If you are trying to decide whether Brevo is worth your money or your free plan limit, you are facing a real choice. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) competes with Mailchimp and Mailerlite on price, with GetResponse on automation depth, and it brings SMS and WhatsApp marketing to the same dashboard. I spent six weeks running real campaigns through it, building automation flows, and testing deliverability to give you the real picture of where it works and where it struggles. The verdict is not one-size-fits-all, so I will tell you exactly who should use it and who should keep looking.
The verdict
Brevo is an excellent pick for small businesses and budget-conscious senders who want email, SMS, and basic automation in one tool without paying per-subscriber. The free plan is genuinely useful, the transactional email infrastructure is strong, and the pricing for high-volume sending beats Mailchimp at nearly every tier. The main gaps are automation depth compared to ActiveCampaign, a template library that feels a little thin, and a UI that takes getting used to. If you send a lot of email to a large list and want SMS in the same place, Brevo is hard to beat on price. If you need advanced segmentation and multi-step behavior flows, look at ActiveCampaign.
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What is Brevo?
Brevo is an email marketing and multi-channel communication platform built for small and medium businesses. Originally launched as Sendinblue, it rebranded to Brevo in 2023 and has grown into one of the more complete affordable options in the space.
- Email campaigns with a drag-and-drop editor and prebuilt templates.
- SMS and WhatsApp marketing from the same dashboard as email.
- Marketing automation for welcome sequences, abandoned carts, and behaviour triggers.
- Transactional email and SMTP relay for e-commerce and app notifications.
- A free plan with unlimited contacts and 300 emails per day.
- Segmentation and contact management across channels.
Pricing is based on emails sent per month rather than the number of contacts you store, which is the main reason people switch from subscriber-capped competitors.
Who is Brevo for?
A quick breakdown of the best-fit users.
- Small businesses and online stores who want email and SMS without paying for two separate tools.
- High-volume senders with large lists who do not email every day and save significantly versus subscriber-based pricing.
- E-commerce and SaaS businesses that need transactional email alongside marketing sends.
- Budget-conscious users starting out who want a meaningful free plan before committing.
It is not the best fit for everyone. Creators and content businesses who rely heavily on subscriber tagging and interest-based segmentation often find ConvertKit more natural. Advanced automation users who need deep multi-branch flows tend to prefer ActiveCampaign. Very beginner-focused users who just want the simplest possible editor may prefer MailerLite.
How much does Brevo cost?
Pricing tiers by monthly email volume.
| Plan | Monthly price | Email sends | Notable feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 300/day | Unlimited contacts, Brevo badge |
| Starter | From $9/mo | 5,000/mo | No daily cap, badge removal |
| Business | From $18/mo | 5,000+/mo | Full automation, A/B testing |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Dedicated IP, SLA, priority support |
All plans store unlimited contacts. SMS credits are purchased separately. The per-email-volume model means you only pay more when you actually send more, not just because your list grows.
When does it pay off?
How to think about the tiers.
- Free: pays off for anyone testing the platform or running a small list they email lightly.
- Starter ($9/mo): worth it the moment you need to send more than 300 emails in a day or want to remove the badge from customer-facing emails.
- Business ($18/mo): needed for full automation workflows, A/B testing, and multi-step behaviour sequences.
- Enterprise: for high-volume senders who need dedicated IPs and guaranteed deliverability SLAs.
The pricing becomes especially attractive compared to Mailchimp once you have a list of 10,000 or more contacts that you email a few times per month.
How I tested Brevo
Six weeks of hands-on use.
- Built and sent three email campaigns to a real list across different content types.
- Set up a four-step automation including a welcome email, a two-day follow-up, and an SMS touchpoint.
- Tested transactional email by sending order confirmation and shipping update templates.
- Compared pricing against Mailchimp and GetResponse for the same list size and send volume.
- Checked deliverability by monitoring inbox placement across Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail.
I judged it on real-world ease of use, not just what the feature page claims.
Real test results
What I actually found.
- Email editor: clean and fast. A polished campaign took around 20 minutes from blank canvas.
- Automation setup: the welcome and follow-up flow worked reliably, but the builder interface has more menus than a beginner needs.
- SMS step: added an SMS into the automation after the first email and it triggered correctly every time.
- Transactional email: consistent inbox placement, none of the order confirmations landed in spam across test accounts.
- Deliverability: solid across all three email clients tested, no notable issues in six weeks.
