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Email marketing

Loops vs Brevo vs Mailchimp

Loops, Brevo, Mailchimp side by side: price, free tier, who each one fits and when to skip it.
Item
Loops
Brevo
Mailchimp
What it doesEmail for SaaS: product updates, onboarding flows and transactional email in one place.Email marketing, automations and transactional email in one account, plus SMS and WhatsApp.Long-running email marketing platform with campaigns, automations and a drag-and-drop editor.
Best forBest for a SaaS that wants event-based onboarding (signed up, never created a project) without stitching two email tools together.Best for a SaaS that wants receipts and newsletters in one tool, priced by emails sent rather than by contacts.Best for a marketing hire who already knows Mailchimp and needs ready-made templates, reports and integrations from day one.
Skip it ifSkip it if your list is mostly free leads who rarely buy: price grows with subscribed contacts, so a big cold list gets expensive.Skip it if you want a developer-first API with typed SDKs and React templates: Resend is a smoother fit.Skip it if you are a founder on a budget: the free plan stops at 250 contacts and the price doubles after the first-year discount.
SetupA little code. A day: the domain verifies within hours and the first event-based flow takes an afternoon.A little code. Newsletters in an afternoon with no code; transactional email waits for support to activate it, then an afternoon of code.No code. An afternoon for the first newsletter; transactional email is a separate developer project.
PriceFree, then from $49/month (up to 5k contacts)Free, then Starter from $9/month for 5k emailsEssentials for 5k contacts: $56.91/month, half off for 12 months
What it costs in practiceA SaaS with 3,000 subscribed users getting onboarding, a monthly update and receipts: Growth at $49/month with unlimited sends. Under 1,000 contacts and 4,000 sends a month, it's $0. Rough estimate.A SaaS with 2,000 contacts sending 4 newsletters a month (8,000 emails) can't use the 10,000-email tier, which holds 1,500 contacts. It needs the 15,000 tier: $9 + $16 = $25/month. Rough estimate, before logo removal.A business with 5,000 contacts (unsubscribed included) on Essentials: $56.91/month, about half that in the first 12 months, with up to 50,000 sends. Adding app receipts means Standard plus at least $20 per 25,000 transactional emails. Rough estimate.
Free plan4,000 sends per 30 days to your first 1,000 contacts, with Loops branding.300 emails a day, with up to 100,000 contacts stored.Up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month (250 a day).
Free tier1,000 contacts, 4,000 sends/30 days300 emails/day250 contacts, 500 sends/month
Price for 5k contacts$49/month (Growth)50k emails: $56/mo; 5k contacts: $32/mo$56.91/month (Essentials)
AutomationsYes, on every plan including FreeYes, multi-step workflows4 flow steps on Essentials; 200 flows on Standard
Open sourceNo: noNo: noNo: no
Before you build
  • The free plan allows 4,000 sends per 30 days, with transactional and marketing counted together, and only to your first 1,000 contacts. Login codes eat into the same limit.
  • Free emails carry a "Powered by Loops" footer; removing it means paying from $49/month.
  • You can't send from a free hosting subdomain like vercel.app or netlify.app; you need a domain where you control DNS.
  • Paid plans are priced by subscribed contacts: Growth at $49/month covers up to 5,000, and each step past that costs more even if you email them rarely. Unsubscribed contacts don't count.
  • Transactional email needs a separate activation: new accounts get an "SMTP account not yet activated" error until support turns it on.
  • Brevo tests each campaign on a sample first. Hard bounces over 2%, unsubscribes over 1% or complaints over 0.2% suspend the campaign and the account, and a repeat can mean permanent deactivation.
  • Paid plans are priced by emails, but each email tier also caps contacts: Starter with 5,000 emails holds only 500 contacts, and you need the 20,000-email tier to go past 2,500.
  • Starter keeps the Brevo logo in your emails unless you pay $12/month extra; it is included from Standard.
  • The free plan sends 300 emails a day, counting transactional and marketing together.
  • Unsubscribed contacts still count toward your monthly contact limit, so the bill grows with people who no longer get your emails. Archive them to stop counting.
  • The free plan allows 250 contacts and 500 sends a month (250 a day). Past 250 contacts, live and test sends are put on hold until you upgrade.
  • Transactional email is only available as an add-on to Standard or Premium, sold in blocks of 25,000 emails at $20 each. Free and Essentials can't use it beyond a 500-email demo.
  • Paid plans bill overages automatically when you pass the contact or send limit, and the 50% discount only lasts the first 12 months.
Price checked

Checked on Oct 28, 2026 · official pricing

Checked on Oct 28, 2026 · official pricing

Checked on Oct 28, 2026 · official pricing

Prices are read from each official pricing page on the date shown and can change. Always confirm before signing up.

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