5 Best Mailchimp Alternatives: Cheaper + More Features (Or Both!)

Mailchimp is a popular email marketing service that offers a range of features and plans for its customers. However, it isn’t for everyone, which is why we have created this Mailchimp alternatives article, to help you find the right email marketing provider for your business.

1. Sendinblue

Sendinblue promotes itself as the complete sales and marketing toolbox for small to medium-sized businesses. Whether you want to grow your business, engage with your audience, collect leads, or sell products and services, Sendinblue can help you achieve these goals. Currently providing its marketing tools to over 80,000 companies worldwide, Sendinblue is probably the closest match to Mailchimp, in terms of features and functionality offered.

If you want to learn even more, we’ve written a detailed review of Sendinblue based on our first-hand experience (we use it here at Themeisle).

Sendinblue top features

• Communication – Keep your audience engaged by sending the right message at the right time, either via email or SMS. Sendinblue will also enable you to add a chat function to your website, helping you to connect with your customers in real-time.
• Social Media Campaigns – Sendinblue will enable you to take control of your social media ads, helping you to reach new clients, or reconnect with those who have already expressed an interest in your products or services. Set up Facebook ads from within your Sendinblue dashboard, as well as retargeting ad campaigns that display ads to your website visitors when they visit other sites.
• Analytics – Sendinblue offers a range of impressive analytical features, including detailed email campaign reporting, email heat mapping, A/B testing, and much more. These features will enable you to understand how successful your marketing and email campaigns are, and help to inform future strategies.

Pricing

Sendinblue offers a limited free plan that’s more generous than Mailchimp’s free plan. Whereas Mailchimp’s free plan lets you send 10,000 emails per month to up to 2,000 contacts, Sendinblue lets you send 300 emails per day to unlimited contacts.

Beyond that, Sendinblue provides a number of premium plans…

• Lite ($25 a month) – Unlimited contacts and up to 40,000 emails a month.
• Essential ($39 a month) – Unlimited contacts and up to 60,000 emails a month.
• Premium ($66 a month) – Unlimited contacts and up to 120,000 emails a month.
• Enterprise (custom plans)

Each package offers a range of different features, so if Sendinblue has caught your attention, check out its pricing plans in more detail.

Why choose Sendinblue over Mailchimp?

Although the features provided by Sendinblue are similar to those of Mailchimp, there is a key difference in the packages offered. The main benefit of choosing Sendinblue over Mailchimp is that there are no restrictions on the number of contacts in your mailing list.

With SendinBlue, whether you have signed up to a premium custom Enterprise plan, or are just using the free platform, you can still have an unlimited number of contacts in your mailing list. In contrast, all Mailchimp plans limit the number of contacts your mailing list can contain. This makes SendinBlue one of the best Mailchimp alternatives for those with large email lists, or who are worried about being penalized for quickly growing their email lists.

2. ConvertKit

Second in this list of Mailchimp alternatives is ConvertKit. This email marketing provider has been created for entrepreneurs and small businesses. So if you are a blogger, YouTuber, course creator, photographer, or another type of creative, then ConvertKit may be the right platform for you.

ConvertKit top features

• Forms and landing pages – ConvertKit offers a selection of form and landing page templates. The templates are fully customizable, ensuring that everything displayed on your website matches its style and branding. Then, easily embed forms on your website, or set up a stand-alone landing page.
• Organize your mailing list – As your mailing list grows, you can organize your mailing list based on users’ activity on your site, their interests, location, and much more. To do so, simply add tags to each subscriber, and then group individuals into segments based on these tags. You can then send specific emails to particular groups, or exclude segments so people don’t receive emails that aren’t relevant.
• Visual workflows – You can visually build automated workflows and personalized funnels to ensure that your email subscribers receive the right content at the right time.

Pricing

ConvertKit has no free plan, just a number of premium options. Here are the premium plans…

• $29 a month – 0-1k subscribers and unlimited emails.
• $49 a month – 1-3k subscribers and unlimited emails.
• $79 a month – 3-5k subscribers and unlimited emails.

Each plan contains all of ConvertKit’s features. The only difference between the packages is the number of contacts in your mailing list. ConvertKit will also create custom plans for those with over 5k subscribers.

Why choose ConvertKit over Mailchimp?

ConvertKit’s key selling point is its user-friendly interface. Using a simple interface, you can easily group your contact list, visually create automated workflows, design email sequences, and much more, without in any way being overwhelming. In comparison, although Mailchimp is packed with features, many of these are not so easy to navigate, and would definitely not be considered intuitive. If you are looking for an easy-to-use product, ConvertKit is it.

3. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is another powerful email marketing provider, packed full of useful tools to help you grow your email list and market your business. It’s part of Endurance International Group, which is the same company behind popular web hosts like Bluehost and HostGator.

Constant Contact top features

• Drag-and-drop editor and templates – Choose from a selection of highly optimized email templates and then customize them to suit your needs using the Constant Contact drag-and-drop editor. Whatever your industry, you will find attractive and professional templates that will help you connect with your subscribers and convert against your business goals.
• Automated tools – Set up email automation including sending greeting emails to new subscribers, sending specific email series to contacts based on where they clicked on your site, and automatically resending emails to non-openers.
• Track email marketing conversions in real-time – Constant Contact provides real-time reporting tools that allow you to see who is opening, clicking, and sharing your emails.

