Campaign Monitor vs Mailchimp: client accounts or a lower bill?
By Jean Luc Poitier, SEO and growth marketing strategist · Campaign Monitor Reviews · Updated October 4, 2026 · Prices and review data checked October 4, 2026
Pick Campaign Monitor if you run email for clients or send often. Every paid plan includes client sub-accounts and private labeling, Essentials has no send cap, and reviewers keep saying clients and new staff learn the builder quickly. In our pull of organic Trustpilot reviews it also scores higher than Mailchimp (1.44 against 1.07, on small samples).
Pick Mailchimp if you want a free plan, the lowest monthly bill for your list size, or a large catalog of integrations. Its Standard plan costs less than Essentials at every list size we checked, and the send cap of 12 times your contacts is enough for most weekly senders.
Campaign Monitor vs Mailchimp at a glance
| Compared on | Campaign Monitor | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Plan compared | Essentials | Standard |
| Price at 500 contacts | $31/mo, unlimited sends | $20/mo, 6,000 sends |
| Price at 2,500 contacts | $74/mo, unlimited sends | $60/mo, 30,000 sends |
| Price at 10,000 contacts | $182/mo, unlimited sends | $135/mo, 120,000 sends ($114.75/mo for 12 months on a 15% promo) |
| Cheapest paid plan, 500 contacts | Lite, $13/mo (2,500 emails) | Essentials, $13/mo (5,000 emails) |
| Annual billing | 10% off (not on agency plans) | Through sales, Standard and Premium at 10,000+ contacts |
| Free plan | No | Yes: 250 contacts, 500 emails a month (250 a day), Mailchimp branding, no automation flows |
| Free trial | 30 days, 500 contacts and 500 emails, no card on signup | 14 days; the no-card version is capped at 100 emails |
| Phone support | Premier plan | Premium plan ($350/mo) |
| Agency sub-accounts and white label | Client sub-accounts and private labeling on every paid plan | Neither; Mailchimp & Co partners link to separate client accounts |
| Automation on the compared plan | Unlimited automated emails, prebuilt journeys | Up to 200 flows (Essentials: 4 flow steps) |
| Trustpilot, organic reviews only | 1.44 average, 18 reviews (Jan 2023 to Sep 2026) | 1.07 average, 29 reviews (Aug to Oct 2026) |
| G2 rating (reviews) | 4.1 (731) | 4.3 (12,988) |
| Owner | Marigold | Intuit (since 2021) |
Figures checked against each company's published pages and review-platform listings as of 2026-10-04. “Not published” means the company does not publish that figure.
Sources: list prices in USD, billed monthly, from each company's pricing page on October 4, 2026. The Trustpilot row counts only reviews that Trustpilot labels organic (written without a link or invitation from the company), from our pull that day. The samples are small and the windows differ, because Campaign Monitor's 18 organic reviews span almost four years. Overall TrustScores mostly reflect how many reviews a company invites, so we leave them out. Mailchimp's G2 figure comes from G2's search listing, since G2 blocks automated checks. More on our methodology.
What Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp cost as your list grows
On list price, Mailchimp Standard is cheaper than Campaign Monitor Essentials: $11 less a month at 500 contacts, $14 less at 2,500, and $47 less at 10,000. The two plans differ on sending. Essentials has unlimited sends. Standard allows 12 times your contact count per month, so a 2,500-contact list gets 30,000 emails. That covers a weekly newsletter with room to spare. A daily sender, or a team running several lists through the same contacts, would hit the cap.
Two lines in Mailchimp's fine print affect the real bill. Its help center counts unsubscribed contacts toward your plan, so an old list costs more than its active size suggests. And after the trial, going over your contact or sending limit is billed automatically as overage.
At the low end the two are level: Campaign Monitor Lite and Mailchimp Essentials both cost $13 a month at 500 contacts. Campaign Monitor's price rises with list size, and annual billing takes 10% off. See the full Campaign Monitor pricing breakdown.
