Drip vs Mailchimp
Both ladders below were read from the vendors’ own pricing pages, in this market, on the dates shown. Nothing is converted: what you see is what each page showed a reader here.
What each one is
Dripsite ↗pricing ↗
An e-commerce marketing automation tool aimed at shops that want behavioural email without a full enterprise suite. Paid plans start at $39/mo (Drip); no free plan is published.
Mailchimpsite ↗pricing ↗
An email marketing platform that grew into a general small-business marketing suite — campaigns, landing pages, automations and audience management in one account. Paid plans start at €11.22/mo (Essentials); a free plan exists. The ladder we hold runs 3 paid tiers, topping out at €302.17/mo (Premium). Mailchimp is where most people start and where a lot of them stop enjoying it, usually when the contact count crosses a threshold and the bill moves without the plan changing.
The two ladders
Dripsite ↗pricing ↗
read 2026-09-07 · USD
| Plan | Price | What the page says |
|---|---|---|
| Drip | $39/mo | 'Price per month' by list size, read 2026-09-07: 2,500 people $39 · 10,000 people $154 · 25,000 people $369. 14-day free trial, no credit card. Live chat support on '$99/mo + plans'. |
Mailchimpsite ↗pricing ↗
read 2026-08-27 · EUR
| Plan | Price | What the page says |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Core features; sending pauses if the contact or send limit is exceeded. |
| Essentials | €11.22/mo | Page reads 'Free for 14 days / Then, starts at EUR11.22/month'. No 12-month promotional rate was shown on this plan on 2026-08-27, where our 26 August record had one. Sends capped at 10x contacts, 3 seats, automation flows limited to 4 steps. |
| Standard | €17.27/mo | Page reads 'Free for 14 days / Then, starts at EUR17.27/month'. No 12-month promotional rate shown on 2026-08-27. Sends capped at 12x contacts, 5 seats, up to 200 automation flows, generative AI features. |
| Premium | €302.17/mo | The only plan still carrying an introductory rate: EUR256.84 per month for 12 months, then EUR302.17. That is about 15% off rather than the 50% our 26 August record noted across the ladder. Sends capped at 15x contacts, unlimited seats, priority support. |
Where they differ
- Cheapest way in: Mailchimp at €11.22/mo, against Drip at $39/mo. That is the entry price in this market on the dates shown, not a judgement about which suits you.
- Free plans: only Mailchimp publishes one — a plan priced at zero, not a trial.
- How far each ladder goes: Drip tops out at $39/mo, Mailchimp at €302.17/mo. A deeper ladder is not a worse deal — it is a bill that keeps climbing if you keep growing.
How to choose in this category
- Most tools price by list size — a quoted price is only true at a stated subscriber count, so re-check the ladder at yours.
- Free tiers differ in what they cap: subscribers, sends or features. Two ‘free plans’ are rarely the same thing.
- Headline prices are often the annual-billing rate; the pay-monthly figure sits higher.