Brevo

Overview

Brevo is an all-in-one marketing and CRM platform that combines email marketing, SMS campaigns, marketing automation, chat functionality, and sales tools in a single dashboard. Founded in 2012 as Sendinblue and rebranded to Brevo in May 2023, the platform now serves over 500,000 businesses globally and is available in six languages. The company has invested €50 million in AI innovation, launching its AI agent Aura in May 2025, which assists with content creation, send-time optimization, and audience segmentation directly within the platform.

What differentiates Brevo from most email marketing platforms is its pricing structure based on the number of emails sent rather than the number of contacts stored. This unique model allows businesses to maintain large contact lists of up to 100,000 subscribers on the free plan without incurring costs until they actually send messages, making it particularly attractive for organizations with extensive databases who send infrequently. Beyond basic email marketing, Brevo positions itself as a complete operations platform with built-in CRM, live chat, WhatsApp Business integration, transactional email capabilities, and multichannel campaign management. For newsletter creators who want an affordable all-in-one solution that scales with their sending volume rather than list size, Brevo provides comprehensive features typically found in more expensive enterprise platforms.

Best For

Brevo is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses, ecommerce stores, and newsletter creators who want affordable access to advanced marketing features without paying based on contact list size. The platform works particularly well for creators who maintain large subscriber lists but send newsletters less frequently, as they can store up to 100,000 contacts on the free plan and only pay when they exceed 300 daily emails. Newsletter creators who need multichannel capabilities beyond just email, such as SMS campaigns, WhatsApp messaging, or live chat, will appreciate having everything in one platform. The tool suits budget-conscious marketers who want powerful automation, segmentation, and analytics without the premium pricing of platforms like ActiveCampaign or HubSpot, though creators focused primarily on advanced design or monetization features may find the platform less specialized than newsletter-specific alternatives.

Key Features

• AI-Powered Content Assistant (Aura): Brevo includes an AI agent called Aura that helps draft subject lines, generate email copy, adjust tone to match your brand voice, and optimize send times for individual recipients. Accessible from anywhere in the dashboard through a simple chat interface, Aura can also add dynamic product recommendations, enrich contact data with additional information like job titles and company names, and fine-tune audience segmentation based on your campaign goals.

• Unique Send-Based Pricing Model: Unlike most email platforms that charge based on subscriber count, Brevo prices plans according to monthly email volume, allowing you to store up to 100,000 contacts on the free plan without additional costs. This structure benefits newsletter creators with large lists who send infrequently, as you only pay for actual sends rather than maintaining your subscriber database, though it requires careful monitoring if your sending volume fluctuates significantly month to month.

• Advanced Marketing Automation: Brevo provides sophisticated automation workflows that respond to customer behavior across multiple channels, with pre-built templates for welcome series, abandoned carts, post-purchase sequences, and re-engagement campaigns. The visual workflow builder allows you to create complex conditional paths with triggers based on email opens, clicks, website visits, purchase behavior, and specific time delays, helping newsletter creators nurture subscribers systematically without manual intervention.

• Integrated CRM and Sales Tools: The platform includes a free CRM with pipeline management, deal tracking, task management, and meeting scheduling capabilities, eliminating the need for separate sales software. This integrated approach helps newsletter creators who sell products, services, or consulting track leads from subscription through purchase, maintaining a complete view of customer relationships without jumping between disconnected tools.

• Multichannel Campaign Management: Beyond email, Brevo supports SMS marketing, WhatsApp Business messaging, web push notifications, and mobile wallet campaigns, all managed from a single interface. This multichannel capability allows newsletter creators to reach subscribers through their preferred communication channels and create coordinated campaigns that combine email, text, and social messaging for higher engagement rates.

• Comprehensive Segmentation Engine: Brevo provides powerful segmentation tools that allow you to create targeted audience groups based on demographics, purchase history, engagement levels, website activity, and custom attributes. The platform supports dynamic lists that automatically update based on subscriber behavior, ensuring your segments stay current without manual maintenance and enabling highly personalized campaigns that speak to specific subscriber interests.

• Landing Page and Form Builder: The Business plan includes a drag-and-drop landing page builder and customizable subscription forms that integrate directly with your email campaigns. These lead capture tools allow newsletter creators to build complete funnel workflows from awareness to subscription without requiring separate landing page software, though the editor receives mixed reviews for being less sophisticated than specialized landing page platforms.

• Transactional Email and SMTP Relay: Brevo functions as a bulk email service for transactional messages like account confirmations, order updates, password resets, and shipping notifications, allowing you to manage both marketing campaigns and operational emails in one platform. The SMTP relay service ensures high deliverability for these critical automated messages, with pricing based on the same volume-based model as marketing emails.

• Real-Time Analytics and Reporting: The platform tracks detailed email metrics including open rates, click rates, heatmaps showing where readers click within emails, device tracking, and revenue attribution for ecommerce integrations. Business and Enterprise plans include advanced reporting with custom dashboards, export capabilities, and the ability to compare campaign performance over time, helping newsletter creators make data-driven decisions about content and timing.

• Extensive Integration Ecosystem: Brevo integrates with major platforms including Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Zapier, HubSpot, Salesforce, and over 150 other applications. These integrations allow newsletter creators to connect Brevo with their existing tech stack, sync customer data automatically, and trigger email campaigns based on actions in other systems without manual data transfers or custom development.

Pricing

Brevo offers a generous free plan that includes up to 300 emails per day with unlimited contact storage up to 100,000 subscribers, basic marketing automation for 2,000 contacts, a sales CRM, over 40 email templates, and essential features like personalization and segmentation. The Starter plan starts at $9 per month for 5,000 monthly emails, removing the daily sending limit and adding basic reporting and analytics, though you must pay an additional $12 per month to remove Brevo branding from emails. The Business plan begins at $18 per month for 5,000 emails and includes unlimited marketing automation, AI predictive sending, A/B testing, landing pages, advanced statistics, multi-user access, and phone support, with pricing scaling up to $129 per month for 100,000 emails and $669 per month for 1 million emails. The Professional plan is designed for high-volume senders sending over 150,000 emails monthly, starting at $499 per month and adding WhatsApp campaigns, web push notifications, contact scoring, AI-powered segmentation, and advanced ecommerce features. For businesses with custom needs, the Enterprise plan offers unlimited contacts, dedicated account management, service-level agreements, sub-accounts for agencies, and enterprise-grade security with customized pricing. Brevo also offers a pay-as-you-go credit system where credits never expire, making it suitable for occasional senders who prefer not to commit to monthly plans, and provides a 10 percent discount on annual billing compared to monthly subscriptions.