MailCheap Review (2026)
Open-source newsletters priced per email sent, not per subscriber. Founded 2026. Our verdict for newsletters with large, partly inactive lists — scored across ease of use, features, value and support.
Affiliate disclosure: Critingo is reader-supported. If you sign up through links on this page we may earn a commission — it costs you nothing extra and never changes our verdicts. We verify pricing and terms regularly, but they change often: always confirm on the vendor's site before buying.
Our score
Four factors, weighted equally. We adjust scores when vendors ship major changes.
| MailCheap — our score: 4/5 | |
|---|---|
| Ease of use | |
| Features | |
| Value for money | |
| Support | |
Pricing
Always confirm on the vendor's site — this changes often and we flag stale data.
| Model | per-email |
| Free plan | No — no free trial (self-hosting is free) |
| Paid from | From $19/mo for 20,000 emails and 10,000 active subscribers |
| Free trial | None |
| Official pricing | https://mailcheap.ai/pricing |
Pros & cons
- Pay for emails sent, so dormant subscribers cost nothing
- Every feature on every plan
- Open source (AGPL-3.0): self-host with Amazon SES for a few dollars a month
- Automatic list cleanup protects deliverability
- No free plan or trial; cloud starts at $19/mo
- Young product with a small team and chat-only support
- No automations or paid subscriptions in the feature set we verified
- Self-hosting takes about an hour of setup and DNS work
Best for
- Newsletters with large, partly inactive lists
- Technical creators who want to self-host
Feature checklist
| automation | ✗ No |
| signup forms | ✓ Yes |
| landing pages | ✓ Yes |
| paid subscriptions | ✗ No |
| ecommerce | ✗ No |
| analytics | ✓ Yes |
| api | ✓ Yes |
Latest updates from MailCheap
Pulled daily from the vendor's own changelog or blog.
Posts about MailCheap
MailCheap Explained: Pricing, Features and Recent Updates (2026–2027)
MailCheap is an open-source newsletter tool that bills per email sent instead of per subscriber. Here is what it costs, what it includes and what it shipped lately.
MailCheap vs beehiiv Pricing: What Changes at 1,000 to 100,000 Subscribers (2026–2027)
MailCheap claims to cost up to 83% less than beehiiv. We lay out the vendor's own numbers, where beehiiv is cheaper, and what to check before switching.
Compare MailCheap with alternatives
Same category, different trade-offs.
beehiiv
Newsletter platform built by growth-obsessed media people
Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
The creator-economy email platform
MailCheap: FAQ
Is MailCheap free?
No permanent free plan — MailCheap offers a free trial instead (No — no free trial (self-hosting is free)). Check their pricing page for current terms.
How much does MailCheap cost?
From $19/mo for 20,000 emails and 10,000 active subscribers. Pricing usually scales with list size — see MailCheap's official pricing page for today's numbers, as vendors change them several times a year.
Is MailCheap worth it in 2026?
For newsletters with large, partly inactive lists, yes — that's who it's built for. Our score: 4/5, based on ease of use, features, value and support. Read the breakdown below to see if your priorities match.
What are the best MailCheap alternatives?
beehiiv, Kit (formerly ConvertKit), Substack — see our full alternatives guide for the details.
Our verdict
MailCheap scores 4/5 and is our pick for newsletters with large, partly inactive lists. Its standout strengths: pay for emails sent, so dormant subscribers cost nothing and every feature on every plan. The main trade-offs: no free plan or trial; cloud starts at $19/mo.
How we score: four factors rated 1–5, averaged, based on the vendor's public pricing pages, documentation, changelog and user reports. An automated check visits the pricing page daily (see the test bench notes above); when a vendor changes materially, this page gets updated — check the "last updated" date above.How we review.