Good Mailchimp alternatives for a small business are MailerLite and Brevo if you want a free plan and a quick start, CleverReach or rapidmail if you want a German provider, and Listmonk if you run your own server and want the data entirely in your hands. People usually start looking for three reasons: Mailchimp's free plan stops at 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, paid plans get more expensive with every contact tier, and Mailchimp is a US company whose contract allows transfers of customer data to the US. Whichever tool you pick, the move matters more than the choice: take your consent records with you, meaning the time and IP address of signup and confirmation, and import unsubscribed contacts as a block list. All prices below come from the providers' pricing pages, retrieved on November 6, 2026 (status: November 2026); there is no hands-on Mailchimp test behind them.
My own newsletter, "From the Engine Room" in English and "Aus dem Maschinenraum" in German, goes out through Listmonk, which we run ourselves on our servers at Hetzner; the emails are sent through the mail servers of the German host ALL-INKL. For individual email series around webinars and for waiting lists we also use Brevo. That is how my privacy policy (in German) describes it. Where the newsletter sits in the bigger picture, from blog post to community, is in Marketing Funnel Examples: Stages in Practice. If you are just starting, read How to Start a Newsletter: My Own Setup first.
Mailchimp pricing in November 2026
Mailchimp charges by contacts. Viewed from Germany, the pricing page shows these starting prices in euros for the smallest tier of up to 500 contacts:
Three details from the small print:
- Free is tight. No email scheduling, Mailchimp branding stays in your emails, and email support covers only the first 30 days. If you go over the contact or send limit, sending pauses.
- The trial needs a card. Essentials and Standard are free for 14 days, but you have to enter valid payment information at signup. After that, Mailchimp bills by contacts and emails sent.
- Overages are billed automatically. On a paid plan, Mailchimp says it charges overages automatically when you hit your contact or send limit.
So the bill grows with the list, even if you don't send more often.
Free and paid Mailchimp alternatives compared
Entry prices, retrieved November 6, 2026; all rise with contacts or sending volume.
You can sign up with Brevo* without a credit card; it is the provider we use for webinar series and waiting lists. CleverReach advertises a switching discount on its pricing page: 20 percent off the first three months if you upload the last invoice from your previous provider, subject to its promotion terms. What Brevo costs at higher volumes and where it stops is in Brevo Review: Pricing, Limits, Alternatives. All free plans side by side are in Newsletter Platforms Compared: Free Plans.
* Affiliate link: if you sign up with Brevo or buy a plan through this link, I earn a commission. Your price stays the same.
MailerLite vs Mailchimp at 500 subscribers
On the providers' own numbers (November 2026): Free: MailerLite allows 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, Mailchimp 250 contacts and 500 emails a month. Paid: MailerLite Comfort costs €11 or $12 a month billed monthly for 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails and includes removing the MailerLite logo; Mailchimp Essentials starts at €11.69 for up to 500 contacts and 10× that in emails, and Standard at €17.98. MailerLite notes that prices may be subject to applicable taxes, so compare the final invoice for your country. On the free plan, the real difference is the send limit.
Mailchimp and GDPR: what the contract says
Mailchimp's contracting party is The Rocket Science Group LLC. Its data processing addendum states that Mailchimp may transfer customer data to the US and other countries and process it there. For those transfers Mailchimp commits to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, with standard contractual clauses as a fallback. The European Commission adopted its adequacy decision for that framework on July 10, 2023.
That does not rule out a US provider. Some European solo business owners still prefer EU providers, because clients or a large customer ask where the data lives. It is your trade-off. The same question for AI tools is covered in AI and Privacy: What the AI Gets to See.
Self-hosting with Listmonk
Listmonk is the route without a provider: a single binary with a Postgres database that, per the project site, manages single and double opt-in lists. Delivery needs a mail server or SMTP service, and the upkeep (updates, backups, hardening) is yours. What that involves is in Securing Your Own Server: Linux and Windows; how I run my own services is in Kubernetes on Hetzner: k3s in Production. Setup, sending and bounce handling with Listmonk are in Self-Hosted Email Marketing with Listmonk.
Moving your list with consent records
The tricky part of switching is the list, not the tool. Under Art. 7(1) GDPR, whoever relies on consent must be able to demonstrate it, and in Germany, email advertising without prior express consent counts as an unreasonable nuisance under Section 7(2) no. 2 of the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG). So the proof has to move with the list. This is not legal advice; the steps below are the technical side.
- Export the whole audience. Mailchimp exports an audience as a ZIP with separate CSV files for subscribed, non-subscribed, unsubscribed and cleaned contacts. Exports stay in your account for only 30 days, so download and store them safely.
- Keep the consent fields. The export includes
OPTIN_TIME (when the contact accessed your signup form), OPTIN_IP, CONFIRM_TIME (when they clicked the confirmation link) and CONFIRM_IP, and for GDPR-enabled audiences the marketing permissions. Create a field for each of them in the new tool. In Listmonk these extra fields are called attributes.
- Know the gaps. According to Mailchimp, the export does not include the signup source or opens and clicks. Some of that can be exported from an individual contact's profile for GDPR purposes. Also save the wording of your old signup form, as a dated screenshot or text file.
- Import unsubscribed contacts as a block list. Anyone who unsubscribed or was cleaned must not come back as an active contact. Listmonk's importer has a
blocklist mode next to subscribe for exactly this.
- Build the new signup flow first. Form, confirmation email and privacy policy are in place at the new provider before the first contact is imported. Only then switch off the old form and cancel Mailchimp.
For my own newsletter we store exactly this kind of record: email address, time and IP address of signup and confirmation, so the consent can be demonstrated. That is in the privacy policy. How the confirmation flow is built is in Double Opt-In: Email Setup and Legal Basics. Where to place the form is covered in Create a Landing Page: Guide and Tools.
Where Conny helps
Switching tools doesn't change the fact that an issue still needs writing every week. Conny, my AI employee for content, has already tried out a newsletter draft from the week's notes with me; she drafts, and approving is up to you.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to Mailchimp?
Yes. MailerLite's free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, Brevo's free plan up to 300 emails a day, CleverReach Lite 250 recipients and up to 1,000 emails a month (November 2026). Listmonk has no license cost, but you pay for the server and sending.
What is the most GDPR-friendly Mailchimp alternative?
A provider based in the EU with EU data storage, or Listmonk on your own server. With any hosted provider you need a data processing agreement.
Do my contacts have to confirm again after the move?
Not automatically, if you bring the Mailchimp consent records along and the contacts signed up for the same purpose. If records are missing for part of the list, a fresh confirmation for exactly that part is the clean route. How to set up the move with your consent records is something we'll look at together.
Can I take unsubscribed contacts with me?
Yes, and you should, but only as a block list, so nobody who left gets mailed again. Listmonk's importer has a blocklist mode for this.
Where to go from here
Export your Mailchimp audience today and check whether OPTIN_TIME and CONFIRM_TIME are filled for your contacts. Then you know how clean your move will be. To get "From the Engine Room" yourself, a weekly real case from my office, the rule behind it and a template, pick a resource on my free resources page and sign up there. My AI employees, Conny and Sebastian included, are available to load in the Premium tier of my community AI Employee Framework.
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