Brevo Review: All-in-One Email & SMS Marketing for Small Business (2026)
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is best for small businesses that want email, SMS, and WhatsApp marketing in one affordable platform, with a free CRM included. The Free plan gives you 300 emails/day and unlimited contacts. Paid plans start at just $9/month. Our rating: 8.4/10.
AI Email Marketing
The rare email marketing platform priced on email volume (not contact count), with built-in SMS, WhatsApp, and CRM, plus one of the most generous free plans for small lists.
Why Small Businesses Are Choosing Brevo Over Mailchimp
Brevo, the platform formerly known as Sendinblue, has quietly become one of the most small-business-friendly email marketing tools on the market. The reason is its pricing model: instead of charging you more as your contact list grows (the way Mailchimp, Kit, and GetResponse do), Brevo charges based on how many emails you actually send. If you have 50,000 subscribers but only email them twice a month, you pay dramatically less with Brevo than almost any alternative.
That alone makes it worth a serious look, especially if you’ve been burned by email tool bills that kept climbing as your audience grew. Brevo is a core recommendation in our AI automation for small business stack, particularly for multi-channel businesses that need email plus SMS or WhatsApp in one place.
Volume-Based Pricing
You pay for emails sent, not contacts stored. The free plan alone supports up to 100,000 contacts, and paid plans scale by monthly email volume starting at 5,000 sends. For businesses with large lists but infrequent sends, this is the cheapest model in the category.
Multi-Channel Marketing
Send email, SMS, WhatsApp, and push notifications from a single dashboard. SMS and WhatsApp run on pay-as-you-go credits that never expire, so you can add them to your mix without committing to another subscription.
Free Built-In CRM
Brevo includes a basic sales CRM on every plan, including the free tier. You get deal pipelines, contact management, email tracking, and meeting scheduling. For a solo founder or small sales team, this can replace a separate CRM subscription entirely.
Marketing Automation
Visual automation builder with triggers based on email activity, web behavior, purchases, and custom events. The free plan lets up to 2,000 unique contacts enter your automations; paid plans remove that cap entirely on the Business tier.
Transactional Emails Included
Every Brevo plan (including free) includes transactional email via SMTP and RESTful API. You can send order confirmations, password resets, and receipts through the same account you use for marketing, without needing a separate tool like Postmark or SendGrid.
Landing Pages & Forms
Drag-and-drop landing page builder (Business plan and above) and unlimited signup forms on every plan. Good for capturing leads from paid ads or social without needing a separate page builder. A/B testing is included on the Business plan.
Brevo Pricing
Free / From $9/month
Brevo offers four plans. The Free plan includes 300 emails/day, up to 100,000 contacts, drag-and-drop editor, basic CRM, SMS and WhatsApp capability (pay-as-you-go), and transactional email via API. The Starter plan starts at $9/month for 5,000 emails/month (scaling up to around $69/month for higher volumes), removes the daily sending limit, and adds basic reporting. Note: Brevo’s logo stays on Starter emails unless you add the $9/month Remove Branding add-on. The Business plan starts at $18/month for 5,000 emails/month and unlocks landing pages, A/B testing, unlimited automation contacts, advanced reporting, multi-user access, and phone support. This is the tier most serious small businesses want. The Enterprise plan is custom-priced for high-volume senders with dedicated account management and advanced security. All paid plans offer 10% off with annual billing.
What We Like
- Volume-based pricing is uniquely friendly to businesses with large but infrequently-emailed lists.
- Free plan genuinely useful: 100,000 contacts, CRM, automation, and transactional email all included.
- Multi-channel from one dashboard (email, SMS, WhatsApp, push) saves you from paying for multiple tools.
- Built-in CRM replaces a separate subscription for small teams and solo founders.
- Transactional email API works alongside marketing email in the same account, unlike most competitors.
- Starter plan at $9/month is one of the cheapest paid entry points in the category.
What Could Be Better
- Brevo logo appears on Starter plan emails unless you pay a $9/month add-on to remove it.
