What is Mailchimp?
Mailchimp is an Email marketing platform. Starting at $13/mo, it targets Small businesses, startups, first-time newsletter senders. Our verdict: Easiest onboarding for first-time email marketers. Watch for: Punishes list growth with 30% cumulative price hikes since 2021. Rated 6.3/10 overall across ease of use, deliverability, and pricing value.
What is Mailchimp?
Mailchimp began in 2001 in Atlanta as a side project. Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius were running a web design agency called the Rocket Science Group and built an email tool for small clients on the side. The side project ate its parent: the Rocket Science Group is still the legal entity, and it is that entity Intuit now owns.
Intuit announced the purchase on 13 September 2021 for about $12 billion and closed it that November. The sequel is less often reported: from 1 August 2026 Intuit manages Mailchimp as a separate operating segment, reportable on its own from fiscal 2027, with revenue guidance of roughly $1.26 billion at minus one to zero percent growth.
Two products share the brand, and confusing them is the usual mistake. The marketing platform has a REST API and no SMTP relay at all. Transactional mail, the product still widely called Mandrill, does have one, and it is sold only as an add-on to the Standard and Premium plans.
Billing counts contacts, and the monthly send allowance is a multiple of that count: ten times on Essentials, twelve on Standard, fifteen on Premium. The free plan survives but is far smaller than its reputation, at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month with a daily ceiling of 250.
Explore Mailchimp on SMTPedia
Frequently asked questions
Is Mailchimp worth it in 2026?
Our full editorial review covers pricing, deliverability, ease of use, support quality, and API/MCP maturity. Read the Mailchimp review →
How much does Mailchimp cost?
All pricing tiers, hidden fees, refund policy, and the true cost per email are broken down in the pricing tab. See Mailchimp pricing →
What are the best alternatives to Mailchimp?
Mailchimp compared with its closest competitors by use case, pricing, and switching cost. See alternatives →
What are the SMTP settings for Mailchimp?
Hostnames, ports, authentication, rate limits, and DKIM/SPF configuration for Mailchimp. See SMTP settings →
Does Mailchimp have an official MCP server?
Our API tab covers Mailchimp's REST API version, SDKs, rate limits, and MCP server support (official, community, and commercial wrappers). See API + MCP →
This review follows our email infrastructure testing methodology. We disclose affiliate relationships in our editorial independence policy.
