Brevo vs HubSpot vs Mailchimp vs GetResponse: Which Email Marketing Platform Is Right for Your Ecommerce Business?

Picking an email marketing platform is one of those decisions that feels small at the start and ends up mattering a lot six months in. Switch platforms after you have built out your automations, grown your list, and integrated everything with your store, and you are looking at a real migration headache. Choose the right one from the beginning and it compounds quietly in the background, recovering abandoned carts, nurturing leads, and driving repeat sales while you focus on other things.

I have been building ecommerce businesses and helping clients at Ecommerce Paradise do the same since 2013. Email is not optional for a serious ecommerce store. It is one of the highest-ROI channels available, and getting the platform decision right matters. This guide compares four well-known options: Brevo, HubSpot, Mailchimp, and GetResponse. I will give you honest breakdowns of each, real pricing numbers, and a clear answer on which one makes sense for different types of ecommerce operators.

One quick note before diving in: for high-ticket dropshipping stores specifically, I recommend Omnisend as my first choice because of its ecommerce-native automation and Shopify integration. I covered that comparison in detail in the HubSpot vs Klaviyo vs Omnisend vs Drip article. This piece focuses on four other widely used platforms that are worth understanding, especially if you are running a broader ecommerce or content business alongside your store.

If you are still building the foundation of your dropshipping business and want to understand how email marketing fits into the full system, start with my complete guide to high-ticket dropshipping.

Quick Comparison Table

Feature	Brevo	HubSpot	Mailchimp	GetResponse
Best for	Budget-conscious multichannel	CRM-first businesses	Beginners and SMBs	All-in-one marketing
Free plan	Yes (300 emails/day)	Yes (limited)	Yes (500 contacts)	Yes (500 contacts)
Starting paid price	$9/month	$9/seat/month	$13/month	$19/month
Pricing model	Email volume-based	Seat + contact-based	Contact-based	Contact-based
SMS included	Yes	No	No	No
Ecommerce-native	Partial	No	Partial	Partial
Shopify integration	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Webinars	No	No	No	Yes
Landing pages	Business plan+	Yes	Yes	Yes
Learning curve	Low	High	Low	Medium

Brevo: The Best Budget-Friendly Multichannel Option

What Brevo Is

Brevo, formerly known as Sendinblue, is an all-in-one marketing platform that combines email marketing, SMS, WhatsApp messaging, marketing automation, live chat, and a built-in CRM. It is one of the most affordable full-featured marketing platforms available, and its pricing model is genuinely different from most competitors: Brevo charges based on the number of emails you send per month rather than the number of contacts you store.

This pricing distinction matters a lot for operators with large lists who do not email frequently. If you have 10,000 contacts but only send campaigns twice per month, Brevo’s send-volume pricing is significantly more cost-effective than a contact-count model like Mailchimp.

Brevo Pricing

Brevo offers five plan tiers. The free plan includes 300 emails per day (approximately 9,000 per month) with unlimited contact storage. This is one of the most generous free plans in the industry on the contact side, though the daily sending cap is a real limitation for campaign-style marketing where you need to send thousands of emails at once.

The Starter plan begins at $9 per month for 5,000 monthly emails with no daily limit. Scaling up, 20,000 emails per month runs approximately $25 per month and 100,000 emails runs approximately $65 per month. The Business plan, which unlocks marketing automation, A/B testing, send time optimization, and landing pages, starts at $18 per month for 5,000 emails. The Professional tier starts at $449 per month and targets larger teams needing multi-user access and AI segmentation. Brevo branding can be removed for an additional $9 to $10 per month on Starter.

Compare that to Mailchimp, where a similar sending volume at 5,000 contacts runs around $100 per month on the Standard plan. For businesses with large lists and moderate send frequency, Brevo can be 30% to 50% cheaper than Mailchimp for equivalent functionality.

Brevo Pros

The volume-based pricing is the headline advantage and it is a real one. For a store with a large list that sends once or twice per week rather than daily, Brevo’s cost structure is significantly more favorable than contact-count pricing models.

The multichannel capability is also strong. Having email, SMS, and WhatsApp marketing in a single platform with unified automation workflows means you do not need to stitch together separate tools for different channels. The built-in CRM handles basic contact and deal management for small teams.

