Originally published at devtoolpicks.com
Mailchimp cut its free plan to 250 contacts and 500 emails per month in January 2026. That was the second reduction in three years. The free tier used to support 2,000 contacts. Then it dropped to 500. Now 250.
If you are an indie hacker with a growing email list, you probably noticed your bill going up while the features stayed the same. Mailchimp's Essentials plan starts at $13/month for 500 contacts, but at 5,000 contacts you are paying $75/month. Standard jumps to $100/month at the same contact count. And unsubscribed contacts still count toward your limit unless you manually archive them.
The tool that used to be the default for small creators is now one of the most expensive options in its category.
Here are 5 alternatives that cost less, do more, and won't penalize you for growing your list.
Quick verdict
| Tool | Best for | Free plan | Paid from | Our pick |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | Budget-conscious builders | 500 subs, 12K emails/mo | $10/mo | Best value |
| Kit | Creators selling digital products | 10,000 subs | $33/mo | Best free tier |
| Beehiiv | Newsletter monetization | 2,500 subs | $49/mo | Best for newsletters |
| Buttondown | Developers and minimalists | 100 subs | $9/mo | Cheapest paid plan |
| Loops | SaaS product email | 1,000 contacts | $49/mo | Best for SaaS |
MailerLite
MailerLite is the closest thing to what Mailchimp used to be before Intuit bought it. Simple interface, fair pricing, and a free plan that actually lets you do things.
Pricing:
- Free: 500 subscribers, 12,000 emails/month, automation included
- Growing Business: $10/month (500 subs), $73/month (5K subs)
- Advanced: $20/month (500 subs), includes custom HTML editor and AI writing assistant
- 10% discount on annual billing
The free plan includes automation workflows, A/B testing, and 10 landing pages. Compare that to Mailchimp's free tier, which stripped out all automation in mid-2025 and caps you at 250 contacts with 500 monthly sends.
MailerLite only counts active contacts toward your limit. Unsubscribes and bounces are excluded. That alone saves money if you have been on Mailchimp for years with a list full of dead contacts inflating your bill.
The drag-and-drop editor is clean and the templates are good enough for a weekly newsletter or product update. You can also sell digital products and subscriptions directly, which is useful if you run a paid newsletter or sell a guide.
Who should NOT use MailerLite: Teams that need advanced CRM features, deep third-party integrations, or SMS marketing on lower-tier plans. The free plan was also cut from 1,000 to 500 subscribers in September 2025, so the generosity is trending in the wrong direction.
Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
Kit is the email platform that most indie hackers and content creators end up on. There is a reason for that. The free plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited email sends. No other tool in this list comes close to that.
Pricing:
- Newsletter (Free): 10,000 subscribers, unlimited sends, 1 automation, sell digital products
- Creator: $33/month annual ($39/month monthly) for 1,000 subs
- Creator Pro: $66/month annual ($79/month monthly) for 1,000 subs
- 14-day free trial on paid plans
Kit raised prices in September 2025. The old Creator plan at $15/month is gone. The new starting price of $33/month puts it above MailerLite and Buttondown for paid plans. But that free tier is hard to beat.
The visual automation builder is where Kit earns its keep. You can build welcome sequences, tag-based funnels, and multi-step drip campaigns without writing code. If you sell courses, ebooks, or templates, Kit's built-in commerce features let you handle payments and delivery from the same dashboard.
Kit also offers free migration on paid plans for lists over 5,000 subscribers. If you are stuck on Mailchimp with a large list and dreading the switch, that removes one of the biggest barriers.
I covered Kit in more detail in my Kit vs Beehiiv vs Mailchimp comparison, including a head-to-head breakdown on automation, pricing at scale, and deliverability.
Who should NOT use Kit: Developers who want a minimal, code-first tool. Kit is built for creators, not engineers. The editor is visual and opinionated. If you want Markdown support or raw API control, Buttondown is a better fit.
Beehiiv
Beehiiv is not an email marketing tool. It is a newsletter platform. That distinction matters because it bundles things that Mailchimp charges extra for: a hosted website, SEO-friendly archives, a referral program, and a built-in ad network.
Pricing:
- Launch (Free): 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends, website, custom domain
- Scale: $49/month ($43/month annual) for 1,000+ subs
- Max: $109/month ($96/month annual), removes Beehiiv branding
- 0% take rate on paid subscriptions (Substack charges 10%)
The free plan is genuinely generous. You get 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, a website builder, a custom domain, and access to the recommendation network. Most free plans in this space give you far less.
Where Beehiiv stands out is monetization. The Scale plan unlocks the Beehiiv Ad Network, Boosts (get paid to recommend other newsletters), and paid subscriptions with zero platform fees. You keep every dollar your subscribers pay, minus Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee. If you are building a newsletter business, that 0% take rate saves real money compared to Substack's 10% cut.
The biggest gap is the jump from free to paid. There is no $15 or $20 middle tier. You go from $0 to $49/month the moment you outgrow 2,500 subscribers or need monetization features. That is a steep step for an early-stage indie hacker still validating a newsletter idea.
Who should NOT use Beehiiv: Anyone who needs traditional email marketing features like e-commerce automation, deep CRM integration, or behavioral triggers beyond basic sequences. Beehiiv is built for publishers, not for SaaS product email.
Buttondown
Buttondown is the newsletter tool that developers actually enjoy using. It supports Markdown natively, has a well-documented REST API, and takes 0% of your paid subscription revenue.
Pricing:
- Free: 100 subscribers
- Paid: $9/month for up to 1,000 subscribers
- No revenue cut on paid newsletters
- Concierge migration included (they move your list for you within one business day)
At $9/month, Buttondown has the cheapest paid plan in this roundup. The feature set is intentionally minimal. You write emails, send them, and manage subscribers. There is no visual automation builder, no landing page creator, no ad network. That is the point.
