AWeber vs Mailchimp

AWeber compared with Mailchimp

Mailchimp has the wider integration ecosystem, better templates, and more brand recognition, and charges considerably more as lists grow, with contact-counting rules that are less forgiving than AWeber's. AWeber is simpler, cheaper at small scale, does not count unsubscribes toward the bill, and is independently owned rather than part of Intuit. Mailchimp is the safer default if your agency or your integrations assume it; AWeber is the better economics for an owner-operated business paying its own bill.

AWeber

Subscriber-based subscription with a monthly send allowance set as a multiple of subscriber count. Two self-serve tiers plus a managed done-for-you service. Price steps at subscriber bands.

• Free$0
• LiteFrom $12.49 billed annually, $15 monthly at 500 subscribers
• PlusFrom $19.99 billed annually, $30 monthly at 500 subscribers
• Done For YouAbout $20 a month plus a $79 one-time setup fee

Modelled at this directory's three reference points: at 1,000 subscribers you are in the band above 500, so roughly $20 to $25 on Lite and $35 to $45 on Plus depending on the exact step, with the free plan covering you entirely up to 500. At 10,000 subscribers it is $100 on Lite and $135 on Plus, with monthly send allowances of 100,000 and 120,000 respectively. At 25,000 it is $210 and $250, and at 50,000 AWeber moves into the high hundreds; check the current ladder because the upper bands are revised. Against MailerLite, EmailOctopus, and Sender, AWeber is expensive for what the email alone does. Against Constant Contact it is broadly comparable and includes more per tier. Against GetResponse it is cheaper at the entry but capped on sending where GetResponse is unlimited. What the premium buys is a genuinely good free tier, a support organisation with a long reputation, landing pages and Stripe-backed selling included, and a vendor that has not changed hands in twenty-eight years. If you value continuity and human support over feature depth or price per contact, it is defensible. If you are optimising cost per subscriber, it is not the cheapest option on this list.

Mailchimp

Self-serve tiers priced by contact band, where the billable contact count includes Subscribed, Unsubscribed, and Non-subscribed contacts but excludes Archived, Cleaned, Pending, and Deleted. Monthly email sends are capped at a multiple of contacts per plan, and exceeding either cap produces an automatic overage charge rather than a block.

• Free$0
• EssentialsAbout $13 at 500 contacts, about $110 at 10,000, about $385 at 50,000
• StandardAbout $20 at 500 contacts, about $135 at 10,000, about $450 at 50,000
• PremiumAbout $350 at 10,000 contacts, about $815 at 50,000

Mailchimp is no longer the value choice and has not been for several years. What you are buying now is breadth and familiarity: a competent journey builder, real predictive segmentation, landing pages, forms, surveys, ads, and SMS in one account from a vendor everyone recognizes, backed by Intuit. For a general small business with a list under about 5,000 that wants one tool and no specialist learning curve, Standard is defensible. Above roughly 10,000 contacts the arithmetic turns against it hard, because MailerLite and EmailOctopus deliver the core job for a fraction of the price, Brevo does not charge for stored contacts at all, and Klaviyo does ecommerce properly. Add the inclusive contact meter and the silent overage billing and Mailchimp is the platform most likely in this category to cost more than the buyer planned.