Flodesk vs Mailchimp Comparison 2026
Both cover email marketing & automation and newsletter & email. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Email that looks designed without a designer
Email marketing with the longest integration list
At a glance
- Mailchimp starts cheaper, at $20.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Flodesk | Mailchimp | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $25 | From $20 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 14 days |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Flodesk
Email that looks designed without a designer
Flodesk is built around templates that come out looking considered rather than like a form, which is why it keeps turning up in the hands of people selling something visual. Every paid plan sends unlimited email regardless of how often. Pricing moves with the size of the list instead, starting from a thousand subscribers. A free plan exists for building a list before there is anything to send to it, and anybody wanting deep automation branching will find this deliberately simpler than its competitors.
Our note
Move the subscriber slider to where you expect to be in a year rather than reading the starting price, because the starting figure is for a thousand subscribers and the curve above that is the real cost. Against the older platforms this wins on how the email looks and loses on what the automation can do, and only you know which of those you are buying.
Mailchimp
Email marketing with the longest integration list
Mailchimp is the default nobody gets fired for picking, and the reason is that whatever else you run already connects to it. The editor and the reporting are fine rather than good. Its pricing counts contacts rather than sends, so a large list you mail once a month costs the same as one you mail daily, which is the wrong shape for most creators.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.