How to Switch From Mailchimp to Brevo — The Per-Email Pricing Migration Guide

Why Brevo Makes Sense for Large Lists

Mailchimp charges per subscriber. Brevo charges per email sent. This distinction sounds minor until you do the maths.

The savings are dramatic for large lists with moderate sending frequency. If you have a big list but only email it once or twice a month, you are massively overpaying on Mailchimp's per-subscriber model.

The gap narrows if you email frequently. A business with 5,000 contacts emailing 10 times per month (50,000 emails) pays $100/mo on Mailchimp but ~$75-89/mo on Brevo — still cheaper, but not the 70% saving you get with a large, low-frequency list.

Brevo's full pricing by email volume:

Brevo prices from brevo.com, verified March 2026. Mailchimp equivalents assume 2 emails/month to show how list size maps to email volume. If you send more frequently, the Mailchimp column shifts higher.

The other financial advantage: Brevo allows unlimited contacts on every plan, including free. Mailchimp charges for every contact — even unsubscribed ones. On Brevo, your 50,000-subscriber list with 5,000 inactive contacts does not cost you a penny more in storage. On Mailchimp, those inactive contacts are billing you $30-50/month extra.

But before you switch, you need to understand the trade-off: Brevo's deliverability has historically been the most volatile of any major email platform.

The Deliverability Question

This section exists because it would be dishonest to write a Brevo migration guide without addressing it.

EmailToolTester has tracked Brevo's deliverability across multiple rounds. The results swing more than any other major platform:

Source: EmailToolTester deliverability tests, multiple rounds. ETT deprecated percentage testing in 2025, calling the methodology "increasingly unreliable."

For comparison: MailerLite has stayed between 82-90% across the same period. ActiveCampaign between 88-94%. Brevo's 30-point swing (67.7% to 96.3%) is an outlier.

What this means for your migration: the platform you move to today might deliver 88% to the inbox, or it might drop to 70% in a future quarter. That volatility is a real risk, especially for businesses where email deliverability directly affects revenue.

The honest take: If deliverability is your top priority, MailerLite at $139/mo for 25K subscribers is more predictable than Brevo at $75-89/mo. You pay more, but you get consistency. If cost saving is your top priority and you can tolerate some deliverability variance, Brevo's per-email pricing is genuinely hard to beat.

Brevo's current performance (88.3% in ETT's January 2024 round) is solid. The question is whether it stays there.

What Transfers and What Doesn't

Brevo offers a native Mailchimp integration plugin (found under Plugins & Integrations — not the Zapier version) that syncs contacts. Like every other migration, the contact transfer is the easy part.

Consent requirement: Brevo only allows importing contacts who consented to receive emails within the last two years. If you have older contacts in Mailchimp who have not engaged recently, Brevo will not accept them. One user reported losing several hundred contacts that fell outside this window with no appeal process.

No free migration service. Unlike ActiveCampaign (which rebuilds up to 10 objects for free), Brevo does not offer a hands-on migration service. They can connect you with "vetted migration partners," and they offer a free migration course at academy.brevo.com, but the rebuild work is yours.

Timeline: Contact import is fast (minutes). Total migration depends on complexity — simple newsletter setups take a day, complex setups with multiple automations and forms take 1-2 weeks.

Step 1: Understand Brevo's Pricing Model Before You Commit

Brevo's per-email pricing works differently than anything in Mailchimp. Get clear on this before you import.

Step 2: Export and Clean Your Mailchimp Data

Same process as any migration — export everything before making changes.

Step 3: Set Up Brevo Before Importing

Configure your Brevo account completely before any contacts arrive.

Step 4: Import Your Contacts

You have two options: the native Mailchimp plugin or manual CSV import.

Phased import (same approach as any migration):

Week 1: Import engaged contacts only (opened or clicked in last 90 days). Send your first campaign. Monitor deliverability closely — Brevo's shared IPs mean your reputation is partly affected by other senders on the same infrastructure.

Week 2: Import 90-180 day engaged contacts. Send a campaign. Check bounce rates and spam complaints.

Week 3+: Gradually add remaining active contacts.

Campaign review delay: Brevo reviews campaigns before sending. This can add minutes to hours before your email actually goes out. For time-sensitive sends (flash sales, event reminders), account for this delay.

Step 5: Replace Mailchimp Touchpoints

Replace every Mailchimp form, popup, and integration across your web presence.

Monitor the First 30 Days

Given Brevo's deliverability history, monitoring is especially important during your first month.

Brevo enforces these thresholds strictly. Exceeding them can result in campaign suspension or account restriction.

After 30 days: Compare your Brevo metrics against your archived Mailchimp benchmarks. If deliverability is consistently lower, check DNS records first. If everything is configured correctly and deliverability is still poor, this may be a shared IP issue — the Professional plan ($499/mo) includes dedicated IPs, but that cost often negates the savings that brought you to Brevo in the first place.

Keep Mailchimp Open (Temporarily)

Downgrade Mailchimp to the free plan (250 contacts) and keep it active for 30-60 days.

- Catch stray form submissions from missed embeds - Maintain access to historical campaign data - Handle unsubscribes from old emails still in recipients' inboxes - Cross-reference Mailchimp unsubscribes with your Brevo list weekly

Once you have confirmed all forms are replaced, all data is exported, and no new signups are arriving in Mailchimp, close the account. Document the cancellation with screenshots — Mailchimp's Trustpilot reviews (2.7/5, 1,365 reviews) include billing complaints about charges continuing after cancellation.

Who Should NOT Switch to Brevo

This migration is not right for everyone. Specifically:

If deliverability is your top priority. Brevo's historical volatility (67.7% to 96.3% across EmailToolTester rounds) is a documented risk. If your business depends on inbox placement — ecommerce with abandoned cart emails, SaaS with onboarding sequences — the cheaper price is not worth the uncertainty. MailerLite (89.8% ETT, $139/mo at 25K) or ActiveCampaign (94.2% ETT, $489/mo at 25K) are more predictable.

If you need advanced automation. Brevo's automation builder handles the basics (welcome series, simple triggers, if/then branching) but does not approach ActiveCampaign's 135+ triggers or Mailchimp's Customer Journey Builder at its best. If you are leaving Mailchimp because automation is too limited, Brevo is not the upgrade — ActiveCampaign is.

If you email your full list frequently. The per-email savings disappear if you send daily. A 10,000-subscriber list emailing daily needs 300,000 emails/month — Brevo does not publish pricing above 100K emails on their standard tiers, pushing you to Professional at $499+/mo. Mailchimp at $135/mo would be cheaper.

If you need many native integrations. Brevo has 150+ integrations vs Mailchimp's 300+. If you rely on niche tools, check whether Brevo connects natively or if you need Zapier as middleware.

If you have a team. Multi-user access on Brevo requires the Standard plan (limited seats) or Professional ($499/mo for 10 seats). Mailchimp includes multi-user on lower tiers.

Brevo is built for one specific scenario: large subscriber lists with moderate sending frequency where the per-email pricing model saves serious money. If that is you, it is a strong choice. If it is not, MailerLite or ActiveCampaign are likely better fits.