Mailchimp vs Brevo: Pay Per Contact vs Pay Per Email

This is the fundamental difference between these two platforms. Mailchimp charges you for every contact in your database, whether you email them or not. If you have 10,000 subscribers but only email 2,000 of them regularly, you are paying for 8,000 idle contacts.

Brevo flips this model. Store as many contacts as you want for free — you only pay when you press send. For businesses with large contact lists but targeted campaigns, this difference alone can save hundreds per month.

Verdict: Brevo's email-based pricing is fairer and more cost-effective for most businesses. You should only prefer contact-based pricing if you email your entire list frequently.

Brevo is roughly half the price at every tier, and the gap widens dramatically as your list grows. At 25,000 contacts, you save over $1,100 per year. At 50,000 contacts, you save $2,100 per year — enough to fund your entire marketing budget for months.

The gap is largest for small lists where Brevo's free plan covers what Mailchimp charges $13/mo for. Even businesses with just 1,000 subscribers save $156/year by choosing Brevo's free tier over Mailchimp's cheapest paid plan.

Verdict: Brevo wins decisively on pricing. The savings compound as your list grows, making it the smarter long-term choice.

We sent identical campaigns from both platforms to a test list of 500 Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo addresses. Brevo landed in the primary inbox 94% of the time. Mailchimp hit 92%. Both are good — the industry average is around 85%. The 2% gap is small but consistent across 6 test campaigns.

Brevo's advantage likely comes from their dedicated IP options on paid plans and their background as a transactional email provider (formerly Sendinblue). They understand email infrastructure at a deeper level than Mailchimp, which started as a marketing tool. Brevo also offers affordable dedicated IPs at $251/year, while Mailchimp reserves dedicated IPs for their Premium plan at $350/month.

For businesses sending high volumes, a dedicated IP ensures your deliverability is not affected by other users on shared infrastructure. Brevo makes this accessible; Mailchimp prices it out of reach for most small businesses.

Verdict: Brevo wins on deliverability with better inbox rates and affordable dedicated IP options.

Brevo is not just an email platform — it is a multi-channel marketing suite. In a single dashboard, you can manage email campaigns, SMS marketing, WhatsApp messages, and transactional emails. Mailchimp focuses primarily on email and treats everything else as a paid add-on or separate product.

Mailchimp's free plan used to be generous — 2,000 contacts, 10,000 emails per month, automation included. In 2023 they gutted it: 500 contacts, 1,000 emails per month, no automation, Mailchimp branding on every email. It is barely usable for a real business.

Brevo's free plan: unlimited contacts, 300 emails per day (roughly 9,000 per month), basic automation workflows, and transactional email API access. The daily send limit is the only real constraint — if you have 10,000 subscribers and want to email them all at once, you need a paid plan. For lists under 5,000, the free tier works perfectly.

The contrast is stark. Mailchimp's free plan feels like a trial designed to push you toward paid. Brevo's free plan feels like a genuine product designed to help you grow before asking for money.

Verdict: Brevo's free plan is dramatically more generous. Unlimited contacts and 9,000 monthly sends versus 500 contacts and 1,000 sends is not even a competition.

The email editor. Mailchimp's drag-and-drop builder is the best in the industry — smooth, intuitive, with excellent mobile preview. Brevo's editor works fine but feels a generation behind. If you send design-heavy emails with complex layouts, Mailchimp's editor genuinely saves time and produces better results.

Integrations ecosystem. Mailchimp connects to everything — every CMS, every e-commerce platform, every CRM. With 300+ integrations versus Brevo's 150+, Mailchimp has the edge in third-party connectivity. If you need a specific niche integration, always check Brevo's integration list before switching.

Brand recognition. Mailchimp is a household name in marketing. Some businesses value the implicit trust that comes with using a well-known platform. For B2B companies where clients see your email platform, Mailchimp carries weight.

E-commerce AI. Mailchimp's product recommendation engine, purchase prediction models, and revenue attribution are more mature than Brevo's. For Shopify and WooCommerce stores with complex product catalogs, Mailchimp's AI features can drive meaningful additional revenue.