The Newsletter Plugin
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Choose it if you run WordPress, have a small-to-mid list, and want newsletters without monthly SaaS fees.
New check
Comparison
The Newsletter Plugin vs Mailchimp
The Newsletter Plugin and Mailchimp both land on Depends.
Mailchimp
Depends
Confidence: High
Buy if you're a small business or startup testing email marketing on the free tier.
| Compare | The Newsletter Plugin | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | WordPress sites wanting free newsletters | Small businesses starting email marketing free |
| Who it's not for | Non-WordPress sites | Large or fast-growing lists . pricing punishes growth |
| Privacy | Poor recent track record: multiple 2025-2026 CVEs (stored XSS, CSRF, auth bypass) on top of a 2020 flaw wave hitting 300,000+ sites.⁷ | Three breaches in 12 months (2022-23); brand actively abused in phishing. |
| Support quality | Forums exist; no quality evidence found | Insufficient direct evidence in reviewed sources |
| Public sentiment | Redditors actively debate whether it's worth it for lists from thousands to tens of thousands of subscribers, with free-tier appeal weighed against self-hosted tradeoffs.⁹ | Long-time users increasingly complain about complexity, pricing, and post-Intuit decline, while professional reviewers still rate the core email and AI tools highly.11 |
| Biggest gotcha | Multiple 2025-2026 CVEs (XSS, CSRF, auth bypass); unpatched installs are targets | Premium tier starts at $350/month; costs jump steeply between tiers14 |
Pick The Newsletter Plugin when
- WordPress sites wanting free newsletters
- Bloggers avoiding monthly SaaS fees
- Lists up to ~10,000 subscribers
- Teams keeping subscriber data on their own site
When The Newsletter Plugin is not a fit
- Non-WordPress sites
- Guess: high-volume senders needing guaranteed inbox placement
- Anyone who won't patch plugins promptly
- Guess: teams needing advanced marketing automation and segmentation
Pick Mailchimp when
- Small businesses starting email marketing free
- Teams wanting AI-assisted campaigns
- Senders who want a polished, mature platform
When Mailchimp is not a fit
- Large or fast-growing lists . pricing punishes growth
- Anyone wanting simple, predictable billing
- Advanced senders needing deep features (users call it limited)
- Teams handling sensitive recipient data
Sources
review
- MailPoet and WordPress Newsletter Plugins vs Mailchimp and Dripdeliciousbrains.comreview
- Best WordPress Newsletter Plugins . WPBeginnerwpbeginner.comreview
- Newsletter . WordPress.org plugin pagewordpress.orgofficial
- Pricing . The Newsletter Pluginthenewsletterplugin.comofficial
- CVE-2026-86824: Newsletter Plugin Auth Bypasssentinelone.comsecurity
- CVE-2025-3584 . Stored XSS to JS Backdoorresearch.cleantalk.orgsecurity
security
review
- The Newsletter Plugin . Crunchbasecrunchbase.comnews
review
- Mailchimp Pricing 2026: Watch Out for These Extra Costsemailtooltester.comreview
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