Operating Since 2015
This worksheet is for the procurement conversation. The headline ESP cost is rarely the actual bill that arrives; per-email overages, contact-tier premiums, and add-on fees usually push the real number 40-60% above the published rate. Capturing all of these accurately is the first step toward a real comparison.
The comparison side is simpler: CSE infrastructure pricing is flat. The same plan handles a programme sending 2M/month or 8M/month within plan capacity, so the variable that drives ESP cost (volume growth, subscriber count growth) does not apply.
Your Current ESP Costs
Two cost categories most senders forget to include. Contact tier premiums on Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Klaviyo apply per subscriber regardless of send volume — a stale 100K list costs the same as a fully-engaged 100K list. API access and deliverability add-ons often sit on separate invoice lines (SendGrid Email Validation, Mailgun Optimize, Klaviyo SMS) and the total contract value is harder to estimate without checking the last 12 months of billing.
| Item | Your Current Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly ESP subscription | € ___________ | Base plan fee |
| Per-email overage | € ___________ | Cost when exceeding plan limit |
| Contact tier premium | € ___________ | Extra cost for subscriber count |
| Extra features / add-ons | € ___________ | API, automation, analytics |
| Total monthly ESP cost | € ___________ |
Dedicated Infrastructure Costs (Cloud Server for Email)
The CSE plans below include managed PowerMTA, MailWizz, dedicated IPs, IP warming management, and daily deliverability monitoring. No per-email or per-subscriber charges within the listed capacity. Custom volumes above the Scale plan are quoted individually.
| Plan Tier | Monthly Cost | Emails/Month Capacity | Subscribers |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailWizz Starter | € 490 | ~6M | Unlimited |
| MailWizz Professional | € 990 | ~22M | Unlimited |
| MailWizz Scale | € 1,890 | ~90M | Unlimited |
12-Month Cost Comparison
The annualised view captures what the procurement team actually approves. For most senders crossing 5M/month, the 12-month total on CSE infrastructure is 50-70% lower than the equivalent volume on a major ESP. Below 1M/month the gap narrows; CSE's value above that threshold compounds with each additional million sent.
| Current ESP | Cloud Server for Email | Annual Savings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | € ___________ | € ___________ | |
| Annual cost (x12) | € ___________ | € ___________ | € ___________ |
| Setup cost (one-time) | — | € 0 (annual plan) | |
| 12-month total | € ___________ | € ___________ | € ___________ |
Deliverability Value (Hard to Quantify, Real Impact)
The factors below do not show up on either invoice but compound revenue impact over the programme lifetime. The biggest of these is co-tenant exposure on shared ESPs: a single bad neighbour producing spam complaints can damage placement for every other sender on the same IPs, regardless of how clean your own sending is.
| Factor | Shared ESP | Dedicated Infrastructure |
|---|---|---|
| IP reputation control | Shared with other senders | Yours exclusively |
| Inbox placement | Affected by co-tenant behavior | Determined only by your program |
| GDPR data residency | Often US-based (SCCs required) | EU servers (the EU) — no SCCs needed |
| Subscriber data ownership | Held by ESP | Held on your server |
| Scaling cost | Linear (per email/subscriber) | Flat (no per-email cost) |
Break-Even Volume Calculation
Dedicated infrastructure (€490/month) has a fixed cost. Calculate your per-email cost on current ESP:
Current cost per email = Monthly fee ÷ emails sent per month = € _________ per email
Break-even volume = €490 ÷ current cost per email = _________ emails/month
If you send more than this number per month, dedicated infrastructure is cheaper on a per-email basis.