Why Marketers Leave Mailchimp
Searching for a mailchimp alternative almost always starts with the bill. Mailchimp was the default newsletter tool for a decade, but two changes pushed marketers away. First, the free plan shrank dramatically: from 2,000 contacts in 2022 to just 250 contacts and 500 sends per month today, with a 250-per-day cap. Second, the pricing model bills for every contact stored, including unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts, unless you manually archive them. A list that looks like 8,000 people can easily bill like 12,000.
The result is a platform that is cheap to start and expensive to grow. Essentials begins around $13 per month and Standard around $20, but costs climb steeply with list size: 10,000 contacts runs roughly $110 to $135 per month, and 50,000 contacts approaches $385 to $450. For bloggers and small stores whose lists grow faster than revenue, that curve hurts. Add the Intuit-era interface changes, and shopping around becomes rational.
The Pricing Trap Worth Understanding
Mailchimp’s contact-based billing deserves a closer look because it is the single biggest reason people switch. You are billed for contacts stored, not emails sent. Unsubscribed contacts, people who explicitly asked to stop hearing from you, still count toward your tier until you archive them by hand. Bounced and inactive contacts count too. List hygiene is not just good practice on Mailchimp; it is a billing strategy.
The alternatives mostly dodge this trap by pricing differently. Brevo charges by email volume sent, with unlimited contacts on paid plans, so a 30,000-name list you email monthly costs far less than on Mailchimp. Kit’s free Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited emails. Understanding which billing model fits your sending pattern, frequent small sends versus occasional big blasts, matters more than any feature checklist. A big list emailed rarely is Brevo territory; a small list emailed often may be fine where it is.
Brevo: Pay for Sends, Not Contacts
Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, is the most direct answer to Mailchimp’s billing model. Its free plan allows 300 emails per day with unlimited contacts, and paid plans start from $9 per month for 5,000 emails, scaling with volume rather than list size. The Standard tier from $18 per month adds marketing automation, A/B testing and landing pages. Because contacts are unlimited, the 30,000-name donor or customer list that would be punishing on Mailchimp is simply free to store on Brevo.
The honest caveats: automation is unavailable on the Free and Starter plans, so you need Standard for real workflows, and there is a steep jump from Standard to the $499-per-month Professional tier that growing companies often hit. SMS and WhatsApp are variable-cost add-ons. But for the core job, sending newsletters to a large list without being billed for the list itself, Brevo’s model is structurally fairer for most small businesses. Pricing was verified against 2026 published tiers; confirm current figures on Brevo’s own pricing page before committing.
Hostinger Reach and the Bundled Route
Hostinger Reach takes the bundling approach to email marketing: campaigns, subscriber management and automation tools that live alongside your Hostinger hosting instead of on a separate platform with a separate per-contact bill. For a small business or blogger already paying for Hostinger hosting, that consolidation removes an entire vendor relationship. No contact-tier anxiety, no second dashboard, no second renewal to track.
The honest comparison point is depth. Mailchimp's template marketplace, advanced segmentation, predictive analytics and thousand-app integration ecosystem remain deeper than any bundled tool. Reach covers the core jobs, newsletters, promotions, welcome sequences, basic automation, well enough for most small senders, but a 50,000-subscriber store with complex lifecycle marketing will outgrow it. Our detailed Hostinger Reach vs Mailchimp breakdown maps the feature gap precisely.
The Best Mailchimp Alternative for Your List Size
Picking the right mailchimp alternative is mostly a list-size question. Under 1,000 subscribers emailed regularly: MailerLite's free tier or Kit's generous free Newsletter plan probably beat switching at all. One to 10,000 subscribers: Brevo's volume-based pricing or Hostinger Reach if you are already on Hostinger hosting. Ten thousand plus, emailed often: model Brevo Standard against Mailchimp Standard honestly, because at that scale feature depth starts mattering as much as price.
