The best Mailchimp alternative is Nitrosend if you hold a big list and send to it rarely, Brevo if you want volume pricing with no contact ceiling on the free tier, and MailerLite if you want the shortest move to a clean newsletter builder.
Almost nobody arrives here because Mailchimp stopped working. They arrive because the invoice grew while the sending did not.
The short version
If your list is large and you email it monthly, the pricing model is your problem and you want a per-send platform: Brevo, Nitrosend or Zoho Campaigns.
If the list is small and you just want a clean newsletter, MailerLite is the shortest move. For an online store, Klaviyo is the deeper product and Omnisend is the cheaper shape of it. For a creator whose list is an audience rather than a customer database, Kit. For behavioural automation that Mailchimp's flow builder cannot reach, ActiveCampaign. For an all-in-one CRM you already pay for, staying put is often the right call.
In my own experience Mailchimp is the tool the biggest volume of switchers arrive from, and its customer journeys still need a person driving them. That is the honest summary of what you gain and what you lose.
Why people leave Mailchimp
Mailchimp bills on contacts, not on sends.
That is fine if you email your list weekly. It is a tax if you do not. The free plan is capped at 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, Essentials starts at $13 a month for up to 500 contacts, and at 10,000 contacts the Standard plan lists at $135 a month, all read from Mailchimp's own pricing page on 7 September 2026. The contact count sets the bill. What you send barely moves it. Mailchimp also keeps billing for unsubscribed contacts until you archive them by hand.
Nick, who answers our support and deliverability questions, puts the mismatch plainly. A price-sensitive business with a lot of subscribers and a low sending frequency gets charged thousands without producing enough value to justify it, and it is exactly that business that benefits from paying per email sent.
Fairness demands the other half. Mailchimp is the biggest email service provider there is, it has the deepest template and integration ecosystem in the category, and its reporting is familiar to every marketer you will hire. Frustration with the price rises and with a design system people find inflexible has grown since the Intuit acquisition, and Trustpilot has it at 2.7 out of 5 across 1,368 reviews, with cost the recurring theme, per EmailToolTester's pricing teardown. That does not make it a bad product. It makes it a badly matched one for a very large group of senders.
How they compare
Scores are out of 10 against criteria whose weights add to 100. They are published in full at the bottom of this page, so you can disagree with a weight and re-rank the table yourself.
Every price below was read from the vendor's own pricing page on 7 September 2026, and every one of them moves. Confirm yours before you commit.
We make Nitrosend. It is first on this list because it wins on the criteria published at the bottom of this page, and its own entry names what it loses.
Mailchimp alternatives compared
Checked| Platform | Rank | Best for | Pricing model | Free tier | From | At 10k contacts | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrosend Agent-native | 1 | Big list, low send | per send | 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month | $20/mo | n/a | 9.7 |
| Brevo | 2 | Budget volume | per send | 300 emails a day, unlimited contacts | $9/mo | n/a | 8.2 |
| Klaviyo | 3 | E-commerce | per contact | 250 active profiles, 500 email sends a month, 150 SMS/MMS credits | $20/mo | n/a | 8.0 |
| ActiveCampaign | 4 | Deep automation | per contact | 14-day trial | $15/mo | $149/mo (Starter) | 7.6 |
| Omnisend | 5 | Smaller stores | per contact | 250 contacts, 500 emails a month | $16/mo | $132/mo (Standard) | 7.4 |
| MailerLite | 6 | Simple newsletters | per contact | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month | $12/mo | $89/mo (Comfort) | 7.4 |
| Zoho Campaigns | 7 | Lowest price | per contact | Forever Free: up to 2,000 contacts, 6,000 emails/month, 5 users, list management, templates/drag & drop/HTML import/generative AI, 35 app integrations, basic reporting. Plus a 14-day free trial of paid features, no credit card required. | $4/mo | $49/mo (Standard (10,000 contacts, monthly billing)) | 7.4 |
| Kit | 8 | Creators | per contact | Free up to 10,000 subscribers | $33/mo | n/a | 7.3 |
1. Nitrosend
Best for: teams leaving Mailchimp because they pay for stored contacts, and teams that want an agent to run the account.
The model is the point. Pay per send, never per contact, with unlimited contacts on every tier, forever. If you hold 100,000 addresses and email 30,000 of them, a per-contact platform bills you for all 100,000. We bill you for what left the building. That single inversion is why most Mailchimp refugees end up cheaper here, and it is the reason we built the pricing this way rather than a clever discount on the same broken shape.
