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Mailchimp Alternative With No Monthly Fee
Mailchimp is the best-known email marketing tool, and for businesses that email every week it's a solid choice. But its paid plans are priced by how many contacts you store, so you pay every month whether you send or not. If you email a few times a year, or your list is bigger than your budget, a pay-as-you-go tool can cost much less.
This page compares Mailchimp's plans with MailAddiction using each company's own published terms, and is honest about where Mailchimp is the better fit.
How Mailchimp's plans work
According to Mailchimp's own pricing and help pages (checked 2026-10-23):
- Free plan: limited to 250 contacts, with a maximum of 500 emails a month or 250 a day.
- Essentials: advertised from $13 a month for the first 12 months. The starting price covers up to 500 contacts, and the price rises with your contact count. The monthly send limit is 10 times your contact limit.
- Pay As You Go: you buy credits instead of a subscription, and each email sent uses one credit. Mailchimp says the credits expire after 12 months and that it doesn't refund unused credits. The plan has the same features as Essentials.
Sources: Mailchimp marketing plans, Mailchimp Pay As You Go, About Mailchimp pricing plans. Mailchimp changes its pricing often, so check those pages for current numbers.
How MailAddiction's pricing works
MailAddiction bills by the emails you send in a month, not by contacts stored. The first 2,500 emails every month are free, and there's no contract.
| Emails sent in a month | Price for that month |
|---|---|
| Up to 2,500 | Free |
| 2,501 to 5,000 | $9.95 |
| 5,001 to 10,000 | $14.95 |
| 10,001 to 25,000 | $24.95 |
| 25,001 to 50,000 | $39.95 |
| 50,001 to 100,000 | $49.95 |
Higher volumes are on the pricing page. A month with no sends costs nothing, and you're never charged for keeping a contact on your list.
Side-by-side: the terms that decide your bill
| Mailchimp | MailAddiction | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Contacts stored (Free, Essentials) or credits (Pay As You Go) | Emails sent each month |
| Free allowance | 250 contacts, 500 emails a month | 2,500 emails every month, any list size |
| Months you don't send | Subscription plans still bill | Free |
| Prepaid credits expire? | Pay As You Go credits expire after 12 months | No prepaid bundles to buy |
| Contract | Monthly or annual plans | None |
When MailAddiction costs less
- You send occasionally. A club, church, school or seasonal business that emails in some months and not others pays nothing in the quiet months.
- Your list is large but you email it rarely. Contact-based plans charge for every stored contact every month. MailAddiction charges only for what you send.
- You're under 2,500 emails a month. A 1,200-person list emailed twice a month stays free, well beyond Mailchimp's 250-contact free plan.
Enter your current Mailchimp bill into the pay-as-you-go calculator to compare a full year.
When Mailchimp is the better choice
Mailchimp has a much larger feature set and ecosystem: advanced automation journeys, a large template library, and many integrations with e-commerce and CRM tools. If you email a large list several times every week and rely on those features, a Mailchimp plan can be worth it. MailAddiction focuses on the core loop: writing (with AI help), lists, scheduling, sending and reporting, plus cross-posting to social media.
Switching from Mailchimp
- Export your audience from Mailchimp as a CSV file.
- Create a free MailAddiction account (no credit card) and upload the list. Bounce and unsubscribe handling are automatic.
- Recreate your template in the WYSIWYG editor, or paste your HTML into the source view.
- Send a test, then your first campaign. If it's under 2,500 emails, it's free.
Only import contacts who agreed to hear from you, and keep the unsubscribes from your old tool off the new list.
FAQ
Is there a Mailchimp alternative with no monthly fee?
Yes. MailAddiction has no subscription. You pay only in months where you send more than 2,500 emails, at that month's tier price.
Is MailAddiction cheaper than Mailchimp?
For occasional senders and large, rarely emailed lists, usually yes. For high-frequency senders who use Mailchimp's advanced automation, not necessarily. Run your own numbers in the pay-as-you-go calculator.
Do MailAddiction credits expire?
There are no bundles to prepay. You pay for a month's volume in that month, and unused paid credits carry over to the next month.
Try it on your next campaign
Create a free account and send your next campaign on the free tier. If it's under 2,500 emails, you'll never see a bill.
