Mailchimp Alternatives: 5 Email Tools With Bigger Free Plans

The best Mailchimp alternative depends on why you are leaving. For a small list on a tight budget, Sender and EmailOctopus both give you 2,500 subscribers free, ten times Mailchimp's 250. For a newsletter you plan to grow, Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers and beehiiv is free up to 2,500 with unlimited sends. For a small business that wants automation and landing pages without a steep bill, MailerLite starts at $12 a month.

This guide compares five alternatives on what each company publishes: free plan limits, starting prices and what you give up.

Quick picks

Why people leave Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a capable tool, and many businesses are happy with it. The complaints that send people looking are consistent, and they are worth understanding before you choose a replacement.

• The free plan shrank. It now covers 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, with a cap of 250 a day. A weekly newsletter to a full free list does not fit.
• No automation on the free plan. Even a single welcome email needs a paid plan.
• Contacts you cannot email still count. Mailchimp bills on audience size, and unsubscribed contacts have counted toward it unless you archive them.
• Send limits on paid plans. Essentials allows 10 times your contact limit per month, and Standard 12 times.
• The price climbs with the list. Plans are priced by contact tier, so growth moves you up automatically.

If none of these affects you, switching may not be worth the effort. If one of them does, it tells you what to look for in the alternative.

Free plans compared

What the limits mean for a real newsletter

Divide monthly emails by subscribers to see how often you can write to a full list.

A weekly newsletter needs four or five sends per subscriber a month. Mailchimp's free plan cannot do that. Every alternative on this list can.

Starting paid prices

Paid prices depend on list size, and each company shows a different starting tier, so compare these as entry points only.

Kit's page states that annual billing saves $78 a year on Creator and $158 on Pro compared with paying monthly. beehiiv says yearly billing saves up to 20%.

1. MailerLite: best all-round swap for a small business

MailerLite is the closest like-for-like replacement. It covers the same ground as Mailchimp, including campaigns, automation, forms, landing pages and a simple website builder, at a lower entry cost.

Free plan: 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, 3 automations, 3 signup forms, 1 website and 1 landing page, 2 seats.

Paid plans: Comfort from $12 a month adds 50 automations, 10 websites and landing pages, the ability to sell up to 5 digital products, 3 seats and email support. Power from $25 a month adds unlimited monthly emails, unlimited seats and automations, and 24/7 live chat.

Where it beats Mailchimp: automation on the free plan, five times the free send allowance, and no send multiplier on Power.

What you give up: the free plan has the same 250-subscriber ceiling as Mailchimp, and Mailchimp has more ready-made integrations with niche tools.

Best for: small businesses and bloggers who want one tool for email, forms and landing pages.

We compare the two in detail in MailerLite vs Mailchimp.

2. Sender: best free plan for a small list

Sender's free plan is the most generous here for a traditional email marketing tool.

Free plan: 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month. The plan card lists email newsletters, email automation, landing pages, and signup forms and popups. Sender branding appears on your emails.

Paid plans: Standard is $6.30 a month for 500 subscribers and 12,000 emails, and removes the branding while adding SMS messaging and A/B testing. Professional is $10.50 a month for 500 subscribers and 24,000 emails, with advanced automation across channels and priority support. Enterprise is custom.

Where it beats Mailchimp: ten times the free subscribers, thirty times the free monthly emails, and automation without paying.

What you give up: Sender is a smaller company with fewer integrations and a smaller template library. Notice also that paid plans start at 500 subscribers, which is below the free plan's 2,500. If you have 2,000 subscribers and want the branding removed, check the price at your list size, since it will be above the $6.30 entry figure.

Best for: new businesses and clubs with up to 2,500 contacts who can live with a small "sent with Sender" mark.

3. EmailOctopus: best for simple, cheap newsletters

EmailOctopus keeps things plain: write an email, send it to a list, see who opened it.

Free plan (Starter): 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, with EmailOctopus branding on emails, reports kept for 30 days, 1 landing page and 1 form, and 1 user.

Paid plan (Pro): from $9 a month billed yearly. It gives you full control over email design, reports kept forever, unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited users and priority support.

Where it beats Mailchimp: ten times the free subscribers and a lower paid entry price.

What you give up: fewer advanced features. If you rely on complex automation, e-commerce triggers or a large template gallery, you will notice the difference. Reports on the free plan disappear after 30 days, so export anything you want to keep.

Best for: writers, community groups and small organizations that send a regular newsletter and little else.

4. Kit: best for creators growing an audience

Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is built for people whose audience is the business: writers, course creators, coaches and podcasters.

Free plan: up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited email broadcasts, audience tagging and segmentation, digital product sales, and 1 user. Visual automations are not included.

Paid plans: Creator is $390 a year, about $33 a month, at 1,000 subscribers. It adds unlimited visual automations and email sequences, A/B testing, apps and integrations, and 2 users. Pro is $790 a year, about $66 a month, at 1,000 subscribers, and adds engagement scoring, a newsletter referral system and unlimited users.

Where it beats Mailchimp: the free ceiling is 40 times higher, and broadcasts are unlimited. You can grow a list to 10,000 people before paying anything.

What you give up: the step from free to paid is steep. The moment you want automated sequences, the cost is about $33 a month at only 1,000 subscribers, which is more than double Mailchimp's Essentials entry price. Kit is also plainer for visual, design-heavy emails and store promotions.

Best for: creators who mainly send broadcasts and want room to grow a large list for free.

5. beehiiv: best if the newsletter is the product

beehiiv is a newsletter platform more than an email marketing tool. It hosts your newsletter as a website, handles growth features and, on paid plans, helps you earn from it.

