Mailchimp vs Brevo Pricing: Complete Comparison (2026)

Mailchimp and Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) are the two most popular email marketing platforms for small and mid-sized businesses — but their pricing models are fundamentally different. Mailchimp charges based on the number of contacts in your list. Brevo charges based on the number of emails you send per month. That single distinction shapes every TCO calculation, especially as your list grows.

This guide breaks down every tier, compares free plans, models real-world costs at five audience sizes, and helps you decide which platform saves money in your specific situation.

Quick Pricing Snapshot

Mailchimp 2026 Pricing (USD, billed monthly):

Free: $0/month (500 contacts, 1,000 emails/month)
Essentials: from $13/month (500 contacts, 5,000 emails/month)
Standard: from $20/month (500 contacts, 6,000 emails/month)
Premium: from $350/month (10,000 contacts, unlimited emails)

Brevo 2026 Pricing (USD, billed monthly):

Free: $0/month (unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day / ~9,000/month)
Starter: $25/month (20,000 emails/month)
Business: $65/month (20,000 emails/month, automation + landing pages)
Enterprise: Custom pricing (unlimited emails, dedicated IP, SLA)

The headline difference: Mailchimp prices go up as your contact list grows. Brevo prices go up as your send volume grows. A large but infrequently-mailed list is expensive on Mailchimp and cheap on Brevo. A small list with daily sends is cheaper on Mailchimp.

Free Tier Comparison

Mailchimp Free ($0)

500 contacts maximum
1,000 emails per month (hard cap)
1 audience (list)
Basic email templates
Marketing CRM (contact profiles, notes)
Signup forms and landing pages
Mailchimp branding on emails (cannot remove)
No A/B testing
No scheduling
Email support for first 30 days only, then community support

Brevo Free ($0)

Unlimited contacts (no list size cap)
300 emails per day (approximately 9,000/month)
Unlimited contacts storage
Transactional email included (SMTP, API)
SMS marketing (pay-per-send)
Basic automation (welcome email, birthday triggers)
Landing page builder (1 page)
Brevo branding on emails
No phone support, limited live chat

Winner: Brevo for most growing businesses. The unlimited contacts cap is transformative — you can import your full list and start segmenting immediately without paying. Mailchimp's 500-contact free limit means many businesses hit a paywall before they've even validated their email program.

The catch with Brevo's free tier: 300 emails/day is a hard daily cap, not a monthly average. If you send a newsletter to 3,000 subscribers, it will drip out over 10 days unless you upgrade. For transactional email (receipts, notifications), this cap is workable. For broadcast campaigns to your full list, you'll need a paid plan quickly.

Essentials vs Starter Tier

This is where most early-stage businesses operate — lists between 500 and 5,000 contacts.

Mailchimp Essentials (from $13/month at 500 contacts)

500–50,000 contacts (price scales with list size)
5x monthly email sends versus contact count
3 audiences (segmented lists)
Email templates (all 100+)
A/B testing (subject lines, send time)
Remove Mailchimp branding
24/7 email and chat support

Brevo Starter ($25/month)

Unlimited contacts
20,000 emails/month (flat fee)
No daily send cap
Remove Brevo branding
Basic reporting and analytics
40,000 emails/month add-on available for $10 more
No advanced automation (Business plan required)
No landing pages beyond free tier's 1 page

Cost comparison at 2,500 contacts:

Mailchimp Essentials: ~$27/month
Brevo Starter: $25/month

Cost comparison at 5,000 contacts:

Mailchimp Essentials: ~$50/month
Brevo Starter: $25/month (still flat)

Brevo pulls ahead noticeably at 5,000+ contacts. At 10,000 contacts, Mailchimp Essentials jumps to ~$78/month while Brevo Starter stays at $25/month (assuming 2 sends/month to the full list = 20,000 emails).

The key caveat: Brevo Starter lacks advanced automation workflows. If you need multi-step drip sequences, cart abandonment flows, or behavioral triggers beyond basic welcome emails, you need Brevo Business.

Standard vs Business Tier

Mid-tier plans unlock automation and deeper analytics — the features most growing e-commerce and SaaS businesses need.

