If your team is weighing Mailchimp vs Brevo for nonprofits, start with how each tool charges you. Mailchimp bills mainly by the number of contacts you store. Brevo bills mainly by the number of emails you send each month. For an organization with a large list and a monthly newsletter, that one difference can matter more than any feature. This comparison covers pricing, nonprofit discounts, automation, SMS, ease of use and deliverability, with prices checked on each vendor's official pages as of November 2026.
Key takeaways
- Pricing model: Mailchimp scales with contacts (including unsubscribed ones), while Brevo scales mainly with monthly email volume.
- Nonprofit discount: Mailchimp publishes a 15% discount for verified nonprofits. Brevo does not list a standard nonprofit discount on its pricing page.
- Automation: Mailchimp's free plan has no automation and Essentials is limited. Brevo includes multi-step workflows, with limits on its free plan.
- SMS: Both sell SMS as an add-on or credits, so budget it separately from email.
- Best fit: Mailchimp suits teams that value polish and integrations. Brevo suits large lists that send infrequently.
How Mailchimp and Brevo charge: contacts vs. emails sent
Both tools have a free plan and several paid tiers, but the meter that drives your bill is different. Understanding that meter is the fastest way to predict your annual cost.
Mailchimp: priced by contacts
According to Mailchimp's pricing page, as of November 2026:
- Free: up to 250 contacts and 500 emails per month (250 per day), one seat, no automation.
- Essentials: from $13/month, with a monthly send limit of 10 times your contact tier and 3 seats.
- Standard: from $20/month, with a send limit of 12 times your contact tier, 5 seats and generative AI features.
- Premium: aimed at lists of 10,000+ contacts and priced in the hundreds of dollars per month, with a 15x send limit, unlimited seats and phone support.
The detail many nonprofits miss: Mailchimp's help center says subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts all count toward your contact limit. Archived and cleaned contacts do not. If you have years of event sign-ups and old unsubscribes in your audience, you may be paying for people you can no longer email.
Brevo: priced by email volume
Brevo's pricing page and its published pricing reference list, as of November 2026:
- Free: 300 emails per day and storage for up to 100,000 contacts.
- Starter: from $9/month for 5,000 emails per month, one seat.
- Standard: from $18/month, up to 3 seats, adding more reporting (click heatmaps, geography and device reports) and a landing page.
- Professional: from $499/month, starting at 150,000 emails per month with 10 seats and extra channels such as WhatsApp and push.
- Annual billing: about 10% off.
Brevo is not entirely contact-free, though. On the smallest Starter and Standard tiers, its pricing reference caps marketing contacts (500 contacts at the 5,000-emails tier), and the cap rises to 500,000 contacts from the 20,000-emails tier upward. Pick the volume tier that matches both your send count and your list size.
What this means for a typical nonprofit
Picture a community organization with 8,000 contacts that sends two newsletters a month, plus a few appeals in December. On Mailchimp, the bill follows the 8,000-contact tier every month, whether you send once or ten times. On Brevo, the bill follows the volume tier that covers roughly 16,000 emails, and you can move up a tier during the year-end season and back down afterward. If you email a large list rarely, Brevo's model usually favors you. If you email a small, engaged list often, Mailchimp's model is easier to live with.
| Factor (as of November 2026) | Mailchimp | Brevo |
|---|---|---|
| Main billing meter | Contacts stored (incl. unsubscribed) | Emails sent per month |
| Free plan | 250 contacts, 500 emails/month | 300 emails/day, up to 100,000 contacts stored |
| Entry paid plan | Essentials from $13/month | Starter from $9/month (5,000 emails) |
| Published nonprofit discount | 15% for verified nonprofits | None listed on pricing page |
| Automation | None on Free; limited on Essentials; up to 200 flows on Standard | Multi-step workflows; free plan automation capped at 2,000 contacts |
| SMS | Paid add-on in select countries | SMS credits sold separately |
| Seats | 1 / 3 / 5 / unlimited by plan | 1 on Starter, up to 3 on Standard, 10 on Professional |
| Best for | Small, frequently emailed lists; teams wanting polish | Large lists emailed occasionally; multichannel on a budget |
Nonprofit discounts compared
Mailchimp states that nonprofits and charities get 15% off. Its nonprofit discount help article says US organizations add their EIN and may be asked for a 501(c)(3) letter, international organizations submit their website, and the discount is not applied retroactively. Request it before you upgrade. Mailchimp also notes that verified nonprofits may qualify for a discount on SMS. Our guide to the Mailchimp nonprofit discount walks through the application.
Brevo's public pricing page and machine-readable pricing reference do not list a standard nonprofit discount. Treat a discount as a question for Brevo sales, not a number to budget around. The annual billing discount (about 10%) is the reliable saving.