Deliverability is solid, with inbox placement rates around 89% based on independent testing, which is competitive with most mid-tier platforms. The drag-and-drop email builder is clean and the template library is functional.

The free plan, despite the daily sending cap, stores unlimited contacts and includes marketing automation workflows, which is genuinely unusual. Most free plans gate automation behind paid tiers.

Brevo Cons

The ecommerce-specific features are less developed than dedicated ecommerce email platforms like Klaviyo or Omnisend. The Shopify integration works but is not as deeply native as platforms built specifically for ecommerce. Behavioral segmentation based on purchase history and browsing data requires more manual configuration.

Landing pages are locked behind the Business plan rather than being available on Starter, which is a gap compared to platforms like GetResponse that include them on lower tiers.

The daily sending limit on the free plan is a practical constraint for stores trying to send a campaign to 5,000 contacts in a single day. That campaign takes more than two weeks to complete at 300 emails per day, which is not useful for time-sensitive promotions.

Advanced analytics and reporting are limited until the Business tier. For a growing ecommerce store that wants visibility into revenue attribution and campaign performance, the Starter plan reporting feels thin.

My take: Brevo is a genuinely good choice for small businesses and content-focused operators who want multichannel marketing at an affordable price. For pure ecommerce automation with Shopify, I would still recommend Omnisend first. But if budget is the primary constraint and you want email plus SMS in one tool without paying Klaviyo prices, Brevo is worth a serious look.

HubSpot: The Enterprise CRM That Also Does Email

What HubSpot Is

I covered HubSpot in depth in the previous comparison article, but the short version is this: HubSpot is a comprehensive CRM suite that includes marketing, sales, service, content, and data tools across an interconnected platform. Email marketing is one feature inside the Marketing Hub. It is not a specialized email marketing tool and it was not built specifically for ecommerce.

HubSpot Pricing

HubSpot’s pricing is contact-based and tier-based simultaneously, which makes it genuinely hard to predict. The Marketing Hub free plan includes basic email marketing (2,000 sends per month with HubSpot branding) and a CRM. The Starter plan is $9 per seat per month on an annual contract but critically does not include marketing automation workflows, which are essential for ecommerce email sequences.

The Professional tier, where real automation becomes available, starts at $800 per month with a mandatory $3,000 onboarding fee, making the first-year minimum approximately $12,600. This is the plan you actually need if email automation is a core part of your strategy.

HubSpot Pros

HubSpot’s CRM is outstanding. If you are running a business where sales relationships, deal pipelines, and detailed contact activity matter alongside email marketing, having everything in one unified system is a genuine advantage. The reporting across the full sales and marketing funnel is comprehensive in a way that dedicated email tools cannot match.

The brand recognition and ecosystem are also real benefits. HubSpot integrates with virtually every major business tool, has an extensive template and workflow library, and has a large community of users and certified partners who can help with implementation.

For a high-ticket dropshipping store that also runs a consulting or agency operation, or for operators who want a single tool to handle CRM, email, landing pages, and sales pipeline all in one place, HubSpot’s breadth can justify the cost.

HubSpot Cons

The core problem for most ecommerce dropshippers is that HubSpot is designed for B2B inbound marketing, not product-based ecommerce automation. The ecommerce integration exists but it is not native in the same way that Klaviyo or Omnisend’s Shopify connections are.

The pricing is prohibitive for anyone who actually needs the automation features. Paying $800 per month plus a $3,000 onboarding fee before you have proven email as a revenue channel is a significant risk for a growing store. The free and Starter tiers, while accessible, lack the automation capabilities that make email marketing genuinely valuable for ecommerce.

My take: HubSpot is the right tool when your business needs a comprehensive CRM and sales platform, not just an email marketing tool. For pure ecommerce email marketing, the cost and complexity are not justified at most store revenue levels.

Mailchimp: The Household Name That Has Gotten Expensive

What Mailchimp Is

Mailchimp is the most recognized email marketing platform in the world and the tool that most people think of first when they start email marketing. It has been around for over two decades, has a very polished user interface, an extensive template library with over 260 options, and strong brand recognition that makes buyers comfortable when they see Mailchimp-powered emails.