The second reason is the operator. You connect Nitrosend to Claude, Codex or Cursor over MCP and run the stack by asking: compose a campaign, build a flow, import a list, check a send. Transactional and marketing sit in one account with the streams separated internally, so a receipt never queues behind a newsletter. Nothing sends without your approval.
The free plan is 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month, with up to 100 / 500 / 5,000 recipients per rolling 24 hours for Free Probation / Standard / Trusted and full API, MCP and CLI access. Paid starts at $20 a month for 20,000 emails.
Where it loses. Nick is blunt about the ceiling: at enterprise send volumes we are still more expensive than Klaviyo, so this is not the answer for the largest senders. We have no on-site popups and no browse-abandonment tracking, which is Klaviyo's home ground. There is no inbound email parsing over REST, and no cold outreach at all. The template library you have built inside Mailchimp does not come with you either. For the direct comparison rather than a list, we keep a Nitrosend and Mailchimp head to head.
- Nitrosend at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- teams leaving because they pay for stored contacts, and teams that want an agent to operate the account
- Pricing model
- per send
- Free tier
- 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month
- Entry paid plan
- $20/mo (20,000 emails a month, 5 brands, 3 domains, up to 1,000 / 10,000 / 100,000 recipients per rolling 24 hours for Pro Probation / Standard / Trusted)
- At 100,000 emails a month
- $100/mo (Ultra)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- First-party MCP server
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: docs.nitrosend.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: docs.nitrosend.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing
- Founding team
- George Hartley and Kam Low ran SmartrMail, an email and SMS platform whose buyer Relay Commerce still operates it and publicly lists more than 8,000 brands on it. Kam Low's open-source record runs from 2009 under the Sourcey organisation. All three founders are in post.
- Founding team score
- 9.25 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- First-party MCP server, a listed app in the ChatGPT app marketplace, and Brand Kit (automatic on-brand email design generation from a scraped brand) -- all three verified.
- AI-native score
- 10 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- More expensive than Klaviyo at enterprise send volumes
- No on-site popups or browse-abandonment tracking
- No inbound email parsing over REST
- No cold outreach
- Facts checked
2. Brevo
Best for: large lists emailed occasionally, on the tightest budget.
Brevo prices on emails sent rather than contacts stored, and its free tier allows 300 emails a day with no contact ceiling. Paid starts at $9 a month from 5,000 emails. It also bundles SMS, WhatsApp, live chat and a CRM, so a small team can consolidate several bills into one.
The thing to know before you move: Brevo enforces its sending policy automatically and fast, and the reporting goes dark with the account. That is documented on the Brevo alternatives page. If your Mailchimp list is old and unverified, clean it before you point it anywhere new.
- Brevo at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- large lists emailed occasionally on the tightest budget
- Pricing model
- per send
- Free tier
- 300 emails a day, unlimited contacts
- Entry paid plan
- $9/mo (from 5,000 emails a month)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- First-party MCP server
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- yes
- Owner
- Brevo (formerly Sendinblue, independent)
- Support
- Help center: help.brevo.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developers.brevo.com
- Status page
- System status: status.brevo.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: brevo.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Armand Thiberge founded Brevo in 2012 and is still chief executive, though ownership is now heavily institutional after the December 2025 round.
- Founding team score
- 5.75 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Has a first-party MCP server for agent-callable access, but no verified on-brand automatic design generation (Brand Kit-style) or ChatGPT app marketplace listing.
- AI-native score
- 4 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- Enforcement is automatic and fast, and reporting goes with a suspended account
- The CRM is basic next to a real sales tool
- Support is thin on the entry plan
- Facts checked
3. Klaviyo
Best for: online stores where email revenue is attributed to flows.
Nothing else here matches the store data model: abandoned cart, browse abandonment, product triggers, on-site forms. If your sends are driven by what someone did in your shop, this is an upgrade over Mailchimp rather than a sideways move.
Price it carefully. Klaviyo bills on active profiles, meaning every subscribed contact whether you email them or not, a change that applied to existing accounts from February 2025. That is the same tax you are leaving, in a more expensive bracket. Free is 250 active profiles and 500 sends, and paid starts at $20 a month for 251 to 500 profiles. The attribution defaults are covered on the Klaviyo alternatives page.
- Klaviyo at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- online stores where email revenue is attributed to flows
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- 250 active profiles, 500 email sends a month, 150 SMS/MMS credits
- Entry paid plan
- $20/mo (251 to 500 active profiles)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: help.klaviyo.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developers.klaviyo.com
- Status page
- System status: status.klaviyo.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: klaviyo.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Andrew Bialecki is still co-chief executive and Ed Hallen still chief strategy officer after the 2023 New York Stock Exchange listing. No prior email product.