Automation for donor journeys
Automation is where small teams save the most staff time: a welcome series for new donors, a thank-you sequence for monthly givers, and a re-engagement path for lapsed supporters.
- Mailchimp: the free plan has no automation, Essentials allows flows of up to 4 steps, and Standard and Premium allow up to 200 flows. In practice, most nonprofits that rely on automation end up on Standard.
- Brevo: paid plans include multi-step workflows, and Brevo's help center notes that free-plan automation is capped at 2,000 contacts. Brevo positions Standard as the plan for teams ready to automate and test campaigns.
If you are planning journeys, our donor welcome email series and donor retention emails guides give sequences you can build in either tool.
SMS and other channels
SMS can work well for event reminders and last-day appeals, but both vendors price it separately from email. Mailchimp sells SMS as an add-on to paid plans in select countries, and MMS is available on Standard and Premium for US and Canadian contacts. Brevo sells SMS credits separately from its plans, and its Professional plan adds WhatsApp, web push and mobile push. Whichever you choose, collect SMS consent separately from email consent and keep the record.
Ease of use and team access
Mailchimp is widely known, has a polished drag-and-drop editor and a large template library, and connects to many donation and CRM tools through its integrations directory. If volunteers rotate through your comms role, the familiarity is a real advantage. Brevo's editor is also drag-and-drop, and the platform bundles extras such as a basic sales CRM, forms and transactional email. Its interface covers more channels, which some small teams find busier.
Check seats carefully. Brevo's Starter plan allows a single seat, so a development director and a comms manager who both need logins will need Standard or paid extra seats. Mailchimp's Essentials includes 3 seats.
Deliverability: what you actually control
Both platforms send from shared infrastructure by default, and both maintain good reputations. Your results depend more on things you control: authenticating your domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, removing bounced and inactive addresses, and sending consistently. Our SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup guide applies to either tool. Brevo also lists deliverability specialist support among its higher-tier features, while Mailchimp automatically marks hard-bounced addresses as cleaned.
Mailchimp vs Brevo for nonprofits: which fits which organization
Choose Mailchimp if
- Your list is modest and you email it several times a month.
- You rely on integrations with a donation platform or CRM that has a ready-made Mailchimp connector.
- Several staff or volunteers need logins and you want a familiar interface.
- You can use the 15% nonprofit discount.
Choose Brevo if
- You have a large list (alumni, past event attendees) that you email only occasionally.
- You want email, SMS and WhatsApp in one place.
- Your budget is tight and one or two people run all email.
A third option when cost at scale matters
If your list is growing past the point where either bill is comfortable, a bring-your-own-server platform such as eMailBase separates the software from the sending. You pay a software subscription (for example, the Growth plan at $9.99/month covers 20,000 contacts) and pay delivery directly to a provider like Amazon SES. As of November 2026, Amazon SES pricing lists $0.10 per 1,000 emails on its à la carte option plus $0.12 per GB of attachments; new SES accounts now start on an Essentials plan at $0.16 per 1,000 emails unless you switch, and dedicated IPs cost extra. The trade-offs are real: you need to set up a sending account and DNS records, eMailBase has no published nonprofit discount, and it has no built-in donation forms. It suits teams with a technical volunteer or agency. See the eMailBase vs Mailchimp comparison, our Amazon SES for nonprofits guide, or the full list of Mailchimp alternatives for nonprofits.
Frequently asked questions
Is Brevo cheaper than Mailchimp for nonprofits?
Often, if you have a large list and send infrequently, because Brevo bills mainly on email volume. If you send many emails to a small list, the difference shrinks and Mailchimp's 15% nonprofit discount can make it competitive. Price both at your real list size and send count.
Does Brevo offer a nonprofit discount?
Brevo does not list a standard nonprofit discount on its pricing page as of November 2026. You can ask its sales team, but do not budget around a discount until you have it in writing.
Do unsubscribed contacts count toward Mailchimp's bill?
Yes. Mailchimp's help center says subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts count toward your contact limit. Archiving inactive contacts lowers future bills.
Which is better for SMS fundraising?
Both treat SMS as a paid extra. Brevo sells SMS credits and adds WhatsApp on its Professional plan. Mailchimp offers SMS as an add-on in select countries and may discount it for verified nonprofits. Compare per-message costs for your country.
Can I move from Mailchimp to Brevo without losing consent records?
Yes, if you export every status file and keep the opt-in timestamp columns. Our guide on how to migrate your donor list from Mailchimp covers the full checklist.
Choosing between Mailchimp and Brevo comes down to your list shape. Count your contacts, including unsubscribes, and count the emails you actually send in a year. If contacts far outnumber sends, Brevo's volume pricing will likely cost less. If you send often to a smaller list and value integrations and a familiar editor, Mailchimp with its nonprofit discount is a solid choice. And if both bills keep climbing as your list grows, compare a BYO setup before your next renewal.
