Mailchimp vs Brevo: Which Email Platform Fits Your Small Business

The Core Difference: When to Choose Mailchimp vs Brevo

Mailchimp wins if you prioritize ease of use and free tools for small lists under 500 contacts. Brevo wins if you need advanced automation, SMS integration, and affordable pricing at scale—especially if you're sending 20,000+ emails monthly. Both are solid platforms, but they serve different business stages.

The choice comes down to three factors: your contact list size, automation complexity, and whether SMS is part of your strategy. Let me break down where each platform excels.

Pricing: Where the Math Gets Real

Mailchimp's free plan covers up to 500 contacts with unlimited emails, making it genuinely free if your list stays small. Once you grow, their Standard plan starts at $20/month for up to 1,500 contacts. Pricing scales with contact count, not send volume.

Brevo's free plan includes unlimited contacts but caps you at 300 emails per day. Their paid plans start at $20/month and scale by send volume—20,000 emails per month costs roughly $22/month. If you're a high-volume sender with a large list, Brevo is typically 30-50% cheaper than Mailchimp once you factor in both contact count and sending frequency.

For most small businesses staying under 5,000 contacts and 50,000 emails monthly, both run $20-40/month. The gap widens if you grow quickly.

Features and Automation: What You Actually Use

Mailchimp's strength is simplicity. Their drag-and-drop editor is intuitive, their free plan is genuinely useful, and their integrations with Shopify, WordPress, and Zapier work smoothly. For straightforward campaigns—welcome series, weekly newsletters, abandoned cart emails—Mailchimp requires minimal learning curve.

Brevo targets businesses that need more: built-in SMS marketing, advanced segmentation, multi-channel workflows, and CRM functionality bundled in. If you're running complex funnels or combining email with SMS, Brevo consolidates tools you'd otherwise buy separately. Their automation builder is more powerful but steeper to learn.

Mailchimp recently added SMS, but it's an add-on cost. Brevo includes SMS in most paid plans, which matters if that's core to your strategy.

Deliverability and Support

Both platforms maintain strong inbox placement rates—roughly 98-99% for legitimate senders. Mailchimp has wider brand recognition, which occasionally helps with filters. Brevo's support is faster (live chat on paid plans; Mailchimp requires email or community forums).

If you're building something that needs custom development or unusual integrations, Brevo's API is marginally more flexible. For most small businesses, this difference doesn't matter.

The Practical Path Forward

Start with Mailchimp if you're under 1,000 contacts and want to send simple campaigns without setup friction. The free plan removes risk entirely.

Switch to Brevo if you're hitting 5,000+ contacts, need SMS, or plan to send frequently. The per-email pricing model rewards high-volume senders.

One tactical note: if you're building a digital product and need email marketing plus design work, tools like fivedaylaunch can integrate your email platform into a broader strategy—helping you think through automation and messaging alongside product design rather than bolting email on afterward.

Both platforms integrate well with modern tools, so switching later isn't costly. The real cost is delayed decision-making. Pick the one that matches your current stage, not the one you hope to grow into in 18 months.