Mailchimp Standard (from $20/month at 500 contacts)

Everything in Essentials
Advanced audience segmentation (behavioral, purchase history)
Customer journey builder (visual automation workflows)
Predictive send-time optimization
Retargeting ads (Facebook, Instagram, Google)
Comparative reporting across campaigns
Dynamic content in emails (personalization by segment)

Brevo Business ($65/month)

Everything in Starter
20,000 emails/month included (same as Starter base)
Marketing automation (unlimited workflow steps)
Landing page builder (unlimited pages)
A/B testing
Heat maps and advanced reporting
Multi-user access (3 users included)
Phone support

Cost comparison at 10,000 contacts, 2 sends/month (20,000 emails):

Mailchimp Standard: ~$80/month
Brevo Business: $65/month

Cost comparison at 25,000 contacts, 2 sends/month (50,000 emails):

Mailchimp Standard: ~$170/month
Brevo Business: $65 + $30 email volume add-on = ~$95/month

The gap widens dramatically at this tier. Mailchimp's contact-based scaling means a 25,000-contact list paying $170/month even if you only send twice a month. Brevo's volume pricing means 50,000 emails for around $95/month regardless of how many contacts are in your database.

Premium vs Enterprise Tier

Mailchimp Premium (from $350/month)

10,000 contacts minimum (scales up)
Unlimited audiences
Advanced multivariate testing
Comparative campaign reporting
Dedicated account manager
Custom domain email sending
Priority 24/7 phone support

Brevo Enterprise (custom pricing)

Unlimited emails (dedicated IP pools)
Dedicated account manager
Custom sending domain
Advanced security and compliance (GDPR tooling, HIPAA available)
Service-level agreement
Custom integrations via API
Multi-brand management

At the top tier, Mailchimp Premium starts at $350/month for just 10,000 contacts — making it expensive for businesses with large but low-frequency lists. Brevo Enterprise pricing is negotiated based on send volume, typically competitive for high-volume senders above 5 million emails/month.

Total Cost of Ownership: 5 Audience Scenarios

Assumptions: 2 newsletter sends per month to full list, monthly billing (annual billing saves ~15–20% on both platforms).

|-----------|---------------|--------------|------------|----------|---------|

| 500 | Essentials | $13 | Starter | $25 | Mailchimp saves $12 |

| 2,500 | Essentials | $27 | Starter | $25 | Brevo saves $2 |

| 10,000 | Standard | $80 | Business | $65 | Brevo saves $15 |

| 25,000 | Standard | $170 | Business + add-on | ~$95 | Brevo saves $75 |

| 50,000 | Standard | $270 | Business + add-on | ~$125 | Brevo saves $145 |

Key insight: The crossover point is around 2,000–3,000 contacts. Below that, Mailchimp Essentials is cheaper. Above 3,000 contacts, Brevo saves money — and the savings compound rapidly with list size.

For high-frequency senders (daily emails, transactional flows), recalculate with actual email volume. A 10,000-contact list sending 5 emails/month = 50,000 emails/month. Brevo Business would need email volume add-ons (~$40), bringing monthly cost to ~$105 vs Mailchimp Standard at ~$80. Volume-heavy use cases may favor Mailchimp.

Hidden Costs

Mailchimp Hidden Costs

Contact-based overage: Mailchimp charges for every contact in your audience — including unsubscribed contacts on some older plans. Clean your list regularly. A 10,000-contact list with 2,000 unsubscribes could cost you $30/month unnecessarily if you don't archive bounced/unsubscribed contacts.

Audience limits on Essentials: Essentials only allows 3 audiences (lists). If you manage multiple brands or need strict list separation, you need Standard ($20/month base) or higher. Many agencies and multi-brand operators hit this wall unexpectedly.

Transactional email costs: Mailchimp's transactional email product (formerly Mandrill) is priced separately — it's not included in marketing plans. Transactional email requires a paid Mailchimp plan plus Mandrill blocks ($20/25,000 emails). Brevo includes transactional email in all plans, including free.

Landing pages: Mailchimp includes basic landing pages on paid plans, but advanced page builder features and custom domains require Standard or higher.

