9 Best Free & Cheap MailChimp Alternatives In 2024

Every marketer and blogger will tell you to start an email list as soon as you launch your website. But what they don’t tell you is how expensive it can be to maintain an email list.

Sure, you can get started using MailChimp’s free plan but that’s only good for a list of 2,000 subscribers. Your list will grow fast and reach the 2k cap quickly. Once it does, you will be forced to pay a huge monthly fee.

For example, MailChimp charges $59 a month for an email list with 5,000 subscribers. Even if you heavily monetize your email list, a big chunk of your revenue will go to your email marketing software.

You don’t have to pay those expensive fees. It’s wise to look for MailChimp alternatives before it’s too late. There are far cheaper alternatives to MailChimp, AWeber, and other email marketing platforms out there. Today, we’ll introduce you to some of them.

If you’re already using MailChimp or another email marketing software, export your email list and migrate to one of these platforms. They are much cheaper. Some of them are actually completely free to use.

1. Sendy

sendy

  • Price: $69

Sendy is the most affordable and efficient alternative to MailChimp. It allows you to fully be in control of your email list and maintain an email list for the same price no matter how big it gets.

Sendy is a self-hosted email marketing software. You pay a one-time price of $69 to acquire the software and then set it up on your own web hosting server. After that, you can connect it with Amazon SES to send emails to your list.

With Amazon SES, it will only cost you around $1 to send 10k emails.

Main Features

  • No limits on how many subscribers you can have
  • Puts you in total control of your email list and how you send emails
  • Integrates with Amazon SES to send emails at cheap rates
  • Includes autoresponders, detailed reports, list segments, and more
  • Supports third-party integrations with WordPress, Zapier, and more

2. Revue

revue

  • Price: Free

Revue is an email marketing platform dedicated to creators, influencers, and small bloggers. It allows you to manage an email list with unlimited subscribers and send as many emails as you want, for free!

Revue was recently acquired by Twitter and now the platform lets you directly integrate Revue with Twitter to grow your email list.

You can also monetize your email list by sending premium newsletters to paid members. For this, the platform charges a small fee. Other than that the only downside to using Revue is its basic and overly simple email editor that offers very few options for customzing email designs.

Main Features

  • Completely free to use and send unlimited emails
  • You can manage an email list with unlimited subscribers
  • Integrates with Twitter to help grow your email list
  • Easily monetize email list with exclusive newsletters
  • Basic stats and reports

3. TinyLetter

tinyletter

  • Price: Free

TinyLetter is another email marketing service that works similar to Revue. This platform is also completely free to use. Ironically it’s actually brought to you by MailChimp.

And yes, since it’s from MailChimp there is a hidden catch to using this platform. It only allows you to host up to 5,000 subscribers. For bigger lists, they recommend using MailChimp. No surprise there.

However, TinyLetter is a good starting platform for small content creators and personal bloggers.

Main Features

  • Manage an email list of up to 5k subscribers
  • Completely free to use
  • Simple statistics on open and click rates
  • Beginner-friendly and easy to setup

4. Cloudy

cloudy

  • Price: $1.99

Cloudy is another email marketing platform that utilizes Amazon SES to send emails. And it’s very similar to using Sendy. Except when using this platform, you don’t have to worry about setting up the software by yourself or paying for a web hosting platform.

Cloudy is easy to setup than Sendy. However, it does require you to create and setup your Amazon SES account. It also offers a good email editor with HTML and templates.

Cloudy costs just $1.99 per month to send up to 5,000 emails per month. Or $9.99 to send up to 100k emails per month. You can host unlimited subscribers as well.

Main Features

  • Manage an email list with unlimited subscribers
  • Email editor with support for templates and HTML
  • Basic automation options and statistics reports
  • No installation or hosting required

5. SendGrid

sendgrid

  • Price: $14.95 per month

SendGrid is one of the more popular and slightly more expensive options on our list. However, it offers plenty of value for the price. SendGrid has a free plan but it only allows you to send 100 emails per day. So we’ll only focus on the premium plans.

The Essentials plan allows you to send 40k emails per month for $14.95 per month. If you have an email list of 10k subscribers, this plan is more than enough to send a weekly newsletter. And it’s $29.95 per month to send up to 100k emails.

In return, SendGrid gives you higher deliverability rates, a more advanced email editor, and deeper analytics.

Main Features

  • Offers better and improved deliverability rates for your emails
  • Advanced email editor with custom templates
  • Includes automation and signup forms
  • Easy to setup and manage

6. weMail

wemail

  • Price: Free / $5 a month

weMail is a fairly new contender to join the email marketing software industry. It offers a generous free plan that lets you host up to 3,000 subscribers. And its premium plans are quite affordable as well.

For just $5 a month, you can use weMail to host unlimited subscribers and send unlimited emails. The site does mention that these prices may change in the future but promises to offer affordable plans for everyone.

Main Features

  • Offers an email template builder
  • Optin forms and signup forms
  • Supports integration with WordPress and WooCommerce
  • Detailed analytics and reports

7. SendFox

sendfox

  • Price: $49

SendFox is very affordable and it allows you to send unlimited emails forever for a one-time price. On the surface, it looks a bit too good to be true. And in a way, it is.

While you can send as many emails as you want and buy additional space for subscribers at an affordable price, SendFox has a hidden system that limits your email volume based on how your emails perform.

If your emails have an open rate below 20%, SendFox will only send your next email to a very limited number of subscribers on your list based on an automatic system that determines the “most active” subscribers on the list.

If you don’t mind dealing with that system, SendFox is very affordable. For the one-time price of $49, you can host up to 5k subscribers and send unlimited emails without having to pay any monthly fees. And you can extend the subscriber limit as well.

Main Features

  • Send unlimited emails forever for a one-time price
  • Supports email automation and signup forms
  • Create unlimited subscriber lists
  • Basic email editor

8. MailJet

mailjet

  • Price: $15 a month

MailJet is another affordable email marketing solution that allows you to host an email list with unlimited subscribers. It has pricing plans starting at $15 a month for sending up to 15k emails.

In return, you get access to a beautiful email editor with custom templates, A/B testing, automation, list segments, email verifications, and more.

MailJet also has a free plan where you can send up to 6k emails per month but with a 20 emails per day limit.

Main Features

  • Allows you to manage an email list with unlimited subscribers
  • Advanced and easy-to-use email editor
  • Lots of beautiful email templates to choose from
  • A/B testing and automation features

9. SendInBlue

sendinblue

  • Price: $25 per month

Sendinblue is a little bit more expensive than most other options on our list. But it’s definitely more affordable compared to MailChimp.

With Sendinblue, you can host unlimited email subscribers. And you can send up to 20k emails per month for $25 per month. Or $32 a month for sending 40k emails.

It’s expensive, but compared to what MailChimp charges, it’s much more affordable.

Main Features

  • Host unlimited subscribers
  • A/B testing and advanced reports on statistics
  • Improved deliverability rates
  • Advanced list segmentation

Which MailChimp Alternative Should You Use?

If you have the technical knowledge to setup Sendy on a server, we highly recommend using it to manage your email list. Heck, even hiring someone to set it up for you will be worth it.

Or if you only have a small personal blog or fresh new website, you can try using a platform like Revue. It’s perfect for beginners and for sending simple newsletters.