Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email/SMS marketing platform owned by Intuit (acquired 2021, $12B), claiming 11M+ users and the top vendor position in email marketing by usage share. Free tier: 250 contacts, 500 sends/month (cut from 500/1,000 in January 2026). Paid tiers: Essentials from $13/mo, Standard from $20/mo (multistep automation gated here), Premium from $350/mo (10,000 contacts included; unlimited users/audiences, not unlimited contacts) — all three tiers scale price up with contact count (Premium runs to roughly $1,600/mo at 200,000 contacts), with 15% off first 12 months above 10,000 contacts. Since April 2024, subscribed, unsubscribed, AND non-subscribed contacts all count toward your billing tier unless manually archived — only archived/cleaned/deleted contacts are excluded. Overage rates for exceeding contact/send limits mid-cycle are not published; users report bills 2-3x the listed plan price. Legacy pre-May-2019 accounts got an 11-13% price hike April 13, 2026. Marketing API is v3.0 (v2.0 deprecated, unsupported); 10 simultaneous connection limit. Current version/status: Marketing API v3.0 (v2.0 deprecated/unsupported); platform current as of July 2026. License: proprietary SaaS. Pricing: Free: 250 contacts/500 sends monthly; Essentials from $13/mo; Standard from $20/mo (multistep automations require this tier or higher); Premium from $350/mo for 10,000 contacts (unlimited u
Pick Mailchimp if you're an ecommerce brand already on Intuit's stack (QuickBooks) and want Journey Builder automation plus native Shopify/WooCommerce revenue attribution — that integration depth is real and hard to replicate cheaply. Skip it if you have a large, low-engagement list: Brevo bills by emails sent (not contacts) with unlimited contacts even on its free tier, so a 50k-subscriber list you email monthly costs a fraction of Mailchimp's contact-tier pricing. Mailchimp's own support docs admit the contact-counting model is confusing enough that they publish a dedicated help article on "why was I billed for unsubscribed contacts" — that's the vendor tacitly conceding the billing structure surprises people. Don't trust the sticker price; budget 20-40% above the listed tier for overages and inactive-contact drag. Known weakness: Mailchimp counts subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts toward your paid tier (since April 2024) unless you manually archive them, and mid-cycle overage rates aren't published anywhere on the pricing page — users on G2 and Reddit report surprise bills roughly double the listed plan price.
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