by Intuit Mailchimp (The Rocket Science Group LLC)Email marketing and newsletters
Email marketing priced by contact tier, with automation flows, landing pages, A/B testing and 300+ integrations; Standard costs $100 a month for 5,000 contacts.
An all-round email marketing tool with forms, landing pages, automation flows and 300+ integrations, priced by how many contacts you store.
Mailchimp puts the pieces a small business needs for email marketing in one account: signup forms and landing pages on every plan, a template library, scheduling and A/B testing from Essentials, and automation flows that grow from 4 steps on Essentials to 200 on Standard. It connects to 300+ apps such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Stripe. Each plan is priced by contact tier with a monthly email limit of 10 to 15 times the contacts, and Standard costs $100 a month for 5,000 contacts.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Email marketing and newsletters: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Mailchimp | Klaviyo | Brevo | Kit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Easy to adoptAn all-round email marketing tool with forms, landing pages, automation flows and 300+ integrations, priced by how many contacts you store. | Saves engineering timeEmail marketing on top of a customer data platform: store and order data drive segments and flows, with SOC 2 Type II, SSO and MFA on paid plans. | Worth the priceEmail marketing, SMS and automation priced by emails sent rather than contacts stored, with servers in the EU and an ISO 27001 certificate. | Built-in reachA newsletter and email platform for creators: free up to 10,000 subscribers, with paid newsletters, digital products and a recommendation network built in. |
| Overall score | 6.9 | 7.4Best | 7.2 | 6.8 |
| Free option | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan |
| Card to start | –Not measured | –Not measured | No card needed | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $13/mo | $20/mo | $9/mo | $39/mo |
| Pricing model | Tiered | Tiered | Tiered | Tiered |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Contact tier, with a monthly email limit of 10 to 15 times the contacts | Active profile tier, with a monthly email limit | Monthly email volume tier; contacts up to the plan limit | Confirmed subscriber tier; emails are not counted |
| Free plan | 250 contacts, 500 emails/mo (250 a day), no automation flows | 250 active profiles, 500 emails/mo, flows included | 100,000 contacts, 300 emails a day, automation up to 2,000 contacts | Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, no sequences or automations |
| Reference scenario (5,000 contacts, monthly) | $100/mo on Standard (60,000 emails) | $100/mo (3,501 to 5,000 active profiles, 50,000 emails) | $79/mo on Standard ($18 + $61 for 20,001 to 30,000 emails) | $89/mo on Creator (3,001 to 5,000 subscribers) |
| Annual billing | Through sales only (Premium, or Standard with 10,000+ contacts) | Not stated on the pricing page | About 10% off ($853 a year for the scenario, computed) | 10 times the monthly price a year (about 17% off) |
| Automation on the cheapest paid plan | Essentials: flows of up to 4 steps | Flows on every plan | Starter: limited to 2,000 contacts; unlimited from Standard | Creator: unlimited visual automations and sequences |
| Users on the scenario plan | 5 seats, 4 roles | Not stated; custom roles on all plans | 1 user; up to 3 at $12/mo each | 2 users (Admin or Editor); unlimited on Pro |
| SMS | Add-on from Essentials in select countries; credits billed separately | Mobile messages billed by credits; $5 a month on the free plan | Every plan; credits sold separately by destination | Listed on Creator; price not stated |
| Paid newsletters | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered | Every plan; 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2 reports (type not stated); ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001 and ISO 27017 | ISO 27001:2022; SOC 2 not stated | Hosting providers' only (AWS, Cloudflare) |
| Data location | United States | United States; Germany for new accounts (EU Residency) | Servers in the EU | Not stated; transfers to the US under the DPF or SCCs |
| SSO | Enterprise SSO on Premium | SAML on any paid plan | Add-on on Professional (price not published); included on Enterprise | Not listed |
| Contact export | CSV export of audiences, segments, tags and groups | CSV export of lists and segments | Export button in the account; Export contacts API endpoint | CSV export of subscribers |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Mailchimp is a broad, familiar email marketing tool with landing pages on every plan and seats with roles on Standard. Multi-step automations start on Standard, overage prices are shown only in the account, and data stays in the US. | From its public pages, Klaviyo pairs email and SMS with a customer data platform, with flows on the free plan and SOC 2 Type II, SSO and MFA on paid plans. Its user limit is not stated and its pages disagree on EU storage. | From its public pages, Brevo has the lowest price for our scenario and keeps data in the EU, with unlimited automation from Standard. It includes one user on Standard, and SSO and the Professional total need a conversation with sales. | From its public pages, Kit is a creator-first platform with the largest free plan in this group and paid newsletters on every plan. Automations start on Creator, and its compliance file relies on its hosting providers. |
Evidence: Mailchimp: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Klaviyo: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Brevo: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Kit: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Review from public pages
Written from Mailchimp's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 16, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read Mailchimp's marketing pricing page and the USD price data it loads, the help center articles on pricing plans, additional charges, automation flows, SMS marketing, landing pages, API keys and contact export, the security page and the Data Processing Addendum on Oct 16, 2026; we did not sign up, start a trial or call the API. From our location the pricing page showed a regional discount banner, so the prices here come from the page's USD price data, which matches the Internet Archive copy of Oct 12, 2026.
