Brevo vs Mailchimp: the SMB email duel

Mailchimp hosts your data in the US, then bans the data that would need it regulated

Mailchimp hosts customer data on its own US servers under SOC 2 and ISO 27001, yet its own terms prohibit importing regulated sensitive data and no HIPAA business associate agreement exists at any tier, while Brevo never hosts in the US at all, running only on OVH and Google Cloud under an ISO 27001:2022 certification. Scope compared, criterion by criterion. Checked 7 September 2026.

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Brevo

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Brevo vs Mailchimp: scope compared, criterion by criterion — checked September 7, 2026
Brevo	Mailchimp
What the tool answers
What it measures or produces
Outbound messages — email, SMS, WhatsApp, push, chat, chatbot, phone — and the open, click and conversion statistics attached to each	The contact, held in one or more audiences and targeted by email or SMS campaigns. Billing itself is computed on that stored contact count
The job it equips
The email marketing manager at a small company, who builds campaigns personally in a drag-and-drop editor without a developer, and reads results in the same place	The marketer who designs and sends their own campaigns inside a small business, with no production team and no integrator behind them
What it cannot tell you
What happened more than two years ago: past ten million events, those older than twenty-four months are deleted, with the extension reserved for Enterprise	A real open rate: the vendor states that Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates opens and blocks any read on location, device or mail client
Send, deliver, measure
Deliverability
One dedicated IP included on Enterprise, otherwise a $251-per-year add-on, open only to Professional and Enterprise. Gradual warm-up is mandatory, authentication via Brevo code, DKIM and DMARC	No dedicated IP in the marketing plans: it exists only on the transactional add-on, at $29.95 per month. DKIM and DMARC authentication is required above five thousand daily emails to Gmail
Editor and templates
Three editors — drag-and-drop, rich text, HTML — over forty free responsive templates, and conditional block display through content visibility or an if statement	Drag-and-drop up to four columns, vendor and saved templates. Custom HTML and conditional content are reserved for Standard and above
Segmentation
An explicit ceiling of one hundred combinable conditions per segment, across attributes, email and SMS activity, conversations, web tracking, commerce, custom events, deals and companies	Ten conditions maximum and no and/or logic on Free and Essentials. Unlimited conditions with combined logic start at Standard; segments recompute on every send
Automated journeys
Triggers across contacts, forms, email, ecommerce, deals, meetings, phone, push, WhatsApp and web, with four rules including a conditional split. Some triggers require a paid package	Four steps maximum on Essentials, two hundred from Standard up. Conditional branches, up to five conditions, and percentage splits also require Standard
A/B testing
Subject line or content, with a fifty per cent test group by default, twenty-five per version, and a fifty per cent maximum per version. Automatic winner by open or click rate	One variable of four — subject, sender, content, send time — up to three variations, ten per cent minimum sample, automatic winner by open, click or revenue
Billing unit
By volume of emails sent, not per contact — but that volume also caps stored contacts, and exceeding it triggers an automatic, chargeable move to the next tier	By contact tier, computed on the cycle's peak, with sending capped at ten, twelve or fifteen times that count on Essentials, Standard or Premium. Overage adds billed blocks
GDPR compliance
A data processing agreement is available, breach notification within seventy-two hours, and exportable proof of consent carrying the timestamp and form ID	Double opt-in configurable per audience, consent-checkbox forms whose wording is archived in plain text, and a DPA folded into the Terms of Use, with no separate signature
CAN-SPAM and state-law compliance
Brevo names CAN-SPAM (AUP), requires an unsubscribe link; the Terms also cite the TCPA and CCPA, the only state law named. The tool doesn't block, it patches: lacking a link, it adds a footer — the sanction is only contractual.	Mailchimp does not block a non-compliant CAN-SPAM send: it auto-adds a default footer if tags are missing. Opt-outs within 10 business days, link valid 30 days. No state law named. P.O. box accepted by 2 pages, excluded by a 3rd.
What comes out of it
Export formats
Contacts as CSV with a selectable separator, campaign report as PDF and CSV. But the CSV breakdown by domain starts only at the Standard tier	A full export produces a single ZIP file, capped at one request per twenty-four hours. Campaign reports download separately, as CSV
Shareable reports
A campaign report is shared by entering addresses: recipients get a link to a read-only page. No scheduled report and no white-labeling in that article	Sharing a report assumes the recipient holds an active Mailchimp account: the link alone grants nothing. Custom reports start at Standard
API access
