beehiiv vs Mailchimp for Small Business: Which to Pick

The beehiiv vs Mailchimp question comes down to one thing for a local business owner: how big your list is today and whether you want automatic emails. Under 250 contacts and no automations, Mailchimp's free plan works. Past that, beehiiv's free plan carries you much further, up to 2,500 subscribers. Everything below was checked on each company's own pricing page on 2026-10-08, and we say plainly which tool we have used.

Part of our complete guide: how to find vending machine locations.

For the full ranking of options, see our best newsletter platform for small business guide. VendBuddy is our product, and its Operator Brief newsletter is sent on beehiiv, so we use beehiiv and do not use Mailchimp.

Who each one is for

beehiiv, best for: an owner who will publish something on a schedule, such as a monthly note to every location or a weekly update to other operators in the area, and wants tools to grow the list. Skip it if you need text messages from the same account, since the pricing page does not list them.

Mailchimp, best for: a business that already uses it, or one that wants text messaging as an add-on and more than 300 integrations, per its pricing page. Skip it if you have more than 250 contacts and want to stay free, or you want automatic emails without a paid plan.

beehiiv vs Mailchimp side by side (checked 2026-10-08)

Sources: beehiiv.com/pricing and mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing, read 2026-10-08. We could not read a scheduling line for beehiiv on its pricing page; we schedule sends in its editor ourselves.

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What we did, and what we did not

We did run beehiiv. VendBuddy has three publications there: the VendBuddy Operator Brief, Dev List and Endzone Entertainment. On the VendBuddy one we have a welcome series, a win-back email, a free 7-day challenge, a paid 30-day sprint, five interest groups based on which links people click, and a referral program with milestones. We also put a signup box on our blog posts. Our VendBuddy list is around 200 people, so we have no view on how either tool behaves at ten thousand.

We did not run Mailchimp. We read its pricing page and its terms and copied the numbers. Anything below about how Mailchimp feels to use would be a guess, so we do not offer any. If you have used it for years, you know it better than we do.

The 250-contact line is the real difference

For a vending owner, the first thing that matters is how many people you will email. A route with 20 locations and a few hundred customers can cross 250 contacts quickly once you add other operators and people who sign up through your site. Mailchimp's free plan stops there, and its page says sending is paused if the contact or email limit is exceeded. Paid plans bill overages automatically instead of stopping you. That is a fair design, but you should expect a bill the day your list passes the line.

beehiiv's free plan holds up to 2,500 subscribers with no cap on how many emails you send. The catch is what is left out: automations and A/B testing start on Lite. If you only send a regular issue, you will not miss them. If you want a welcome email to go out the minute someone signs up, you need a paid plan on either tool.

Growing the list

This is where beehiiv earns its pick for us. It has a recommendation network on the free plan, where other newsletters recommend yours, and we use a referral program and paid recommendations on ours. For a local business, those matter less than they do for a publisher, but they are the reason a small list can keep growing without ad spend. Mailchimp's page leans on its integrations and its onboarding help instead, with a specialist session included on Standard and Premium.

We have not measured how many subscribers any of this has brought us, and we are not going to quote a number we do not have.

Pricing math for a stated case

Case: 300 contacts, one plain email a week, no automations, for 12 months. beehiiv Free costs $0. On Mailchimp the free plan does not work at 300 contacts, so the cheapest paid option from the page is Essentials at $13 a month, or $156 a year. Standard at $20 a month is $240 a year.

Case: 1,000 subscribers and an automatic welcome email. beehiiv Lite is $49 a month billed yearly, which is $588 over 12 months, as shown for 1,000 subscribers. We did not verify Mailchimp's price at 1,000 contacts, because we only captured the starting prices, so we will not put a number on it. Use Mailchimp's own slider. beehiiv says yearly billing saves up to 20% compared with monthly, but the monthly price was not shown on the page we read.

If you are already on Mailchimp

beehiiv has a support article on moving from Mailchimp: export your contacts as a CSV, then import them under Settings and Subscribers Import. Its content import also lists Mailchimp as a source. Only move people who agreed to get your email, and keep your unsubscribe list clean.

If you are not ready to switch, there is nothing wrong with staying. A tool you use every week beats a better one you never open.

How to choose

If your list will stay under 250 and you will never automate anything, either free plan works, so pick the one you can set up in an evening. If your list will grow, or you want the room to grow, beehiiv's free plan gives you far more space. If text messages matter to you, Mailchimp lists them and beehiiv's page does not. For ideas on who to write to and how often, see how to market your vending business and Google Business Profile for vending operators. If you are weighing Kit as well, read beehiiv vs Kit, or see the full beehiiv review for small business. To find buildings worth writing to, VendBuddy is what we built for it.

Our call: start on the free plan, send three issues, and pay only when you want automations.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is beehiiv better than Mailchimp for a small business?

It depends on your list and what you need. beehiiv's free plan holds up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, while Mailchimp's stops at 250 contacts, per their pricing pages on 2026-10-08. Mailchimp lists text messaging and more than 300 integrations. We run beehiiv and have not tested Mailchimp, so we cannot compare day-to-day use.

How many contacts does Mailchimp's free plan allow?

250 contacts, with a cap of 500 sends a month or 250 a day, one audience and one seat, according to Mailchimp's pricing page on 2026-10-08. Sending is paused if you go over on the Free plan. Paid plans bill overages instead.

Can I move my Mailchimp list to beehiiv?

Yes. beehiiv has a support article for it: export your contacts from Mailchimp as a CSV and import them under Settings and Subscribers Import. Its content import also lists Mailchimp as a source. Only import people who agreed to hear from you.

Does beehiiv's free plan include automations?

No. Per beehiiv's pricing page, automations start on the Lite plan, which is $49 a month billed yearly as shown for 1,000 subscribers. Mailchimp's Free plan does not include them either; its Essentials plan allows up to 4 flow steps.

Which is cheaper for 1,000 subscribers?

On beehiiv, 1,000 subscribers still fit the free plan if you do not need automations, and Lite is $49 a month billed yearly if you do. We did not verify Mailchimp's price at 1,000 contacts, only its starting prices of $13 (Essentials) and $20 (Standard) a month at up to 500 contacts, so check its slider.

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