Mailchimp charges by contact count and offers a 15% TechSoup nonprofit discount that's well documented and easy to apply. Brevo charges by emails sent rather than contact count, includes unlimited contacts on every plan, and offers a 15% nonprofit discount — though the verification process is less standardised than TechSoup. For nonprofits with large lists and infrequent sends, Brevo's pricing model is genuinely different. Groupmail costs $15/month flat with unlimited contacts and no discount paperwork.
Platform Overview
See how each platform compares
Mailchimp
Full-featured marketing platform
Mailchimp is a full marketing platform — email, landing pages, social ads, and basic CRM. Originally built for small businesses, it offers a free plan up to 500 contacts and a wide template library. It works for nonprofits but charges for every contact in the list including unsubscribes, and the 15% TechSoup nonprofit discount is the smallest among major platforms.
Brevo
Pay-per-email platform with built-in CRM
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is an email and SMS platform with a pay-per-email pricing model rather than a per-contact one. Its free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts with a 300/day send cap. Paid plans start at $9/month for 5,000 emails. For nonprofits with large lists who send infrequently — a member newsletter once or twice a month — the model can be genuinely cheaper than per-contact pricing.
Key Differences
Pricing model: per-contact vs per-email
Brevo winsMailchimp charges by the size of your contact list — every contact (subscribed, unsubscribed, or non-subscribed) counts toward your billing tier. Brevo charges by emails sent. A nonprofit with 10,000 members sending one newsletter per month uses 10,000 email credits on Brevo (~$29/mo on Starter) versus $100/mo on Mailchimp Standard. For organizations with large lists and infrequent sends, Brevo's model is structurally cheaper.
Nonprofit discount accessibility
Mailchimp winsMailchimp's 15% nonprofit discount runs through TechSoup, which is the standard verification platform across the nonprofit software sector. Most US nonprofits already have a TechSoup account from other software discounts. Brevo also offers 15% off paid plans for verified nonprofits, but the verification process runs through Brevo's sales team directly and is less standardised — reviewers report inconsistent approval times. The discount percentage is identical; the process is harder on Brevo.
Charging for unsubscribed contacts
Groupmail winsMailchimp counts unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts toward your billing tier — a list of 4,000 active members with 6,000 historical unsubscribes is billed at the 10,000-contact tier. Brevo's per-email model sidesteps this entirely: you only pay for emails sent, not contacts stored. Groupmail goes one step further: unlimited contacts on every paid plan, never any contact-based charges.
Free plan capability
DrawMailchimp's free plan: 500 contacts, 1,000 emails per month, 500/day send cap. Brevo's free plan: up to 100,000 contacts stored, 300 emails per day. Both have meaningful limits. Mailchimp suits small lists with monthly digest sends. Brevo suits larger lists that send small batches frequently (daily devotionals, automated welcome emails). Neither lets a 5,000-member nonprofit send a single newsletter on the free tier.
Feature Comparison
16 features · pricing verified May 14, 2026
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| Feature | Mailchimp | Brevo | Groupmail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | |||
| Free plan | 500 contacts, 1,000 emails/mo | Up to 100k contacts, 300 emails/day | 500 contacts, 1,000 emails/mo |
| Pricing model | Per contact (tiered) | Per email sent | Flat rate, unlimited contacts |
| Price at 2,500 contacts (monthly send) | ~$45/mo (Standard) | ~$9/mo (5k emails Starter) | $15/mo (unlimited contacts) |
| Price at 10,000 contacts (monthly send) | ~$100/mo (Standard) | ~$29/mo (20k emails Starter) | $15/mo (unlimited contacts) |
| Unlimited contacts | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Nonprofit discount | 15% via TechSoup | 15% (direct verification) | Community-First pricing, no application |
| Email Features | |||
| Drag-and-drop editor | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Email automation | Standard+ plans | Free plan (limited) | ✗ |
| A/B testing | Standard+ plans | Business+ plans | ✗ |
| Transactional email | Add-on cost | Included on all plans | ✗ |
| Extra Tools | |||
| Built-in CRM | Basic (Audience) | Included on all plans | ✗ |
