Overview
Brevo — formerly Sendinblue — is a European-headquartered marketing platform aimed at small business and lower mid-market customers, with particular strength in markets requiring GDPR-aligned data residency. The platform combines email marketing, transactional email, SMS, WhatsApp, a lightweight CRM, and marketing automation. Brevo's pricing model is distinctive in the category: cost scales with email volume sent rather than contact count, which can be materially cheaper than contact-based alternatives for transactional-heavy or one-off campaign use cases.
Brevo is sold in four tiers: Free, Starter, Business, and Brevo+ (enterprise). Free includes 300 emails per day with unlimited contacts. Starter begins at roughly $9 per month for 5,000 emails monthly. Business adds marketing automation, A/B testing, and send-time optimisation. Brevo+ adds custom roles, SLA, dedicated IP, and premium support starting at $499 per month for 150,000+ emails monthly. Add-ons cover transactional email, WhatsApp, and SMS credits.
Key Features
- Email marketing with drag-and-drop builder
- Transactional email via Brevo Transactional (rebranded from Sendinblue SMTP)
- SMS marketing with global delivery
- WhatsApp Business API messaging
- Marketing automation with visual workflow builder
- Built-in CRM with deals, contacts, and tasks
- Conversations: live chat and shared inbox
- Landing pages and signup forms
- Send-time optimisation and A/B testing (Business and above)
- Contact list management with unlimited contacts on most tiers
- GDPR data residency in EU; SOC 2 Type 2 compliance
- API and SDKs for transactional integration
Pricing
| Tier | Model | Typical Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Forever free | $0 (300 emails/day) |
| Starter | Monthly | From ~$9/mo (5K emails) |
| Business | Monthly | From ~$18/mo (5K emails) / scales with volume |
| Brevo+ | Annual contract | From $499/mo (150K+ emails) |
Pricing verified May 2026. Brevo bills on email volume sent, not contact count — model differs from Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, and Klaviyo. Transactional email, SMS, and WhatsApp messaging billed separately as add-ons.
Strengths
- Email-volume pricing model can be materially cheaper for transactional-heavy workloads
- Unlimited contacts on most plans removes audit-and-archive overhead
- EU headquarters and GDPR data residency suit European customers
- Transactional email service competitive with SendGrid and Postmark
- Built-in CRM and live chat reduce the need for separate tools
Limitations
- Marketing automation depth is below ActiveCampaign and HubSpot
- Email builder template library is smaller than Mailchimp
- B2B account-based marketing tooling is absent
- Brand recognition in North America lags European market position
- Reporting depth and segmentation flexibility lag mid-market competitors