Brevo

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is what Mailchimp wishes it still was. Affordable, broad in scope, and not allergic to transactional sending.

The rebrand from Sendinblue happened in 2023. The company was founded in Paris in 2012, which gives it a different DNA from US-led email tools. GDPR, multi-language support, and EU data hosting are all native rather than retrofitted.

If you're shopping for an email platform that won't gate transactional behind a separate product, Brevo deserves serious consideration. Here's the full breakdown.

What Brevo actually does

Brevo bundles five things into one account: marketing email campaigns, transactional email/SMS, a basic CRM, marketing automation workflows, and a chat widget. You can use any subset.

The campaign builder handles drag-and-drop emails, A/B testing, and segment targeting. The transactional side competes directly with Postmark and SendGrid, with both SMTP and REST API options.

SMS and WhatsApp Business sending are also baked in. Most competitors require Twilio or a separate vendor for these. Brevo's pricing on SMS is per-credit and varies by destination country.

Who Brevo is for

Brevo's sweet spot is small to mid-market businesses doing real email volume but not yet enterprise. Think DTC e-commerce stores, SaaS startups before $5M ARR, agencies running campaigns for SMB clients.

The volume-based pricing is friendly to lists in the 5K to 50K subscriber range. Mailchimp's pricing penalizes list growth. Brevo charges by email volume sent, which decouples revenue from list size.

If you're a developer who needs transactional sending plus marketing in one place, Brevo is one of the few tools that handles both well. Loops is similar but more SaaS-focused.

Pricing breakdown

Free tier covers 300 emails per day with unlimited contacts. That's the most generous free contact limit in the industry. Mailchimp caps at 500 contacts on free.

Starter is $9/month for 5,000 emails per month. Business is $18/month for 5,000 with marketing automation, A/B testing, and predictive sending. Enterprise pricing is custom.

Transactional is priced separately, starting at $15/month for 20,000 emails. SMS and WhatsApp are pay-per-message. The CRM is free up to a contact limit.

Standout features

Transactional and marketing in one place

This is genuinely rare. Most tools force you to use SendGrid or Postmark for transactional and Mailchimp or Klaviyo for marketing. Brevo handles both with a single contact database.

That means your password reset email and your welcome campaign use the same suppression list. Your unsubscribes apply across both. This sounds obvious but almost no one else does it.

WhatsApp Business

Brevo is one of the few platforms with native WhatsApp Business API support. You can run drip campaigns, send order confirmations, and automate replies through WhatsApp without standing up Twilio infrastructure.

Marketing automation

The visual workflow builder handles trigger-based sequences. Welcome series, abandoned cart, re-engagement, all of it. Not as deep as Customer.io, but adequate for most SMB needs.

Honest tradeoffs

The CRM is bare-bones. It works for basic deal tracking and contact management, but it's not replacing HubSpot or Pipedrive. Treat it as a contact organizer, not a sales pipeline tool.

Deliverability is good but not industry-leading. Postmark consistently scores higher in mail tester benchmarks for transactional. For marketing volume, Brevo's deliverability is comparable to Mailchimp.

Customer support has been a sore point historically. Free tier users wait days. Paid tiers get better response times. Power users sometimes hit edge cases that take patience to resolve.

Brevo vs alternatives

Versus Mailchimp: Mailchimp has the better-known brand and more polished UI. Brevo has better pricing as your list grows and includes transactional. If you're under 2,000 contacts, Mailchimp's free tier is friendly. Beyond that, Brevo's value compounds.

Versus Klaviyo: Klaviyo is the e-commerce specialist, with deep Shopify integration and SMS attribution. If you're a DTC brand doing $1M+ in revenue, Klaviyo earns its premium. Brevo is the budget alternative that covers 80% of the use cases.

Versus Loops and Postmark: Loops is SaaS-focused and prettier. Postmark is transactional-only. Brevo's strength is breadth, theirs is depth in their lanes.

Compare directly via Brevo vs Mailchimp or browse best email marketing tools.

