Comparing Brevo vs. Mailchimp
As Mailchimp prices go up, Brevo stays as affordable as ever. Don’t pay more to grow your business.
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Brevo vs. Mailchimp Free Plans: Get more features for $0
Both Brevo and Mailchimp are award-winning platforms that offer email marketing services to help businesses reach their audiences, drive sales, and grow. Brevo holds G2 awards for enterprise and small business solutions and is a top-rated email marketing service on TrustRadius in 2023.
If you’re on a budget or just starting out, both Brevo and Mailchimp offer free plans. The majority of Brevo’s email marketing features are available for free. However, in comparison, Mailchimp offers very limited features on its free plan. Here’s what to expect for $0.
| Free Plan Features | Brevo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Contact storage | 100,000 | 500 |
| Email send limits | 9,000/month (300/day) | 1,000/month (500/day) |
| Advanced segmentation |  | Only on Premium Plan ($350/month) |
| Marketing automation workflows | Up to 2,000 contacts | Basic 1-step automations |
| Transactional emails | |  |
| Email templates | 40+ | 100+ |
| Drag-and-drop-editor for intuitive email design | | |
| HTML editor for custom-coded templates | | |
| Integrations | 150+ | 250+ |
| Live chat | | |
| Customizable pop-up and signup forms | | |
| Landing pages | | |
| Facebook ads | | |
| Customer support | | Only by email in the first 30 days |
Mailchimp: the more contacts you have, the more you pay
Mailchimp’s free plan is limited to 500 contacts across all lists. If one contact is on two lists, it’ll count as 2 contacts. The moment you hit 501 subscribers you’ll need to upgrade. Sending is also very limited on Mailchimp’s free plan: 500 emails/day but limited to 1,000 emails a month.
Mailchimp’s base plans are cheap for anyone starting out — $13 for Essentials, $20 for Standard. But keep in mind, the price is recalculated according to the number of contacts as your business grows. An Essentials plan with 1,500 contacts is already $26.50/month.
Brevo: only pay for what you send
With Brevo, pricing is based on the number of emails sent. For businesses this means more control over costs and the opportunity to nurture all leads — even those that need time to convert.
Brevo gives you the flexibility to grow your contact list as large as you want. Once you’re ready to scale up your sending volume you can upgrade to the baseline plan, starting at $9 for 5,000 emails/month.
Brevo vs. Mailchimp: Up to 9 times cheaper for bulk emails!
If you’re looking for a high-volume email marketing platform, switching to Brevo will generate serious savings, especially after Mailchimp announced yet another price increase of up to 14.5% for existing users in November 2023 (after a previous increase in December 2022).
When it comes to sending bulk email campaigns, Brevo is the cheaper option. Vs Mailchimp, Brevo can work out up to 9 times cheaper per month in certain cases. Take a look at some of these email sending scenarios.
| Price for a bulk campaign | Brevo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| 1 email / month to 500 contacts | $9 | $13 |
| 1 email / month to 1,500 contacts | $17 | $26.5 |
| 1 email / month to 2,500 contacts | $29 | $45 |
| 1 email / month to 5,000 contacts | $29 | $75 |
| 1 email / month to 10,000 contacts | $29 | $110 |
| 1 email / month to 20,000 contacts | $29 | $230 |
| 1 email / month to 40,000 contacts | $39 | $340 |
| 1 email / month to 60,000 contacts | $55 | $630 |
| 1 email / month to 100,000 contacts | $69 | $800 |
Reviews from Brevo users who left Mailchimp
Switched from Mailchimp
"So far the transition from using another service (Mailchimp) has been seamless. I noticed that the Brevo platform is more user friendly and not as clunky as MC. We were looking for a platform that was a bit smarter/easier to use."
Great customer service
"Their subscription model (emails sent, not number of people in your database) makes it a perfect option for any size company. No need to worry about growing your database and seeing your costs explode. The only thing that matters is how many emails you sent per day (free plan) or month (paid plan)."
Good for small lists
"I switched from Mailchimp to Brevo because of their great service and all that they provide, even to people like me with small email lists. Now I am growing my list and better yet, bringing great value to my readers.
Thanks, Brevo."
Enjoy Brevo's built-in transactional email functionality at no extra cost
To send transactional emails with Mailchimp (e.g. personalized one-to-one emails like shipping notifications and password resets), this service is charged as a paid add-on on top of your monthly plan. If your small business relies on transactional emails, Mailchimp’s transactional email API will be an added expense to take into account. On top of that, transactional emails are only available in blocks of 25,000 for $20 each and expire after one month.
In contrast to Mailchimp, Brevo lets you send transactional emails as part of your monthly marketing campaigns plan via our SMTP server. You can also buy a plan exclusively for transactional emails, starting at $15/20,000 emails a month. Because transactional emails often contain sensitive information, you don’t want them to wind up in Junk Mail or the Gmail “Promotions” tab. That’s why it’s best to separate promotional and transactional emails into separate streams using different domains/IP addresses.
Brevo has the complete transactional functionality available natively within its email marketing solution. You can also send transactional SMS messages.
