Most people leave Mailchimp for one reason: the bill. Mailchimp prices on contacts stored, so a list that grows while your send frequency stays flat costs progressively more for the same activity. Brevo prices on emails sent and lets you store unlimited contacts, which flips the maths for anyone sitting on a large but infrequently-emailed database.
The second reason is automation. Mailchimp gates useful automation behind higher tiers, and the builder is shallower than what Brevo offers even on modest plans. Add transactional email and SMS in the same account and the consolidation argument gets stronger.
This guide is the mechanical part: what to export, what to import, what has to be rebuilt from scratch, and what breaks if you do it in the wrong order. Read the whole thing before you start — the sequencing matters more than any single step.
How long this takes
1–2 hours (3–4 with complex automations)
Most of that time goes into rebuilding automations and repointing forms, not the import itself.
Why switch from Mailchimp to Brevo?
Switch if…
- Your Mailchimp bill rises every time you add contacts, regardless of how much you send.
- You store thousands of past customers you email monthly or less.
- You want transactional email, SMS, and marketing email on one account.
- You need branching automation without jumping to a premium Mailchimp tier.
- You want a light CRM attached to the email tool.
Stay put if…
- You rely on Mailchimp integrations that Brevo does not support natively.
- Your team is deep in Mailchimp templates and the switching cost outweighs the savings.
- You email a small list very frequently — send-based pricing can be worse than contact-based for that pattern.
Mailchimp vs Brevo: the key differences
| What changes | Mailchimp | Brevo |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per contact stored | Per email sent, unlimited contacts |
| Free plan | Up to 500 contacts, send caps | Unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day |
| Automation | Tier-gated, fairly shallow | Branching workflows on lower tiers |
| Transactional email | Separate add-on | Included in the same account |
| SMS | Limited | Built in |
| CRM | Basic audience management | Light CRM with deals |
| Template editor | More polished | Functional, less refined |
Before you switch, have this ready
- Admin access to both Mailchimp and Brevo.
- DNS access for your sending domain (you will add SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records).
- A written list of every form, landing page, and integration that currently feeds Mailchimp.
- Screenshots or exports of each active Mailchimp automation, including timings and conditions.
- Your current engagement data — you need to know who has opened in the last 90 days.
- Two hours of uninterrupted time, ideally not the day before a campaign is due.
Step-by-step: Mailchimp to Brevo
Step 1: Export your lists from Mailchimp
In Mailchimp, go to Audience → All contacts, choose the audience, then Export Audience. Mailchimp emails you a zip containing one CSV per status: subscribed, unsubscribed, cleaned, and non-subscribed.
Keep all of them. You need the subscribed file to import, and you need the unsubscribed and cleaned files to build a suppression list in Brevo. Importing without suppressing previously unsubscribed people is the single most common cause of complaints after a migration — and in most jurisdictions it is also a compliance problem.
Open the subscribed CSV and confirm it contains your custom merge fields, tags, and the opt-in timestamp. If tags are missing, export again from the Tags view so you can rebuild segmentation on the other side.
Screenshot
Mailchimp Audience → Export Audience screen
Step 2: Set up Brevo and authenticate your domain
Create your Brevo account and go straight to Senders, Domains & Dedicated IPs. Add your sending domain and publish the DNS records Brevo gives you. DNS propagation can take a few hours, which is why this comes before the import rather than after.
Add a DMARC record if you do not have one. Gmail and Yahoo both enforce authentication requirements for bulk senders, and arriving on a new platform without it is a fast route to the spam folder.
Set your default sender name and reply-to address to match what your Mailchimp subscribers already recognise. Changing the from-name at the same time as changing platforms doubles the unfamiliarity and depresses opens.
Screenshot
Brevo domain authentication screen showing verified SPF and DKIM
Step 3: Import contacts into Brevo
In Brevo, create the contact attributes that match your Mailchimp merge fields before importing — FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME, and any custom fields. Importing first and mapping later creates duplicate attributes you will be cleaning up for weeks.
Create lists that mirror your Mailchimp audiences and tags. Brevo uses lists plus attributes rather than tags, so a Mailchimp tag usually becomes either a list or an attribute value depending on how you segment.
Import the subscribed CSV via Contacts → Import contacts, mapping each column deliberately. Then import your unsubscribed and cleaned CSVs using the blocklist option so those addresses can never receive a send.
