Brevo vs Mailchimp vs EmailOctopus: Features, Pricing and Reviews Compared
- Starting price
- $9/mo · free plan
- Ease of use
- 8.4
- Functionality
- 8.6
- Value for money
- 9.0
- Customer support
- 7.8
Best for
- Businesses with 10,000+ contacts who send a few campaigns a month
- Companies that want email, SMS, WhatsApp and transactional messages on one account
- Ecommerce stores on WooCommerce, PrestaShop or Magento
- Starting price
- $13/mo · free plan
- Ease of use
- 8.6
- Functionality
- 8.8
- Value for money
- 6.8
- Customer support
- 7.3
Best for
- Small businesses and nonprofits sending newsletters and promotions to a modest list
- Shopify, WooCommerce and Squarespace stores that want abandoned-cart and product-recommendation emails
- Teams without a designer who need templates and a drag-and-drop editor that just work
- Starting price
- $9/mo · free plan
- Ease of use
- 6.5
- Functionality
- 7.2
- Value for money
- 7.2
- Customer support
- 7.1
Best for
- Authors and newsletter writers
- Small online stores on Shopify or WooCommerce
- Nonprofits and charities
Our verdict
Brevo comes out ahead at 85/100 versus Mailchimp at 80 and EmailOctopus at 70. Unlimited contacts; pay for emails sent. Brevo is the better fit for businesses with large lists that want to pay per email, not per contact. Mailchimp makes more sense if you need easy editor and a huge template library.
On Brevo: Brevo is the best-value email marketing platform for businesses with a large list and modest send volume, because it charges by emails sent rather than contacts stored. It also bundles SMS, WhatsApp, live chat, transactional email and a simple CRM, which few rivals do at this price. The editor and templates are a step behind Mailchimp, and the free plan's 300-a-day cap makes campaigns slow, but for most small businesses the economics win.
Features comparison
The 8 email marketing capabilities we check on every product, ordered by importance to buyers.
| Feature | Importance | Brevo | Mailchimp | EmailOctopus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drag-drop editor | 90% | Included | Included | Included |
| Automations | 84% | Included | Included | Included |
| Segmentation | 78% | Included | Included | Included |
| Signup forms | 69% | Included | Included | Not included |
| A/B testing | 61% | Included | Included | Not included |
| Landing pages | 47% | Included | Included | Included |
| SMS | 39% | Included | Included | Not included |
| API access | 31% | Included | Included | Included |
What stands out in each
Volume-based pricing
You store unlimited contacts on every plan and pay for emails sent. A 30,000-contact list sending one newsletter a month costs a fraction of what contact-priced platforms charge.
Multichannel messaging
SMS, WhatsApp, push and web chat live in the same account with pay-as-you-go credits, and the automation builder can mix channels in one workflow.
Marketing automation
Business plans include a visual workflow builder with triggers from site activity, purchases and contact attributes, plus lead scoring. Free and Starter get basic automations for up to 2,000 contacts.
Transactional email and SMTP
A reliable transactional service with API, SMTP relay and real-time logs is included, so developers can send receipts and alerts without a separate provider.
Email builder and templates
A drag-and-drop editor with a large template library, brand kit, and generative AI for copy and layouts. Emails render reliably across clients, and the creative assistant produces usable designs for people without a designer.
Automations and Customer Journeys
Essentials covers single-trigger automations (welcome, abandoned cart, re-engagement). Standard unlocks the Customer Journey Builder with branching logic, delays and conditions, which is where Mailchimp becomes a real marketing automation tool.
Audience management and segmentation
Tags, groups and behavioural segments; Standard adds predictive segmentation (likely-to-buy, customer lifetime value) using ecommerce data. One audience per account is the recommended model, which simplifies pricing.
Ecommerce integrations
Native connections to Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and others pull order data into the audience for product recommendations, purchase-based segments and revenue reporting per campaign.
EmailOctopusDrag-and-drop email editor
Users build emails with images, video blocks, code and other content blocks, or write their own HTML. This lets senders create custom layouts without a designer.
