Mailchimp Alternatives: 17 Options Priced at 10,000 and 100,000 Contacts
Cem Hurturk, Founder of Octeth
Updated First published
Mailchimp is still the best-known name in email marketing, and for many small senders it works fine. But its free plan now covers 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, down from 500 contacts, and unsubscribed contacts count toward your bill. At 100,000 contacts, the Standard plan costs $800 a month.
I build email marketing software, and the most common reason people contact us is that they have outgrown a SaaS bill. This page compares 17 Mailchimp alternatives on price at two sizes, checked on each vendor's pricing page on 2026-10-03. It includes free plans and self-hosted options.
Short answer
| If you want | Look at |
|---|---|
| The cheapest hosted plan | EmailOctopus, Sender, MailerLite |
| The biggest free plan | Kit (10,000 subscribers), Sender and EmailOctopus (2,500) |
| To pay by emails sent instead of contacts | Brevo, Mailjet |
| Ecommerce automation | Klaviyo, Moosend, GetResponse |
| A free, open source, self-hosted alternative | listmonk, Keila, Mautic |
| Your own platform for many brands or clients, with no per-contact fees | Octeth |
What Mailchimp costs in 2026
From mailchimp.com on 2026-10-03:
| Contacts | Essentials | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $13 | $20 | Not offered |
| 10,000 | $110 | $135 | $350 |
| 50,000 | $385 | $450 | $815 |
| 100,000 | Not offered (max 50,000) | $800 | $1,025 |
- Free plan: 250 contacts, 500 sends a month (250 a day), one seat, no automation.
- Contact counting: subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts all count toward your plan. Archived, cleaned and deleted contacts do not.
- Sends: monthly send limits are 10, 12 and 15 times your contact limit on Essentials, Standard and Premium.
12 hosted alternatives compared
Monthly prices with monthly billing, from each vendor's site on 2026-10-03. "10k" and "100k" are contacts or subscribers, except where the tool bills by emails sent.
| Tool | Billing basis | Free plan | Price at 10k | Price at 100k |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EmailOctopus | Subscribers | 2,500 subscribers, 10,000 emails | Pro $44.50 | Pro $345 |
| Sender | Subscribers | 2,500 subscribers, 15,000 emails | Standard $69 | Standard $389 |
| MailerLite | Active subscribers | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails | Comfort $89 | Comfort $439 |
| GetResponse | Contacts | 500 contacts, 2,500 newsletters | Starter $79 | Starter $539 |
| Moosend | Contacts | None (30-day trial) | Pro $88 | Pro $624 |
| Kit | Subscribers | 10,000 subscribers | Creator $139 | Creator $679 (105k tier) |
| AWeber | Subscribers | 500 subscribers, 3,000 emails | Lite $100 | Lite $600 |
| Klaviyo | Active profiles | 250 profiles, 500 emails | Email $150 | Email $1,380 |
| ActiveCampaign | Contacts | None (14-day trial) | Starter $149 (annual) | Contact sales above 50k |
| Campaign Monitor | Contacts | None (30-day trial) | Lite $117 | Contact sales above 50k |
| Brevo | Emails sent | 300 emails a day | Starter, 40,000 emails $46 | Standard, 500,000 emails $429 |
| Mailjet | Emails sent | 1,000 contacts, 6,000 emails | Essential, 50,000 emails $40 | Premium, 500,000 emails $499 |
At 100,000 contacts, several alternatives cost about half of Mailchimp Standard's $800. Brevo and Mailjet price by emails sent, so their cost depends on how often you mail: 500,000 emails a month is five sends to 100,000 people.
Free Mailchimp alternatives
The largest free plans as of October 2026: Kit (10,000 subscribers), Sender (2,500 subscribers, 15,000 emails), EmailOctopus (2,500 subscribers, 10,000 emails), Mailjet (1,000 contacts, 6,000 emails) and Brevo (300 emails a day). Free plans change often. Mailchimp's and MailerLite's both shrank to 250 contacts, so check the limits before you migrate.
