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Mailchimp's pricing

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Re: Mailchimp's pricing

#31

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

alextingle wrote: post #23

MailChimp are just spam enablers. The vast majority of e-mail I get from them is to e-mail addresses that definitely never ever signed up for anything. They claim they use double opt in, but that's just a damn dirty lie. Furthermore, they are past masters at helping their spammers craft their spam to defeat SpamAssassin and baysian filters, so the spam that actually makes it to my inbox is disproportionately from the…

If you saw it from the other end, in the eyes of a legitimate customer, you'd realise how laughable that is. MailChimp discourages spam to the extent that it's actually difficult to send email to your own customers! I can assure you that they use double opt-in, unless a customer has imported a list which they are trusted to only do legitimately. FWIW, I cannot remember having ever received any spam from MailChimp.

Re: Mailchimp's pricing

#33

Post by aquadrop »

dhimant wrote: post #14

I started out using mailchimp when I had less than 2000 subscribers. It worked great! But now that my mail list is growing, I find it increasingly expensive. Any recommendations on alternative providers?

If you have many subscribers and a few emails sent to them, you can look at SendGrid, they have unlimited subscribers but limited send volume.

Re: Mailchimp's pricing

#34

Post by grey-area »

aquadrop wrote: post #30
grey-area wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sendgrid, they have a far more sensible pricing structure based on no. of emails sent, which doesn't get expensive till you're truly at a larger scale. Sending 2000 mails a month should not cost $30 in my opinion. There are plenty of options though.

But they are a bit different. MailChimp is about marketing emails, that's why 2000 - it's the number of subscribers, not emails. On paying accounts they have no limit to the number of emails sent. SendGrid gravitate more to transactional emails, and they limit number of emails sent per month. So choosing between them isn't that trivial.

Unless you have a tiny number of subscribers, I think someone charging by emails sent is better value, but even without that, the step between 2000 on a list free, and 500 on a list paid for, seems somewhat bizarre, they should eliminate that.

Re: Mailchimp's pricing

#35

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

ibrow wrote: post #24
neya wrote: post #13

I think I would much rather roll out my own solution using Mailgun/Amazon's API with a basic RoR/Golang prototype than use these shady monkeys. It's their business and they have every right to price it the way they see it fit, but when there's something deceptive going on, as an end user I think I have every reason to point it out. For example, when you start with a free plan and you decide to upgrade to a paid plan,…

I use Sendy[0] for this very reason. It uses Amazon's SES and whilst it isn't as feature full as Mailchimp it does the job, costs about $60. Note, I'm not affiliated in any way I just started to use it as I needed auto-responders and Mailchimp was too expensive for my use-case. [0] http://sendy.co/

Until Amazon stop being US region-only for SES, it's a non-starter for mass emailing; we moved off it when ~ 4,000 sends was taking 2-3 hours nightly, and the flaky Joomla extension sending the mail would bail out halfway through, leaving me to pick up the pieces and resend. Still use SES for transactional stuff, though.

Re: Mailchimp's pricing

#37

Post by FooBarWidget »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #31
alextingle wrote: post #23

MailChimp are just spam enablers. The vast majority of e-mail I get from them is to e-mail addresses that definitely never ever signed up for anything. They claim they use double opt in, but that's just a damn dirty lie. Furthermore, they are past masters at helping their spammers craft their spam to defeat SpamAssassin and baysian filters, so the spam that actually makes it to my inbox is disproportionately from the…

If you saw it from the other end, in the eyes of a legitimate customer, you'd realise how laughable that is. MailChimp discourages spam to the extent that it's actually difficult to send email to your own customers! I can assure you that they use double opt-in, unless a customer has imported a list which they are trusted to only do legitimately. FWIW, I cannot remember having ever received any spam from MailChimp.

I second this. It's almost like they discourage me from sending any email at all. Even when I need to send an important security announcement to my customers I still get chills.

Re: Mailchimp's pricing

#38

Post by icebraining »

eof wrote: post #16

I think the real thing here is: 0 - 500 $10 unlimited 501 - 1,000 $15 1,001 - 1,050 $20 // $5 = 50 emails 1,051 - 1,150 $25 //$5 = 100 emails 1,151 - 2,500 $30 //$5 = 1350 emails 2,501 - 2,600 $35 // $5 = 100 emails

Subscribers, not emails.

Re: Mailchimp's pricing

#40

Post by aquadrop »

grey-area wrote: post #34
aquadrop wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they are a bit different. MailChimp is about marketing emails, that's why 2000 - it's the number of subscribers, not emails. On paying accounts they have no limit to the number of emails sent. SendGrid gravitate more to transactional emails, and they limit number of emails sent per month. So choosing between them isn't that trivial.

Unless you have a tiny number of subscribers, I think someone charging by emails sent is better value, but even without that, the step between 2000 on a list free, and 500 on a list paid for, seems somewhat bizarre, they should eliminate that.

Not tiny number of subscribers but large emails/subscribers ratio. If you have 1000 subscribers and some daily news, you'll end up with much less price at MailChimp than SendGrid. And main thing about step from free account is unlimited number of emails vs 12000 limit. In the end, it's just a matter of thinking and finding the best tool for your specific situation.
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