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Which Mailchimp alternative lets a UK small business send more before it pays?

Affiliate note: Occono may earn a commission if you use the Systeme.io, beehiiv or Make links on this page, at no extra cost to you. The Mailchimp, Kit, MailerLite and Brevo links are not affiliate links. Occono does not earn from those four. Affiliate disclosure.

Mailchimp’s free plan is the part that pushes a UK sole trader to look elsewhere. It stops at 250 contacts. A list of past customers often crosses that before the business feels big. The alternatives below are the ones that either hold more people for £0, or start at a smaller paid bill. Prices are in the currency each vendor publishes. Checked 20 October 2026.

What public reviews say

These are third-party scores, read on 20 October 2026. They are other people’s reviews. Occono has not collected them, and they will move. Trustpilot says, on the Systeme.io, beehiiv, Kit and MailerLite profiles, that the company has not invited customers recently, so the reviews may not be representative. Mailchimp and Brevo do invite customers, on the wording of those two profiles.

G2 is not in this table. Those review pages were not used for a score on 20 October 2026.

Mailchimp’s 2.5 is a harsh score on a profile that does invite reviews. Trustpilot’s own summary of 292 recent reviews says most reviewers were unhappy, that technical errors were frequent, that support was hard to reach, and that billing complaints included unexpected charges, renewals after a pause, and a difficult cancellation. The same summary says some reviewers praised the templates and found it easy for a beginner. Systeme.io’s 4.9 sits next to Trustpilot’s notice that the company has not invited customers recently. Trustpilot’s summary of 768 reviews on that profile praises support and migration, and says some beginners found the setup slow to learn. beehiiv’s 3.9 and Brevo’s 3.9 are the middle of this set. beehiiv’s one-star share is 23%. Kit’s complaint, in the review quoted below, is the price once a one-person business needs the paid plan.

“I think Kit is a great platform with so much I build use … I hope to find more time to learn how to do stuff! I agree that the customer service is great. I only have them 4 out of 5 stars though because the price is too high for the gdp of my independent business.”

Julie Kinscheck, Trustpilot, 16 October 2026, on the Kit profile. Checked 20 October 2026.

“I have been incredibly impressed by Systeme.io, both as a platform and by the level of customer support I have received. I recently needed help with a technical domain authentication issue following changes to my website. The support team responded extraordinarily quickly, explained exactly what had happened in clear language, and then answered my follow-up question within minutes.”

Amanda B, in Great Britain, Trustpilot, 15 October 2026, on the Systeme.io profile. The same review says every support contact had been responsive. Checked 20 October 2026.

What you actually get

Checked 20 October 2026 on the vendors’ pricing pages and help articles. Where a page disagrees with itself, the cell says so. A blank is something this check did not verify, not a claim that the feature is missing.

Mailchimp: mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing and About Mailchimp pricing plans. The pricing page says non-USD prices are estimates from exchange rates, and that the USD figures are the base prices. Taxes are extra. The free trial of Standard or Essentials is 14 days, and the footnote says payment details are required. Checked 20 October 2026.

Systeme.io: systeme.io/pricing. Plan prices in the page data are USD. The page’s own date modified is 9 October 2026. The same figures were on the page on 20 October 2026. Webinar is $47 a month: 10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses, plus evergreen webinars. Unlimited is $97 a month: unlimited contacts, funnels, courses and automation rules.

beehiiv: beehiiv.com/pricing. Prices are USD. The FAQ says yearly billing saves up to 20%. At the 1,000-subscriber tier the yearly cards were $49 and $95, against monthly figures of $59 and $109, which is not a 20% gap, so “up to 20%” is the page’s ceiling. Stripe is quoted at 2.9% + $0.30. That is the figure on beehiiv’s page, not a UK card fee. Lite and Pro include a free trial with no card, and the trial ends when you upgrade. The page does not say how many days, so this article does not state a length. The Free plan description in the page data includes custom domains. The comparison table in the HTML fetched on 20 October 2026 did not include a separate custom-domain row.

