Let’s get real. Mailchimp used to be the go-to for small businesses. It was easy, free to use and everyone was using it. But somewhere along the line it was different. Mailchimp became more expensive, more complicated and frankly, more annoying to use.
That’s where Moosend comes in.
Moosend was founded in 2015 with one goal: to create an email marketing platform that does everything small businesses actually need, without all the junk they don’t. No fatty features. No confusing pricing tiers. No penalty for building your email list.
And the kicker? Moosend costs a lot less than Mailchimp. Like more features, half the price. But cheap is not always good, right?
I’ve spent weeks testing Moosend against Mailchimp. I’ve built campaigns and set them up. I’ve been testing Moosend with Mailchimp for weeks. I’ve run campaigns, automations and reporting and really put both platforms through the wringer. Is Moosend actually a good alternative? Or is it cheap for a cheap reason?
Here’s everything you need to know.
Quick Verdict
Overall Rating: 8.6/10
Best For
- Small businesses and startups on a tight budget
- Ecommerce stores needing solid automation without paying enterprise prices
- Marketing teams that want to send unlimited emails without worrying about overage fees
- Anyone frustrated with Mailchimp’s pricing increases and feature restrictions
- Beginners who want powerful features without a steep learning curve
Not Ideal For
- Large enterprises needing advanced CRM and Salesforce-level integrations
- Teams that require extremely advanced segmentation (over 10-15 conditions)
- Users who need complex multivariate A/B testing
- Anyone who wants a huge library of pre-designed email templates
Bottom Line
Yes, Moosend is indeed a good Mailchimp alternative. In fact, it is better for most small businesses. Pricing is simple and cheap — $7/month for 500 subscribers vs. $13/month with Mailchimp for the same tier. The automation builder is insanely powerful, the email editor is a charm and there are no surprises when your list grows. What are the major tradeoffs? The template library is smaller and the advanced segmentation is not as deep as Mailchimp. But for 90% of small business needs, Moosend has all you need for half the price. Switching to Moosend could save you hundreds of dollars a year if you’re paying Mailchimp right now and it won’t cost you anything in terms of functionality.
Product Overview
| Category | Moosend | Mailchimp |
| Product Name | Moosend | Mailchimp |
| Developer | Moosend (acquired by Sitecore) | Intuit |
| Founded | 2015 | 2001 |
| Category | Email Marketing, Marketing Automation | Email Marketing, CRM |
| Free Plan | Free trial only (30 days) | Yes (500 contacts, 1,000 emails/month) |
| Starting Price | $7/month (500 subscribers) | $13/month (500 contacts) |
| Unlimited Emails | Yes (all paid plans) | No (limits based on plan) |
| Transactional Emails | Add-on ($25/10K emails) | Built-in (higher tiers) |
| SMS Marketing | Yes (integrated) | Yes (separate add-on) |
| Best For | Affordable automation | Feature breadth |
What Is Moosend?
Moosend began as a small email marketing platform in Greece. The team built it out of frustration with existing tools, either too expensive, too complicated, or both. In 2021, Moosend was acquired by Sitecore, one of the biggest digital experience platforms, which gave the company more resources but kept the product geared toward small to medium businesses.
Today, Moosend has more than 30,000 customers globally. Mailchimp has 13 million users and while it doesn’t have that, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A smaller user base usually means better support and a product not bloated with features nobody asked for.
What does Moosend actually do? Everything you’d expect from an email marketing platform:
- Build and send email campaigns using drag-and-drop editor
- Create automated email sequences (welcome series, abandoned cart, etc.)
- Segment your audience based on behavior and custom fields
- Track opens, clicks, revenue and other metrics
- Manage subscribers and lists
- Integrate with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce
The core promise is simple: give small businesses enterprise-level automation features without enterprise-level prices.
Key Features
Feature #1: Drag-and-Drop Email Editor
What It Does?
Moosend’s email builder lets you design professional emails without touching a line of code. Drag content blocks (text, images, buttons, products, etc.) onto the canvas and arrange them however you want.
