HubSpot is a comprehensive marketing automation and CRM platform best for larger businesses requiring sophisticated lead nurturing and sales alignment, while Mailchimp is a simpler, more affordable email marketing tool ideal for small to medium-sized businesses prioritizing ease of use and cost-effectiveness.
Mailchimp vs HubSpot — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Choose Mailchimp if you're a small business or startup needing an affordable, easy-to-use email marketing platform with recently added SMS capabilities and don't require advanced CRM features. Choose HubSpot if you're managing complex marketing campaigns, need sophisticated lead scoring, require CRM alignment with sales, and justify the investment for enterprise-grade automation and inbound marketing capabilities.
All-in-one email marketing and CRM platform with advanced automation and multi-channel capabilities.
Enterprise-focused CRM with comprehensive AI, extensive integrations, and all-in-one platform capabilities.
Structured comparison data for Mailchimp vs HubSpot with 432 attributes.
Contact List Size Limit (Standard Pricing)
Price Scaling Factor at 5,000 Subscribers
Starter Tier Monthly Cost (50k contacts)
Automation Workflow Steps (Free/Starter Tier)
Monthly Cost (50-person team, full suite)
Starting Price (per user/month, billed annually)
Professional Tier Price (per user/month)
Professional/Standard Plan Monthly Price
CRM Contact Storage Limit (Free/Entry Tier)
AI Sentiment Analysis / Social Listening
Team Members Supported (Free/Standard Tier)
Monthly Cost Per Agent/User (Entry Level)
Monthly Cost Per Agent/User (Professional Tier)
Starting Monthly Price (Single User/Starter Tier)
Price for 10-Person Support Team (Annual)
Customer Support Response Time (Paid Plans)
Monthly Cost (Single User, Standard Plan)
Mailchimp vs HubSpot — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Mailchimp vs HubSpot.
Is Mailchimp or HubSpot better for small business?
For small businesses focused primarily on email marketing, Mailchimp is the better starting point — its free tier (up to 500 contacts) and affordable paid plans are purpose-built for email campaigns, automations, and list management without a steep learning curve. For small businesses that also need a CRM to track sales pipeline and customer interactions across email, calls, and meetings, HubSpot's free CRM + Starter Marketing Hub ($20/month) provides more integrated data at a comparable entry price. The decision depends on whether you need email-only or email + CRM.
Mailchimp has a free plan that allows up to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month, with basic templates and single-step automations. The free plan includes the Mailchimp brand footer on all emails and limited customer support (email only for 30 days after signup). For more contacts, multi-step automations, A/B testing, and premium support, Mailchimp Essentials starts at $13/month (500 contacts) with pricing scaling by contact count. HubSpot's CRM is free with unlimited users and unlimited basic contact storage; its Marketing Hub tools (landing pages, email beyond basic) start at $20/month.
HubSpot can replace Mailchimp's email marketing functionality — Marketing Hub includes email campaigns, automation workflows, landing pages, A/B testing, and contact segmentation. HubSpot also adds CRM, sales pipeline, deal tracking, and customer service tools that Mailchimp doesn't offer. The trade-off is cost: HubSpot's Marketing Hub Professional ($890/month) is dramatically more expensive than Mailchimp Standard ($20-$350/month depending on list size) if you only need email. Organizations that outgrow Mailchimp's CRM limitations commonly migrate to HubSpot as their primary system of record.
Mailchimp pricing scales by contact count: Free plan supports 500 contacts (1,000 emails/month); Essentials and Standard plans start at 500 contacts with pricing increasing as your list grows ($13-$20/month for 500 contacts, up to $800+/month for 100,000+ contacts). HubSpot's Marketing Hub pricing also scales by contact tier at Professional and Enterprise levels. For organizations with large email lists (50,000+ contacts), comparing the actual per-contact cost between platforms becomes critical — at scale, some enterprise email senders find Klaviyo or Brevo more cost-effective than either Mailchimp or HubSpot.
Mailchimp includes basic contact management — list segmentation, tags, merge fields, and engagement data — that functions as a simple contact database. However, it lacks the deal/pipeline tracking, contact activity timeline across all touchpoints (calls, meetings, sales notes), and integration depth that a dedicated CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce provides. For businesses whose primary go-to-market motion is email marketing and who don't have a dedicated sales team working deals, Mailchimp's contact management is sufficient. For businesses with sales pipelines, HubSpot or another dedicated CRM is needed alongside or instead of Mailchimp.