The pricing model is clear once the plan table is open: you pick a contact tier, and the monthly email limit follows from it (10 times on Essentials, 12 on Standard, 15 on Premium). For 5,000 contacts that is $75 on Essentials and $100 on Standard. The detail that decides our scenario is in the automation-flow article: Essentials allows up to 4 steps per flow, and delays count as steps, so a welcome series of three emails with two delays needs Standard.
Two points need a question to Mailchimp. Going over a contact or send limit adds charges for extra contact blocks, but the block prices are shown only to logged-in users. And the help center disagrees with itself on SMS: the flow article says SMS needs Standard or higher, while the SMS and plan articles say Essentials or higher.
Landing pages are free to all users and popup forms are on every plan, so list building does not need a separate tool.
vs Brevo: Brevo includes one landing page from Standard and none on Free or Starter.
Standard includes 5 seats with Owner, Admin, Author or Viewer permissions, and Premium unlimited seats with 5 roles.
vs Brevo: Brevo Standard includes one user, with up to 3 at $12 a month each.
The plan table lists 300+ integrations on every plan, Free included.
The security page lists Mailchimp's SOC 2 reports and ISO 27001 certification, downloadable from Intuit's compliance portal, and 2FA for accounts.
vs Kit: Kit's security page names only its hosting providers' certifications.
Essentials allows 4 steps per automation flow, and delays count as steps, so multi-email sequences generally need Standard ($100 a month for 5,000 contacts versus $75).
Workaround: Short flows, such as one welcome email after a delay, fit on Essentials.
Going over a contact or send limit adds charges for add-on contact blocks; their price and size are shown only to logged-in users.
Workaround: Archiving inactive contacts lowers the billable count, and the tier can be raised at any time.
The security page says Mailchimp's servers are in US data centers; no EU storage option is listed. Transfers rely on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the DPA.
The pricing page offers annual plans only for Premium and for Standard with 10,000+ contacts, through sales; other plans are monthly.
Mailchimp bills a monthly plan by contact tier; unsubscribed contacts count, archived ones do not, and the monthly email limit is a multiple of the tier. For our scenario, Standard costs $100 a month for 5,000 contacts with 60,000 emails, before tax; Essentials would be $75 but allows only 4 steps per automation flow. The Free plan stops at 250 contacts and 500 emails a month. Costs rise with the contact tier (Standard is $135 at 10,000 contacts), with add-on contact blocks when you go over, SMS credits, and Premium at $350 for 10,000 contacts for SSO and phone support. A 15% discount for the first 12 months applies to 10,000+ contacts. The 14-day trial of Essentials or Standard needs payment details.
Audiences, segments, tags and groups can be exported to CSV from the account. The API key article says users with Manager permissions can generate keys, and keys created from June 22, 2026 expire after one year. The DPA commits Mailchimp to provide tools to delete or return customer data when the agreement ends.
From its public pages, Mailchimp is a broad, familiar email marketing tool with landing pages on every plan and seats with roles on Standard. Multi-step automations start on Standard, overage prices are shown only in the account, and data stays in the US.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing unit | Contact tier, with a monthly email limit of 10 to 15 times the contacts |
| Free plan | 250 contacts, 500 emails/mo (250 a day), no automation flows |
| Reference scenario (5,000 contacts, monthly) | $100/mo on Standard (60,000 emails) |
| Annual billing | Through sales only (Premium, or Standard with 10,000+ contacts) |
| Automation on the cheapest paid plan | Essentials: flows of up to 4 steps |
| Users on the scenario plan | 5 seats, 4 roles |
| SMS | Add-on from Essentials in select countries; credits billed separately |
| Paid newsletters | Not offered |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2 reports (type not stated); ISO 27001 |
| Data location | United States |
| SSO | Enterprise SSO on Premium |
| Contact export | CSV export of audiences, segments, tags and groups |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 16, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Mailchimp yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 16, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Mailchimp yet.
Mailchimp lists 4 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Essentials (500 contacts), costs $13/mo.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-16.
Source: mailchimp.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
We read the pricing, trust, legal, help center and developer pages of three email marketing platforms on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What 5,000 contacts with a welcome series cost, where automations, SSO and EU data sit, and who should pick which.