| SMS marketing | Add-on cost | Pay-as-you-go credits | ✗ |
| Support & Compliance | |||
| Human support (all plans) | ✗ | Email (free), chat/phone (paid) | Every plan, including free |
| Volunteer handover support | ✗ | ✗ | Included (Continuity plan) |
| GDPR compliant | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| EU data storage | ✗ | France (EU) | Ireland (EU by default) |
Pricing at 10,000 Contacts
All prices USD · verified May 14, 2026
Brevo
$29/mo
Starter plan, 20,000 emails (unlimited contacts)
~$25/mo after 15% nonprofit discount — assumes 2 sends/mo to 10k list
Groupmail
$15/mo
Community plan, unlimited contacts
Same price at 1,000 or 100,000 contacts
Pros & Cons
Mailchimp
Pros
- Free plan up to 500 contacts / 1,000 emails per month
- Intuitive drag-and-drop email editor
- Landing pages and signup forms included
- Strong automation on Standard plans and above
- 300+ integrations including Salesforce, Stripe, and Eventbrite
- Detailed campaign analytics with click maps and audience growth tracking
Cons
- Counts unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts toward billing tier
- 15% nonprofit discount via TechSoup — smallest among major platforms
- No phone support — email and chat only
- Discount does not apply to the first paid month
- Price climbs steeply above 2,500 contacts
- Dashboard has grown cluttered with marketing features most nonprofits never use
Brevo
Pros
- Charges by emails sent rather than contact count
- Free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts (300 sends/day)
- Pay-as-you-go email credits that never expire
- Built-in CRM, transactional email, and SMS on every plan
- Drag-and-drop editor with reusable template library
- 15% nonprofit discount on paid plans (verification required)
Cons
- 300 emails/day cap on the free plan — cannot send to a large list in one go
- Trustpilot reviews flag slow customer support response times
- Account suspensions for deliverability reasons reported by some users
- Add-on fees ($9/mo) to remove the 'Sent by Brevo' logo on Starter plan
- Nonprofit verification process is less standardised than TechSoup
- List management UI rated less intuitive than Mailchimp's in user reviews
What others say
Verified third-party reviews and resources for further reading.
Which Should You Choose?
Choose Mailchimp if…
- →Nonprofits with fewer than 500 active contacts and zero budget
- →Organizations that need landing pages alongside email
- →Teams already invested in the Mailchimp/Google/Salesforce ecosystem
- →Grant-funded programs that need detailed campaign analytics for reporting
- →Nonprofits using multiple SaaS tools that need native integrations
Choose Brevo if…
- →Nonprofits with large lists (5,000+) that send 1-2 campaigns per month
- →Organizations that want email and SMS in one platform
- →Teams that need a built-in CRM alongside email
- →Nonprofits that send transactional emails (receipts, confirmations) as well as newsletters
- →Organizations comfortable with email-volume budgeting rather than contact-tier budgeting
A third option
Neither was built for nonprofits.
Mailchimp was built for marketers. Brevo was built for ecommerce and transactional senders. Groupmail has been built for organisations like yours since 1996.
Flat $15/month pricing
Unlimited contacts, no TechSoup application, no verification waiting period. Same price at 500 contacts or 50,000.
No per-email or per-contact accounting
Send as often as you need to as many members as you have. No daily caps, no email credits running out, no unsubscribe billing surprises.
Volunteer handover included
Annual handover call when your coordinator changes (Continuity plan, $29/mo). Built for the reality of nonprofit staffing.
User Reviews
“We outgrew the free plan and the jump to paid was steep. At 3,000 contacts we're paying $50/month and still getting charged for people who unsubscribed years ago. The interface has gotten more complex too — half our volunteers can't figure out the new campaign builder.”
Sarah K.
Communications Manager, Community Foundation
“Mailchimp's free plan got us started when we had zero budget. The templates are solid and the reporting is better than anything else we tried. Once we passed 500 contacts the cost started adding up, but the integrations with our donor database keep us here for now.”
David M.
Executive Director, Regional Arts Council
“The pay-as-you-go email pricing saved us thousands. We have 12,000 contacts but only send 2-3 campaigns monthly, so per-contact pricing on other platforms made no sense for us. The drag-and-drop editor is intuitive and the built-in CRM means we're not juggling five different tools anymore.”
Elena P.
