Mailchimp vs Brevo: which email marketing platform wins in 2026?
Both run your email marketing, automations and signup forms — but they price it very differently. Mailchimp charges by contacts and leads on brand and templates; Brevo charges by sends and leads on price and multichannel.
If you want the most polished templates, the biggest brand, and an all-in-one marketing suite with a gentle learning curve — Mailchimp is the safe, familiar pick. The trade-off is contact-based pricing that climbs fast as your list grows.
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If you want email, SMS and a built-in CRM at a lower price — and you'd rather pay for the emails you send than for every contact you store — Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is the value pick, especially for large or fast-growing lists.
Try Brevo free ↗How they score
Feature by feature
Mailchimp
BrevoPricing side by side
Mailchimp
BrevoStrengths & trade-offs
MailchimpBrevoWhere they differ
The details behind the table — how Mailchimp and Brevo actually approach each part of the workflow.
MailchimpMailchimp bills by the number of contacts you store, so the cost rises every time your list grows — even for people you rarely email. It's simple, but expensive for large, occasionally-emailed lists.
BrevoBrevo bills by emails sent, with unlimited contacts on every plan. If you have a big list you email now and then, this is dramatically cheaper; if you email your whole list daily, the gap narrows.
MailchimpMailchimp's template library and editor are the most polished here, and the brand is so well-known it's often the default choice for small businesses.
BrevoBrevo's editor is capable and clean but its template library is smaller. You trade some design polish for a much lower bill.
MailchimpMailchimp focuses on email and marketing, with SMS as a limited add-on and only basic contact management.
BrevoBrevo bundles email, SMS, a free CRM and even chat — a genuine multichannel platform if you want more than newsletters.
MailchimpMailchimp handles transactional email through the separate Mandrill add-on, which adds cost and setup.
BrevoBrevo includes a transactional email API (SMTP) alongside marketing, so product and marketing email live under one roof — handy for SaaS.
MailchimpBoth deliver well when you authenticate your domain and keep lists clean. Mailchimp is US-based.
BrevoBrevo is EU-based, which some teams prefer for GDPR and data-residency reasons; deliverability is comparable.
Which should you choose?
Choose Mailchimp if…You want the most polished templates and a familiar, beginner-friendly all-in-one, you value the biggest integration ecosystem, and your contact list is small enough that contact-based pricing stays affordable.
Choose Brevo if…You want the best value — especially with a large or fast-growing list — you need SMS, a built-in CRM or transactional email in one place, or you prefer an EU-based provider and paying per send instead of per contact.
More comparisons
Frequently asked questions
Is Brevo cheaper than Mailchimp?
Usually, yes — especially as your list grows. Brevo charges by emails sent with unlimited contacts, while Mailchimp charges by contact count, so Mailchimp gets more expensive the bigger your list. If you email a small list very frequently, the difference is smaller.
What was Brevo called before?
Brevo was previously called Sendinblue. It rebranded to Brevo in 2023; the product and accounts carried over, so older reviews of Sendinblue describe the same platform.
Which has better email templates, Mailchimp or Brevo?
Mailchimp has the larger, more polished template library and a slightly more refined editor, which is part of why it's popular with brand-conscious small businesses. Brevo's templates are good but fewer.
Does Brevo or Mailchimp have a better free plan?
Brevo's free plan is more generous for growing lists — it allows unlimited contacts with a 300-emails-per-day cap. Mailchimp's free plan limits you to around 500 contacts and roughly 1,000 sends per month.
Which is better for SMS and multichannel marketing?
Brevo. It includes SMS, a free CRM, chat and transactional email alongside marketing email, making it a true multichannel platform. Mailchimp is more email-and-marketing focused, with SMS as a limited add-on.
Can I switch from Mailchimp to Brevo?
Yes. You can export your contacts and templates from Mailchimp and import them into Brevo. Rebuilding automations and re-authenticating your sending domain takes some setup, but the contact migration itself is straightforward.