Brand-matched templates
Templates adapt to a brand's colours and styles automatically, with more than 100 mobile-friendly options available. Senders can adjust layouts and add their own content as needed.
Automations and drip sequences
Automated sequences send a series of emails triggered by subscriber actions or events. This keeps new subscribers engaged without manual sends.
Tags and subscriber segmentation
Tags and custom subscriber fields let senders group contacts and target each segment with relevant emails. Subscriber data can be collected at sign-up and reused later.
Pricing comparison
Brevo starts at $9/mo with a free plan; Mailchimp starts at $13/mo with a free plan; EmailOctopus starts at $9/mo with a free plan. Plans are shown as the vendors publish them; the BSR Value subscore reflects what you get for the money.
Free
300 emails a day, unlimited contacts, drag-and-drop editor.
- 300 emails/day
- Unlimited contacts
- Email editor and templates
- Transactional email
Starter
No daily cap, basic reporting, remove branding as an add-on.
- From 5,000 emails/month
- No daily sending limit
- Basic statistics
- Email support
Business
Marketing automation, A/B testing, send-time optimisation, phone support.
- Marketing automation
- A/B testing
- Predictive sending
- Landing pages
Enterprise
Sub-accounts, dedicated IP, SSO and a customer success manager.
- Sub-accounts
- Dedicated IP
- SSO
- Personalised support
Starter and Business prices scale with monthly email volume; 20,000 emails on Business costs noticeably more than the $18 headline. Removing the Brevo logo on Starter is a paid add-on. SMS and WhatsApp are prepaid credits billed by country. Marketing automation on Free and Starter is capped at 2,000 contacts.
Value for money: 9.0/10 · Monthly, Annual, Cancel anytime · Vendor pricing page ↗
Free
Up to 500 contacts and 1,000 sends a month with Mailchimp branding.
- 500 contacts
- 1,000 emails/month
- Basic templates
- Forms and landing pages
Essentials
Removes branding, adds scheduling, A/B testing and 24/7 email support.
- Remove Mailchimp branding
- A/B testing
- Scheduled sends
- Basic automations
Standard
Customer journeys, send-time optimisation, dynamic content and predictive segmentation.
- Customer Journey Builder
- Send-time optimisation
- Dynamic content
- Predictive segmentation
Premium
Advanced segmentation, multivariate testing, phone support and unlimited seats.
- Unlimited seats and roles
- Multivariate testing
- Advanced segmentation
- Phone and priority support
Prices scale with contact count, and unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts have historically counted toward the total. Monthly send limits apply per plan (for example 10x contacts on Essentials). Overages are billed automatically. Transactional email (Mailchimp Transactional) is a separate paid product.
Value for money: 6.8/10 · Monthly, Pay as you go credits, Cancel anytime · Vendor pricing page ↗
EmailOctopusStarter
Suited to new senders with a small list who want to explore the platform before upgrading.
- Up to 2,500 subscribers
- 10,000 emails per month
- Reports available for 30 days
- 1 landing page and 1 form
Pro
Suited to senders who need unlimited forms, unlimited users and a fully branded email design.
- Full control over your email design
- Reports available forever
- Unlimited landing pages and forms
- Add unlimited users
Monthly and yearly billing are offered, with yearly plans saving 10%. There is no free trial, but the free plan has no time limit and no credit card is needed; payments are accepted by card and PayPal and processed through Stripe. Nonprofits receive a 20% lifetime discount, and lists over 500,000 subscribers require a custom quote.
Value for money: 7.2/10
Integrations comparison
3 integrations in common · 4 only in Brevo · 5 only in Mailchimp · 30 only in EmailOctopus. Logos link to our review when we cover the tool.
Both connect to
Shopify
SquarespaceOnly EmailOctopus30Which one is best for my use case?
Who each product is built for, who should look elsewhere, and the jobs it gets bought for, from our editorial review and the vendor's own customer profile.
