Brevo vs Mailchimp: free limits and the automation upgrade

Your list may fit a free account while your next campaign does not. That is the first thing to understand about Brevo and Mailchimp. Contacts, daily sends, monthly sends and automation limits describe different constraints. Comparing only the number of contacts can point you toward a plan that stops at the moment you need it.

Brevo was previously called Sendinblue, so older Sendinblue vs Mailchimp searches refer to the same vendor under its earlier name. The plan facts here come from current official documentation, checked on 6 October 2026. We have not measured deliverability or tested the products hands-on.

The free limits create different trade-offs

Brevo Free lists 300 daily sends and storage for up to 100,000 contacts. Its marketing automation limit is separate: up to 2,000 contacts. Unused daily sends do not accumulate.

Mailchimp Free lists 250 contacts, 500 monthly sends and a daily cap of 250. It does not include Marketing Automation Flows. You can therefore evaluate campaigns, but a welcome automation requiring that feature needs a paid tier.

Brevo’s large storage allowance is not permission to email every stored contact at once. Mailchimp’s contact allowance is not a promise of unlimited campaigns. Check all the limits against your schedule.

Example: a weekly newsletter to 200 subscribers

Four newsletters to 200 people require 800 sends per month, before welcome emails or tests. On Mailchimp Free, that exceeds the 500 monthly-send limit even though the list is below 250 contacts. On Brevo Free, each newsletter fits under 300 daily sends, provided other messages on the same day leave enough capacity.

Now suppose the newsletter must reach 800 subscribers in one day. Brevo’s free daily cap no longer fits that requirement. Splitting a time-sensitive campaign over several days changes the experience, so price a suitable paid plan rather than assuming free storage solves the problem. These are calculations from stated limits, not product test results.

Automation is a plan decision

Brevo documents free marketing automation up to 2,000 contacts and unlimited automation contacts on Standard. Mailchimp’s plan table lists no automation flows on Free and up to four flow steps on Essentials, with broader paid capabilities on higher tiers.

Write the complete journey before buying. A welcome email, a delay, a second message and a condition can use more steps than the number of emails suggests. Confirm how the vendor counts those steps and what happens when a contact enters the journey twice.

Paid pricing needs more than a send estimate

Brevo’s current entry paid tiers combine monthly sending with contact storage. Its help article lists, for example, 5,000 monthly sends with up to 500 stored contacts and 10,000 sends with up to 1,500. Do not assume every paid tier keeps the same storage allowance as Free.

For Mailchimp, quote the contact tier, send allowance and automation capability you need. Review the treatment of different contact statuses and the cost after introductory offers. For either tool, add any SMS, branding-removal or other optional charges to the comparison.

What to test before importing your list

Use one welcome journey and one newsletter. Test signup, a duplicate contact, a subscriber who opts out and a message with a broken personalization field. Confirm that your consent and suppression information can be transferred correctly. Save a small sample export before a larger migration.

Also inspect the report you need to make decisions. A tool can show many metrics while still making it awkward to answer a simple question: which message led someone to the next useful action? We have not evaluated that reporting inside either product, so make it part of your trial.

Next step

Use the Brevo profile and Mailchimp profile to check the plan context. If GetResponse is also shortlisted, read GetResponse vs Brevo. For the sequence itself, start with our email automation examples.

Where this comparison fits in your email shortlist

Brevo vs Mailchimp is a useful starting point when sending limits and the price of required automation drive the decision. If you also need to evaluate ActiveCampaign, use the three-tool shortlist framework before pricing each platform for the same contacts, sends and journey.