Mailchimp Alternatives: Email Marketing Platforms Worth Considering in 2026

Mailchimp has become synonymous with email marketing. It's the default answer when someone asks, "What should I use for newsletters?"

But default doesn't mean best. And recent pricing changes have pushed many organizations to look for a Mailchimp alternative or alternatives to Mailchimp entirely.

Here's what I'll tell you upfront: when clients ask what platform to use, we typically recommend Mailchimp. Not because it's cheapest or most feature-rich, but because their integration options are genuinely flexible.

"They offer widgets, they offer plugins, and they offer a relatively robust API. Their API is incredibly well-documented. We can meet the client's challenges, wishes, and budget at almost any level with that one platform."

That said, Mailchimp isn't right for everyone. And most "Mailchimp alternatives" articles miss something important: they compare SaaS to SaaS without considering WordPress-native options that might eliminate monthly fees.

"Most 'Mailchimp alternatives' lists compare SaaS to SaaS. But if you're on WordPress, you have options they don't mention: MailPoet and FluentCRM run inside WordPress with no monthly fees per contact."

Let me give you the complete picture.

Why Organizations Switch from Mailchimp

Before diving into alternatives, it helps to understand what's driving the search. Based on what we see with clients:

1. Price Scaling

Looking for something cheaper than Mailchimp? You're not alone. Mailchimp's costs increase quickly as your list grows. A nonprofit with 10,000 contacts might pay $100/month before any discounts. At 25,000 contacts, you're looking at $270/month.

2. The Unsubscribed Contact Problem

Since 2019, Mailchimp has counted unsubscribed contacts toward your billing. If you've been building lists for years, you're likely paying for people who can't receive your emails.

3. Free Plan Limitations

Mailchimp's free plan now limits you to 500 contacts (down from 2,000 in previous years) with no automation and limited scheduling. For many small organizations, this means hitting a paywall faster.

4. Feature Overwhelm

Mailchimp has expanded beyond email into broader marketing features. If you just want to send newsletters, you're paying for capabilities you'll never use.

5. Integration Needs

Some WordPress setups work better with different platforms. Mailchimp deprecated its official WordPress plugin, leaving users to navigate third-party solutions.

The Mailchimp Alternatives Worth Considering

Here's a comparison focusing on what actually matters: pricing model, WordPress integration, and who each platform serves best.

1. MailerLite: The Value Champion

Pricing: Free up to 500 subscribers and 12,000 emails/month. Paid plans start at $10/month for 500-1,000 subscribers.

Nonprofit Discount: 30% off paid plans (the most generous in the industry)

What Makes It Different:

MailerLite takes a different approach from Mailchimp. While Mailchimp has expanded into an "all-in-one marketing platform," MailerLite focuses on doing email well at an affordable price.

The interface is clean. The learning curve is minimal. For organizations that want to send newsletters without a degree in marketing automation, it's refreshing.

WordPress Integration:

The official WordPress plugin is well-rated (4.8/5), though we've seen some quirks. Users report that forms sometimes need to be recreated after plugin updates. The WooCommerce integration has had reliability issues, including duplicate entries and broken features.

If you're using MailerLite with WordPress, the integration works, but it's not quite as polished as Mailchimp's ecosystem.

Watch Out For:

• Free plan was reduced from 1,000 to 500 subscribers in September 2025
• No phone support at any tier
• WooCommerce integration can be finicky
• Fewer advanced/enterprise features than competitors

Best For:

Budget-conscious nonprofits and small organizations with straightforward needs. If the 30% nonprofit discount applies to you and you don't need complex automation, MailerLite is genuinely hard to beat on value.

2. Constant Contact: The Support-First Option

Pricing: Lite starts at $12/month for 500 contacts. Standard is $35/month. Premium is $80/month. All tiers include monthly sending limits.

Nonprofit Discount: 20% off with 6-month prepay, 30% off with 12-month prepay

What Makes It Different:

Constant Contact has been around since 1995. They've built their reputation on customer support, including phone support at all tiers. This is increasingly rare in SaaS.

For organizations with limited technical staff who value being able to call someone when something goes wrong, Constant Contact's higher price may be justified.

Their event marketing features are also notably strong, built into the platform rather than bolted on as an afterthought.

WordPress Integration:

The official Constant Contact Forms plugin works well for basic signups. WPForms includes Constant Contact in its free version. For more advanced sync, WP Fusion offers bidirectional data sync.

We've seen clients frustrated by connection drops requiring reconnection every few months. The automation is also more limited than Mailchimp's, especially on the Lite plan.

