Mailchimp — alternatives and comparison
Key idea:
Mailchimp — email marketing SaaS (owned by Intuit since 2021) for newsletter campaigns, automation, landing pages. Free plan — up to 500 contacts. Paid — from $13/mo. Criticism: bloated UX, pricing resets when bounces count against you. Better by use-case: Brevo (transactional + marketing in one), ConvertKit (for creators), MailerLite (simple UX), Loops (for SaaS), Ghost (for publishers), Substack (paid subscribers).
Below: details, example, related, FAQ.
Details
- Free: 500 contacts + 1000 emails/mo + Mailchimp branding
- Brevo (Sendinblue): 300 emails/day free, much cheaper at scale
- ConvertKit: author-focused, intuitive automations
- Loops: startup pricing — $49/mo up to 10k contacts + product-led growth hooks
- Ghost — self-hosted, one-time purchase or open-source
Example
# Simple transactional email — Mailchimp alternative
# Brevo Python client
import sib_api_v3_sdk
config = sib_api_v3_sdk.Configuration()
config.api_key['api-key'] = 'xkeysib-...'
api = sib_api_v3_sdk.TransactionalEmailsApi(sib_api_v3_sdk.ApiClient(config))
api.send_transac_email({
'subject': 'Hi', 'sender': {'email': 'noreply@example.com'},
'to': [{'email': 'user@example.com'}],
'htmlContent': '<h1>Hello</h1>'
})Related
Frequently Asked Questions
When to stay on Mailchimp?
If you've used it for a year+ and built audiences/automations. Migration is painful.
SaaS startup — what to pick?
Loops or Customer.io — product-led, event-based automation. Mailchimp — small e-commerce / brand.
Self-hosted?
Listmonk (Go, open-source) — run the server yourself + SMTP (SES / Postmark). Saves $$$, needs DevOps.