It is also a platform that has become increasingly expensive and increasingly complex as it has added features over the years, and one that independent ecommerce operators have increasingly been moving away from toward more cost-effective alternatives.

Mailchimp Pricing

Mailchimp’s pricing is contact-based and has become one of the more expensive options in the market at scale. The free plan covers up to 500 contacts and 1,000 monthly emails, with Mailchimp branding and limited features. The Essentials plan starts at $13 per month for 500 contacts and scales to approximately $150 per month for 10,000 contacts. The Standard plan, which unlocks more automation and behavioral targeting, starts at $20 per month for 500 contacts and climbs to around $100 per month for 5,000 contacts. The Premium plan starts at $350 per month for 10,000 contacts with unlimited users and advanced segmentation.

One well-documented issue with Mailchimp is its contact counting methodology. Mailchimp charges for duplicate contacts (the same person on multiple lists) and historically charged for unsubscribed contacts, which inflates the effective cost relative to platforms that only charge for active sendable contacts. This is one of the primary reasons users cite for switching to alternatives.

Mailchimp’s deliverability has also declined in recent testing, with inbox placement rates in the 82% to 85% range, which is below competitors like GetResponse (89% to 93%) and Brevo (around 89%).

Mailchimp Pros

The template library is genuinely the best of the four platforms compared here. Over 260 professionally designed templates covering a wide range of styles and use cases give beginners a strong starting point without needing design skills. The drag-and-drop builder is polished and the overall user experience is clean.

The ecommerce integrations, particularly with Shopify, work reasonably well on Standard and Premium plans. Revenue tracking, purchase behavior segmentation, and product recommendation emails are all available for connected stores. The Customer Journeys automation builder is capable and has over 100 pre-built automation templates.

The platform has 300-plus integrations and a large ecosystem of third-party tools, which means it connects with virtually any other business software you are using.

For complete beginners who want a familiar, well-documented platform with extensive learning resources and a large user community, Mailchimp remains a solid starting point.

Mailchimp Cons

The pricing model is the biggest problem. Contact-based pricing combined with the historically problematic duplicate contact counting makes Mailchimp one of the more expensive options as your list grows. At 10,000 contacts on the Standard plan, you are paying around $100 per month for features that Brevo provides for a fraction of that cost.

Automation is limited or unavailable on the free and Essentials plans, meaning you need to be on Standard or higher to access the abandoned cart and behavioral trigger flows that make email marketing genuinely valuable for ecommerce. The lower deliverability rates compared to competitors are also a real concern for operators who care about inbox placement.

Mailchimp has become increasingly oriented toward larger businesses and agencies, and the pricing and feature structure reflects that. For solo operators and small ecommerce stores, the value proposition has diminished meaningfully over the past few years.

My take: Mailchimp is fine to start with if you are brand new to email marketing and want a familiar, low-learning-curve platform. But plan to migrate before you hit meaningful list sizes, because the cost escalates quickly and better-value alternatives exist. For a new ecommerce store starting email from scratch today, I would not choose Mailchimp as the starting point.

GetResponse: The All-in-One Marketing Suite

What GetResponse Is

GetResponse is a comprehensive marketing platform that goes meaningfully beyond email marketing to include webinar hosting, conversion funnels, landing pages, paid ad management, and marketing automation. If HubSpot is the enterprise all-in-one and Mailchimp is the beginner-friendly email tool, GetResponse sits in the middle: a feature-rich platform for entrepreneurs and marketing teams who want multiple tools in a single subscription.

The webinar hosting capability is GetResponse’s most distinctive differentiator. No other platform in this comparison includes the ability to host live webinars with up to 1,000 attendees natively. For businesses that use webinars as a lead generation or sales channel, this alone can justify the subscription versus paying separately for a dedicated webinar platform.

GetResponse Pricing

GetResponse’s pricing is contact-based. The free plan covers up to 500 contacts with unlimited monthly email sends, which is notable because most free plans either cap contacts or cap email volume. The Email Marketing plan starts at $19 per month for 1,000 contacts and includes email marketing, autoresponders, and basic automation. The Marketing Automation plan starts at $59 per month for 1,000 contacts and unlocks more advanced automation, event-based triggers, and webinars. The Ecommerce Marketing plan, which includes ecommerce-specific features, starts at $119 per month for 1,000 contacts.

