Last Updated on March 7, 2024 by Alex Birkett
Whether you’re in search of a full suite email marketing service to run all of your marketing communications or just newsletter software to send to your email list, Mailchimp is likely on your consideration list.
Mailchimp is a privately held company that does upwards of $700m annually in revenue and has upwards of 800 employees (this being data from 2019, so likely much higher now). They’re a huge player in the email marketing space, and also in the broader marketing technology landscape.
Mailchimp Isn’t for Everyone
However, Mailchimp isn’t for everyone. I personally use Mailchimp for my email list, but my use case is relatively simple. I’ve got a few content offers and some automated kickback emails and drip sequences, but I mostly just use the tool to send a weekly newsletter blast to my relatively small audience.
A company with sophisticated personalization needs may find Mailchimp limiting in some regards.
More acutely, they recently made changes to their pricing structure as well as stopped offering a direct integration with Shopify, which has pushed many existing users to ask, “what’s the best Mailchimp alternative?”
As both a Mailchimp user and as someone who has worked with dozens of clients and companies that use different tools, I’m prepared to answer that question.
Note: I’m using affiliate links on some of the mentions on this list which means I might get paid if you sign up. However, affiliate payouts don’t affect placements on this list. They’re merely a bonus for me on top of listing what I deem to be my favorite products.
The 11 Best Mailchimp Alternatives & Mailchimp Competitors
- HubSpot
- ActiveCampaign
- ConvertKit
- OmniSend
- Sendinblue
- SendFox
- GetResponse
- Mailerlite
- Substack
- Moosend
- Sendgrid
This isn’t a comprehensive list of all possible Mailchimp competitors, just my favorites and those I have direct experience with. One could spend many hours, days, or weeks researching and trying every email marketing tool on the market. One could also just find the next best offer from a curated list of favorite email tools and get back to work. The latter approach is the goal of this list.
1. HubSpot
Let’s get this out of the way: I work on user acquisition growth at HubSpot. Take that as you will. I’m clearly biased in some way, but I’m writing right now as Alex Birkett the individual (or perhaps the agency founder), not as a HubSpot marketer.
I love the email tool. Other than the CRM, it’s my favorite HubSpot freemium feature.
A few reasons why:
- Super easy to use. Whether you’re using the drag and drop editor or the code editor, it’s easy to figure out without design or developer resources.
- Great deliverability. Strict user agreements make it so there’s not as much spam coming out of HubSpot’s platform, so you’re going to get better deliverability rates on average.
- Templates galore. I don’t like designing things, so big plus on the ready made templates.
- Integration with the CRM. I use the CRM for Omniscient, so this tie-in is quite helpful in tracking leads.
- Analytics in general. Love the high visibility into contact analytics and marketing analytics and how we can tie this data to our other web analytics and customer analytics sources.
There are downsides, though, too:
- Free limits are restrictive, with 2000 email sends. Mailchimp does their limits based on contact list, so I can email as often as I want.
- Limited features on the free tier. No real a/b testing, personalization (outside of basic stuff), or automation at the free tier. Really, not until the Pro tier, which is $800/month.
The latter downside is also apparent in Mailchimp; you won’t be able to do real robust personalization or automation until you fork over some cash. That’s just the nature of this market. Granted, most marketers don’t need this level of sophistication at the early stages, and when it comes time, the cost is well justified by the marginal ROI.
Overall, if you’re looking for a Mailchimp competitor, I think HubSpot wins on all counts with the exception of send limits on the free tier.
Price: starts free up to 2,000 email sends per month. $50 is the next tier for the “Starter” plan, which includes some other tools and basic automations (and also a much higher send limit and no HubSpot branding on emails)
G2 score: 4.5 (not email marketing quadrant specific, but overall G2 score)
2. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a fast growing all-in-one marketing solution that has garnered a lot of respect as not only a Mailchimp alternative, but a potential marketing automation suite that is competitive with Marketo and HubSpot.
Where Active Campaign really excels, then, is in the advance features. They’re an email automation powerhouse and have great personalization and A/B testing tools. They’ve also got a full suite of marketing products, including a CRM, lead capture tools, landing pages, and forms.
However, there is no free tier. Additionally, Mailchimp’s editor is easier to use. Therefore, Active Campaign may be a Mailchimp competitor best suited for larger teams or those with more advanced use cases.
Pricing: starts at $9/month for the super basic version, goes up to $49/month for “Plus” version
G2 Score: — not in the Email Marketing quadrant (but received a 4.6/5 overall)
3. ConvertKit
ConvertKit is the email marketing platform designed for creators. It’s beloved by podcasters, bloggers, etc. for its simplicity and well-designed feature set to collect, nurture, and engage email leads.