Self-hosted Mailchimp alternatives
A self-hosted platform runs on your own server and sends through a relay such as Amazon SES. You pay no per-contact fee. Your costs are a server (about $50 a month at 100,000 subscribers) and sending ($0.10 to $0.16 per 1,000 emails on SES). That is roughly $90 to $115 a month for 400,000 emails, against $800 on Mailchimp Standard. The trade is that you run the platform, or pay someone to.
| Tool | License | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| listmonk | AGPL-3.0 | Free | Fast newsletters, developers |
| Keila | AGPL-3.0 | Free | A Mailchimp-style editor, open source |
| Mautic | GPL-3.0 | Free | Marketing automation with lead scoring |
| Sendy | Commercial | $69 one-time | Newsletters on Amazon SES |
| Octeth | Commercial | Free Community License, paid from $790 one-time | Many brands or clients, high volume, white-label |
For a deeper comparison of 11 self-hosted tools, see our self-hosted email marketing guide, and for the open source ones specifically, our open source email marketing software comparison.
Where Octeth fits
Octeth is a self-hosted platform for agencies and high-volume senders who have outgrown per-contact pricing:
- No per-contact or per-email platform fees. One perpetual license.
- Many brands or client accounts on one installation, each with its own lists, branding and sender domains.
- Journeys with email and SMS steps, decision branches and webhooks.
- Delivery through any relay or your own IPs: Amazon SES, Mailgun, SendGrid, PowerMTA or any SMTP server.
- Installation, onboarding and support from the team that builds it.
If you have a few thousand subscribers and one brand, a hosted alternative from the table above will be simpler. Octeth pays off at volume or when you run email for many brands or clients. A full setup takes two to four weeks.
How to move off Mailchimp
- Export your audience with all fields and tags, including unsubscribed and cleaned contacts as a separate file. Import those as suppressions so you never mail them again.
- Rebuild templates and automations. Most tools import HTML. Automations have to be recreated.
- Authenticate your sending domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC on the new platform. Our SPF and DKIM checker confirms the records.
- Warm up if you move to a dedicated IP. The IP warm-up planner builds a schedule.
- Run both in parallel for one send cycle, then switch forms and integrations over.
Frequently asked questions
Why are people leaving Mailchimp?
The usual reasons are price at larger list sizes, the free plan shrinking to 250 contacts and 500 sends, features reserved for Standard and Premium, and unsubscribed contacts counting toward the bill.
What is the best free alternative to Mailchimp?
Kit has the largest free plan (10,000 subscribers). Sender and EmailOctopus offer 2,500 subscribers. For an open source option you host yourself, listmonk, Keila or Mautic.
What is the cheapest Mailchimp alternative?
Among hosted tools on 2026-10-03: EmailOctopus Pro ($44.50 at 10,000 subscribers, $345 at 100,000), Sender and MailerLite. Self-hosted platforms are cheaper still at volume, with no per-contact fee.
Is there an open source alternative to Mailchimp?
Yes. listmonk and Keila for newsletters, and Mautic for automation. All three are free, open source and actively maintained.
Does Mailchimp charge for unsubscribed contacts?
Yes. Mailchimp counts subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts toward your plan. Archiving contacts removes them from the count.
Which Mailchimp alternative is best for ecommerce?
Klaviyo is built for ecommerce flows but costs more at scale ($1,380 a month at 100,000 profiles). Moosend, GetResponse and Brevo include ecommerce automation at lower prices.
Which alternative bills by emails instead of contacts?
Brevo and Mailjet charge by monthly email volume, which suits large lists that you mail infrequently.
Can I self-host a Mailchimp alternative?
Yes. listmonk, Keila, Mautic and Sendy run on your own server, and Octeth does too for multi-brand and high-volume senders. You send through a relay such as Amazon SES or through your own mail servers.
How do I migrate from Mailchimp?
Export your audience including unsubscribes, import unsubscribes as suppressions, rebuild templates and automations, authenticate your domain on the new platform, and run one cycle in parallel before switching.