A REST API stated as included on every plan, with quotas counted per hour and per second, up to two thousand per second on transactional sending at Professional	The Marketing API is included at no announced extra cost, capped at ten simultaneous connections with a 429 beyond. Permissions follow the key owner's role
What it connects to
Native integrations
Over one hundred and fifty advertised, the vendor citing Shopify, WordPress, Stripe and Zapier as examples. The detailed catalogue renders in JavaScript and could not be counted	Over three hundred advertised. The three that decide: Shopify for the store, Salesforce for CRM, Google Analytics for measurement
Google tools it connects to
Google Analytics through automatic UTM tagging, and Google Ads receiving Brevo segments as audiences, a sync advertised as free	Two documented hooks: Google Analytics 4, tracking emails and hosted pages, and Google Lead Ads, feeding ad form submissions into an audience
Bringing your existing data across
A Brevo-built Mailchimp integration imports up to a million contacts, with attribute matching chosen field by field. Mailchimp tags, though, are not carried over	The vendor's own Klaviyo migration guide is entirely manual: CSV export, segments and automations rebuilt by hand, HTML copied over, SMS contacts handled separately
Getting started, and the fine print
Support
Support answers in French, by ticket on every tier. Phone is reserved for Professional and Enterprise, Monday to Friday — with no published hours or time zone	Six languages including French, over chat and email around the clock from the first paid tier. Phone is Premium only, and in English only
Where the data is hosted
OVH in France and Germany only, plus Google Cloud in Belgium, with at least three copies across two distinct locations. It is the only vendor in this grid naming its hosts	The United States, named by the vendor, and nothing else: no European region is offered, transfers resting on Standard Contractual Clauses and the Data Privacy Framework
What happens if you leave
The terms of service state that customer content is immediately and permanently deleted on termination, with retrieval possible for at most twenty-four hours	No refunds outside a malfunction. Deleting the account erases audiences, archives and reports, with the vendor advising an export first; pausing keeps everything
Minimum seats billed
One seat, the account owner, on Free and Starter. Standard includes one, Professional ten, Enterprise caps none	One seat on Free, carrying Owner permissions only. Essentials opens three, Standard five, Premium an uncapped number
Data residency and regulated cloud
Brevo doesn't host in the US (OVH, Google Cloud): no US region. Its only self-claimed certification is ISO 27001:2022. No SOC 2, HIPAA BAA, FedRAMP, StateRAMP, or GovCloud as of 2026-09-07; US data is a transfer, not hosting.	Mailchimp hosts on its own servers in the US (no region, no third-party host). Own certs: SOC 2 (type unspecified), ISO 27001. FedRAMP, StateRAMP, GovCloud, HIPAA BAA absent; importing regulated sensitive data is prohibited.
Interface languages shipped
Brevo ships six interface languages, English in two variants (US and UK) among them, plus Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. As of 2026-09-07, no screen, menu, or system email is flagged as untranslated.	Mailchimp ships the interface in 6 languages (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian). Video tutorials are captioned in 5 languages, Italian excluded. Distinct from sent-content translation tools (50+ languages).
What it costs
The entry price and what it includes
Two figures coexist in the vendor's own pages for Starter: $9 per month excluding tax in the help centre, and 7 € per month for five thousand emails on a French comparison page. Neither pricing grid could be read at source	$13 per month for five hundred contacts on Essentials, with sending capped at ten times the contact count. The vendor presents that figure as a starting price on one page and a twelve-month promotion on another
What pushes the bill up
Monthly email volume first, then separately billed add-ons: SAML single sign-on at $324 per month, a dedicated IP at $251 per year, and extra seats	Billing runs on the peak contact count of the cycle, not the average. On overage nothing is cut off: contact blocks are added automatically, at a price visible only once logged in
Sales tax and nexus
Brevo charges US sales tax in twelve named states (Florida, New York, Texas...) based on billing address, at each state's rate. Exemption needs documentation. No economic nexus or local calculation; the page shows no update date.	Mailchimp itself charges US sales tax in 21 jurisdictions (Colorado, New York, Texas...), by customer address. Exemption limited to nonprofits/government bodies with documents. No per-state/local calc for the customer's own sales.
Procurement and invoicing
Contradiction on the US entity: 'SIB INC. US' (Terms) vs 'Sendinblue, Inc. dba Brevo USA' (Privacy Policy). Card is the default; ACH is open to US customers except the first payment. Payment is due at signup, no net-30. No W-9.	Mailchimp accepts only card, PayPal, SEPA, iDEAL (§11); invoicing, PO, net-30, ACH, W-9 absent — an “invoice” is a relabeled receipt. Card only through Premium ($350/month); beyond 200,000 contacts, custom plan, no stated tier.

