Mailchimp Pricing 2025: Is it too expensive?

Mor Mester 19 November 2024

Mailchimp is a popular email marketing and automation tool that helps businesses create and send email campaigns.

It offers 3 products: Marketing Platform, Websites, and Transactions Email. Each has a multi-tier pricing model.

The Marketing Platform starts with a free plan and goes up to the Premium ($350/month). The Websites platform also starts free and goes up to the Core plan for $10/month. Transactional Email starts at $20/mo for 25K emails.

I won’t repeat Mailchimp’s pricing page. Instead, we’ll cover each plan in detail, how to choose the right one, and what to focus on when selecting a plan.

Short on time? Check out this summary of Mailchimp plans

• Marketing Platform Free: This is where people usually start for 1 user. Send 1000 emails with 500 contacts. You also get 1 audience and email support for 30 days. 
• Marketing Platform Essentials: It has 3 users, 5000 monthly emails, and 500 contacts. You also unlock 2 user-based roles with this plan.
• Marketing Platform Standard: All features in Essentials, 6000 monthly email sends with 500 contacts, 5 users, 5 audiences, and generative AI features. 
• Marketing Platform Premium: All features in Standard plus unlimited users, 150,000 monthly email sends, 10K contacts, unlimited audiences, 5 user-based roles, and 4 personalized onboarding sessions.
• Websites Free: Get 1 seat, unlimited pages, pre-designed layouts, free stock photography, SSL certificates, and more for building a website and launching a store.
• Websites Core: Unlock 24/7 email & chat support with 3 users, and an option to connect to a custom domain.
• Transactions Email: Buy blocks of email sends based on your sending frequency and volume. 1 block costs $20 for 25K email sends.

How much does Mailchimp cost?

Mailchimp costs between $13 and $1600. It offers 3 products: Marketing Platform, Websites, and Transactional Email.  

The Marketing Platform has 3 pricing tiers: Essentials ($13), Standard ($20), and Premium ($350).

The free plan offers 1000 emails for 500 contacts. It is great for individuals starting their email marketing journey with 1 user and 1 audience.  

The Essentials plan starts with 5000 emails for 500 contacts. It is built for people who just want to send a newsletter it has 3 seats and 3 audiences. 

The Standard plan offers 6000 emails for 500 contacts. It’s great for SMEs that want to send more personalized and optimized emails. This plan has everything in Essentials plus 5 seats, 5 audiences, enhanced reporting & analytics, and 4 user-based roles.   

Mailchimp Premium is built for large teams with a growing contacts list. It starts with unlimited emails for 10.000 contacts, offers priority support, unlimited users and audiences, and 5 personalized onboarding sessions with experts. 

Websites has 2 pricing tiers: Free ($0) and Core ($10), with a Transactional Email add-on. The Core plan has 3 seats, 24/7 emails and chat support, and a custom domain connection. 

Transactional Email has a pricing model based on your estimated monthly sends. You can buy in blocks. Each block has 25K emails and costs $20. The price per block is $20/block for up to 500k emails and then slowly decreases $18/block for up to 1M+ emails. This is very expensive, compare it to Brevo pricing, Mailchimp is almost 30% more expensive.

Higher-priced plans have more advanced features, more contacts, and more users.

Mailchimp Marketing Platform Features

Mailchimp Marketing Platform Monthly Starting Prices

Here’s how prices grow with your contact count:

If you don’t want to limit yourself to 50K emails, you’ll need to sign up for the Standard or Premium plan. You’ll notice that as your contacts grow, the Standard plan gets more expensive. This is because you get 12x emails for each contact. 

After 100K contacts, you can only choose the Premium plan that offers 1950K monthly emails, priority support, unlimited users, and unlimited audiences. Continue reading to find out how much each plan will cost you. We’ll include the monthly prices in this guide. 

Try Mailchimp for free here

Comparing Mailchimp Pricing

Mailchimp is an email marketing service provider with a website builder, eCommerce tools, and transactional emails. Let’s see how its pricing compares to similar services. Check out our guide on the best Mailchimp alternatives to compare features.