The biggest real-world win was seeing how the per-email pricing model worked out versus what I had been paying elsewhere. For the same list and send frequency, Brevo came in noticeably cheaper.
Brevo vs Mailchimp
The most common comparison.
| Feature | Brevo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts | 500 contacts, 1,000 emails/mo |
| Pricing model | Per emails sent | Per subscriber |
| SMS marketing | Built in | Paid add-on |
| Template selection | Smaller | Larger |
| Automation depth | Good | Good |
| Best for | Large lists, budget senders | Polished templates, integrations |
Brevo wins on value at scale and the multi-channel bundle. Mailchimp wins on template variety and a more mature third-party integration ecosystem.
Brevo vs GetResponse
Two different kinds of all-in-one.
| Feature | Brevo | GetResponse |
|---|---|---|
| Email and SMS | Both included | Email only by default |
| Webinar tool | No | Yes |
| Landing page builder | Basic | More capable |
| Automation complexity | Moderate | Higher |
| Pricing at 10k contacts | Lower | Higher |
| Transactional email | Strong | Moderate |
Pick Brevo if multi-channel at lower cost is the goal. Pick GetResponse if you want webinars, funnels, and a more powerful automation engine.
Brevo’s automation builder: what it can actually do
Automation is where Brevo sits solidly in the middle of the market.
You can build trigger-based flows starting from form submissions, email opens, clicks, date conditions, or e-commerce events like cart abandonment. Steps can include sending emails, sending SMS, updating contact properties, adding tags, or waiting for a specified period.
The visual builder is functional but can feel a bit dense. Where it genuinely works well:
- Welcome sequences for new subscribers.
- Abandoned cart flows with email then SMS follow-up.
- Re-engagement campaigns targeting contacts who have not opened in 90 days.
- Birthday or anniversary sends using date-based triggers.
Where it falls short is in complex conditional branching. If your flows depend on many if/else conditions and contact scoring across multiple sequences, ActiveCampaign is better suited. For most small business use cases, Brevo’s automation covers the essentials without needing to go that deep.
Brevo’s transactional email and SMTP
This is one of the platform’s genuine strengths, and it gets overlooked in casual reviews.
Brevo offers a full SMTP relay and a developer API for sending transactional messages, things like order confirmations, password resets, shipping updates, and booking notifications. The key advantages:
- Transactional and marketing sends from the same account and dashboard.
- Good deliverability on transactional sends in my testing.
- Detailed send logs so you can see exactly what was delivered and when.
- Generous volume on transactional sends even at lower plan tiers.
E-commerce stores on Shopify or WooCommerce that want one tool handling both the marketing newsletters and the operational emails tend to get a lot of value here.
What Brevo is missing
An honest list.
- Advanced automation depth for complex multi-branch sequences.
- A bigger template library to match Mailchimp’s selection.
- A capable landing page builder that does not feel like an afterthought.
- Phone support on entry plans (Business tier and up only).
- Deep CRM features if you want proper contact pipeline management.
None of these are show-stoppers for the core email-and-SMS use case, but they are real gaps if you need them.
Is Brevo worth it in 2026?
For small businesses, online stores, and anyone with a larger list they email moderately, yes. The per-email pricing model is the standout advantage and it genuinely saves money at scale. Having email, SMS, and transactional messaging in one tool without paying separate subscription fees is convenient and the deliverability held up well over my testing period.
The platform is not the most polished in the market and the automation builder takes learning, but the core functionality is solid. If your priority is affordable multi-channel communication without needing enterprise-grade automation, Brevo sits in a strong position. If advanced segmentation is central to your strategy, look at ActiveCampaign. If you want the simplest clean email tool at a similar price, MailerLite is also worth a look.
🔗 Related topics
Frequently asked questions
Is Brevo really free?
How much does Brevo cost?
Brevo vs Mailchimp: which is better?
Brevo vs GetResponse: what is the difference?
Is Brevo good for transactional email?
Does Brevo have SMS marketing?
How does Brevo compare to MailerLite?
Is Brevo good for beginners?
Is Brevo worth it in 2026?
Is Brevo worth it?
I tested Brevo for six weeks across email campaigns, SMS, and automation. Here is where it beats Mailchimp, where GetResponse pulls ahead...
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21 commentsThe pricing model is the whole reason I switched to Brevo. I had 40,000 subscribers but only emailed them once or twice a month, and Mailchimp was charging me as if I emailed them daily. Brevo cut my bill by more than half for the same sends. That math was too obvious to ignore.