How It Works?
The editor is currently editing. Drop an image block Upload your photo Resize Add alt text Add a text block, write your message and change fonts and colors. Add a products block and Moosend will automatically pull product data from your integrated store.
You can also start with a pre-designed template The template library isn’t huge – around 70 options compared to Mailchimp’s hundreds – but the quality is good. The drag-and-drop editor is highly flexible and allows you to customize any template to match your brand.
Why It Matters?
A bad email editor makes you hate email marketing. Broken layouts, clunky interfaces, strange spacing issues. Moosend’s editor isn’t the best I’ve ever used, but it’s consistently good. The default is mobile-friendly layouts and the learning curve is shallow. Most users can build their first campaign in under 15 minutes.
Feature #2: Marketing Automation
What It Does?
This is where Moosend really competes with Mailchimp. The automation builder lets you create multi-step email sequences triggered by subscriber behavior.
How It Works?
You build workflows on a visual canvas. Drag a trigger node (someone subscribes, clicks a link, makes a purchase, or abandons a cart). Add conditions (if they’re in this segment, if it’s been X days). Add actions (send email, wait, update field, tag them). Connect everything with lines.
The workflow editor is intuitive. It doesn’t have every advanced feature that enterprise tools offer, but for 95% of small business automations, it’s more than enough.
Here’s what you can automate:
- New subscribers welcome series
- E-commerce cart abandonment recovery
- Follow-ups after sale
- Reactivation campaigns to inactive subscribers
- Birthday and Anniversary messages
- Engagement-based lead scoring
Why It Matters?
Mailchimp heavily price gates automation features. Want Mailchimp abandoned cart emails? That’s on the Standard plan for a minimum of $20/month. Looking for multi-step automations with conditions? That’s more, even. Moosend has all the automation features available on all paid plans, starting with $7/month.
Feature #3: Ecommerce Integrations
What It Does?
Moosend connects directly with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and BigCommerce. Once connected, it pulls product data, purchase history and customer information into your email marketing.
How It Works?
Install the Moosend app from your e-commerce platform’s marketplace. Authenticate the connection. Moosend starts syncing your products, orders and customers automatically.
Now you can:
- Send product recommendations based on past purchases
- Build automated abandoned cart sequences
- Create post-purchase follow-ups with related products
- Segment customers by total spend, number of orders, or last purchase date
- Track revenue generated from each campaign
Why It Matters?
Ecommerce email marketing is not your average email marketing. You require product data. You need to track your purchases. You require abandoned cart emails. Moosend delivers all of this without forcing you into an expensive “ecommerce” plan. Mailchimp e-commerce features are locked behind higher tiers starting at $350/month for Pro.
Feature #4: Segmentation
What It Does?
Segmentation lets you split your audience into smaller groups based on behavior, demographics, or custom data. Send different emails to different people.
How It Works?
Moosend’s segment builder lets you combine conditions using AND/OR logic. For example: “Subscribers who opened the last email AND have purchased in the last 30 days AND live in the United States.”
You can segment based on:
- Standard fields (whereabouts, signup date, etc.)
- Custom fields you create
- Email engagement (opens, clicks, bounces, etc.)
- Purchase Behavior (products bought, total spend, date of last order)
- Link clicks (which links they clicked)
- Triggers & tags automation
Why It Matters?
Segmentation is the difference between “spray and pray” email marketing and campaigns that convert. Everyone on your list doesn’t need the same email. Moosend’s segmentation is powerful enough for most small businesses, but not as advanced as Mailchimp’s advanced segmentation (which allows for unlimited nested conditions).
Feature #5: Reporting and Analytics
What It Does?
Moosend shows you how your campaigns perform. Opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, spam complaints, revenue and more.
How It Works?
Each campaign has a report page with graphs and tables. You can see opens over time, click maps of which links got the most engagement and see device breakdowns (mobile vs. desktop vs. tablet).
