Email still pulls its weight for small business. For every dollar you spend, a well-run list tends to return far more than social ads, and you own the audience instead of renting it from a platform. Two tools dominate the cheap-and-cheerful end of email marketing: Mailchimp and Brevo. Both have stuffed AI into their editors over the last two years.

This is a straight comparison for owners who send newsletters, the odd promo, and a welcome email or two. We look at what each tool's AI actually does, what they cost in June 2026, how reliably the emails land, and who should pick which. No affiliate spin (we have none with either), just the trade-offs.

Short version: Mailchimp is the polished, beginner-friendly default that gets pricey as your list grows. Brevo is cheaper at scale and bills by emails sent, but the interface is busier and the AI is a step behind. Here's the detail, with prices and a 'skip it if' for each.

How we compared them

We judged both on the things a small business owner actually feels, not a feature spreadsheet. The list below is the lens for everything that follows.

  • AI writing help: subject lines and body copy that need light editing, not a rewrite
  • Real cost at 1,000 and 5,000 contacts, not the headline free tier
  • How fast a non-technical owner can send a decent-looking email
  • Deliverability: do the emails reach the inbox or the spam folder
  • Support you can reach when something breaks at 9pm

Mailchimp at a glance

Mailchimp is the brand most people name first, and for good reason. The editor is clean, the templates look modern out of the box, and the AI tools sit right where you need them. Its content generator drafts a whole email from a one-line prompt, and the subject line helper suggests options with a predicted open-rate score. For someone who freezes at a blank email, that nudge is worth a lot.

Pricing is by contact count, and it climbs. As of June 2026: Free covers up to 500 contacts and about 1,000 sends a month. Essentials runs around $13/month, Standard around $20/month, and both rise as your list grows past a few thousand names. The better AI and automation features live on Standard, so the free tier is more of a test drive than a home.

Skip it if your list is big and growing. A 10,000-contact list on Mailchimp can cost north of $100/month, which is steep for a weekly newsletter. Also skip it if you send transactional email (receipts, password resets) at volume, because Mailchimp charges for those separately and the math gets ugly fast.

Brevo at a glance

Brevo (the tool formerly called Sendinblue) takes the opposite approach. You pay for emails sent, not contacts stored, so a big list costs you nothing until you actually mail it. It bundles email, SMS, and a basic CRM in one place, which suits a service business that texts appointment reminders. Its AI writing assistant generates subject lines and body copy, and it works fine, if a touch more generic than Mailchimp's.

Pricing, as of June 2026: Free sends up to 300 emails a day with unlimited contacts. Starter is around $9/month for roughly 5,000 emails, and Business is around $18/month, adding send-time optimization and the better automation. Because billing follows sends, a shop with a 20,000-name list that emails twice a month can stay on a cheap tier that would cost a fortune on Mailchimp.

Skip it if you want the slickest possible editor or you live inside Shopify and want one-click everything. Brevo's interface has more buttons and rougher edges, and the learning curve on day one is real. Skip it too if your whole team is non-technical and allergic to a slightly cluttered dashboard.

The AI features, head to head

Both tools now ship an AI writing helper and send-time tools. They are not equal, but the gap is smaller than the marketing pages suggest.

Writing and subject lines

Mailchimp's content generator is the better of the two. Give it a sentence about your sale and it returns a structured email with a heading, body, and call to action that needs only light edits. Its subject line tool also predicts an open rate, which is a handy gut check. The con: those predictions are rough, and treating them as gospel will mislead you. Brevo's assistant writes a competent draft but leans generic, so you'll rewrite more of it to sound like a human.

Send-time and segmentation

Both can pick a smart send time based on when your readers open. Mailchimp's version is more mature and reaches further down its plans. Brevo gates send-time optimization behind the Business tier, so the cheap plan misses it. On segmentation, Mailchimp's predicted audiences are slicker, but they only earn their keep once your list passes a few thousand active readers. Under that, you're paying for a feature you can't really feed.

Pricing, where it actually bites

This is where the choice usually gets made. The two billing models reward different businesses, so run your own numbers before you commit.

  • Small list, frequent sends: Mailchimp and Brevo land close, both near $13-$20/month
  • Big list, rare sends: Brevo wins hard, since you pay per email, not per name
  • Big list, frequent sends: both get expensive, but Brevo usually stays cheaper
  • Heavy transactional email: Brevo is built for it; Mailchimp bills it as an add-on

A realistic example: a 6,000-contact list mailed weekly costs roughly $45-$55/month on Mailchimp Standard, versus roughly $18-$25/month on Brevo Business at that send volume. The same list mailed twice a month on Brevo can sit near $9. The catch is that those Brevo savings assume you stay on top of your send count; blow past the cap and the overage charges sting.

Deliverability and support

Deliverability is close enough that neither wins outright. Both land reliably in the inbox if you keep a clean list and verify your sending domain. Mailchimp has a slight edge on reputation with older inbox providers, while Brevo holds its own and gives you more control over the technical setup. For most small senders, the difference is noise next to writing a subject line people want to open.

Support is where Mailchimp's price tag buys something. Its help docs are excellent and live chat is quick on paid plans. Brevo's support is fine but slower, and you'll lean on community forums more often. If you panic when a campaign won't send an hour before a sale, that response time matters more than any AI feature.

Which one should you pick

There's no universal winner, only a better fit for your situation. Match yourself to one of these and you'll rarely regret it.

  • New to email and want it easy: Mailchimp, for the cleaner editor and stronger AI drafts
  • Big list you mail occasionally: Brevo, because per-send billing saves you real money
  • You text customers too: Brevo, since SMS and email share one dashboard
  • You sell on Shopify and want simple: Mailchimp, for the tighter integrations

If you're genuinely torn, start both on their free tiers with the same 200 contacts and send one real newsletter through each. An afternoon of testing tells you more than any review, including this one. Your own list and your own writing style decide which AI feels useful and which just gets in the way.

The bottom line

Mailchimp is the safer first choice for a non-technical owner with a smaller list who wants help writing and a tidy editor. You pay for that polish, and the bill grows with every contact you add. It's the tool you pick when your time is worth more than the extra dollars.

Brevo is the smarter pick once your list gets large or you mail it infrequently, and the bundled SMS is a quiet bonus for service businesses. The AI is a notch behind and the dashboard takes a day to learn. But for many growing shops, the savings buy a lot of patience. Test both for an afternoon, then commit to the one that fits how you actually send.