Campaign Monitor vs Mailchimp

Campaign Monitor costs more than Mailchimp at almost every list size we priced, so there’s one good reason to pick it: you manage email for clients. Without sub-accounts, client dashboards and white-labeling on your list of needs, Mailchimp does the same job for less.

• At 10,000 contacts, Campaign Monitor Essentials is $182 a month and Mailchimp Standard $135 (list prices as of October 2026).
• Mailchimp has a free plan for 250 contacts. Campaign Monitor has a 30-day trial capped at 500 contacts and 500 emails.
• Campaign Monitor Essentials and Premier send unlimited email; Lite caps sends at 5x contacts.
• Campaign Monitor takes 10% off any plan billed annually. Mailchimp sells annual billing only on Standard and Premium above 10,000 contacts, through sales.
• Neither leads on automation. If branching flows are the job, compare ActiveCampaign instead.

Monthly list prices, checked October 8, 2026 (Campaign Monitor) and October 7, 2026 (Mailchimp). Taxes, add-ons and promotions excluded.

How to read this:

• Neither has a 1,000-contact tier, so 1,000 contacts lands in Campaign Monitor’s 501–2,500 bracket and Mailchimp’s 1,500 bracket. That’s where Mailchimp is cheapest.
• Campaign Monitor Lite caps sends at 5x your contacts; Essentials and Premier are unlimited. Mailchimp allows 10x (Essentials) or 12x (Standard).
• Campaign Monitor Lite is cheaper than Mailchimp Essentials at 25,000 contacts ($241 vs $270), but Essentials-for-Essentials Campaign Monitor costs more at every size here.
• Campaign Monitor takes 10% off any plan billed annually. Mailchimp only offers annual billing on Standard and Premium above 10,000 contacts, through sales; it does take 15% off for the first 12 months at 10,000+ contacts.

Campaign Monitor’s Premier plan ($171 at 500 contacts, $300 at 10,000) adds phone support and advanced features. Mailchimp Premium starts at 10,000 contacts for $350. For Mailchimp’s full table, see our Mailchimp review.

Campaign Monitor’s public pricing shows month-to-month prices by default, which is the basis of every Campaign Monitor figure above: Lite is $117 a month at 10,000 contacts (re-checked November 8, 2026). Billing annually takes 10% off any plan. Mailchimp’s $110 Essentials and $135 Standard at the same size are also monthly list prices, and it offers annual billing only on Standard and Premium above 10,000 contacts, through sales.

Both tools price by contacts, not sends, so compare them on how many people you still mail (see the counting rule below). For the full Campaign Monitor plan table, read the Campaign Monitor review. Shopping a third option? Constant Contact Lite at 10,000 contacts is $102 a month billed annually, per its fee schedule (checked November 8, 2026), so it is not a like-for-like monthly price; see the Constant Contact review.

Campaign Monitor’s builder is its signature: drag-and-drop editing, a library of 100+ responsive templates, imported custom HTML, and branded templates generated from your website. Template locking with editing permissions keeps brand sections consistent across teams and client accounts.

Mailchimp’s editor is solid and beginner-friendly, but its templates aren’t as polished. For teams where email design is a competitive advantage, Campaign Monitor is the stronger pick.

Mailchimp has a free plan: 250 contacts and 500 sends a month (250 a day), with Mailchimp branding and no A/B testing. Campaign Monitor has no free plan; its 30-day free trial is limited to 500 contacts and 500 emails.

For a small business that wants to start at $0 and stay there for a while, that settles it. If you’re evaluating for a team or agency, a month of Campaign Monitor’s trial is enough to judge the builder and client setup.

This is Campaign Monitor’s biggest differentiator. Its agency features include tiered sub-accounts under one admin account, a dashboard and activity feed across clients, client-level insights, user roles per client, removal of Campaign Monitor branding, and the option to bill clients on contract or pay-as-you-go.

Mailchimp has no built-in client sub-account structure, so agencies usually run a separate Mailchimp account for each client. That works, but it means more logins and no shared view. See our best email platforms for agencies for other options.

Neither leads on automation. Campaign Monitor offers automated journeys, drip campaigns and date-based campaign series. Mailchimp limits Essentials to flows of up to 4 steps; Standard opens up to 200 multi-step flows.

If branching automation, lead scoring or a CRM matters more than design, compare Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign.

Because Mailchimp counts more than your subscribers. Its help center counts subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts toward your monthly contact limit; only cleaned (hard-bounced) and archived contacts are left out. Pass the limit and Mailchimp keeps sending but adds a charge for extra contact blocks, based on your peak contact total for the billing period.

So the 10,000-contact price in the table above may cover fewer than 10,000 people who still want your email. Before you compare quotes, archive unsubscribed contacts in Mailchimp. Archived contacts drop out of your billing tier, can’t be emailed, and have to be archived separately from each audience they sit in. Campaign Monitor’s public pricing page doesn’t spell out its counting rule, so compare both on the number of people you still mail.

1. Export the account, not just the audience. Mailchimp’s account export includes HTML files for all your email templates, alongside audiences and reports.
2. Split the audience files. The audience export comes as separate files for subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed and cleaned contacts. Add the unsubscribed and cleaned addresses to Campaign Monitor’s suppression list first (a one-column file, up to 50,000 addresses at a time), then import the subscribed file. Suppressed addresses are skipped during list imports, so nobody who left gets mailed.
3. Import the HTML templates into Campaign Monitor’s builder, which accepts custom HTML, then lock the brand sections before clients or teammates edit them.
4. Rebuild automations as Campaign Monitor journeys and authenticate your sending domain before the first campaign.

Pick Campaign Monitor if you run an agency that needs client sub-accounts, cross-client dashboards, locked brand templates and white-labeling. Pick Mailchimp if you’re a small business that wants a free start, 300+ integrations and the lower bill from 1,000 to 10,000 contacts. Leaving Mailchimp over price rather than design? Start with the Mailchimp alternatives.

If you don’t bill clients for email, don’t pay agency prices for it.