An alternative to Mailchimp
and YAMM for Gmail campaigns

An honest comparison: where sending from your own mailbox beats Mailchimp and YAMM, where it loses, and which tool suits which job.

These are three different tools, not three versions of one. Mailchimp is an email marketing platform: its own servers, its own domains, a visual editor, automations. YAMM is a Google Sheets add-on that sends from your Gmail. MailSharks also sends from your Gmail, but as a separate app, with statistics, suppression lists and an HTTP API — and for free.

Competitors' plans and limits change; check their own sites before deciding.

Line by line

	MailSharks	Mailchimp	YAMM
Price	Free	Free tier, then priced by contacts	Free tier, then a subscription
Sender	Your Gmail	Mailchimp's servers	Your Gmail
Daily cap	Your Gmail quota (≈500)	Per plan	Gmail quota plus a plan limit
List lives	In your sheet	With Mailchimp	In your sheet
Editor	Visual, single column	Visual, block-based	A Gmail draft
Own domain	No	Yes	Via Workspace
Runs in	Browser and Telegram	Browser	Google Sheets
HTTP API	Yes, free	Yes	Limited

Where MailSharks wins

The message comes from you. An ordinary address and ordinary correspondence: replies land in your inbox, not in somebody's dashboard. And gmail.com is already signed by Google, so there is no SPF or DKIM to set up.
The list stays yours. Addresses live in your own Google Sheet. The service reads them for your own messages and never copies them into a database of its own — see the privacy policy.
It costs nothing. No pricing tiers by contact count, and no bill for having a bigger list.
You can start right now. No contact import, no domain verification, no waiting for an account review.
The API is included. The HTTP API is part of the free service, not a separate plan.

Where MailSharks loses

The ceiling is your Gmail quota. About 500 messages a day, and there is no way around it (the limits in detail). If you need 50,000 messages by morning, that is Mailchimp's job.
No block layouts and no ready-made designs. The editor is visual — formatting, colours, headings, lists, images with text wrapping around them — but the message stays a single column. There are no two- or three-column layouts and no gallery of designed templates: templates here are your own saved messages.
No sending domains of your own. The sender is your Gmail or Workspace address, and only that.
No complex automation. No "send three days after a click" sequences, no behavioural segments, no A/B tests.
No signup forms or landing pages. Collecting addresses is up to you.

When Mailchimp is the better choice

When mail is a marketing channel rather than correspondence: tens of thousands of subscribers, designed messages with images, automated sequences, signup forms, reports for a team. That is what the subscription buys.

When YAMM is the better choice

When all the work already happens inside Google Sheets and you would rather never leave them: YAMM lives in the sheet itself and takes the message from a Gmail draft. If its free allowance is enough and you do not need suppression lists, campaign history or an API, it is the shortest path.

Which to pick

The job	The tool
Writing to customers as yourself	MailSharks
A newsletter to 50,000 subscribers	Mailchimp
A one-off message from an open sheet	YAMM
Sending from your own software	MailSharks (API)
Sequences and automation	Mailchimp

Next: how to send a campaign from a Google Sheet and Gmail limits in numbers.

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An alternative to Mailchimpand YAMM for Gmail campaigns