Buttondown is built and maintained by a small independent team. It is not backed by venture capital pushing for growth-at-all-costs feature bloat. If you have used Mailchimp and felt overwhelmed by features you never touched, Buttondown is the opposite experience.
The API is complete. Everything you can do in the UI is available programmatically. For indie hackers who build their own tools or want to integrate their newsletter into a custom stack, that flexibility matters more than a drag-and-drop editor.
The free plan is limited to 100 subscribers, which is tight. You will hit the paid tier quickly. But at $9/month, it is less than a single month of Mailchimp Essentials.
Who should NOT use Buttondown: Anyone who wants visual templates, growth tools, or a platform that handles audience building for you. Buttondown is a writing and sending tool, not a marketing platform. If you need referral programs, built-in SEO, or ad placements, look at Beehiiv instead.
Loops
Loops is the only tool in this list built specifically for SaaS product email. It handles marketing email, transactional email, and onboarding sequences from a single platform. No need to bolt Mailchimp onto SendGrid or Postmark.
Pricing:
- Free: 1,000 contacts, 4,000 sends/month (includes transactional)
- Paid: $49/month for up to 5,000 contacts, unlimited sends
- All features available on every plan (no feature gating)
- Transactional email included at no extra cost
If you are building a SaaS product and need to send welcome emails, trial expiration reminders, password resets, and weekly digests from the same tool, Loops simplifies the stack. Most indie hackers use Mailchimp for marketing and a separate provider for transactional email. Loops eliminates that split.
The editor is clean and modern. The automation builder uses events and properties from your product data, so you can trigger emails based on what users actually do in your app. Connect via API, and Loops becomes part of your product infrastructure rather than a separate marketing tool you log into once a week.
Loops is Y Combinator-backed and growing fast among early-stage SaaS teams. The product is still maturing. Integrations are more limited than Mailchimp or Kit, and reporting is basic compared to tools that have been around for a decade.
If you need transactional email alongside your marketing sends, also check my Resend vs Postmark vs Mailgun comparison for a deeper look at the transactional side.
Who should NOT use Loops: Newsletter creators, bloggers, or anyone who does not have a SaaS product generating user events. Loops is designed around product data. Without an app feeding it events, you are paying for infrastructure you will not use.
How to choose
You want the cheapest option that works: MailerLite. $10/month gets you unlimited emails, automation, and templates. The free plan includes features Mailchimp charges $20/month for.
You want the best free plan for a growing list: Kit. 10,000 subscribers for free is unmatched. If you are still under 10K and do not need advanced automation, you can run your entire email operation at $0.
You are building a newsletter business: Beehiiv. The 0% take rate on paid subscriptions, the built-in ad network, and the Boosts marketplace are purpose-built for monetizing a newsletter audience.
You are a developer who wants simplicity: Buttondown. Markdown, API, $9/month, no bloat. Done.
You are building a SaaS product: Loops. Marketing, transactional, and onboarding email in one platform.
FAQ
Is Mailchimp still worth it in 2026?
For indie hackers, probably not. The free plan is now limited to 250 contacts and 500 sends per month with no automation. Paid plans start at $13/month but climb quickly. At 5,000 contacts, you are paying $75 to $100/month for features that MailerLite offers at $10 to $20/month. Mailchimp still works well for larger businesses that use its CRM and multi-channel marketing features, but solo builders will find better value elsewhere.
Can I migrate my list from Mailchimp without losing subscribers?
Yes. Every tool in this list supports CSV import. Kit and Buttondown offer free hands-on migration where their team moves your list, templates, and automations for you. Beehiiv and MailerLite have straightforward self-service import. Export your Mailchimp list as a CSV, clean out unsubscribed contacts, and import into your new tool. The switch typically takes 30 minutes.
Which tool has the best deliverability?
All five tools in this list maintain strong deliverability rates. Kit and MailerLite have the longest track records. Beehiiv and Loops are newer but use reputable sending infrastructure. Buttondown recently announced plans to build its own sending infrastructure in 2026. For most indie hackers sending weekly or biweekly newsletters, deliverability differences between these tools are negligible. Your content and list hygiene matter more than the platform.
Do I need separate tools for marketing and transactional email?
If you run a SaaS product, yes, unless you use Loops, which handles both. Mailchimp, Kit, Beehiiv, and Buttondown are designed for marketing email. For transactional email like password resets and order confirmations, you will need a separate provider. Check my Resend vs Postmark vs Mailgun comparison for options.
What about Substack?
Substack takes 10% of all paid subscription revenue on top of Stripe's processing fees. For a newsletter earning $5,000/month, that is $500 going to Substack every month. Both Beehiiv and Buttondown charge 0% on paid subscriptions. If monetization is your goal, Substack's fee structure is hard to justify when alternatives exist.
Bottom line
Mailchimp was the default for a long time. It is not anymore. The free plan is effectively useless, the paid plans are overpriced for solo builders, and the billing model that counts unsubscribed contacts toward your limit is frustrating.
If I were starting a newsletter today as an indie hacker, I would start on Kit's free plan (10,000 subscribers is a long runway) and switch to Beehiiv's Scale plan when I was ready to monetize. If I were building a SaaS product, I would go with Loops. If I wanted the absolute cheapest option, MailerLite at $10/month.
Pick the one that fits how you work. All five are better than watching Mailchimp raise your bill every quarter.
Comparing email tools for your SaaS? Also read: Kit vs Beehiiv vs Mailchimp for Indie Hackers and Resend vs Postmark vs Mailgun for Solo Developers.
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