GetResponse vs Mailchimp for Startups: Prices, Free Plans and When Webinars Matter

For most early-stage startups, Mailchimp is the better starting point if you only need email. Its free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, and the paid Essentials plan at 500 contacts is $13/month on monthly billing. Choose GetResponse instead when webinars are part of your launch plan, because webinar hosting sits in its Creator plan at $69/month billed monthly, or $56.58/month billed annually. Prices below are taken from each vendor's public pricing page and were checked on 7 October 2026. Pricing changes often, so confirm the figure for your own contact count before you commit.

This comparison is written for founders and small teams who are setting up their first email program: a waitlist, product announcements, a welcome sequence, and perhaps a webinar or demo series to convert signups. It does not cover enterprise deliverability programs or large retail catalogs. If you are deciding between tools that also cover billing emails and SaaS lifecycle messaging, the general startup email guide on the home page lists other options.

The short version

The two products solve different problems first. Mailchimp is built around the send: a list, a campaign, a report. GetResponse bundles the send with event-style funnels, landing pages and live webinars. That bundling is the reason to pay more. If you do not plan to run webinars, GetResponse's extra cost buys you features you will not use in the first year, and Mailchimp's simpler setup is usually the faster route to a working list.

Factor	Mailchimp	GetResponse
Best for	Startups that need reliable campaigns and a free start	Startups running webinars, funnels or sales pages alongside email
Starting price	Free up to 250 contacts; Essentials at 500 contacts from $13/month (monthly billing)	Starter from $19/month (monthly billing) or $15.58/month billed annually
Free plan	Yes: up to 250 contacts and 500 sends per month, with a 250-per-day cap	No ongoing free plan; paid plans offer a free trial
Webinars	Not offered	Included in the Creator plan ($69/month monthly billing)
Automation	Basic flows suitable for welcome and onboarding messages	Starter includes a welcome series and one automation workflow; Marketer adds unlimited workflows, advanced segmentation and abandoned-cart recovery
Key limitation	No webinars, and automation is thinner for multi-step funnels	Paying for webinar and funnel tools you may not use until your product has traction

Cost at realistic list sizes

Startup email bills are driven by the number of contacts you store. Both vendors price by list size, so the cheapest tool depends on where your list sits today and where you expect it to be in twelve months. The table below uses the contact tiers listed on each pricing page. Where a vendor does not publish a price for a tier, the cell says so.

Contacts	Mailchimp	GetResponse	MailerLite (for comparison)
Up to 250	Free plan: $0/month, up to 500 sends a month	Starter from $19/month; no free plan	Free plan: $0/month, up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month
500	Essentials: $13/month (monthly billing); Standard: $20/month	Starter: $19/month monthly or $15.58/month annually	Comfort: $12/month monthly or $10.80/month annually
2,501 to 5,000	$100/month, up to 60,000 emails a month	Pricing on request	Pricing on request
5,001 to 10,000	$135/month, up to 120,000 emails a month	Pricing on request	Pricing on request
10,001 to 15,000	$230/month, up to 180,000 emails a month	Pricing on request	Pricing on request

Two things stand out. First, at the smallest size Mailchimp's free plan is the only option with no monthly cost in this comparison, and it is the reason most founders start there. Second, at 500 contacts the gap between Mailchimp's Essentials plan and GetResponse's Starter plan is $6 a month on monthly billing. Over a year that is 12 × $6 = $72, which matters less than the features you need. Annual billing narrows the gap further: 12 × $15.58 = $186.96 a year for GetResponse Starter, against 12 × $13 = $156 a year for Mailchimp Essentials on monthly billing.

The jump to Creator is where GetResponse becomes expensive. Creator at $69/month on monthly billing comes to $828 a year, or $678.96 a year billed annually (12 × $56.56.58 is not the right figure, so use the published annual rate of $56.58 per month, which gives $678.96 a year). Marketer, which adds unlimited workflows and abandoned-cart recovery, is $59/month monthly or $48.38/month annually. If you need automation but not webinars, Marketer is the tier to compare against Mailchimp, not Creator.

GetResponse: what it does well for startups

GetResponse is the more ambitious tool. Its Starter plan includes a welcome series, a landing page builder and signup forms, so a founder can collect emails from a pre-launch page and send a welcome sequence without buying a second product. The one automation workflow on Starter is enough to prove a welcome path works, but it is not enough for a real funnel, which is why Marketer exists.