The revenue reports are particularly valuable for e-commerce users. Moosend shows you how much money each campaign has made, the average order value and the products sold.
Why It Matters?
Data without insights is useless. Moosend’s reporting is clean and actionable. You can see what’s working and what isn’t at a glance. The revenue tracking is accurate enough to calculate ROI for every campaign.
Feature #6: Landing Pages
What It Does?
Moosend includes a landing page builder. Create standalone pages for lead generation, product launches, event registration, or any other marketing goal.
How It Works?
Choose from landing page templates or build from scratch using the drag-and-drop builder. Pages are mobile-responsive automatically. Publish on a Moosend subdomain or connect your own custom domain.
Why It Matters?
Most email marketing platforms lack landing pages. Mailchimp does, but only on the upper plans. Moosend has it on each and every plan. If you’re a small business and don’t have a dedicated web designer, then having a built-in landing page tool will save you cash from paying for a separate tool like Unbounce or Leadpages.
Feature #7: SMS Marketing
What It Does?
Moosend lets you send SMS messages alongside your emails. Reach subscribers on their phones for time-sensitive offers, appointment reminders, or order updates.
How It Works?
Add SMS credits to your account (pricing varies by region). Build SMS campaigns using a simple text editor. Send to the same segments you use for email. Track delivery and click rates.
Why It Matters?
Email open rates hover around 20-30%. SMS open rates are over 90% and most messages are read within three minutes. For certain use cases—flash sales, shipping updates and appointment reminders—SMS is dramatically more effective than email.
User Experience and Interface
Setup Process
Getting started with Moosend takes about ten minutes. Sign up, verify your email and you’re in. The onboarding walks you through connecting your domain (for sender authentication), importing your first subscribers and creating your first campaign.
Dashboard Overview
The dashboard is clean and uncluttered. Left sidebar navigation, main content area, top bar for account settings. The layout is similar to Mailchimp’s older design—functional but not flashy.
Users consistently praise the dashboard for being intuitive. You don’t hunt for features. Everything is where you expect it to be.
Learning Curve
Low to moderate. Basic campaign creation takes minutes. Automation workflows require more thought, but the visual builder makes it straightforward. Most users report being comfortable with the platform after a few hours of exploration.
Overall Usability
Moosend is one of the more user-friendly email marketing platforms I’ve tested. It doesn’t try to be everything to everyone. The feature set is focused, the interface is clean and the help documentation is solid.
The biggest usability complaint? The template library. With only around 70 templates, you might not find exactly what you want. But again, the drag-and-drop editor is flexible enough that you can build what you need from scratch or from a basic template.
Performance and Reliability
Delivery Rates
Moosend is good for delivering emails. Independent testing shows consistently high delivery rates, often above 95%. Moosend has relationships with major ISPs (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.) to ensure that their sending IPs are reputable.
That said, ultimately delivery is dependent on your sending practices. Clean lists, engaged subscribers and proper authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC) are what Moosend gives you the tools for; you have to use them.
Speed
Campaigns typically process within minutes. The email editor is responsive. Reports load quickly even with large datasets. No major speed complaints from users.
Uptime
Moosend’s service-level agreement promises 99.9% uptime. Historical performance supports that claim. Minor downtime is rare and usually announced in advance.
Pricing Comparison
This is where Moosend destroys Mailchimp for small businesses.
Pricing Table
| Subscriber Count | Moosend | Mailchimp (Essentials) | Mailchimp (Standard) |
| 500 | $7/month | $13/month | $20/month |
| 1,000 | $8/month | $20/month | $32/month |
| 2,500 | $9/month | $30/month | $45/month |
| 5,000 | $18/month | $55/month | $80/month |
| 10,000 | $27/month | $80/month | $110/month |
| 15,000 | $41/month | $140/month | $190/month |
Important Differences
Unlimited emails on Moosend. Every Moosend paid plan includes unlimited email sends. Mailchimp caps your monthly sends based on your plan.
