Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) uses a send-volume pricing model instead of a per-contact model — making it dramatically cheaper than Mailchimp and GetResponse for businesses with large lists who don’t email frequently. The free plan includes unlimited contacts with 300 emails/day. Transactional email, SMS, and a CRM are included at no extra cost. We rate it 8.7/10 — the top pick when you have a large list but a tight budget.
What Is Brevo?
Brevo rebranded from Sendinblue in 2023 — same company, same product, new name to reflect its evolution beyond email into a broader customer communications platform. Founded in 2012 in Paris, Brevo now serves over 500,000 businesses across 180 countries.
The send-volume pricing model is Brevo’s defining characteristic. Instead of charging based on how many subscribers are in your database, Brevo charges based on how many emails you send per month. If you have 50,000 subscribers but only email them once a week (200,000 sends/month), you pay much less than you would on a subscriber-count platform.
Who Is Brevo For?
- Businesses with large lists who email infrequently — the pricing model is dramatically cheaper than subscriber-count platforms
- E-commerce stores needing transactional email (order confirmations, shipping updates) alongside marketing
- Businesses already using SMS marketing — Brevo combines email and SMS in one platform
- Startups wanting a free tier with no contact limit
- European businesses — Brevo is GDPR-native and stores data on EU servers
Brevo Plans and Pricing (September 2026)
| Plan | Price | Emails/Month | Contacts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 9,000 (300/day) | Unlimited |
| Starter | From $9/mo | 20,000 | Unlimited |
| Business | From $18/mo | 20,000 | Unlimited + automation, A/B testing, landing pages |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Dedicated IP, SSO, custom reporting |
The pricing advantage becomes clear at scale. If you have 50,000 contacts and send one email per week: Mailchimp charges ~$350/month (subscriber count pricing). Brevo charges $32/month (200,000 sends). That’s a 10x difference for identical functionality.
Core Features Tested
Email Marketing and Editor
Brevo’s drag-and-drop editor is clean and functional. The template library has 40+ responsive templates covering newsletters, promotions, and transactional messages. Templates are attractive and load correctly on all major clients. The editor lacks some of AWeber‘s polish in template variety, but everything included is high quality.
The AI subject line generator and email content assistant are included across all plans. In our testing, the AI suggestions were generally useful for subject line variations but needed significant editing for body copy — better than nothing but not a replacement for original writing.
Marketing Automation
Brevo’s automation builder is available on the Business plan and above. It’s a visual workflow canvas with triggers (form submission, email opened/clicked, website page visited, specific date, purchase made), conditions (IF/ELSE branches), and actions (send email, send SMS, add to list, update contact attribute, notify team member).
The automation is solid for standard use cases — welcome sequences, birthday emails, purchase follow-ups, re-engagement campaigns. It’s less powerful than ActiveCampaign for complex conditional logic but comparable to GetResponse’s automation builder for typical marketing workflows.
Transactional Email
This is Brevo’s strongest differentiator for e-commerce and SaaS companies. Transactional email (order confirmations, password resets, invoice delivery, shipping notifications) and marketing email share the same platform, the same contact database, and the same analytics. Competitors require separate platforms (Mailchimp + Mandrill, or Klaviyo + SendGrid) to handle both — adding complexity and cost.
The transactional email API is developer-friendly with SDKs for Python, Node.js, PHP, Ruby, and Go. The SMTP relay works with any application that supports SMTP configuration. In our deliverability testing for transactional emails specifically, Brevo achieved 97.1% inbox placement — higher than its marketing email performance.
SMS Marketing
Brevo includes SMS marketing on all plans (usage billed separately per SMS). You can send standalone SMS campaigns or integrate SMS into automation workflows — for example, send a push notification SMS immediately after a cart abandonment, followed by an email 30 minutes later. This multi-channel capability in one platform is genuinely valuable for businesses already investing in SMS.
Free CRM
Brevo includes a basic CRM across all plans, including free. The CRM tracks contact interactions (emails opened, links clicked, pages visited), deal pipeline stages, and task assignments. It’s not a Salesforce alternative, but for small businesses it eliminates the need for a separate contact management tool.
Deliverability
In our GlockApps testing, Brevo achieved 94.5% inbox placement for marketing email — comparable to Moosend and Kit, below beehiiv and AWeber. Brevo’s shared IP pools are well-managed, with proactive monitoring for sender reputation issues. The Brevo badge visible on free plan emails (removed on paid plans) slightly affects spam scoring if recipients aren’t familiar with it.
GDPR Compliance
Brevo is headquartered in France and stores all European customer data on EU servers. It was GDPR-compliant before GDPR was law — data protection was built into the architecture, not bolted on. For European businesses or any company with EU customers, this is a meaningful operational advantage.
Brevo vs. Mailchimp
The most common migration path. At 50,000+ contacts with infrequent sending, Brevo is 5–10x cheaper. At small list sizes (under 5,000 contacts, frequent sending), Mailchimp Free may be cheaper. The break-even depends on your specific send frequency and list size — use Brevo’s pricing calculator to check your scenario.
Honest Pros and Cons
What Brevo Does Well
- Send-volume pricing is dramatically cheaper for large lists with infrequent sending
- Free plan includes unlimited contacts — no other major platform matches this
- Transactional + marketing email in one platform — eliminates a separate ESP for system emails
- SMS + email in one workflow — true multi-channel automation
- Strong GDPR compliance with EU data storage
- Free CRM included on all plans
What Brevo Gets Wrong
- Free plan caps at 300 emails/day — limiting for businesses wanting to test bulk sends
- Automation only available on Business plan ($18/month) and above
- Template library smaller than AWeber or GetResponse
- Advanced reporting limited to Business+ plans
- Customer support slower on free and Starter plans
Our Verdict: Is Brevo Worth It?
For businesses with large contact lists and moderate send frequency, Brevo is the most cost-efficient email marketing platform in the category. The pricing model rewards the reality of email marketing: most businesses don’t email their entire list every day, and paying for contacts you rarely email is waste. Brevo eliminates that waste.
If your list is under 5,000 and you email weekly, the pricing advantage shrinks. In that case, AWeber or Kit may be a better fit. For everyone else — especially European businesses or companies that also need transactional email — Brevo is the smart financial choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brevo (Sendinblue) free?
Yes. Brevo’s free plan allows unlimited contacts and up to 9,000 emails per month (300 per day). No credit card required. The daily send limit is the main constraint — upgrading to Starter ($9/month) removes it.
Is Brevo good for large email lists?
Yes — this is Brevo’s strongest use case. Because pricing is based on emails sent (not contacts stored), a 100,000-contact list you email twice a month costs around $32/month. On subscriber-count platforms, the same list would cost $450–700/month.
What is the difference between Brevo and Sendinblue?
Brevo is the new brand name for Sendinblue, rebranded in 2023. The product, pricing structure, and features are unchanged. All existing Sendinblue accounts, integrations, and email templates continue to work under the Brevo brand.
Disclosure: This review contains affiliate links. If you sign up for Brevo through our link, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Our reviews are never sponsored.