Here’s how Mailchimp Standard’s monthly prices compare to similar plans from Moosend, MailerLite, GetResponse, and AWeber:

Mailchimp vs Moosend

Moosend has 2 pricing plans Pro and Enterprise. Pro starts from $9/month with unlimited emails, 500 contacts, 5 users, automation workflows, landing pages, transactional emails, and more. 

Let’s compare the monthly prices of Mailchimp Standard with Moosend Pro:

Mailchimp Standard with Moosend Pro

Moosend Pro is much cheaper. It’s perfect for startups and SMEs who need a cost-effective alternative without compromising on features like A/B testing and marketing automation. For the full run-down on features, check out our full Moosend review.

While Mailchimp Standard is costlier. It’s a good alternative for people who want generative AI features or need a personalized onboarding session.

Mailchimp vs MailerLite

MailerLite has 2 paid plans:

• Growing Business: Starting at $10/month for 500 subscribers
• Advanced: Starting at $20/month for 500 subscribers

Let’s see how the monthly pricing of Mailchimp Standard compares to MailerLite’s Growing Business:

Mailchimp Standard with MailerLite Growing Business

MailerLite Growing Business is ideal for small businesses who want to send unlimited monthly emails, create multiple websites and landing pages, or use features like unsubscribe page builder, unlimited templates, unlimited blogs, dynamic emails, auto resend campaign, and page builder. It has 3 users, and you also get 24/7 email support. Find out more about features, pros, cons, and pricing in our full MailerLite review and MailerLite pricing guide. Or compare these tools in this MailerLite vs Mailchimp comparison article.

Mailchimp Standard is good for businesses that need a generative AI assistant, 5 users, or 5 separate email audiences. 

Mailchimp vs GetResponse

GetResponse offers 3 pricing plans:

• Email Marketing: From $19/month for 1,000 contacts
• Marketing Automation: From $59/month for 1,000 contacts
• E-commerce Marketing: From $119/month for 1,000 contacts 

Here’s how the monthly prices of Mailchimp Premium and GetResponse Marketing Automation compare:

GetResponse is a more advanced email marketing platform than Mailchimp. Its Marketing Automation plan is perfect for marketers looking for advanced features like paid ads, conversion funnels, and 24/7 support. It’s better for budget-conscious B2B and e-commerce businesses with large lists. Or if you’re looking for a European provider. Read our full GetResponse review for an in-depth look at features, pros, and cons. Look at our GetResponse pricing guide for a full run-down on all plans.

Mailchimp’s Standard plan is on the costlier end when compared to GetResponse’s Marketing Automation plan. It’s good for SMEs who want to optimize and automate their email marketing. Some highlight features include 5 user-based roles and 1,200,000 monthly emails for 100,000 contacts. 

Mailchimp vs AWeber

AWeber has 3 paid plans:

• Lite: Starting at $14.99/month for 500 subscribers
• Plus: Starting at $29.99/month for 500 subscribers
• Unlimited: Starting at $899/month for unlimited subscribers

Here’s a comparison of monthly fees for Mailchimp Marketing Plus and AWeber Plus:

AWeber Plus is cheaper than Mailchimp Standard, and it comes with unlimited monthly emails, subscribers, users, and more. This paid plan is ideal for businesses that want to use autoresponders for automated emails and send out newsletters at budget-friendly prices. Learn more about the features, pros, cons, and pricing in our full AWeber review.

Mailchimp Standard is costlier, with caps on monthly email sends and the number of seats. This plan is good for businesses that need additional role-based access or add-ons like SMS marketing. 

Have a look at our reviews of the best CRMs with email marketing and the best email newsletter software for more Mailchimp alternatives. Or check out the best free and cheap email marketing tools, most of them have lightweight CRMs suitable for small businesses.

Try Mailchimp for free

Hidden costs/Onboarding fees

Mailchimp has some hidden costs for duplicate contacts. If you have the same email in multiple audience lists, Mailchimp will count that as 2 separate emails and charge you accordingly.

