Email marketing pricing
Email marketing tools price by contact count rather than seats, so the same plan gets more expensive as a list grows, and the entry prices themselves have been raised repeatedly.
Exhibit 1
Email marketing prices over time
The cheapest plan each product still sells, traced back through archived copies of its pricing page. Click a legend entry to hide a product.
Show the data as a table
| Observed | Buffer Essentials | Mailchimp Essentials |
|---|---|---|
| May 18, 2021 | $9.99 | |
| Jan 1, 2022 | $9.99 | |
| Jul 1, 2022 | $11 | |
| Jan 1, 2023 | $13 | |
| Jul 1, 2026 | $13 | |
| Sep 20, 2026 | $5 | |
| Nov 2, 2026 | $5 |
Email marketing compared
Current list prices as last read from each pricing page.
| Product | Starts at | Top listed plan | Priced by | Free plan | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Buffer | $5 per channel per month, billed yearlyEssentials, USD per social channel per month, billed yearly | $10 per channel per month, billed yearlyTeam | Per channel | Yes | since 2026 |
| Mailchimp | €11.72 per month, starting price, rises with contact countEssentials, USD per month at the smallest contact tier, billed monthly | €315.45 per month, starting price, rises with contact countPremium | Per contact | Yes | since 2021 |
 ActiveCampaign | not read yet | not read yet | unknown | No | none yet |
 Braze | contact sales | contact sales | Contact sales | No | read Sep 2026 |
 Constant Contact | not read yet | not read yet | unknown | No | none yet |
 Customer.io | $100 per month, billed monthly, starting atEssentials, USD per month, starting at | $1000 per month, billed yearly, starting atPremium | Flat per account | No | read Sep 2026 |
 Drip | not read yet | not read yet | unknown | No | none yet |
 HubSpot | $7 per seat per month, new-customer discount (regular $20)Marketing Hub Starter, USD per seat per month, new-customer discount | $3600 per month, 5 core seats included, additional seats $75 per monthMarketing Hub Enterprise | Per contact | Yes | read Nov 2026 |
 Iterable | contact sales | contact sales | Contact sales | No | read Sep 2026 |
 Klaviyo | $20 per month, 251-500 active profilesEmail, USD per month, 251-500 active profiles | $35 per month, 251-500 active profilesEmail + SMS | Flat per account | Yes | read Nov 2026 |
 mParticle | contact sales | contact sales | Contact sales | No | read Sep 2026 |
Head to head
Two products on one chart, plans side by side.
How email marketing prices changed, and a 2027 prediction
Every list price change on record for email marketing, with a trend line and a simple 6 and 12 month projection for each plan. Each change is read from an archived copy of the pricing page.
- dated price changes
- 3
- increases / cuts
- 5 / 0
- earliest snapshot
- 2021
- median change a year
- n/a
Exhibit 2
Buffer has kept Essentials at $5 since 2026
Buffer price history, USD per social channel per month, billed yearly
Buffer schedules and publishes social media posts. It charges per connected channel, one of the few SaaS products priced by accounts managed instead of people using it.
Show the data as a table
| Observed | Essentials | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 20, 2026 | $5 | $10 |
| Nov 2, 2026 | $5 | $10 |
Essentials has been listed since Sep 2026, starting at $5. The price was unchanged through Nov 2026.
Team has been listed since Sep 2026, starting at $10. The price was unchanged through Nov 2026.
Buffer charges per connected social channel rather than per user.
Exhibit 3
Mailchimp Standard rose 33% since 2021, from $14.99 to $20
Mailchimp price history, USD per month at the smallest contact tier, billed monthly
Mailchimp is the email marketing platform now owned by Intuit. Its plans are priced by contact count rather than seats, so the same tier gets more expensive as a list grows, and every tier was repriced twice between 2022 and 2023.
Show the data as a table
| Observed | Essentials | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 18, 2021 | $9.99 | $14.99 | $299 |
| Jan 1, 2022 | $9.99 | $14.99 | |
| Jul 1, 2022 | $11 | $17 | |
| Jan 1, 2023 | $13 | $20 | $299 |
| Jul 1, 2023 | $350 | ||
| Jul 1, 2026 | $13 | $20 | $350 |
Essentials has been listed since May 2021, starting at $9.99. It went up to $11 by Jul 2022 (+10%), and finally went up to $13 by Jan 2023 (+18%).
Standard has been listed since May 2021, starting at $14.99. It went up to $17 by Jul 2022 (+13%), and finally went up to $20 by Jan 2023 (+18%).
Premium has been listed since May 2021, starting at $299. It went up to $350 by Jul 2023 (+17%).
Essentials and Standard are the starting prices for 500 contacts, Premium for 10,000 contacts. Mailchimp raised every paid tier twice within a year, in mid 2022 and again in 2023.
2023
Mailchimp raised the Premium price
- Premium went from $299 to $350 (+17%)
USD per month at the smallest contact tier, billed monthly. Archived pricing page
Mailchimp raised the Essentials and Standard prices
- Essentials went from $11 to $13 (+18%)
- Standard went from $17 to $20 (+18%)
USD per month at the smallest contact tier, billed monthly. Archived pricing page
2022
Mailchimp raised the Essentials and Standard prices
- Essentials went from $9.99 to $11 (+10%)
- Standard went from $14.99 to $17 (+13%)
USD per month at the smallest contact tier, billed monthly. Archived pricing page
Email marketing pricing questions
- What does a email marketing platform cost?
- Paid plans start at $5 per channel per month, billed yearly for Buffer (USD per social channel per month, billed yearly), €11.72 per month, starting price, rises with contact count for Mailchimp (USD per month at the smallest contact tier, billed monthly), $100 per month, billed monthly, starting at for Customer.io (USD per month, starting at), $7 per seat per month, new-customer discount (regular $20) for HubSpot (USD per seat per month, new-customer discount), $20 per month, 251-500 active profiles for Klaviyo (USD per month, 251-500 active profiles). Prices are as shown on each pricing page when it was last read.
- What is email marketing platform pricing based on?
- Buffer: per channel. Mailchimp and HubSpot: per contact. Braze and Iterable and mParticle: contact sales. Customer.io and Klaviyo: flat per account.
- Which email marketing have a free plan?
- Buffer, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Klaviyo list a free plan next to the paid tiers.
- Which email marketing have changed their prices?
- Mailchimp: Essentials has been listed since May 2021, starting at $9.99. It went up to $11 by Jul 2022 (+10%), and finally went up to $13 by Jan 2023 (+18%). Standard has been listed since May 2021, starting at $14.99. It went up to $17 by Jul 2022 (+13%), and finally went up to $20 by Jan 2023 (+18%). Premium has been listed since May 2021, starting at $299. It went up to $350 by Jul 2023 (+17%).
- Are email marketing prices going up or down?
- Across the 0 plans we chart, list prices over the last three years are mixed. Increases outnumber cuts, 5 to 0.
- How are the price predictions calculated?
- Each plan gets a compound yearly rate of change between its first and latest observed list price within the last 36 months. The 6 and 12 month figures apply that rate to the latest price. Plans moving more than 100 percent a year are not projected, and a plan needs at least three observations spanning nine months. It is arithmetic on past list prices, not a forecast of what any company will do.
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