Brevo vs Mailchimp: Which Is Better for Your Store?

Brevo and Mailchimp are both popular, affordable, all-purpose email platforms, and on the surface they look similar. The decision usually comes down to one structural difference: how they charge you. Brevo bills on the number of emails you send, while Mailchimp bills on the number of contacts you store. That single distinction reshapes which tool is cheaper, and for whom, more than any feature checklist.

This comparison is grounded in current pricing and feature research as of June 2026. Prices scale with usage, so treat the numbers as a guide and confirm live rates before you commit.

Quick verdict

Choose Brevo if you have a large contact list but send relatively infrequently, or you want email, SMS, transactional email, and a basic CRM bundled into one affordable subscription. The email-volume pricing model is uniquely friendly to big lists with low send cadence.

Choose Mailchimp if you send to a smaller list frequently, you want the most polished editor and the largest template library, or you rely on a broad ecosystem of non-ecommerce integrations.

Visit Brevo · Visit Mailchimp

Quick comparison

Best for different seller stages

New stores (free tier). The free plans differ in shape. Brevo stores effectively unlimited contacts but caps you near 300 emails a day, which suits a big list you mail occasionally. Mailchimp caps at 250 contacts and 500 emails a month with a polished editor, which suits a tiny list you mail regularly. Pick based on whether your constraint is list size or send frequency.

Growing stores. This is where pricing models diverge sharply. A store with a large, slow-burning list (say 50,000 contacts and a couple of campaigns a month) pays far less on Brevo, since it only counts emails sent. A store with a small list that mails several times a week may find Mailchimp's per-contact model competitive, though the unsubscribed-contact billing quirk can erode that.

Scaling stores. Both can scale, but neither is the deepest ecommerce tool. If ecommerce automation and segmentation become the priority over raw cost, a Shopify-native option like Omnisend is worth weighing against both.

Pricing

The pricing model is the headline. As of June 2026:

• Brevo bills on emails sent, not contacts stored, so contact storage is effectively unlimited. The Starter plan begins around $9 a month for 5,000 emails, scaling to roughly $35 for 40,000 emails. The Standard plan starts around $18 a month for 5,000 emails and adds marketing automation, A/B testing, landing pages, and removal of Brevo branding. The free plan stores large numbers of contacts but caps near 300 emails a day. These figures draw on secondary sources, since the live pricing page was not directly verifiable at research time, so confirm before committing.
• Mailchimp bills on contacts stored. Essentials starts around $13 a month for 500 contacts, scaling to roughly $75 at 5,000. Standard starts around $20 a month for 500 contacts. Unsubscribed contacts count toward your bill unless archived, and duplicate contacts across audiences are each charged.

The practical rule: the more contacts you store relative to how often you send, the more Brevo's model favors you. The more often you send to a smaller list, the closer Mailchimp gets.

Features

Brevo's strength is consolidation: marketing email, transactional email, SMS, WhatsApp, and a basic CRM in one account, which cuts tool count for a small team. Mailchimp's strength is the email craft itself: the editor, the template library, and the broad integration ecosystem.

Ease of use

Mailchimp has the more polished editor and the deeper template library, so first-time senders tend to find it the smoother on-ramp. Brevo's editor and workflow builder are clean and beginner-friendly, with a simpler automation builder than heavier tools, but its template variety and landing-page capabilities are more basic. If design polish and template choice matter most, Mailchimp leads. If consolidating channels and controlling cost matter most, Brevo leads.

Shopify integration

Both are available for Shopify. Brevo offers an app combining email, SMS, web push, and WhatsApp, syncing customer data, purchase history, and order status in real time, with support for cart, post-purchase, and browse-abandonment triggers. Its revenue attribution is basic, showing aggregate data rather than per-flow detail. Mailchimp's native app improved in early 2026 with more ecommerce triggers and a site-tracking pixel, but the integration was historically rocky (removed in 2019, fully restored by 2024). Neither matches a dedicated ecommerce tool's per-flow attribution depth.

Pros and cons

Brevo pros: email-volume pricing is uniquely cheap for large lists with moderate sending; bundles transactional email and CRM; clean, beginner-friendly interface. Brevo cons: shallower ecommerce segmentation; some users report sudden account suspensions tied to list hygiene, a real concern for revenue-critical senders; basic templates and landing pages.

Mailchimp pros: best-in-class editor and template library; broadest integration ecosystem; easiest first-campaign experience. Mailchimp cons: contact-based billing where unsubscribed contacts still count unless archived; weaker ecommerce automation and segmentation; cost-to-value worsens at scale.

Final recommendation

If you carry a large list but send infrequently, or you want email, SMS, transactional, and CRM under one affordable bill, Brevo is the stronger pick. Keep clean list practices and weigh the reported account-stability concerns first. Visit Brevo to start on the free plan.

If you send often to a smaller list and value the editor and template breadth, Mailchimp holds up well. And if ecommerce automation depth is what you are really after, compare both against a Shopify-native tool in our guide to email marketing tools.