GetResponse vs Mailchimp (2026): which is better?

Updated: August 25, 2026. Prices checked: August 25, 2026. By: Stack Briefs Editorial.

Affiliate disclosure: We compare products independently. If you buy through an affiliate link or an officially issued partner code, we may earn a commission; that does not change our verdict or the prices and limits we report.

Our verdict

GetResponse is the better choice when webinars, sales funnels, autoresponders and email automation need to live in one account. Mailchimp is the better choice when a business already has a webinar platform and values a 300+ integration catalog, SMS add-ons and a broader connected-commerce ecosystem more than native webinar hosting.

GetResponse Starter costs $19/month for 1,000 subscribers and unlimited sends; Marketer costs $59/month and adds unlimited automation and sales funnels. Creator costs $69/month and includes webinars for up to 100 attendees. Mailchimp Essentials starts at $13/month for 500 contacts and 5,000 sends; Standard starts at $20/month for 500 contacts and 6,000 sends. Mailchimp's current Marketing-plan table does not include a native webinar room, so a webinar program requires another event platform and a data connection.

All prices are USD public rates captured from the vendors' official pages as of August 25, 2026. Taxes, overages, regional pricing, contact tiers, add-ons and temporary offers can change the checkout total.

How we compared GetResponse and Mailchimp

We compared current official US-dollar pricing, help documentation, automation limits, webinar capacity, funnel mechanics, billing definitions, integrations and anti-spam policies. We weighted the requested job-to-be-done—running email-led webinars and conversion funnels—more heavily than the raw number of integrations. Affiliate economics were reviewed only after the product verdict and did not affect the ranking.

We did not conduct a live webinar, inbox-placement test, integration sync or checkout purchase. Feature availability is therefore based on published vendor documentation, and any statement that Mailchimp requires an external webinar tool is an inference from its current plan table and integration-led product model—not a claim that every possible Mailchimp account configuration was tested.

How much do GetResponse and Mailchimp cost in August 2026?

Sources: GetResponse pricing and plan comparison, GetResponse Free limits, GetResponse automation limits, GetResponse webinar limits and add-ons, Mailchimp Marketing pricing, Mailchimp pricing definitions, and Mailchimp Automation Flows.

GetResponse's annual prices reflect the published 18% prepayment discount. The standard plans scale across 1,000, 2,500, 5,000, 10,000, 25,000, 50,000 and 100,000-contact tiers; the displayed dollar amounts above use the 1,000-subscriber tier. Source: GetResponse pricing.

Mailchimp Premium currently starts at 10,000 contacts, not 500. Its official Premium page also displays a temporary 15%-off first-year rate of $297.50/month, followed by the $350/month standard rate; eligibility and offer terms apply. Source: Mailchimp Premium pricing.

What remains on the two free plans after signup?

GetResponse Free supports one published landing page, 500 contacts and 2,500 messages per month. During the first 14 days, the account can test premium features, including a webinar limited to 10 people and one recording up to 30 minutes. After day 14, autoresponders, published automation workflows, conversion funnels and webinars are no longer available; drafts can remain in the account. Sources: GetResponse Free plan and GetResponse Free account limits.

Official-source conflict: the current Free page and Help Center predominantly state 500 contacts and a 14-day premium period, but a lower FAQ passage on the Free page still says 1,000 contacts during the first 14 days, while the webinar overview says Free webinar access lasts 30 days. We use the lower, consistently repeated 500-contact limit and the 14-day period shown on the current pricing flow; verify both fields inside the account before relying on them.

Mailchimp Free supports 250 contacts, 500 sends per month and a 250-send daily cap. It includes one audience, one seat and a one-click welcome email, but no Marketing Automation Flows. Sending pauses if the free contact or send limit is exceeded. Source: Mailchimp pricing-plan definitions.

GetResponse therefore has the more usable free sending allowance, but its “all-in-one” advantage is largely a 14-day trial on Free. A lasting webinar, autoresponder or funnel program requires a paid plan.

Which platform has stronger marketing automation?

