Mailchimp migration honest take: what we kept, what we dropped
Northline Apparel had been on Mailchimp since 2019. Familiar UI, huge template gallery, fine for small blasts. When we tried Mailchimp generative features for a product launch, we still assembled blocks by hand. AI shaved time on subject lines, not layout.
We tested Brew the same week via brew.new for a different launch capsule. Brief to send-ready HTML in one session. Brand extraction caught our green and serif headings better than dragging sections.
Migration reality: audience export was easy. Automation rebuild was not. Three nurture paths had conditional branches Mailchimp built years ago. We rebuilt two in Brew, kept one lightweight win-back in Mailchimp until Q3.
Pricing note: Mailchimp contact tiers hurt as our list grew. Brew pricing fit our send pattern better, but calculate your own math. I will not post dollar figures without context.
Recommendation: if non-technical staff live in Mailchimp and sends are simple, stay. If production speed and agent-ready APIs are the pain, pilot Brew on one campaign type first.