Campaign Monitor alternatives for brand and editorial teams

What people leave Campaign Monitor over

The 5× send ceiling on Lite

Campaign Monitor's Lite plan counts emails at five times the contact band. At 500 contacts that is 2,500 emails a month; a weekly newsletter to the whole list is 4 × 500 = 2,000 sends, and a fifth send — a follow-up to non-openers, a product note, one sale — is over the line. Essentials removes the cap at the same band for $31 a month, so a busy editorial calendar is really a $13-versus-$31 decision, not a $13 one. Teams that only notice at invoice time are usually on Lite with a list that grew.

No free plan, and the band jumps

There is no free plan: the pricing page offers a 30-day trial capped at 500 contacts and 500 emails, which is enough to rebuild one campaign, not to run a season. On monthly billing the bands move like this — 500 contacts: Lite $13, Essentials $31, Premier $171; 2,500 contacts: $47, $74, $182; 5,000: $75, $117, $203; 10,000: $117, $182, $300. Lite nearly triples between the first two stops ($13 to $47), so a list that crosses 500 people makes the entry plan expensive quickly. Annual billing is cheaper at every stop (at 500 contacts: $11.70, $27.90, $153.90 a month), but it is a year of commitment on a tool you may be leaving.

Where Campaign Monitor is still the better choice

Stay if your checklist is custom coded templates, an inbox preview before every send, and a Premier tier with phone support — those are on its pricing page and not on every competitor's. Its 250+ integrations also cover the usual brand stack. What its pricing page does not describe is a two-person approval step before a send; if that is your requirement, ask support before assuming it travels with you. The alternatives below were picked for teams whose real complaint is the send ceiling or the absence of a free plan.

The alternatives, one by one

MailerLite — newsletters and light automation at a lower entry price

For an editorial team whose month is a newsletter plus one or two extra sends, MailerLite's Comfort plan is $12 a month at 500 subscribers on monthly billing and $10.80 a month billed annually, with a monthly allowance of 5,000 emails at that subscriber tier (10× the ceiling). That is double Campaign Monitor Lite's 2,500 at one dollar less, and the free plan (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, 2 user seats) lets you rebuild a template and a form before paying anything. Where it falls short: Comfort's allowance still scales with the subscriber ceiling, so a frequent sender at 2,500 subscribers should price Power — $25 a month at 500 subscribers, unlimited emails — rather than assume Comfort keeps up. Prices: mailerlite.com/pricing.

Brevo — one vendor for campaigns and order messages

Brevo is the alternative when the same team also sends receipts, shipping notes, or password resets and wants one bill for both. It is priced by emails sent rather than by contacts: free is 300 emails a day with storage for up to 100,000 contacts; Starter is $9 a month from 5,000 emails with no daily cap; Standard is $18 a month and adds marketing automation, A/B testing, and advanced reports. The trade-off is that the first paid tier stores 500 contacts and growth is bought in email volume, so a small list that mails often can be cheaper here, and a large list that mails rarely can be more expensive. Prices: brevo.com/pricing.

Kit — a creator list that should stop paying

Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited landing pages, forms, and email broadcasts, plus tagging and segmentation — the editorial basics, free, at a size where Campaign Monitor's Essentials band is $182 a month. Creator is $33 a month at 1,000 subscribers billed yearly and unlocks unlimited Visual Automations and sequences; Pro is $66 a month on the same billing and adds subscriber-level signals and deliverability reporting. The gap to check: automations and sequences are paid features, so a drip programme is a Creator cost from day one, and the paid rates scale by subscribers (Creator is $116 a month at 10,000 subscribers billed yearly). Prices: kit.com/pricing.

Mailchimp — the connector list

Mailchimp is the pragmatic swap when your store, CRM, or forms already speak to it and re-plumbing is the migration risk you most want to avoid. Its free plan is small (250 contacts, 500 sends a month, 250 sends a day); Standard is $20 a month at the default 500-contact selector with 6,000 emails a month, and Essentials starts at $13 a month at 500 contacts. Watch the bands: Standard moves to $100 a month at 2,501–5,000 contacts and $135 at 5,001–10,000, so the plan that wins at 500 contacts rarely wins at 5,000. Compare it against Campaign Monitor at your own band, not at the selector default. Prices: mailchimp.com/pricing.

Mailgun — sending as an application capability

Mailgun fits when engineers are willing to own the pipeline and marketing is fine with a separate authoring surface. Basic is $15 a month for 10,000 emails with extra volume from $1.80 per 1,000; Foundation is $35 a month for 50,000 emails with five days of log retention; Scale is $90 a month for 100,000 emails with thirty days of logs and 5,000 validations. It is not a Campaign Monitor replacement: templates for campaigns, forms, and client review live elsewhere, so price the second tool as well before treating the $15 as the whole answer. Prices: mailgun.com/pricing.

