Short answer: Mailchimp is a full marketing suite priced for businesses. It has automation flows, SMS, e-commerce integrations and a large app ecosystem, and you pay by the size of your contact list. MailCheap is a newsletter tool priced by the number of emails you send. If you only need to publish a newsletter, MailCheap costs a lot less from about 1,000 subscribers up. If your email program is really marketing automation for a store or a sales funnel, Mailchimp does things MailCheap doesn’t try to do.
How each one charges
Mailchimp’s marketing plans are priced by contacts, in tiers such as 500, 1,500, 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000. There are three paid plans. Essentials runs up to 50,000 contacts and lets you send 10× your contact tier each month. Standard runs up to 100,000 in the self-serve tiers we checked and allows 12×. Premium starts at $350 a month, a price that covers up to 10,000 contacts, and allows 15×. A Free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month. Mailchimp doesn’t publish self-serve yearly prices; its pricing page sends annual plans to sales. Mailchimp was running a limited-time discount on the day we checked. We ignore promotions and use the regular “then” prices.
MailCheap (affiliate link) prices by emails sent per month. Starter is 20,000 emails for $19, Growth 75,000 for $39, Pro 200,000 for $79, Scale 500,000 for $149, Max 2,000,000 for $349 and Ultra 5,000,000 for $799. Every feature is on every plan, and paying yearly gives two months free. Every email it sends counts against the allowance, including tests and welcome emails.
The models reward different behaviour. Mailchimp’s bill tracks how many people are on your list. MailCheap’s tracks how many emails you actually send. A big list that you email occasionally is cheap on MailCheap. A small list that you email very often can come out cheaper on Mailchimp, up to its send cap.
Cost at common list sizes
Monthly billing, four emails a month, cheapest paid plan that fits on each platform:
| Subscribers | MailCheap | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | $19/mo Starter | $13/mo Essentials |
| 1,000 | $19/mo Starter | $26.50/mo Essentials |
| 2,500 | $19/mo Starter | $45/mo Essentials |
| 5,000 | $19/mo Starter | $75/mo Essentials |
| 10,000 | $39/mo Growth | $110/mo Essentials |
| 25,000 | $79/mo Pro | $270/mo Essentials |
| 50,000 | $79/mo Pro | $385/mo Essentials |
| 100,000 | $149/mo Scale | $800/mo Standard |
At 500 subscribers, Mailchimp Essentials is the cheaper of the two. From around 1,000 subscribers, MailCheap Starter’s fixed $19 undercuts every Mailchimp tier, and the difference grows with the list. At 25,000 subscribers sending weekly, Mailchimp Essentials costs $270 (Essentials) a month and MailCheap $79 (Pro). Above 50,000 contacts, Essentials is no longer available and the cheapest Mailchimp option is Standard, at $800 (Standard) for 100,000 contacts.
On yearly billing MailCheap gets cheaper, because you pay for ten months instead of twelve. Mailchimp’s yearly figure in our newsletter cost calculator is 12× monthly, because it has no published self-serve annual price.
Send limits and what happens when you hit them
Both platforms cap how much you can send. The caps work differently.
| Mailchimp | MailCheap | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly send limit | Free: 500. Essentials: 10× contact tier. Standard: 12×. Premium: 15×. | The plan’s email allowance (20,000 to 5,000,000) |
| What counts | Emails sent, per Mailchimp’s plan limits | Every email: issues, tests, welcome and confirmation emails |
| Over the limit | Overages apply on paid plans; sending pauses on Free | New sends wait until you upgrade or the month resets; welcome emails pause too |
| Who it suits | Lists sent a few times a month or less, with a predictable bill | Any list size, as long as total sends stay inside the allowance |
Here is how it plays out at higher frequencies. At eight emails a month (twice a week), Essentials still fits. At 5,000 subscribers it costs $75 (Essentials) against MailCheap’s $39 (Growth). At thirty emails a month (daily), no Essentials or Standard tier allows enough sends. Premium’s first tier (up to 10,000 contacts, 150,000 sends) covers daily sending up to 5,000 subscribers at $350 (Premium). Above that you would exceed Premium’s cap and pay overages, so the calculator shows “check site”.