Kit: kit.com/pricing, with yearly billing selected (“Pay yearly—save 17%”). Creator and Pro each offer a 14-day trial with no card. Pro showed $66 and $50 a month, and $593 billed for the first year, with an extra 25% off the first year. The page says that discount applies only to the first year, then the plan renews at the standard rate. The standard monthly Pro price was not printed on the card while that offer was showing, so it is not stated here. Checked 20 October 2026.

MailerLite: mailerlite.com/pricing. The FAQ names Free, Comfort, Power and Enterprise. Comfort’s send limit is 10 times the top of the subscriber tier. At the up-to-1,000 tier that is 10,000 emails a month. Power includes unlimited monthly emails, subject to a fair-use policy, and the first tier in the pricing script is $25 a month in USD or €19 in EUR. New accounts get 14 days to try premium features, with no card. The page says prices may be subject to tax. Checked 20 October 2026.

Brevo: brevo.com/pricing, with pounds selected and monthly billing selected, checked 20 October 2026. Starter is £6 a month. Standard is £13 a month. Professional is £429 a month. The page also offers yearly billing, badged as 10% off.

The offer

Mailchimp. Free: $0, up to 250 contacts, 500 sends a month, 250 a day, one audience, one seat. Essentials and Standard have a 14-day trial, and the pricing footnote says you give payment details at signup. Essentials starts at $13 a month. Standard starts at $20 a month. Premium starts at $350 a month. The 15% saving on the cards is labelled for 10,000 or more contacts. There is also a pay-as-you-go option for people who send rarely. This check did not take a credit price off that page, so none is quoted.

Systeme.io. Free: $0, no card, and it does not expire. The published limits are 2,000 contacts, three funnels, one course, one blog, one affiliate programme, one custom domain, unlimited emails, one automation rule, one email campaign, and 500 students. Startup is $17 a month. Webinar is $47 a month. Unlimited is $97 a month. The yearly-billing control is badged “2 months free”. The pricing FAQ states a 0% transaction fee. No separate length for a paid-plan trial was on that FAQ.

beehiiv. Free: $0, no card, up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends. Paid subscriptions, the 0% take rate, and automations are on Lite, not on Free. With the page set to 1,000 subscribers and yearly billing, Lite showed $49 a month and Pro showed $95 a month. The pricing data lists monthly prices of $59 and $109. You still pay Stripe. The free trial of Lite and Pro has no published length.

Kit. Free: $0, up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited forms, landing pages and broadcasts. Sequences and visual automations start on Creator. With yearly billing selected, Creator showed $33 a month, $390 for the year, for up to 1,000 subscribers. The card says that saves $78 a year. Creator and Pro have a 14-day trial with no card. Selling through Kit shows as 3.5% + 30¢ on the pricing table, which the page says includes card processing.

MailerLite. Free: $0, up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, two seats, with automations, a landing page and a form. Comfort starts at $12 a month on the FAQ, which matches the 500-subscriber tier in USD. That same tier is €11 a month in the EUR column. The 14-day trial covers premium features and does not require a card. After it ends, the FAQ says your subscribers and drafts stay, and the premium features stop unless you upgrade.

Brevo. Free: no card, then up to 300 emails a day once sending is approved. Starter is £6 a month, or £65 for the year. At that plan the first 5,000 emails a month are listed at £0, with a contact limit of 500 on that tier. Standard is £13 a month, or £140 for the year, with the same £0 first email tier. A UK business that only wants the price in pounds, and already knows it will pay, is the reader this row is for.

Which one fits you?

Julie Kinscheck’s October 2026 review is the Kit complaint in plain language: the paid plan feels steep for a one-person business. Amanda B’s review, from Great Britain the day before, is the Systeme.io side: support that answers a domain problem in clear language. Trustpilot’s Mailchimp summary is the other warning: billing and support, on a profile that invites reviews and still sits at 2.5.