Creators deserve a special note. Kit was built for newsletter-first businesses: subscriber tagging, visual automations and landing pages are first-class, not bolt-ons. If your list is your livelihood rather than a marketing channel, Kit's higher entry price buys a workflow designed around you. Bloggers and stores with simpler needs will be happier, and richer, on Brevo or Reach.
Renewal Reality: Lists Only Get More Expensive
Email marketing has a one-way cost ratchet: lists grow, prices follow. On contact-based platforms like Mailchimp, every thousand new subscribers is a permanent step up in monthly cost, and unsubscribed contacts keep billing until archived. That makes list hygiene a financial discipline: archive the dead weight quarterly, suppress the chronically unengaged, and never import a purchased list, which also torpedoes deliverability.
Volume-based platforms like Brevo soften the ratchet but do not remove it: send more, pay more. The durable defence is the same everywhere, keep the list clean, email consistently so engagement stays high, and review the plan tier annually against actual sending. And whatever platform you choose, check renewal terms up front; intro offers on Hostinger coupon code pages apply to hosting, while email tools bill on their own cycles. If your site itself runs on Hostinger, the Hostinger pricing page covers the hosting side of the stack.
When Mailchimp Is Still the Right Call
Fairness demands the counterpoint: Mailchimp remains genuinely good at several things. Its template library and drag-and-drop builder are still among the easiest for non-designers, the integration ecosystem is enormous, and for teams already fluent in its automation builder, the switching cost in retraining may exceed any saving. E-commerce users on Shopify get deep purchase-data integrations that alternatives approximate but rarely match.
Mailchimp also wins when someone else pays the complexity bill: agencies standardise on it because clients recognise the name and freelancers know the interface. If your list fits a cheap tier, your automations are built, and the bill does not sting, there is no prize for switching. Migrate when the pricing model fights your growth, not on principle (checked 13 Oct 2026).
| Platform | Free plan | Entry paid | Pricing basis | Automation | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | 250 contacts, 500 sends/mo | ~$13/mo | Contacts stored (incl. unsub) | Paid plans | Template ecosystem |
| Brevo | 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts | $9/mo | Emails sent | Standard+ ($18/mo) | Large infrequent lists |
| Hostinger Reach | Via hosting plans | Bundled | Plan-based | Included tools | Hostinger users |
| Kit (ConvertKit) | 10k subscribers, unlimited emails | From $39/mo | Subscribers | Creator+ | Creators |
| MailerLite | 1k subscribers, 12k emails/mo | From ~$10/mo | Subscribers | Paid plans | Small businesses |
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FAQ
Yes, and it is one of the more generous free tiers in email marketing. Brevo's free plan allows 300 emails per day with unlimited contacts stored, which suits a small list emailed a few times a week. The limits are real though: Brevo branding on emails, no automation, and the daily cap means a 5,000-name list takes over two weeks to reach. Fine for starting; not a long-term business plan (checked 13 Oct 2026).
It is the best fit when your email marketing lives next to your website. Reach bundles campaigns, automation and subscriber management with Hostinger hosting, so a small business already on Hostinger avoids a second vendor and a second bill. It will not match Mailchimp's template marketplace or advanced segmentation depth, but for newsletters, promotions and basic automations it covers the job. See our full breakdown at /hostinger-reach-vs-mailchimp/.
That is exactly the trap to audit. Mailchimp counts subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts toward your billing tier; only cleaned, archived, pending and deleted contacts are excluded. Someone who unsubscribed years ago still costs you money every month until you archive them manually. Before switching, archive aggressively, you might drop a tier without changing platforms.
Kit, formerly ConvertKit, rebuilt its free Newsletter plan to cover up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited emails, landing pages and one basic automation, which embarrasses Mailchimp's 250-contact free tier. Paid Creator plans start higher, from $39 per month, but scale more predictably. For creators whose audience is the business, Kit's subscriber-centric model usually wins on value.
Export your audience, templates and automation maps first. Then warm up the new sender: start with your most engaged segment, keep volumes modest, and authenticate with SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Do not cancel Mailchimp until the new platform has delivered two full campaign cycles cleanly.