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Updated October 7, 2026 · Mailchimp's US pricing page re-read October 7, 2026; Kit re-read October 2; MailerLite read September 21, re-verified through October 7; GetResponse read October 1, re-verified October 3; Klaviyo read September 24, re-checked October 1; Omnisend's rate table read October 4; Brevo read September 29; ActiveCampaign read from its own checkout September 20 · Affiliate disclosure
We re-read Mailchimp's US pricing page on October 7, 2026. It prints exactly three paid figures — Essentials $13, Standard $20, Premium $350 a month — and all three belong to the 0–500 contacts band. Every other list size lives in an on-page plan selector that renders one band at a time, so a buyer at 2,500 contacts cannot see a price without stepping through the calculator, and a buyer comparison-shopping from tabs cannot cite one. Three more facts from the same page frame the whole comparison:
Against that, the alternatives publish more or less of their ladders — so the honest question is not just "who's cheaper" but "whose price can you actually verify before you sign up."
Monthly price first, with the annual-billing bill in parentheses where the vendor publishes an annual rate. Blank cells are ones the vendor does not publish — we leave them empty rather than estimate them.
| Tool | 500 subscribers | 2,500 subscribers | 10,000 subscribers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | Essentials $13 · Standard $20 ($156 · $240 a year) | Not published — calculator only | Premium $350 ($4,200 a year; $3,570 with the 15% twelve-month offer) |
| Kit | $0 at all three — free plan to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited sends, one seat (paid plans start at $39/mo, $390/yr, above the ceiling) | ||
| Brevo | Starter $9 ($96.96 prepaid) | Starter $9 ($96.96 prepaid) | Starter $9 ($96.96 prepaid) |
| MailerLite | Comfort $12 ($129.60 yearly) | Comfort $33 ($356.40 yearly) | Comfort $89 ($961.20 yearly) |
| GetResponse | No plan under 1,000 subscribers | Starter $29 ($285.36 prepaid) | Starter $79 ($777.36 prepaid) |
| Klaviyo | $20 | $60 | $150 ($1,800 a year; no annual rate published) |
| Omnisend | Standard $16 | Standard $44 | Standard $132 (no annual rate published) |
| ActiveCampaign | Publishes four prices at the 1,000-contact band only — Starter $15, Plus $49, Pro $79, Enterprise $145, all billed yearly; no figures at any other size | ||
Read the footnotes before the table: Brevo's $9 buys 5,000 emails a month and treats the contact list as storage — it stays $9 at all three sizes because it bills volume, not contacts, and automation only arrives on its $18 Standard plan. GetResponse's empty first cell is a ladder design choice: its cheapest paid tier is the 1,000-subscriber band, so a 500-subscriber list pays $19. And Mailchimp's 2,500-contact cell is empty because the vendor itself declines to print a number there.
At 500 subscribers the gap is real but small: Kit undercuts Mailchimp's cheapest paid tier by $156 a year, Brevo by $48–$59 depending on billing cycle, MailerLite by $26. The number that decides most switches is 10,000. Mailchimp's published figure there is Premium at $4,200 a year at list price (or $3,570 on the twelve-month offer). The alternatives' verified annual bills at the same size: Kit $0, GetResponse $777.36 prepaid, MailerLite $961.20 yearly, Omnisend $1,584, Klaviyo $1,800. That is between $2,400 and $4,200 a year back, depending which rival fits your list — and between $2,630 and $3,423 a year even against MailerLite and GetResponse, the two paid ladders that publish every band.
One honesty note on the Premium comparison: Premium bundles phone support and unlimited seats that cheaper plans lack, so it is not feature-identical. But it is the only Mailchimp price published at 10,000 contacts — which is itself the point of this page.
Kit is the headline: $0 at 500, 2,500 and 10,000 subscribers on its free plan, unlimited sends, one seat — 40× Mailchimp's 250-contact free ceiling. It earns instead from Creator at $39 a month ($390 billed yearly) and Pro at $79 ($790) above the ceiling, a 3.5% + $0.30 fee on every digital-product sale across all plans, and a 23.5% cut of Paid Recommendations earnings. A seller doing $2,000 of monthly sales carries about $100 a month of Kit fees — at that volume the "free" platform can outbill MailerLite's $356.40-a-year paid plan. Downgrades are manual: you email support after cleaning your list.