Screenshot
Brevo import mapping screen with CSV columns matched to attributes
Step 4: Rebuild your automations
Nothing automated migrates. Open your Mailchimp automation list and rebuild only what earns its place: for most senders that is the welcome sequence, one abandoned or follow-up flow, and a re-engagement flow. Anything that has not run in six months should not be rebuilt.
In Brevo, Automation → Create a workflow gives you entry triggers on list addition, page visit, contact attribute change, and ecommerce events. Map your Mailchimp trigger to the nearest Brevo equivalent and check the timings — Brevo delays are configured differently and it is easy to turn a one-day wait into an immediate send.
Copy the email content across by pasting the HTML or rebuilding in Brevo’s editor. Complex Mailchimp templates rarely survive a paste cleanly, so budget time to fix layout on mobile.
Test each workflow with a real address of your own before enabling it. Add yourself, walk the trigger, and confirm every branch fires in the right order.
Screenshot
Brevo automation builder with a welcome workflow
Step 5: Update forms, integrations, and embeds
Work through the list you wrote in the checklist. Website forms, WordPress plugins, Shopify apps, lead ads, Zapier or Make scenarios, checkout opt-ins, and anything calling the Mailchimp API all need repointing.
Replace embedded Mailchimp forms with Brevo forms rather than trying to keep the old markup. If you have a developer-built form posting to the Mailchimp API, swap the endpoint and API key and test a live submission end to end.
Do not delete the Mailchimp account yet. Leave it live for two weeks and watch for new contacts appearing there — every one is a form you forgot.
Screenshot
List of connected integrations with Mailchimp connections to replace
Step 6: Test, then ramp your sending volume
Send a real campaign to a seed segment of 200–500 of your most engaged contacts — people who have opened in the last 30 days. Check open rate against your Mailchimp baseline and check placement across Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail.
If placement looks right, widen to 90-day openers, then to the full active list over the following few days. A brand new sending reputation does not survive a 40,000-contact blast on day one.
Leave your 12-month-plus dormant contacts out entirely until the domain has a track record. They are the segment most likely to generate complaints and least likely to buy.
Screenshot
Brevo campaign report showing opens and deliverability for the seed send
Integrations you need to update
Every one of these is a place contacts or data currently flow into Mailchimp. Work through the list before you stop watching the old account — a missed form is invisible until someone complains they never got your email.
| Integration | What to do |
|---|---|
| Website signup forms | Replace Mailchimp embeds with Brevo forms and test a live submission. |
| WordPress | Deactivate the Mailchimp plugin and install Brevo’s, then reconnect each form. |
| Shopify or WooCommerce | Connect Brevo and confirm order and customer sync before disconnecting Mailchimp. |
| Zapier / Make | Rebuild every scenario using the Brevo connector — Zaps do not remap automatically. |
| Facebook / Instagram lead ads | Reconnect lead forms to Brevo or leads will keep landing in an account you stopped checking. |
| CRM or helpdesk | Update the API key and field mapping; verify a test contact syncs both ways. |
| Landing pages | Repoint any Mailchimp-hosted or externally embedded page to Brevo. |
| Transactional email | If you send receipts via Mailchimp Transactional, move them to Brevo SMTP and verify with a test order. |
Troubleshooting: common post-migration problems
Open rates dropped sharply after the first send
Usually authentication or reputation. Confirm SPF, DKIM, and DMARC pass, then shrink your audience to 30-day openers and rebuild volume over a week.
Contacts imported without tags or custom fields
Re-export from Mailchimp with the tags column included, create the matching Brevo attributes first, then re-import — Brevo updates existing contacts rather than duplicating them when the email matches.
People who unsubscribed years ago are receiving campaigns
You imported the subscribed file only. Import the unsubscribed and cleaned CSVs to the Brevo blocklist immediately and pause sending until it is done.
New signups are still appearing in Mailchimp
A form or integration was missed. Check the Mailchimp signup source field on the new contacts — it names the culprit.
Automation fired all emails at once
A wait step imported as zero. Open the workflow, check each delay, and remove anyone stuck mid-flow before re-enabling.
Emails render badly on mobile
Pasted Mailchimp HTML rarely survives intact. Rebuild the template in Brevo’s editor rather than patching the imported markup.
Should you make the switch?
The migration itself is rarely the hard part — it is the automations you rebuild and the forms you forget. If the reasons in the "switch if" list above describe your situation, Brevo is worth the afternoon. If you are only moving because you are frustrated with an interface, fix the emails first and keep the platform.
Read both reviews before you commit: our Mailchimp review covers what you would be giving up, and our Brevo review covers what you are buying, including current pricing and where it falls short.