Operations Lead, Community Nonprofit
“Brevo works well for our small church communications — clear pricing, intuitive newsletter design, and the daily devotional automation runs on the free plan. The only frustration is support response times when something does go wrong. Replies can take days and sometimes feel templated rather than tailored to the actual issue.”
Marcus B.
Parish Administrator, Community Church
Frequently Asked Questions
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Mailchimp vs Brevo: Full Overview
Mailchimp and Brevo represent two genuinely different approaches to email platform pricing. Mailchimp charges by how many contacts you store. Brevo charges by how many emails you send. For nonprofits — who often have large member lists but send infrequently — this difference is structural, not cosmetic.
Mailchimp launched in 2001 as an email marketing tool for small businesses and was acquired by Intuit in 2021 for $12 billion. It has since expanded into landing pages, social ads, CRM features, and marketing automation. Its 15% TechSoup nonprofit discount is the most widely recognised in the sector, though it is the smallest among major platforms.
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue, rebranded in 2023) is a French company based in Paris. It started as a transactional email service for ecommerce and grew into a full email, SMS, and CRM platform. Its pay-per-email pricing model is the standout feature — it works fundamentally differently from contact-tier platforms like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and MailerLite.
Per-Contact vs Per-Email Pricing Explained
Mailchimp's per-contact model means your monthly cost scales with list size. A 1,000-contact list costs roughly $20/month on Standard. A 5,000-contact list costs ~$75/month. A 10,000-contact list costs ~$100/month. This holds whether you send one email per month or twenty.
Brevo's per-email model means your monthly cost scales with send volume. The Starter plan at $9/month includes 5,000 emails. $29/month includes 20,000 emails. $69/month includes 100,000 emails. Contact storage is unlimited (up to 100,000 even on the free plan).
For a 10,000-member nonprofit sending one monthly newsletter, this works out to 10,000 emails per month — covered by Brevo's $29/month Starter plan. On Mailchimp, the same nonprofit pays $100/month regardless of how often they send.
The model flips for nonprofits with smaller lists who send more frequently. A 500-member organization sending three newsletters per week (6,000 emails/month) would need Brevo's $29/month tier — versus Mailchimp's free plan covering 1,000 emails/month or Standard at ~$20/month covering more.
Free Plans Compared
Both Mailchimp and Brevo offer permanent free plans, but with very different shapes. The right choice depends on list size and sending pattern.
Mailchimp's free plan includes 500 contacts and 1,000 email sends per month, with a daily send cap of 500. It includes the drag-and-drop editor, basic templates, and signup forms. It does not include automation, A/B testing, or scheduled sending. For a small nonprofit with under 500 members sending a single monthly newsletter, the free plan is fully functional.
Brevo's free plan flips the limits: up to 100,000 contacts stored, but only 300 emails per day (roughly 9,000 per month if used daily, but you cannot send to a 5,000-member list in one go). It includes drag-and-drop editing, limited automation, basic CRM, transactional email, and SMS capabilities. The 300/day cap is the catch — large nonprofits cannot send a single newsletter to their full list without splitting it across multiple days or upgrading.
Groupmail's free plan matches Mailchimp's structure (500 contacts, 1,000 emails/month) but is specifically built for community organisations rather than marketing teams.
Where Mailchimp Adds Value for Nonprofits
Mailchimp's strongest case for nonprofits starts with its integration ecosystem. With over 300 native integrations — including Salesforce, Stripe, Eventbrite, WordPress, QuickBooks, and Google Analytics — nonprofits using multiple SaaS tools can connect their systems without third-party middleware. For organizations running on Salesforce NPSP or HubSpot CRM, Mailchimp's native sync is hard to match.
The TechSoup nonprofit discount process is also more standardised. Most US nonprofits already have a TechSoup account from other software discounts (Microsoft, Adobe, Google Workspace). Adding Mailchimp to that workflow is straightforward. Brevo's verification process runs through their own sales team, which is less predictable.
Mailchimp's reporting is more detailed than Brevo's out of the box. Campaign analytics include click maps, purchase tracking (if connected to e-commerce), and audience growth charts. For nonprofits filing grant reports that require engagement metrics, Mailchimp provides more granular data without needing add-ons.
