (5,000 subscribers).
Watch out for: At $199/month for 5,000 subscribers, Kit costs 2–4x more than comparable platforms like MailerLite ($39–59/month). The premium reflects advanced creator monetization features; it's expensive for basic newsletter needs.
9. Mailjet: Best for Team Collaboration
Mailjet allows real-time collaborative editing: multiple team members working simultaneously on campaigns without version conflicts. Team features, however, require the Premium tier at $27/month minimum. Free and Essential plans ($17/month) are single-user only.
Volume-based pricing charges for emails sent rather than contacts stored, so seasonal businesses avoid paying for dormant months.
- Free: Up to 1,000 contacts, 100 emails/day.
- Essential: From $17/month for 15,000 emails, single-user.
- Premium: From $27/month, required for team collaboration.
Watch out for: Solo operators can find cheaper alternatives; Mailjet's value appears at the Premium tier where team collaboration becomes available.
10. Lovable: Best for Custom Email Capture Beyond Templates
Lovable lets you build exactly the signup flows, customer portals, and CRM integrations your business requires, describing what you want in plain language rather than accepting template platform limitations. This approach to vibe coding, where you describe what you want rather than writing traditional code, makes custom development accessible to everyone. Describe your signup form requirements in a conversation, and Lovable generates the full-stack application: no coding experience required.
How Lovable Works
Agent Mode provides autonomous AI development with independent codebase exploration, proactive debugging, real-time web search, and automated problem-solving. Chat Mode offers an interactive collaborative interface for planning, debugging, and iterative development with multi-step reasoning capabilities. Visual Edits gives you direct UI manipulation that lets you click and modify interface elements in real-time without writing prompts.
Integrations and Code Ownership
The Supabase integration provides database infrastructure with PostgreSQL, user authentication, and serverless Edge Functions for custom backend logic, supporting advanced use cases like sending welcome emails via APIs or syncing contact data to external CRMs. Lovable's GitHub integration provides code ownership and platform independence. Unlike template-based email platforms, Lovable generates full application code you can export and ship anywhere.
- Pricing: Usage-based credits that scale with actual usage rather than subscriber counts.
Watch out for: Lovable is an AI-powered development platform for building custom full-stack applications beyond template constraints. If Mailchimp's standard forms meet your needs, template platforms work faster and cost less. Lovable makes sense when you need custom functionality that template tools simply cannot provide.
How to Choose Among These Mailchimp Alternatives
Your decision depends on list size, send frequency, and specialized feature needs. These Mailchimp alternatives address different business models, so matching the platform to your primary use case matters more than feature counts.
Small Lists Under 2,500 Subscribers
EmailOctopus and Sender offer free tiers at $0/month with no credit card required. Both platforms provide enough capacity to validate your newsletter concept before any financial commitment. EmailOctopus emphasizes simplicity with minimal learning curve, while Sender includes ecommerce features if you plan to sell products later.
Large Lists With Moderate Sending
Brevo's email-based pricing saves 60–75% at 10,000 contacts compared to contact-based alternatives. This model particularly benefits businesses that send monthly newsletters rather than weekly campaigns: you pay only for what you actually send.
Ecommerce With Shopify
Omnisend's pre-built workflows provide rapid setup with cart abandonment, browse abandonment, and post-purchase sequences ready to deploy. Sender offers more affordable entry-level pricing if budget constraints outweigh omnichannel needs, making it ideal for stores just starting with email marketing.
Creator Monetization
Kit's generous free tier (10,000 subscribers) and built-in commerce tools justify premium pricing for creators actively selling digital products, courses, or paid subscriptions. The platform's tagging and segmentation capabilities help creators deliver personalized content to different audience segments.
Team Collaboration
Mailjet's real-time collaboration requires the Premium plan at $27/month. The $10/month premium over Essential pricing unlocks simultaneous editing that removes the back-and-forth of shared documents and version conflicts.
Custom Development
Lovable provides AI-powered development for building custom full-stack applications when template platforms restrict your technical capabilities. This path makes sense when you need unique data structures, custom authentication flows, or integrations unavailable through standard connectors.
Start With What Matches Your Revenue Model
The best Mailchimp alternatives save money while supporting specific business needs. Match the platform to your primary use case first, then verify pricing at your current subscriber count and projected growth. Most platforms offer free tiers or trials: test actual workflows before committing.
For email needs that go beyond templates, custom signup flows, branded portals, or unique automation triggers, start building with Lovable.