Key takeaways

US hosting doesn’t buy Mailchimp a HIPAA agreement

Mailchimp hosts on its own servers in the United States, naming no region and no third-party host, and holds SOC 2 of an unspecified type plus ISO 27001. FedRAMP, StateRAMP, GovCloud, and a HIPAA business associate agreement are all absent at every tier — and the vendor’s own terms go further, prohibiting the import of regulated sensitive data outright, whatever the plan.

Brevo’s only certification sits an ocean away from the US

Brevo runs on OVH, in France and Germany, and on Google Cloud, in Belgium — no US region at all. Its sole self-claimed certification is ISO 27001:2022, with no SOC 2, HIPAA BAA, FedRAMP, StateRAMP, or GovCloud as of the seventh of September, twenty twenty-six. Whatever data crosses to the US is a transfer, never a hosting location.

Both editors patch the footer; only one names a state law

Brevo cites CAN-SPAM under its Acceptable Use Policy, requires an unsubscribe link, and separately names the TCPA and the CCPA in its Terms — but it doesn’t block a noncompliant send, it patches it: a missing link gets a default footer, and the sanction stays contractual. Mailchimp patches the same way, auto-adding a footer when compliance tags are missing and giving ten business days for opt-outs to clear, but names no state law at all — and two of its own pages accept a P.O. box as a compliant address while a third excludes it.

Twelve named states against twenty-one, and neither counts the customer’s own sales

Brevo charges sales tax in twelve named states — Florida, New York, and Texas among them — at each state’s own rate, exemption requiring documentation. Mailchimp charges it in twenty-one jurisdictions instead, by the customer’s own address, exemption limited to nonprofits and government bodies with paperwork. Neither vendor offers any per-state or local calculation for the customer’s own downstream sales.

Six languages named on both sides, counted two different ways

Brevo ships six interface languages, English split into US and UK variants, plus Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, with no screen or system email flagged as untranslated. Mailchimp also lists six — English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian — but its video tutorials are captioned in only five of them, Italian excluded, a separate matter from the fifty-plus languages its content-translation tool can render for outgoing email.

Frequently asked questions

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jordan@bulldozer-collective.com

Can a buyer store HIPAA-regulated data in Mailchimp?

No: Mailchimp hosts on its own US servers but explicitly prohibits importing regulated sensitive data, publishing no HIPAA business associate agreement, FedRAMP, StateRAMP or GovCloud certification, only SOC 2 of an unspecified type and ISO 27001 of its own. Brevo does not host in the US at all — its infrastructure sits with OVH and Google Cloud — and its only self-claimed certification is ISO 27001:2022.

Does Mailchimp block a campaign that fails CAN-SPAM compliance?

No: Mailchimp does not block a non-compliant send, it automatically adds a default footer when required tags are missing, honors opt-outs within 10 business days with an unsubscribe link valid for 30 days, and names no specific state law. Brevo takes the same patch-rather-than-block approach — adding a footer when a link is missing — but its Terms also name the TCPA and the CCPA specifically.

In how many US states does Brevo charge sales tax?

Brevo charges US sales tax in 12 named states, including Florida, New York and Texas, based on the billing address and each state’s own rate, with exemption requiring documentation. Mailchimp covers a wider set, 21 jurisdictions such as Colorado, New York and Texas, but limits exemption to nonprofits and government bodies with the required documents.