SendGrid — marketing campaigns beside the API

SendGrid makes sense when transactional delivery already runs through it and the marketing calendar is the only thing on Campaign Monitor. Marketing Campaigns has a free plan for up to 2,000 contacts and 6,000 emails a month; Basic is $15 a month at up to 100,000 contacts with 300,000 emails at that selector stop. The Email API side bills separately and starts with a free trial of 100 emails a day for 60 days, then Essentials at $19.95 a month. Decide which surface you are buying before moving: the campaign tool, the delivery layer, or both — each has its own plan. Prices: sendgrid.com/en-us/pricing.

How to choose

1. Count next month’s sends, not this month’s contacts. Campaign Monitor Lite prices by contact band but caps sends at 5× it; MailerLite Comfort caps at 10× its subscriber ceiling; Brevo and Mailgun bill purely by email volume. The same 2,000-person list is cheap or expensive depending on how often you mail.
2. Decide whether a free runway matters more than a feature. A one-off migration can be rehearsed free on MailerLite (250 subscribers), Brevo (300 emails a day), or Kit (10,000 subscribers for broadcasts); Campaign Monitor’s own offer is a 30-day trial with 500 contacts and 500 emails.
3. List the Campaign Monitor features you actually used this quarter — custom coded templates, inbox preview, drip campaigns, phone support — and check each one on the alternative’s own pricing page before you move, not after.
4. Price your real band on both tools before deciding. At 500 contacts the gap between Campaign Monitor Lite ($13) and MailerLite Comfort ($12) is a dollar; at 10,000 contacts Campaign Monitor Lite is $117 a month and Kit Creator is $116 a month billed yearly, and the send ceilings decide which is cheaper for you.
5. Budget the rebuild, not just the subscription. Templates, forms, and automations do not export as working copies from most tools; two days of rebuilding is part of the price of switching.

Moving off Campaign Monitor without losing people

Move consent before content. Export your subscriber list with signup source, custom fields, and consent dates first, and bring your suppression and unsubscribe records with it — anyone who opted out on Campaign Monitor must stay opted out after the move, and re-mailing them is the fastest way to damage a sending domain. Then export or screenshot the templates you care about (custom coded templates travel as HTML better than as visual blocks), and write down each automation’s trigger, wait, and exit rules before touching the new tool.

1. Export subscribers, custom fields, signup source, and consent dates; export unsubscribes and bounces as a suppression file.
2. Capture templates as HTML or screenshots, and note each drip campaign’s trigger, timing, and exit condition.
3. Authenticate the sending domain in the new tool (SPF and DKIM) before the first real send, and keep the Campaign Monitor domain records intact until cutover is complete.
4. Import into the new tool, apply the suppression file, and rebuild one low-risk newsletter first.
5. Send that newsletter to a small segment, compare open and bounce behaviour against your last Campaign Monitor send, then move the rest of the calendar.

FAQ

Does Campaign Monitor have a free plan?

No. Its pricing page offers a 30-day free trial limited to 500 contacts and 500 emails, then Lite starts at $13 a month at 500 contacts. If a free plan is the requirement, MailerLite (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month), Brevo (300 emails a day), and Kit (up to 10,000 subscribers for broadcasts) all publish one.

What does Campaign Monitor cost at 2,500 contacts?

On monthly billing: Lite $47, Essentials $74, Premier $182 a month. On the annual toggle those are $42.30, $66.60, and $163.80 a month. Lite at that band still allows only 12,500 emails a month (5× 2,500), so a team that mails weekly with follow-ups is really comparing Essentials, not Lite.

Which alternative keeps the polished template and review workflow?

None of them matches Campaign Monitor feature for feature on the pricing page alone. Mailchimp Standard ($20 a month at 500 contacts) is the usual landing spot for teams that want a wide template and connector ecosystem; MailerLite covers newsletters and forms at a lower price. If two-person approval before a send is a hard requirement, test it on the trial account — pricing pages describe plans, not approval flows.

Is it worth switching below 500 contacts?

Rarely for the money. At 500 contacts Campaign Monitor Lite is $13 a month against MailerLite Comfort at $12, so the saving is $1 a month, $12 a year ($1 × 12). Switch for the send ceiling (2,500 emails versus 5,000 at that tier), for a free plan while you grow, or for a workflow you actually need — and count the rebuild days against the saving.

Where should a developer-owned sending setup go?

To Mailgun or SendGrid. Mailgun Basic is $15 a month for 10,000 emails with event logs (one day on Basic, five on Foundation at $35, thirty on Scale at $90). SendGrid pairs API delivery (trial at 100 emails a day for 60 days, then Essentials $19.95 a month) with Marketing Campaigns (free up to 2,000 contacts and 6,000 emails a month; Basic $15 a month at up to 100,000 contacts). Neither replaces Campaign Monitor’s campaign studio without a second tool.