May 10, 2026
Stop Paying Mailchimp $100/mo — Here's What Local Businesses Should Use Instead
Mailchimp charges you more the more your business grows. There's a better way to manage your email list without the monthly bill eating into your margins.
Email marketing is still the highest ROI channel for local businesses. A weekly email to your customer list reminding them to schedule their annual HVAC tune-up or spring plumbing check can generate thousands in revenue from customers who otherwise would have called a competitor.
The problem? Mailchimp charges you based on how many subscribers you have. And the fees get ugly fast.
Mailchimp's pricing makes no sense for local businesses
Here's what Mailchimp actually costs:
| Subscribers | Monthly Cost | |-------------|-------------| | 500 | $13/mo | | 2,500 | $45/mo | | 5,000 | $75/mo | | 10,000 | $135/mo | | 50,000 | $350/mo |
You're paying more just because you've built a bigger list. That's backwards. Your list is an asset — you shouldn't be penalized for growing it.
Why you're building your list, you just don't know it yet
Every customer who's ever given you their email address is on a list somewhere — in your invoicing software, your phone contacts, a spreadsheet. Most local business owners have 200–2,000 email addresses they've never emailed.
That list is worth money. A single email campaign to 1,000 past customers offering a seasonal discount can generate $5,000–$20,000 in jobs.
The alternative: Listmonk
Listmonk is open-source email marketing software you run on your own server. The cost to send emails is determined by your email delivery provider (like Amazon SES), not Listmonk itself.
Amazon SES costs $0.10 per 1,000 emails. Sending to 10,000 subscribers once a month costs $1.00. Not $135.
We set up Listmonk for local businesses at BOLTED for $47 — one-time. That includes the installation, your email delivery setup, importing your existing contacts, and your first branded email template.
What you actually need to start email marketing
- Your customer list — export emails from your invoicing software
- A sending setup — Listmonk + Amazon SES handles this
- A simple monthly email — what's new, what's seasonal, any promotions
You don't need fancy automation sequences or A/B testing. You need to show up in your customers' inbox once a month so they remember you exist.
Ready to stop paying Mailchimp? See the Listmonk setup →
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Browse our setup services — open-source tools deployed on your server, one-time fee.
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