# Mailchimp

> Email and SMS marketing with automations, priced by contact count

Mailchimp is an email marketing platform from Intuit for small and growing businesses. It covers campaign emails, sign-up and popup forms, automated flows and an SMS add-on, and its paid plans are priced by how many contacts you store. A mobile app for iOS and Android handles quick sends, contact imports and campaign reports.

- **Category:** Email Marketing & Newsletters
- **Made by:** Intuit Mailchimp (since 2001)
- **Website:** https://mailchimp.com
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026

## Pricing

Mailchimp has a free plan. Paid plans start at $13 per month for up to 500 contacts, billed monthly.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** 1 seat, 1 audience, up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month (250 a day), limited templates and email support for the first 30 days.
- **Free trial:** 14-day free trial of the Essentials or Standard plan.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | 1 seat, 1 audience, 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. Sending pauses when a limit is passed. |
| Essentials | $13 per month for up to 500 contacts, billed monthly | 3 seats, 3 audiences, sends of 10 times your contacts, scheduling and 4-step flows. Price rises with the list: $110 a month at 10,000 contacts. |
| Standard | $20 per month for up to 500 contacts, billed monthly | 5 seats, up to 200 automation flows, dynamic content and custom reports. Price rises with the list: $135 a month at 10,000 contacts. |
| Premium | $350 per month for up to 10,000 contacts, billed monthly | Unlimited seats and audiences, phone and priority support, multivariate testing. Price rises with the list: $815 a month at 50,000 contacts. |

Read from https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/ on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Mailchimp before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **15% off for nonprofits and charities** (Nonprofit): Mailchimp's pricing page offers nonprofits and charities 15% off. You sign up for a free account and then contact the Billing team with your username and website. Source: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/
- **15% off the first 12 months at 10,000+ contacts** (Other savings): New customers on a monthly Essentials, Standard or Premium plan with 10,000 or more contacts get 15% off for the first 12 months, then the list price. Source: https://mailchimp.com/legal/promotional-offer-terms/

## Key features

- **Automation flows:** Standard and Premium allow up to 200 automated flows, such as welcome series and abandoned-cart emails. Essentials is limited to 4 flow steps and Free has none.
- **Templates and email builder:** Pre-built templates on every plan (a limited set on Free). Custom-coded templates can be built on any plan but only sent from Standard and Premium.
- **Segmentation and dynamic content:** Standard adds advanced segmentation, pre-built segments and dynamic content; Premium adds predictive segmentation.
- **Popup forms and landing pages:** Popup sign-up forms are included on every plan, and the Free plan can also build landing pages and forms.
- **SMS and MMS add-on:** Paid plans can add SMS, with MMS on Standard and Premium in select countries, after an application is approved. Credits are bought in monthly blocks.
- **Mobile app:** The iOS and Android app can build and send emails, scan business cards into contacts, make simple landing pages and show campaign reports.

## Good for

- Small businesses sending regular newsletters and promotions
- Online shops on Shopify, WooCommerce or Square that want automated emails
- Teams that want email and SMS campaigns in one account

## Worth knowing

- The Free plan stops at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, and sending pauses until you upgrade or trim the list.
- Paid plans bill overages automatically when you pass your contact or monthly send limit.
- Essentials caps automations at 4 flow steps; dynamic content and custom reports start at Standard.
- SMS is a paid add-on in select countries, needs an approved application, and its monthly credits expire unused.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.8 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. Mailchimp, now part of Intuit, covers the whole email marketing job for a small business: campaigns, sign-up forms, landing pages, automated flows and SMS. It starts at $13 a month for 500 contacts, about what a typical email tool charges. But the price climbs with your list, and proper automations need Standard at $20.

- **Value for money: C.** Essentials is $13 a month for up to 500 contacts, right at the middle of what email tools charge. It climbs with the list, though, to $110 a month at 10,000 contacts, and flows longer than 4 steps need Standard at $20.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** Free for 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with 1 seat and limited templates. You'll pass 250 contacts quickly, and then sending pauses until you upgrade or trim the list. Paid plans have a 14-day trial.
- **Features: B.** Campaigns, templates, popup forms, landing pages, up to 200 automated flows, segmentation, dynamic content, multivariate testing on Premium and an SMS add-on. That's the whole email marketing job.
- **Ease of use: A.** 4.85 from 51,677 App Store ratings, the top band by a long way. The phone app can even build and send an email or scan a business card into your contacts.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, with Shopify, WooCommerce, Canva, Zapier, Square, Wix, Squarespace and Stripe, and an API. No desktop app, which keeps it off an A.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Mailchimp's own pages on 17 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among email marketing and newsletter tools

- Mailchimp's GPA of 2.8 is higher than 21 of the 24 other email marketing and newsletter tools we grade, and level with 2.
- It stands best on ease of use (A, above 23 of 24) and worst on free plan and trial (C, above 2).
- Its paid plans start at $13 a month, against a middle price of $13 for the category: 11 of the 22 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.3 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/email-marketing

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Mailchimp you would be making newsletters sent to thousands of people that still reach the inbox. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.8 is higher than 21 of the 24 other email marketing and newsletter tools we grade. It costs $156 a year.

- You could make: Forms and reports: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: Newsletters sent to thousands of people that still reach the inbox.
- You could not: Email sent in volume that still reaches the inbox.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Shopify, WooCommerce and Canva among them, and has an API.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.9 out of 5 from 51,677 ratings in the United States, read Oct 17, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id366794783

## Works with

Shopify, WooCommerce, Canva, Zapier, Square, Wix, Squarespace, Stripe

**Tags:** Email campaigns, Marketing automation, Forms, Reports, AI features, Public API

## Alternatives

- [Constant Contact](https://toolgpa.com/tools/constant-contact): Email, SMS and social marketing for small businesses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/constant-contact-vs-mailchimp)
- [Brevo](https://toolgpa.com/tools/brevo): Email, SMS and WhatsApp marketing priced by emails sent, with a CRM. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brevo-vs-mailchimp)
- [MailerLite](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailerlite): Email newsletters, automations, sites and paid subscriptions. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mailchimp-vs-mailerlite)
- [Klaviyo](https://toolgpa.com/tools/klaviyo): Email, text and push marketing built on online-store customer data. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/klaviyo-vs-mailchimp)
- [ActiveCampaign](https://toolgpa.com/tools/activecampaign): Email marketing and multi-step automation priced by contacts. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/activecampaign-vs-mailchimp)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026:

- https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/
- https://mailchimp.com/forms/pricing/?currency=USD
- https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/compare-plans/
- https://mailchimp.com/help/about-mailchimp-pricing-plans/
- https://mailchimp.com/legal/promotional-offer-terms/
- https://mailchimp.com/pricing/sms-marketing/
- https://mailchimp.com/features/mailchimp-mobile/
- https://mailchimp.com/about/

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailchimp
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).