Email Marketing Platforms come in many shapes, sizes and levels. There is Mailerlite, for beginner authors, Mailchimp, for medium sized businesses (we used at an Institute for Learning), and Brevo, a platform I am training in and experimenting with.
Kit (ex-ConvertKit) has been my preferred EMS for the past three years, GetResponse before that, but Brevo is looking like my new boyfriend. I believe it’s the tool for integrated, professional marketing and sales management.
Keeping people engaged in the right content is a top goal, with email list attrition a real battle.
The things I didn’t love about Kit was the lack of a CRM, and that the first level with visual automations you can do anything with costs US27 per month. Like many down under, I despise having to work out how much I will be paying each month for my toolset. Creator Peer recommendations was the best feature of Kit.
Mailchimp: Great Marketing, Weak CRM
When Mailchimp first came out, it was the market disruptor — taking no prisoners and giving 2,000 emails per month freely.
All grown up now, it has powerful automations and a ton of integrations, particularly for ecommerce. But when it comes to a CRM, it feels more like an address book with labels rather than a true sales management tool.
Pricing also reveals important differences. Mailchimp charges by subscriber count, which becomes expensive for larger lists, even if only a small portion of contacts are emailed regularly. They charge $30.82 per month for 500, but my list is now just beyond that so it jumps to $69 per month. Their pop-up forms are going to be good though.
Brevo, however, charges by the number of emails sent, which means large databases can be maintained without escalating costs, making it more flexible and cost-effective.
MailerLite: Simple and Affordable, but Limited
MailerLite as a clean, intuitive platform, good for monthly newsletters and sign-up forms. MailerLite is affordable but you now have to pay $10 pm for keeping a template, which is ridiculous.
It is extremely simple and user-friendly, however, it offers no built-in CRM at all and only limited workflow automation. Businesses that need to move beyond newsletters would quickly run into its limits.
Brevo’s Pro Features
Brevo’s automation is far more advanced, with visual workflows and even retargeting ads, all connected to its CRM. For advanced messaging, you do need to pay $15 per month extra for connecting email, website, facebook messenger, WhatsApp — wherever you get client messages. A time-saver though. You can also run transactional emails through their special centre, set up Chat for your website, set up Web notifications, etc.
Setting up the Chat widget, it was easy to customise the style and then set up custom messages to pop up if visitors ask a question. Their Welcome Bot answered my question about how to set up the widget, simply. (Account Settings: Conversations is where you set this all up).
Setting up the Visual Automation with delays and Yes/No conditional paths was a little confusing, as their video training was based on an old interface. Support was helpful with the third path I needed to create. Such as having three interests for the subscriber to click on, rather than two.
The pricing plan most businesspeople moving beyond those basics toward automation would need is Business Plan, which is (US18) $25 per month. Less for annual. You need this if you want the chatbot and automations, or it is $19 per month for just these things attached to a free email campaigns plan.
Brevo: The Balance of CRM and Marketing
Its pricing by emails sent, not by subscribers, makes it fairer for people with large lists. Even free is 300 emails max per day. It is not going to bite when moving up plans, either, unlike Mailchimp.
More importantly, the built-in CRM and sales pipelines bring together marketing and sales in one place. You can talk about how you’ve used the automations, the visual workflow builder, or even the SMS/WhatsApp integration.
Final Thoughts
If I just needed a simple newsletter tool, MailerLite would do. If I wanted advanced analytics without real sales tracking, Mailchimp might be fine. But for me, Brevo strikes the right balance—it helps me run campaigns and manage relationships in one platform. Its strengths: built-in CRM, powerful multichannel automation, flexible pricing, and robust campaign tracking that bridges marketing and sales in one platform.
Summary Table
| Area | Mailchimp | MailerLite | Why Brevo Excels |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRM | Weak CRM tools; not designed for sales | No CRM functionality | Built-in CRM with pipelines and deal automation |
| Automation | Email-only, good UI but limited channels | Basic; no conditional branching | Advanced, multichannel, visual workflows |
| Pricing | Subscriber-based, costly at scale | Affordable, but basic features | Email-volume pricing—more flexible for large lists |
| Free Plan | Limited contacts & features | Simple but functional | Generous free plan with automations |
| Integrations | Extensive, plus AI analytics | Basic + Zapier support | Solid integrations and API flexibility |
| Analytics | Rich, AI insights and ROI tracking | Basic reporting | Real-time stats and CRM campaign tracking |
| Design / UX | Excellent templates, easy builder | Clean and simple UI | Rich, powerful builder with advanced formatting tools |
Bottom Line
Mailchimp is strong in design, analytics, and marketing automation—but falls short on CRM depth, flexibility, and cost efficiency for growing businesses.
MailerLite is budget-friendly and user-friendly—but is not suited for businesses needing CRM or advanced automation.
Brevo stands out with its combined strengths: built-in CRM, powerful multichannel automation, flexible pricing, and robust campaign tracking that bridges marketing and sales in one platform.