Will a free email plan
fit your newsletter?
Mailchimp vs Brevo: contacts, campaign volume and the bill after an upgrade.
A list can fit.
The campaign can still wait.
Mailchimp Free allows 250 contacts and 500 sends per month, with a 250-send daily cap. Brevo Free stores 100,000 contacts but sends only 300 emails per day. A 1,000-recipient Brevo campaign therefore needs at least four sending days with all capacity available, plus manual requeuing.
The useful comparison starts with your sending calendar. A monthly newsletter, a time-sensitive announcement and an automated customer journey have different needs, even when their audience size matches. This guide separates stored contacts, individual email sends and paid feature requirements. It covers the vendors’ current public plans; legacy accounts can differ.
Free plan limits at a glance
| Limit | Mailchimp Free | Brevo Free |
|---|---|---|
| Contact capacity | 250 counted contacts | 100,000 stored contacts |
| Daily email sends | 250 | 300; unused capacity does not roll over |
| Monthly email sends | 500 | No separate monthly allowance identified; daily capacity remains the constraint |
| Marketing users | 1 seat | 1 marketing seat |
| Vendor branding | Included; paid plan needed to remove it | Included; not removable on Free |
| Automation | Marketing automation flows not included | Automation for up to 2,000 contacts |
| Large campaign handling | Daily and monthly limits both apply | Manual Requeue on later days when recipients exceed daily capacity |
Check your free-plan capacity
Model one monthly billing period. Each campaign sends one email to every selected recipient. Reserve capacity for other emails sent every day. Account limits, required features and deliverability still need checking.
Three newsletter scenarios
500 campaign sends
Mailchimp Free uses its entire monthly allowance before any other sends. Brevo can send each campaign in one day when that day’s remaining capacity is sufficient.
1,000 campaign sends
Mailchimp’s free monthly cap is exceeded. Brevo’s daily cap can accommodate one such campaign per day, with four separate sending days and no competing sends.
A same-day deadline matters
Mailchimp exceeds its free contact allowance. Brevo fits the stored list, but needs at least four sending days and manual requeuing; Free cannot finish this full-list campaign in one day.
Published GBP entry prices
These are selected monthly base configurations in the vendors’ public GBP pricing views, excluding applicable taxes. Mailchimp’s displayed continuing fee follows its trial. These are different feature bundles, not interchangeable quotes.
| Configuration | Base / month | Contacts | Monthly sends | What changes the comparison |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp Essentials | £9.90 | 500 | 5,000 | Brand removal included; 3 seats. |
| Mailchimp Standard | £15.23 | 500 | 6,000 | Brand removal included; 5 seats. |
| Brevo Starter | £6.00 | 500 stored | 5,000 | Brevo branding remains; 1 marketing user. |
| Brevo Starter + brand removal | £14.00 | 500 stored | 5,000 | Calculated base + £8.00/month branding add-on. |
| Brevo Standard | £13.00 | 500 stored | 5,000 | Brand removal included; check other required features. |
The £6 Starter headline and its £14 configuration with brand removal answer different requirements. Compare the features and allowances you need before treating the lower headline as the lower bill. Prices can change; check the linked vendor pages.
The Brevo upgrade pitfall: storage can shrink
Brevo’s entry Starter and Standard email tiers have smaller contact-storage limits than Free. The checked mappings are 5,000 monthly emails / 500 stored contacts, 10,000 / 1,500, and 15,000 / 2,500. Brevo documents automatic paid-tier upgrades when those contact caps are exceeded. A business storing 2,000 contacts cannot assume that the £6 entry configuration will remain its paid bill.
Ask for a quote covering both the full stored list and expected sends. Campaign and transactional emails share the paid email volume. Unused monthly emails expire at the reset; they are not a reserve for later busy months.
What counts towards Mailchimp’s bill?
An unsubscribed contact is not automatically excluded from Mailchimp’s contact count. Its documentation counts subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts across audiences. The paid bill also considers the period’s highest contact total, and exceeding contact or send capacity can add chargeable blocks. Review the account’s counted total before importing another audience.
Do not delete records merely to make a spreadsheet cheaper. Decide which information your business actually needs to keep, and preserve the appropriate subscription status when changing systems. Reconcile a small sample export and import before a larger move.
A practical comparison brief
- Count the audience: record recipients, each platform’s counted/stored total, and the expected growth.
- Map the calendar: include newsletters, tests, triggered emails and the largest same-day campaign.
- Name essential features: brand removal, scheduling, automation steps, additional users and support can move you into another bundle.
- Compare continuing fees: separate a 14-day paid-plan trial, the ongoing free tier, prepaid credits and any temporary offer.
- Test your workflow: confirm templates, suppression status, reporting and exports with your own sample before committing.
Sources and planner method
This is vendor-documentation research and original capacity arithmetic, not hands-on testing or a deliverability benchmark. GBP fees were checked in the rendered pricing selectors. The planner subtracts reserved daily email demand, applies contact and monthly caps, and estimates the minimum sending days. Same-day campaigns must fit whole within a day; manual batching produces a capacity lower bound, not a promised schedule. It assumes a fresh period and no email usage beyond the values entered.
- Mailchimp pricing ↗
- Mailchimp plans ↗
- Mailchimp additional charges ↗
- Mailchimp gbpDisplay ↗
- Brevo: Free plan limits ↗
- Brevo: Pricing plans ↗
- Brevo: Add or remove emails ↗
- Brevo: Plan add-ons ↗
- Brevo: Live pricing, GBP and Monthly selected ↗
View the source-linked limits and pricing data → · Suggest a correction →
Compare the wider platform fit
Read Mailchimp vs Brevo → · Mailchimp profile · Brevo profile
Browse email marketing software →Cite this research
Link to these source-backed figures and calculations in your own article. Keep the check date visible and verify the current vendor terms. Citations are voluntary; there is no payment or listing requirement.
Frequently asked questions
Does Brevo Free include 9,000 emails each month?
Its checked limit is 300 per day. Multiplying by 30 produces theoretical capacity across 30 days, not a separate vendor monthly allowance. You cannot bank unused daily sends for a large single-day campaign.
Will Brevo automatically finish a large free campaign?
No. Its Free-plan help describes manual Requeue on subsequent days when recipients exceed the daily allowance. The planner’s minimum-day estimate does not schedule anything.
Are the paid prices the same as a checkout quote?
No. They are public GBP base displays for the stated configurations, excluding applicable taxes. Contacts, sends, add-ons, offer terms and account conditions can change the final bill.
Can I use the planner to choose based only on cost?
It checks numerical free-plan capacity. It does not decide whether templates, automation, support, reporting or deliverability fit your business.