Automation features on every Moosend plan. Mailchimp locks advanced automation (abandoned cart, multi-step sequences, etc.) behind Standard and Pro plans.
Moosend has no free plan. Mailchimp does, but it’s very limited (500 contacts, 1,000 emails per month). Moosend offers a 30-day free trial instead.
Is Moosend’s Pricing Real?
Yes. Those prices are real and current. The 500-subscriber plan at $7/month is not a teaser rate. It’s the standard price.
Here’s what that means for your business. If you have 2,500 subscribers and you’re on Mailchimp’s Essentials plan, you’re paying $30/month. Moosend charges $9/month for the same list size. That’s a saving of $252 per year. For a small business, that’s not nothing.
If you need Mailchimp’s Standard plan for automation features, the difference is even bigger. Mailchimp Standard, at 2,500 subscribers, is $45/month. Moosend is $9/month for the same automation capabilities. That’s $432 per year in savings.
Pros and Cons of Moosend
Pros
- Cheaper than Mailchimp – Same features at half the price
- Unlimited email on all paid plans – No surprises, no overage fees
- Includes a powerful automation builder—no pricey tier lock-in
- Ecommerce integrations are good for abandoned carts, product recommendations, revenue tracking
- Clean, intuitive interface – No feature hunting
- High email deliverability – consistently over 90%
- Native SMS marketing Reach your subscribers on their phones
- 30-day free trial No credit card required to start
Cons
- Smaller template library – 70 templates versus hundreds in Mailchimp
- Free trial only then pay—no free forever plan
- Less advanced segmentation – Good for most small businesses, not enterprise level
- Transactional email is an add-on—$25 per 10,000 emails (Mailchimp includes it in higher plans)
- Fewer third-party integrations: Mailchimp’s App Marketplace is massive. Moosend’s is smaller but covers the essentials.
- Support is chat and email only—no phone support
Pros and Cons of Mailchimp
Pros
- Huge template library – Hundreds of choices for every industry
- Free Plan – 500 contacts, 1000 emails/month – Always
- Large integration ecosystem – Integrates with thousands of applications
- Advanced segmentation – Unlimited nested conditions
- Built-in transactional email—For Standard and Pro plans
- Popular brand – your team probably already knows how to use it
Cons
- Expensive – Way more than Moosend for the same features
- Email sends have a limit—pay more or send less
- Automation Features Gated—Want an abandoned cart? Standard or Pro will cost that much
- Pricing is confusing—contact tiers, send limits, feature gates, overage fees
- Recent price increases—Mailchimp has increased prices multiple times in recent years
- Feels bloated—Interface cluttered with unnecessary features
Who Should Use Moosend?
Best For
Save money for small business email marketing—if you’re paying $50-100 a month and wondering why so much goes to Moosend. You get the same power for half the price.
E-commerce store owners—Abandoned cart, product recommendations, post-purchase follow-ups, revenue monitoring—all included in Moosend’s base pricing. These features would need a Standard or Pro plan on Mailchimp.
Marketing teams new to automation—Moosend’s visual automation builder is intuitive. You don’t need a dedicated marketing operations person to set up complex workflows.
Anyone frustrated with Mailchimp—If you’ve watched your Mailchimp bill creep up while features get locked behind higher tiers, Moosend feels like a breath of fresh air.
Who Should Avoid Moosend?
Large enterprises with complex needs—If you need advanced CRM integrations, custom reporting, or dedicated account management, Moosend isn’t built for you.
Teams that need massive template libraries—Moosend’s 70 templates are fine for most uses, but if you rely on pre-designed templates heavily, Mailchimp’s library is much larger.
Users who need the free forever plan—Moosend has a 30-day free trial, then you pay. Mailchimp’s free plan (500 contacts, 1,000 emails/month) might work for very small lists.
Businesses sending high volumes of transactional email—Moosend charges extra for transactional email ($25/10K). Mailchimp includes it on standard and pro plans.
