| Free plan | Yes — up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month (250/day cap) |
|---|---|
| Starting paid price | Essentials $13/month at 500 contacts, billed annually |
| Upper tiers | Standard $20 · Premium $350 (at 500 / 10,000 contacts) |
| Trial | 14 days on Essentials and Standard, no card required |
| Best for | Simple newsletter programmes and small ecommerce stores |
| Not ideal for | Anyone who needs a sales pipeline or deep automation logic |
| Standout feature | The easiest campaign editor of any tool we've tested |
| Biggest drawback | No real CRM — no deals, no pipeline, no sales stages |
The Short Verdict
Mailchimp's reputation is well earned in one specific dimension: it is the easiest email marketing tool to learn. The editor, the template library and the first-send experience are built for someone with zero email marketing background, and the free plan — 250 contacts, 500 sends a month — is a real way to run a small newsletter at no cost. For a business whose entire "marketing system" is a regular email to a customer list, Mailchimp is still the safe, simple default.
The trouble is everywhere Mailchimp has tried to be more than that. Automation below Standard is basic, the free plan's 250-contact cap is tighter than several competitors', and — the point that matters most for a CRM comparison site — there is no sales pipeline at all. Contacts have tags and a simple journey view, not deals, stages or an opportunity to track. If your business needs to manage a sales process, Mailchimp was never built for that job.
Bottom line: the easiest email editor in the category, and still a fair pick for a simple newsletter. Not a CRM, and not the tool for anyone who needs sophisticated automation or list economics.
Who Mailchimp Is (and Isn't) For
A strong fit if you…
- Send a regular newsletter and occasional promotional campaigns, nothing more complex
- Have never used email marketing software and want the shortest possible learning curve
- Run a small ecommerce store and want Mailchimp's built-in store integrations for basic campaigns
- Value a huge template and integration library over deep automation logic
Look elsewhere if you…
- Need any kind of sales pipeline or deal tracking (see Pipedrive or Freshsales)
- Have a large, quiet contact list and want to stop paying for size you don't email often (see Brevo)
- Run an ecommerce store seriously and want revenue-attributed automation flows (see Klaviyo)
- Need automation as sophisticated as a dedicated marketing automation platform (see ActiveCampaign)
Pricing: Free, Essentials, Standard, Premium
| Plan | Price at 500 contacts (annual) | Aimed at | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 (up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/mo) | Testing the water, hobby senders | Basic templates, one audience, simple automation, Mailchimp branding on every send |
| Essentials | From $13/mo | Small businesses starting out | A/B testing, custom branding removal, 24/7 email and chat support, roughly 10x contacts in monthly sends |
| Standard | From $20/mo | Growing businesses needing automation | Customer journey builder, send-time optimisation, dynamic content, retargeting ads, roughly 12x contacts in monthly sends |
| Premium | From $350/mo (10,000 contacts) | Large lists and teams | Unlimited sends, advanced segmentation, comparative reporting, phone support, unlimited users |
USD list prices from mailchimp.com, September 2026, billed annually at the 500-contact tier for Essentials and Standard; Premium priced at 10,000 contacts. Every paid tier's price rises with list size — Essentials climbs to roughly $45/mo at 2,500 contacts, Standard to roughly $60/mo at the same size.
What a real bill looks like
- Solo business, 250-contact list, monthly newsletter: $0 on Free, as long as sends stay under 500 a month.
- Small business, 2,500-contact list, weekly campaigns: roughly $45–60/mo on Essentials or Standard, depending on whether automation matters.
- Established list of 10,000 contacts, frequent sends: $350/mo on Premium — a steep jump most businesses should plan for well before they hit it.
Which tier should you actually buy?
Essentials is the right first paid tier for most small businesses — A/B testing and unbranded email at $13 is a fair price. Standard is worth the jump once you want the customer journey builder or send-time optimisation; at $20 it's still cheap relative to the category. Premium only makes sense once your list is genuinely large and you need unlimited sends and phone support — most readers of this review will never need it.
Watch out for: Mailchimp prices by total contacts stored, including unsubscribed and cleaned contacts unless you actively archive them, so an unmaintained list can push you into a higher tier than your active audience justifies. Clean your list before you pick a plan, not after.
Features Walkthrough
Campaign editor
A drag-and-drop builder with a large, genuinely well-designed template library. This is Mailchimp's core strength — a first-time user can produce a professional-looking email faster here than on almost any competitor.
Automation and customer journeys
Basic triggered emails (welcome series, abandoned cart for connected stores) exist from Essentials; the visual Customer Journey Builder, with branching logic and multiple triggers, arrives on Standard. It's usable but not as deep as ActiveCampaign's or Klaviyo's flow logic.