GetResponse Starter includes one custom workflow limited to six elements. Marketer and Creator unlock unlimited workflows; they add conditions and actions such as scoring, tagging, page visits, purchase, abandoned cart, dynamic segmentation and ecommerce events. Sources: GetResponse automation pricing and GetResponse pricing.

GetResponse also keeps classic time-based autoresponders as a distinct tool. Messages can be assigned to days in a subscriber's cycle, sent at the signup time, after an hourly delay or at a specific time, and restricted to selected weekdays. The official help article does not impose a per-list daily message count, although normal consent and frequency judgment still apply. Source: GetResponse autoresponders.

Mailchimp Essentials limits each Marketing Automation Flow to four steps. Standard and Premium permit up to 200 steps, conditional and percentage splits, and up to three starting triggers. Available actions include email, tags, field updates, surveys and—where eligible—SMS or webhooks. Source: Mailchimp Marketing Automation Flows.

For a short welcome or lead-nurture path, both paid entry tiers can work. GetResponse becomes more coherent for the requested use case at Marketer because its unlimited workflows sit beside sales funnels. Mailchimp Standard is more compelling when the flow must coordinate connected-store behavior, SMS and third-party apps rather than a native webinar.

What webinar features does GetResponse include?

GetResponse Creator includes webinars for up to 100 attendees. Starter and Marketer can add webinar capacity for $40/month at 100 attendees or $99/month at 500 attendees. The add-on renews every 30 days, permits unlimited webinar events but only one running webinar at a time, and may be unavailable to North American accounts; those accounts can still obtain the 100-attendee webinar feature through Creator. Source: GetResponse webinar overview and add-on pricing.

Official-source conflict: GetResponse's live pricing page and current plan-comparison help specify 100 attendees for Creator. A separate pricing-mechanics help article says 300 attendees in one passage but 100 elsewhere on the same page. We therefore report 100, not 300, and recommend confirming the capacity displayed in Billing before scheduling a larger event.

The webinar room includes audio/video streaming, polls, desktop sharing, file sharing, a digital whiteboard and live chat. A Webinars 100 recording can run up to three hours; the recording is saved as an MP4. Sources: GetResponse webinar overview and GetResponse webinar recording limits.

GetResponse can also place a webinar inside a Conversion Funnel. A paid webinar funnel creates a dedicated list and can combine a registration or sales page, order form and autoresponder follow-up. Source: GetResponse paid webinar funnels.

Mailchimp's current Marketing-plan comparison lists email, SMS/MMS add-ons, automation, templates, reporting and 300+ integrations, but no native webinar room or attendee allowance. Our operational conclusion is therefore to budget for a separate webinar or event platform and verify how registrations, attendance and consent sync into Mailchimp. Sources: Mailchimp Marketing pricing and Mailchimp integration directory.

How do funnels and commerce differ?

GetResponse Marketer and Creator include sales funnels, abandoned-cart recovery, promo codes, revenue reports and unlimited web push notifications. Creator adds a website builder, courses for up to 500 students, premium newsletter subscriptions and webinars. Enterprise adds transactional email, SMS marketing, mobile push, dedicated sending infrastructure and other enterprise controls. Source: GetResponse pricing.

Mailchimp builds the journey around audience data and connected systems. Its site-tracking pixel can capture product views, add-to-cart, checkout and purchase events from supported Shopify, Wix and WooCommerce stores, then use those events in segments and automations. Its directory publishes 300+ integrations across commerce, CRM, scheduling, analytics, payments and subscription management. Sources: Mailchimp Site Tracking Pixel and Mailchimp integrations.

GetResponse reduces the number of vendors when its native webinar and funnel limits fit. Mailchimp preserves more choice when an existing best-of-breed webinar, store or CRM must remain the system of record. The tradeoff is integration setup, external subscription cost and the need to test the exact data path.

How does contact billing work?

GetResponse bills paid plans from the higher of the peak active-subscriber count or the total contacts added during the billing month. The same email address counts again when it appears on another GetResponse list. Paid plans do not impose a monthly email-send limit. Source: GetResponse pricing and contact-count rules.

Mailchimp counts subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts; archived, cleaned and deleted records do not count. Paid pricing is determined by both plan type and selected contact tier, and exceeding the selected contact or send limit can produce overages. Source: Mailchimp pricing-plan definitions.