The reason to pick GetResponse is webinars. The Creator plan includes webinar hosting, and for a product where live demos convert buyers, that is the most direct way to run registrations and follow-up emails from one account. The same plan includes a website builder and a course creator, which helps if your startup sells a course or a paid newsletter alongside the software. If you do not plan any of those, the Creator plan is paying for tools outside your launch.

Where GetResponse falls short for a startup is the entry price and the lack of a free plan. Paid plans come with a free trial, but there is no ongoing free tier, so a founder with 200 waitlist contacts pays from day one. Pricing also depends on list size, so a list that grows quickly moves you up the price ladder faster than a flat-fee tool. Finally, the Marketer tier, which you need for abandoned-cart and advanced segmentation, costs more than Mailchimp's Essentials plan at any size you are likely to reach early on.

Pricing: Starter from $19/month monthly billing or $15.58/month billed annually; Marketer $59/month or $48.38/month annually; Creator $69/month or $56.58/month annually. Full details are on GetResponse's pricing page.

Mailchimp: what it does well for startups

Mailchimp's advantage is simplicity and a free start. The free plan lets you run a waitlist of up to 250 contacts with up to 500 sends a month, which is enough for a pre-launch announcement and a short onboarding series. The paid Essentials plan at 500 contacts is $13/month on monthly billing, the lowest paid entry price in this comparison. For a startup whose email is a newsletter and a set of product updates, that is often all it needs.

The limits show up in two places. The free plan caps sending at 250 messages per day, so a launch announcement to a full 250-contact list uses the whole day's allowance. And Mailchimp does not host webinars, so a founder running live demos needs a separate webinar tool and a manual handoff of registrants into email. For a single founder that handoff is manageable. For a team that runs a demo every week, it becomes a recurring task that someone must own.

Automation is the other limit. Mailchimp covers welcome messages and simple onboarding flows, but it is not designed for branching funnels that combine a landing page, a webinar, an abandoned-cart message and a sales follow-up. If your funnel is that complex, you will either build workarounds or move to GetResponse's Marketer tier.

Pricing: Free plan for up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month; Essentials at 500 contacts from $13/month on monthly billing; the contact-tier table shows $100/month for 2,501 to 5,000 contacts (up to 60,000 emails a month) and $135/month for 5,001 to 10,000 contacts (up to 120,000 emails a month). See Mailchimp's pricing page for current figures.

Where MailerLite fits

The original version of this comparison mentioned MailerLite as a cheaper option for pure email, and it belongs in the table above for that reason. MailerLite's free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, which is more email volume than Mailchimp's free plan allows. Its Comfort plan starts at $12/month on monthly billing, or $10.80/month annually, for a 500-subscriber tier. If you need webinars, MailerLite is not the answer, so the choice comes back to GetResponse. If you need only email, it is worth pricing alongside Mailchimp before you sign up. Full details are on MailerLite's pricing page.

How to choose

Start with the job, not the price. If your next three months include a live webinar, a demo series or a sales page that must capture payments, GetResponse's bundle earns its cost. If your job is to announce, onboard and retain, Mailchimp's free start and low entry price usually win. Then check the list size you expect in six months, because both vendors price by contacts and a list that doubles can change the answer.

If you need	Pick	Because
A free plan while the list is small	Mailchimp	Its free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month; GetResponse has no ongoing free plan
Email only, at the lowest paid entry price	Mailchimp	Essentials at 500 contacts is $13/month on monthly billing, against $19/month for GetResponse Starter
Webinars for product demos or launches	GetResponse	Webinar hosting is included in the Creator plan at $69/month monthly billing
Abandoned-cart messages or advanced segmentation	GetResponse	Marketer adds abandoned-cart recovery and advanced segmentation at $59/month monthly or $48.38/month annually
A cheap paid tier with a bigger free allowance	Compare MailerLite	MailerLite's free plan allows 2,500 emails a month for up to 250 subscribers
A list above 2,500 contacts with a fixed budget	Get quotes from both	Mailchimp publishes tiers up to 10,000 contacts; GetResponse's pricing depends on list size and is on request for these tiers in this comparison

Setup and migration checklist

Switching tools after the list has grown is expensive, so set up the chosen platform with the same discipline whether you pick Mailchimp or GetResponse. The checklist below is generic email hygiene, not a vendor feature list, and it applies to any first move.

