Brevo vs Mailchimp: Which Should You Choose?

6 Marketing

October 8, 2026

Choose Brevo if your list is large but you send modestly, or if you need transactional email in the same account. Choose Mailchimp if you want its automation and ecommerce tooling and your list is small enough that contact-based pricing stays kind. The two tools charge for different things, and that difference, more than any feature, decides which one costs less for your business.

This guide compares them for a UK small business using the vendors’ own pricing pages and help articles. Both vendors showed prices in US dollars when we checked, so every figure below is in USD and none has been converted to pounds.

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Quick verdict

Best for most small senders on a budget: Brevo, because its free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts and prices paid tiers by monthly email volume.
Best for ecommerce-led marketing: Mailchimp, which lists personalised product recommendations on every plan and predictive segmentation from Standard.
Best for transactional email: Brevo, which says all plans include an API, SMTP and webhooks. Mailchimp shows transactional email as demo only on Free and Essentials.
Biggest catch: neither vendor’s public pages gave us a price for every list size, so we show allowances and arithmetic rather than inventing totals.

Brevo vs Mailchimp side by side

	Brevo	Mailchimp
Pricing basis	Monthly email volume. The tier sets both sends and the contact cap.	Number of contacts stored. Monthly sends are a multiple of your contact limit.
Free plan	Up to 100,000 contacts, 300 sends per day, Brevo sticker on emails	Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends per month, 250 per day
Paid tiers	Starter, Standard, Professional, Enterprise	Essentials, Standard, Premium
Entry price shown	Starter from $9 per month, Standard from $18 per month (first tier)	Headline $13 (Essentials), $20 (Standard), $350 (Premium) per month for 12 months
Monthly sends	Starter 5,000 to 100,000; Standard 5,000 to 500,000	Essentials 10x contacts; Standard 12x; Premium 15x
Automation	Free: up to 2,000 contacts in active automations. Standard: unlimited-contact automation and A/B testing	Free: preview only. Essentials: up to 4 flow steps. Standard and Premium: up to 200 flows
Transactional email	Included on all plans	Demo only on Free and Essentials; prices vary on Standard and Premium
Date checked	8 October 2026	8 October 2026

Mailchimp’s $13 and $20 headline figures are labelled as 12-month introductory prices, and the text we could read does not tie them to a single contact tier. Treat them as starting points, not as what you will pay for your list size.

How the two pricing models differ

Brevo’s help centre says paid plans are tiered by monthly email volume, and that the tier you choose sets both your monthly sends and the contacts you can store. If you exceed a Starter or Standard contact limit, it upgrades you to the next tier automatically.

Mailchimp prices by contacts. Its help article says subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts all count toward your total, while archived, cleaned and deleted contacts do not. Each email to one contact counts as one send, and test and transactional emails count toward the monthly limit. Go over your contact limit and you are charged an additional amount until you move up a tier.

In practice that means a large, quiet list is cheaper on Brevo, and a small, busy list is cheaper on Mailchimp because its send allowance rises with the contacts you pay for.

Key differences that affect the bill

Free plans

Brevo’s free plan has no time limit and stores up to 100,000 contacts, but caps sending at 300 emails per day, and unused sends do not carry over. A campaign to more than 300 recipients reaches only 300 on the scheduled day, and the rest need manual requeuing. Emails always carry the Sent with Brevo sticker. The free plan excludes email A/B testing, landing pages and popups.

Mailchimp’s free plan caps you at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a 250 daily limit. Beyond 250 contacts, live and test sending is placed on hold until you upgrade or reduce your list.

Automation

Brevo’s free plan allows up to 2,000 unique contacts to enter active automations. Standard lifts that to unlimited-contact automation and adds A/B testing and send-time optimisation. Mailchimp separates plans by structure: Essentials is limited to four flow steps, while Standard adds multiple starting points and branching points with up to 200 flows.

Seats and support

Brevo’s free plan allows one user. Standard includes up to three marketing seats as an add-on at $12 per month per extra seat. Professional includes ten seats and phone support.

Winner by use case

Use case	Winner	Why
Newsletters to a large list	Brevo	Paying by volume suits a big list sent to a few times a month, and the free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts.
Ecommerce	Mailchimp	Personalised product recommendations are listed on every plan, with predictive segmentation and customer lifetime value on Standard. Brevo’s advanced ecommerce features sit on Professional.
Automation	Mailchimp, narrowly	Standard offers branching and up to 200 flows. Brevo’s Standard is strong too, and its unlimited-contact automation matters for large lists.
Transactional email	Brevo	Included on every plan, against demo only on Mailchimp’s lower tiers.
Tight budget	Brevo	The free plan is far more generous on contacts, though the 300-per-day cap rules out large single sends.

Worked pricing example

To keep this fair, assume each contact receives four campaigns a month. That gives 4,000 sends at 1,000 contacts, 20,000 at 5,000 contacts and 40,000 at 10,000 contacts. Prices below appear only where an official page states them.

List size	Monthly sends	Brevo	Mailchimp
1,000 contacts	1,000 x 4 = 4,000	Contact cap of 500 on the first tier means you need the 10,000-send, 1,500-contact tier. Price for that tier not published in the pages we read. Free plan: a 1,000-recipient campaign needs 4 days at 300 per day (1,000 / 300 = 3.3).	Free plan does not fit (250 contacts). Essentials allows 10 x 1,000 = 10,000 sends; Standard allows 12 x 1,000 = 12,000. Tier prices not published in the pages we read.
5,000 contacts	5,000 x 4 = 20,000	The 20,000-send tier fits exactly (20,000 sends, contact cap up to 500,000). Tier price not published in the pages we read.	Essentials allows 10 x 5,000 = 50,000 sends; Standard allows 60,000. You would use 40% and 33% of those allowances.
10,000 contacts	10,000 x 4 = 40,000	Any tier between 20,000 and 100,000 sends covers 40,000. Tier price not published in the pages we read.	Essentials allows 100,000 sends; Standard allows 120,000. Mailchimp lists 15% off the first 12 months for 10,000+ contacts.

The only list-size prices Mailchimp showed us were $385 per month for the Essentials tier covering up to 50,000 contacts and $800 per month for the Standard tier covering up to 100,000. Brevo’s only published tier prices were the first-tier $9 (Starter) and $18 (Standard), which cover 5,000 sends and 500 contacts, so they do not apply to any list in the example. Before choosing, open each vendor’s calculator at your own list size and compare the two totals.

The arithmetic still tells you something. At 10,000 contacts and 40,000 sends, Mailchimp Standard gives you 120,000 sends, so you would pay for roughly three times the volume you use. Brevo’s tiering would let you buy closer to 40,000. If you mail more often, that gap closes.

Limitations to know about

Brevo’s free daily cap of 300 sends makes a single campaign to a large list impractical without upgrading. Transactional emails beyond the cap go into a retry queue of up to 1,000, and anything over that is not delivered.
Brevo’s pricing page lists no logo on Starter and Standard, while its help centre lists logo removal on Starter as a $9 per month add-on. Confirm at checkout.
Mailchimp counts unsubscribed contacts toward your bill, so list hygiene directly affects cost.
Mailchimp’s Free plan pauses sending once you pass 250 contacts.
We did not find a GDPR or UK data-processing statement on the pricing pages, so we make no compliance claims. Review each vendor’s data processing terms before importing UK subscriber data.
We have not tested either product hands on. This comparison rests on published vendor information.

Best for Brevo

Businesses with a large list that they email a few times a month.
Teams that want order confirmations or password resets in the same platform as their newsletters.
Start-ups testing email marketing on the free plan before paying.
Senders who prefer to buy a send volume and let the contact cap follow.

Best for Mailchimp

Small lists that are mailed often, where the send multiple gives plenty of room.
Online shops that want product recommendations and predictive segmentation built in.
Marketers who want branching automations on a mid-tier plan.
Teams who need a pay-as-you-go option for infrequent campaigns, which both vendors offer.

Alternatives worth checking

MailerLite’s pricing page lists a free plan for up to 250 subscribers with 2,500 monthly emails and three automations. Comfort starts at $12 per month and Power at $25 per month in USD, with pricing based on subscribers and sending volume. We could not verify other alternatives from official pages, so we have not listed them.

For wider shortlists, see our Best Email Marketing Software for Small Business in 2026, the best email marketing tools for e-commerce, our marketing automation roundup and the marketing software buying guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is Brevo cheaper than Mailchimp?

It depends on your list and how often you mail it. Brevo bases price on monthly sends, Mailchimp on contacts. A large list sent to rarely tends to favour Brevo. Run both calculators at your own numbers.

Can I use the free plans for a real business?

Brevo’s free plan can store 100,000 contacts but sends 300 emails a day. Mailchimp’s free plan stops at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. Brevo is usable for a modest newsletter, and Mailchimp only for a very small list.

Do unsubscribed contacts count toward my bill?

On Mailchimp, yes. Subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts all count, while archived, cleaned and deleted contacts do not. On Brevo, check how your tier’s contact cap is counted before importing.

Which one handles transactional email?

Brevo says all plans include transactional features such as an API and SMTP. Mailchimp lists transactional email as demo only on Free and Essentials, with variable pricing on Standard and Premium.

Is there a pay-as-you-go option?

Yes on both. Brevo credits deduct one per email sent and do not expire. Mailchimp’s option uses email credits and includes the same features as Essentials. Both suit infrequent senders.

Final recommendation

For most UK small businesses starting out, we would begin with Brevo. Its free plan holds a real list, its paid pricing follows what you send rather than how many people you have gathered, and transactional email sits in the same account. That combination protects you from paying for a big audience you rarely email.

Choose Mailchimp when your list is small, you mail often, and ecommerce segmentation or branching automation will earn its keep. Its send allowance grows with each contact you pay for, which rewards frequent sending. If you mail rarely, you pay for volume you never use.

Before you commit, price your actual list on both calculators, check which contacts count, and decide whether the free plans’ limits will block you.

Related reading: Best Marketing Automation Software.