Moosend Alternatives
Mailchimp
The elephant in the room. Mailchimp is more expensive and more bloated but has a larger template library and more integrations. Choose Mailchimp if you need the free plan, the massive integration ecosystem, or your team refuses to switch.
Best for: Teams that need the free plan or very specific integrations.
MailerLite
Moosend’s closest competitor in the “affordable email marketing” space. MailerLite starts at $9/month for 500 subscribers (slightly more than Moosend’s $7). The interface is even simpler than Moosend’s, but automation features are less powerful.
Best for: Absolute beginners who want the simplest possible tool.
ConvertKit
Built for bloggers, creators and content businesses. ConvertKit uses tagging subscribers instead of lists, which is different from Moosend’s approach. Starts at $9/month for 300 subscribers (more pricey).
Best for: Bloggers, authors, YouTubers and course creators.
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
Brevo emphasizes SMS and transactional email alongside standard email marketing. The free plan includes 300 emails/day, which is generous. But the email editor is clunkier than Moosend’s.
Best for: Businesses that need SMS and email in one platform.
Quick Comparison Table
| Feature | Moosend | Mailchimp | MailerLite | ConvertKit |
| Starting Price (500 subs) | $7 | $13 | $9 | $15 (300 subs) |
| Unlimited Emails | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Automation (all plans) | Yes | No | Yes (basic) | Yes |
| Free Plan | Trial only | Yes (limited) | Yes (1K subs) | No |
| Template Library | ~70 | Hundreds | ~80 | Minimal |
| Ecommerce Features | Yes | Tiers | Limited | No |
| Learning Curve | Low | Medium | Very low | Medium |
| Best For | Affordable automation | Feature breadth | Beginners | Creators |
Security and Privacy
Moosend is GDPR compliant and offers data processing agreements to EU customers. The platform also meets CAN-SPAM and CASL requirements for sending in North America.
Data is stored on secure servers with encryption in-transit and at-rest. To ensure account security, we offer two-factor authentication.
Mailchimp (an Intuit company) has more enterprise security features (SSO and advanced compliance like SOC 2). Moosend’s security is fine for most small businesses. For regulated industries, please consult directly with Moosend.
Customer Support
Moosend offers:
- Email support – Included with all paid plans
- Live chat – Available during business hours
- Knowledge base – Articles, guides and video tutorials
- Webinars – Regular training sessions
Users generally rate Moosend’s support positively. Response times are reasonable (hours, not days). The support team is knowledgeable about the product.
Mailchimp’s support is harder to access. Free plan users get limited support. Even paid users sometimes wait days for responses.
Real-World Use Cases
Use Case 1: The Ecommerce Boutique
A small clothing store on Shopify sends out automated sequences and weekly newsletters. Before Moosend, they were using Mailchimp’s Standard plan at $80/month for 5,000 subscribers. They move to Moosend’s $18/month plan. Same features: Cart abandonment recovery, post-purchase follow-ups and product recommendations. You’ll save $744 a year.
Use Case 2: The SaaS Startup
I run a B2B SaaS company with 2,500 free trial users. We need an onboarding email sequence (5 emails over 14 days) and a re-engagement campaign for inactive users. Mailchimp Standard Plan: $45/month. Moosend: $9/month. Same automation features. The startup saves $432 a year to put back into product development.
Use Case 3: The Local Restaurant
1,200 email subscribers for a restaurant sending weekly specials and monthly events. They don’t need automation or e-commerce features—just a simple way to send attractive emails to their list. Mailchimp Essentials plan – $20/month. Moosend is $8/mo. Same basic function. The restaurant saves $144 a year and doesn’t notice a difference in features.
What We Like Most
The pricing is refreshingly upfront. No teazer rates. No “unlock this feature upgrade.” No overage charges per email. You get what you pay for—the more subscribers, the more you pay. Everything is included. That’s a rarity in email marketing.
For the value range, the automation builder is very strong. Small businesses shouldn’t be paying enterprise prices for abandoned cart emails or welcome sequences. Moosend agrees.
