Per-contact platforms raise your bill every time your audience grows — regardless of how often you email them. Sendora bills for sends. Unsubscribed and bounced contacts never count toward any limit.
| Stage | Per-contact billing | SendoraPer-send billing | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting out<2.5K contacts · ~8K emails per month | 2,500 contacts billedfree tier caps fast | $0.00/mo10,000 sends/mo | even odds, for now |
| Early traction<10K contacts · ~40K emails per month | 10,000 contacts billedunsubscribed included | $19.00/mo50,000 sends/mo | unsubscribed stop counting |
| Finding fit<25K contacts · ~120K emails per month | 25,000 contacts billedinactive readers included | $49.00/mo150,000 sends/mo | dead weight costs $0 |
| Scaling<75K contacts · ~350K emails per month | 75,000 contacts billedbounced addresses included | $99.00/mo400,000 sends/mo | billed for sends only |
The per-contact column describes the billing model, not a price — list prices shift and we won't invent them. One published anchor: Mailchimp lists roughly $385/mo at 50,000 contacts on its own plan comparison. Sendora Scale covers 75,000 contacts for $99/mo — because stored contacts were never the thing you were paying for.
The fine print, enlarged
The sticker price is not where per-contact billing gets you. It's what the meter counts. Here is the model, line by line — no invented dollar figures, just the rules each side bills by.
| Billing rule | Per-contact platforms | Sendora |
|---|---|---|
| What the meter counts | ||
| Unsubscribed contacts | Still billed as contacts | Never count toward any limit |
| Bounced addresses | Still billed as contacts | Never count toward any limit |
| Readers who haven't opened in a year | Billed every month they sit there | Stored free — billed only when you send |
| What a growing list does to the bill | ||
| List doubles, sending stays flat | Bill climbs a tier | Bill stays exactly where it was |
| A quiet month with few campaigns | Same invoice as a busy month | Fewer sends, less used — the plan doesn't change |
The one published anchor
~$385/mo
Mailchimp at 50,000 contacts, from its own published plan comparison. The one external figure we'll put on this page, because it's the one we can source.
Same audience on Sendora
$99/mo
Scale covers 75,000 stored contacts and 400,000 sends a month. The difference isn't a discount — it's a different meter.
What it does
Block-based composition with a live canvas: headings, text, images, buttons and columns, arranged by dragging. Preview on desktop or mobile, send yourself a test, then schedule or send. No template lock-in, no upsell modals mid-draft.
A real contact table with custom fields, CSV import and export, and a consent record on every address. Segments are saved filters over your own data — engaged this month, signed up for trials, anything you can express.
The honest-metrics stance
Apple Mail Privacy Protection preloads tracking pixels, so roughly 40–49% of recorded "opens" are machines — and there is no official way to filter them. We won't show you a big flattering number that is partly fiction.
Sendora reports clicks as the primary engagement metric, shows bounces and unsubscribes plainly, and labels open rates as not reliably measurable. A number you can act on beats a number that feels good.
March product update
Sent Mar 3 2026 · 12,214 delivered
2.8%
Click rate
342 unique clicks
n/m
Open rate
not reliably measurable
0.4%
Unsubscribes
49 people, plainly counted
Clicks per link
Pricing
Every paid tier carries a 14-day trial. Unsubscribed and bounced contacts never count toward any limit, on any plan.
Q1 customer survey — final report
Sent Jan 15 2026 · 8,932 delivered · 0.9% bounced
3.1%
Click rate — 277 clicks
n/m
Opens — not reliably measurable
0.2%
Unsubscribed — 18 people
This is what a finished campaign looks like in Sendora: the numbers we can stand behind, sized like they matter, and the ones we can't, labeled honestly.
Free covers 2,500 contacts and 10,000 sends a month. No card, no sales call, and no charge for the people who left.