Email, SMS, and WhatsApp marketing — sends-based pricing beats Mailchimp at scale
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is the smartest Mailchimp alternative for Indian startups — its sends-based pricing model means you pay for emails sent, not contacts stored. With a list of 50,000 contacts but sending only 2 emails/month, Brevo's Starter plan at $25/mo serves 20,000 emails — vs Mailchimp's $270/mo for the same contact count. This is the critical pricing difference that makes Brevo dramatically cheaper for Indian B2B SaaS and ecommerce teams with large, irregularly-mailed lists. Brevo also includes native WhatsApp marketing (huge for India), transactional email via SMTP/API, SMS, and a basic CRM — all in one platform. The trade-off: email templates and automation UX are slightly less polished than Mailchimp, and deliverability has historically been slightly below best-in-class providers like SendGrid.
India Market Fit 3.8: No INR billing but dramatically cheaper than Mailchimp at scale. WhatsApp integration is India-relevant. Deliverability 3.9: Good but not as strong as SendGrid or Mailchimp for transactional email.
Brevo (rebranded from Sendinblue in 2023) is a multi-channel marketing platform offering email, SMS, WhatsApp, push notifications, and CRM. Founded in Paris in 2012, it serves 500,000+ businesses globally and is particularly popular in Europe and emerging markets where pricing sensitivity is higher. The platform is built on sends-based pricing rather than the contact-based model used by Mailchimp and HubSpot — this is the fundamental pricing difference that makes Brevo attractive for teams with large lists that they don't email every week.
For Indian product and marketing teams, Brevo's native WhatsApp Business API integration is a significant differentiator. You can create multi-channel automations that send an email, then follow up with a WhatsApp message for non-openers — crucial for Indian consumer audiences where WhatsApp open rates (85-95%) dwarf email open rates (20-30%).
Drag-and-drop email builder, responsive templates, A/B testing, send time optimisation. Good deliverability for bulk sends. Dedicated IP available on Enterprise.
Native WhatsApp Business API — send template messages, create WhatsApp campaigns, build automations that include WhatsApp as a channel. Requires WhatsApp Business approval.
Trigger-based workflows — welcome sequences, abandoned cart, lead scoring. Visual workflow builder. Multi-channel (email + SMS + WhatsApp) in one automation flow.
SMTP relay and REST API for transactional emails (order confirmations, OTPs, password resets). Free: 300 transactional emails/day. Paid: from $15/mo for 20K/month.
Contact management, deal pipeline, task management. Lightweight — not a replacement for Zoho CRM or HubSpot, but useful for small teams wanting email + CRM in one tool.
Bulk SMS and personalised SMS campaigns via Brevo's SMS gateway. India SMS pricing is usage-based. Combined with email for higher reach on important campaigns.
Unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day (9,000/month), Brevo branding, basic templates. Good for testing and very low volume. All marketing automation features limited.
20,000 emails/month (goes up to 100K for $65/mo). No daily limit. Remove Brevo branding. Basic reporting. No automation on Starter — upgrade to Business for workflows.
20K emails + full marketing automation, A/B testing, WhatsApp campaigns, multi-user. Best value for teams needing automation. Scale to 1M emails for ~$300/mo.
50,000 contacts, 2 emails/month (100,000 sends): Mailchimp = $270/month (contact-based). Brevo Business = $65/month (send-based, 100K sends included). Savings: $205/month = ₹17,220/month = ₹2.07L/year. For any Indian startup with a list that grows faster than their email frequency, Brevo wins on pure economics.
| Tool | Pricing Model | INR Billing | Best For | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | Sends-based ($25/mo = 20K sends) | Yes — native | No (USD) | Large lists, low frequency, WhatsApp multi-channel |
| Mailchimp | Contact-based ($270/mo = 50K contacts) | No | No (USD) | SMBs needing polished templates and easy UX |
| Zoho Campaigns | Sends or contacts-based (₹3,000/mo = 5K contacts) | Via SalesIQ | Yes | Zoho ecosystem, INR billing, India-focused |
| SendGrid | Sends-based ($19.95/mo = 50K/mo) | No | No (USD) | Transactional email, developer-focused |
| MoEngage | Contact-based (enterprise pricing) | Yes — native | Yes | Mobile-first, omnichannel, 100K+ user base |