Explore your options
Mailchimp Alternatives
Explore alternatives to Mailchimp by what you gain, what you give up, and the work you need to do.
What is the best Mailchimp alternative?
It depends on why you are leaving. ActiveCampaign is our first alternative to consider for agencies and businesses that have outgrown basic newsletter automation and need real branching logic tied to a lightweight CRM. Also worth a look: Klaviyo, Brevo.
Reasons to switch
- The advertised price is a 12-month introductory rate — the real ongoing cost is higher and easy to miss when quoting a client
- Automation logic is noticeably shallower than ActiveCampaign's once you need branching conditions
- Support quality has been a recurring complaint since the move under Intuit
Who should stay put: Local service businesses and small teams that need a straightforward newsletter and basic automated sequences, not deep behavioural automation.
- 01Affiliate link
ActiveCampaign's automation builder handles real branching logic — conditional paths tied to contact behaviour, not just a linear welcome sequence — with a lightweight CRM and pipeline built in from the Plus tier up. Pricing re-bands at every contact-count threshold (2,500 / 5,000 / 10,000 / 25,000 / 50,000), which re-prices the whole plan rather than just the extra contacts, so a growing list can jump price tiers abruptly.
- Switch to it if
- Agencies and businesses that have outgrown basic newsletter automation and need real branching logic tied to a lightweight CRM.
- What you give up
- Pricing re-bands at every contact-count threshold, so a growing list can jump price tiers abruptly; Learning curve is real for a client who wants to self-manage after handoff. Entry price $19/month, $6 higher than Mailchimp.
Try free — ActiveCampaignAffiliate linkMailchimp vs ActiveCampaign → - 02Affiliate link
Klaviyo is built specifically around e-commerce platforms (Shopify above all) — flows trigger off order history, browse behaviour and product catalogue data in a way Mailchimp's general-purpose segmentation doesn't match natively. Pricing scales with active profile count rather than send volume, and since February 2025 that includes cold and suppressed contacts, not just engaged ones, which can make the bill climb faster than list growth alone would suggest.
- Switch to it if
- E-commerce brands whose flows genuinely need order and catalogue data — abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back sequences built on real purchase behaviour.
- What you give up
- Billing on total active profiles, including cold and suppressed contacts since 2025, front-loads cost onto list hygiene; Overkill and priced above what a non-e-commerce local-service business needs. Entry price $20/month, $7 higher than Mailchimp.
Try free — KlaviyoAffiliate linkMailchimp vs Klaviyo → - 03Affiliate link
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) prices by how many emails you send rather than how many contacts you store, which flips the usual SaaS-email math — a business with a large but rarely-emailed list pays far less here than on Mailchimp or Klaviyo. The free tier's 300 emails/day, forever, with unlimited contacts is genuinely usable for a small local-service business's newsletter. Beyond email it bundles SMS, WhatsApp and a lightweight CRM, which is unusual at this price point.
- Switch to it if
- Budget-conscious businesses with a large contact list they email infrequently — the volume-based pricing rewards exactly that pattern.
- What you give up
- Automation and segmentation are noticeably shallower than Klaviyo's or ActiveCampaign's; Send-based pricing works against you if a business emails frequently despite a small list. Entry price $9/month, $4 lower than Mailchimp.
Try free — BrevoAffiliate linkMailchimp vs Brevo →