At 5,000 contacts, GetResponse’s Email Marketing plan runs approximately $54 per month, which is more expensive than Brevo but includes unlimited email sends rather than volume-based pricing. Deliverability rates are strong at 89% to 93% inbox placement, which is one of the better rates among mid-tier email platforms.

GetResponse Pros

The webinar integration is the standout feature that no competitor in this comparison offers. If your business model includes live training, product demos, or sales webinars, having those hosted natively in the same platform as your email list and automation workflows is a real operational simplification.

The conversion funnel builder is another differentiator. GetResponse’s funnel templates let you build complete lead generation or sales funnels, including landing pages, opt-in forms, email sequences, and checkout pages, without needing separate funnel software. For entrepreneurs running digital products or courses alongside their ecommerce store, this is genuinely useful.

Deliverability is strong and consistently rated well by independent testing services. Unlimited email sends on all paid plans is a meaningful advantage over volume-based pricing platforms for high-frequency senders.

The marketing automation capabilities on the paid plans are solid and include event-based triggers, lead scoring, and behavioral segmentation that covers most ecommerce automation scenarios competently.

GetResponse Cons

The ecommerce-specific features, while present on the Ecommerce Marketing plan, are not as deeply native as platforms built specifically for ecommerce. The Shopify integration works but requires the higher-tier plan to unlock the ecommerce-specific automation.

The platform has a lot going on. For operators who just want clean, focused email automation without the funnels, webinars, and landing page builder, GetResponse can feel like more complexity than necessary. The interface is capable but not as streamlined as simpler tools.

The pricing structure is also somewhat complex, with three separate plan tiers that include progressively more features. Understanding exactly which tier you need requires careful reading of the feature comparison tables.

My take: GetResponse is a strong choice for entrepreneurs running a broader online business that includes digital products, courses, webinars, or consulting alongside their ecommerce store. The all-in-one functionality genuinely reduces the number of separate tools you need to pay for. For a pure ecommerce dropshipping store focused on abandoned cart recovery and post-purchase automation, it is more than you need, but it is a legitimately good platform.

Head-to-Head on the Criteria That Matter Most

Pricing and Value at Scale

Brevo wins on price for operators with large lists and moderate send frequency, because its volume-based pricing model does not penalize you for storing contacts you do not email constantly. Mailchimp becomes expensive quickly as list size grows, especially with the duplicate contact counting issue. GetResponse is mid-range in cost with the advantage of unlimited sends. HubSpot is the most expensive by a significant margin once you need real automation.

Winner: Brevo for cost efficiency at scale. GetResponse for the best value when you factor in the included webinar and funnel features.

Ecommerce Automation

None of the four platforms in this comparison are as deeply ecommerce-native as Klaviyo or Omnisend. Among these four, Mailchimp has the most developed ecommerce-specific features on its higher tiers (behavioral segmentation, product recommendations, purchase-based flows). GetResponse’s Ecommerce Marketing plan covers the core scenarios. Brevo and HubSpot both require more manual configuration for ecommerce-specific workflows.

Winner: Mailchimp (narrowly) for ecommerce-specific features on Standard and Premium plans.

Shopify Integration

All four platforms integrate with Shopify. Mailchimp and GetResponse have more developed ecommerce-specific Shopify features on their higher tiers. Brevo’s Shopify integration is functional but less specialized. HubSpot’s integration works through an official app and is solid for CRM data but not optimized for ecommerce automation.

Winner: Mailchimp for Shopify ecommerce integration depth on paid plans.

Ease of Use

Mailchimp and Brevo are the easiest to get started with. Both have clean interfaces, helpful onboarding flows, and low learning curves. GetResponse is slightly more complex because of the breadth of features. HubSpot has the steepest learning curve of the four, primarily because of the sheer volume of features and the interconnected hub structure.

Winner: Mailchimp for pure beginner friendliness. Brevo close behind.

Unique Features

GetResponse is the clear winner here with native webinar hosting, conversion funnels, and paid ad management included in the platform. HubSpot wins on CRM depth and sales pipeline capability. Brevo wins on multichannel coverage (email, SMS, WhatsApp) at accessible pricing. Mailchimp wins on template variety and brand recognition.

Winner: GetResponse for the most comprehensive all-in-one feature set.