There are fewer contact tiers in Mailchimp compared to competitors. This isn’t ideal for companies with smaller lists. Let’s say you have 8K contacts, in Mailchimp you’ll pay for 10K contacts. Competitors like Mailerlite and Moosend have 8K contact tiers. And the Premium plan doesn’t even have a contact tier below 10K. This means that the Premium features will cost $350/month even if you have 500 contacts. 

Mailchimp Marketing Platform Pricing

Marketing Essentials plan is great for small teams that need 3 users with 2 role-based accesses (admin and owner). It starts at $13/month for 500 contacts and 5000 emails. You can diversify your lists with 3 audiences and create email campaigns with 100+ email templates. 

Build 4 journey points per customer journey and A/B test emails to find the best performing one. There’s 24/7 email and chat support for further assistance.  

Marketing Essentials Plan Pricing Tiers

Marketing Standard is great for SMEs that want to send 6000+ monthly emails. It starts with 500 contacts for $20/month. It has everything in Essentials, plus 5 different audiences, 5 users,  4 role-based access (owner, admin, author, and viewer), and 200 automated customer journey points.

The Standard plan also offers 1 personalized onboarding session with a MailChimp employee. You also get custom HTML template upload, predictive segmentation, content optimizer, advanced segmentation, comparative reporting, and a campaign manager.

Marketing Standard Pricing Tiers 

The Mailchimp Premium plan starts at $350/month with 500 contacts, 150K monthly emails, and unlimited users. It has everything in Standard, plus unlimited audiences, priority phone support, additional role-based access for Managers, and 4 personalized onboarding sessions.

Marketing Premium Pricing Tiers

Mailchimp Websites Pricing

Mailchimp Websites pricing starts at $10/month with 3 users. This Core plan has unlimited pages, a custom domain option, and 24/7 email & chat support.

Get started with Mailchimp here

Mailchimp Pay-as-you-go Pricing

Mailchimp’s pay-as-you-go model is ideal for teams that don’t have a fixed monthly email volume they want to send out. 

Mailchimp offers a pay-as-you-go plan with credits. Each email costs 1 credit, so if you send 7000 emails a month, you’ll only pay for 7000 credits. 

Credits are available in bundles, all of which have a 12-month validity. 

Mailchimp Add-ons & Extras

Transactional emails and SMS marketing are available in Mailchimp as add ons. Let’s break down how much they cost.

Mailchimp Transactional Email

Mailchimp Transactional Email pricing starts at $20 per block. Each block contains 25,000 emails. The pricing per block decreases as you increase the number of emails. 

Until 20 blocks (500,000 emails) the price stays at $20/block. From the 21st block to the 40th block (500,000 – 1M emails/month), the price per block reduces to $18/block. 

Here’s how much transactional emails cost in Mailchimp:

Mailchimp SMS Pricing

Customers in the US with Essentials, Standard, or Premium plans can get this add-on. Set up SMS and MMS messages for your subscribed SMS contacts (stored in your Mailchimp audience). If you want to send SMS outside the US, check out the best SMS marketing platforms here. Most of these platforms have global sending coverage so you can send to any country you’d like.

You need SMS credits (available in bundles) to run your campaigns through Mailchimp.1 SMS costs between 1 to 3 credits based on the recipient’s carrier and your company’s Russell 3000 Index listing status. 

Here’s how much different SMS credit bundles cost:

Here’s how 1000 SMS will cost you:

Here’s how each SMS will cost if you send 1000 SMSs,

Mailchimp Discount

Mailchimp offers a 15% discount to charities and verified nonprofit organizations. This discount doesn’t apply to third-party purchases within the Mailchimp account. Sign up here and contact the Billing team with your username and a link to the website of your organization.

Try Mailchimp for free

Explaining Mailchimp pricing: Products, Emails, Contacts, Seats, Roles

Mailchimp’s pricing depends mostly on these 4 factors:

Products

Mailchimp has 3 products: the Marketing Platform, Websites, and Transactional Email. Marketing Platform charges per contact number and features. Websites pricing is based on the number of seats and 24/7 support. 

