Brevo vs Mailchimp vs ConvertKit: 2026 Email Showdown
The Email Tool Decision Every Solo Founder Gets Wrong
You picked a name for the SaaS, you set up a landing page, and now it’s time to send your first campaign. You type “email marketing” into a search bar and three names keep coming up: Brevo, Mailchimp, and ConvertKit (now just called Kit). On the surface they all do the same thing. Underneath, they bill you differently, treat your contact list differently, and quietly decide what your business will look like in 18 months.
Solo founders don’t get a second chance at this. Migrating 8,000 subscribers off a platform that suddenly doubled your bill is a three-week project you don’t have time for. The right call is the one that fits your business model, not the one with the most polished homepage.
We tested all three with a real founder workload: a small newsletter, a paid product launch, and a couple of drip sequences. Here’s how they actually compare in 2026, with the prices and feature changes that hit your bill this year.
At a Glance: Brevo vs Mailchimp vs ConvertKit
| Feature | Brevo | Mailchimp | ConvertKit (Kit) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Budget-conscious founders, transactional + marketing | Brand-name trust, broad SMBs, ecommerce | Newsletter creators, course sellers, coaches |
| Free plan | Yes (300 emails/day, unlimited contacts) | Yes, but gutted in 2026 (250 contacts, 500 sends/mo) | Yes (up to 10,000 subscribers) |
| Pricing model | Per email sent | Per contact stored | Per subscriber |
| Starting paid plan | From ~$9/mo (Starter) | From ~$13/mo (Essentials, 500 contacts) | ~$39/mo (Creator, 1,000 subs) |
| Channels | Email, SMS, WhatsApp, push, live chat | Email, SMS, postcards, ads, social | Email, broadcasts, automations, commerce |
| Transactional email | Built in (separate pricing) | Mandrill add-on ($20/mo minimum) | Not built in (need a separate provider) |
| Automation builder | Visual, included free | Removed from free in 2025 | Visual, included free |
How Each Platform Actually Bills You
This is the part nobody reads. It’s also the part that decides which platform is cheapest for your list.
Mailchimp and ConvertKit both bill by contact count. The number of emails you send doesn’t move the price. The size of your audience does. If you have 5,000 subscribers but only email them once a month, you’re still paying for 5,000.
Brevo bills by email volume. You can store 100,000 contacts and only pay for what you send. If you have a giant list that gets one campaign a month, Brevo is dramatically cheaper. If you have a small list that you email every week, the math flips.
A solo founder with 2,000 subscribers sending four campaigns a month looks very different on each platform. On Mailchimp, you’re paying for 2,000 contacts regardless of activity. On Brevo, you’re paying for roughly 8,000 sends. Run the numbers before you trust the sticker price.
Mailchimp Cut Its Free Plan Again in 2026
This one stings if you started your list on Mailchimp. In February 2026, Mailchimp reduced its free tier from 500 contacts and 1,000 monthly sends down to 250 contacts and 500 sends. That’s the third cut in a few years — the free plan was 2,000 contacts before 2022.
Hit the 250-contact ceiling and Mailchimp puts a hold on sending until you upgrade or trim your list. The Classic Automation Builder was also pulled from the free tier back in June 2025, so multi-step sequences now require a paid plan.
The realistic read: Mailchimp’s free tier is now a 30-day demo, not a place to build a real list. Separate from that, Mailchimp raised prices on legacy plans (pre-May 2019 accounts) by 11 to 13 percent in April 2026. If you opened your account years ago and never moved to a current plan, your next bill is going to look different.
ConvertKit’s Free Plan Is the Generous One
ConvertKit (rebranded as Kit) is the outlier here. The free Newsletter plan holds up to 10,000 active unique subscribers with no monthly email cap. For a founder building a list from zero, this is the easiest place to start.
The catch is what’s locked behind the paywall. The free plan covers broadcasts and basic signup forms. Visual automations, sequences, and the commerce features sit behind the paid tier. Once you outgrow basic newsletters, you’ll move up.
Paid plans start at around $39 per month for the Creator tier at 1,000 subscribers, billed annually. The Creator Pro tier runs about $79 per month for the same 1,000 subscribers, and adds referral programs, advanced reporting, and team seats. The bill grows with your list size, not your email volume. There is a 14-day free trial on the paid plans, no credit card required.
Brevo’s Edge: Transactional and Marketing in One Place
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) does something the other two don’t. It handles both your marketing email and your transactional email (order confirmations, password resets, shipping updates) from the same dashboard.
