Intuit’s announcement this week that it will cut approximately 3,000 jobs, or 17% of its global workforce, has had a negative impact on the entire technology sector. But for the 11 million businesses that use Mailchimp for email marketing, the real question is simpler: Should I stay or should I go?
The answer, based on Mailchimp’s product releases, Intuit’s results and the competitive landscape, is more nuanced than the headlines suggest. Mailchimp is not being shut down. However, it is no longer treated as a growth asset by its parent company – and this change has consequences for the marketers who rely on it.
When Intuit bought Mailchimp for $12 billion, it was at the center of the company’s small business strategy. Today, the email marketing solution is small.
In a note to employees published on Intuitive BlogSasan Goodarzi, CEO of Intuit, said the company was “reducing investments in areas like Mailchimp and streamlining our engineering and product organizations.”
“We’re keeping it because we can’t sell it right now.”
On a call for results Last week, Deutsche Bank analyst Brad Zelnick asked Goodarzi how much of the restructuring was attributable to Mailchimp’s right-sizing versus AI effectiveness. The CEO declined to provide details, but made the strategic intent clear.
“We believe Mailchimp’s revised cash flow profile will generate more value for Intuit than a third party is likely to pay for this asset in the current software equity and debt environment.”
CFO Sandeep Aujla added: “The revenue terms that you can get from a third party just aren’t there at the moment. That’s why we’re making sure that we’re managing this with profitability in mind.”
Translation: Intuit considered selling Mailchimp and couldn’t find a buyer at an acceptable price. It now manages the product to maximize its cash flow rather than grow it.
In a statement to MarTech, Intuit communications representative Kate Arora confirmed the direction: “As part of our company-wide reduction, we are reducing our business investment in Mailchimp. The future cost structure will allow us to optimize the profitability of our business. We remain focused on delighting our customers and continuing our momentum with small and medium-sized businesses.”
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The statement does not offer any specific assurances regarding Mailchimp’s product roadmap or feature investment.
From crown jewel to cost center
This marks a dramatic downgrade from where the company was just nine months ago. In August 2025, Aujla described Mailchimp as “a drag on near-term growth” but said the company has “initiatives underway and expects it to achieve good results by the end of the year.”
Speak Call for February 2026 resultsmanagement pushed back that projection even further, now expecting Mailchimp to return to double-digit growth “beyond fiscal 2026.” By May 2026, the language of growth had completely disappeared from conversations.
To be clear: The 3,000 job cuts are across all of Intuit, spanning TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma and Mailchimp. Intuit has not revealed how many of these cuts specifically affect Mailchimp. That said, the wording of Goodarzi’s memo — “reducing investments in areas such as Mailchimp” — indicates where the company’s priorities now lie.
Product is still shipping – for now
Here’s the counterintuitive part: Mailchimp just released a substantial release.
In February 2026, the company announced a suite of e-commerce-focused featuresincluding more e-commerce triggers, a new site tracking pixel, SMS expansion to 34 European countries, an omnichannel dashboard, AI-powered predictive analytics and ChatGPT integration. The company has also created migration tools specifically to attract customers from competitors like Klaviyo.
Diana Williams, vice president of product at Intuit Mailchimp, said in an ad that “Mailchimp customers will experience the benefits of 26% more e-commerce triggers, bringing together data, automation and advanced analytics on a single platform.” Ciarán Quilty, senior vice president of global at Intuit, went further: “Moving to Intuit Mailchimp is not only an easy choice today, it’s essential for their growth tomorrow. »
Email Expertanalyzing the information provided by Intuit at Investor Day, was blunt: “Users should not expect a flood of new features; incremental improvements and profitability adjustment are more likely.”