Audience and segmentation
Tags, groups and predictive segmentation (higher tiers) let you target sends by behaviour and profile data. There's no deal or opportunity object anywhere in the product — segmentation is about who receives an email, not where they sit in a sales process.
Landing pages and forms
Built-in landing pages and signup forms are included from Free, with reasonable customisation and a straightforward connection to your audience list.
Reporting
Open rates, click maps and campaign comparisons are solid on every paid tier; Premium adds comparative reporting across campaigns and multivariate testing.
Why Mailchimp Isn't a CRM
This is worth stating plainly for anyone arriving from a CRM comparison: Mailchimp has no deal pipeline, no sales stages, no way to mark a contact as "negotiating" versus "closed." What it calls a contact profile is a marketing record — email engagement history, purchase data if a store is connected, and tags — not a sales record. If you need to track an opportunity from first contact through to a closed deal, nothing in Mailchimp does that job, at any tier, at any price. Pair it with a real CRM if you need both, or choose a tool built to do both from the start, like Brevo's Sales Platform or HubSpot's free CRM.
Ease of Use and Setup
This is where Mailchimp earns its reputation. The onboarding flow, the template gallery and the send-a-test-campaign experience are designed for someone who has never used email marketing software before, and it shows — a first newsletter can realistically go out within an hour of signing up. The trade-off shows up later: once you want the Customer Journey Builder's branching logic, the interface asks more of you than the simple campaign flow suggested it would.
Integrations
Mailchimp's integration library is one of the largest in the category — Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Squarespace, Canva, Zapier and hundreds more connect natively, and its own API is mature and well documented. For a small ecommerce store, the native Shopify and WooCommerce connections cover abandoned-cart and order-confirmation basics without extra setup.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- The easiest campaign editor of any tool we've tested
- Free plan with no expiry for a small list
- Huge template and integration library
- Customer Journey Builder on Standard is genuinely useful
- 14-day trial with no card on Essentials and Standard
- Strong ecommerce integrations for small stores
Cons
- No sales pipeline, deals or stages — not a CRM at any tier
- Priced by total contacts stored, including unsubscribed ones by default
- Automation below Standard is basic
- Premium's $350 entry is a steep jump from Standard
- Weaker fit than Brevo for a large, infrequently-emailed list
- No real deal-stage or opportunity tracking anywhere in the product
Mailchimp vs the Alternatives
| Tool | Starting price | Free plan | Choose it over Mailchimp when… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | $9 | Yes (300 emails/day) | You have a large, quiet list and want a light CRM in the same account |
| Klaviyo | $20 | Yes (250 profiles) | You run an ecommerce store and want revenue-attributed automation flows |
| ActiveCampaign | $15 | No | You need automation logic and a real sales pipeline add-on |
| HubSpot CRM | Free; $9 | Yes (2 users) | You want marketing and a real sales CRM on the same contact record |
Looking for the full field? See our ActiveCampaign alternatives guide, where Mailchimp is ranked against six other tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mailchimp free?
Yes, for up to 250 contacts with a monthly send limit of 500 emails, capped at 250 a day. There is no expiry on the free plan, but Mailchimp branding appears on emails and forms. Paid plans start at Essentials, $13 a month for 500 contacts, with a 14-day free trial on Essentials and Standard.
How much does Mailchimp cost?
As of September 2026: Free (250 contacts), Essentials from $13/mo, Standard from $20/mo, and Premium from $350/mo, all at the 500-contact tier and billed annually — prices rise with list size on every paid plan. Essentials allows roughly 10 times your contact limit in monthly sends; Standard allows roughly 12 times.
Does Mailchimp have a real sales CRM?
No. Mailchimp has basic contact profiles, tags and a simple customer journey view, but no deal pipeline, no stages, and no way to track an opportunity through a sales process. It is an email marketing platform, not a CRM, despite marketing itself as an all-in-one tool.
Is Mailchimp good for beginners?
Yes — it has the easiest editor of any tool in this category, with a large template library and a genuinely simple first-campaign experience. A new user can build and send a newsletter within an hour with no prior email marketing experience.
Mailchimp vs Brevo — which is better?
Mailchimp has the easier editor and a bigger integration and template library, and suits a business whose whole email programme is a regular newsletter. Brevo is cheaper for a large, infrequently-emailed list because it bills by sends rather than contacts, and it bundles SMS and a light CRM Mailchimp doesn't have.
Final Verdict
Mailchimp remains the right first tool for anyone who needs to send a newsletter and nothing more complicated — the editor, templates and onboarding are still the easiest in the category, and the free plan is a real way to start at zero cost. But it's worth being honest about what it isn't: there's no sales pipeline, automation below Standard is thin, and the pricing model can get expensive as your list grows regardless of how often you actually email it. If your needs are that simple, start free. If they're not, look at Brevo, Klaviyo or a dedicated CRM before you commit.
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