beehiiv vs Mailchimp for newsletters in 2026: price, limits and monetization

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Mailchimp is a general email marketing tool with newsletters as one use. beehiiv is built only for newsletters. If you run a newsletter rather than a store’s promotional email, the question is whether Mailchimp’s price and features justify the choice, or whether a newsletter-specific tool serves you better. Every figure here comes from the vendors’ own pages, read on 6 November 2026. For beehiiv’s full price list, see our beehiiv pricing guide.

Quick comparison

	beehiiv	Mailchimp
Free plan	Up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends	Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends a month, 250 a day
Paid tiers	Lite, Pro (Enterprise custom)	Essentials, Standard, Premium
Contact cap, top self-serve tier	100,000 (Lite), 250,000 (Pro)	50,000 (Essentials), 100,000 (Standard), 200,000 (Premium)
Monthly send limit	Unlimited on every plan	10x contacts (Essentials), 12x (Standard), 15x (Premium)
What counts as a contact	Unique active email addresses	Subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts
Paid subscriptions	Lite and above, 0% beehiiv take	Not listed on pricing pages
Ad monetization	Lite and above	Not listed on pricing pages
Website / landing pages	Included on every plan	Forms and landing pages listed

Price at 1k, 5k, 10k and 50k contacts

Mailchimp prices by contact tier and shows a “starts at” monthly figure per plan. beehiiv prices by exact subscriber count on its slider. The table uses the Mailchimp tier that contains the number, so the 5,000 row is the 2,501 to 5,000 tier.

List size	beehiiv Lite (yearly billing)	Mailchimp Essentials	Mailchimp Standard	Mailchimp Premium
1,000	$49	$26.50	$45	$350
5,000	$95	$75	$100	$350
10,000	$119	$110	$135	$350
50,000	$249	$385	$450	$815

beehiiv Pro at the same sizes is $95, $169, $199 and $399. Monthly billing on beehiiv’s Lite is $59, $109, $139 and $299 for these sizes.

Mailchimp also advertises a 15% discount on contact tiers above 5,000, for the first 12 months. At the 5,001 to 10,000 tier that makes Standard $114.75 for the first year before returning to $135, and at the 40,001 to 50,000 tier Standard is $382.50 and Essentials is $327.25 for the first year. The Premium plan lists a $297.50 promotional price for 12 months before $350 at the entry tier. Promotions change, so confirm on the live page.

Two things the table hides. First, Mailchimp counts unsubscribed contacts toward your total unless you archive or clean them, which can push you into a higher tier. Archived, cleaned and deleted contacts do not count. Second, beehiiv’s cheapest self-serve plan that can charge readers is Lite, while Mailchimp’s three tiers are priced for marketing email, not paid newsletters.

Free plans

Mailchimp’s free plan stops at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a daily limit of 250, one audience and one seat. If you pass 250 contacts, sending is blocked until you upgrade or reduce your list. beehiiv’s free plan allows 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends and has no stated daily cap on its pricing page. For a new newsletter that will pass a few hundred readers, beehiiv’s free plan lasts about ten times longer.

Sending limits

Mailchimp’s send allowance scales with your tier: Essentials is 10 times your contact limit per month, Standard is 12 times and Premium is 15 times. A weekly newsletter fits easily. A daily newsletter to the same list is about 30 sends per contact a month, which exceeds all three. beehiiv says every plan has unlimited sends and that you are not penalized for emailing your full list more often. If you publish more than two or three times a week, this difference can decide the choice. Mailchimp also notes that overages are charged rather than interrupting service.

Monetization

This is the clearest gap. beehiiv’s Lite plan lists paid subscriptions with 0% take rate and ad monetization, and its pricing page shows an average ad income figure of $39 a month at 1,000 subscribers rising to $255 at 50,000. That average is beehiiv’s own claim, not a guarantee. Mailchimp’s plan comparison page, which runs to features such as automation, segmentation, landing pages and A/B testing, has no entry for paid subscriptions, an ad network, sponsorships or a referral program. Mailchimp is built for marketing email, and a newsletter business that wants to charge readers would need another service for payments.

Moving a list from Mailchimp

Mailchimp bills by contact tier, so pruning matters before any move. Archived, cleaned and deleted contacts do not count toward your total, which means you only need to bring over the active readers. On beehiiv, the subscriber count is unique active email addresses, so the number you migrate is the number you are billed on. If your Mailchimp list is padded with unsubscribed contacts, your real beehiiv price may be a tier lower than you expect. You can check the beehiiv slider with your cleaned count.

Where Mailchimp is the better pick

• Small paid-plan budgets. At 1,000 to 10,000 contacts, Essentials undercuts beehiiv Lite by about $9 to $22 a month on the figures above.
• Ecommerce and promotional email. Mailchimp’s feature list leans on automations, segmentation (including predictive segments on Standard and Premium) and 300+ integrations, which suit store owners more than writers.
• Teams. Standard includes 5 seats and Premium unlimited; beehiiv’s Lite includes 2 and Pro includes 10.
• Phone support. Premium lists phone and priority support.

Where beehiiv is the better pick

• Larger lists. Above about 10,000 contacts the gap flips: at 50,000, Lite is $249 against $385 for Essentials.
• Frequent sends. Unlimited sends on every plan.
• A bigger free tier. 2,500 subscribers, not 250.
• Charging readers. Paid subscriptions and 0% take on paid plans.

Where beehiiv is the worse pick

• It is more expensive than Mailchimp Essentials at small list sizes.
• Its free plan cannot charge readers or run ad monetization.
• It does not list the multi-audience, e-commerce and SMS tooling Mailchimp does.

Verdict

If you publish a newsletter and plan to grow past a few thousand readers, beehiiv is the better value above roughly 10,000 subscribers and the only one of the two with monetization tools on its pricing page. If you run a small business list, send to a few hundred contacts or sell products through connected stores, Mailchimp is the cheaper and more conventional choice. You can start beehiiv on the free plan and import a list to compare the editor before paying anything. If Kit is also on your list, read beehiiv vs Kit (ConvertKit), and for the full set of options see best newsletter platform to make money in 2026. Switching from Mailchimp? Check beehiiv’s current plan for your list size, and compare it with the Mailchimp tier above before you export.