And the unlimited email policy? That’s a huge deal. Mailchimp: If you exceed the plan limit, you pay overage fees or upgrade to the next tier. Send as much as you want on Moosend Your only limitation is the no. of subscribers.
Areas for Improvement
The template library needs expansion. Seventy templates is enough to get started, but more variety—especially modern, industry-specific designs—would be welcome.
Segmentation could be more advanced and deeper. Moosend’s segmentation is okay for most use cases. But if you need 20 conditions in a single segment with complex nesting, you’ll run into limits.
Pricing for the transactional email add-on is a little annoying. $25 for 10,000 emails is not expensive, but paying extra for something that Mailchimp includes feels like a small nick.
A free forever plan would increase conversions. The 30-day trial is fair, but a limited free tier (like MailerLite’s 1,000-subscriber free plan) would lower the barrier to entry.
Final Verdict
Is Moosend the Best Mailchimp Alternative for Small Business?
For most small businesses, yes. It’s not even close.
Moosend has all the core features that Mailchimp has, such as a drag & drop email builder, powerful automation, e-commerce integrations and solid reporting—but at about half the price. Unlimited emails on all plans means no surprise overage fees. You won’t need to pay extra for automation features.
The trade-offs are real, but small for the most part. Fewer templates in the library. Less sophisticated segmentation No plan is forever free. Transactional emails cost extra.
But here’s the thing that matters. Is it worth paying double for those trade-offs? For 90% of small businesses, hell no.
If you’re currently paying Mailchimp $50, $80, or even $100 a month and wondering why your email marketing bill keeps going up, give Moosend a try. The 30-day free trial is free . Bring in your list. Make a campaign. Build an automation. See if you can tell the difference.
Chances are, you won’t miss Mailchimp at all. But your bank account will definitely notice the savings.
Overall Rating
| Category | Moosend | Mailchimp |
| Features | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8.5/10 | 7/10 |
| Pricing | 9.5/10 | 5/10 |
| Performance | 8.5/10 | 8.5/10 |
| Support | 7.5/10 | 6/10 |
| Overall | 8.6/10 | 7.4/10 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Moosend really cheaper than Mailchimp?
Yes. For the same subscriber count, Moosend is typically 40-60% cheaper than Mailchimp’s comparable plan. And Moosend includes unlimited emails on every paid plan.
Does Moosend have a free plan?
No. Moosend offers a 30-day free trial with full features. After that, you need a paid plan starting at $7/month for 500 subscribers.
Can Moosend handle abandoned cart emails?
Yes. Moosend integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and BigCommerce for abandoned cart recovery. This feature is included on every paid plan (not locked behind expensive tiers).
Is Moosend good for beginners?
Yes. The interface is clean and intuitive. Basic campaign creation takes minutes. The learning curve is lower than Mailchimp’s.
Does Moosend have good deliverability?
Yes. Independent testing shows delivery rates consistently above 90%, often above 95%. As with any email platform, your sending practices (clean lists, engaged subscribers, proper authentication) affect deliverability.
Can I switch from Mailchimp to Moosend?
Yes. Moosend has import tools that connect directly to Mailchimp. You can bring your subscribers, segments and even some campaign data.
Does Moosend have a mobile app?
Moosend offers a mobile-responsive web interface that works on phones and tablets. There is no dedicated iOS or Android app.
Is Moosend GDPR compliant?
Yes. Moosend provides GDPR-compliant tools including consent management, data processing agreements and the ability to delete subscriber data upon request.
What happens if my list grows past my plan?
Moosend automatically detects subscriber count increases and will prompt you to upgrade. Your account isn’t suspended immediately—you have time to adjust your plan.
Should I switch from Mailchimp to Moosend?
If you’re a small business paying for email marketing and you don’t need Mailchimp’s specific advanced features (massive template library, deep integration ecosystem), yes. The cost savings alone make it worthwhile for most businesses.
