Brevo vs Mailchimp: Free Plan Comparison (2026 Data)

Brevo and Mailchimp take completely different approaches to their free plans. Mailchimp limits your contacts. Brevo limits your daily sends. Which trade-off works better depends on how you use email marketing.

Here is the full comparison with numbers verified from both pricing pages in April 2026.

Free Plan Comparison (April 2026)

Feature	Brevo	Mailchimp
Free contacts	100,000	250
Daily send limit	300	500
Monthly emails	~9,000 (300/day)	1,000
Automation	Yes (up to 2,000 contacts)	No
Transactional emails	Yes	No
SMS marketing	Yes	No
CRM	Yes	Basic
Their branding?	Yes	Yes
Paid plans from	$9/mo	$13/mo

The difference in contact storage is massive: 100,000 vs 250. Brevo's trade-off is a 300 email/day cap, which works out to roughly 9,000 per month if you send every day.

Brevo Free Plan

100,000 contacts, 300 emails/day. Brevo charges by email volume, not contact count. You can build a large list for free and only pay when you need to send to all of them at once.

What you get:

• 100,000 contact storage
• 300 emails per day (resets daily, does not roll over)
• Drag-and-drop email editor with templates
• Marketing automation (up to 2,000 contacts entering workflows)
• Transactional email via API and SMTP
• SMS marketing
• Built-in CRM
• Chat widget
• Advanced segmentation

Limitations:

• 300 emails/day hard cap. You cannot send a campaign to 5,000 people in one go. A large blast takes multiple days.
• Brevo branding on all emails ("Sent with Brevo")
• Automation limited to 2,000 contacts entering workflows
• New accounts must be approved before sending (Brevo verifies you are not a spammer)

Mailchimp Free Plan

250 contacts, 1,000 emails/month, 500/day limit. Mailchimp charges by contact count. The free plan is now extremely tight, having been cut multiple times over the past few years.

What you get:

• Drag-and-drop email editor
• Marketing CRM
• Landing pages and website builder
• Forms and popups
• 300+ integrations

Limitations:

• 250 contact limit (reduced from 500)
• 1,000 monthly send cap
• 500 daily send limit
• No automation
• No transactional email
• No SMS
• Mailchimp branding on every email
• Only 1 audience (list)
• Sending paused immediately if you exceed limits

Where Brevo Wins

Contact storage. 100,000 vs 250. This is the defining difference. If you are collecting emails from a blog, lead magnet, or product, you can keep growing your list on Brevo without ever hitting a wall. On Mailchimp, you hit the limit after 250 signups.

Monthly sends. Even with the daily cap, Brevo gives you ~9,000 emails per month vs Mailchimp's 1,000. That is 9x more.

Multi-channel. Brevo includes transactional email (order confirmations, password resets), SMS, and chat on the free plan. Mailchimp is email-only on free. If you run an online store or SaaS product, Brevo handles both marketing and transactional communication.

Automation. Brevo includes automation for up to 2,000 contacts entering workflows. Mailchimp has zero automation on free.

Price to upgrade. Brevo's paid plans start at $9/month. Mailchimp starts at $13/month. And Brevo charges by email volume, not contacts, so you do not pay more just because your list grows.

Where Mailchimp Wins

No daily cap. Mailchimp lets you send your full monthly allowance in one campaign. If you have 250 contacts and want to email all of them right now, Mailchimp does it instantly. Brevo would take one day for 300 people, but anything above that requires multiple days.

Template library. Mailchimp has more polished pre-built email templates. Brevo's editor is functional but the template selection is smaller and less modern.

Integrations. Mailchimp has 300+ native integrations. Brevo has fewer, though it covers the major platforms (Shopify, WordPress, Zapier).

Email editor. Mailchimp's drag-and-drop builder is more polished and smoother to use. Multiple reviewers rate it higher for design quality.

The Verdict

Brevo is the better free plan for most use cases. 100,000 contacts, 9x the monthly sends, automation, transactional email, SMS, and CRM. The daily send cap is the only meaningful trade-off, and it only matters if you regularly blast large lists.

Mailchimp's free plan makes sense for a tiny list (under 250) where you send once a week and want the simplest possible setup. But at 250 contacts and 1,000 sends, you will outgrow it very quickly.

Best for large list, moderate sends: Brevo. If you have thousands of contacts but only send a monthly or bi-weekly newsletter, Brevo is ideal. You never pay just to store subscribers.

Best for high-volume sending: Neither free plan works well. Consider Sender (2,500 subs, 15,000 sends/month) or Kit (10,000 subs, unlimited sends).

Related:

• MailerLite vs Mailchimp - Another head-to-head comparison
• Free Alternatives to Mailchimp - 5 tools with better free plans
• Best Free Email Marketing Software - Full comparison of 12 tools