The Record, January 2026: Mailchimp Gutted Its Free Plan
The free tier that built Mailchimp's empire got cut to the bone in January, and thousands of small senders discovered their marketing stack had a landlord.
What happened
In January 2026 Mailchimp sharply reduced what its free plan includes, continuing a squeeze that began after the Intuit acquisition: lower send limits, fewer audiences, features moved up the paywall. The free tier that onboarded a generation of small businesses became, functionally, a trial.
Why it belongs in the record
Because it is the cleanest example of the platform pattern outside website builders proper: build market share with free, then reprice the installed base once switching feels expensive. Email lists move more easily than websites do, and even so the friction kept most users paying. Your website has the same landlord economics, only worse, because on most builders the site itself cannot leave at all.
The takeaway we keep repeating: check the exit before you move in. Who owns the domain, can the content export, does the platform's history show respect for its installed base. That last one is what this archive is for.
About Builder Watch
Builder Watch tracks the pricing pages and health of 47 website builders every day, keeps timestamped receipts, and reports only changes we can prove. It is run by Marketing By Magnet, which also builds PISCES, an AI website builder, so you know exactly where we stand: we compete with some of the companies we cover, and we publish the receipts so you never have to take our word for anything.
See your site rebuilt by AI, free
Paste your current website's URL and PISCES rebuilds it, 10x better, in about 90 seconds. Keep it only if you love it.
Get my free rebuild →