2026 was a busy year for email pricing — and not in subscribers’ favor. Mailchimp shrank its free plan, MailerLite rebuilt its plan structure, Brevo renamed tiers and added an expensive new one, and ActiveCampaign changed who counts as billable. If your bill crept up this year, this is probably why. Current as of September 2026.
In this guide
- Mailchimp: free plan slashed, legacy users hit with increases
- MailerLite: the June 2026 overhaul
- Brevo: Business becomes Standard, Professional arrives
- ActiveCampaign: the all-contacts billing change
- Who got hit hardest — and who barely noticed
- What to do about it: a 5-step response plan
- Key takeaways
- Frequently asked questions
- Conclusion
Mailchimp: free plan slashed, legacy users hit with increases
Mailchimp changed its pricing twice in the first four months of 2026. In January, the free plan was cut from 500 contacts and 1,000 monthly sends down to 250 contacts and 500 sends (with a 250-per-day cap), effective February 17, 2026. Then in April, legacy plan users — accounts created before May 2019 that never migrated to a current tier — were hit with an 11–13% price increase (source: Retainful, Mailchimp Pricing 2026, prices verified against Mailchimp’s official pricing page March 27, 2026).
This continues a years-long pattern: the free plan went from 2,000 contacts in 2022, to 500 in 2023, to 250 in 2026, and all automation was stripped from the free tier by mid-2025. As of September 2026, the free plan is realistically useful only for testing the interface — at 250 contacts with no automation, you cannot even email your full list twice a month.
Paid pricing held roughly steady in headline terms: Essentials from $13/month (500 contacts), Standard from $20/month (500 contacts), Premium from $350/month (10,000 contacts). But the effective cost keeps rising through contact counting: subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts all count toward your limit unless archived, cleaned, or deleted. If you have been on Mailchimp for years, expect 20–40% of your contact total to be dead weight inflating the bill — which makes a list cleanup the fastest way to claw money back.
MailerLite: the June 2026 overhaul
MailerLite’s June 2026 update was the year’s most dramatic restructuring. The old “Growing Business” and “Advanced” plans were renamed to Comfort and Power, the free plan was cut from 500 subscribers and 12,000 emails/month down to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month, and the trial shrank from 30 days to 14 (source: EmailToolTester, MailerLite Pricing 2026).
Current pricing as of September 2026: Comfort from $12/month (500 subscribers, 5,000 emails/month), Power from $25/month (500 subscribers, unlimited emails), with 10% off annual billing. At 5,000 subscribers, Comfort runs $49/month and Power $69/month (source: EmailVendorSelection, MailerLite Pricing 2026).
Is it actually more expensive? For most paying users, no — the paid tiers map closely to the old plans at similar prices, and MailerLite only counts “active used” subscribers (emailed in the past 30 days), which is friendlier than Mailchimp’s or ActiveCampaign’s counting. The pain is concentrated on free-plan users, who lost half their subscriber allowance and most of their send volume. If you were running a real newsletter on MailerLite’s old free plan, June 2026 was the month you started paying. We cover the full details — and what to do about them — in our dedicated MailerLite 2026 price overhaul breakdown.
Brevo: Business becomes Standard, Professional arrives
Brevo’s 2026 changes were quieter but structurally significant. The mid-tier formerly named Business is now Standard — same $18/month base (for 5,000 emails/month), same feature set including marketing automation, A/B testing, and send-time optimization. If you were on Business, nothing changed except the name on your invoice (source: Automation Atlas, Brevo Pricing 2026, July 2026).
The real news is the new Professional tier at $499/month (from 150,000 emails/month), aimed at high-volume senders with sub-account and advanced administrative controls. For everyone below ~150,000 monthly sends, Professional is irrelevant — but its arrival creates the largest single price jump in Brevo’s lineup: outgrow Standard’s volume and there is no intermediate step before $499. Growing businesses should watch their send-volume slider carefully, because Brevo prices climb with monthly volume within each tier too.
The free plan survived 2026 untouched: 300 emails/day with unlimited contacts remains one of the most generous free tiers in the industry. Net effect: Brevo got neither cheaper nor more expensive for the typical small business this year — it just got a new ceiling.
ActiveCampaign: the all-contacts billing change
The change with the longest fuse went off in November 2025, but most users felt it in 2026. For accounts created on or after November 3, 2025, ActiveCampaign bills for every contact in the account — including unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed contacts. Older accounts were grandfathered on active-only billing (source: Venture Harbour’s ActiveCampaign review, 2026).
Why it matters: dead contacts accumulate. A healthy list picks up a meaningful layer of unsubscribes and bounces within a couple of years, and under the new policy you pay for all of them. Venture Harbour’s worked example: 9,000 active contacts plus 2,500 unsubscribed and bounced puts you at 11,500 total — bumping you from the 10,000-contact tier ($189/month on Plus) into the 25,000-contact tier ($389/month). That is $2,400 a year for people you legally cannot email.
Headline plan prices in 2026: Starter $15/month annual ($19 monthly) for 1,000 contacts, Plus $49/month annual ($59 monthly), Pro $79/month annual ($99 monthly), Enterprise $145/month annual ($179 monthly). The prices did not rise — the counting did, which amounts to the same thing for anyone with a historically dirty list. The defense is the same as ever: clean your list before you import it, because your import sets your billing baseline, and archive ruthlessly afterward.
Who got hit hardest — and who barely noticed
Hit hardest: free-plan users on Mailchimp and MailerLite who were running real (if small) newsletters — both platforms halved or worse what free gets you in 2026. Legacy Mailchimp users on pre-2019 plans took the April increase. And new ActiveCampaign accounts with old, uncleaned lists are paying for contacts they cannot email.
