Beehiiv vs Mailchimp

Monthly list prices checked October 7, 2026, for new customers. beehiiv switched to Free / Lite / Pro on October 1, 2026; existing customers move to the new prices at their first renewal on or after November 1.

How to read this:

• beehiiv’s Free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, so a 1,000-subscriber newsletter can run for $0 if it doesn’t need automations, the Ad Network, paid subscriptions or a custom domain. Mailchimp Free stops at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month.
• Under about 10,000, Mailchimp is cheaper on paid plans. At 25,000, beehiiv Lite ($199) costs less than either Mailchimp plan.
• Every beehiiv plan has unlimited sends. Mailchimp allows 10x contacts on Essentials and 12x on Standard, and bills unsubscribed contacts too.
• Annual billing: beehiiv Lite at 10,000 is $119/mo billed yearly. Mailchimp offers annual plans only on Standard and Premium above 10,000 contacts, through sales.

beehiiv takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue on its own plans (Stripe fees apply) and 20% of paid recommendations. Full tables: beehiiv review and Mailchimp review.

Beehiiv and Mailchimp serve fundamentally different use cases. Beehiiv is built for newsletters AS a business — with growth tools, monetization, and audience building baked in. Mailchimp is built for businesses that USE email as a marketing channel.

Beehiiv offers a newsletter website, recommendation network, referral program, ad network, and paid subscriptions. Mailchimp offers a broader template library, website builder, social media tools, and 300+ integrations. The right choice depends on whether the newsletter is your product or supports a product.

Beehiiv's editor is modern and blog-like — closer to writing in Notion or Medium than in a traditional email builder. Rich formatting, image embedding, interactive blocks (polls, CTAs), and a clean writing experience make it a joy for newsletter creators.

Mailchimp's drag-and-drop editor is polished and familiar. It's designed for marketing campaigns with templates, design blocks, and social integration. Both are beginner-friendly but optimized for different workflows.

beehiiv's automations start on Lite (up to 10 live) and Pro adds unlimited automations — welcome sequences, conditional logic, and subscriber journey mapping. It's designed for newsletter workflows: onboarding new subscribers, nurturing engaged readers, and monetization funnels.

Mailchimp's Marketing Automation Flows handle traditional marketing automation: welcome series, abandoned carts, date-based triggers. Both are adequate for their respective use cases but neither matches ActiveCampaign for automation depth.

We haven't published a like-for-like inbox-placement test of these two, so we don't rank them on deliverability. beehiiv documents SPF and DKIM setup for custom sending domains and has required DMARC on them since February 2024. Its analytics dashboard shows subscriber growth, engagement trends, revenue metrics, and referral program performance.

Mailchimp authenticates your domain with DKIM and DMARC records and requires DMARC for senders of more than 5,000 emails a day to Gmail or Yahoo. On either platform, list quality and engagement decide inbox placement more than the platform. For newsletter-specific metrics, beehiiv's reporting is more relevant and actionable.

Choose Beehiiv if the newsletter is your primary product — whether through sponsorships, paid subscriptions, or paid recommendations. Its growth tools, modern editor, and monetization features are unmatched for newsletter-first creators.

If you sell courses or digital products to your list rather than relying on ads and sponsorships, also read our Kit (ConvertKit) review: its free plan covers 10,000 subscribers.

Choose Mailchimp if you're running a business that sends email campaigns (not a newsletter). If you need ecommerce integrations, a broad template library, and maximum third-party connections, Mailchimp is more versatile.

If the newsletter IS the product, choose Beehiiv. If email supports a different product, choose Mailchimp. It's that simple.

beehiiv's growth tools (paid recommendations, referral program, Ad Network) and 0% subscription revenue fees give newsletter creators an unfair advantage. Mailchimp's integration ecosystem and design tools serve traditional businesses better.