Brevo review
Cost-conscious senders who want email, SMS and transactional in one place.
Overview
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) competes on a simple, attractive premise: unlimited contacts on most plans, charging by email volume instead. For businesses with large, occasionally-mailed lists that model can halve costs versus Mailchimp. The platform covers a lot — campaigns, automation, transactional email, SMS, WhatsApp, a light CRM — competently rather than brilliantly. Automation and e-commerce depth trail the specialists, but as a value-led all-rounder for European SMBs in particular, it is easy to recommend.
Strengths and weaknesses
What we like
- Unlimited contacts on most plans — pay per email, not per name
- Email, SMS, WhatsApp and transactional in one platform
- Generous free tier (300 emails/day)
- GDPR-rooted, European data residency options
- Solid transactional email built in (no separate product)
What to watch
- Automation depth behind ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo
- E-commerce integrations capable but less native
- Template editor feels a generation behind
- Daily send cap on free plan constrains bursts
Key features at a glance
| Editor & templates | Functional, improving |
| Automation | Good core workflows; specialist tools go deeper |
| E-commerce | Solid plugins; revenue reporting lighter |
| Contacts model | Unlimited contacts; priced by send volume |
| Free tier | Yes — 300 emails/day |
| SMS & extras | SMS, WhatsApp, chat, light CRM, transactional |
Pricing
Free 300 emails/day; Starter from ~$25/mo for 20k emails; Business ~$65/mo with marketing automation. Indicative pricing.
Who Brevo is for — and who should skip it
Best for
Budget-conscious SMBs, European businesses wanting EU data residency, and anyone combining marketing + transactional sends.
Probably not for
E-commerce revenue teams (Klaviyo) and automation maximalists (ActiveCampaign).
Our verdict — 8.1/10
Brevo is the value pick of the category: remarkable breadth per pound, with honest trade-offs in polish and automation depth.
Brevo, head to head
How we review: scores reflect our editorial assessment using vendor documentation, published pricing, independent research and hands-on evaluation where noted — read our full methodology. Pricing is indicative — always confirm current plans with the vendor. We may earn commission from links on this page; it never affects our scores.