Barely noticed: paying users on Brevo (rename only, free plan untouched), paying MailerLite users (similar prices, friendlier active-subscriber counting), and anyone already on a platform that fits their send pattern. Kit users saw a smaller change: automation was removed from the free plan in September 2026, but paid pricing held.
The pattern across all four: 2026 was the year free plans got worse and billing got stricter. No major platform made its paid tiers dramatically cheaper; the “discounts” on offer are the same annual-billing 10% figures as before. The industry’s direction is unmistakable — the free ride is ending, and the platforms are monetizing the contacts you forgot you had.
If you are shopping for the cheapest way to run email in this new landscape, our cheapest email marketing software comparison ranks seven budget picks at real list sizes — because the cheapest platform at 500 subscribers is rarely the cheapest at 10,000.
What to do about it: a 5-step response plan
1. Audit your contact count. Export your list and find out how many contacts are unsubscribed, bounced, or inactive. On Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign’s new billing, these are pure cost. Most businesses find 20–40% dead weight.
2. Clean before you pay. Run a re-engagement sequence for inactives, then archive or delete. Do this before your next billing cycle and before any platform migration — your import sets your baseline on ActiveCampaign.
3. Check whether you dropped a tier. After cleaning, compare your new contact total against your plan’s thresholds. If you fell into a cheaper tier, downgrade — platforms will not do it for you.
4. Re-run your platform comparison at your real list size. Pricing pages advertise the 500-contact price; you pay the 8,000-contact price. Compare Mailchimp vs MailerLite and the other matchups at your numbers, not the marketing numbers.
5. Revisit annually, not never. Set a calendar reminder for a yearly pricing review. Platforms change tiers, rename plans, and adjust counting rules — 2026 proved that “set and forget” billing is how you end up overpaying by hundreds a year.
One hedge worth stating plainly: pricing changes frequently and sometimes without much notice. Every figure in this article was verified against the cited sources as of September 2026 — but before you switch platforms or sign an annual plan, check the vendor’s current pricing page. A September price is not a December promise.
- Mailchimp cut its free plan to 250 contacts / 500 sends (effective Feb 17, 2026) and raised legacy pre-2019 plan prices 11–13% in April.
- MailerLite’s June 2026 overhaul renamed plans to Comfort ($12/mo) and Power ($25/mo) and cut the free plan to 250 subscribers / 2,500 emails — paid users saw little change.
- Brevo renamed Business to Standard (same $18 base) and added a $499/month Professional tier; the free plan survived untouched.
- ActiveCampaign’s November 2025 billing change means new accounts pay for all contacts, including unsubscribed and bounced — clean lists before importing.
- The year’s pattern: free plans got worse, billing got stricter, and the fastest savings come from cleaning dead contacts, not switching platforms.
Frequently asked questions
Did Mailchimp raise prices in 2026?
Mailchimp changed pricing twice in early 2026: the free plan was cut from 500 contacts / 1,000 sends to 250 contacts / 500 sends (effective February 17, 2026), and legacy users on pre-May-2019 plans saw 11–13% increases in April (source: Retainful). Headline paid-plan prices (Essentials from $13, Standard from $20) held steady, but effective costs keep rising through contact counting.
What changed with MailerLite pricing in 2026?
In June 2026, MailerLite renamed Growing Business to Comfort and Advanced to Power, cut the free plan from 500 subscribers / 12,000 emails to 250 subscribers / 2,500 emails, and shortened the trial from 30 to 14 days (source: EmailToolTester). Paid pricing stayed similar: Comfort from $12/month, Power from $25/month (500 subscribers).
Is Brevo still cheap in 2026?
For typical small businesses, yes. The 2026 rename of Business to Standard changed nothing about the $18/month base price, and the free plan (300 emails/day, unlimited contacts) is untouched. The new $499/month Professional tier only matters above ~150,000 monthly sends — but note there is no intermediate tier between Standard and Professional.
Why did my ActiveCampaign bill go up?
If your account was created on or after November 3, 2025, ActiveCampaign bills for every contact in your account — including unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed contacts (source: Venture Harbour). Older accounts are grandfathered on active-only billing. If your bill jumped, audit your contact count for dead weight and archive or delete it.
Which email platform is cheapest after the 2026 changes?
It depends on your list size and send frequency — the 2026 changes punished free-plan users and dirty lists more than paying users. As a rough guide: Brevo remains cheapest for large lists emailed infrequently (send-based pricing), MailerLite for small engaged lists (active-subscriber counting), and Kit’s free tier for creators under 10,000 subscribers who do not need automation. Run the numbers at your actual list size.
How often do email platforms change pricing?
More often than you would like. Mailchimp has adjusted prices or free-plan limits nearly every year since 2021; 2026 saw changes at all four major platforms. Review your plan and contact count annually, and verify current pricing on the vendor’s page before any switch — third-party guides (including this one) go stale.
Conclusion
2026’s pricing story is simple: the free tiers shrank, the counting got stricter, and the platforms stopped subsidizing contacts you forgot about. None of the big four made email dramatically more expensive for a clean, engaged list on the right plan — but all of them made it more expensive to be careless. Audit your contacts, clean ruthlessly, match the platform to your actual list size and send pattern, and re-check annually. In a year when every vendor tightened the screws, the cheapest email platform is the one where you only pay for subscribers who actually want your mail. All pricing in this article is as of September 2026 — check the vendor’s current pricing page before you buy.