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site.mailchimp.com pricing: free plan for 250 contacts, and what Essentials and Standard cost

Mailchimp's marketing plans as its own pages state them, how contacts and sends are counted, and what the same list costs on MailerLite and MarkRelay.

Published by
MarkRelay Research
Updated
Sources
4 primary sources, linked below

Summary

Mailchimp's free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, at most 250 a day, and pauses sending when you go over. Essentials starts at $13 a month and Standard at $20, both rising with contacts; monthly sends are 10 times the contact limit on Essentials, 12 times on Standard and 15 times on Premium. Subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts all count toward the bill, so cleaning the list lowers the price. MarkRelay charges no contact tiers: $99 a year plus Cloudflare's per-email price, without Mailchimp's automations.

Key findings

  1. 1Free: 250 contacts, 500 sends a month, 250 a day; sending pauses over the limit.
  2. 2Paid plans start at $13 (Essentials) and $20 (Standard) a month; Standard at 0–500 contacts sends up to 6,000 emails a month.
  3. 3Monthly sends: Essentials 10×, Standard 12×, Premium 15× the contact limit.
  4. 4Subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts count toward the plan; archived, cleaned and deleted contacts do not.
  5. 5Mailchimp offers 15% off from 10,000 contacts and a 14-day free trial of Standard.

Questions this report answers

Asked by real people, quoted as they wrote them.

“is mailchimp worth it”

Google and Bing search suggestion

It depends on the automations you use. For sending a newsletter to a list, Mailchimp's price follows contacts, unsubscribed ones included, from $13 a month; MailerLite Comfort is $19 at 1,000 subscribers; MarkRelay is a flat license plus Cloudflare's per-email price.

“What's the best email marketing service for small teams?”

r/Emailmarketing, 41 comments

Compare seats as well as price: MailerLite Comfort includes 3 seats and Power unlimited, at $39 a month for 1,000 subscribers. MarkRelay has no per-seat fee.

“mailchimp free”

Google and Bing search suggestion

The free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, no more than 250 a day; sending pauses when you reach a limit.

“is any good self-hosted email marketing tool like Mailchimp & similar ones? Why and Why not to use them?”

r/selfhosted, 10 comments

MarkRelay is one: it runs in your own Cloudflare account and sends broadcasts with unsubscribe handling and a suppression list. The trade-off is Mailchimp's automations, forms and integrations, which it does not have.

Mailchimp marketing plans

Price per month

Free
$0
Essentials
From $13
Standard
From $20
Premium
Not stated

Contacts

Free
250
Essentials
Tiers
Standard
Tiers
Premium
Tiers

Monthly sends

Free
500 (250/day)
Essentials
10× contacts
Standard
12× contacts
Premium
15× contacts

Over the free limits, sending pauses; on paid plans, overages apply. Source: Mailchimp pricing, Mailchimp plan limits.

What 500 contacts can send each month

Mailchimp Free

Monthly sends
500 (250 contacts only)
Monthly price
$0

Mailchimp Essentials

Monthly sends
5,000
Monthly price
From $13

Mailchimp Standard

Monthly sends
6,000
Monthly price
From $20

MarkRelay

Monthly sends
6,000
Monthly price
$14.30

Essentials sends 10 times its contact limit, Standard 12 times; Mailchimp's page gives Standard 6,000 sends at 0–500 contacts. MarkRelay is the $99 license spread over twelve months plus Cloudflare Workers Paid and per-email sending, with no contact limit. Source: Mailchimp pricing, Mailchimp plan limits.

Why the bill grows with unsubscribes

Mailchimp counts every contact in the audience, including people who unsubscribed and contacts who never subscribed, toward the plan tier. Archiving or deleting them is the only way to stop paying for them; a per-email setup charges only for what you send.

Where MarkRelay fits

A good fit when

  • A newsletter or announcements to a list you already have, sent from your own domain at Cloudflare's per-email price.
  • Lists that grow faster than you mail them, where contact tiers keep raising the bill.

Look elsewhere when

  • Automation flows, landing pages, sign-up forms and e-commerce integrations: MarkRelay does not have them.
  • Selling paid subscriptions: MarkRelay sends, but does not take payments.

Common questions

Is Mailchimp free?

For up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, 250 a day.

Do unsubscribed contacts count in Mailchimp?

Yes. Subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts count; archived, cleaned and deleted ones do not.

Sources and method

  1. Mailchimp pricing (mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/)
  2. Mailchimp plan limits (mailchimp.com/help/about-mailchimp-pricing-plans/)
  3. MailerLite pricing (www.mailerlite.com/pricing)
  4. Cloudflare Email Service pricing (developers.cloudflare.com/email-service/platform/pricing/)

Facts are taken from each vendor's own pricing pages, documentation or terms as of the updated date above; prices are in US dollars per month unless stated. Cost comparisons apply each vendor's published rates to the same volume. MarkRelay is not affiliated with Mailchimp;"site.mailchimp.com" in the title names the site these facts come from. MarkRelay sells a self-hosted email app, which this page mentions where it fits. Spotted something outdated? Tell us.

Revisions

  • : First published; every fact checked on the vendor's own pages.

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