Watch Out For:

• No free plan (only trial)
• Monthly sending limits on all plans
• Automation depth varies significantly by plan
• Higher base price than most alternatives

Best For:

Organizations that prioritize support and onboarding over cost savings. Nonprofits with event-heavy programming. Teams that prefer phone support to email tickets.

3. Brevo (Formerly Sendinblue): The Volume-Based Option

Pricing: Free for 300 emails/day with unlimited contacts. Paid plans start at $9/month for 5,000 emails/month.

Nonprofit Discount: Typically 15%, but largely tied to enterprise tier

What Makes It Different:

Brevo prices by send volume, not contact count. This is a significant distinction.

If you have a large list but don't email frequently, Brevo can be dramatically cheaper than contact-based platforms. An organization with 50,000 contacts sending monthly newsletters would pay substantially less than they would on Mailchimp.

Brevo has also expanded into multi-channel messaging (SMS, WhatsApp, chat) and includes a lightweight CRM module. The automation workflow builder is considered one of the strongest in this price range.

WordPress Integration:

The official WordPress plugin has substantial adoption. It primarily acts as an integration layer, since all sending is offloaded to Brevo's infrastructure.

Watch Out For:

• Free tier daily cap throttles large blasts
• Feature breadth can feel overwhelming
• Nonprofit discount not broadly available on lower tiers
• Some users find the interface less intuitive than competitors

Best For:

Organizations with large contact lists that don't email frequently. Multi-channel communication needs (email + SMS). Those who want CRM capabilities bundled with email.

4. ConvertKit (Now Kit): The Creator Platform

Pricing: Free for up to 10,000 subscribers with limited features. Creator plan starts at $15/month for up to 300 subscribers.

Nonprofit Discount: None publicly advertised

What Makes It Different:

ConvertKit (rebranded to Kit) built its reputation in the creator economy: bloggers, course creators, and podcasters. The platform is designed around content-based businesses.

Key features include visual automation, subscriber tagging, landing pages, and paid newsletter tools. The free tier, which allows 10,000 subscribers, is remarkably generous, though it lacks automation.

WordPress Integration:

The official plugin (4.8/5 rating, 40,000+ installs) integrates with Elementor, Contact Form 7, WooCommerce, and Gravity Forms. Form options include inline, modals, slide-ins, and sticky bars.

Watch Out For:

• Creator-focused features may not fit nonprofit/organizational needs
• Email editor is simpler than Mailchimp's (no full drag-and-drop)
• Landing page customization is limited
• Mobile responsiveness issues reported
• Pricing can exceed Mailchimp for larger lists

Best For:

Content creators, bloggers, course sellers, podcasters. Organizations whose email strategy centers on content distribution. Those who value subscriber tagging over list-based segmentation.

This is not typically the right fit for nonprofits or professional associations. The creator-focused features are overkill while lacking donor-specific functionality.

5. ActiveCampaign: For When You've Outgrown Mailchimp

Pricing: Starts at $15/month for 1,000 contacts. No free plan.

What Makes It Different:

ActiveCampaign is what you move to when you've genuinely outgrown Mailchimp's automation capabilities. It offers:

• Advanced if/then automation logic
• Lead scoring
• Deep CRM integration
• Predictive sending
• Site tracking and behavioral triggers

This is marketing automation, not just email marketing. The learning curve is steeper, but the capabilities are significantly deeper.

WordPress Integration:

No official plugin, but it integrates via form plugins and API connections. Works well with Gravity Forms, WPForms, and similar.

Watch Out For:

• No free tier
• Steeper learning curve
• Overkill for simple newsletter needs
• Higher price point than basic alternatives

Best For:

Organizations ready for true marketing automation. Those with complex customer journeys and sales processes. B2B companies with longer sales cycles.

We cover this more in the article on When You've Outgrown Mailchimp.

6. MailPoet: The WordPress-Native Option

Pricing: Free for up to 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails/month using MailPoet's sending service. Paid plans scale by subscriber count.

Nonprofit Discount: 20% off

What Makes It Different:

MailPoet keeps everything inside WordPress. Your subscriber data lives in your WordPress database, not on an external platform.

Since Automattic (WooCommerce's parent company) acquired MailPoet in 2022, it's become increasingly integrated with WooCommerce. Abandoned cart emails, product recommendations, and post-purchase sequences are all built in.

WordPress Integration:

It IS WordPress. There's no integration layer because MailPoet runs as a WordPress plugin. The email builder is available in your WordPress admin. Post notifications can pull directly from your WordPress database rather than parsing RSS feeds.

Watch Out For:

This is where I need to give you the honest assessment.

