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Score vs Mailchimp
Mailchimp prices on contacts and forces you onto their sending infrastructure. Score bills only on emails sent and lets you route through any SMTP provider you already use — for a fraction of the cost at scale.
- Pay only for emails sent, not contacts stored
- Bring your own SMTP (AWS SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, SparkPost)
- Up to 10M contacts on every paid plan, no upgrade required
- Multi-SMTP routing with weighted failover
- Unlimited journeys, segments, and custom fields
- Larger built-in template library for SMB campaigns
- More integrations with low-volume e-commerce tools
| Feature | Score | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $15/mo + $0.30 per 1,000 emails over 10K | Tiered, contact-based — climbs sharply at 5K+ contacts |
| SMTP routing | Multi-provider with weighted rules and failover | Locked to Mailchimp's sending infrastructure |
| Contact limit | 10M on Pay As You Go, 100M on Enterprise | Pay more for each tier (500, 2.5K, 10K, 50K…) |
| Journeys | 15 on Pay As You Go, unlimited on Enterprise | Limited unless on Premium tier |
| Deliverability monitoring | Per-provider analytics with reputation alerts | Aggregate only |
Mailchimp pricing and feature details verified from Mailchimp's site on May 11, 2026.
Why teams switch from Mailchimp to Score
Mailchimp is great when your list is small. The economics get painful fast — your bill grows every time someone subscribes, even if they never open an email. And once you outgrow their sending pipeline, you can’t take it elsewhere without rebuilding everything.
Score takes the opposite approach. You bring the sending infrastructure (Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, or any combination), and Score handles campaigns, segmentation, automation, and analytics on top. You pay for emails you actually send — not for contacts sitting in a database.
Where Mailchimp still makes sense
If you’re sending under 5,000 emails per month and don’t need multi-provider routing, Mailchimp’s all-in-one experience is a reasonable starting point — as is another all-in-one suite, Brevo. Their template editors and integration catalogs skew toward small e-commerce stores.
Where Score pulls ahead
Volume. The moment you cross 50K–100K emails per month, the math flips. Multi-SMTP routing lets you spread load across providers (and reputations), and failover keeps campaigns moving when one provider degrades. You won’t get either of those on Mailchimp at any price tier — see how pay-as-you-go works.
Frequently asked questions
Is Score a good Mailchimp alternative?
Score is a strong Mailchimp alternative for teams sending higher volumes who want usage-based pricing and control over their sending infrastructure. Instead of charging per contact stored, Score bills only on emails sent and lets you route through your own SMTP providers like Amazon SES, SendGrid, or Mailgun.
How is Score cheaper than Mailchimp?
Mailchimp prices on the number of contacts in your audience, so your bill grows even for subscribers who never open an email. Score charges $15/month plus $0.30 per 1,000 emails over the included 10K, so cost tracks actual sending volume. At 50K+ emails per month the difference is typically several times lower.
Can I migrate my Mailchimp audience to Score?
Yes. You can import contacts, segments, and custom fields via CSV or API. Because Score uses your own SMTP providers for sending, there is no warm-up lock-in to Mailchimp's shared infrastructure.
Does Score support automation and journeys like Mailchimp?
Yes. Score includes journeys, segmentation, and custom fields. Pay As You Go includes 15 journeys and Enterprise offers unlimited journeys, segments, and custom fields.
See why teams pick Score over Mailchimp
Start sending in minutes with your own SMTP providers — pay only for the emails you actually send.