How to Compare Email Marketing Pricing by List Size

Email marketing prices cannot be compared tier to tier, because the three best-known small business platforms meter different things. Mailchimp charges by stored contacts and caps monthly sends at a multiple of that number. MailerLite charges by subscribers and limits user seats by tier.

Brevo charges by emails sent and treats the contact list as free. This note reads all three vendors' pricing pages on October 13, 2026, with the currency selector set to US dollars, and prices a 500-contact list that sends one newsletter a week.

Decide whether you are buying contacts or sends

Mailchimp's price card moves with a contact selector. On the 0 to 500 bracket it printed Essentials from $13 a month, Standard from $20 and Premium from $350, with monthly send limits of 10X, 12X and 15X contacts respectively.

MailerLite's card moves with a subscriber figure. At 500 subscribers it printed Comfort at $12 a month, or $10.80 USD a month billed yearly, and Power at $25, or $22.50 USD billed yearly. The free tier holds 250 subscribers.

Brevo's card does not move with contacts at all. It printed Starter at $9 a month, $8.08 yearly, described as from 5,000 emails per month, and Professional at $499, $449.08 yearly, from 150,000 emails per month.

Write down the meter before the rate. That is the same habit that makes a support bill predictable, as set out in how to read a help desk pricing page.

Price a 500-contact list sending weekly

Editorial calculation, 500 contacts, four campaigns a month to the whole list, so 2,000 emails a month, annual billing where the page offers it, list prices as of October 13, 2026:

• Brevo Starter: $8.08 a month billed yearly, so $96.96 a year, with an allowance stated as from 5,000 emails a month
• MailerLite Comfort: $10.80 USD a month billed yearly, printed as $129.60 billed yearly, with 5,000 monthly emails
• Mailchimp Essentials: $13 a month, so $156 a year, with a send limit of 10X contacts, or 5,000 a month
• Brevo Standard: $16.17 a month billed yearly, so $194.04 a year
• Mailchimp Standard: $20 a month, so $240 a year, with a send limit of 12X contacts, or 6,000 a month
• MailerLite Power: $22.50 USD a month billed yearly, printed as $270.00 billed yearly, with unlimited monthly emails
• Mailchimp Premium: $350 a month, so $4,200 a year, with a send limit of 15X contacts

Three of those entry options land within $60 of each other over a year. Mailchimp Premium is thirty times the cheapest, which is a sign it was never priced for a 500-contact list.

Both free tiers fail this workload. Mailchimp Free allows 1 seat, 1 audience of up to 250 contacts and up to 500 sends a month with a 250 daily cap. MailerLite Free allows 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails.

Mailchimp steps the price at bracket edges

Mailchimp's contact selector listed twenty brackets on October 13, 2026, starting 0 to 500, then 501 to 1,500, 1,501 to 2,500, 2,501 to 5,000, 5,001 to 10,000, and running on to 1,000,000 and above.

Price steps at the edge of a bracket, not with each contact. A list at 1,490 and a list at 1,510 sit in different brackets, so importing a small batch can move the invoice.

That makes list hygiene a pricing decision rather than a deliverability one. Clearing unengaged contacts before a renewal is the email equivalent of counting seats, the exercise in what per-agent pricing means when agents are part-time.

Brevo inverts the problem. A 50,000-contact list costs nothing to hold, but one campaign to all of them consumes 50,000 of a monthly send allowance that starts at 5,000 on Starter.

Count the seats each plan includes

Seat counts are where the three pages diverge most sharply, and they are easy to miss under the headline rate.

Mailchimp states 1 seat on Free, 3 on Essentials, 5 on Standard and unlimited on Premium. MailerLite states 2 user seats on Free, 3 on Comfort and unlimited on Power.

Brevo lists multi-user access with 10 seats included as a Professional feature at $499 a month, $449.08 yearly. The Starter and Standard cards read for this note do not print a seat count.

For a marketing function of three or four people, that single line can decide the plan, the same way a seat tier decides a password manager bill in how to compare password manager pricing for a small team.

Read what happens when a limit is hit

Mailchimp's page carries two statements about exceeding a limit. One reads that overages apply if the contact or email send limit is exceeded. Another reads that sending will be paused if the contact or email send limit is exceeded.

Those are different outcomes, one a charge and one a stop, and both appeared on the page on October 13, 2026. Confirm which applies to the chosen plan before a campaign day.

MailerLite and Brevo print allowances rather than overage prices on their cards. MailerLite Power states unlimited monthly emails, which removes the question entirely at $270.00 a year.

An allowance with no published overage price is the wording to treat with care. It is the same ambiguity that sits behind the word unlimited elsewhere, as what unlimited calling really means in business phone plans sets out.

Check which price the page is actually showing you

Mailchimp displayed a promotional strip reading save 15 percent on 10,000 or more contacts, and showed $11.05, $17 and $297.50 a month for 12 months beside the standard $13, $20 and $350.

Those discounted figures were on screen while the 0 to 500 contact bracket was selected, which does not match the stated condition of 10,000 or more contacts. Both sets of numbers were visible at the same time.

Where a page shows two prices at once, treat the checkout total as the answer and the card as a guide. Mailchimp also notes that non-USD prices are estimates based on current exchange rates, with USD as the base.

MailerLite quotes 10 percent off for yearly billing and Brevo quotes 10 percent, both measured against their own monthly rates. A discount measured that way only tells you monthly billing costs more, as noted in what per-agent pricing means when agents are part-time.

Bottom line

For a 500-contact list sending weekly, the published annual bills run from $96.96 on Brevo Starter to $270.00 on MailerLite Power, with Mailchimp Essentials at $156 in between, as of October 13, 2026.

Pick by meter first. Choose Brevo if the list is large and the sending is occasional, MailerLite if the list is small and the team needs more than three seats, Mailchimp if the brackets fit and the integrations matter more.

Then confirm the seat count, the send allowance and the overage rule at checkout rather than on the card. That is the same closing check described in how to read a help desk pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Is Mailchimp or MailerLite cheaper for a small list?

At 500 contacts, MailerLite Comfort is $10.80 USD a month billed yearly, printed as $129.60 a year, against Mailchimp Essentials at $13 a month, or $156 a year by editorial calculation. MailerLite is cheaper at the entry tier, as of October 13, 2026.

Does Brevo charge for contacts?

Brevo's pricing page meters emails sent, not contacts. Starter is $9 a month, $8.08 billed yearly, described as from 5,000 emails per month, and Professional is $499, $449.08 yearly, from 150,000 emails per month.

How many emails can you send on Mailchimp each month?

The page states monthly send limits as a multiple of stored contacts: 10X on Essentials, 12X on Standard and 15X on Premium. At 500 contacts that is 5,000, 6,000 and 7,500 emails a month respectively.

What do the free email marketing plans allow?

Mailchimp Free states 1 seat, one audience of up to 250 contacts and up to 500 sends a month with a 250 daily maximum. MailerLite Free states 250 subscribers, 2,500 monthly emails and 2 user seats, as of October 13, 2026.

How many users do email marketing plans include?

Mailchimp lists 1 seat on Free, 3 on Essentials, 5 on Standard and unlimited on Premium. MailerLite lists 2, 3 and unlimited across Free, Comfort and Power. Brevo lists 10 seats on Professional and prints no seat count on its lower cards.

What happens if you go over a Mailchimp limit?

The page carries both answers. One line states that overages apply if the contact or send limit is exceeded, another that sending will be paused. Both were visible on October 13, 2026, so confirm which applies before a send day.