"MailPoet is probably best for newsletters and simple campaigns. It is a CRM in the sense that you can maintain multiple lists, much as Mailchimp defines it. But at the end of the day, it's just lists, basic lists with simple workflows."

"Do not install MailPoet and expect a full-blown CRM. You're not going to be doing customer relationship management there. You are going to be doing list building."

More critically: "If you go use a Mailchimp or Constant Contact, you're taking advantage of their multi-million dollar infrastructure that was designed and built for exactly what you want to do." Your $5-100/month WordPress hosting will never deliver emails as reliably as platforms built for exactly that purpose.

Here's the technical reality: "Email sending is the stepchild of web hosting companies." Most hosting providers don't properly maintain their SMTP servers. "One of the number one complaints we hear from people who are migrating from budget hosting companies is that they never get their contact form information. It's been down for weeks or months."

MailPoet's built-in sending service helps with this, but you're still adding operational complexity to your WordPress site.

Best For:

Small organizations with simple needs who want everything in WordPress. WooCommerce stores that want abandoned cart and product emails. Those who prioritize data ownership over infrastructure.

We cover this more in the MailPoet Review and MailPoet vs Mailchimp articles.

7. FluentCRM: True CRM (If You Need It)

Pricing: One-time license purchase ($129- $999, depending on the number of sites). Free version available with core features.

What Makes It Different:

FluentCRM provides real CRM tools within WordPress. That means so much more than just email delivery.

You're stepping out of email list management and into true customer relationship management: contact records, activity tracking, deal pipelines, custom fields, and visual automation.

The Caveat:

CRMs can do a lot. But they take work to stay organized. They have to be updated and kept current, especially if you get into custom data points.

If what you want at the end of the day is a few lists and email capabilities, FluentCRM is big-time overkill.

Watch Out For:

• Requires external SMTP provider (Amazon SES ~$0.10 per 1,000 emails)
• Setup complexity for non-technical users
• More operational overhead than external platforms
• True cost includes SMTP service, not just the license

Best For:

Organizations that genuinely need CRM capabilities within WordPress. Those with technical resources to manage the setup. Situations where data sovereignty matters.

We cover this more in the FluentCRM Review article.

The Complete Comparison Table

What We Recommend

When clients ask which platform to use, our answer depends on what they actually need.

For most organizations: Mailchimp remains our default recommendation. Not because it's cheapest, but because the integration flexibility lets us meet almost any budget and requirement. The well-documented API lets us build exactly what clients need.

For budget-conscious nonprofits: MailerLite, with their 30% nonprofit discount, is genuinely hard to beat on value. For a broader look at nonprofit email options, see our guide on email marketing for nonprofits. If your needs are straightforward newsletters and basic automation, it's worth serious consideration.

For support-first organizations: Constant Contact's phone support at all tiers is increasingly rare. If your team values being able to call someone, the higher price may be justified.

For WordPress-centric organizations: MailPoet keeps everything in WordPress, but understand you're trading infrastructure reliability for integration simplicity. We typically recommend external platforms, but MailPoet can work for smaller operations.

For organizations that have outgrown newsletters: ActiveCampaign and similar platforms offer real marketing automation. If you're running behavior-triggered sequences and deep segmentation, you're past what Mailchimp does well.

The Integration Reality

Here's something the comparison articles don't tell you.

WordPress Integration Reliability Issues

Mailchimp deprecated its official WordPress plugin, leaving users to navigate third-party solutions like MC4WP. The plugin works well, but the ecosystem is fragmented.

Constant Contact users report needing to reconnect their integration every few months. "Connection drops happen. Catching them early minimizes lost subscribers."

MailerLite's WordPress plugin has quirks, with forms sometimes needing to be recreated after updates. The WooCommerce integration has had reliability issues, including duplicate entries.

The "WordPress integration" ratings you see reflect whether the connection is possible, not whether it's seamless.

When we handle integrations for clients, we use three approaches:

1. Widget/Embed - Easiest, but least styling control
2. Plugin - Middle ground, some customization
3. API - Full control, requires development work

The platform matters less than how well you can integrate it with your specific WordPress setup.

The Bigger Picture

Every one of these Mailchimp competitors will send emails. The differentiators are pricing models, automation depth, WordPress integration quality, and support access.

But here's what actually determines success: organized lists, relevant content, and reasonable sending frequency.

We've seen clients switch platforms three times, looking for a magic bullet when the real issue was list hygiene or content strategy.

The platform is infrastructure. What you do with it matters more.

For a deeper understanding of how these platforms integrate with WordPress and the infrastructure argument for external services, see our comprehensive guide to WordPress email marketing. If you need help integrating any of these platforms with your WordPress site, our website support services can handle setup at any complexity level.