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It's a split decision.
Choose Mailchimp if you want published paid tiers and seat limits: Essentials is listed at $13/month and Standard at $20/month, both 12-month promotional rates. Premium includes A/B and multivariate testing. Choose Brevo if you need email, SMS, WhatsApp, and sales/CRM together, or want a free plan with a larger contact allowance. Brevo's free tier stores up to 100,000 contacts but caps sending at 300 emails a day; its paid starting price is not published on the vendor's site.
01Side by side
| Mailchimp | Brevo | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid starting price | Essentials: $13/month promotional rate | Paid starting price not published |
| Free plan | 250 contacts; 500 emails/month | 100,000 contacts; 300 emails/day |
| Best for | Small businesses needing tests and scheduling | Multichannel marketing with sales/CRM |
| Core strength | Email, SMS, automation, behavioral data | Email, SMS, WhatsApp, sales/CRM, Aura AI |
| Learning curve | Learning-curve details not specified | Guided no-code automation workflows |
| Integrations/data | Real-time behavioral data; integrations not specified | Web tracking; integrations not specified |
| Team/seat costs | $13 Essentials: 3 seats; $20 Standard: 5 | Free: 1 seat; paid-seat pricing not published |
| Support | 24/7 email and chat on Essentials | Reddit users report slow support |
Mailchimp Choose Mailchimp if
- You want published paid prices, seat counts, and sending limits.
- You need A/B and multivariate testing on Premium.
- You want 24/7 email and chat support on Essentials.
Brevo Choose Brevo if
- You need email, SMS, WhatsApp, and sales/CRM together.
- You want a free plan with up to 100,000 contacts.
- You prefer guided, no-code automation workflows.
02Pricing compared
Mailchimp’s pricing is clearer: its pricing page lists Essentials at $13/month and Standard at $20/month, both promotional rates for 12 months. Each includes a 14-day free trial. Month-to-month rates may be higher after the promotion. Essentials includes up to 10 times your contact count in monthly sends; Standard allows up to 12 times. Free is $0, but capped at 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, or 250 a day.
Brevo’s published pricing details list a free plan, but no paid starting price. Free stores up to 100,000 contacts and allows 300 emails a day, with Brevo branding on outgoing emails. That larger contact allowance comes with a daily sending cap. The details also list country-priced, pay-as-you-go SMS and WhatsApp credits. We’d compare paid quotes directly; a like-for-like paid price isn’t available here.
03Features and depth
Mailchimp combines email and SMS campaigns, marketing automations, audience segmentation and behavioral data. Its homepage describes AI-assisted tools for spotting opportunities such as winning back inactive customers. Plan limits matter: Essentials allows up to four automation flow steps, while Standard lists up to 200 automation flows and includes generative AI. A/B and multivariate testing and predictive segmentation are listed for Premium, not as universal features.
Brevo covers email, SMS and WhatsApp alongside sales and CRM tools. Its feature description also lists push notifications, no-code automation, web tracking for behavioral targeting, loyalty tools and Aura AI agents for marketing, sales, analysis and support tasks. The free plan includes automation for up to 2,000 contacts. So the choice is less about email alone: Mailchimp publishes more detail on paid plan limits, while Brevo’s stated scope spans more channels and CRM. Its paid-tier limits aren’t provided in the published pricing details.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Brevo’s feature description emphasizes a drag-and-drop email editor, ready-to-use templates and guided, no-code automation workflows. Those are useful signs for teams that want to launch without building everything from scratch, though the published material doesn’t establish how easy the full platform is to learn.
Mailchimp offers campaign design and automation, but the plan caps can shape how much you can do: Essentials has up to four automation flow steps, while Standard lists up to 200 automation flows. Support also varies: Free email support lasts 30 days; Essentials lists 24/7 email and chat support. Brevo’s free plan includes one user seat and branded emails. The available details don’t specify its paid support terms.
Questions people ask
Can you do automations in Mailchimp?
Yes. Mailchimp lists marketing automations, with up to four automation flow steps on Essentials and up to 200 automation flows on Standard. The homepage describes automations driven by customer data. Brevo also offers no-code automation; its free plan covers up to 2,000 contacts.
Which is better, Substack or Mailchimp?
The published information doesn’t include Substack’s features or pricing, so we can’t make a grounded comparison. Mailchimp is described here as an email and SMS marketing platform with audience segmentation and automations. Check Substack’s current plan details and tools against those needs before choosing.
Is Mailchimp safe to use?
The published material doesn’t provide security or privacy assessments, so it isn’t enough to establish whether Mailchimp is safe for your requirements. It does list enterprise SSO on Premium, but that feature alone isn’t a security assessment. Review Mailchimp’s security documentation and your organization’s requirements.
Does Mailchimp count as CRM?
The published material describes Mailchimp as an email and SMS marketing platform with audience segmentation and behavioral data, but doesn’t identify it as a CRM. Brevo is explicitly described as combining marketing channels with sales and CRM tools. Compare the specific contact and sales workflows you need.