SendKernel vs Mailchimp
Mailchimp is the default choice for marketing email and has by far the deepest feature set — landing pages, ecommerce integrations, a template gallery, and automation journeys. You pay for all of it whether or not you use it, and transactional email is a separate paid add-on.
Competitor pricing verified September 2, 2026 from public pages. Check before switching — everyone's pricing moves.
Choose Mailchimp if
- You need landing pages, signup forms, social posting, and a CRM in one tool.
- Your marketing team wants a drag-and-drop builder and a large template gallery.
- You rely on a deep Shopify or WooCommerce integration.
- You want multi-step automation journeys with branching logic.
Choose SendKernel if
- You want to send email and nothing else, without learning a campaign builder.
- You need transactional sending without buying Mandrill, and marketing without a $100 Standard plan at 5,000 contacts.
- Your list is under 100,000 and Mailchimp's per-contact pricing has become hard to justify.
- You would rather describe what you want in a chat panel than click through a five-step wizard.
Side by side
| Mailchimp | SendKernel | |
|---|---|---|
| 5,000 contacts | $100/mo (Standard) | $36/mo marketing |
| 25,000 contacts | $310/mo (Standard) | $163/mo marketing |
| Monthly send limit | 10-15x contact count | Metered separately |
| Transactional email | Paid add-on (Mandrill) | Sending product, $18/mo at 50k |
| Assistant that runs the account | Copy suggestions only | Full account operation |
| Landing pages and forms | Yes | No |
| Automation journeys | Extensive | No |
| Template gallery | Hundreds | Write your own HTML |
| Time to first send | Under an hour | Under ten minutes |
Questions people actually ask
- Will I lose my automations?
- Yes, and you should be honest with yourself about whether you use them. If you run genuine multi-step lifecycle journeys, stay on Mailchimp. If you have three automations you set up two years ago and never look at, you will not miss them.
- Does the contact limit count unsubscribed people?
- Not here. Our contact meter counts subscribed contacts only, and suppressed addresses are stored free forever. Mailchimp has historically counted archived and unsubscribed contacts toward some plan limits, which is a common source of surprise bills.
- Can I import my Mailchimp audience directly?
- Export it as CSV from Mailchimp and paste or upload it here. Keep the unsubscribe status column — we honour it on import rather than mailing people who already opted out.
Try it before you migrate anything
The free plan does not expire. Verify a domain, import a small segment, and send one campaign before you move your list.
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