Email, SMS, and marketing automation without an enterprise contract — now rebranded Brevo
Brevo is the new name for Sendinblue, which rebranded in mid-2023 to reflect a wider scope than email alone. The product is the same lineage: a French-built sending platform with email, transactional, SMS, WhatsApp, a free CRM, landing pages, forms and a basic chat widget under one login. The trade-off is that no single module beats category specialists; you choose breadth and price over absolute depth.
Verify your sending domain with SPF and DKIM and you can send 300 free emails a day immediately. Contacts are uncapped on every plan, the single biggest difference from Mailchimp's contact-based pricing. The drag-and-drop designer is competent and automations live in a workflow builder with triggers (form submission, page visit, abandoned cart for Shopify or WooCommerce) and actions (send email, branch, send SMS). The CRM is a spreadsheet-style view with deals and a basic pipeline — fine for a sole trader, not a Pipedrive replacement.
The free plan is permanent: 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts, workflow builder for up to 2,000 contacts. Starter (around $9/month for 5,000 emails) removes the daily cap and Brevo logo. Business (from $18/month) adds A/B testing, advanced statistics and multi-user access. SMS is metered at country-specific rates. Transactional email is billed per email above a free monthly quota and is the cheapest credible alternative to SendGrid or Postmark for low-to-mid volume senders. Dedicated IPs cost extra and are recommended only above roughly 200,000 emails a month; below that, shared IPs work with normal warm-up hygiene.
| Tool | Free tier | Pricing model | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | 300/day, unlimited contacts | Per email sent | SMS + email + CRM in one | Designer trails Klaviyo |
| Mailchimp | 500 contacts | Per contact | Brand recognition, templates | Punishes contact growth |
| MailerLite | 1,000 contacts | Per contact | Cleanest editor | No native SMS |
| Klaviyo | 250 contacts | Per contact | Ecommerce data depth | Expensive at scale |
Buy if: you have a growing list and Mailchimp's per-contact creep is painful; you send transactional plus marketing and want one vendor; you need SMS in the same workflow as email; you want a free CRM that does not nag you to upgrade after 14 days.
Skip if: you are a Shopify-heavy ecommerce brand where Klaviyo's product-data integration is worth the premium; you need designer-grade templates and live with email all day; you ship at a scale where dedicated infrastructure and a deliverability consultant are baseline rather than upsell.
Free plan covers most evaluations end-to-end. Paid plans start around $9/month and the rebrand from Sendinblue did not change account migration paths.
Founders validate product-market fit without email infrastructure overhead. SendinBlue's free tier and included transactional API mean welcome sequences, password resets, and billing notifications run on one platform. When product scales past 300 daily emails, paid plans cost less than Mailgun + Klaviyo combined.
Agencies manage email and SMS for SMB clients from a single dashboard without per-client licensing fees. SendinBlue's contact limits (not seat limits) mean agencies add clients without renegotiating contracts. Transactional email routing keeps client infrastructure clean.
Teams segment customers by purchase history and send SMS reminders alongside email. SendinBlue's basic automation handles cart abandonment and post-purchase sequences without the complexity (or cost) of Klaviyo. Shared contact database syncs with Shopify and WooCommerce.
Quarterly access to product leadership.
Bonus credits redeemable on partner tooling.
We re-verify the offer every quarter so it never goes stale.
Hit the button on this page — opens the partner site in a new tab.
Check your investor or accelerator benefits portal for the Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) partner code. Y Combinator, Sequoia, and most Tier 1 VCs have codes available.
Renewals stay at the same rate — verified by us, not the vendor.
| Feature | Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) |
|---|---|
| Free trial | 14 days |
| Cheapest paid plan | $0/mo |
| Annual discount | Up to 25% |
| Refund window | 30 days |
| Setup time | < 1 hour |
| Best for | Founders |
“Excellent value for nonprofits with large donor lists”
“Free plan is the best on the market for early-stage email”
“Best value email platform when priced on volume not contacts”
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