Brevo (Sendinblue) review: pricing, free plan and features of the email, SMS and CRM platform

A newsletter to send, SMS reminders, an order confirmation email, a customer database to keep up to date: most businesses end up stacking four tools to do all that. Brevo, which many people still know by its former name Sendinblue, brings them together in a single platform. More than 600,000 customers use it, and its free plan lets you send 300 emails a day with no time limit.

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Here is what the tool does, what each plan costs and who it is for.

What is Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)?

Brevo is a marketing and customer relationship platform. It hosts your contacts, sends your campaigns by email, SMS or WhatsApp, triggers automated messages and tracks your sales in a CRM. The company was founded in Paris by Armand Thiberge and made its name as Sendinblue before becoming Brevo. Accounts, lists and settings all stayed the same: if you are searching for Sendinblue, Brevo is the same product.

What sets Brevo apart from most of its competitors comes down to three points: email, SMS, WhatsApp and CRM live in the same tool, data is hosted in Europe, and the price follows what you send rather than what you store. For a business that collects contacts over the years, that is a real advantage.

Newsletters and email campaigns

Email remains at the heart of Brevo. You build your message in a drag-and-drop editor, from a template or from scratch, choose your recipients and send it straight away or at the time of your choice. An AI assistant helps you write the subject line and the content, and adjust the tone.

Advanced segmentation is available from the first paid plan: you filter your contacts by their data, their activity on your website or how they engaged with your campaigns, and you save as many segments as you need. The editor is very well suited to classic emails: newsletters, promotions, announcements. The Standard plan adds A/B tests, click heatmaps and AI send time optimisation, which sends each email when the contact is most likely to engage.

Marketing automation

From the Standard plan, Brevo sends a series of messages for you: a welcome email after a sign-up, a reminder after an abandoned cart, a birthday message. You build the workflow step by step, without writing code, and you can trigger it from an event on your website.

Common workflows take a few minutes to set up, and that is what most small businesses expect from such a tool. For heavily branched journeys with many crossed conditions, allow a little more time for fine-tuning.

SMS, WhatsApp and the other channels

Brevo does not stop at email. SMS campaigns are open on every plan, with credits bought separately, in packs. WhatsApp, popups and push notifications come with the Professional plan. Live chat and a chatbot complete the set, to answer the visitors on your website.

Transactional emails and CRM

Transactional emails, such as order confirmations, password resets and invoices, are included on every plan, the free one too. They go out through the API or an SMTP relay, and Brevo reports 99% deliverability on this service. The tool connects to more than 150 apps, including WordPress, Shopify, Stripe and Zapier, and an MCP connector lets you manage campaigns and contacts from ChatGPT or Claude.

On the sales side, Brevo includes a CRM: custom pipelines, meeting scheduling, a shared inbox, calls and reports. It is light and easy to learn without training, which is enough to track simple deals without paying for a second piece of software. Advanced sales features are available as an add-on.

Brevo pricing

Brevo offers a free plan and four paid plans. Prices are in US dollars, and they depend on the number of emails sent each month, not on the number of contacts. The amounts below are the entry tier of each plan. Yearly billing is 10% cheaper.

On the Starter plan, removing the Brevo logo from the footer of your emails is a $12 a month add-on. It is included from Standard. There is no commitment: you can cancel your plan at any time from your account.

Is Brevo free? What the Free plan includes

Yes. The free plan has no time limit and needs no credit card, only an email address. It lets you send up to 300 emails a day, campaigns and transactional emails included. That is enough to launch a newsletter, connect your website’s emails or try the tool on a small list.

What separates it from the paid plans: the daily cap, the Brevo logo at the bottom of your messages and the lack of advanced automation. The day your list goes beyond a few hundred active subscribers, the Starter plan takes over for the price of a couple of coffees.

Starter, Standard or Professional: which plan should you choose?

1. Free if you are starting out or only send your website’s emails.
2. Starter if you send a regular newsletter and do not need automation yet.
3. Standard as soon as you want a welcome sequence, automated reminders or A/B tests. It is the plan that suits most small businesses.
4. Professional for a marketing team that sends large volumes across several channels and wants to score its contacts.

The price gap between Standard and Professional is large. Contact scoring and the WhatsApp and push channels belong to Professional: make sure you will use them before moving up.

Brevo vs Mailchimp

It is the comparison most people make. The key difference is the pricing model: Mailchimp charges by the number of contacts you store, Brevo by the number of emails you send. With a large list that you email a few times a month, Brevo usually works out much cheaper. Brevo also bundles SMS, WhatsApp, transactional emails and a CRM in the same account, and its free plan lets you store contacts and send 300 emails a day. Mailchimp remains a strong choice for online stores that live on promotional campaigns and want its many e-commerce templates.

Who is Brevo for?

Small businesses and freelancers

This is the tool’s natural audience: quick to learn, with a low entry price. You send your first campaign on the same day.

Online stores

Brevo connects to the main e-commerce platforms, recovers abandoned carts and sends order emails. SMS adds an effective channel for promotions.

Businesses with a large list

When you have many contacts but email them rarely, paying for the volume you send changes everything. That is the case for non-profits, training providers or businesses with ten years of customer data.

Websites that send automated emails

Sign-ups, password resets, invoices: Brevo’s transactional service plugs into a WordPress site or an app in a few minutes.

Brevo’s strengths

1. A price based on email volume, which pays off as your list grows.
2. A free plan with no time limit, at 300 emails a day.
3. Email, SMS, WhatsApp and chat on the same platform.
4. Transactional emails included on every plan.
5. A built-in CRM, enough to track simple sales.
6. GDPR compliance and data hosted in Europe, with support in six languages.

Things to know

Brevo reviews accounts and lists before opening sending: come with contacts who agreed to receive your messages, and approval goes smoothly. It is also what protects deliverability for every customer. SMS credits are bought on top of the subscription. Finally, the CRM and the editor focus on the essentials: a sales team with a highly structured process, or a designer who wants very elaborate emails, will find more depth in a specialised tool.

Getting started with Brevo

1. Open a free account with your email address.
2. Authenticate your domain so your emails land in the inbox.
3. Import your list of contacts who gave their consent.
4. Create a sign-up form and place it on your website.
5. Send your first campaign from a template.
6. Move up to Standard the day you want to automate your welcome sequence.

Brevo vs the alternatives

To compare with other tools, browse all my tool reviews.

Brevo FAQ

Are Brevo and Sendinblue the same tool?

Yes. Sendinblue changed its name to Brevo. The product, the accounts and the features are the same.

How much does Brevo cost?

Starter starts at $9 a month and Standard at $18 a month, with 10% off on yearly billing: $8.08 and $16.17 a month. Professional starts at $499 a month. The price then rises with the number of emails you send.

Is Brevo really free?

The free plan has no time limit and lets you send 300 emails a day, with no credit card.

Is Brevo cheaper than Mailchimp?

Often, yes, as soon as your list is large: Brevo charges by emails sent, not by contacts stored.

Can I send SMS with Brevo?

Yes, on every plan. SMS credits are bought separately, in packs.

Can I cancel at any time?

Yes. There is no commitment, and you cancel your plan from your account.

My verdict on Brevo

Brevo is the email tool to choose when you want to do everything in one place without breaking the bank. The free plan lets you start without a credit card, the Starter and Standard plans cover the needs of the vast majority of small businesses, and pricing by email volume rewards those with a large list. Add SMS, WhatsApp, transactional emails and a light CRM: few tools do as much for the price.

Start with the free plan, send your first campaigns, then move up to Standard the day you want to automate.