Ideal for
- Businesses with 10,000+ contacts who send a few campaigns a month
- Companies that want email, SMS, WhatsApp and transactional messages on one account
- Ecommerce stores on WooCommerce, PrestaShop or Magento
Not for
- Teams that want the most polished templates and design tools
- High-volume daily senders on the free plan
- Marketers who need deep ecommerce analytics and predictive segmentation
Common use cases
Sells to: Freelancers, Small businesses, Mid-size companies, Enterprises. Common industries: Ecommerce, Retail, SaaS and technology, Nonprofits, Education, Travel and hospitality.
Ideal for
- Small businesses and nonprofits sending newsletters and promotions to a modest list
- Shopify, WooCommerce and Squarespace stores that want abandoned-cart and product-recommendation emails
- Teams without a designer who need templates and a drag-and-drop editor that just work
Not for
- Lists over ~20,000 contacts, where per-contact pricing gets expensive
- Businesses that need SMS, WhatsApp and transactional email on one bill (Brevo does this)
- Marketers who need multi-branch automation on the lower tiers
Common use cases
Sells to: Freelancers, Small businesses, Nonprofits, Mid-size companies. Common industries: Ecommerce, Retail, Nonprofits, Creative and media, Hospitality, Education.
EmailOctopusIdeal for
- Authors and newsletter writers
- Small online stores on Shopify or WooCommerce
- Nonprofits and charities
- Freelancers starting with a free list
Not for
- Teams that need SMS messaging alongside email
- Lists above 500,000 subscribers without a custom quote
Common use cases
Sells to: Freelancers, Small businesses, Mid size businesses, Enterprises.
Support, training and setup
How you get help, how you learn the product, and how fast you can be running.
- Support score
- 7.8/10Leads
- Ease of use
- 8.4/10
- Support channels
- Email (Starter+)
- Live chat and phone (Business+)
- Help center
- Customer success manager (Enterprise)
- Training
- Brevo Academy
- Documentation
- Webinars
- Onboarding (Business+)
- Deployment
- Cloud / SaaS
- iOS app
- Android app
- Typical setup
- Same day
- Languages
- English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese
- Support score
- 7.3/10
- Ease of use
- 8.6/10Leads
- Support channels
- Email and chat (paid plans)
- Phone (Premium)
- Help center
- Onboarding specialist (Standard+)
- Training
- Documentation
- Video tutorials
- Webinars
- Mailchimp Academy
- Deployment
- Cloud / SaaS
- iOS app
- Android app
- Typical setup
- Same day
- Languages
- English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian
EmailOctopus- Support score
- 7.1/10
- Ease of use
- 6.5/10
- Support channels
- Email/Help Desk
- FAQs/Forum
- Knowledge Base
- Chat
- Training
- Webinars
- Documentation
- Videos
- Deployment
- Web
- Typical setup
- Not published
- Languages
- Not published
Security and reliability
Certifications and controls as published by each vendor. We list them; we don't audit them.
- Security
- GDPR
- ISO 27001
- Two-factor authentication
- SSO (Enterprise)
- EU data hosting
- Public API
- Yes
- Mobile apps
- None published
- Company
- Paris, France · 800+ employees · founded 2012
- Security
- GDPR
- Two-factor authentication
- SOC 2 (via Intuit)
- Data encrypted in transit and at rest
- Public API
- Yes
- Mobile apps
- iOS · Android
- Company
- Atlanta, GA · 1,000+ employees · founded 2001
EmailOctopus- Security
- GDPR compliance
- CAN-SPAM compliance
- Payments processed through Stripe
- Public API
- Yes
- Mobile apps
- None published
- Company
- London, United Kingdom · Small remote team employees · founded 2015
Pros and cons
Our editors' pros and cons for each product. No user reviews have been published for these products yet.
Pros
- Unlimited contacts; pay for emails sent
- Built-in SMS, WhatsApp and transactional email
- Generous free plan
Cons
- Fewer templates and polish than Mailchimp
- Daily send limit on the free plan
- Some advanced features need the Business plan
Pros
- Easy editor and a huge template library
- Integrates with almost every e-commerce and CRM platform
- Free plan to get started
Cons
- Costs rise steeply as the contact list grows
- Free plan has become very limited
- Phone support only on the top tier
EmailOctopusPros
- The free plan has no time limit and supports up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month.