Brevo Hidden Costs

Email volume add-ons: Brevo Starter and Business both cap monthly email volume. Heavy senders need volume packs. A 50,000-contact list mailing 4x/month = 200,000 emails. On Business: $65 base + ~$70 volume add-on = $135/month. This is still usually cheaper than Mailchimp, but budget for it.

SMS billing: Brevo includes SMS marketing features, but SMS messages are pay-per-send on top of your email plan. Rates vary by country (~$0.01–0.05 per SMS). This is a feature advantage (SMS is not available in Mailchimp), but budget separately.

Advanced integrations: Deep CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive) via Brevo require Business or Enterprise plan. Mailchimp's native CRM integrations work on Essentials.

Multi-user limits: Brevo Starter is single-user. Business includes 3 users. Teams needing 5+ user accounts need Enterprise pricing. Mailchimp Standard allows up to 5 users.

When to Choose Mailchimp

Mailchimp makes sense when:

Your list is small (under 2,500 contacts): At small list sizes, Mailchimp Essentials ($13/month) beats Brevo Starter ($25/month). For bootstrapped businesses or early-stage startups, that $12 difference adds up over a year.

You rely on ecosystem integrations: Mailchimp has 300+ native integrations with major e-commerce platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce), CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot), and social media tools. Integration depth and data sync reliability are generally stronger than Brevo's.

Brand matters: Mailchimp has more professionally designed email templates and a stronger brand reputation for consumer-facing email programs. If you're pitching enterprise B2B leads via email, Mailchimp emails often look more polished out of the box.

You send high-frequency emails to a small list: If you're emailing a list of 1,000 customers daily (30,000 emails/month), Mailchimp Standard at $20/month beats Brevo Business at $65/month plus volume add-ons.

You need a built-in CRM: Mailchimp's marketing CRM is more developed — contact timelines, purchase history tracking, tags, and notes. Brevo's CRM is functional but lighter.

When to Choose Brevo

Brevo makes sense when:

Your list has grown past 3,000 contacts: The economics flip clearly above this threshold. A 10,000-contact list on Brevo Business ($65/month) vs Mailchimp Standard ($80/month) saves $180/year — and the savings grow linearly with list size.

You need transactional email without a separate tool: Brevo's transactional email (SMTP + API) is included in all plans. This is a significant cost advantage for SaaS, e-commerce, and any app that sends notifications, receipts, or password resets. Adding transactional email to Mailchimp requires a separate Mandrill subscription.

You want SMS marketing in one platform: Brevo supports SMS campaigns and transactional SMS in the same dashboard, billed per-send. Mailchimp has no native SMS.

You're budget-conscious with a large list: A 50,000-contact list pays $270/month on Mailchimp Standard. The equivalent Brevo plan (with volume add-ons for 2 sends/month = 100,000 emails) is roughly $125/month. That's $1,740/year in savings.

You send to EU audiences: Brevo is French-built with strong GDPR tooling, data residency in EU data centers, and a compliance-first approach. If your audience is European, Brevo's infrastructure often simplifies compliance more than Mailchimp.

You need automation without upgrading to a premium tier: Brevo Business ($65/month) includes full multi-step automation workflows. Mailchimp requires Standard ($20/month base, but scales to $170/month at 25K contacts) for comparable automation.

Bottom Line

Mailchimp wins for small lists and heavy integrations. Brevo wins for large lists, transactional email, and budget efficiency.

The crossover point is approximately 2,500–3,000 contacts. Below that, Mailchimp Essentials is the cheaper option with better integration depth. Above 3,000 contacts, Brevo's volume-based pricing consistently undercuts Mailchimp's contact-based pricing — sometimes by 50% or more at 25,000+ contacts.

If you're just starting out and don't know how fast your list will grow, Brevo's free plan (unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day) is the stronger foundation. You won't hit a hard contact cap that forces an upgrade before you've validated your list-building strategy.

For a side-by-side interactive comparison of all features and tiers, see our Brevo vs Mailchimp comparison page.

Mailchimp vs Brevo Pricing: Complete Comparison (2026)