Both models can surprise a team that “cleans” a list only after a billing threshold is crossed. Model the bill from the highest list state during the month, not just the number of people who received the last campaign.

What anti-spam rules apply?

GetResponse requires verifiable permission and prohibits rented, leased, purchased, scraped or harvested addresses. It can reject an import, terminate an account without notice or refund, and require evidence of consent. Source: GetResponse Anti-Spam Policy.

Mailchimp also requires evidence of consent and prohibits purchased, rented, third-party, co-registration, publicly available and partner lists. It may suspend or terminate accounts that violate the policy. Source: Mailchimp Acceptable Use Policy.

Neither product should be selected for cold email or a bought lead database. This comparison assumes a permission-based list.

Verification-required GetResponse partner code

Not a live offer: A GetResponse affiliate can contact the affiliate team through the partner panel or affiliate support to request a unique promo code. The placeholder [CODE] may be replaced only after GetResponse issues the code and confirms the exact customer benefit, eligible plans, geography, start date, expiry and permission for public display. Until those fields are documented, [CODE] does not change any price on this page and this block must not be published as a customer discount.

This mechanism is confirmed by GetResponse's official affiliate tracking and promo-code help. A production offer must state both the standard price and verified effective price in the same paragraph, retain the approval evidence, and be removed or refreshed when it expires. Requestability is not proof that every affiliate receives a code or that every requested code gives the same benefit.

What is the strongest case against choosing GetResponse?

The strongest case is that “all-in-one” becomes overbuying when webinars are occasional or already handled elsewhere. At the displayed tiers, GetResponse Creator is $69/month for 1,000 subscribers, while Mailchimp Standard starts at $20/month for 500 contacts. A business with a reliable existing webinar platform may prefer Mailchimp's 300+ integrations, connected-commerce data and SMS actions rather than moving registration, video and email into one vendor.

What would change our verdict: GetResponse loses the webinar-first recommendation if the real event needs more than 100 attendees and the 500-attendee add-on is unavailable in the buyer's region, or if Mailchimp plus the required webinar platform has a lower tested total cost and a reliable consent-preserving attendance sync. Verify the live checkout, host region and one complete registration-to-follow-up workflow before committing.

Who should choose GetResponse?

Choose GetResponse if webinars are a recurring acquisition or sales channel and the 100- or 500-attendee limits fit. Marketer is the logical tier for unlimited workflows and sales funnels without bundled webinars; Creator is the clearest packaged option when native webinars, courses or paid newsletters are required.

Who should choose Mailchimp?

Choose Mailchimp if webinar hosting is already solved and the priority is connecting email to an existing commerce, CRM, booking, analytics or SMS stack. Essentials covers short flows; Standard is the practical automation tier when four steps are insufficient. Compare at the same contact count and include the external webinar subscription in total cost.

FAQ

Is GetResponse cheaper than Mailchimp in 2026?

At headline entry prices, no: GetResponse Starter begins at $19/month for 1,000 subscribers, while Mailchimp Essentials begins at $13/month for 500 contacts. GetResponse includes unlimited sends; Mailchimp Essentials includes 5,000 sends at its entry tier, so the prices are not directly equivalent.

Does GetResponse include webinars?

Yes. Creator includes webinars for up to 100 attendees. Starter and Marketer can add 100-attendee webinars for $40/month or 500-attendee webinars for $99/month, although GetResponse says some North American accounts may not be able to enable add-ons.

Does Mailchimp host webinars?

Mailchimp's current Marketing-plan table does not list a native webinar room or attendee capacity. Use a separate webinar or event platform, then verify how registrations, attendance and marketing consent sync through an integration or API.

Does GetResponse have unlimited email sending?

Paid Starter, Marketer, Creator and Enterprise plans publish unlimited monthly email sends. GetResponse Free is limited to 2,500 messages per month.

Is there a GetResponse promo code?

Affiliates can request a unique code from the GetResponse affiliate team, but [CODE] on this page is only a verification placeholder. No discount is valid until the issued code, customer benefit, eligibility, geography, public-display permission and expiry are documented.