Best email marketing 2026 Mailchimp review
Mailchimp review 2026
The default people type into Google. Still a fair way to send the first campaign. Rarely the tool you are glad you standardized on at 10,000 subscribers.
From $13/mo · Essentials around $13/mo at 500 contacts. Free plan is tightly capped. Standard costs more.
Best for: Beginners who want the familiar logo, small shops
- Plans
- Free, Essentials, Standard
- From
- $13/mo Essentials
- Best for
- Familiar, templates
- Meter
- Contacts + sends
- Free
- Small list, small send cap
- Catch
- Price and UI bloat as you grow
Buy if Your accountant already knows the name, or you want templates and a shop integration today.
Skip if You are a writer building a paid newsletter on purpose. Kit or Beehiiv will fight you less.
Mailchimp is the Kleenex of email marketing. That is both the pitch and the problem. If you have never sent a campaign, the templates, the brand, and the WordPress plugin will get you through Friday. Essentials is widely listed around $13/mo for a few hundred contacts. The free plan still exists, with a tight send and contact cap.
It is third because “best known” is not the same job as “best for a new site.” Kit assumes you are the product. Mailchimp assumes you have a marketing calendar. For a local shop on Hostinger, that calendar is real. For a blog you intend to charge for, you will spend the second month turning features off.
Pricing is contact-based, like Kit, so a growing list is a growing bill. The jump from free to paid, and from Essentials to Standard, is where people start comparing Brevo. Read the contact tier, not the homepage tile.
You can export. You should, before you build five years of tags you do not understand. Switching later is boring but possible. The lock-in is habit and automations, not a blocked CSV.
Use Mailchimp when familiarity is the feature: a client expects it, a theme integrates it, a colleague already has the login. Do not use it because a 2016 tutorial said so. The rest of this ranking exists.
Pros
- Everyone has heard of it, including the intern
- Templates and e-commerce integrations are mature
- A real free plan, even if it is small
Cons
- The product has become a suite. Simple sends take more clicks than they used to
- Contact-based pricing gets expensive in the same way Kit does, with less of a creator home
Mailchimp FAQ
Is Mailchimp still free?
There is a free plan with a small contact and send cap. Most people who send a real newsletter hit paid Essentials, often around $13/mo at 500 contacts. Confirm the current free limits; they get tighter over time.
Is Mailchimp good for a new WordPress site?
Yes, in the sense that plugins and tutorials are everywhere. Kit is usually a better long-term home if the site is a publication. Brevo is cheaper if you will send a lot.
Why isn’t Mailchimp #1?
Name recognition is not the ranking. Time to a useful list, price honesty as the list grows, and whether the tool matches a creator or a shop — those are. Mailchimp is the familiar starter, not the best default.