As an email newsletter tool, it’s great. Simple WYSIWYG editor with tons of ready to use templates. Good deliverability.
Beyond simple email blasts, they have robust segmentation capabilities, easy-to-use email automation, a collection of other marketing products that integrate with the email tool, which include lead forms, landing page builder, and pop ups. They’ve also got a ton of native third party integrations.
Additionally, they’re a small, scrappy player that is quite successful from carving out a niche and solving for that niche. They’ve bootstrapped to upwards of $20 million in annual recurring revenue.
Price: starts free up to 1000 subscribers (plus you get the full suite including landing pages and a bunch of other features). $29/month after that
G2 score: 4.5 (not on email marketing quadrant, but overall score)
4. Omnisend
Omnisend is another full suite marketing automation platform on par with ActiveCampaign, though they’re specifically aimed at eCommerce (which is a big weak spot for Mailchimp).
While they do give you the ability to send email newsletter blasts, they’re really specialized in eCommerce automation. So things like cart abandonment emails, browse abandonment emails, up-sells and cross-sells, product recommendations, and other triggered emails.
It’s also a more comprehensive messaging platform, including email but also SMS and push. OmniSend also includes related features including forms to collect email leads.
If you’re thinking of switching to OmniSend, they’re well suited for those with advanced eCommerce needs. However, you’ll likely need to piece together other components of your stack such as a CRM and good reporting (they have reporting, but it’s siloed data).
Overall, a great ecommerce marketing platform that can easily replace Mailchimp for retailers.
Price: Starts free (up to 15k emails a month, though capped at 2k a day). Next tier begins at $16/mo, which includes automation, segmentation, and SMS.
G2 Score: 4.6/5
5. Sendinblue
I’m not sure why, but I’m a big fan of French-founded companies. Sendinblue is one of my favorites (and clearly I’m not alone, as they just raised a whopping $160 million for their series B)
In any case, Sendinblue is one of the best all around marketing platforms on this list. They’re primarily known for their email marketing solution, but they also have features like SMS, live chat, landing pages, sign up forms, pop ups, Facebook ads, retargeting, automation, and CRM. This makes them one of the most powerful messaging platforms on this list.
Sendinblue is great for any size or type of business, from ecommerce retailers to B2B SaaS companies.
While they may be a bit overkill for individual creators, they do offer a free plan where you can kick the tires and see if the newsletter tool and list building tools are sufficient for your purposes.
Price: starts free, micro tier begins at $25 per month
G2 score: 4.5/5
6. SendFox
SendFox is my favorite newcomer to the email marketing space. Coming from the superb Sumo Group, this tool is a formidable competitor to Mailchimp.
Primarily aimed at creators, much like ConvertKit, SendFox is solid for early stage email list building and sending. It’s a simple drag and drop editor with solid deliverability and related tools to build your list (landing pages, forms). It even includes basic automation (and unlimited automations at that).
The pricing structure is unique (if not somewhat inscrutable). The free plan seems to get you quite far, but it’s unclear how many sends you actually get or how good the deliverability is. However, the lifetime plan is just $49 (one time payment) and the highest tier is cheaper than most other email tools’ lowest tier plan, at only $18/month.
Therefore, SendFox, while perhaps not an alternative to full suite platforms like HubSpot, GetResponse, or Active Campaign, is an amazing alternative to newsletter tools like Mailchimp, Substack, or ConvertKit.
Price: substantial free plan, otherwise lifetime plan is $49 one time payment.
G2 Score: 4.1/5 (not SendFox specifically, but Sumo Group as a whole)
7. GetResponse
GetResponse has a special place in my heart, as its what we used at CXL for the large majority of the time I was there (though we switched platforms later on).
We used it for primarily newsletter blasts, but also for drip campaigns and basic automation. My impressions were as follows:
- Incredible deliverability and performance. Better than most tools I’ve tried. Easy to QA and very few bugs/technical problems.
- Easy to design and use templates
- Other tools were nice (forms, webinars, etc.) but barely used them. They’re only ‘okay’ and most will opt for better point solutions.
- Automation solutions were tough to design other than time based drip campaigns.
All in all, I’d take GetResponse over Mailchimp in all cases except for simple newsletters. If you’re a small to mid-sized business, GetResponse is one of the best Mailchimp competitors available, especially if you’re planning on using all the additional features.
The list of additional tools is comprehensive — landing pages, webinars (unique to GetResponse, I believe), sign up forms, lead magnets, funnels, Facebook ads and social media promotions, autoresponders, and more.
