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 millions of 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 sales pipeline. If you also sell, your deals live in another tool that your segments cannot see.
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 stores contacts for free. You pay for what you send. On Magpie Cloud:
- 40,000 emails sent a month comes to £10.00 on Magpie Cloud, for the whole team. That is four campaigns a month to a list of 10,000.
- 200,000 emails sent a month comes to £30.00 on Magpie Cloud, for the whole team.
Self-hosted, you connect your own Amazon SES account and pay AWS $0.10 per 1,000 emails. There is no MagpieCRM bill at all.
MagpieCRM vs Mailchimp: feature comparison
We built MagpieCRM so email marketing and sales share one list. The table puts it next to Mailchimp. Mailchimp details come from the Mailchimp pricing page.
| MagpieCRM | Mailchimp | |
|---|---|---|
| Price model | Per email sent | Per contact tier |
| Entry price | £10/month, or free self-hosted | $13 a month for 500 contacts |
| Send limits | None, pay per email | 10 to 15 times contacts |
| Users | Unlimited | 3 on Essentials, 5 on Standard |
| Automated flows | Visual builder with splits and delays | Yes |
| Segments | Live, on any field or event | Yes |
| Sending | SES, SMTP, Postmark or Resend | Mailchimp |
| CRM with deals | Yes | No |
| Open source | Yes (AGPL-3.0) | No |
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. And because it is also a CRM, sales and marketing see the same person.
How do you keep good deliverability after leaving Mailchimp?
You keep good deliverability 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.
- Import unsubscribed and cleaned contacts as suppressed, 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%.
On Magpie Cloud, SES is set up for you. Sending domains and IP addresses rotate by themselves to protect your reputation.
Where is Mailchimp stronger than MagpieCRM?
Mailchimp is stronger for beginners. It has a large template library, and a drag-and-drop email designer that anyone can pick up. It also has built-in landing pages and simple websites. For a first newsletter, it is very easy to start.
Mailchimp may be the better fit if:
- You send a simple newsletter to a small list.
- You never need a sales pipeline or deal tracking.
- You want landing pages and a basic website in the same tool.
MagpieCRM suits teams whose list is growing, or who sell as well as market. Once your list passes a few thousand contacts, paying per email usually costs far less than paying per contact.