A sole trader with about 300 customers. Mailchimp’s free plan does not hold them. The cap is 250 contacts. Essentials starts at $13 a month, and the help article says that starting price includes up to 500 contacts. MailerLite’s free plan is also 250 subscribers, so 300 people lands on Comfort, at $12 a month in USD or €11 in EUR on the first published tier. Kit’s free plan holds the 300 for broadcasts, and the sequence waits until Creator. Systeme.io’s free plan holds them, with one automation rule, inside 2,000 contacts. beehiiv’s free plan holds them as a newsletter, up to 2,500, and the automated sequence is on Lite. If the job is one letter a month, Kit or beehiiv is the free-plan fit. If the job is one chase email after an enquiry, Systeme.io’s free plan is the one that includes the rule. MailerLite includes automations on Free, and then stops you at 250 people.

A local shop with a Shopify or Etsy list. You want the customers you already have, not a second checkout. If the list is under 250 and you already send from Mailchimp, stay. The move is a chore, and Essentials at $13 is close to MailerLite Comfort at $12, so the saving is small. If the list is already past 250 and the letter is all you send, Kit’s free plan runs to 10,000 subscribers and beehiiv’s to 2,500. Neither is a till. If a new order should also land on a sheet, Make can connect the shop to the email tool. That is a second product. The Make and Zapier comparison on this site is the page for that bill.

A coach selling a short course. Systeme.io’s free plan includes one course and a checkout, and the pricing FAQ states no platform transaction fee. Kit can sell a digital file on the free plan, at the 3.5% + 30¢ on the pricing table. beehiiv’s pricing FAQ says digital products are on every plan, and the Lite plan description lists them again as something added on Lite, so do not treat a free-plan product as settled. If the thing you sell is the course, Systeme.io is the smaller stack. If the thing you sell is the weekly letter, Kit’s free plan holds far more subscribers before a monthly fee. The Kit and Systeme.io comparison goes further on that split, and the Systeme.io piece for solopreneurs stays with the all-in-one.

A newsletter writer. beehiiv is built for the letter: unlimited sends on the free plan, up to 2,500 subscribers, and paid subscriptions only once you move to Lite. Kit’s free plan is wider, at 10,000, and it is a broadcaster until you pay for sequences. Mailchimp’s free plan is the wrong shape for a newsletter that might grow, because 250 contacts and 500 sends a month run out on a single mail to a modest list. Substack is the other newsletter path, and this site’s beehiiv and Substack comparison is the page for the 10% cut.

Where Mailchimp is the better buy

Stay if the list is under 250 contacts and 500 sends a month is enough. You get one audience, basic templates, and a form. You do not get scheduling, and you do not get automation flows. For a quiet list and one mail a month, that can be the whole job, at $0, in a tool a customer may already recognise. The 14-day trial of Essentials or Standard is there if you want to see the paid screen, and the footnote says Mailchimp takes payment details before it starts.

Stay if the journeys, the segments and a shop connection are already running, and rebuilding them is the real cost. Essentials starts at $13 a month for a starting tier the help article describes as up to 500 contacts. Standard starts at $20. Those are US dollars. Mailchimp says a price in another currency is an estimate, and the amount charged depends on the exchange rate, with tax on top. Switching to save a few dollars, and then spending a week rebuilding one automation, is a bad trade. The Trustpilot score of 2.5 from 1,547 reviews is the reason to export the list anyway, and to read a renewal before you let a trial roll on.

Leave the free plan when the list passes 250, or when one mail to the whole list would break the 500-send cap. Kit and beehiiv hold a normal local list without a monthly fee. Systeme.io holds it and adds a page and a checkout. Brevo is the one that publishes a starter price in pounds, at £6 a month, once you have decided to pay. MailerLite is the middle: automations before you pay, then a wall at 250 subscribers.

Pick one list. Two tools means two places a customer can be subscribed, and an unsubscribe in one of them does not clear the other.

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Update details

• 20 October 2026 — Published. Canonical URL and article sidebar added the same day, and this update note added.
• 20 October 2026 — Screenshots of the public pages added.
• 20 October 2026 — Prices rechecked against vendor pages, 20 October 2026.