Mailchimp
Long-running email marketing platform with campaigns, automations and a drag-and-drop editor.
- Price
- Essentials for 5k contacts: $56.91/month, half off for 12 months
- Free plan
- Yes
- Setup
- No code
- Up and running
- An afternoon for the first newsletter; transactional email is a separate developer project.
What Mailchimp is for
Mailchimp is the classic tool for marketing email: newsletters, promotions and automated sequences built in a drag-and-drop editor, with reports and hundreds of integrations. It is made for the marketing side. Transactional email (login codes, receipts sent by your app) is a separate paid add-on, Mailchimp Transactional, not part of the regular plans.
How it plugs into your product
- 1Create an account and authenticate your domain with the DNS records Mailchimp shows, so emails don't go out as "via mailchimp".
- 2Import contacts who opted in, or connect a sign-up form or integration (Shopify, WordPress, Zapier).
- 3Build campaigns and automations in the visual editor; no code needed for marketing.
- 4For receipts and login codes, add the Transactional add-on (Standard plan or above) and call its API from your server.
Does it fit your idea?
It fits if
- A marketing hire who already knows Mailchimp and needs templates, reports and integrations from day one.
- An online store on Shopify or WooCommerce sending promotions and abandoned-cart emails.
- A business with a steady list of a few thousand buyers and a budget for a mid-priced tool.
Look elsewhere if
- You need your app's login codes and receipts on a free or cheap plan: transactional is a paid add-on on Standard and up.
- Your list will pass 250 contacts soon and you have no budget yet: the free plan stops there.
- Many people unsubscribe from your emails over time: they keep counting toward what you pay.
What people only find out after building
Read this before you build on it. Each item links to the official page that says so.
Unsubscribed contacts still count toward your monthly contact limit, so the bill grows with people who no longer get your emails. Archive them to stop counting.
Official source: mailchimp.comThe free plan allows 250 contacts and 500 sends a month (250 a day). Past 250 contacts, live and test sends are put on hold until you upgrade.
Official source: mailchimp.comTransactional email is only available as an add-on to Standard or Premium, sold in blocks of 25,000 emails at $20 each. Free and Essentials can't use it beyond a 500-email demo.
Official source: mailchimp.comPaid plans bill overages automatically when you pass the contact or send limit, and the 50% discount only lasts the first 12 months.
Official source: mailchimp.com
Price
Essentials for 5k contacts: $56.91/month, half off for 12 months
Up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month (250 a day).
- Free tier
- 250 contacts, 500 sends/month
- Price for 5k contacts
- $56.91/month (Essentials)
- Automations
- 4 flow steps on Essentials; 200 flows on Standard
Checked on Oct 28, 2026 · official pricing
What it costs in practice
A business with 5,000 contacts (unsubscribed included) on Essentials: $56.91/month, about half that in the first 12 months, with up to 50,000 sends. Adding app receipts means Standard plus at least $20 per 25,000 transactional emails. Rough estimate.
Estimate from the official price. Check it before you decide.
At a glance
- Free plan: yes
- Open source: no
“Not stated” means the official site doesn’t say.
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