Email marketing pricing for online stores: units and limits
Five platforms price the same list in different units. How each counts, limits sends, handles growth and ends its promotions, read from official pages.
We read each platform's own pricing, plan, help and terms pages on 29 October 2026 and recorded what they state, for a small online store with a list of roughly 500 to 10,000 contacts. Sums marked as our arithmetic are calculated by us from those prices. We did not test the platforms and make no claim about their effect on sales, conversion or repeat purchases.
Plans and facts for each platform are on its product page: Klaviyo, Omnisend, Mailchimp, Brevo and ActiveCampaign.
Five platforms, four pricing units
| Platform | Priced by | Emails | At the limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Klaviyo | Active profiles reachable by email | Allowance set by the plan tier; ten times the profiles at the tiers we read | Paid plans keep sending; the account moves to a fitting plan at the next cycle; send overage is flexible, upgrade or none |
| Omnisend | Contacts: subscribers plus non-subscribers | Standard: twelve times the contacts; Pro: unlimited with fair use | Standard cannot send campaigns and automations pause until renewal or upgrade |
| Mailchimp | Contacts, including unsubscribed ones | Essentials ten times, Standard twelve times, Premium fifteen times the contact limit | Paid plans are charged an extra fee; the Free plan stops sending |
| Brevo | Emails sent a month; the tier caps stored contacts | The unit itself; Free has 300 a day | The sends tier sets how many contacts you can store |
| ActiveCampaign | Contacts, billed yearly | Ten times the contact limit on Starter and Plus, twelve times on Pro, fifteen times on Enterprise | Not read |
What the same list costs as it grows
| Contacts | Klaviyo | Omnisend Standard | Mailchimp: list (offer) | Brevo Starter | ActiveCampaign Starter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $30 | $20 | $45 ($22.50) | $17 | $15 |
| 2,500 | $60 | $44 | $60 ($30) | $25 | $39 |
| 5,000 | $100 | $81 | $100 ($50) | $32 | $79 |
| 10,000 | $150 | $132 | $135 ($67.50) | $46 | $149 |
How to read the table. Klaviyo, Omnisend and Mailchimp are billed monthly; ActiveCampaign is shown billed yearly, as a monthly figure, and no monthly option is shown on its page. Mailchimp prices a tier range at the tier's ceiling, so 1,000 contacts falls in the 501 to 1,500 tier. Omnisend's prices at 1,000 and 2,500 contacts are the page's regular three-month totals divided by three. Brevo prices by emails sent, not contacts: our assumption of four emails per contact per month gives 4,000, 10,000, 20,000 and 40,000 emails, and Brevo's tiers also cap stored contacts, so 1,000 contacts need the 10,000-email tier (up to 1,500 contacts) and 2,500 contacts the 15,000-email tier (up to 2,500). Plan features differ between these plans; the table compares price only.
Promotions and what follows them
| Platform | Offer | Conditions | After the offer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Klaviyo | A first-month discount at the smallest paid tier (500 profiles) | Shown as limited time on the pricing page | Regular monthly price |
| Omnisend | 30% off the first three months | New paid subscribers who pay three months in advance, once | Regular prices resume and billing becomes monthly |
| Mailchimp | 50% off the monthly base price for the first 12 months | New customers or Free-plan customers in select countries; limited time, no cash value | List price based on contacts and sends, charged monthly until you cancel; cancelling during the offer ends it and past charges are not refunded |
| Brevo | A yearly option takes 10% off | Billed yearly | Not read |
| ActiveCampaign | Prices are shown billed yearly | A monthly option is not shown on the page | Not read |
When the list grows past a tier
- Klaviyo: if active profiles exceed the tier, the account moves to a fitting plan at the next cycle and paid plans keep sending; downgrades are not automatic.
- Omnisend: the tier adjusts each billing cycle, and adding contacts beyond the tier prompts an upgrade.
- Mailchimp: subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts count; archived, cleaned, deleted and pending contacts do not. Paid plans keep working and are charged an extra fee until you move to a higher tier.
- Brevo: the sends tier also caps stored contacts, so list growth can force a higher tier even when sends stay low.
- ActiveCampaign: not read.
Questions to ask before you pick
- Write down your list size today and in a year, and how many emails you send each month.
- Ask what is counted: unsubscribed, non-subscribed and suppressed people are treated differently.
- Compare the second billing period, not the first.
- Check what happens at the send limit before a campaign day.
- Keep email and SMS costs apart.
- Check which plan includes the automation you need, such as abandoned cart and post-purchase flows.
- Remember that the table above compares price only, not features.
Editorial opinion
Our take
The cheapest platform depends on how your list and your sending behave. A large, rarely mailed list can suit a send-based price; a growing list that is mailed often tends to follow contact-based pricing, and promotions change the first year more than the second. Compare at your own list size, and read the second period.
Editorial opinion
Sources
- Klaviyo pricing (US, USD)
- Klaviyo: how pricing works (active profiles, send capacity)
- Klaviyo help: how billing works
- Omnisend pricing
- Omnisend help: pricing plans 2026
- Omnisend help: paid plan charges
- Mailchimp help: about pricing plans
- Mailchimp help: about your contacts (billing counts)
- Mailchimp Terms of Use (introductory offer, section 7F)
- Brevo pricing data (public JSON used by the pricing page)
- Brevo help: about pricing plans
- ActiveCampaign Pricing
- Mailchimp pricing page
Sources
Nikita Latyshev is the founder of LATYNEX Labs, an independent publication about business software and infrastructure. LATYNEX Labs is published by Latynex Trade OÜ, Estonia. How the site checks facts, handles sponsorship and earns money is described on its methodology, editorial policy and affiliate disclosure pages.