The pricing of Transactional Email depends on how many emails you send per month. It costs $20 for up to 500K emails per month and $10 if you’re sending 4M+ emails per month.

Product is the most important factor in Mailchimp’s pricing.

Plans

The price of Mailchimp’s marketing platform changes based on features. The Essentials pricing plan starts at $13 for 500 contacts and goes up to $385 for 50,000 contacts. It allows 500K emails for 50K contacts. You also get 3 users, 3 separate audiences, and 2 role-based accesses. 

The Standard plan starts at $20 for 500 contacts and goes up to $800 for 100,000 contacts. It allows up to 10 emails/month/contact. It means that you can send 5000 monthly emails if you have 500 contacts, 18,000 monthly emails if you have 1,500 contacts, and so on. The Standard plan also offers 5 users, 5 separate audiences, and 4 unique role-based accesses. 

The Premium plan starts at $350 for 10K contacts and goes up to $1,600 for 200,000 contacts. For 10K contacts, you can send up to 150,000 monthly emails. The Premium plan also offers unlimited users and audiences with 5 unique role-based accesses. 

Contacts

The Marketing Platform plans charge based on how many contacts you add to your account. 

Here’s a breakdown of the monthly price of Marketing plans’ contact tiers:

When you’re over your contact limit, you’ll be charged for overages for all Marketing Platform plans except for the Free plan, which is paused if the email send limit is exceeded. The number of contacts is the third most important factor in Mailchimp’s cost.

Seats or Users

The number of users or seats you need also affects Mailchimp’s pricing. Each plan adds additional seats. 

For instance, if you need 1 user or seat, you can use the Free plan. For 3 seats, you need the Essentials plan, which starts at $13. Similarly, for 5 seats, you need a Standard plan, which starts at $20. The Premium pricing plan offers unlimited seats and starts at $350, making it ideal for anyone who needs 6 or more seats. 

Get started with Mailchimp for free

Is Mailchimp really free?

Mailchimp has a free plan with 500 contacts, 1,000 emails, and 1 user. You can try the Essentials and Standard plans for free for 30 days.

The free plan and trial are enough to test Mailchimp fully and see if it works for you. It lets you try basic pre-built email templates and access forms & landing pages.

You can also test the Creative Assistant with limited features and get access to 300+ integrations. You can easily sort everything out using their email support, which is available for the first 30 days of your Free plan. 

So, which Mailchimp pricing plan should you pick?

Mailchimp offers 4 different plans: Free, Essentials, Standard, and Premium.

The Free plan is best for individuals starting their email marketing journey. It offers 1000 monthly emails for 500 contacts, 1 user, 1 audience, and email support for 30 days. You can also access basic email templates. If those email templates don’t cut it, have a look at the 99+ best free Mailchimp templates here for more options.

The Essentials plan starts at $13/month for 500 contacts with 5,000 monthly emails and goes up to $385 for 50,000 contacts with 500,000 monthly emails. This plan is great for startups and small teams who need up to 3 users, have 3 separate audiences, and require 2 role-based accesses for the owner and admin. The Essentials plan also comes with 24/7 email and chat support.

The Standard plan is designed for SMEs and growing enterprises. It starts at $20 for 500 contacts with 6000 monthly emails and goes up to $800 for 100,000 contacts with 1,200,000 emails/month. You also get 5 users, 5 audiences, 4 user-based roles, and 1 personalized onboarding session with an onboarding specialist.

The Premium plan is designed for larger businesses. It starts at $350 for 10K contacts with 150,000 monthly emails and goes up to $1600 for 200K contacts with 3M emails/month. This plan unlocks priority phone support. It also offers unlimited users and audiences, 5 role-based accesses, and 4 personalized onboarding sessions with an onboarding specialist.

Mailchimp Pricing FAQs

About Mor Mester

Mor Mester is the Head of Content Marketing at EmailVendorSelection. He's an email marketing and marketing automation expert with 6+ years of experience. Having tested and reviewed 100+ email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, ecommerce, SMS marketing, email verification, online course, and lead generation tools, he knows a good business software when he sees one.
After work, you can find him riding his bike on some trails.

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