Most founders end up paying for two services: an ESP for campaigns and a separate provider like Postmark or Resend for transactional. With Brevo, that’s one bill and one login. If your startup is a SaaS, an ecommerce store, or anything that sends password-reset emails, the consolidation is real money.
Brevo also bundles SMS and WhatsApp into the marketing side, which matters if you sell internationally. Per-email pricing means a giant dormant list is cheap to keep, but a list you email daily can get expensive fast. The free plan includes 300 emails per day with unlimited contacts, which is enough to run a small weekly newsletter at zero cost.
Real Founder Scenarios
The “best” platform depends on what your business actually does. Here are three common shapes we see with solo founders.
Newsletter-first founder. You publish weekly, monetize with sponsors or a paid tier, and the list is the product. ConvertKit wins here. The free plan is generous, the editor is built for long-form content, and the commerce add-on lets you sell a paid newsletter without bolting on a separate tool.
SaaS or app founder. You need drip sequences for new signups, transactional email for account events, and a way to send product updates. Brevo is the cleanest answer. One platform covers the marketing and the system emails, and the per-send pricing fits the reality of low-volume transactional traffic.
Ecommerce or product founder. You’re running a Shopify store or selling physical products. Mailchimp is still the incumbent here, and the integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce are deeper than the competition. Just don’t expect the free plan to carry you past the first 200 customers — and watch the bill climb with your list size.
Pros and Cons at a Glance
Brevo
- Pros: Cheapest at scale, transactional + marketing combined, multi-channel (SMS, WhatsApp), free plan with no contact cap
- Cons: Editor is less polished than the others, per-email pricing punishes high-frequency senders, brand recognition is lower
Mailchimp
- Pros: Best-in-class integrations, brand trust, strong analytics, deep ecommerce features
- Cons: Free plan gutted in 2026, no transactional email without Mandrill add-on, per-contact pricing gets expensive fast
ConvertKit (Kit)
- Pros: Generous free plan (up to 10,000 subscribers), clean creator-focused editor, built-in commerce for paid newsletters
- Cons: Most expensive at the paid tier, no transactional email, automations locked behind the paywall
How to Choose Without Wasting a Weekend
Skip the feature comparison rabbit hole. Answer two questions and the right platform usually picks itself.
Question 1: Do you send transactional email? If yes, and you’re not already locked into Postmark or Resend, Brevo is the cheapest way to keep everything in one place. If no, you can ignore this factor.
Question 2: How big is your list, and how often do you email? Big list, low frequency = Brevo. Small list, high frequency = Mailchimp or ConvertKit. Big list and high frequency = ConvertKit’s paid tier, but expect to feel it on the credit card statement.
If you’re starting from zero, ConvertKit’s free plan is the lowest-friction option. You can run a real newsletter up to 10,000 subscribers, learn what automation sequences actually convert, and only upgrade when you need features the free plan locks away. When you do outgrow it, the migration path to either of the other two is straightforward.
Key Takeaways
- Brevo, Mailchimp, and ConvertKit all send email, but they bill completely differently. Read the pricing model before the feature list.
- Mailchimp’s free plan is now 250 contacts and 500 sends per month. Don’t build a real list on it.
- ConvertKit’s free plan is the most generous: up to 10,000 subscribers with no monthly send cap.
- Brevo is the only one of the three that handles both marketing and transactional email in the same dashboard.
- Pick based on list size and send frequency, not on which homepage has the best animations.
FAQ
Is Brevo cheaper than Mailchimp?
Usually yes at scale, because Brevo bills by emails sent and Mailchimp bills by contacts stored. For a 5,000-contact list emailed once a month, Brevo is dramatically cheaper. For a 500-contact list emailed weekly, the difference is smaller and Mailchimp’s per-contact pricing may actually be a better fit.
Can I switch from Mailchimp to ConvertKit for free?
Yes. Both platforms support CSV imports for contacts and most major autoresponder sequences have migration guides. The catch is that automations and forms usually need to be rebuilt by hand, which takes a weekend. Plan for it.
Which is best for a paid newsletter?
ConvertKit. The built-in commerce feature lets you charge for a newsletter subscription without bolting on a separate tool like Gumroad or Stripe, and the editor is purpose-built for long-form creator content.
Does Mailchimp still have a free plan?
Yes, but it’s small: 250 contacts and 500 emails per month as of February 2026. That’s enough to test the platform or run a tiny hobby list, not enough to build a real business audience.
Last updated: August 2026. Pricing and plan limits verified against each vendor’s official pricing page.
