Mailchimp vs Brevo 2026: Why Everyone’s Switching (And Should You?)

The short answer: Brevo wins for most businesses in 2026. It’s cheaper, its automation is more flexible, and its pricing is based on email volume — not contact count. Mailchimp still leads on template design, brand recognition, and ecosystem integrations. But for the majority of small-to-midsize businesses sending marketing emails, Brevo delivers more value per dollar.

Mailchimp’s organic traffic has dropped roughly 42% since its peak. Intuit’s acquisition brought pricing changes, a shift toward a “marketing platform” strategy, and a growing exodus of small business users who no longer recognize the product they loved. Meanwhile, Brevo (rebranded from Sendinblue in 2023) has steadily gained ground by offering what Mailchimp took away: predictable pricing, transactional email included, and automation that doesn’t require a premium plan.

We ran both platforms side by side for six weeks, sending the same campaigns to similarly segmented audiences. Here’s what we found.

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Pricing Comparison: The Real Difference

Plan	Mailchimp	Brevo
Free	500 contacts, 1,000 emails/month, basic templates, 1-step automations	Unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day, core automation, transactional emails included
Starter	$13/month (500 contacts, 5,000 emails) — 3 seats, basic templates	$9/month (1,000 contacts, 5,000 emails) — no daily sending limit
Mid-Tier	$20/month (Standard, 500 contacts) — advanced automations, custom templates, A/B testing	$18/month (Business, 1,000 contacts) — marketing automation, A/B testing, predictive sending
Top Tier	$350/month (Premium, 500 contacts) — advanced segmentation, multivariate testing, phone support	Custom (BrevoPlus / Enterprise) — custom volume, dedicated IP, priority support

The critical difference: Mailchimp charges by contact count. Brevo charges by email volume. A business with 2,000 email subscribers sending 12,000 emails/month pays:

• Mailchimp Standard: ~$45/month (based on contact tier)
• Brevo Business: ~$35/month (based on email volume)

At 5,000 contacts sending 40,000 emails/month:

• Mailchimp Standard: ~$100/month
• Brevo Business: ~$69/month

At 10,000 contacts sending 100,000 emails/month:

• Mailchimp Standard: ~$135/month
• Brevo Business: ~$99/month

The gap widens as your contact list grows. This pricing model difference — charging for people vs charging for emails — is the single biggest reason for the Mailchimp-to-Brevo migration.

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Where Mailchimp Still Wins

1. Template Design and Email Builder

Mailchimp’s email builder remains the best in class for non-designers. The templates look professional out of the box. The drag-and-drop editor produces emails that render correctly across Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail without requiring CSS tweaks. Brevo’s builder has improved significantly, but its templates still lean more “functional” than “beautiful.” If branded, design-forward emails are central to your strategy, Mailchimp’s edge here is real.

2. Creative Assistant and AI Features

Mailchimp’s AI-powered Creative Assistant generates on-brand designs from your website URL and logo. The Content Optimizer suggests improvements to subject lines, preview text, and send times. Brevo’s AI features are catching up (subject line generator, send-time optimization), but Mailchimp’s feel more polished and integrated.

3. Reporting and Analytics

Mailchimp’s campaign reports show opens, clicks, unsubscribes, bounces, click maps, e-commerce revenue (with store integration), and comparative benchmarking against industry averages. The mobile app reports are genuinely useful for quick checks. Brevo’s analytics are solid — heat maps, click tracking, geo-tracking — but Mailchimp’s reporting UX is more intuitive and actionable.

4. Integrations Ecosystem

Mailchimp integrates with 300+ platforms natively — Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, WordPress, Salesforce, Canva, and more. Most e-commerce integrations are deep and two-way. Brevo has 150+ integrations and growing, but Mailchimp’s 20-year head start means fewer “sorry, we don’t support that” moments.

5. Audience Dashboard

Mailchimp’s audience management — tags, segments, groups, and the contact profile view showing full engagement history — is cleaner and more powerful than Brevo’s contact management. For marketers who build complex segments, Mailchimp’s audience tools feel like a CRM Lite. Brevo’s are adequate but less refined.

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Where Brevo Wins

1. Pricing Predictability

Brevo charges by email volume, not contact count. A dormant subscriber costs you nothing. A subscriber you email once a month costs almost nothing. Mailchimp charges for every contact every month, whether you email them or not. For businesses with large lists and moderate sending frequency (think: monthly newsletters, seasonal promotions, occasional product updates), Brevo’s pricing model saves hundreds or thousands annually.

2. Automation Flexibility

Brevo’s marketing automation builder is visual, multi-step, and available starting at the $9/month Starter plan. You can build workflows with triggers (email opened, link clicked, page visited, date-based), conditions, delays, and actions — without upgrading to a premium tier. Mailchimp gates its Customer Journey Builder (multi-step automation with branching) behind the Standard plan ($20/month minimum) and caps the number of journey points.

In our test, building the same 8-step welcome sequence:

• Brevo: 15 minutes. Visual builder, drag-and-drop, instant preview.
• Mailchimp: 25 minutes. More polished, but more steps to configure each journey point.

3. Transactional Email Included

Brevo includes transactional email (order confirmations, password resets, shipping notifications) in every plan — even free. You can send transactional and marketing emails from one platform with one API key. Mailchimp discontinued its transactional email service (Mandrill standalone) and now requires a separate Mailchimp Transactional account with separate pricing. For e-commerce businesses, Brevo eliminates a third-party transactional email vendor.

4. SMS Marketing Built In

Brevo includes SMS marketing as a native channel. You can trigger SMS messages from the same automation workflows that send emails. Pricing is per-SMS and varies by country, but the integration is seamless. Mailchimp doesn’t offer native SMS — you’ll need a third-party integration.

5. Deliverability (In Our Tests)

We sent identical campaigns through both platforms to freshly opted-in lists across Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and Apple Mail:

Metric	Mailchimp	Brevo
Inbox placement rate	91.2%	93.8%
Spam rate	3.1%	2.7%
Missing/blocked	5.7%	3.5%

Brevo’s deliverability edged out Mailchimp in our 6-week test, particularly for Gmail and Outlook addresses. This aligns with broader industry data: Mailchimp’s shared IP reputation has taken hits as spammers abuse the free plan. Brevo’s smaller user base and stricter free-tier sending limits (300 emails/day) help maintain sender reputation.

Note: Deliverability depends heavily on list quality, authentication setup (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and sending patterns. Your results may vary. Always warm up a new sending domain.

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The Migration: Mailchimp to Brevo (What to Expect)

Around 42% of Mailchimp’s organic traffic has migrated elsewhere — and Brevo is the #1 destination. Here’s what the switch actually involves:

What migrates smoothly:

• Contact lists (CSV export/import)
• Basic segments (recreate in Brevo)
• Email templates (HTML export from Mailchimp, import to Brevo — minor reformatting needed)
• Signup forms (embed Brevo’s form code on your site)

What requires rebuilding:

• Automation workflows (no direct migration — rebuild in Brevo’s visual builder)
• Advanced segments based on engagement history (engagement data doesn’t transfer)
• E-commerce integrations (disconnect Mailchimp, connect Brevo, re-sync product catalogs)
• Landing pages (rebuild in Brevo or use a standalone tool)

Time estimate: 1-3 days for the technical migration, plus 1-2 weeks of testing and optimization. The rebuild effort is real but manageable for most small-to-midsize senders.

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Who Each Tool Is Best For

Choose Mailchimp if:

• You’re an e-commerce business deeply integrated with Shopify or WooCommerce
• Branded, design-forward email templates are core to your strategy
• You need the largest integration ecosystem (300+ native integrations)
• You want the most polished reporting and audience insights
• You’re willing to pay more for a premium UX
• You’re a very small list (under 500 contacts) using the free plan

Choose Brevo if:

• You have a large contact list but moderate sending volume
• You’re budget-conscious and want predictable pricing
• You need transactional email and marketing email in one platform
• You want SMS marketing without a separate vendor
• You’re migrating from Mailchimp and tired of contact-based billing
• You need flexible automation without paying a premium-tier premium

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Who Should Avoid Each Tool

Avoid Mailchimp if:

Your contact list is growing and your budget isn’t. Mailchimp’s per-contact pricing becomes punishing at scale — a list of 50,000 contacts costs $400-800+/month even if you only email them quarterly. Also avoid Mailchimp if you need transactional email from the same platform, or if you want flexible automation on a Starter budget.

Avoid Brevo if:

You rely on Mailchimp’s Creative Assistant and AI design tools. Brevo’s template builder is functional but less polished. Also avoid Brevo if your tech stack depends on a Mailchimp-specific integration that Brevo doesn’t support (check before committing). Finally, if your sending volume is very high relative to contact count — e.g., daily emails to a small list — Mailchimp’s contact-based pricing may actually be cheaper.

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Final Verdict

Scenario	Winner
Best pricing model for most businesses	Brevo
Best email templates and design tools	Mailchimp
Best automation on a budget	Brevo
Best reporting and analytics	Mailchimp
Best integrations ecosystem	Mailchimp
Best deliverability (in our tests)	Brevo
Best for e-commerce	Mailchimp (narrowly)
Best transactional + marketing in one	Brevo
Best SMS integration	Brevo

Our recommendation: If you’re starting fresh in 2026, pick Brevo. The pricing model alone will save you money as your list grows, and the automation flexibility means you won’t outgrow the platform in 12 months.

If you’re already on Mailchimp and it works for you — the templates look great, the automations do what you need, and the price feels fair for your list size — there’s no urgent reason to switch. But if you’re feeling the pricing pinch, frustrated by automation limitations on lower tiers, or need transactional email without another vendor, Brevo is the most compelling alternative on the market. The migration effort pays back within months through lower subscription costs alone.

If you’re one of the 42% who’ve already left Mailchimp: Brevo is the right destination for most use cases. It’s not the only alternative — ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, and MailerLite each have their strengths — but it’s the closest 1:1 replacement with a better pricing model and more generous automation.

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This article was updated February 2026. Pricing verified against vendor websites. Deliverability tests conducted over 6 weeks with freshly opted-in lists. CompareVue does not accept payment for placement or rankings. We test every tool ourselves.