Selva Mail vs
Mailchimp
Billed per contact, on tiered plans that step up as your list grows.
What Mailchimp does well
The most complete marketing suite in the category, and the one every freelancer and client already knows how to use. Templates, reporting, integrations and deliverability are all mature, and there is a real answer for almost anything you ask it to do.
Where the pricing model hurts
You are billed on list size, so growth costs you money before it makes you any. Worse, contacts who unsubscribed still count toward your tier until you go and remove them by hand.
Counts unsubscribed contacts toward your bill until you manually remove them.
What it costs at 5k, 10k and 25k
Assumes four emails per contact per month. Selva Mail is a one-time $497 license, then AWS bills you for what you actually send.
| Contacts | Mailchimp | Selva Mail (AWS) | Annual saving | Payback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | $100/mo | ≈$2/mo | $1,176 | ~5.1 months |
| 10,000 | $145/mo | ≈$5/mo | $1,680 | ~3.5 months |
| 25,000 | $270/mo | ≈$12/mo | $3,096 | ~8 weeks |
Public list prices, 2026. Where a competitor is free software, the saving column is blank on purpose — the cost you are comparing is your own server and your own hours, not a license fee.
Selva Mail costs $497 once, then AWS at cost — about $6/mo at 50,000 emails. It is priced per email sent, not per contact, so it does not grow with your list.
Migrating from Mailchimp
Export contacts and tags to CSV from Audience settings, then import into a Selva Mail list. Templates need rebuilding in the visual builder; there is no automatic template conversion between platforms.
Stop paying for the same contacts
every month.
$497 once. Runs on your infrastructure, sends through your own AWS SES account. Launch buyers get agency rights permanently — unlimited client workspaces. First 100 licenses.