Mailchimp vs Brevo: Email Marketing in 2026

Mailchimp is the household name in email marketing. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is the challenger that keeps gaining ground — largely because of its pricing model and generous free tier. In 2026, both platforms have matured into full marketing suites, but the differences matter.

This comparison covers pricing, automation, templates, deliverability, and when each platform makes the most sense.

Quick Verdict

Pick Brevo if you have a large contact list but send infrequently, or if budget is your top concern. Brevo charges by emails sent, not contacts stored. Pick Mailchimp if you want a more polished design experience, deeper e-commerce integrations, and are willing to pay more for a mature ecosystem.

Pricing Model: The Fundamental Difference

This is the single biggest differentiator between the two platforms.

Mailchimp charges based on the number of contacts in your audience. More contacts means a higher monthly bill — regardless of how many emails you send. If you have 10,000 contacts, you are paying for 10,000 contacts even if you only email 2,000 of them.

Brevo charges based on the number of emails you send per month. You can store unlimited contacts on every plan, including the free tier. If you have 50,000 contacts but only send 20,000 emails per month, you pay for 20,000 emails.

This distinction is critical for businesses with large but segmented audiences.

Pricing Breakdown (2026)

Plan	Mailchimp	Brevo
Free	500 contacts, 1,000 sends/month	Unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day
Starter	From $13/month (500 contacts)	$9/month (5,000 emails)
Standard / Business	From $20/month (500 contacts)	$18/month (5,000 emails)
Premium / Enterprise	From $350/month (10,000 contacts)	Custom pricing

At scale, the gap widens. A business with 50,000 contacts on Mailchimp's Standard plan pays roughly $350/month. The same business on Brevo's Business plan sending 50,000 emails/month pays around $65/month. The savings are substantial.

However, Mailchimp's pricing includes more sends per tier, and its audience management tools are more refined. The right platform depends on your list size and send frequency.

Free Tier Comparison

Brevo Free:

• Unlimited contacts
• 300 emails per day (roughly 9,000/month)
• Email campaigns, transactional email, SMS
• Basic automation workflows
• Brevo branding in emails

Mailchimp Free:

• 500 contacts
• 1,000 sends per month
• Basic email campaigns
• Single-step automations only
• Mailchimp branding in emails

Brevo's free tier is far more generous. You can build a real email program on it — storing your full contact list and sending up to 9,000 emails per month costs nothing. Mailchimp's free plan is more of a trial; 500 contacts and 1,000 sends limits you to very early-stage testing.

Email Automation

Mailchimp

Mailchimp's Customer Journeys builder is visual and powerful. You can create multi-step workflows with branching logic, wait steps, and conditional actions. The builder integrates with Mailchimp's audience segmentation, so you can trigger journeys based on purchase behavior, engagement, tags, and more.

Mailchimp also offers pre-built journey templates for common scenarios: welcome series, abandoned cart recovery, re-engagement campaigns, and post-purchase follow-ups.

Limitations: Advanced automation features like branching and A/B testing within journeys require the Standard plan or higher. The free and Essentials plans get basic, linear automations only.

Brevo

Brevo's automation builder is similarly visual but takes a different approach. It supports workflows triggered by contact activity, email engagement, website events, and transactional events. You can build complex sequences with conditions, delays, and multi-channel steps (email + SMS + WhatsApp).

What sets Brevo apart is that automation is available on lower tiers. You can build multi-step automations even on the free plan — something Mailchimp restricts to paid tiers.

Limitations: Brevo's automation builder is functional but not as polished as Mailchimp's. The UI can feel clunky when building complex branching workflows, and some advanced conditions require workarounds.

Email Templates and Design

Mailchimp

Mailchimp has invested heavily in its design tools. The drag-and-drop email builder is one of the best in the industry — responsive, fast, and easy to use. The template library includes 100+ professionally designed templates covering most common use cases.

Mailchimp also offers a Creative Assistant that generates on-brand email designs based on your website's branding. It is not perfect, but it saves time on initial layout.

For developers, Mailchimp supports full HTML/CSS template editing and a template language for dynamic content.

Brevo

Brevo's email builder is competent but less polished. The drag-and-drop editor covers the basics — text blocks, images, buttons, columns, and social links. The template library is smaller than Mailchimp's, with around 40 templates.

Brevo's builder handles responsive design well, and templates render consistently across email clients. But if design quality is a priority, Mailchimp has the edge.

