Mailchimp is the email marketing tool most small businesses have already heard of, but it’s not the cheapest, and it’s no longer the obvious default once you compare its current pricing line by line against Brevo and MailerLite. This comparison is aimed squarely at small businesses sending regular newsletters and promotional campaigns — not creators monetizing an audience (that’s Kit’s niche) or e-commerce stores that need deep automation (that’s Klaviyo’s). We pulled every figure below from each vendor’s own pricing page.
At a Glance
| Tool | Entry Paid Price | Free Plan | Best For | Key Specs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | $13/month (Essentials, up to 500 contacts, first 12 months) | Yes — 250 contacts, 500 sends/month | Small businesses that want templates and integrations over rock-bottom price | 300+ integrations, generative AI on Standard+, up to 1M+ contact tiers |
| Brevo | From $9/month (Starter, 5,000 emails/month) | Yes — 300 emails/day, no contact cap stated | Businesses that want email, SMS, and a basic CRM under one login | Unlimited contacts on every paid tier (you pay for sends, not list size), built-in Sales CRM add-on |
| MailerLite | From $12/month (Comfort, at 500 subscribers) | Yes — 250 subscribers, 2,500 sends/month | Small businesses and solo marketers who want the simplest editor at the lowest price | Built-in landing pages and websites, 50+ automation steps on Comfort, unlimited sending on Power (fair-use) |
The Verdict
For most small businesses sending a newsletter and the occasional promotion to a list under a few thousand people, MailerLite is the best value: its Comfort tier starts at $12/month, the editor is simple without feeling limited, and basic automation, forms, and even a landing page builder are included from the entry paid tier. Brevo is the strongest pick if you also want SMS campaigns or a lightweight sales CRM bundled in, because its pricing is based on emails sent rather than contacts stored — useful if you have a large list you email infrequently. Mailchimp remains a reasonable choice mainly for its template library and integration breadth, but its free plan has shrunk to 250 contacts and its paid tiers cost noticeably more than the other two for comparable list sizes.
What These Tools Actually Do
All three let you build an email list, design campaigns with a drag-and-drop editor, and automate simple sequences like welcome emails or abandoned-cart reminders. The real difference is in pricing logic and scope. Mailchimp and MailerLite price primarily around how many contacts you store, which punishes you for keeping a large list even if you rarely email all of it. Brevo instead prices around how many emails you send per month, with no contact cap on paid tiers — a meaningfully different model if your list is large but your sending cadence is light. Mailchimp has also expanded furthest beyond pure email, with a broader (and pricier) marketing-automation positioning, while Brevo has pushed into SMS, WhatsApp, and a built-in sales CRM, and MailerLite has stayed the most tightly focused on email, forms, and simple websites.
Pricing Breakdown
Mailchimp (official pricing page), prices shown for the lowest contact tier and the first 12 months:
| Tier | Price | Seats | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month | 1 | 250 contacts, 500 sends/month or 250/day, 1 audience, no automation flows |
| Essentials | $13/month | 3 | Up to 4-step automation flows, branding removable, 24/7 chat support |
| Standard | $20/month | 5 | Up to 200 automation flows, generative AI included, custom reporting |
| Premium | $350/month | Unlimited | Unlimited automation flows, enterprise SSO, dedicated onboarding specialist |
Mailchimp’s listed prices are introductory rates for the first 12 months at the 0–500 contact tier; the page does not clearly display the ongoing renewal rate, and prices scale up automatically as your contact count grows. A 14-day free trial is available on paid tiers.
Brevo (official pricing page), prices shown at the lowest sending tier:
| Tier | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month | Up to 300 emails/day after send approval; no stated contact cap |
| Starter | From $9/month | 5,000 emails/month at the entry tier, Brevo logo removed, basic reporting |
| Standard | From $18/month | Unlimited automation workflows, A/B testing, advanced reporting |
| Professional (Business) | From $499/month | 150,000 emails/month at entry; WhatsApp, advanced e-commerce, AI segmentation |
| Enterprise | Custom | Aimed at 1M+ contacts; SSO/SAML, dedicated IP, custom data integrations |
All Brevo paid tiers are priced by monthly email volume rather than contacts stored, and annual billing saves 10% versus monthly. Brevo also sells a separate “Sales” CRM add-on (Sales Essentials / Sales Advanced) bundled with the Starter and Standard tiers.
MailerLite (official pricing page), prices shown at the 500-subscriber tier:
| Tier | Monthly | Annual (effective/mo) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | — | 250 subscribers, 2,500 sends/month, 2 seats, 3 automations |
| Comfort | $12 | $10.80 | 10x your subscriber tier in monthly sends, 50 automations, 10 forms/sites |
| Power | $25 | $22.50 | Unlimited seats, automations, sites, and sending (fair-use policy) |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | 200,000+ subscribers, dedicated success manager |
MailerLite’s paid prices scale up as your subscriber count grows past the 500 tier shown here. Paid plans include a 14-day trial of premium features with no credit card required.
Pros and Cons
- Mailchimp — Pros: largest integration library, polished templates, AI tools on Standard. Cons: shrunk free tier, pricing climbs fastest of the three, renewal pricing isn’t transparent on the page.
- Brevo — Pros: unlimited contacts on every paid tier, SMS/WhatsApp and a bundled CRM, strong value if your list is large but sending is light. Cons: large price jump from Standard to Professional, exact figures require checking the live page since currency/region can change what renders.
- MailerLite — Pros: cheapest entry paid tier, clean editor, built-in landing pages and a basic website builder. Cons: fewer enterprise-grade features, smaller integration ecosystem than Mailchimp.
Who It’s a Good Fit For — and Who Should Look Elsewhere
Choose MailerLite if you’re a small business or solo marketer on a tight budget who wants one simple tool for email, a landing page, and light automation. Choose Brevo if you have a large contact list you don’t email constantly, or if you want SMS and a basic CRM without adding another subscription. Choose Mailchimp if you’re already embedded in its template and integration ecosystem, or you need its specific AI and reporting features on the Standard tier and the price difference isn’t a dealbreaker. None of these three is built for serious e-commerce automation at scale — stores with real order-flow complexity should look at a platform like Klaviyo instead (see our Klaviyo review), and teams whose main bottleneck is tracking deals rather than sending newsletters need a CRM, not an email platform.
Bottom Line
MailerLite offers the best price-to-feature ratio for a typical small business newsletter; Brevo is the better pick if your list is large or you want SMS and CRM bundled in; Mailchimp is worth the premium mainly for its templates and integrations, not its pricing.
FAQ
Which of the three has the best free plan?
Brevo’s free plan has no stated contact cap, only a 300-emails-per-day sending limit, which can suit a small list better than Mailchimp’s 250-contact cap or MailerLite’s 250-subscriber cap.
Do these tools charge for unsubscribed or bounced contacts?
Policies vary and change over time — check each vendor’s current FAQ before importing a large list, since Mailchimp and MailerLite price around stored contacts.
Can I send SMS campaigns with any of these?
Brevo supports SMS and WhatsApp natively. Mailchimp offers SMS/MMS as an add-on on Standard and Premium. MailerLite does not list native SMS sending on its pricing page.
Is there a usable free trial if I’m not ready to commit?
Yes for all three — Mailchimp and MailerLite both offer 14-day trials of paid features, and Brevo’s free plan itself has no time limit, only a daily sending cap.
What happened to ConvertKit?
ConvertKit rebranded to Kit and remains focused on creators monetizing a following (newsletters, courses, digital products) rather than general small-business marketing — a different use case than the three tools compared here.
Sources
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