- Deliverability on the free plan can be patchy due to shared IP pools; serious senders need a paid plan.
- Landing pages, A/B testing, and multi-user access are locked behind the $18/month Business plan.
- Customer support on free and Starter plans can be slow, with ticket response times stretching past 48 hours.
Who Brevo Is Best For
Best for: Small businesses with large contact lists but moderate send frequency, and any business that needs email plus SMS or WhatsApp in one place. If you run a local service business, an e-commerce store that wants transactional email and marketing email under one roof, or a content site with 20,000+ subscribers you email monthly, Brevo is likely your cheapest serious option.
Good for: Solo founders and freelancers who want a free CRM bundled with their email tool. Brevo’s free plan alone can replace both a starter email tool and a basic CRM, which is genuinely rare.
Not ideal for: Creators and newsletter writers who send frequently to a focused audience (consider Kit or MailerLite instead), or enterprises that need premium deliverability guarantees and dedicated IPs without added complexity. Heavy automation users should also note the $18/month Business plan is required to remove automation contact caps.
Brevo vs Mailchimp: Quick Comparison
| Feature | Brevo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Email volume | Contact count |
| Free Plan | 300/day, 100K contacts | 1K/month, 500 contacts |
| Starting Paid Price | $9/month | $13/month |
| SMS & WhatsApp | Included (pay-as-you-go) | SMS only (add-on) |
| Built-In CRM | Yes (free) | Limited (paid) |
| Transactional Email | Included on all plans | Separate product |
| Our Rating | 8.4/10 | 7.8/10 |
By the Numbers
Brevo’s free plan supports up to 100,000 contacts, one of the largest free-tier contact limits of any major email marketing platform in 2026.
Brevo serves over 500,000 businesses across 180 countries, making it one of the most widely adopted email marketing platforms outside the US market.
Brevo’s Starter plan starts at just $9/month for 5,000 emails, making it one of the cheapest paid entry points in the email marketing category.
Our Verdict
Brevo is one of the smartest picks in 2026 for small businesses that want more than just email. The volume-based pricing is a genuine win if you have a large list you email occasionally, and the bundled CRM, transactional email, and SMS capabilities let you consolidate tools and cut total software spend. The trade-offs are real: free-plan deliverability is average, the $18/month Business plan is where the good stuff lives, and support can drag on cheaper tiers. But for multi-channel small businesses that care about total cost of ownership, Brevo is hard to beat.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brevo the same as Sendinblue?
Yes. Sendinblue officially rebranded to Brevo in May 2023. The company, product, pricing, and team all stayed the same, with only the name and branding changing. All Sendinblue accounts and integrations transferred automatically. Many existing users still refer to the product by its old name.
Is Brevo worth it for small businesses?
Yes, especially for small businesses with large contact lists that don’t email daily. Brevo’s volume-based pricing, built-in CRM, free transactional email, and multi-channel messaging make it one of the best value picks in 2026. Starter plans at $9/month and a usable free tier make it low-risk to try.
Does Brevo have a free plan?
Yes. Brevo’s free plan includes 300 emails per day, unlimited contacts up to 100,000, a drag-and-drop editor, basic marketing automation (up to 2,000 contacts), a built-in CRM, and transactional email via API. No credit card required. Emails include a “Sent with Brevo” branding sticker on the free tier.
How much does Brevo cost?
Brevo’s Starter plan starts at $9/month for 5,000 emails, scaling up based on volume. The Business plan starts at $18/month for 5,000 emails and adds landing pages, A/B testing, and unlimited automation. Professional plans start at $499/month for high-volume senders. Annual billing saves 10% on all paid plans.
What is the best Brevo alternative?
For creator-focused email marketing, GetResponse is a strong alternative with more advanced automation. For e-commerce and sales teams, ActiveCampaign offers deeper CRM integration. MailerLite is a simpler, cheaper option for solo creators who don’t need SMS or WhatsApp.
Part of our Complete Guide to AI Automation for Small Business.