Campaign Monitor vs Mailchimp for agencies
Agency tools are the clearest gap between the two. Campaign Monitor lets an agency run each client in its own sub-account under one login, give clients access to their own campaigns, remove Campaign Monitor's branding from the app, and add a markup to the client's bill. Its pricing table marks sub-accounts and private labeling on Lite, Essentials, and Premier. Zapier's February 2026 roundup picks it “for agencies that handle email marketing for multiple clients”.
Mailchimp has no sub-accounts or white label. Agencies join the free Mailchimp & Co program and connect to each client's account, and every client keeps and pays for its own plan. That works when clients own their marketing, and less well when the agency wants one bill and its own brand on the tool.
“User interface is excellent and one of the main reasons I use it for clients who haven't used email marketing much before. Compared with MailChimp, for example, it's much easier to use.”Nathan Littleton, TrustRadius, Dec 2024
Support, ease of use, and integrations
G2 named Campaign Monitor Easiest To Use and Best Support (Small Business) for Fall 2026 (see awards), and its G2 and Capterra reviewers describe support as quick and knowledgeable. Phone support is on Premier. Mailchimp gives 24/7 email and chat support from Essentials up and phone support on Premium; on the free plan, email support lasts the first 30 days.
Reviewers of both call the builders easy to pick up. On Campaign Monitor, designers say they want more HTML control in the stock templates. Mailchimp's reviewers point to its integration catalog and how easily it connects to CRMs and other tools.
“It has close to 350 app integrations, which improves performance drastically because we can pass data from other platforms to the campaigns.”Verified User in Professional Training & Coaching, G2, May 2026
Where Mailchimp wins
- A free plan for up to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month. Campaign Monitor has a trial only.
- A lower monthly price on Standard than Essentials at 500, 2,500, and 10,000 contacts ($20, $60, and $135 against $31, $74, and $182).
- 24/7 email and chat support from the Essentials plan up.
- A large integration catalog that its G2 reviewers single out.
- A far larger G2 review base: 4.3 from 12,988 reviews.
Try Campaign Monitor before you switch
The 30-day trial covers 500 contacts and 500 emails with no card at signup, which is enough to rebuild a Mailchimp template and send it to a test segment. Moving off Mailchimp for other reasons? Compare more options on our Mailchimp alternatives page, or see how Mailchimp compares with Constant Contact.
Try Campaign Monitor freeCampaign Monitor vs Mailchimp FAQ
Is Campaign Monitor or Mailchimp cheaper?+
Mailchimp has the lower list price on the comparable plans. Mailchimp Standard costs $20, $60, and $135 a month at 500, 2,500, and 10,000 contacts; Campaign Monitor Essentials costs $31, $74, and $182. Essentials has no send cap, while Standard allows 12 times your contact count each month, and Mailchimp also bills unsubscribed contacts. Both entry plans start at $13 a month for 500 contacts.
Which is better for agencies, Campaign Monitor or Mailchimp?+
Campaign Monitor. Client sub-accounts, private labeling, and markup billing are included on every paid plan. Mailchimp has no sub-accounts or white label; agencies join the free Mailchimp & Co program and link to each client's own Mailchimp account and plan.
Do Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp have a free plan or free trial?+
Mailchimp has a free plan for up to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, plus a 14-day trial of Standard or Essentials; the no-card version of that trial is capped at 100 emails. Campaign Monitor has no free plan. Its 30-day trial covers 500 contacts and 500 emails and asks for no card at signup.
How do Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp reviews compare?+
On Trustpilot we compare only reviews Trustpilot labels organic, meaning written without an invitation. In our October 4, 2026 pull, Campaign Monitor averaged 1.44 from 18 such reviews and Mailchimp 1.07 from 29. Both samples are small. On G2, Campaign Monitor is rated 4.1 from 731 reviews and Mailchimp 4.3 from 12,988.
Which has phone support?+
Both put phone support on their top self-serve plan: Premier at Campaign Monitor ($171 a month at 500 contacts) and Premium at Mailchimp ($350 a month). Mailchimp offers 24/7 email and chat from Essentials up.