Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is the budget email platform that survives comparison with the giants better than its price suggests. The honest verdict: for small businesses that email regularly but modestly, it is the best value in the category, with a genuinely free plan (around 300 emails per day, unlimited contacts) and paid tiers from roughly $9 per month. Where it loses: heavy senders, deep-automation seekers and teams needing best-in-class reporting will find its ceilings quickly. Here is the full picture, priced out.
What Brevo Does Well
The pricing model is the friendliest in the category. Brevo charges by emails sent rather than contacts stored: the free plan allows around 300 emails daily across unlimited contacts, and paid tiers scale by monthly send volume (Starter from roughly $9 per month for 5,000 emails, Business around $18, with higher Plus tiers; verify current pricing). For businesses with big contact lists and modest sending habits, this is decisively cheaper than per-contact rivals like Mailchimp, whose bills grow with every stored record. Our free email tools guide ranks its free plan the strongest all-rounder for exactly this reason.
The all-in-one breadth is real. Email, SMS, WhatsApp campaigns, transactional emails (order confirmations and receipts) and a lightweight CRM with deals and tasks live in one account, so an early-stage business runs its outbound world from one bill. The drag-and-drop editor is competent, the template collection serviceable, and signup forms plus basic landing pages are included across plans.
Deliverability and support hold up. Brevo's sending reputation is solid across large user bases, dedicated IPs are available on higher tiers, and support (email on free, chat and phone as tiers rise) earns better-than-average reviewer marks for responsiveness at this price point.
Transactional email lives in the same house. Order confirmations, receipts, password resets and shipping notices share the account with marketing sends, which for early-stage businesses removes a second subscription and an integration point. Larger senders get dedicated transactional infrastructure on higher tiers, with sensible separation between marketing and operational sending. Few tools in this price class bundle this properly; it is one of Brevo's most underrated practical advantages.
Where Brevo Hurts
The daily send cap shapes everything. Three hundred emails a day means a 5,000-contact list takes the better part of two weeks to cycle once on the free plan, so launch-style blasts and time-sensitive campaigns are off the table without upgrading. Even paid tiers carry daily limits tied to the plan's monthly volume, which power senders find restrictive compared with per-contact rivals that let you mail the whole list on demand.
Automation depth and reporting sit lower than the leaders. Multi-step workflows exist (with step limits on lower plans), but branching sophistication and personalization trail ActiveCampaign by a clear generation, and A/B testing plus advanced analytics are paid-tier features with limits of their own. Teams whose email program is a funnel operation will hit these walls; newsletter-and-promotions teams will not notice them.
The CRM is a bonus, not a beast. Deals, tasks and contact timelines cover simple pipelines, but it is lighter than every dedicated CRM, and treating Brevo as a CRM replacement ends when real pipeline complexity arrives. Its own positioning is honest about this; buyers should be too.
Against the wider field, Brevo's lane is clear: it is the everyday-business sender, not the specialist's choice. Newsletter creators outgrow its send caps toward Kit's free runway, funnel builders outgrow its automation toward ActiveCampaign, and stores outgrow its segmentation toward Klaviyo. Inside its lane (small businesses sending regular email with occasional SMS), it competes harder than its price suggests.
Brevo Pricing in 2026
| Plan | Price (verify current) | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | ~300 emails/day, unlimited contacts, SMS credits pay-as-you-go |
| Starter | From ~$9/month | Volume email plans from 5,000/month, no daily sending cap |
| Business | From ~$18/month | More volume, A/B testing, basic automation and reporting improvements |
| BrevoPlus / Enterprise | From ~$35/month upward | Higher volume, advanced features, dedicated options |
Reading the table honestly: Starter is the tier most small businesses actually want (the daily cap is Brevo's signature constraint), and Business is where the feature doors start opening. SMS and WhatsApp are purchased as credits on every plan.
The Verdict by Business Type
| If you are... | Verdict |
|---|---|
| A small business with a modest weekly newsletter | Strong yes. The free plan may be all you ever need. |
| A local business wanting email plus SMS reminders | Strong yes. The bundled SMS is the cheapest route in the category. |
| A store wanting deep commerce flows | Look at Klaviyo or Omnisend first (our e-commerce email guide compares them). |
| A funnel-driven marketer | No. ActiveCampaign's automation depth is the point there. |
| A creator growing a big audience on free plans | Consider Kit: free to 10,000 subscribers beats daily caps for pure audience building. |
Brevo vs the Alternatives
Versus Mailchimp: Brevo wins on price at almost every realistic configuration (unlimited contacts versus contact-based billing), Mailchimp wins on editor polish and integrations. Versus MailerLite: the closest philosophical rival; MailerLite's free tier allows more monthly volume for smaller lists, while Brevo handles bigger contact rosters without charging for them. Versus Kit: different models entirely, audience-building versus everyday business email. The full field is ranked in our best email marketing software guide.
Versus MailerLite: the closest philosophical rival, and the comparison comes down to list shape. MailerLite's free tier allows more monthly volume for lists up to around 1,000 subscribers and includes its automation builder free, while Brevo handles large contact rosters without ever charging for them and pairs email with SMS natively. Small-list automators lean MailerLite; big-list, low-frequency and SMS-hungry businesses lean Brevo.
The bottom line: Brevo is the right buy for small businesses that value a flat, predictable bill and everyday email done well, and the wrong buy for funnel operators and store specialists. Start free on Brevo, watch the daily cap against your real sends, and upgrade to Starter the week the cap first annoys you.
