Three Affordable Email Marketing Platforms Compared for Online Store Owners
Mailchimp, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), and GetResponse are three of the most popular email marketing platforms for small to mid-size businesses, and all three are realistic options for e-commerce store owners who want powerful features without enterprise pricing. If you are comparing these three, you are likely looking for the best balance of features, ease of use, and affordability, and that is exactly what I am going to help you figure out in this comparison.
I have been in the high-ticket dropshipping space for over 15 years, and I have worked with all three of these platforms across different stores and business scenarios. Each one has genuine strengths, and the right choice depends on your specific priorities: whether that is the best e-commerce features, the lowest cost, the most features per dollar, or the easiest setup experience.
At E-Commerce Paradise, we focus on recommending tools that deliver real results for online store owners. Let me break down how these three platforms compare across every important category.
Pricing: Three Different Models, Big Differences in Cost
The pricing model is one of the most important differences between these three platforms, and it can result in dramatically different monthly costs depending on your list size and sending volume.
Mailchimp (Contact-Based Pricing)
Mailchimp charges based on subscriber count. Free plan for 500 contacts. Standard plan starts at $20/month for 500 contacts, $60/month at 2,500 contacts, $100/month at 5,000, $135/month at 10,000, and $270+/month at 25,000 contacts.
Brevo (Send-Based Pricing)
Brevo charges based on emails sent, not contacts. Free plan with unlimited contacts and 300 emails/day. Starter plan starts at $9/month for 5,000 emails. Business plan at $18/month for 5,000 emails with automation. At 20,000 emails, the Business plan is about $35/month. At 40,000 emails, roughly $59/month. You can have unlimited contacts on any plan.
GetResponse (Contact-Based Pricing with More Features)
GetResponse charges by contacts. Free plan for 500 contacts. Email Marketing plan starts at $19/month for 1,000 contacts. Marketing Automation plan starts at $59/month for 1,000 contacts. At 5,000 contacts on Marketing Automation, roughly $95/month. At 10,000 contacts, about $114/month.
The Pricing Verdict
For stores with large lists and moderate sending volume, Brevo is dramatically cheaper. A store with 25,000 contacts sending 40,000 emails per month would pay about $59/month with Brevo versus $270+/month with Mailchimp versus roughly $175/month with GetResponse. That is a potential savings of over $2,500 per year compared to Mailchimp.
For stores with smaller lists, Mailchimp’s free plan and GetResponse’s included features make them more competitive. GetResponse includes features like webinars and conversion funnels in their mid-tier plans that would cost extra with the other two platforms. Keep that in mind when comparing the total cost of your marketing stack.
E-Commerce Features
For online store owners, e-commerce integration depth is what separates a useful email platform from one that merely sends emails.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp has the strongest native e-commerce features of the three. The Shopify integration syncs product catalogs, purchase history, and customer data. Product content blocks in the email builder pull product images and prices directly from your store. Abandoned cart automations, product recommendations, and revenue attribution reporting are all included. The predictive analytics estimate customer lifetime value and purchase likelihood.
Brevo
Brevo connects with Shopify and WooCommerce with solid data syncing. E-commerce automations include abandoned cart recovery and post-purchase follow-ups. The standout e-commerce advantage is included transactional email capabilities (order confirmations, shipping notifications) at no extra cost. Brevo’s CRM is included on all plans, which is useful for managing customer relationships. Product recommendations and catalog integration are improving but not as polished as Mailchimp’s.
GetResponse
GetResponse integrates with major e-commerce platforms and offers abandoned cart recovery, product recommendations, and purchase-based automations. The unique e-commerce advantage is the conversion funnel builder, which lets you create complete sales funnels with landing pages, email sequences, and even payment processing. The built-in webinar feature is valuable for high-ticket stores that use product demonstrations to drive sales. If you are researching the right niche for your store, GetResponse’s funnel builder can help you test offers before investing heavily in inventory.
E-Commerce Verdict
Mailchimp leads for pure e-commerce email features. Brevo wins for transactional emails and CRM. GetResponse wins for conversion funnels and webinar-based selling.
Email Automation
Mailchimp
Mailchimp’s Customer Journey Builder offers visual multi-step automations with conditional branching, delays, and multiple entry points. Pre-built e-commerce templates cover the standard use cases. Automation is solid for typical e-commerce needs but has less flexibility for complex workflows compared to GetResponse.
Brevo
Brevo’s marketing automation (on the Business plan) includes a visual workflow builder with conditional logic, A/B testing within workflows, and multi-channel triggers spanning email, SMS, and WhatsApp. The multi-channel automation capability is a genuine differentiator, and having email plus SMS plus WhatsApp in the same workflow without needing separate tools is valuable for stores that communicate across multiple channels.
GetResponse
GetResponse’s automation is arguably the most powerful of the three. The visual workflow builder supports complex conditional logic with scoring, tagging, and multi-channel routing. Lead scoring automatically prioritizes your most engaged contacts. The ability to include webinar registrations as automation triggers and actions is unique and powerful for stores that use educational content in their sales process.