- Founding team score
- 7.75 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently verified for MCP/agent access in this comparison; no on-brand automatic design generation or ChatGPT app marketplace listing found in a light spot-check.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- Bills on active profiles, which is the same contact tax in a higher bracket
- Attribution defaults are generous to Klaviyo
- Overkill outside e-commerce
- Facts checked
4. ActiveCampaign
Best for: teams whose email is triggered by behaviour rather than by a calendar.
The real automation upgrade from Mailchimp: multi-step branching, a proper CRM, and enough depth that the flow logic becomes the product. There is no free tier, only a 14-day trial, and Starter lists at $15 a month for 1,000 contacts on annual billing.
The cost curve is the catch. At 10,000 contacts the same Starter plan lists at $149 a month, and from November 2025 new accounts are billed on all contacts including unsubscribed, bounced and unconfirmed. You would be leaving one contact tax for a stricter one. The full picture is on the ActiveCampaign alternatives page.
- ActiveCampaign at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- teams whose email is triggered by what a contact did, not by a calendar
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- 14-day trial
- Entry paid plan
- $15/mo (1,000 email contacts, 1 user, limited segmentation, 5 actions per automation; billed annually)
- At 10,000 contacts
- $149/mo (Starter)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: help.activecampaign.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developers.activecampaign.com
- Status page
- System status: status.activecampaign.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: activecampaign.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Jason VandeBoom founded ActiveCampaign in 2003 and is still chief executive after thirteen bootstrapped years and three funding rounds.
- Founding team score
- 7.00 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently verified for MCP/agent access in this comparison; no on-brand automatic design generation or ChatGPT app marketplace listing found in a light spot-check.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- The cost curve is steeper than Mailchimp's, not flatter
- New accounts are billed on all contacts including unsubscribed and bounced
- No free tier, only a 14-day trial
- Facts checked
5. Omnisend
Best for: smaller stores that want Klaviyo's shape without Klaviyo's bill.
E-commerce email and SMS in one automation, pre-built store flows, free to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month. Reporting is thinner and the integration list shorter, which is the trade you are making on purpose.
One caution on the headline number. The pricing page was showing a 30% promotional discount when we read it on 7 September 2026, so treat the entry figure in the table as promotional until you see your own quote.
- Omnisend at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- smaller stores that want Klaviyo's shape at a lower entry price
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- 250 contacts, 500 emails a month
- Entry paid plan
- $16/mo (500 contacts, 3,000 emails a month, unlimited web push notifications; billed monthly)
- At 10,000 contacts
- $132/mo (Standard)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: support.omnisend.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: api-docs.omnisend.com
- Status page
- System status: status.omnisend.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: omnisend.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Rytis Lauris co-founded Omnisend in 2014 and is still chief executive. A second co-founder is named only by Wikipedia and appears nowhere on the company's own site.
- Founding team score
- 5.25 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently assessed for MCP/agent access, on-brand design generation, or ChatGPT marketplace listing in this comparison.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- Reporting is thinner than Klaviyo's
- The entry price on the page was a promotional figure
- Fewer integrations outside the main platforms
- Facts checked
6. MailerLite
Best for: small lists and a newsletter that needs to look good and go out on time.
The cleanest builder in this category and the shortest emotional distance from Mailchimp. Free to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, with the Comfort plan at $12 a month.
Two caveats. MailerLite repriced in 2026, cutting the free plan from 500 subscribers and 12,000 monthly emails to 250 and 2,500 and lifting paid tiers by roughly 10 to 30%, so it is no longer the reliably cheap option it was. And it is still a per-contact platform, so if per-contact billing is why you are leaving, this fixes your interface and not your invoice. Detail is on the MailerLite alternatives page.
- MailerLite at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- small lists and a newsletter that needs to look good and go out on time
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month
- Entry paid plan
- $12/mo (up to 500 subscribers, 5,000 monthly emails, 3 user seats, 24/7 email support)
- At 10,000 contacts
- $89/mo (Comfort)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- no
- First-party MCP server
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: mailerlite.com/help
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developers.mailerlite.com
- Status page
- System status: status.mailerlite.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: mailerlite.com/pricing
- Founding team
- No founder is named on any first-party source. Vercom S.A., listed in Warsaw, acquired MailerLite in 2022 for 90 million dollars.
- Founding team score
- 2.75 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently assessed for MCP/agent access, on-brand design generation, or ChatGPT marketplace listing in this comparison.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- Still bills per contact, so it fixes the interface and not the invoice
- The 2026 reprice halved the free plan and lifted paid tiers
- API and MCP sending are paid-plan only
- Facts checked
7. Zoho Campaigns
Best for: a big list on the smallest published bill, if you already live in Zoho.
