Mailchimp vs Klaviyo vs Brevo: Klaviyo 7.4, Brevo 7.2, Mailchimp 6.9; 5,000 contacts cost $79 or $100

On six indicators read from each vendor's public pages, Klaviyo scores 7.4 out of 10, Brevo 7.2 and Mailchimp 6.9. For our reference scenario, 5,000 contacts and 25,000 emails a month with a three-email welcome series, billed month to month, Brevo Standard comes to $79 a month and Mailchimp Standard and Klaviyo's email plan to $100 each. Klaviyo stands out for automations on its free plan, SAML SSO on any paid plan and its own SOC 2 Type II report; Brevo for billing by emails sent and servers in the EU; Mailchimp for landing pages on every plan and 5 seats with roles on Standard.

All three are in the Good band, and all three publish a price for every list size and can be bought online month to month. The scores measure what the public pages commit to, not how well each product works or how many emails reach the inbox, and we did not sign up for any of them.

At a glance

What the public pages show

Mailchimp prices each plan by contact tier, with a monthly email limit of 10 times the contacts on Essentials, 12 on Standard and 15 on Premium. Essentials costs $75 for 5,000 contacts but allows only 4 steps per automation flow, and delays count as steps, so a welcome series of three emails needs Standard ($100). Landing pages are free on every plan, and Standard includes 5 seats with 4 roles.

Klaviyo prices its email plan by active profiles: $100 a month for 3,501 to 5,000 with 50,000 emails. Flows and segmentation are on every plan, the free one included. Paid accounts get SAML SSO and required multi-factor sign-in, and the trust center offers Klaviyo's SOC 2 Type II report. The pages do not state how many users a plan includes.

Brevo prices by monthly email volume: a base price per plan plus a published price per volume tier. Automation on Free and Starter is limited to 2,000 contacts, so the scenario uses Standard: $18 + $61 for 20,001 to 30,000 emails. Brevo states that its servers are in the EU and that it holds ISO 27001:2022.

Strengths and things to know

Mailchimp. Strengths: landing pages and popup forms on every plan; 5 seats with roles on Standard; 300+ integrations; SOC 2 reports and ISO 27001 in its own name. Things to know: multi-step automations start on Standard; overage block prices are shown only inside the account; data is stored in the US; annual plans are offered only through sales; and one help article says SMS needs Standard while two others say Essentials.

Klaviyo. Strengths: flows on the free plan; SAML SSO on any paid plan and MFA required for paid accounts; its own SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001; going over a tier moves you to the next published tier. Things to know: the user limit is not stated; the sub-processor list offers a German data center to new accounts while the privacy FAQ says data is stored only in the US; there is no trial of a paid plan; and the free plan's mobile messages are $5 a month on the page and 150 credits in its structured data.

Brevo. Strengths: the lowest scenario price of the three; data stored in the EU; up to 100,000 contacts on the free plan; SMS, WhatsApp and transactional email in one account. Things to know: Standard includes one user; sending stops at the monthly email limit; SSO is an add-on on Professional with no published price, and Professional's total is not stated; and no SOC 2 report appears on the pages we read.

Pricing reality

Reference scenario: 5,000 contacts and 25,000 emails a month (four campaigns to the whole list plus up to 5,000 automated emails), with a welcome series of three emails and two delays that every new contact can enter, on the cheapest self-serve plan that covers all of it, billed month to month, at US list prices before tax.

The billing unit moves the number more than the entry price. Brevo charges for emails sent, so the same list emailed twice as often costs more there, while Mailchimp and Klaviyo charge for the list and include a generous email limit. As an illustration only, a list of 10,000 contacts receiving 50,000 emails a month would cost $135 on Mailchimp Standard (120,000 emails included), $150 on Klaviyo (6,501 to 10,000 profiles, 100,000 emails) and $97 on Brevo Standard ($18 + $79 for 40,001 to 50,000 emails), from the same published price tables.

Yearly billing changes the picture a little: Brevo is about 10% lower ($853 a year for the scenario, computed from its yearly prices), Mailchimp offers annual plans only through sales for Premium or Standard with 10,000+ contacts, and Klaviyo's pricing page does not state an annual price.

How we scored them

Every product in this category is scored on the same six indicators, read from the vendor's own pricing, trust, legal, help center and developer pages, with fixed formulas. The overall score is the plain mean. Our methodology page explains how these scores work.

Pricing clarity loses a point for each price a page leaves out or each pair of pages that disagree: one for Klaviyo, two for Brevo, and one for Mailchimp, which also loses a point because overage prices are not public. Klaviyo's lead comes from compliance (its own SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001) and a free plan with automations. Brevo leads on price and free capacity and scores lower on team access, because Standard includes one user and SSO goes through sales. Mailchimp scores highest on team access, with 5 seats, roles and SSO on Premium, but its free plan is the smallest.

Also in this category

Kit scores 6.8: a creator-focused platform with a free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers, paid newsletters on every plan and Creator at $89 a month for 5,000 subscribers, while its security page cites only its hosting providers' certifications. beehiiv scores 6.2: a newsletter platform with unlimited sends, an ad network and paid subscriptions from Lite at $109 a month for 5,000 subscribers, with SSO and role permissions on Enterprise.

Who should choose which

• Choose Klaviyo if you run an online store and want email and SMS flows driven by customer data, with SSO, MFA and a SOC 2 Type II report on a plan bought online. Look elsewhere if you need to know the user limit or EU storage terms before you sign up.
• Choose Brevo if your customers are in Europe, you want data stored in the EU, or you have a large list that you email a few times a month. Look elsewhere if several teammates need logins on the scenario plan or your review needs SSO without a sales conversation.
• Choose Mailchimp if you want forms, landing pages, newsletters and automations in one familiar tool, with 5 seats and roles on Standard. Look elsewhere if your data must stay in the EU or you need multi-step automations on the cheapest paid plan.

Bottom line

From public pages alone, Klaviyo edges out Brevo, 7.4 to 7.2, on compliance and a free plan with automations, while Brevo is the cheapest for our scenario at $79 a month and the only one storing data in the EU. Mailchimp, at 6.9, costs $100 like Klaviyo and stands out for landing pages on every plan and seats with roles on Standard. For all three, compare the billing unit against how often you send, not only the entry price.

How we checked

We read the vendors' pricing pages and the price data they load, plan comparisons, trust and security pages, legal terms and DPAs, help center articles and developer docs on Oct 16, 2026. The pricing pages fill in prices by script, so we used their price data in US dollars; Mailchimp's matches the Internet Archive copy of Oct 12, 2026. Brevo's help center returned an access error, so its plan facts come from its pricing, features and legal pages. We did not sign up, start a trial or call an API. Facts the pages did not state, such as Klaviyo's user limit or the price of Brevo's SSO add-on, are left out rather than guessed. Every figure is on the vendors' pages as of that date or, where marked, computed from them.