Another important consideration when it comes to ecommerce and Mailchimp is the transaction fees. Users on the free Websites & Commerce plan can create a Mailchimp store online, but every transaction is hit with a fee in the 0.5%-2% range and Stripe processing fees on top. On the paid plans, Mailchimp applies slightly lower transaction fees, but still leaves you with the credit card fees.
| Features available | Brevo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Email marketing | | |
| Transactional emails | | Paid add-on |
| SMS marketing | | Text Marketer plugin |
| Transactional SMS | | |
| Marketing automation | | |
| Email client testing | | |
| Real-time statistics | | |
| Email support | | |
| Phone support | From $18 | From $350 |
| Video tutorials | | |
Free
Discover Brevo- 300 emails/day
- Customizable email templates
- Drag & drop editor
- Transactional (API, SMTP, Webhooks)
- SMS & WhatsApp campaigns
Starter
Ideal for growing businesses- From 5,000 emails/month
- No daily sending limit
- No Brevo logo (add-on)
- Basic reporting & analytics
- 24/7 email support
Business
Built for marketing managers and ecommerce pros- From 5,000 emails/month
- Marketing automation
- Predictive sendingAI
- Multi-user access (add-on)
- Landing pages
- A/B testing
- Advanced statistics
- Phone support
Enterprise
Tailored solutions to fit your needsCustom price
- Unlimited contacts
- Sub-account management
- Advanced integrations
- Exclusive features
- Tailored onboarding
- Personalized support
- Enterprise-grade security
Brevo vs Mailchimp on Marketing Automation
Both solutions let you send personalized emails based on subscriber behavior but Brevo offers other automation possibilities, such as:
- Setting up multichannel workflows for both email and SMS
- Triggering automation workflows based on webpage visits using the Brevo Tracker
- Sending emails at the best time for each contact with Send Time Optimization
- Generating ready subject lines with Brevo’s AI Assistant, free on any plan!
With Brevo’s Free Plan you can use our intuitive workflow editor to set up automation workflows (as simple or as complex as you need) for up to 2,000 contacts. Unlimited marketing automation starts at $65/month.
Mailchimp’s automation features start at $13 for 500 contacts for 1-step workflows. This price increases the more contacts you have, e.g. 5,000 contacts will cost $75.
| Features | Brevo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-made workflows | | |
| Custom workflows | | |
| Database automation | | |
| Webpage visit triggers | | |
| Send automated SMS | | |
| Send contact information to a webhook | | |
| Send Time Optimization | | |
| Video tutorials | | |
Deliverability: Get your emails to the inbox with Brevo
At Brevo, we take email deliverability seriously. So you can rely on our shared IPs to get your campaigns to the inbox. Here are some ways we ensure our sender reputation:
- Rigorous account validation process to keep spammers out
- Dedicated team of deliverability experts to actively monitor our servers and support clients with any issues
- Automatic removal of hard bounce contacts from your campaigns
Plus, you can take control of your email deliverability with dedicated IPs for high volume senders and the option to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication.
Integrations: Connect Brevo to your favorite tools
Brevo connects seamlessly with 150+ leading digital tools. With our vast plugin library, it’s easy to sync our email marketing software with your website, knowledge base, or ecommerce store. Our integrations include:
- CMS: WordPress, Wix
- Ecommerce: Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento
- CRM: Salesforce, Zoho, Pipedrive
- Payment services: Stripe, PayPal
- Automation tools: Zapier, make
Compliance: Collect consent easily with Brevo’s signup forms
Brevo helps you get consent from contacts and comply with data privacy laws like HIPAA, CAN-SPAM, and the GDPR. Thanks to Brevo’s signup forms and list management, subscribers only get the email content they want to receive.
Simply select the list and send your campaign. And vs Mailchimp, we don’t charge per contact stored so having a contact on multiple lists incurs no extra cost with Brevo.
Here are some other reasons to choose Brevo for compliance:
- Easy to implement double opt-in confirmation to confirm subscriber consent
- Proof of consent record in contact profiles
- An unsubscribe link in all emails
Brevo vs Mailchimp for growth: CRM functionalities
Mailchimp provides marketing some basic CRM functionalities specific to marketing, such as a single view of your campaigns. Brevo in contrast is an all-in-one CRM. While Mailchimp’s CRM features are geared towards email marketing, Brevo’s CRM powers growth with a Marketing Platform, Sales Platform, Transactional Email, and Conversations product that all work together.
Brevo’s CRM has powerful sales tools that Mailchimp doesn’t offer. Understand the customer journey with Brevo’s customizable deal pipelines and detailed sales reports. Brevo’s in depth CRM database provides real-time updates to contact profiles, giving you a 360-degree understanding of your customers. Make targeted customer segments and smarter marketing and sales decisions for each contact with Brevo.
Why choose Brevo to grow your business
Any business can grow with Brevo’s Marketing Platform. The generous free plan and unique pricing structure can suit both established companies and entrepreneurs who are just starting out.
No matter your business, Brevo gives you the flexibility to grow. If the free plan no longer fits your needs, upgrade for higher sending limits and advanced features such as A/B testing (subject lines, email content, etc.). Or, use Brevo to explore other marketing channels like WhatsApp and SMS.
Over 500,000 customers worldwide
Businesses across industries have built better customer relationships with Brevo.
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- 1,800+ reviews
- 70+ reviews