- The Pro plan costs $9 per month billed yearly and includes unlimited users, forms and landing pages.
- Live chat has an average response time of 9 seconds, and free accounts receive email and chat support for the first 30 days.
- The developer API and integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress and Zapier connect email to existing sites and tools.
- Pro plans upgrade automatically as the subscriber list grows, so buyers do not need to change plans manually.
Cons
- There is no free trial, so the only way to test paid features is to upgrade to Pro.
- The free plan shows EmailOctopus branding on emails, allows only one user and keeps reports for 30 days.
- The product is email only and does not include SMS messaging.
- Lists larger than 500,000 subscribers need a custom quote rather than a published plan.
Full side-by-side table
Brevo leads in 8 of 10 rows where they differ. Green marks the leader in each row.
EmailOctopus 70Leads 1 of 10 rows · Best for small businesses, authors and creators who want email marketing without SMS or paid extras| Feature | Brevo Best for businesses with large lists that want to pay per email, not per contact | Mailchimp Best for small businesses that want a familiar, template-driven email tool | EmailOctopus Best for small businesses, authors and creators who want email marketing without SMS or paid extras |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scores | |||
| BSR score | 85 | 80 | 70 |
| Ease | 8.4 | 8.6 | 6.5 |
| Features | 8.6 | 8.8 | 7.2 |
| Value | 9.0 | 6.8 | 7.2 |
| Support | 7.8 | 7.3 | 7.1 |
| Pricing | |||
| Starting price | $9/mo | $13/mo | $9/mo |
| Free plan | Included | Included | Included |
| Free trial | — | — | — |
| Features | |||
| Features included | 8 / 8 | 8 / 8 | 5 / 8 |
| Drag-drop editor | Included | Included | Included |
| Automations | Included | Included | Included |
| A/B testing | Included | Included | Not included |
| Landing pages | Included | Included | Included |
| SMS | Included | Included | Not included |
| Segmentation | Included | Included | Included |
| Signup forms | Included | Included | Not included |
| API access | Included | Included | Included |
| Details | |||
| Biggest strength | Unlimited contacts; pay for emails sent | Easy editor and a huge template library | The free plan has no time limit and supports up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month. |
| Biggest weakness | Fewer templates and polish than Mailchimp | Costs rise steeply as the contact list grows | There is no free trial, so the only way to test paid features is to upgrade to Pro. |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android | Web |
| Best fit | 1–100 users | 1–50 users | Freelancers, Small businesses, Mid size businesses, Enterprises |
Brevo vs Mailchimp vs EmailOctopus: FAQs
Is Brevo better than Mailchimp?
Brevo scores 85/100 against Mailchimp's 80, a 5-point lead. Unlimited contacts; pay for emails sent. Mailchimp is the better pick if easy editor and a huge template library matters more to you.
Which is cheaper, Brevo or Mailchimp or EmailOctopus?
Brevo has the lowest starting price at $9/mo and offers a free plan. Mailchimp starts at $13/mo; EmailOctopus starts at $9/mo. Per-user pricing, annual discounts and add-ons change the real total, so price out your actual seat count.
Which has more features?
Brevo covers 8 of the 8 email marketing features we track, including A/B testing, SMS, Signup forms which not every product here offers.
Do Brevo and Mailchimp integrate with the same tools?
Both connect to Shopify, WooCommerce, Zapier. Only Brevo lists Magento, PrestaShop, Pipedrive; Only Mailchimp lists BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix; Only EmailOctopus lists SendPulse, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Ticket Tailor.
How this comparison was made
Each product was scored on the same four subscores (Ease, Features, Value, Support) from the vendor's published pricing and documentation, our editorial review, then combined into a 100-point BSR score. Hands-on tested: Brevo, Mailchimp. Feature checks use one list per category; plans, integrations, support and security come from what each vendor publishes and are refreshed when listings change. Green marks the leader in a row. Sponsored placements are labeled elsewhere on the site and never touch a comparison. Full methodology →