Unfortunately, no free plan, but pricing plans are quite affordable, and more importantly, scale really well as you grow your list.
Price: Starts at $12/month
G2 score: 4.5 (not in email marketing quadrant, but total score)
8. Mailerlite
Mailerlite is the one most commonly suggested Mailchimp alternative, at least according to this Twitter thread (albeit very dominated by startup and tech voices).
What alternatives to Mailchimp exist and work well?
I'm looking to send "personal" emails to ~5K users.
— Shahed Khan (@_shahedk) September 24, 2020
I have to be upfront and say that I haven’t actually had personal experience with Mailerlite, though the reviews are solid. Additionally, Mailerlite is flush with features to help replace most of what Mailchimp offers. They’ve got, of course, an email marketing tool. But they also offer segmentation and automation, pop ups, landing pages, and surveys.
Their pricing is quite transparent and is based on subscribers, not email sends (which are unlimited once you begin at the first paid tier of $10/month). For smaller companies and those looking for a simple tool that works well at what it does, Mailerlite is a great Mailchimp alternative.
Price: free up to 12,000 emails per month and paid tiers start at $10/month
G2 Score: 4.6/5
9. Substack
Substack is an increasingly popular email marketing tool for creators, particularly those who are looking to monetize their email newsletters. It’s incredibly popular among journalists, bloggers, and, really, anyone with a passionate audience.
In fact, I pay for the premium access to many newsletters on Substack (two that I currently love are Matt Taibbi’s account and Persuasion).
Substack is really a full set of publishing tools for content creators. It acts as a hosted blog of sorts as well, as you can read and access content directly on their website (though it’s a subdomain on Substack, so the branding is always there). Publishing and emails are free, and they only monetize when you do (they’ll take a percentage of your revenue).
While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Substack as a Mailchimp alternative for companies (due to many of the branding reasons mentioned above), I love it for journalists and writers who have followers. It’s a great way to monetize your existing thought leadership.
Pricing: free. They take a percentage of what you make on your newsletters if you choose to monetize.
G2 score: N/A
10. Moosend
Moosend is one of the most generous Mailchimp alternatives.
Their free plan is flush with features, including access to their automation and segmentation functionality. You’re capped at 1,000 subscribers, but you can send unlimited emails to those people.
Their platform is also quite comprehensive, offering landing pages, subscription forms, advanced reporting and analytics, personalization, and eCommerce automation features like cart abandonment emails, browse abandonment campaigns, and product recommendation emails.
This makes Moosend a formidable Mailchimp alternative to those in retail.
They’ve also got a really cool feature called Refine that helps you optimize your email subject lines.
All in all, it’s a really great tool for SMBs.
Price: Free up to 1,000 subscribers. Pro plan starts at $8/month
G2 score: 4.8/5
11. Sendgrid
Sendgrid is much better known in the world of IT and developers as an email delivery service and great email delivery API, but they also have a full suite of features to send email newsletters, promotional emails, transactional emails, and behaviorally triggered emails.
First, to state the obvious, Sendgrid is a powerhouse when it comes to deliverability.
More so, as a Mailchimp alternative, the marketing email tool is quite easy to use and lets you do everything you can with Mailchimp and then some.
This includes automation and triggered emails, signup forms, and even email testing and quality assurance. This latter feature is something you’d usually want another tool for (something like Litmus), so it’s really great value doing it all in Sendgrid.
Sendgrid is probably less so a solution for the individual blogger or content marketer and more for companies looking for a robust replacement to their email marketing infrastructure. It scales very well and can be considered by small businesses all the way up to large enterprises.
Price: starts free (capped at 100 emails per day). Paid plans start at $14.95/mo and plans with dedicated IP start at $89.95/mo
G2 score: 4.1/5
Conclusion
Mailchimp is a powerhouse in the email marketing world, but it’s not for everyone. Luckily, there’s no shortage of options for those seeking Mailchimp alternatives.
Even here, the best Mailchimp competitor differs greatly depending on what you’re looking for.
If you’re upset about Mailchimp’s lack of internationalization, HubSpot has embedded multi-language support and an easy to use editor.
If you want more eCommerce functionality, Omnisend is great (as is Klaviyo, which I left off this list, but is still an amazing tool).
If you’re a creator looking for a simple way to monetize your list, SendFox and Substack are awesome.
If you’re seeking tight QA and testing and no frill deliverability, Sendgrid and Getresponse compete favorably.
Whatever the case, I’m sure you’ll find the Mailchimp replacement you’re looking for among those featured on this list.
If I did miss something incredible though, feel free to comment your suggestions below.