Free plan: up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, email templates, landing pages, its recommendation network, and API access.

Paid plans: Lite at $49 a month adds paid subscriptions with a 0% take rate, ad monetization, automations, polls and A/B testing. Pro at $95 a month removes beehiiv branding and adds advanced analytics, webhooks, dynamic content and priority support. Yearly billing saves up to 20%.

Where it beats Mailchimp: unlimited sends on the free plan, a built-in public home for your newsletter, and tools to charge readers or run ads.

What you give up: it is not designed for store promotions, transactional messages or complex customer journeys. Automations start on the $49 plan, and removing the branding costs $95 a month.

Best for: people starting a newsletter as a publication, with plans to earn from subscriptions or sponsorship.

What will you actually pay? Three examples

These use published entry prices. Your price depends on list size, so confirm at checkout.

A local business with 200 contacts and a monthly email

Every tool here is free at this size, including Mailchimp, since 200 sends fits inside 500. The deciding factor is automation. If you want a welcome email, MailerLite and Sender include it free. Mailchimp does not.

A blogger with 1,500 subscribers and a weekly newsletter

That is about 6,500 sends a month.

• Sender Free: $0. Fits inside 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails, with branding.
• EmailOctopus Starter: $0. Fits inside 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails, with branding.
• Kit Free: $0. Fits, with unlimited broadcasts.
• beehiiv Free: $0. Fits, with unlimited sends.
• MailerLite and Mailchimp: both need a paid plan, since their free plans stop at 250.

Four of the five alternatives are free here. That is the strongest argument for looking beyond Mailchimp at this stage.

A creator with 1,000 subscribers who wants an automated welcome series

• Sender Free: $0, with automation included.
• MailerLite Comfort: from $12 a month.
• Kit Creator: $390 a year, about $33 a month.
• beehiiv Lite: $49 a month.

The spread is wide for the same basic job. Pay the higher prices only if you need what makes those tools different: Kit's creator features, or beehiiv's monetization.

How to choose

Answer four questions.

1. How big is your list, and how fast is it growing? Under 250, everything is free. From 250 to 2,500, Sender, EmailOctopus, Kit and beehiiv stay free while Mailchimp and MailerLite do not.
2. Do you need automation? If yes, cross off Kit's and beehiiv's free plans.
3. Is the newsletter a marketing channel or the product itself? Marketing channel points to MailerLite, Sender or EmailOctopus. Product points to Kit or beehiiv.
4. Which tools must it connect to? List your store platform, form tool and CRM, and check each alternative's integrations page before committing.

Then check one more thing: whether a small logo on your emails matters to you. Several free plans include the provider's branding, and removing it is often the real reason people upgrade.

How to switch from Mailchimp

1. Export your audience from Mailchimp as CSV files. Export subscribed, unsubscribed and cleaned contacts separately.
2. Import the subscribed contacts into the new tool. Import the unsubscribed and bounced addresses as a suppression list, so they are never emailed again.
3. Authenticate your domain in the new tool by adding its SPF and DKIM records. Leave Mailchimp's records in place until you have finished moving. SPF, DKIM and DMARC Explained shows what to add.
4. Recreate your forms and replace the embed codes on your website.
5. Rebuild your automations. They do not transfer. Take screenshots of each one before you leave.
6. Warm up. Send your first campaign to your most engaged subscribers, then widen over a week or two. A new sending setup has no reputation yet.
7. Update your tracking. If you tag links for analytics, check what the new tool adds by default. See UTM Parameters Explained.
8. Cancel Mailchimp after a full month without problems, and download your campaign reports first.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free alternative to Mailchimp?

For a traditional email tool, Sender has the largest free plan: 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month with automation included. EmailOctopus is free to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails. Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts but no visual automations.

Is MailerLite better than Mailchimp?

For most small lists, MailerLite offers more for less. Its free plan includes 2,500 emails a month and 3 automations, against Mailchimp's 500 emails and no automation. Paid plans start at $12 a month. Mailchimp has more integrations and deeper e-commerce features on its Standard plan.

Which Mailchimp alternative is cheapest?

By published entry price, Sender Standard at $6.30 a month and EmailOctopus Pro at $9 a month billed yearly are the cheapest paid plans here. Many small lists will not need to pay at all, since four of the five alternatives are free up to 2,500 subscribers or more.

Is Kit free?

Yes. Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited landing pages, forms and email broadcasts, plus tagging and digital product sales. It does not include visual automations. The Creator plan, which adds them, costs $390 a year at 1,000 subscribers.

Can I move my subscribers from Mailchimp to another tool?

Yes. Export your audience from Mailchimp as a CSV file and import it into the new tool. Import unsubscribed and bounced contacts as suppressed so they are not emailed. Forms and automations do not transfer and need to be rebuilt.

Will switching email tools hurt my deliverability?

It can dip briefly, because the new sending setup has no history with mailbox providers. Authenticate your domain with SPF and DKIM before sending, start with your most engaged subscribers and increase volume over one to two weeks.

Do free email marketing plans include the provider's logo?

Often, yes. Sender, EmailOctopus and beehiiv state that their free plans carry their branding, and Mailchimp's free plan does too. Removing it usually requires a paid plan: Sender Standard, EmailOctopus Pro, or beehiiv Pro at $95 a month.

Sources

Plan details were read on October 7, 2026. Email tools change their pricing often, so confirm before you subscribe.

• Mailchimp marketing pricing
• MailerLite pricing
• Sender pricing
• EmailOctopus pricing
• Kit pricing
• beehiiv pricing