Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
Email Marketing Verified May 2026
Email, SMS, and marketing automation without an enterprise contract — now rebranded Brevo
- Unlimited contacts on all plans — pricing based on email volume, not contact count
- Free plan with 300 emails/day is genuinely useful for small list testing and early growth
- Full marketing automation (workflows, triggers, segmentation) included from Business plan
- Transactional email, SMS marketing, WhatsApp, and live chat under one platform
How Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) scored 64/100
6 weighted criteria, each scored out of 10 and published with its reasoning. Featured placements never move a score.
Deal Strength
3.0 /10There is no exclusive coupon or promotional discount attached here, so the savings come entirely from Brevo's own generous free plan and standard month-to-month sign-up rather than a one-off code. The free tier alone lets most small teams run real campaigns at zero cost, which is the genuine draw.
Value for Money
8.0 /10Brevo delivers strong value because it charges by emails sent, not by how many contacts you store, so unlimited contacts sit on every plan including the free one. Paid tiers begin at roughly $9 per month, and for lists in the thousands that is often far cheaper than contact-priced rivals like Mailchimp.
Capability
7.0 /10Brevo covers unusual breadth for the price: email marketing, transactional email via SMTP and API, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns, marketing automation, landing pages, signup forms, live chat and a built-in sales CRM. The trade-off is depth, since no individual module quite matches a dedicated specialist, and the email designer trails the best in class.
Time to Value
8.0 /10New users can be sending fast: create a free account, authenticate your sending domain with SPF and DKIM, and Brevo's free plan allows up to 300 emails per day immediately. That free allowance covers most end-to-end evaluations, so teams can build a list, design a campaign and see real results within hours rather than days.
Trust & Reliability
7.0 /10Brevo is a mature, well-adopted platform used by hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide, including recognisable enterprise brands, and it earns consistently solid third-party ratings. Data is hosted in EU data centres in France and Germany under GDPR, though deliverability on shared IPs depends on good sending hygiene and there is no headline uptime SLA on lower tiers.
Flexibility & Exit
7.0 /10Billing is flexible with month-to-month options and a permanent free plan, so there is no long lock-in to escape. Because pricing never penalises contact count, growing a list will not trap you in an escalating bill, and contacts and campaign data can be exported, leaving a clean path off the platform if needs change.
About Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
Quick answer
Email, SMS, and marketing automation without an enterprise contract — now rebranded Brevo
Brevo, in 30 seconds
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.
How it works
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.
Pricing reality
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.
Brevo vs the alternatives
| 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 |
Who should buy, who should skip
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.
What's included
- Free tier covers 300 daily emails indefinitely
- SMS and email in one platform, shared contact database
- Transactional email API included on paid plans
- Basic marketing automation without workflow builder learning curve
- SaaSTweaks-verified affiliate deal
- Vendor-direct activation flow
- Editorial pros + cons review
- Tracked savings claim with refresh date
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) pricing
Verified May 2026. Vendor's published rates at the time we checked — always confirm at checkout.
| Plan | Price | Term | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | forever | 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts, basic email campaigns, email templates, SMS marketing |
| Starter | From $25/mo | monthly | From 20K emails/mo; no daily sending limit, basic analytics, email support; price scales with email volume |
| Business | From $65/mo | monthly | From 20K emails/mo; adds marketing automation, landing pages, A/B testing, advanced reporting, phone support |
| Enterprise | Custom | annual | Unlimited sends, SSO, sub-accounts, advanced permissions, SLA, dedicated account manager |
Getting started
4 steps. The last one is the part most people skip.
- 1
Open Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) through the link on this page
It carries our referral tag. The price you pay is identical either way, and it never changes the score on this page.
- 2
Compare the tiers against what you actually use
The pricing table on this page lists what each plan includes. Match it to real usage rather than the tier the vendor highlights.
- 3
Start on the smallest plan that fits
Most vendors let you move up mid-cycle and bill the difference, so starting low costs you nothing but starting high does.
- 4
Check the renewal terms before you commit
Note the renewal date and the rate it reverts to, so the second invoice is not a surprise. Annual plans are usually cheaper per month but harder to exit.
Where Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) wins and loses
What works
- Unlimited contacts on all plans — pricing based on email volume, not contact count
- Free plan with 300 emails/day is genuinely useful for small list testing and early growth
- Full marketing automation (workflows, triggers, segmentation) included from Business plan
- Transactional email, SMS marketing, WhatsApp, and live chat under one platform
What doesn't
- Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) branding change has caused some customer confusion
- Business plan required for marketing automation — Starter is limited to basic campaigns
- Email volume pricing can be hard to predict for businesses with variable sending patterns
- Deliverability on shared IPs can be inconsistent — dedicated IP requires additional cost
The bottom line
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is one of the best-value multi-channel platforms for a growing list: unlimited contacts on every plan, email pricing that scales by volume instead of headcount, plus SMS, WhatsApp, automation and a built-in CRM. No single module beats the category specialists, but for teams that want email, transactional sending and light CRM in one affordable account it is a clear Buy.
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) FAQ
The questions we actually get asked about this deal.
Ask us something elseBrevo offers a permanent free plan and paid tiers that start at roughly $9 per month, with pricing based on how many emails you send rather than how many contacts you store. The Starter tier lifts the daily sending cap, while the Business tier adds marketing automation, A/B testing and send-time optimisation. Enterprise pricing is custom for high-volume senders needing SSO and dedicated support.
Brevo's free plan allows up to 300 emails per day and, crucially, unlimited contacts, which is rare among email tools. It includes the drag-and-drop editor, signup forms, basic templates, a sales CRM and transactional email through the SMTP relay. Emails carry a small Brevo footer on the free tier, and the daily cap is removed on any paid plan.
Yes. Sendinblue rebranded to Brevo in May 2023, and existing accounts migrated automatically with no data loss or change to their plan. The new name reflects the platform's expansion well beyond email into SMS, WhatsApp, marketing automation and a sales CRM, but the underlying product, logins and pricing model carried over unchanged.
For most growing lists, yes. Brevo charges by emails sent with unlimited contacts, whereas Mailchimp charges by contact count, so a large list you mail moderately is usually markedly cheaper on Brevo. The exception is a very small list you email daily, where Mailchimp's free and entry tiers can compete more closely on total cost.
Brevo's main weakness is depth rather than breadth: it does many things competently but no single feature beats a dedicated specialist, and the email template designer is less refined than rivals. Deliverability on shared IPs is workable but demands proper SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup and gradual domain warm-up, with a dedicated IP recommended once sending volume climbs.
Yes. Brevo handles marketing campaigns and transactional messages such as receipts and password resets from one account, using separate sending streams to protect deliverability. Transactional mail goes out through the SMTP relay or API, so developers can plug it into an app quickly, while marketers run newsletters and automations from the same dashboard without a second tool.
