Brevo vs Mailchimp: Which Is Cheaper and Better in 2026?
These two do not just have different prices — they have different pricing <em>models</em>. Which one is cheaper for you comes down to a single number you can calculate in thirty seconds.
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Mailchimp is the default email platform for small businesses, and defaults are expensive. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is the main alternative that changes the pricing model rather than just undercutting the price.
That distinction is the whole comparison. Mailchimp bills you for how many people you store. Brevo bills you for how many emails you send. Depending on your list, the same output costs wildly different amounts.
Head to head
| Tool | Score | Entry price | Top plan | Free plan | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | 8.2 /10 | $9 Unlimited contacts | $499 | Yes | Visit site |
| Mailchimp | 7.9 /10 | $13 500 contacts | $350 | Yes | Visit site |
Prices are list prices in USD, billed monthly, verified between October 5, 2026 and October 5, 2026. Annual billing typically cuts 10–20 %.
The thirty-second calculation
- Under 2 — a large list mailed occasionally. Brevo wins, usually by a very wide margin.
- 2 to 8 — Brevo is still cheaper, but the gap narrows steadily. Decide on whether the saving is worth the editor and integrations you give up.
- Over 10 — heavy sending with continuous automation. At 10,000 contacts the two meet around 10 sends per contact ($139 on Brevo Standard against $135 on Mailchimp Standard at 100,000 emails); beyond that Mailchimp's flat contact-based price is cheaper and simpler to forecast.
Here is what that looks like for a business with a 20,000-contact list at different send frequencies:
List prices read from both vendors' pricing pages in October 2026, USD, billed monthly: Brevo Standard and Mailchimp Standard, the plans with automation. Mailchimp prices by contacts ($285 for 15,001–20,000) and allows up to 12 sends per contact a month on Standard, so its figure is flat across these volumes; Brevo scales with the number of emails sent, and its 240k-email point is priced at the 250,000-email tier. Without automation the gap is wider at low volume: Brevo Starter is $32 and $74 at the first two points, against $230 on Mailchimp Essentials. Confirm current bands before budgeting.
At one campaign a month — which is what a great many small businesses actually do — Brevo Standard costs about a quarter of Mailchimp Standard ($69 against $285), and Brevo Starter about 14 % of Mailchimp Essentials ($32 against $230). The gap only closes if you are sending close to daily — even at twelve sends per contact Brevo is still 13 % cheaper on these plans.
The Mailchimp bill nobody audits
On most current Mailchimp plans, unsubscribed and non-subscribed profiles still count toward your contact total unless you actively archive them. Archiving is manual and nothing prompts you to do it.
On a mature account, unsubscribed contacts are commonly 15–30 % of the total. That means a meaningful share of your bill is for storing people you are legally prohibited from emailing. If you have been on Mailchimp for more than two years and have never audited this, do it before you do anything else — it frequently drops you a full pricing tier.
Where Brevo genuinely wins
List growth stops being a cost
This is the strategic argument, and it is bigger than the monthly saving. On contact-based pricing every new subscriber increases your bill whether or not you ever mail them, which quietly discourages the lead capture your business needs. On Brevo it does not, so you can run aggressive list building without watching the invoice.
Transactional email and SMS in the same account
Receipts, password resets and shipping notifications run through the same platform and the same sending reputation as your marketing. Most businesses pay a separate transactional provider — Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun — and never compare. Consolidating is often worth another $15–50 a month.
The free tier is genuinely usable
Unlimited contacts and 300 emails a day, roughly 9,000 a month, forever. Mailchimp's free plan caps at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. For a business with a 5,000-person list mailing monthly, Brevo free covers it and Mailchimp cannot.
Where Mailchimp genuinely wins
The editor and template library
Mailchimp's editor remains the friendliest in the category, and the template library and content studio are a generation ahead of Brevo's. If the person building your emails is a founder or an office manager rather than a marketer, this is not cosmetic — it is the difference between campaigns going out and campaigns being postponed.