Deliverability

GetResponse leads with 89% to 93% inbox placement. Brevo achieves approximately 89%. Mailchimp trails at 82% to 85%, which is a meaningful gap when you consider that lower deliverability directly reduces the revenue your email marketing generates.

Winner: GetResponse for deliverability.

Which Platform Should You Choose?

Here is the honest recommendation based on different business situations.

If you are running a pure high-ticket dropshipping store on Shopify and email is your primary focus: None of these four platforms is my first recommendation. Start with Omnisend for ecommerce-native automation at the right price, or Klaviyo if you are at higher revenue levels. The platforms in this guide are better suited to broader business models.

If you are running a broader online business that includes content, courses, or digital products alongside your store and budget is a priority: Brevo is the strongest choice. The volume-based pricing, multichannel capability, and generous free plan make it the best value for operators who want a capable tool without a large monthly commitment.

If you are brand new to email marketing and want the most beginner-friendly experience with the largest community: Mailchimp gets you started quickly. Just plan your migration before you hit 5,000 contacts, because the pricing becomes uncompetitive at scale.

If your business model includes webinars, lead funnels, or digital product sales alongside your ecommerce operation: GetResponse’s all-in-one feature set and strong deliverability make it a compelling choice. The webinar hosting alone can replace a $100 per month standalone webinar tool.

If your business genuinely needs a comprehensive CRM with sales pipeline management, deal tracking, and multi-hub marketing: HubSpot is the right answer despite the cost. When the CRM functionality serves a real business need, the investment makes sense. When you just need email marketing, it does not.

Frequently Asked Questions About These Email Marketing Platforms

Is Mailchimp still worth using in 2026? For complete beginners who want a familiar platform with strong templates and a large community, yes, Mailchimp is still a functional starting point. But for growing ecommerce stores, the pricing model and declining deliverability rates make alternatives like Brevo or GetResponse more compelling at similar or lower cost.

What is the biggest advantage of Brevo over Mailchimp? Two things: the pricing model and the multichannel capability. Brevo’s volume-based pricing is significantly more cost-effective than Mailchimp’s contact-based pricing for businesses with large lists, and Brevo includes SMS and WhatsApp marketing natively without additional tools.

Does GetResponse work well for ecommerce stores? Yes, particularly on the Ecommerce Marketing plan. The Shopify integration, behavioral automation, and ecommerce-specific flows cover the core use cases. The webinar and funnel features make it especially strong for operators who also sell digital products or services.

Which platform has the best free plan? Brevo for contact storage (unlimited contacts on all plans including free). GetResponse for email send volume (unlimited sends on paid plans). Mailchimp’s free plan is limited to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month, which is the most restrictive of the four.

Can I switch platforms later if I outgrow my first choice? Yes, but it comes with migration costs in time and potential disruption to automation flows. The practical advice is to choose a platform you can grow into from the beginning rather than optimizing purely for the lowest entry price. Both Brevo and GetResponse scale effectively from small lists to hundreds of thousands of contacts without requiring a platform migration.

Wrapping Up

Email marketing is one of the highest-ROI activities in ecommerce, and getting the platform decision right from the beginning saves you from a painful migration down the road. Among these four platforms, Brevo is the strongest value for budget-conscious operators who want multichannel marketing without Mailchimp’s pricing model. GetResponse is the most feature-complete all-in-one option with the best deliverability and the unique addition of webinar hosting. Mailchimp is the most beginner-friendly but increasingly expensive at scale. HubSpot is the right choice specifically when CRM and sales pipeline management are as important as email marketing.

For high-ticket dropshipping stores specifically, I still point people to Omnisend as the primary recommendation because of the ecommerce-native automation and Shopify integration. But if your business sits outside that specific model, Brevo and GetResponse are both strong contenders worth testing.

If you want to understand how email marketing fits into the full high-ticket dropshipping framework, check out my free beginner’s guide. For help finding the right niche to build your store around, grab my free niches list. And if you want to build your store with everything set up correctly from the start, my done-for-you turnkey service handles the complete build including email configuration.

Connect with other store owners working through these same decisions in the Ecommerce Paradise community.

So with that said, pick your platform and get your email flows running. I wish you guys the best of luck out there.