Mailchimp

Mailchimp has been around since 2001 and remains one of the most recognized names in email marketing, now used by over 11 million businesses worldwide. It was acquired by Intuit in 2021 and has continued rolling out new features since then, including AI powered content tools branded as Intuit Assist. For small businesses just getting started, Mailchimp's appeal is its polished onboarding experience and a template library that makes it easy to build professional looking campaigns without any design skill.

Where Mailchimp really shines is ecommerce. Its integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, and other major platforms are mature and well documented, and features like predictive segmentation and send-time optimization on the Standard plan help online stores get more out of automated flows like abandoned cart recovery. The platform also includes a Marketing CRM, website builder, and landing page tools bundled alongside the core email product, so smaller businesses can run more of their marketing from one place.

The tradeoff is pricing. Mailchimp's free plan was reduced to just 250 contacts and 500 emails per month as of January 2026, and every paid tier bills you for total contacts including unsubscribed and non-subscribed ones unless you manually archive them. The Essentials plan starts at $13 a month for 500 contacts, the Standard plan (Mailchimp's recommended tier, where multi-step automation unlocks) starts at $20 a month, and Premium starts at $350 a month for 10,000 contacts. Costs climb quickly as your list grows, which is the main reason so many small businesses eventually look at alternatives.

Mailchimp is still a solid choice if you're already inside its ecosystem, need deep ecommerce integrations, or want the reassurance of a widely used, well documented platform. For businesses that are more budget sensitive, it's worth comparing it directly against options like TrueEmailer or Brevo before committing.