Automation Verdict
GetResponse has the most powerful automation, especially for complex workflows and scoring. Brevo wins for multi-channel automation (email plus SMS plus WhatsApp). Mailchimp’s automation is the most familiar and easiest to set up for standard e-commerce flows. Having the right business foundation in place makes it easier to take advantage of whichever automation approach you choose.
Multi-Channel Capabilities
Modern e-commerce marketing goes beyond email, and these platforms differ significantly in multi-channel support.
Brevo is the multi-channel champion. Email, SMS, WhatsApp Business, web push notifications, and live chat are all built into the platform. The shared inbox lets you manage conversations across all channels in one place. For stores that want to communicate with customers through multiple channels without managing separate tools, Brevo is the clear winner.
GetResponse includes email, SMS, web push notifications, and webinar hosting. The webinar feature is unique among email platforms and creates a complete content marketing and sales channel within the platform.
Mailchimp includes email and SMS. The multi-channel capabilities are more limited compared to Brevo and GetResponse, though the core email and SMS functionality works well for most e-commerce needs.
Deliverability
All three platforms maintain solid deliverability rates. According to Email Tool Tester’s annual deliverability study, Mailchimp, Brevo, and GetResponse all rank competitively for inbox placement, though specific rankings fluctuate between test periods.
All three provide email authentication tools (DKIM, SPF, DMARC). Brevo offers dedicated IP options on higher plans. GetResponse maintains their own sending infrastructure for more direct control. Mailchimp has strict list quality requirements that help maintain their overall sending reputation.
For any platform, keeping your list clean with ZeroBounce is the most impactful thing you can do for deliverability.
Email Design and Templates
Mailchimp has the largest template library and the most polished email builder with native product blocks for e-commerce. The design experience is smooth and the product integration saves time on promotional emails.
Brevo’s email builder is functional with a growing template selection and an AI email generator. GetResponse offers over 100 templates with an AI email creator and support for AMP emails. Both platforms get the job done for professional e-commerce emails, though Mailchimp’s design tools have a slight edge, as noted in Forbes’ analysis of email platforms.
Reporting and Analytics
Mailchimp leads with the most detailed e-commerce revenue attribution. You can see revenue per campaign, per automation, and per subscriber with benchmarks against industry averages.
GetResponse provides solid analytics with automation workflow performance data, conversion funnel reports, and webinar engagement metrics. According to Practical Ecommerce’s guide to email analytics, tracking revenue by automation step is one of the most valuable metrics for online retailers.
Brevo covers standard metrics with the addition of multi-channel reporting across email, SMS, WhatsApp, and chat. The CRM reporting adds deal pipeline visibility.
Unique Strengths Summary
Mailchimp excels at e-commerce email features including product blocks, recommendations, and revenue reporting. It has the largest template library, the most recognizable brand, and the most mature e-commerce integrations.
Brevo excels at pricing (especially for large lists), multi-channel communication (email plus SMS plus WhatsApp plus chat), included transactional emails, included CRM, and the unique send-based pricing model that saves money for large-list businesses.
GetResponse excels at advanced automation with scoring, built-in webinar hosting, conversion funnel builder, and the most features packed into mid-tier pricing. It is the most complete marketing suite of the three.
Who Should Choose Mailchimp
Choose Mailchimp if your top priority is e-commerce email features, you want the best product integration and revenue reporting, you prefer the largest template library and most polished design tools, you want to start free with a small list and scale, or your marketing needs are primarily email-focused rather than multi-channel.
Who Should Choose Brevo
Choose Brevo if you have a large email list and want to save significantly on monthly costs, you need multi-channel communication beyond just email, transactional emails are important for your store, you want a built-in CRM without paying for a separate tool, or you prefer send-based pricing over contact-based pricing.
Who Should Choose GetResponse
Choose GetResponse if you want the most advanced automation with scoring and workflows, webinar hosting is part of your marketing strategy, you need a conversion funnel builder for launches and promotions, you want the most features per dollar in a mid-tier plan, or your marketing strategy combines email with webinars and landing page funnels.
My Overall Recommendation
For pure e-commerce email marketing, Mailchimp is the strongest of the three. For the best overall value, especially for larger lists, Brevo saves you serious money while delivering solid multi-channel capabilities. For the most complete marketing suite with advanced automation, GetResponse packs the most punch.
If you want the absolute best e-commerce email marketing, I recommend looking beyond all three of these platforms to Klaviyo, which is purpose-built for e-commerce with deeper integration and analytics than any of these three. For a more affordable e-commerce-specific option, Omnisend is also worth considering.
Whatever platform you choose, the key is to get started. Email marketing generates the highest ROI of any marketing channel for e-commerce, and every day without it is money left on the table. If you need help setting up your store and marketing the right way, our done-for-you turnkey service handles everything. For ongoing management, our management service keeps your marketing running smoothly.
Join our E-Commerce Paradise community, work with great suppliers, build your business foundation, and check out our Patreon masterclass for step-by-step training. I wish you guys the best of luck out there, and I will see you in the next one.
Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