The tradeoff: per-contact pricing that punishes nonprofits with long-established lists, plus a 15% discount that's the smallest among major platforms.
Where Brevo Adds Value for Nonprofits
Brevo's clearest advantage for nonprofits is the per-email pricing model, especially for organizations with large lists who send infrequently. A nonprofit with 10,000 members sending one or two newsletters per month will pay dramatically less on Brevo than on any per-contact platform.
Brevo also bundles features that Mailchimp charges extra for or doesn't include. Transactional email (donation receipts, event confirmations, password resets) is built into every Brevo plan — Mailchimp charges separately through Mandrill add-ons. SMS capabilities are pay-as-you-go credits on Brevo; Mailchimp's SMS is an add-on with its own pricing tier.
The built-in CRM is a meaningful differentiator. For small nonprofits without Salesforce or HubSpot, Brevo's CRM can serve as both donor database and email platform — one tool instead of two. The CRM is basic compared to dedicated nonprofit CRMs (Bloomerang, DonorPerfect) but adequate for membership tracking.
EU data storage is standard on Brevo (the company is French). For nonprofits with EU donor bases, this simplifies GDPR compliance compared to Mailchimp's US-based infrastructure.
Deliverability Track Records
Email deliverability — the percentage of emails that reach the inbox rather than spam — matters more than features for nonprofit communication. A beautifully designed email is worthless if it lands in spam.
Mailchimp maintains a strong deliverability reputation, with industry tests consistently placing it in the 88-95% inbox placement range. Mailchimp enforces strict list hygiene rules and will suspend accounts with high bounce rates or spam complaints — frustrating when it happens, but it's why their overall delivery rates stay high.
Brevo's deliverability is generally rated slightly lower, around 88% in independent tests. Some Trustpilot reviewers report account suspensions for 'performance' reasons that took days to resolve. Brevo's deliverability is good but not best-in-class.
Groupmail handles deliverability through managed email delivery — the platform manages the technical infrastructure (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and sending reputation on behalf of each organization. For organizations without a technical team, managed delivery removes a category of problems entirely.
Migration Considerations
Switching email platforms is straightforward but requires planning. Both Mailchimp and Brevo allow CSV export of contacts including email addresses, names, tags, and custom fields. Neither exports campaign history or automation workflows in a format the other can directly import.
If moving from Mailchimp to Brevo, the biggest task is rebuilding email templates — Mailchimp templates do not transfer. Plan for 2-4 hours for a typical nonprofit account with one or two recurring newsletter templates.
If moving from Brevo to Mailchimp, the same applies in reverse, plus you'll need to manually migrate any built-in CRM data into Mailchimp's Audience or a separate CRM tool.
If considering Groupmail as an alternative to either platform, the migration is simpler: export your contacts as a CSV, import into Groupmail, and start sending. There are no automations to recreate because Groupmail focuses on email sends rather than marketing workflows. Groupmail also offers migration assistance on the Continuity plan ($29/month). One critical note: Mailchimp charges for unsubscribed contacts, so when exporting, export only active subscribers to avoid paying for dead contacts on any new platform.
For Nonprofits Specifically
Neither Mailchimp nor Brevo was built for nonprofits. Mailchimp was built for small business marketing. Brevo started as a transactional email service for ecommerce. Both added nonprofit discounts as customer acquisition strategies — the platforms themselves reflect their original audiences.
For nonprofits with large but infrequently-emailed lists (alumni associations, historical societies, museum supporter lists, professional associations), Brevo's per-email pricing genuinely solves a problem that per-contact platforms create. A 15,000-member historical society sending a quarterly newsletter pays for what they actually use, not for what they store.
For nonprofits with smaller, more engaged lists who send frequently (weekly church bulletins, daily school district updates, multi-touch fundraising appeals), the math changes. A 1,500-member church sending three emails per week (18,000 emails/month) would pay ~$29/month on Brevo versus ~$30/month on Mailchimp Standard — roughly equivalent.
Groupmail was built for exactly this scenario: organizations with members (not customers), volunteer-led teams, and tight budgets. Flat pricing ($15/month, unlimited contacts), no per-email accounting, and annual handover calls for coordinator transitions. Send as often as needed, to as many members as you have, for the same predictable price.
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