Pricing

Constant Contact provides two premium plans (but no free option):

• Email ($20 a month) – Up to 500 contacts and unlimited emails.
• Email Plus ($45 a month) – Up to 500 contacts and unlimited emails.

For email lists over 500, prices increase based on the number of contacts you have. Both plans also contain different features, so have a browse of what is on offer before you make a purchase.

Why choose Constant Contact over Mailchimp?

Constant Contact is a premium product and its support options reflect this. Whichever plan you choose, with Constant Contact you will have access to all of the below support…

• Knowledge Base
• Video Tutorials
• Telephone Support
• Live Chat
• Community Forums
• Twitter Support
• Educational Events

Mailchimp does provide a helpful knowledge base and email support. However, live chat and phone support are only available on the top tier Premium plan. So, if you are someone who needs support on hand 24/7, then Constant Contact might be the email marketing provider for you.

4. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is one of the best Mailchimp alternatives for large teams. This marketing provider is committed to helping you automate your email, sales, and other marketing campaigns. Ideal for marketing, sales, and customer services teams, ActiveCampaign will help you achieve your goals.

ActiveCampaign top features

Here are ActiveCampaign’s top features…

• Integrations – ActiveCampaign integrates with over 250 apps, including WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify, Facebook, and Zapier. These integrations help you optimize and streamline your workflows.
• Personalized email – Use data from your integrated applications to create personalized and relevant emails. Use information including names, locations, previous purchases, and behavior on your site to ensure your emails engage with your audience and encourage them back to your website.
• Sales automation – Automate your sales funnels, keep track of your leads in a sales CRM, track the performance of individual members of your sales team, and much more.

Pricing

ActiveCampaign doesn’t offer a free version of its service, but you can choose from four premium plans. Let’s have a look…

• Lite ($9 a month) – Up to 500 contacts and unlimited emails.
• Plus ($49 a month) – Up to 500 contacts and unlimited emails.
• Professional ($129 a month) – Up to 500 contacts and unlimited emails.
• Enterprise ($229 a month) – Up to 500 contacts and unlimited emails.

Each plan offers a selection of different features, so do your research to find the right package for your business before you sign up. For email lists over 500, prices increase based on the number of contacts you have.

Why choose ActiveCampaign over Mailchimp?

If you want a platform that can be accessed by a whole team – a sales, customer service, or marketing team – then you should consider implementing ActiveCampaign. The Plus and Professional plans offer 25 and 50 users per plan. In contrast, Mailchimp’s’ mid-range plans only allow for 3 to 5 users. This makes ActiveCampaign by far the better option for those who are looking for a team tool.

5. Omnisend

Omnisend is a popular eCommerce marketing provider for growing and well-established companies, which makes it one of the best Mailchimp alternatives for eCommerce stores. Trusted by over 50,000 marketers in over 130 countries, Omnisend currently delivers over 10 million emails every day.

Omnisend top features

Ominsend has a clear eCommerce customer focus, helping you to engage with your target audience and sell products.

• eCommerce marketing – Access a range of eCommerce marketing tools designed to help you grow your online store and customer base. Benefit from eCommerce email templates, automated abandoned shopping cart emails, and eCommerce integrations, including WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce, and many more.
• Customer messaging tools – Omnisend offers multiple ways to reach and connect with your target audience. As well as personalized email marketing, Ominsend also allows you to choose between SMS messaging, Facebook messenger, web push notifications, WhatsApp, and more.
• Marketing automation – Omnisend enables you to either build advanced custom workflows or select from one of the numerous pre-built automated workflow templates. These workflows ensure that relevant emails are automatically sent to specific people at key times based on their actions on your site, which will ultimately help to increase sales.

Pricing

Ominsend offers a free plan, as well as a number of premium packages.

The free plan lets you send up to 15,000 emails per month (with a max 2,000 emails per day).

Then, here are the premium plans:

• Standard ($16 a month) – Up to 500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month.
• Pro ($199 a month) – Up to 9,000 subscribers and unlimited emails.
• Enterprise ($2,000 a month) – Unlimited subscribers and emails.

You’ll get access to different features depending on the plan you choose. If you want to stay on a particular plan but your email list is bigger than the set amount, Omnisend will increase the price based on the number of contacts you have.

Why choose Omnisend over Mailchimp?

As mentioned, Omnisend has been created with an eCommerce focus. Email and form templates, email sequences, and integrations have all been designed with eCommerce stores in mind. So if you have an eCommerce business and you are looking for a tool to boost your store’s sales, then Ominsend is the marketing platform for you.

Final thoughts on Mailchimp alternatives

All of these Mailchimp alternatives are great options and provide a wide array of features and functionality. Think carefully about what your business needs from an email marketing provider, and then make a choice based on that criteria.

If you’re looking for the best overall Mailchimp alternative, we recommend Sendinblue because of its in-depth features and more generous free plan. Again, Sendinblue is the actual tool we use here at Themeisle – learn more about why we like it.

Once you choose your email marketing provider, you’re ready to start sending emails. To help you do that more effectively, check out these three posts: