Mailchimp vs Brevo: 2026 Honest Comparison
Side-by-side comparison of Mailchimp and Brevo for small businesses. Real friction points, pricing breakdown, and feature matrix for email marketing in 2026.
EmailTool™ Score
How we scoreComposite score based on features, pricing, deliverability, and reported friction severity.
Cost Calculator
Estimated monthly cost based on your contact list size.
Mailchimp
$46/mo
Brevo
Free/mo
Brevo saves you ~$46/mo at 5,000 contacts.
Estimates based on published starting prices with proportional contact scaling. Actual pricing varies by plan tier and billing cycle. Check vendor sites for exact quotes.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Mailchimp | Brevo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Plan Contacts | 250 contacts | 100,000 contacts | Brevo |
| Free Plan Sends | 500/month | 300/day (~9,000/month) | Brevo |
| Email Builder | Polished drag-and-drop with 100+ templates | Drag-and-drop with occasional bugs, fewer templates | MC |
| Marketing Automation | Removed from free plan; paid plans only | Full automation on free plan | Brevo |
| SMS Marketing | Add-on, US/UK only | Built-in, 60+ countries | Brevo |
| Transactional Email | Via Mandrill add-on ($20/mo extra) | Built-in on all plans | Brevo |
| Landing Pages | Built-in on all plans | Built-in on all plans | |
| CRM | Basic contact tagging | Full CRM with deals pipeline | Brevo |
| A/B Testing | Subject line, content, send time | Subject line and content only | MC |
| Reporting & Analytics | Detailed with benchmarks and revenue tracking | Standard open/click/bounce metrics | MC |
| Integrations | 300+ native integrations | 60+ native, Zapier for rest | MC |
| Price at 10K Contacts | $100/mo (Standard) | $25/mo (20K emails) | Brevo |
Real Friction Points
Manually researched issues reported by actual users. Not AI-generated.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp's free plan was cut to just 250 contacts and 500 sends/month in January 2026, with automation removed entirely. Users on Reddit report that upgrading past 250 contacts immediately jumps to $13/month (Essentials), and pricing scales aggressively — 10K contacts costs $100/month on Standard. Mailchimp also bills for unsubscribed contacts and duplicates across audiences.
Brevo
Brevo's email builder has persistent drag-and-drop bugs — users on Reddit and Capterra report blocks snapping to wrong positions, undo not working consistently, and the editor losing unsaved content when switching between design and HTML views. Gmail inbox placement is only around 72% according to deliverability tests, and removing the Brevo logo costs an extra $9/month.
The Verdict
Brevo is the better value for small businesses that need email + SMS + CRM in one platform without per-contact pricing. Mailchimp's free plan is now nearly useless at 250 contacts with no automation. Choose Brevo if you have a large list on a budget; choose Mailchimp only if design quality, analytics depth, and third-party integrations matter most to you.
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