MailerSend Kills Free Plan: Why MailDiver is the Better Alternative (2025)

MailerSend just eliminated its free tier, and if you were using it, you need to make a decision fast.

As of October 21, 2025, MailerSend's free Hobby plan is gone. New users now pay $7/month for what used to be free. If you're on the old free plan, you have until December 2, 2025 to either upgrade to the paid plan or get downgraded to a new "free" tier that's basically unusable.

That's $84/year for something that was free. If you're running multiple projects, that's $252/year for three projects, or $420/year for five.

The question is: do you pay up, or is there a better option?

There is. MailDiver not only costs less but offers more features, better free tier limits, and a unified platform that combines transactional emails, marketing campaigns, and customer inbox in one place.

What changed with MailerSend

Here's the timeline:

October 21, 2025 - New users can no longer access the free tier. The Hobby plan now costs $7/month for 5,000 emails (previously 3,000 emails were free).

December 2, 2025 - Existing free users must decide: upgrade to $7/month or accept the new severely restricted "free" plan.

For developers managing multiple projects or bootstrapped startups, this adds up fast. That's email infrastructure you built on suddenly demanding payment with minimal notice.

The new "free" plan is unusable

MailerSend's replacement "free" plan isn't designed to be used. It's designed to force upgrades. Here's what you get:

500 emails per month with a 100/day cap
1 API token (can't separate dev/staging/production)
1 webhook (choose one event to track)
1 template (good luck with that)
1 user (no team access)
100 API requests per day (can't even monitor properly)
Minimal support

This isn't a production-ready free tier. It's a sandbox that forces you to upgrade the moment you try to do anything real.

Pricing comparison

Monthly Volume	MailDiver	MailerSend (New Pricing)	Annual Savings
3,000 emails	$0 (Free)	$7/month ($84/year)	$84/year
5,000 emails	$0 (Free)	$7/month ($84/year)	$84/year
25,000 emails	$19/month	$30/month	$132/year
50,000 emails	$29/month	$50/month	$252/year
100,000 emails	$49/month	$90/month	$492/year
250,000 emails	$99/month	$200/month+	$1,212/year+
500,000+ emails	$179/month	$350/month+	$2,052/year+

MailDiver pricing includes transactional + marketing emails. MailerSend pricing reflects transactional-focused plans.

The savings start immediately. At 100,000 emails monthly, you save $492 annually. At enterprise volumes, savings exceed $2,000 per year.

And here's the thing: MailerSend focuses on transactional email. When you need marketing campaigns or newsletters, you're paying for separate services like Mailchimp ($30-300+/month), ConvertKit ($25-100+/month), or Klaviyo ($20-700+/month). MailDiver includes all of that in one price.

MailDiver's actually free tier

Unlike MailerSend's bait-and-switch, MailDiver offers a free tier that actually works for real projects:

5,000 emails per month - More than MailerSend ever offered free

No daily limits - Send 1,000 emails on launch day if you need to, unlike MailerSend's 100/day cap

Unlimited domains - Test with multiple domains, manage staging environments, handle client projects

Unlimited contacts and audiences - Build your lists without forced upgrades

Unlimited templates - Create as many as you need: password resets, order confirmations, receipts, notifications

Unlimited API tokens - Separate dev, staging, and production properly

30-day data retention - Actually debug issues (vs MailerSend's 1-day retention)

Always-free support - Email support for everyone, not just paid users

Both transactional and marketing - Experiment with campaigns without separate billing

No catches. No surprise charges. No "we're killing this next year."

Why MailDiver is better

Beyond the free tier, MailDiver offers features MailerSend doesn't have:

Native inbox - Receive and reply to customer emails right in your dashboard. MailerSend doesn't offer this at all, so customer replies go to separate email clients.

Unified platform - Handle transactional emails, marketing campaigns, newsletters, and customer replies in one place. One login, one dashboard, one bill.

Marketing capabilities - Full audience segmentation, campaign scheduling, A/B testing, and analytics. All included in the same pricing as transactional emails.

Multiple template editors - AI-powered generation, visual block editor, full HTML/CSS editor, or React email import. Pick what works for your workflow.

No arbitrary limits - Unlimited domains, contacts, audiences, API tokens, and webhooks on all plans including free.

Pricing stability - We commit to maintaining free tiers without surprise eliminations. Email infrastructure needs long-term stability, not bait-and-switch tactics.

Making the switch

Migrating from MailerSend to MailDiver is straightforward. Most users complete it in under an hour:

Sign up for MailDiver (no credit card required)
Verify your domain - Add SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records (same as MailerSend)
Migrate templates - Copy your HTML or recreate using our visual editor
Update API credentials - Swap endpoints and authentication
Test everything - Send test emails, verify webhooks work
Switch production - Update environment variables when ready

You can run both services in parallel during migration to ensure everything works smoothly.

Need help migrating? The MailDiver team is ready to handle your entire migration. We'll help you move your templates, configure your domain, and get everything running smoothly. Just reach out through our support and we'll take care of the technical details.

What to do now

If you're on MailerSend's free tier, you have until December 2, 2025 to decide. Here's what you should do:

Try MailDiver now - Sign up for a free account and test it with your setup. Run it in parallel with MailerSend for a week. You're not committing to anything.

Run the numbers - $84 this year, $84 next year. Multiple projects? Factor those in. Compare to MailDiver's free tier or paid plans. The savings add up.

Migrate before the deadline - Don't wait until late November. You'll be migrating during holidays when support teams are slower and you're busy with other things.

Even if you're not 100% sure, it's worth testing now while you have time to think it through.

The bottom line

This isn't about $7/month. It's about what happens when a service you built on can flip its pricing model with a few weeks notice. If they can do it once, what's stopping them from bumping it to $15 next year? Or $25?

MailDiver offers something different: a free tier that's actually designed to be used, not just dangled as bait. We get that email infrastructure matters and that developers and small businesses need reliability, not surprise bills.

MailDiver free tier: