Mailchimp vs Brevo (2026): Which Should You Choose?

If you’re weighing Mailchimp vs Brevo, you’ve narrowed the field to two of the most popular email marketing platforms — and two that approach the job quite differently. Mailchimp is the household name, polished and beginner-friendly, with a deep marketing toolkit built around the contact. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is the value-focused all-rounder that prices by emails sent rather than contacts stored, and bundles in SMS and transactional sending.

Neither is “better” in the abstract. The right choice depends on the size and shape of your list, your budget model, and what you actually need to send. This guide compares them fairly so you can match the tool to your use-case.

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The core difference: how they charge

The single biggest distinction is the pricing model, and it shapes everything else.

• Mailchimp prices primarily by your number of contacts. As your audience grows, your plan tier rises — whether or not you email everyone every month. Free tier available; paid plans scale with your contact count.
• Brevo prices primarily by emails sent, with generous contact storage. If you have a large list but email it occasionally, this model can be very economical. Free tier available with a daily send limit; paid plans scale with monthly send volume.

This matters more than any feature checkbox. A business with a huge list and infrequent sends often finds Brevo’s send-based model friendlier. A business that emails a smaller, highly engaged list frequently may find Mailchimp’s contact-based pricing perfectly reasonable — and worth it for the polish.

Ease of use and onboarding

Mailchimp has spent years refining its interface, and it shows. The campaign builder, templates, and onboarding flow are approachable for someone sending their first newsletter. If you value a guided, design-forward experience and want to be productive in an afternoon, Mailchimp is hard to beat.

Brevo is also straightforward, though its interface leans more utilitarian. It exposes more of the “plumbing” — SMTP, transactional, SMS — which is exactly what some users want and slightly more than a pure beginner needs. For most people, both are learnable quickly; Mailchimp simply feels a touch more handheld out of the box.

Automation and workflows

Both platforms offer visual automation builders that cover the essentials: welcome email series, abandoned cart flows, and date- or behavior-triggered sequences.

• Mailchimp offers a customer-journey builder with prebuilt recipes and tight integration into its broader marketing suite (landing pages, audience insights, basic CRM features). It’s strong for marketers who want everything in one branded ecosystem.
• Brevo includes automation on its paid tiers (and a limited amount on free), with workflows that combine email, SMS, and even WhatsApp in some plans. Because Brevo also handles transactional email natively, it’s appealing when your marketing and transactional sending live under one roof.

If your automations are mostly marketing-focused and you want a refined builder, Mailchimp suits you. If you want marketing plus transactional plus SMS in a single, send-priced account, Brevo has the edge.

Templates and design

Mailchimp’s template library and drag-and-drop editor are among the most polished in the category, which is a real advantage if design matters to you and you don’t have a dedicated designer. Brevo’s editor is capable and improving, with a solid set of responsive templates — perfectly good for most newsletters and campaigns, if slightly less expansive than Mailchimp’s catalog. For ideas on structuring any email regardless of platform, see our professional email templates guide.

Transactional and SMS sending

This is where Brevo pulls ahead for certain users. Brevo was built with transactional email (order confirmations, password resets) and SMS as first-class features. If you run an app or store that needs reliable transactional sending alongside marketing campaigns, having both in one platform is convenient and often cost-effective.

Mailchimp does offer transactional email, historically via a separate add-on. It works, but it’s more of a bolt-on than a core pillar. If transactional is central to your needs, Brevo’s integrated approach is the more natural fit.

Deliverability and reputation

Both platforms are established senders with mature deliverability infrastructure, and both support proper authentication. Whichever you choose, your results depend heavily on your own practices: authenticating your domain, keeping your list clean, and sending content people want.

Configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your sending domain on either platform — our email authentication guide walks through it. Then protect your sender reputation with good email list hygiene. No platform can rescue a neglected list or an unauthenticated domain, so treat deliverability as your job, not the vendor’s alone. For the bigger picture, the email deliverability guide ties it together.

Reporting and analytics

Mailchimp’s reporting is rich and visual, with audience insights, engagement scoring, and comparative benchmarks that beginners find motivating. Brevo’s reporting covers the essentials well — opens, clicks, deliverability stats — and is perfectly adequate for data-driven decisions, even if the presentation is less elaborate. If you live in dashboards and like benchmarks baked in, Mailchimp appeals more.

Which should you choose?

There’s no universal winner — only the right tool for your situation.

Choose Mailchimp if you:

• Want the most polished, beginner-friendly experience
• Value design-forward templates and rich reporting
• Are building a broader marketing ecosystem (landing pages, audience tools) in one place
• Email a smaller, engaged list and don’t mind contact-based pricing

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Choose Brevo if you:

• Have a large list you email less frequently (send-based pricing wins here)
• Need transactional email and/or SMS alongside marketing
• Want strong functionality at a value-oriented price
• Are comfortable with a slightly more utilitarian interface

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Many businesses can succeed with either. If you’re still torn, your list size and send frequency are the deciding factors: large list, occasional sends lean Brevo; smaller list, frequent sends and a premium on polish lean Mailchimp. For a wider field of options, see our best email marketing software comparison.

FAQ

Is Brevo cheaper than Mailchimp? It depends entirely on your usage. Brevo charges by emails sent with generous contact storage, so a large list emailed occasionally is often cheaper on Brevo. Mailchimp charges by contacts, which can be more predictable for smaller, frequently emailed lists.

Can I migrate from Mailchimp to Brevo? Yes. You can export your contacts and templates from Mailchimp and import them into Brevo. Plan for some rebuilding of automations and re-authenticating your sending domain, and warm up gradually if you switch.

Which is better for e-commerce? Both support e-commerce flows like cart recovery. Brevo’s integrated transactional and SMS sending appeals to stores wanting everything in one account; Mailchimp’s polished journeys and integrations suit those prioritizing a unified marketing suite.

Do either guarantee inbox placement? No platform can guarantee the inbox. Both provide solid infrastructure, but your authentication, list hygiene, and engagement ultimately decide placement.

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Mailchimp and Brevo are both capable, trustworthy platforms — the decision comes down to how you’re charged and what you need to send. Pick the model that fits your list, authenticate your domain, and keep your list healthy. Do that, and either tool will help Vaillant deliver.