Mailchimp vs SendGrid: Pricing Comparison 2026
Side-by-side pricing comparison of Mailchimp and SendGrid. See all plans, features, and costs at a glance.
Bottom line: Mailchimp starts at Custom pricing and SendGrid starts at $19.95/mo. Compare all 5 pricing tiers side by side.
Last updated: July 2, 2026
Mailchimp vs SendGrid: Quick Pricing Facts
| Feature | Mailchimp | SendGrid |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | Custom pricing | $19.95/mo |
| Number of Plans | 1 | 4 |
| Free Tier | No | Yes |
| Pricing Model | usage-based | usage-based |
| Annual Discount | N/A | N/A |
Mailchimp and SendGrid are both priced at Custom pricing, making them equally accessible Email Marketing tools. Together they offer 5 pricing plans with 16 features compared, so the best choice comes down to which features match your needs.
SendGrid stands out with a free plan for getting started.
Review the detailed tier-by-tier comparison above to see exactly which features are included at each price point and find the best fit for your Email Marketing needs.
| Pricing Plans |  Mailchimp Try free |  SendGrid Try free |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Meilleure offre Custom pricing | Free Trial $0/monthCheapest Includes
|
| Tier 2 | - | Essentials $20/monthCheapest Includes
|
| Tier 3 | - | Pro $90/monthCheapest Includes
|
| Tier 4 | - | Premier Custom pricing Includes
|
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What Reviewers Say
Which Should You Choose?
Choose Mailchimp if:
- •You want an all-in-one email marketing platform with drag-and-drop campaign editors, audience segmentation, and landing pages
- •Your primary use case is marketing campaigns and newsletters, not transactional email delivery infrastructure
- •You want built-in analytics including open rates, click maps, and revenue attribution without integrating separate tracking
- •Your team includes non-technical marketers who need to build and send campaigns without writing code
Choose SendGrid if:
- •You need reliable transactional email delivery infrastructure for order confirmations, password resets, and system notifications
- •SendGrid Essentials at $19.95/month delivers 50,000 emails to developers building applications with API-driven email
- •You want a developer-first email API with detailed delivery analytics, bounce management, and IP reputation tools
- •Your application sends millions of emails monthly and you need programmatic control over deliverability and template rendering
Mailchimp and SendGrid are frequently compared, but they serve different ends of the email spectrum. Mailchimp is a marketing platform designed for campaign managers and marketers. SendGrid is an email delivery infrastructure company designed for developers building applications. The best choice depends on what kind of emails you are sending. Marketing emails - newsletters, promotional campaigns, drip sequences - are what Mailchimp was built for. Its audience segmentation, A/B testing, and campaign analytics are designed for marketers who measure success in open rates and conversions. SendGrid can send marketing email too, but its Marketing Campaigns product is secondary to its core transactional infrastructure, and the UX reflects that. Transactional emails - order confirmations, shipping notifications, password resets, account alerts - are SendGrid's home territory. Its email API, webhook delivery events, and IP reputation management are optimized for high-volume, programmatic sending with maximum deliverability. SendGrid Essentials at $19.95/month handles 50,000 emails, and Pro at $89.95/month scales to 100,000 emails with dedicated IP addresses and subuser management. For SaaS applications and e-commerce platforms, SendGrid's transactional email reliability is mission-critical - a password reset email that fails to deliver is a direct impact on user experience. For marketing teams running campaigns, Mailchimp's focused toolset is better suited. Many companies use both: SendGrid for transactional delivery piped through their application, Mailchimp for their marketing team's newsletter and promotional campaigns.
Frequently Asked Questions: Mailchimp vs SendGrid
Is Mailchimp cheaper than SendGrid for email marketing?
What are the main pricing differences between Mailchimp and SendGrid?
Which is cheaper for sending 100K emails per month?
Does Mailchimp or SendGrid offer better automation?
Which is better for a small business newsletter?
Sources
- Mailchimp Official Pricing- Vendor pricing page
- SendGrid Official Pricing- Vendor pricing page
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