Step	What to do	Why it matters for a startup
1. Export and clean	Export your waitlist from the current tool or your signup form, remove duplicates and obvious test addresses	You pay per contact, so every duplicate costs money on either platform
2. Confirm consent	Only import contacts who opted in, and keep a record of where each signup came from	Imported lists with unclear consent raise complaints and hurt deliverability
3. Authenticate your domain	Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for the sending domain before the first campaign	Authentication is what most mailbox providers check before they accept a new sender
4. Split by intent	Create separate groups for waitlist, trial users and customers	A pre-launch announcement should not go to paying customers, and the reverse is also true
5. Build the welcome path	Write a three- to five-message welcome sequence and test it with your own address	The welcome sequence is the first working automation on either platform
6. Plan the webinar flow only if you need it	On GetResponse, set up registration, reminders and replay follow-ups; on Mailchimp, plan an external webinar tool and a manual import of registrants	The webinar flow decides which tier you need, so decide before you pay
7. Review the bill monthly	Check the contact count and send volume against the tier you are on	A list that grows past a tier boundary changes the monthly cost

A migration example

Suppose a founder has 400 waitlist contacts and plans a product launch in eight weeks. The launch will include a demo webinar and a three-email sequence after registration. Mailchimp's free plan can hold the 400 contacts only if the list is trimmed under 250, so the founder moves to a paid plan. On Mailchimp, the Essentials plan at 500 contacts costs $13/month on monthly billing, but the demo webinar runs on a separate tool, which the founder must pay for and connect manually. On GetResponse, the Creator plan costs $69/month monthly, or $56.58/month billed annually, and the webinar, registration and follow-up emails all sit on one account. The founder should compare the total monthly spend across both options, not the headline price alone, and pick the one that matches the launch plan.

Frequently asked questions

Is GetResponse cheaper than Mailchimp for a startup?

Not at the entry level. Mailchimp's Essentials plan at 500 contacts is $13/month on monthly billing, and GetResponse's Starter plan is $19/month monthly or $15.58/month billed annually. GetResponse can be the better value if you need webinars, because webinar hosting in the Creator plan replaces a separate tool that would also cost money.

Does Mailchimp have a free plan for startups?

Yes. Mailchimp's free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends per month, with a limit of 250 sends in a single day. It is the most generous free plan among the three vendors in the comparison table, though MailerLite's free plan allows 2,500 emails a month for up to 250 subscribers.

Does GetResponse have a free plan?

No ongoing free plan is listed on GetResponse's pricing page. Paid plans come with a free trial, so you can test the product before the first payment, but you will need to pay once the trial ends if you want to continue.

Which tool is better if I want webinars?

GetResponse. Webinar hosting is included in its Creator plan at $69/month on monthly billing, or $56.58/month billed annually. Mailchimp does not offer webinar hosting, so you would need a separate webinar product and a manual import of registrants.

What do the list-size prices mean?

Both vendors price by the number of contacts you store. Mailchimp publishes a table of contact tiers, such as $100/month for 2,501 to 5,000 contacts and $135/month for 5,001 to 10,000 contacts, along with the monthly send allowance for each tier. GetResponse's pricing is set by list size too, so the Starter, Marketer and Creator prices shown here are starting figures, and the final amount rises with your contact count.

When should a startup move to the Marketer tier?

When you need abandoned-cart recovery, advanced audience segmentation or more than one automation workflow. Marketer costs $59/month on monthly billing, or $48.38/month billed annually. If your automations are a welcome series and one follow-up, Starter is enough.

Can I move from Mailchimp to GetResponse later?

Yes. Export your contacts from Mailchimp, clean the list and confirm consent before you import it into GetResponse. Re-create your welcome sequence on the new platform, and authenticate the sending domain again if the sending setup changes. Keep a record of where each contact came from so you can answer questions about consent later.

Is MailerLite a better choice than both?

It depends on whether you need webinars. MailerLite does not replace GetResponse's webinar tier, but for email only it offers a larger free allowance than Mailchimp, with a free plan of up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Compare it with Mailchimp on your own list size before you decide.