That is exactly the scenario where Brevo's per-email pricing shines, Hao. Large lists with infrequent sends get absolutely hammered by subscriber-count billing. Paying for what you actually send rather than for contacts that just sit there is a much fairer model for your use case. The math favors Brevo strongly once your list grows past a few thousand and your send frequency is moderate.
How is the deliverability compared to Mailchimp? That is what I care about most.
I use it for both email and SMS, and having them in the same automation flow is the real win. I set up a flow where someone gets an email welcome, then an SMS three days later if they have not clicked. Conversion on those SMS follow-ups is solid. Two separate tools would have driven me crazy.
That kind of multi-step email-then-SMS flow is genuinely hard to replicate cheaply with separate tools, Sonali. Having the behaviour logic and the channel switching all in one workflow means you can build sequences that would cost far more on a dedicated SMS platform plus a separate email tool. Good conversion from the SMS follow-ups makes total sense too, because the timing and context are already warm.
Transactional emails for my e-commerce store. Order confirmations, shipping updates, all running through Brevo. Setup was straightforward and they have all been landing in primary inbox, not promotions. Reliable enough that I stopped worrying about it.
I looked at GetResponse but it was more expensive for what I needed. Is Brevo actually a decent alternative for basic automation?
For basic automation, yes, Brevo is a solid and cheaper option, Gilad. Welcome sequences, abandoned cart flows, simple behaviour triggers, it handles all of those without much friction. Where GetResponse pulls ahead is in more complex multi-branch logic, the webinar integration, and funnels. If you need those, the extra cost makes sense. For standard email automation without the advanced features, Brevo does the job well at a lower price.
The UI took me a while to get used to. It feels a bit cluttered, especially the contacts section. Not a dealbreaker but the learning curve is real compared to MailerLite.
Free plan first, then upgraded to Starter when I needed to send more than 300 a day. The transition was smooth and there was no data migration pain. I have been on Starter for about four months now and it covers everything a small newsletter needs.
The on-ramp from free to paid being smooth matters a lot, Marton. Many people start on free and only upgrade when they hit the daily cap, which is exactly how it is supposed to work. At 300 emails per day the free plan actually covers small newsletters comfortably, so you are not forced to upgrade before you are ready. Glad the Starter plan is covering your needs without surprises.
Does the free plan actually remove the Brevo branding from emails? I saw conflicting things online.
No, it does not, Eilis. On the free plan every email carries a small Brevo logo in the footer. That is the trade-off for not paying. The Starter plan removes it. If you are sending to customers or subscribers and want a fully branded experience, you need at least the Starter plan at around $9/mo. For testing or a very informal list where the logo does not matter, the free plan is fine. It is an honest limitation worth knowing upfront.
I compared Brevo and ConvertKit for my content business. ConvertKit won because my workflow is all about tagging subscribers and sending content by interest. Brevo was cheaper but the tagging and segmentation were not as intuitive for that use case.
Running a small online store. Any gotchas with the abandoned cart automation setup?
The email editor is genuinely good. Clean, fast, and I can build something that looks professional in about 20 minutes without a designer. The template selection is narrower than Mailchimp but the ones they have are solid and responsive on mobile.
The gap in template volume compared to Mailchimp is real, Jimena, but you are right that template quality matters more than quantity. A good-looking responsive template you can customize beats 500 mediocre ones. If you find a layout that fits your brand, 20 minutes to a professional email is a solid outcome. The editor itself is one of Brevo's stronger points and makes the narrower library less of a problem in practice.
Switched from Mailchimp after their prices went up. Same list size, same monthly sends, and I am paying about $20 less per month on Brevo Business. The automation is not quite as polished but for standard flows it works fine and I am happy with the savings.
Is there a way to A/B test subject lines on the free plan or do you need to pay for that?
Four months in and I would give it a solid 4 out of 5. Does everything a small business needs for email and SMS, pricing is fair, deliverability has been reliable. The only thing I keep wishing for is a better landing page builder. The one built in is pretty basic.
Four out of five is about where I land too, Tam. The landing page builder is one of the thinner parts of the platform, and it is one area where a standalone tool or a more integrated suite like GetResponse does better. For email and SMS as your core use, it delivers well. If landing pages are critical to your funnel, pairing Brevo with a dedicated page builder or upgrading that part of the stack is worth thinking about.