The numbers are the argument. Free to 2,000 contacts and 6,000 emails a month, Standard from $4 a month at 500 contacts, and $49 a month at 10,000 contacts against Mailchimp's $135 for the same list. All paid plans carry unlimited sends.
The trade is everything around the email. The free tier has no automation workflows, no A/B testing and no segmentation, the interface assumes you are inside the Zoho suite, and there is no first-party MCP server for Campaigns yet, so an AI agent cannot drive it natively.
- Zoho Campaigns at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- a large list on the smallest published bill, for teams already inside Zoho
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- Forever Free: up to 2,000 contacts, 6,000 emails/month, 5 users, list management, templates/drag & drop/HTML import/generative AI, 35 app integrations, basic reporting. Plus a 14-day free trial of paid features, no credit card required.
- Entry paid plan
- $4/mo (500 contacts, unlimited emails, 10 users, basic segmentation, 120+ templates, A/B testing, attachments, basic drag-and-drop workflows, advanced analytics, priority support (monthly billing; $3/month equivalent on yearly billing))
- At 10,000 contacts
- $49/mo (Standard (10,000 contacts, monthly billing))
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- First-party MCP server
- no
- Owner
- Zoho Corporation (privately held, founded 1996, HQ Chennai, India) per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoho_Corporation
- Support
- Help center: help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/campaigns
- Developer docs
- API documentation: zoho.com/campaigns/help/developers
- Status page
- System status: status.zoho.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: zoho.com/campaigns/pricing.html
- Founding team
- Zoho has been founder-owned and bootstrapped for thirty years and runs its own data centres and mail infrastructure. Sridhar Vembu moved from chief executive to chief scientist in 2025.
- Founding team score
- 8.00 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently assessed for MCP/agent access, on-brand design generation, or ChatGPT marketplace listing in this comparison.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- The free tier has no automation workflows, A/B testing or segmentation
- The interface assumes you live in the Zoho suite
- No first-party MCP server for Campaigns yet
- Facts checked
8. Kit
Best for: writers, podcasters and creators whose list is an audience.
Built around publishing and monetising rather than campaigns, with a recommendation network and referral tooling a general-purpose platform will not give you. The page carries a $0 plan described as free up to 10,000 subscribers, and a Creator plan at $33 a month for 1,000 email subscribers, which is an unusual overlap and worth confirming in a browser before you lean on it.
Not built for store triggers, no SMS, and the commerce features assume you sell your own products.
- Kit at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- writers, podcasters and creators monetising an audience
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- Free up to 10,000 subscribers
- Entry paid plan
- $33/mo (1,000 email subscribers, $390 billed yearly)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- no
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Owner
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
- Support
- Help center: help.kit.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developers.kit.com
- Status page
- System status: status.kit.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: kit.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Nathan Barry founded Kit in 2013, took no venture capital and is still chief executive. No engineering reputation attached to a named person.
- Founding team score
- 6.25 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently assessed for MCP/agent access, on-brand design generation, or ChatGPT marketplace listing in this comparison.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- Not built for store triggers
- No SMS
- The free and paid subscriber limits on the page overlap oddly and need confirming
- Facts checked
Which Mailchimp alternative is cheapest for a big list you rarely email?
Brevo, Nitrosend or Zoho Campaigns, because all three break the link between list size and bill in some way. Brevo and Nitrosend charge on emails sent, Zoho charges per contact but at a much lower rate, listing $49 a month at 10,000 contacts against Mailchimp's $135 on 7 September 2026. The contact-based model is fundamentally misaligned with what an occasional sender is trying to do, and the platforms that solved it went to usage pricing, where you pay for what you send rather than for what you store. Before you compare headline prices, work out your real contact count and your real monthly send volume, because the counting method decides the bill more than the price does.
What is the best free alternative to Mailchimp?
It depends on whether you are constrained by list size or by send volume. Zoho Campaigns is free to 2,000 contacts and 6,000 emails a month, the most generous contact allowance here. Kit's $0 plan is described as free up to 10,000 subscribers. Brevo has no contact ceiling on free and caps you at 300 emails a day. MailerLite is free to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails. Nitrosend gives 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month, with unlimited contacts and full API, MCP and CLI access on the free plan, which almost nothing else in this list allows without paying.
Can I keep Mailchimp for the store and move only the newsletter?
