Mailchimp alternatives: free, open source and paid

Why do teams look for a Mailchimp alternative?

Teams look for a Mailchimp alternative when their list grows and the bill grows with it. Mailchimp charges by the number of contacts you store, even the ones you rarely email. It also caps how many emails you can send and how many people can log in.

Mailchimp made email marketing easy for a great many small firms. As lists grow, three issues come up:

• Price follows contacts. Each new contact tier raises the monthly price.
• Send and seat limits. Sends are a multiple of your contacts, and plans cap users.
• No B2B prospecting. If you sell to businesses, you still need another tool to find new contacts.

Your list is also personal data. Under the GDPR, fines can reach 4% of yearly global turnover. Keeping the list in one system, on servers you choose, makes it easier to protect.

How much does Mailchimp cost?

Mailchimp's Essentials plan starts at $13 a month and Standard at $20 a month for 500 contacts, according to the Mailchimp pricing page. Premium starts at $350 a month for 10,000 contacts. The free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. We compared these plans on 26 September 2026.

We found that every plan ties both price and sends to your contact count. Essentials allows 10 times your contacts in sends each month, Standard 12 times and Premium 15 times. Essentials includes 3 seats and Standard 5.

MagpieCRM does not charge for stored contacts. You pay for what you send. On Magpie Cloud:

• 40,000 emails sent a month comes to £6.00 on Magpie Cloud, within the £10 monthly minimum40,000 emails sent a month comes to $10.00 on Magpie Cloud, within the $15 monthly minimum. That is four campaigns a month to a list of 10,000.
• 200,000 emails sent a month comes to £30.00 on Magpie Cloud200,000 emails sent a month comes to $50.00 on Magpie Cloud.

You choose your monthly email allowance up front. Sending stops when it runs out, and you can upgrade for the rest of the month. Self-hosting MagpieCRM is free.

What are the best Mailchimp alternatives?

The best Mailchimp alternatives depend on what you send. MagpieCRM, listmonk, Mautic and Keila are open source and free to self-host. Brevo prices by emails sent and has a free plan. Klaviyo suits online stores, ActiveCampaign suits automation, and HubSpot bundles a full CRM. We checked each one in September and October 2026.

Brevo

Brevo prices by monthly email volume, not contacts. Starter costs £6 a month and Standard £13 a month, each for 5,000 emails a month on monthly billing, and the free plan sends up to 300 emails a day. It has automated flows, SMS, A/B tests and landing pages. MagpieCRM vs Brevo

Klaviyo

Klaviyo is built for online stores, with flows, SMS and store integrations. It prices by active profiles: anyone you could email, whether you do or not. The free plan covers 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month. MagpieCRM vs Klaviyo

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is the pick for automation, with multi-step automations and A/B tests on every plan. It prices by contact count, from $15 a month for 1,000 contacts billed annually, and offers a 14-day trial rather than a free plan. MagpieCRM vs ActiveCampaign

HubSpot

HubSpot bundles email marketing into a much larger CRM. Marketing Hub Professional costs $800 a month billed yearly, for 3 seats and 2,000 marketing contacts, plus a $3,000 onboarding fee. MagpieCRM vs HubSpot

listmonk, Mautic and Keila

listmonk is a fast, free newsletter manager written in Go on Postgres, built for very large lists, with no CRM or multi-step flows. Mautic is the best-known open source marketing automation platform, with segments, lead scoring and campaigns. Keila is a simple newsletter tool with a hosted plan from €8 a month. MagpieCRM vs listmonk · MagpieCRM vs Mautic

What is the best free Mailchimp alternative?

The best free Mailchimp alternative is an open source tool you host yourself, because self-hosted tools have no contact limits. MagpieCRM, listmonk, Mautic and Keila are all free to self-host: you pay only for your server and your sending service. Of the hosted free plans we checked, Brevo's sends the most, at 300 emails a day.

The free hosted plans each cap you differently:

• Mailchimp: 250 contacts and 500 sends a month.
• Klaviyo: 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month.
• Brevo: up to 300 emails a day, priced by volume once you pay.
• ActiveCampaign: a 14-day trial, with no free plan.

Self-hosting is free, but not effortless. You run the server, connect a sending service and set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC yourself. Sendy is often listed as a free option, but it is a paid, closed app you host yourself, not open source. Our open source email marketing guide covers how self-hosted sending works.

MagpieCRM vs Mailchimp: feature comparison

MagpieCRM and Mailchimp both send email campaigns, but Mailchimp has far more marketing features. MagpieCRM is simpler, and adds B2B prospect search. The table puts them side by side. Mailchimp prices come from the Mailchimp pricing page. We checked the SMS, A/B test and flow rows there on 27 September 2026.

The main difference is the price model. Mailchimp charges for the size of your list. MagpieCRM charges for what you send, so a big list you email now and then stays cheap. In return, you give up automation, SMS and testing.

What does MagpieCRM include for email marketing?

MagpieCRM includes the basics of email marketing: lists, a drag-and-drop builder, templates, scheduled campaigns and open and click analytics. We built MagpieCRM for small B2B teams, founders and agencies who send newsletters and announcements. It also adds sign-up forms and surveys.

• Contacts. Import from CSV or paste, add custom fields, and export any time.
• Lists and personas. Group contacts for each campaign.
• Campaigns. Build with drag and drop or a template, then send now or schedule.
• Forms. Collect sign-ups with a form on your site, or through the signup API.
• Surveys. Ask questions, with branching based on answers.
• Prospecting. Find B2B contacts and verify their emails with the mail server.
• Sending. On Cloud, email is sent for you. Self-hosted, use SMTP or your own email provider (Amazon SES, Postmark, Resend, SendGrid, Mailgun or Brevo).

MagpieCRM is early access software, at version 0.9.136. It has no automated flows, SMS, A/B tests or event-based segments yet.

How do you keep good deliverability after leaving Mailchimp?

You keep good deliverability after leaving Mailchimp by setting up your domain before your first send, then growing volume slowly. Publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for your new sending service. Start with your most engaged contacts, and add the rest over a few weeks.

• Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your domain.
• Add one-click unsubscribe to every campaign.
• Leave unsubscribed and cleaned contacts out of your import, so you never email them.

Keep an eye on complaints. Google's sender guidelines say to keep your spam rate below 0.10% and never let it reach 0.30%.

Where is Mailchimp stronger than MagpieCRM?

Mailchimp is stronger as a full marketing tool. It has automated flows, A/B tests, an SMS add-on, landing pages and a large template library. It connects to stores such as Shopify and WooCommerce. For anything beyond simple campaigns, Mailchimp does more.

Mailchimp is likely the better fit if:

• You need welcome series or other automated flows.
• You want to A/B test subject lines or content.
• You send SMS, or run an online store.
• You want landing pages and a basic website in the same tool.

MagpieCRM suits B2B teams with a growing list who send simple campaigns, and who also need to find new contacts. Once your list passes a few thousand contacts, paying per email can cost much less than paying per contact.