Bottom line

Brevo is the practical choice for SMBs that want one tool to handle email, SMS, transactional, and basic CRM. It's not the prettiest, it's not the most powerful, but it's the most balanced.

The pricing model alone makes it worth evaluating before signing up for Mailchimp again. If you've outgrown the free tier of any major provider, run the numbers on Brevo before renewing.

Also worth a look: tools for marketers for adjacent workflows like landing pages and analytics.

Brevo's automation workflows in practice

The marketing automation builder handles the standard SaaS use cases: welcome series, abandoned cart, re-engagement, post-purchase upsells. Triggers fire on contact properties, page visits, email engagement, or webhook events.

The visual editor uses drag-and-drop blocks. You define entry conditions, add wait periods, send emails, branch on conditions, and update contact properties. Anyone who's used Mailchimp Customer Journeys or HubSpot Workflows will feel at home.

Where Brevo's automation lags Customer.io is multi-channel orchestration. You can't easily mix push notifications, in-app messages, and email in one workflow. Brevo handles email/SMS/WhatsApp; in-app messaging requires another tool.

Templates and design

The template gallery includes 60+ pre-built designs for common use cases (welcome, newsletter, transactional). They're functional, not stunning. Think professional but generic.

For brand-specific designs, the drag-and-drop editor handles it. You can also import HTML directly if you have a designer producing custom templates. The HTML editor preserves your code without rewriting it.

Mobile rendering is reliable across the major email clients. The preview tool shows Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, and mobile views before sending. Catches most rendering issues before they hit subscribers.

Deliverability reality check

Brevo's deliverability is good for marketing email. Inbox placement rates hover around 90% for engaged lists, which matches Mailchimp and falls slightly behind dedicated transactional providers.

For transactional, Brevo is competitive but not best-in-class. Postmark consistently outperforms in third-party deliverability tests. Resend is similar. The gap is small but real for high-volume senders.

Brevo handles the complexity behind the scenes: SPF, DKIM, DMARC setup, IP warming for new senders, suppression list management. You don't have to think about it, which is the right default.

Setting up custom domains

Brevo's onboarding walks you through DNS records for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. The documentation is clear, and the verification status updates within minutes of you adding records. No manual support tickets required.

Once verified, you can send from your own domain rather than Brevo's shared infrastructure. This boosts deliverability and brand consistency. The setup takes 30 minutes if you have access to your DNS provider.

Common Brevo questions

Can I migrate from Mailchimp?

Yes. Brevo provides a CSV import tool that handles contact data, list segmentation, and unsubscribe history. You'll lose Mailchimp-specific features like Customer Journeys (rebuild in Brevo Automation), but the basic data moves cleanly.

Does Brevo support GDPR?

Natively. Brevo is a French company, GDPR is in their DNA. Double opt-in, granular consent records, right-to-erasure handling, and EU data hosting all work out of the box.

If you're a European business, Brevo's GDPR posture is one of the stronger reasons to choose it over US providers. Mailchimp added GDPR compliance later; Brevo has had it from the start.

What's the SMS pricing like?

SMS pricing is per-credit and varies by country. Sending to the US is around $0.015 per message. UK is similar. Higher-cost countries (some African and Asian markets) can hit $0.10+ per message.

Compare to Twilio's $0.0079 per US SMS for direct API access. Brevo is more expensive per message but bundles the marketing automation, which usually wins on total cost.

For more email and marketing comparisons, see Brevo vs SendGrid or browse best transactional email tools.

Brevo for agencies and resellers

Brevo offers an agency program with multi-account management, white-label options, and discounted pricing. Useful for marketing agencies running campaigns for SMB clients.

The agency dashboard lets you switch between client accounts without re-authenticating. Reporting can be aggregated across clients for portfolio views. Volume discounts kick in based on aggregate sending across accounts.

Reseller licenses are also available. White-label the platform with your branding for clients. Margin opportunity for agencies that want to bundle Brevo with their service offerings.

For agency-specific tooling, browse tools for agencies.