The most recognized email-marketing + marketing-automation name and the only one of the four with a real forever-free tier for email automation. Free forever for 500 contacts and 1,000 emails/month (10,000 lifetime email sends) with Mailchimp branding, a basic audience, email templates, a drag-and-drop builder, and 1-step basic automation (welcome email, tag-based). Standard from ~$13/mo for 500 contacts adds multi-step automations, A/B testing, and 24/7 support; Essentials from ~$6/mo for 500 contacts adds email scheduling + basic A/B testing.