Email platforms advertise a headline number and bill something else. Contact tiers that count the people who left. Plans that change price the moment your list crosses a line. Add-ons priced separately at checkout. We model the full bill at your subscriber count — 500, 2,500, 10,000 — on both billing cycles, and spell out exactly where the traps are.
Every number on this site comes from the vendor's own pricing page and plan documentation, checked on both monthly and annual billing. When a vendor changes its prices, we re-check and date every figure we publish. When sources disagree, we print the range — never a guess.
Subscribers who unsubscribed but still count toward your tier. SMS credits billed apart from your plan. The discount that only appears on annual prepay. The free plan that ends the day you need automation. We name each trap, which tools charge it, and which don't.
Every guide ends with the part vendor comparison pages skip: who should not switch, and which cheap-looking plan quietly costs more once your list grows. We have no stake in which tool you pick beyond the disclosure on our affiliate links.
Mailchimp Pricing and Hidden Costs: The Three Limits You Pay On — Mailchimp's own pages price a contact band, then cap monthly sends at 10×, 12× or 15× your contact count and users and audiences at 1, 3, 5 or unlimited. We worked the allowance out at 500, 2,500 and 10,000 contacts, priced both the US and EU pages, and listed the six charges that only show up after checkout.
Also published: The Best Mailchimp Alternatives, Priced at Your List Size — five alternatives from official pages, with each platform's billing trap named — and Brevo vs MailerLite, both ladders read band by band. Every guide is filed by the decision it answers on the guides page.
Coming next: the list-size bill calculator covering 500, 2,500 and 10,000 subscribers across every platform we track, and a running record of vendor price changes as we verify them. Read who we are and how this site makes money.