Mailchimp

Mailchimp is the default email marketing tool for small businesses — the one most people used first, and still the benchmark for "simple email marketing that works." It covers the fundamentals: campaign emails, automations, landing pages, signup forms, basic segmentation and a lightweight CRM layer for managing contacts.

Its appeal is approachability. The builder is friendly, templates are plentiful, and the free plan is genuinely usable for tiny lists — up to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month. For a small business sending a newsletter, Mailchimp does the job without the learning curve of more powerful platforms.

The trade-offs are pricing structure and ceiling. Mailchimp prices by contact count — every contact you store counts toward your tier, including unsubscribed ones you haven't cleaned up — and costs climb steeply as lists grow. At 10,000 contacts, Standard costs $135/month; at 50,000, $450. The platform also stops being the best value well before those numbers — dedicated email tools and e-commerce platforms (like Klaviyo for stores) often deliver more for less.

How Mailchimp works

1. Import or collect contacts via signup forms and landing pages.
2. Build campaigns in the drag-and-drop editor or start from templates.
3. Set up automations — welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase.
4. Track opens, clicks and revenue; segment and re-engage.

Key capabilities

Email campaigns — drag-and-drop builder with templates and A/B testing.

Marketing automations — welcome flows, abandoned cart, post-purchase journeys.

Signup forms and landing pages — grow your list inside Mailchimp.

Segmentation and tags — target by behaviour, purchase history or custom fields.

Basic CRM — contact profiles, notes and lightweight sales tracking.

Reporting — opens, clicks, revenue attribution and comparative performance.

Integrations — e-commerce platforms, websites, Zapier and more.

What the pricing actually feels like

The contact-count model is where Mailchimp earns its reputation for sticker shock. A list that costs $20/month at 500 contacts doesn't grow linearly — it steps: roughly $60 at 2,500, $100 at 5,000, $135 at 10,000 and $450 at 50,000 on Standard. Two habits soften it: clean unsubscribes and cold contacts out of your audience regularly, and choose the right tier early — Essentials covers a lot of what beginners think they need Standard for.

Who it's really for

Mailchimp fits the small business owner who knows they should do email marketing but doesn't want to learn a complex platform — the freelancer, the local shop, the blogger monetising an audience. The free tier lets you prove the channel works before spending anything.

It fits less well for e-commerce brands (Klaviyo's purchase-data automations are built for it), publishers and creators (Beehiiv and Substack are cheaper and better at paid subscriptions), and anyone whose list is already large — at that point the per-contact math argues for a dedicated platform.

Mailchimp plans and pricing explained

Free — $0. Up to 250 contacts, 500 emails/month (max 250/day), 1 user. Enough for a tiny newsletter, not a real marketing program.

Essentials — from $13/month (500 contacts), rising with contact count. Up to 50,000 contacts, 3 users, sends up to 10x your contact limit, single-email automations, A/B testing, 24/7 support. The step up from free.

Standard — from $20/month (500 contacts). Up to 100,000 contacts, 5 users, sends up to 12x contacts, up to 200 automation flows, behavioural targeting and predictive segments. The plan most growing businesses land on.

Premium — from $350/month (10,000 contacts). Up to 200,000 contacts, unlimited users, sends up to 15x contacts, multivariate testing, phone support, advanced segmentation. For larger organisations.

Pay As You Go — buy email credits instead of subscribing; same features as Essentials. For seasonal or irregular senders.

Contact tiers — prices step up at each contact band; at 10,000 contacts Essentials is $110/month and Standard $135/month (monthly USD figures verified October 2026). Unsubscribed contacts still count toward your total unless you clean them.

What you should know before buying

Mailchimp's pricing punishes list growth — the same list that costs $20/month at 500 contacts costs $135 at 10,000 and $450 at 50,000 on Standard. Clean your list regularly, and know that dedicated platforms (Klaviyo for e-commerce, Beehiiv/Substack for newsletters) often beat it on price-performance at scale.

The platform is also broader than pure email — landing pages, forms, basic CRM and social posting are included — but each is a "good enough" version rather than best-in-class. And like all email tools, deliverability depends on your list hygiene and authentication, not just the platform.

For a small business starting email marketing, Mailchimp's free tier and approachable builder make it a sensible first choice. Graduate when your list outgrows the pricing curve — that's usually well before the Premium plan.