| Subscribers | MailCheap | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $39/mo Growth | $350/mo Premium |
| 5,000 | $79/mo Pro | $350/mo Premium |
| 10,000 | $149/mo Scale | Check site |
| 25,000 | $349/mo Max | Check site |
Features compared
| Feature | Mailchimp | MailCheap |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Up to 250 contacts, 500 emails/month | No |
| Free trial | 14 days on Essentials and Standard | No |
| Automation | Marketing Automation Flows (Essentials up to 4 steps; Standard and Premium up to 200 flows) | Welcome emails; no wider automation builder listed |
| SMS | Paid add-on | No |
| Segmentation, A/B testing | Yes; multivariate testing and predictive segmentation on Premium | Not listed |
| Integrations | 300+ | API and MCP server |
| Seats | Free 1, Essentials 3, Standard 5, Premium unlimited | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Branding removal | Paid plans | No “Powered by” badge on any plan |
| Newsletter website | Website tools offered separately from the email plans | Website and custom domain included |
| Deliverability defaults | Not compared here | DKIM/SPF/DMARC, one-click unsubscribe, gradual sending to new contacts, list cleanup on by default (per MailCheap) |
“Not listed” means the feature was not on the official pricing or home page when we checked. It does not mean it can never be done.
Downsides of each
MailCheap
- No free plan, no free trial, no partial refunds. The cheapest way in is $19 for one month.
- Narrow scope. It’s a newsletter tool. If you need multi-step automation, SMS, e-commerce flows or a big integration marketplace, it doesn’t cover them.
- Newer company. It has a shorter track record than Mailchimp. MailCheap is run by JustShipIt Pte. Ltd. in Singapore and was built by Marc Lou.
- Hard cap. Hitting your allowance pauses new sends rather than billing an overage, so plan headroom for tests and welcome emails.
Mailchimp
- Expensive for newsletters. Prices climb steeply with contacts. Essentials at 50,000 contacts is $385 (Essentials) a month.
- Send caps tied to contacts. Frequent senders can run into overages.
- No published annual discount. Annual plans go through sales.
- Built for marketers, not writers. Things newsletter writers expect, like a public archive or a website on your own domain, are not the centre of the product.
Who should pick which
Pick Mailchimp if…
- email is one channel in a wider marketing setup (store, CRM, SMS, ads);
- you need automation flows, multivariate testing or predictive segmentation;
- several teammates need their own seats and roles;
- you have fewer than about 500 contacts and Essentials’ low tier, or the Free plan, is enough.
Pick MailCheap if…
- you publish a newsletter and want the smallest bill from about 1,000 subscribers up;
- you send weekly or less, so sends stay well inside the allowance;
- you want a newsletter website and no platform badge on every plan;
- you are comfortable with a newer, smaller vendor and no free trial.
If you are moving off Mailchimp only because of price, put your real numbers into the newsletter cost calculator first. MailerLite, Buttondown and Ghost(Pro) are also cheaper than Mailchimp at many sizes, and each makes different trade-offs.
See MailCheap pricing (affiliate link) See Mailchimp pricing
FAQ
Is MailCheap cheaper than Mailchimp?
Above roughly 1,000 subscribers, for a weekly newsletter, yes, and the gap grows quickly. At 10,000 subscribers and four emails a month, Mailchimp Essentials costs $110 (Essentials) a month on list price and MailCheap $39 (Growth). At 500 subscribers, Mailchimp Essentials ($13 (Essentials)) is cheaper than MailCheap Starter ($19 (Starter)).
What happens if I go over my Mailchimp send limit?
Mailchimp’s pricing page says overages apply on paid plans if you exceed the contact or email send limit, and sending is paused on the Free plan. Monthly sends are capped at 10x your contact tier on Essentials, 12x on Standard and 15x on Premium.
What happens if I go over my MailCheap allowance?
MailCheap says signups keep working and confirmation emails still go out, but new sends wait until you upgrade or your next month starts. Once the allowance is used up, welcome emails pause too.
Does Mailchimp have a free plan?
Yes. It covers up to 250 contacts and up to 500 emails a month (250 a day), with one seat and Mailchimp branding. MailCheap has no free plan and no free trial.
Can I import my Mailchimp list into MailCheap?
MailCheap lists Mailchimp among its supported imports. Automations, e-commerce flows and SMS will not carry over, because MailCheap doesn’t offer those features.