Brevo never raises the plan price with your contact count — Starter stays $9 and Standard $18, billed yearly at $96.96 and $194.04 — because it meters emails, not contacts. The catches: the free plan sends 300 emails a day, automation is held back from Starter, and Professional jumps to $499 with nothing published in between. For a contact-heavy, send-light list it is the cheapest paid bill in this table at every size.
MailerLite prints every band: $12 at 500 subscribers, $33 at 2,500, $89 at 10,000, with 10% off every annual bill ($129.60 / $356.40 / $961.20) and the full feature set on every paid plan. Watch the steps: the 1,001st subscriber moves the bill from $19 to $33 (+$168 a year), and there is no band between 10,000 and 15,000, where the price jumps to $129 (+45%). Its subscriber count is cumulative inside each billing cycle — deleted addresses keep counting until the anniversary.
GetResponse includes unlimited sending on every paid tier and a structural 18% off twelve-month prepay, verified at exactly 82% of twelve monthly payments at every rung ($285.36 a year at 2,500, $777.36 at 10,000). Its "from $13.30/mo" promotion is a 30% first-term rate on the smallest bill, not the prepay — the real $19 bill is 43% above the advertised floor. No plan tier exists below 1,000 subscribers.
Klaviyo is the e-commerce ladder: $20 at 500 profiles, $60 at 2,500, $150 at 10,000, and the steepest marginal pricing in the category — $175 at 10,500 profiles, $300 a year more for one name over the line. No annual rate is published at any size, so $1,800 at 10,000 is arithmetic, not an offer.
Omnisend publishes its whole two-plan rate table inside its own page: Standard $16 at 251–500 contacts, $44 at 2,001–2,500, $132 at 9,001–10,000, with Pro flat at $59 through 2,000. Its only published discount is a 30% three-month teaser on three months prepaid, there is no annual rate, and — the trap its own billing note documents — contacts who receive automated messages are billed toward your band even if they never subscribed.
ActiveCampaign is the automation upgrade, but its entire public price list is four numbers at the 1,000-contact band — $15/$49/$79/$145, all billed yearly — with no monthly rate published anywhere and nothing at any other list size. Monthly checkout runs roughly 20% above the sticker and appears only in the purchase flow.
Every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page or published plan documentation, on the date stated at the top of this page: Mailchimp's US page re-read October 7, 2026 (its three printed figures and its plan-data ceilings), Kit October 2, MailerLite September 21 with nightly re-checks through October 7, GetResponse October 1 and October 3, Klaviyo September 24 and October 1, Omnisend's rate table October 4, Brevo September 29, ActiveCampaign's checkout September 20. Where a vendor publishes no figure — Mailchimp above 500 contacts on Essentials and Standard, ActiveCampaign beyond 1,000 contacts — we leave the cell empty rather than estimate it. The deeper material sits in our Mailchimp pricing and hidden costs guide, which reads the contact ladder, the send multiplier and the seat caps line by line, and our Mailchimp alternatives guide prices the same five rivals by feature angle rather than list size.
If one size decides your case, our size-by-size reads price every platform that publishes: what seven platforms bill at 10,000 subscribers, including the steps at subscriber 10,001; the same at 2,500; and the list-size cost calculator prices your own count from 500 to 30,000, leaving unpublished bands blank.
The cheapest verified bill in our comparison is $0 — Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited sends on one seat, so 500, 2,500 or 10,000 subscribers all bill nothing. Among paid platforms, Brevo Starter starts at $9 a month ($96.96 billed yearly) and MailerLite Comfort at $12 ($129.60 yearly), both under Mailchimp's $13 Essentials and $20 Standard at the same 0–500 band.
The one published figure at that size is Premium, $350 a month — $4,200 a year at list price, or $3,570 with the printed 15% offer for plans of 10,000 or more contacts on a twelve-month term. Essentials and Standard prices at 10,000 contacts are not published; they come out of the on-page calculator one band at a time.
It is a twelve-month commitment, not a permanent rate: on Premium's $350 list the arithmetic is $297.50 a month, $3,570 a year. Mailchimp's own terms say changing plans while keeping a tier of 10,000 or more contacts resets the price to the then-current list price, and below 10,000 contacts the discount does not apply at all.
Its US pricing page renders one contact band at a time in a plan selector; the printed $13/$20/$350 all belong to the 0–500 band. Every other size requires stepping through the selector, which is why our tables leave Mailchimp's 2,500-contact cell empty rather than estimated.
Commerce-heavy accounts already wired into its store sync and flows, lists above 50,000 contacts where the published ladder thins toward custom quotes, and teams that need phone support — which only Mailchimp's Premium plan includes among the platforms we price.