Yes, and for a while it is often the calm way to do it. What it takes is DNS: the new sender's DKIM record added alongside Mailchimp's, and both senders in the single SPF record on your sending domain. Then move one message type at a time and watch the bounce and complaint rates on each. Check your contact count before you make the split permanent, because if both platforms hold the same people you are paying twice for one list, which defeats the reason you started.
How to move off Mailchimp without losing deliverability
You are usually carrying a list that has been stored longer than it has been engaged with, so treat this as a warm-up rather than a swap.
- Export contacts and engagement history together, not just the addresses. Engagement history is what lets you pick a safe first segment.
- Verify what you exported. A list does not become clean by changing platforms, and the email blacklist checker tells you what you are carrying.
- Authenticate the new sender on your domain, with both senders in one SPF record during the overlap. The email authentication guide covers the records.
- Warm up rather than switching in one send. How to warm up an email domain has the ramp.
- Send to your most engaged segment first and widen only once bounce and complaint rates hold. Run an inbox placement test before the first large send.
- Rebuild the two or three flows that earn money before you rebuild the rest. Automations never import cleanly between platforms, and that is the migration cost nobody quotes.
FAQ
What is the best Mailchimp alternative?
There is no single one. For a large list you email occasionally it is Brevo, Nitrosend or Zoho Campaigns, because they break the link between list size and bill. For a simple newsletter it is MailerLite. For an online store it is Klaviyo, or Omnisend on a tighter budget. For creators it is Kit. For deep behavioural automation it is ActiveCampaign. Nitrosend is ours, and it is first here because the criteria on this page weight the pricing model heaviest.
Why is Mailchimp so expensive now?
Because it bills on contact count rather than on send volume, and it keeps billing for unsubscribed contacts until they are archived. A stored list that grows over years pushes you up the tiers whether you email it or not. On 7 September 2026 the Standard plan listed at $135 a month for 10,000 contacts. Add-on costs for transactional sends, SMS credits and custom domains are widely reported to lift the total further.
Is there a free Mailchimp alternative?
Several, and they are capped in different ways. Zoho Campaigns is free to 2,000 contacts and 6,000 emails a month. Brevo is free with no contact ceiling and 300 emails a day. MailerLite is free to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails. Klaviyo and Omnisend are both free to 250 contacts and 500 emails. Nitrosend is 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month, with unlimited contacts.
Can Nitrosend replace Mailchimp completely?
For the email half, yes: campaigns, flows, segments, templates, contacts and transactional sending in one account, with unlimited contacts on every tier. What does not come across is Mailchimp's wider marketing suite, its ads and social posting, its landing page library and the template ecosystem you have built inside it. Nitrosend also does not do inbound email parsing over REST and does not do cold outreach.
Will my automations transfer?
No. Every platform models flows differently, so automations are rebuilt rather than imported. Mailchimp's customer journeys in particular still assume a person is managing them, so the rebuild is often an opportunity to cut steps rather than copy them. Rebuild the flows that earn money first and leave the rest until your sending reputation on the new domain has settled.
How long does a migration take?
Longer than the pricing pages suggest. The import is hours. The warm-up and the optimisation are weeks, and on a large list it becomes a multi-month project. Budget for the warm-up, not the import.
How this list is ranked
Eight criteria, weighted, adding to 100. The weights are set for the reason people land on this page, which is the bill.
- Pricing model fit, 21%. Whether the bill tracks what you send or what you store.
- Fit for the stated job, 17%. Built for the use case, not adapted to it.
- Migration cost, 13%. What it takes to move contacts, templates and engagement history in.
- Automation depth, 13%. How far the flows go before you hit a wall.
- Deliverability and enforcement, 9%. Inbox placement, and what happens when a send goes wrong.
- Agent and API surface, 8%. Whether software can operate the account rather than just fire a send.
- Support when it matters, 4%. Whether a person answers on the day of an incident.
- Founding team and track record, 15%. Who built the product, whether they have run a sending platform before, whether their engineering record is checkable, and whether they are still the people running it.
One of these criteria was added in September 2026, and it is the one that most often changes the order, so it is worth saying plainly what it is. Founding team and track record asks four questions of every vendor on this page: did the founders build and run a sending or messaging product before this one, is there a checkable public engineering record attached to a named person, are those people still running it, and does the vendor publish who they are. Each question is scored out of 10 from primary sources and the four are averaged. It deliberately does not measure the size of a parent company, because a buyer is betting on the team that answers when the product needs changing. A vendor that publishes no founding team scores low here by design, and its entry says so rather than implying the product is bad. Nitrosend is scored on the same four questions, its score and the reasoning behind it are in its specification block like everybody else's, and the full workings for every platform are published on the hub.