Integrations
Mailchimp connects to almost every ecommerce platform, CMS, CRM and form builder in existence. Brevo's native catalogue is noticeably thinner, so long-tail tools mean Zapier — another subscription and another thing that silently breaks.
Reporting a non-marketer can act on
Mailchimp presents results clearly enough that a business owner can decide what to do next without a marketer translating. Brevo's reporting is complete but less immediately legible.
Brevo: the scorecard
What works
- Send-based pricing means a dormant list costs nothing to keep
- Transactional email, SMS and marketing campaigns share one account and one sending reputation
- Free tier allows unlimited contacts — unique among serious platforms
- EU-based with straightforward GDPR posture
What doesn't
- Template library and editor feel a generation behind Mailchimp
- Automation builder is capable but visibly less refined than Klaviyo's
- Fewer native integrations; expect to use Zapier for long-tail tools
The billing model — priced on send volume rather than contact count — is the real differentiator, and it's a genuinely good fit for a large list that sends occasionally, or for transactional email and SMS/WhatsApp together. The template designer is a clear step down from Mailchimp or Klaviyo, visually.— Andrew Chase, Founder · 17+ years as a Project Manager
Skip it if: Your team judges a platform by the polish of its editor.
Mailchimp: the scorecard
What works
- Template editor and asset library remain the friendliest for non-designers
- Integration coverage is close to universal across ecommerce and CMS platforms
- Reporting is clear enough that a founder can act on it without a marketer
- Deliverability at default settings is reliably good
What doesn't
- Bills on total contacts including unsubscribed profiles unless you actively clean
- Automation depth trails Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign at every comparable price
- Price steps up hard past 10,000 contacts — Standard goes from $135 to $230 at 15,000
Mailchimp still wins on brand recognition and ease of use for a simple newsletter or a straightforward campaign. Where it's fallen behind is automation depth against newer competitors, and the pricing has climbed noticeably while the product hasn't kept pace.— Andrew Chase, Founder · 17+ years as a Project Manager
Skip it if: Your revenue depends on behavioural, product-triggered flows.
The verdict
- Brevo if your sends-per-contact figure is under 2, if your list is large and mailed occasionally, or if you also pay for a transactional email provider. This is most small businesses.
- Mailchimp if design speed matters more than price, if your integration requirements are unusual, or if you mail very frequently.
- Neither, if you sell products. An ecommerce store past roughly $20k/month should be looking at Klaviyo or Omnisend, where behavioural segmentation and revenue attribution change what email is worth. See our Shopify comparison.
Migration between the two is straightforward — export contacts with consent dates and sources, import, then warm up by mailing your most engaged segment first. Automations always have to be rebuilt. Full category context is in our email marketing roundup.
Frequently asked questions
Is Brevo really cheaper than Mailchimp?
For most small businesses, dramatically — often 3–6× cheaper, because they hold a large list and mail it once or twice a month. The exception is high-frequency senders: around 10 sends per contact per month, Brevo's send-based pricing catches up with Mailchimp's and the contact-based model becomes competitive.
Is Brevo's deliverability as good as Mailchimp's?
At default settings, for a legitimate sender with a clean list, there is no meaningful difference. Deliverability is overwhelmingly determined by domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), list hygiene and consent quality — all things you control. Any vendor selling you primarily on deliverability is selling you the part that is already yours.
How do I move from Mailchimp to Brevo?
Export contacts with consent date and source, import into Brevo, authenticate your sending domain, then warm up gradually — mail your most engaged segment first and widen over two weeks. Automations must be rebuilt; treat that as a chance to improve them. Keep the Mailchimp account read-only for a month in case you need history.
Does Brevo count unsubscribed contacts?
It does not matter, which is the point — Brevo bills on emails sent, not contacts stored, so unsubscribed profiles cost nothing to keep. This is the structural reason Brevo tends to win for businesses with older, larger lists that have accumulated years of churn.
Which is better for a newsletter?
Brevo, in most cases. Newsletters are the classic low-frequency, large-list scenario that send-based pricing is built for. The exception is a newsletter where design is central to the product — a visually elaborate publication is easier to produce in Mailchimp, and that may be worth the premium.