Brevo does support HTML editing and a template language for transactional emails, which is a strong point for developers building programmatic email flows.

Deliverability

Deliverability is the percentage of your emails that actually reach the inbox (vs. spam or promotions tab). Both platforms maintain solid deliverability, but there are nuances.

Mailchimp has a large sending infrastructure and a long reputation history with ISPs. It enforces strict anti-spam policies and will suspend accounts that generate high complaint rates. This protectionism benefits legitimate senders — Mailchimp's shared IP pools generally have good reputations.

Brevo offers dedicated IP addresses on higher plans, which gives senders full control over their sending reputation. For businesses sending at volume, a dedicated IP can outperform shared pools. Brevo also provides detailed deliverability reporting and IP warm-up tools.

In practice, both platforms deliver well for senders following best practices (clean lists, proper authentication, relevant content). Neither has a decisive edge in raw deliverability.

Deliverability Factor	Mailchimp	Brevo
Shared IP Reputation	Strong	Good
Dedicated IP	Premium plan only	Business plan and above
DKIM/SPF Setup	Guided	Guided
Bounce Handling	Automatic	Automatic
Spam Testing	Built-in preview	Built-in preview
Deliverability Reporting	Basic	Detailed

Transactional Email

This is an area where Brevo has a clear advantage. Brevo was built from the start as both a marketing and transactional email platform. You can send order confirmations, password resets, shipping notifications, and other transactional emails directly from Brevo — with templates, tracking, and deliverability stats.

Mailchimp offers transactional email through Mandrill, its separate transactional email add-on. Mandrill works well but requires an additional subscription and is managed through a separate interface. For businesses that need marketing and transactional email in one place, Brevo is simpler.

SMS and Multi-Channel

Both platforms have expanded beyond email.

Brevo supports SMS campaigns, WhatsApp marketing, and live chat natively. SMS credits are pay-as-you-go, and you can combine email and SMS in the same automation workflow. This makes Brevo a strong choice for multi-channel marketing.

Mailchimp added SMS marketing in recent years but it is still US-only and less mature than Brevo's implementation. Mailchimp's strength remains email-first.

Integrations

Integration	Mailchimp	Brevo
Shopify	Native	Native
WooCommerce	Native	Native
WordPress	Plugin	Plugin
Salesforce	Native	Via third-party
Zapier	Yes	Yes
API Quality	Mature REST API	REST + SMTP API
E-commerce Tracking	Advanced	Basic-Moderate

Mailchimp has deeper e-commerce integrations, especially with Shopify. Product recommendations, purchase-based segmentation, and revenue attribution are more refined on Mailchimp. If e-commerce email marketing is your primary use case, Mailchimp still leads.

Pros and Cons

Mailchimp

Pros:

• Best-in-class email design tools and template library
• Deep e-commerce integrations and revenue tracking
• Mature automation with Customer Journeys
• Large partner ecosystem and community
• Strong brand recognition (clients trust it)

Cons:

• Expensive at scale due to contact-based pricing
• Free tier is very limited (500 contacts)
• Transactional email requires separate Mandrill add-on
• SMS is US-only and less mature
• Can get complex with multiple audiences and tags

Brevo

Pros:

• Charges by sends, not contacts — major cost savings
• Generous free tier with unlimited contacts
• Built-in transactional email, SMS, and WhatsApp
• Multi-channel automations on lower tiers
• Dedicated IP available on Business plan

Cons:

• Email builder is less polished than Mailchimp
• Smaller template library
• E-commerce integrations are less deep
• Brand recognition is lower (less trust signal for some clients)
• UI can feel less intuitive for complex workflows

Bottom Line

The Mailchimp vs Brevo decision in 2026 largely comes down to pricing model and use case.

Choose Brevo if you have a large contact list, need transactional email alongside marketing, want multi-channel campaigns (SMS + email), or are budget-conscious. Brevo's per-email pricing saves significant money for businesses with big lists and moderate send volumes.

Choose Mailchimp if email design quality matters, your business is e-commerce-focused, or you need the deepest possible integration ecosystem. Mailchimp's tools are more polished, and its e-commerce features are genuinely ahead.

For startups and small businesses watching costs, Brevo is the pragmatic choice. For established businesses where brand presentation and e-commerce revenue tracking are priorities, Mailchimp justifies its premium.