The numbers behind the downgrade
Mailchimp’s performance explains why Intuit is pulling out. Over four consecutive earnings calls, the company’s revenue grew significantly faster when Mailchimp is excluded:
| Call for results | Segment | With MailChimp | Out. Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 FY2025 (August 2025) | Global Business Solutions | +18% | +21% |
| Q1 FY2026 (November 2025) | Global Business Solutions | +18% | +20% |
| Q2 FY2026 (February 2026) | Online ecosystem | +21% | +25% |
| Q3 FY2026 (May 2026) | Online ecosystem | +19% | +22% |
Mailchimp’s revenue was “down slightly” in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 and again in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. User growth has stalled. EmailToolTester Market Analysis for January 2026 shows that Mailchimp has 11 million users with 0% growth since mid-2024, while its competitors have surged: MailerLite up 52%, Omnisend up 50%, HubSpot up 29%, Klaviyo up 28%, Brevo up 20%.
Robert Brandl, CEO of EmailToolTester, published on LinkedIn: “Intuit Mailchimp is still in a league of its own with 11 million users, but they seem to have stopped growing and are losing market share.”
In August 2025, Reuters reported that Aujla identified the main problem: small businesses – “Mailchimp’s bread and butter” – found the platform “a little more difficult to use, which hurts retention and expansion”.
The arguments for staying
Mailchimp still has real strengths that competitors recognize:
- The email generator. Venture Harbor 2026 review calls it “the best email generator we’ve used. It’s intuitive, flexible, works well in the browser, and gives you all the WYSIWYG customization you need.”
- The ecosystem. With over 500 integrations, Mailchimp has the largest third-party ecosystem for email marketing. If your tech stack already integrates with Mailchimp, the change involves significant friction.
- The scale. Eleven million users create platform effects (models, benchmarks, community knowledge) that small competitors cannot match.
- The history of electronic commerce. The company’s claimed 41x ROI for Shopify-connected stores is a competitive data point — although, to reiterate, it comes from Mailchimp’s own filings, not independent research.
If you send simple newsletters, have a small or stable list, and the drag-and-drop builder is your priority, Mailchimp remains a solid choice, at least until there is concrete evidence of product degradation.
The arguments in favor of evaluating alternatives
If Mailchimp is now managed for profitability rather than growth, several implications follow for marketers:
- Innovation will slow down. As a product moves from investing in growth to harvesting profitability, the cadence of features decreases. The February 2026 release may represent a peak rather than a benchmark.
- The price is already a problem. Mailchimp’s Essentials plan costs $230/month for 20,000 contacts, compared to $29 for Brevo’s Starter plan and $10 for MailerLite. Its free tier is reduced to 250 contacts and 500 emails per month; Competitors like Brevo offer 9,000 emails per month with no limit on the number of contacts.
- Automation is Mailchimp’s weak point. Venture Harbor’s review notes that Mailchimp can’t segment users based on complex behaviors (e.g., “opened email A but didn’t click link B in email B”), lacks automated segmentation, and doesn’t have a drag-and-drop automation builder — all standard in ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo.
- Competitors directly target Mailchimp customers. Brevo, MailerLiteand others have published detailed migration guides. Brevo offers free concierge migration for larger lists. Competitive dynamics are only intensifying.
- Silence on details. Intuit’s statement to MarTech confirms that it is “reducing business investment in Mailchimp” and maximizing profitability, but offers no details on which teams, features, or product areas will be affected. For customers making multi-year platform decisions, this ambiguity is a risk factor in itself.
A decision framework for current customers
| You should probably stay if… | You should start evaluating alternatives if… |
|---|---|
| You send simple newsletters or basic automations | You need complex behavioral segmentation |
| Your list is small and stable | Your list is growing (costs are increasing quickly) |
| You count on Mailchimp’s 500+ integrations | SMS or multichannel at the heart of your strategy |
| You are satisfied with your current e-commerce performance | You need a CRM integrated with your email |
| Drag and drop builder is your priority | You regularly reach the limits of automation |
Watch the next 90 days
If Intuit announces specific terminations of Mailchimp products, if key product leads leave, or if the cadence of features visibly slows down from the February 2026 pace, those would be exit signals. If the next release maintains its momentum and Intuit clarifies that “rightsizing” is limited to workforce and office consolidation – not product investment – Mailchimp still has a roadmap worth betting on.
