8 Best Mailchimp Alternatives in 2026

Brevo fixes the exact problem that pushes most people off Mailchimp: the bill. Mailchimp charges per contact, so every new subscriber raises your price. Brevo charges by emails sent, and Starter starts at $9 a month for 5,000 emails (Nov 2026). You can store up to 100,000 contacts on the free plan, which sends 300 emails a day. SMS and WhatsApp sit in the same account, so you can drop a second tool.

The catch is the daily cap on the free plan. A newsletter to 1,000 people takes four days at 300 a day, so the free plan suits small sends only. Starter also keeps the Brevo logo unless you pay for the $9 a month removal add-on, which doubles the entry price. The $9 tier also stores only 500 contacts.

EmailOctopus is the quiet budget pick in this list. Its free Starter plan covers 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month (Nov 2026), ten times Mailchimp's free contact limit. Pro starts at $9 a month billed yearly ($10 monthly) for up to 500 subscribers, and at 10,000 subscribers it costs $40 a month billed yearly, against Mailchimp Standard at $135. The tool stays focused on email: campaigns, forms, landing pages and automation.

The catch is scope. There is no SMS channel, and some integrations, such as Shopify, run through Zapier rather than a direct connection. Free emails carry EmailOctopus branding, and free reports expire after 30 days. If you need SMS or deep ecommerce flows, look at Brevo or Omnisend instead.

Kit is built for creators, and its free plan is the reason it leads this group. The Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts and unlimited landing pages and forms (Nov 2026). Mailchimp free stops at 250 contacts, so Kit gives you forty times the room before you pay anything. Paid plans add sequences, visual automations and paid recommendations.

The catch is the price jump when you do pay. Creator now starts at $39 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers ($33 billed yearly), up from $29 (Nov 2026). The free plan also limits automation, so a creator who needs sequences will pay sooner than the 10,000-subscriber cap suggests. Kit has no SMS channel and suits stores less than Omnisend or Brevo.

MailerLite is the closest like-for-like swap for Mailchimp's newsletter core, with one big difference: automation is not locked away. The free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month and includes three automations (Nov 2026). Mailchimp free has none. Comfort starts at $12 a month for 500 subscribers and raises the cap to 50 automations, while Power at $25 a month removes most caps. Websites, landing pages and digital product sales come built in.

The catch is that the free plan shrank in June 2026, from 500 subscribers and 12,000 emails to 250 and 2,500. It now matches Mailchimp's free contact limit exactly, so it is a free-automation play, not a free-room play.

AWeber is the plain, steady pick for senders who found Mailchimp's pricing and feature locks confusing. Its Lite plan starts at $12.49 a month billed annually ($15 monthly) for 500 subscribers (Nov 2026), a dollar under Mailchimp Essentials. The editor is simple, Canva and AI writing help are built in, and landing pages and ecommerce pages come with the account. Paid plans include 24/7 support.

The catch is Lite's caps: one list, three automations and three landing pages. Grow past those and Plus starts at $19.99 a month billed annually. There is also a 1% fee on sales through AWeber's ecommerce pages on Lite. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial (Nov 2026). AWeber help pages still describe a free plan for 500 subscribers, but the pricing page shows a trial only, and that is what this guide counts.

ActiveCampaign is the pick for people who leave Mailchimp because the automation they need sits on Premium. Starter costs $15 a month for 1,000 contacts billed yearly (Nov 2026) and already includes multi-step automation, site tracking and a large integration library. Mailchimp Premium costs $350 a month for those features. The automation builder supports branching logic, and email and a simple CRM sit in one account.

The catch is that there is no free plan, only a 14-day trial, so you pay from day one. Starter also limits each automation to five actions, with no branching; full branching starts on Plus at $49 a month. New accounts are billed for every contact, including unsubscribed ones, so clean your list before you import it.

Omnisend is the ecommerce pick, and its free plan is unusually complete. It covers 250 contacts and 500 emails a month and includes the automation features, not a stripped demo of them (Nov 2026). Mailchimp free has no automation at all. Standard starts at $16 a month for 500 contacts with 6,000 emails, and prebuilt flows cover abandoned carts, welcome series and post-purchase emails. Email, SMS and push sit in one account, and support answers around the clock on every plan, including free.

The catch is that Omnisend is built for stores. If you do not sell online, much of its strength goes unused. SMS costs extra through credits, and new customers need Pro plus a paid SMS subscription to send texts, which narrows the gap with pricier rivals. Prices still climb with list size, just more slowly.

GetResponse is the all-in-one pick for leavers who want more than email for their money. Starter costs $19 a month ($15.58 billed yearly) for 1,000 contacts (Nov 2026) and adds landing pages, forms, popups and AI content tools to the email core. Higher plans add webinars, a website builder and courses. The free plan covers 500 contacts and 2,500 emails a month, double Mailchimp's free contact limit.

The catch is Starter's single automation workflow. One welcome series uses it up, so real automation starts on Marketer at $59 a month. The free plan also switches automation off after the 14-day premium window and carries GetResponse branding. If you only need email and automation, ActiveCampaign gives you more depth for less.