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Mailchimp alternatives and how to leave without a CSV
Teams leave Mailchimp when the price grows with the list, or when they outgrow what the plan allows. If you are shopping for competitors, free options or a cheaper tool, start with what you actually use.
What Mailchimp’s pricing page says
- Free plan: 250 contacts, 500 emails a month (250 a day), one seat, one audience.
- Paid plans: Essentials, Standard and Premium. Standard and Essentials have a 14-day trial.
- Prices rise through contact tiers. Check the number for your list size on their page, and check whether unsubscribed contacts count towards your tier.
Questions that decide it
- How many contacts do you have, and how many can you actually email?
- Which features do you use: automation, landing pages, segments?
- Do you need a CRM next to the email tool?
- Where must your data be stored?
Where to move
OpenContact can move a Mailchimp audience, with custom fields and tags, to:
MailerLite’s free plan is 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, against Mailchimp’s 500 (checked 23 October 2026).
Leaving Mailchimp safely
- Pending contacts (unconfirmed double opt-in) and transactional members are skipped. They never confirmed consent.
- Unsubscribed, bounced and complained contacts are not added to the new list.
- Merge fields are copied. Address fields are split into separate fields.
- Tags and groups are copied. Groups arrive as “Group: Option”.
- Saved segments are not copied. Rebuild them from the tags or fields they used.
- Whole account: each audience is matched to a list with the same name, and they move one at a time.