Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is the email platform I reach for when a business runs on a tight budget and wants email, SMS, and a basic CRM in one place without paying enterprise rates. The thing that sets it apart is the pricing model. Brevo charges for emails sent, not contacts stored, which inverts the math that makes most marketing tools expensive as a list grows. The free tier makes the point plainly with 100,000 stored contacts and 300 emails a day, automation and segmentation included, which is generous enough to be genuinely unusual in this category.
Building and sending email campaigns
The day-to-day work in Brevo is building a campaign in the drag-and-drop editor, picking a segment, and sending. The editor handles the standard blocks for buttons, images, columns, and text, and it stays close enough to what other tools offer that nobody coming from Mailchimp or Constant Contact has to relearn the job. Segmentation works off contact attributes and behavior, so I can carve a list by signup date, past opens, purchase history, or any custom field I imported. For a small business mailing a monthly newsletter or a seasonal promotion, this covers the actual need without burying me in options I will never touch.
Marketing automation that small teams can actually run
Brevo's automation builder is a visual workflow canvas where I drop triggers and actions on a timeline. The common patterns are all here: a welcome series when someone subscribes, an abandoned-cart sequence tied to website activity, a re-engagement flow for contacts who have gone quiet, and date-based sends like renewal reminders or birthday messages. What I like is that the free and entry plans include automation rather than locking it behind a premium tier the way several competitors do. A solo founder can wire up a welcome email and a follow-up on day one without upgrading. The builder is approachable enough that a non-technical owner can maintain it, which matters when there is no marketing hire to hand it off to.
SMS, WhatsApp, and a built-in CRM
Beyond email, Brevo bundles SMS and WhatsApp messaging plus a lightweight CRM in the same account. SMS is pay-as-you-go on credits, which suits the occasional appointment reminder or flash-sale blast far better than a separate texting subscription. The CRM side gives me a contact pipeline, deal tracking, and basic task management, so a small team can run light sales follow-up without bolting on a second product. None of these match a dedicated specialist tool feature for feature, but having them under one login and one bill removes a lot of the integration glue that small operations cannot spare time to maintain. Transactional email also rides along in every plan, so order receipts and password resets run through the same infrastructure as the campaigns.
The free tier and what paid plans add
The free plan gives 300 emails a day and 100,000 stored contacts with no card required and no expiry, which is enough to validate a workflow before spending anything. Paid Starter plans begin at $9/month for a higher monthly send volume and remove the daily cap, with Standard tiers adding more automation depth and a Professional plan at $499/month for advanced needs. Because billing tracks emails sent, loading a 50,000-name list costs nothing until I actually mail it, so a large but quiet audience lands in a far cheaper bracket here than on a tool that charges per stored contact.
Gotchas worth knowing before you commit
Two things temper the picture. First, deliverability on shared sending infrastructure can be uneven, especially on the free and low tiers where I am pooled with other senders. The fix is to authenticate my domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, warm up the volume gradually instead of blasting a cold list, and keep the list clean so bounces and spam complaints stay low. Brevo gives the tools to do this, but the responsibility sits with me. Second, the feature depth trails Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign. Predictive sending, deep e-commerce attribution, and the more sophisticated AI-driven personalization are either thinner or absent. There is also the branding catch: lower plans stamp Brevo on outgoing emails by default, and removing it is a paid add-on, which grates at the entry price.
Who it fits
Brevo fits small businesses, freelancers, and creators who want one affordable hub for email, SMS, and light CRM rather than a stack of separate subscriptions. It is a strong first email tool because the free tier is real work, not a crippled demo, and the send-based pricing rewards exactly the large-but-infrequent lists that punish contact-count competitors. It is a weaker pick if my growth plan leans hard on advanced lifecycle automation, granular e-commerce reporting, or AI-driven content, in which case Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign earn their higher cost.
Practical tips
Before assuming a contact-based tool is cheaper, model my actual monthly send volume against Brevo's email tiers, because for large-but-quiet lists the gap usually favors Brevo by a wide margin. Authenticate my domain early so deliverability is solid from the first campaign rather than after the first batch lands in spam. Lean on the free tier to import my full audience and prove a workflow end to end before paying a cent. And if branding on outgoing email matters to my brand, price in the removal add-on at the start so the entry tier's real cost is clear before I commit.
