Brevo and ActiveCampaign both promise email marketing plus automation plus CRM — but they’re built for different buyers. Brevo is the value play: send-based pricing, a generous free plan, and multi-channel messaging at low entry prices. ActiveCampaign is the automation specialist: contact-based pricing, a full built-in sales CRM, and deeper workflow capabilities, starting higher and offering no permanent free plan.
This comparison uses only the companies’ official pages, read in September 2026. One billing caveat up front: ActiveCampaign’s headline prices ($15/$49/$79/$145 at 1,000 contacts) come from its official comparison page, which doesn’t state whether those are annual or monthly-billing rates — treat the billing frequency as unverified and check the official pricing page.
At a Glance
| Brevo | ActiveCampaign | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing/billing model | By monthly email send volume. Free $0; Starter from $9/mo; Standard from $18/mo; Professional from $499/mo; Enterprise custom. 10% yearly discount. | By contact count (tiered). Starter $15/mo; Plus $49/mo; Pro $79/mo; Enterprise $145/mo — all at 1,000 contacts per the official comparison page. Billing frequency (annual vs monthly) unverified. No free plan — 14-day trial only. |
| Free plan / trial | Free forever: 300 sends/day, up to 100,000 contacts stored, no credit card. | No permanent free tier. 14-day full-feature trial, no credit card required. |
| Features | Email + SMS + WhatsApp (Professional+) + web push + landing pages + live chat + built-in sales tools on every plan. | Email automation, landing pages, forms, segmentation, 250+ email templates, WhatsApp automation, Active Intelligence AI features, full built-in sales CRM. Transactional email and sales engagement available as add-ons at the high end. |
| Ease of use | Drag-and-drop editor and Aura AI assistant on all plans. Not hands-on tested by us. | Positions itself around the automation builder; free onboarding for qualifying plans, AI chatbot + email support, dedicated support on Enterprise. |
| Automation | Multi-channel automation on all plans (2,000-contact limit on Free); unlimited contacts on Standard; contact scoring, AI segmentation, marketing pressure management on Professional. | Automation-first positioning: branching and multiple triggers from Starter; unlimited automation actions on Plus; predictive and conditional content, attribution, predictive sending on Pro. |
| Integrations | Webhooks and API documented; specific integration counts not verified from official pages read. | 1,000+ integrations claimed on the official comparison page. |
| Best for | Large lists emailed modestly; tight budgets; email + SMS + light CRM in one low-cost platform. | Businesses where complex automation and CRM-driven sales processes are the priority; teams willing to pay more for workflow depth. |
| Limitations | Credits expire monthly; auto-upgrade on contact caps; advanced features gated at $499+/mo; steep jump from Standard to Professional. | No free plan; contact-based pricing punishes list growth; send limits, seat counts, and annual-vs-monthly rates unverified on official pages read. |
Pricing and Billing Model
The billing models point in opposite directions. Brevo charges for monthly email sends: a 50,000-contact list emailed twice a month costs the same as a 5,000-contact list emailed twenty times. Entry prices are low (Free, then from $9 and $18/month), with a 10% discount for yearly billing.
ActiveCampaign charges by contacts in tiers: Starter at $15/month, Plus at $49/month, Pro at $79/month, Enterprise at $145/month — each figure quoted for 1,000 contacts on the official comparison page, with prices rising as your list grows. Contacts on multiple lists count only once (no double-charging), and ActiveCampaign states there are no hidden charges for advanced features within a tier.
The practical consequence: Brevo favors large-but-quiet lists; ActiveCampaign’s contact-based pricing favors small, highly engaged lists and gets expensive as lists scale. A business with 25,000 contacts will likely pay far less on Brevo than on ActiveCampaign — but if that business sends complex automated sequences daily, ActiveCampaign’s automation depth may justify the premium.
Caveats: Brevo’s per-tier prices beyond the “from” amounts weren’t published on the official pages we reviewed, and its unused monthly credits expire. ActiveCampaign’s headline rates don’t specify billing frequency on the page we read, and its official contact-bracket pricing beyond 1,000 contacts wasn’t accessible — third-party figures exist but are unverified. Pricing may have changed — check the official pages.
— See Brevo’s current pricing · — See ActiveCampaign’s current pricing
Free Plan vs Trial
This is a clean split. Brevo offers a permanent free plan — 300 sends per day, up to 100,000 stored contacts, automation (2,000-contact limit), transactional email, and sales tools — with no credit card required. It’s a working product, not a trial.
ActiveCampaign offers no free tier at all. Its entry point is a 14-day full-feature trial, no credit card required. After that, you’re paying from day one. For bootstrapped businesses and side projects, Brevo’s free plan is the obvious advantage; for teams already committed to investing in automation, ActiveCampaign’s trial is enough to evaluate.
Features Compared
Automation depth is ActiveCampaign’s home turf. Its official materials emphasize branching and multiple triggers from the Starter plan, unlimited automation actions on Plus, and predictive and conditional content with attribution tracking and predictive sending on Pro. Brevo’s automation is capable — multi-channel, with A/B testing and AI send-time optimization on Standard, plus contact scoring and AI segmentation on Professional — but its positioning is breadth (more channels) rather than workflow depth.
CRM. Both include sales CRM capabilities, but differently. ActiveCampaign ships a full built-in sales CRM: deal pipelines, task management, lead scoring, deal-stage automation. Brevo includes free sales basics on every plan (50 open deals, 1 pipeline, live chat, meeting scheduling) and sells Sales Essentials ($31/month) and Sales Advanced ($64/month, Professional/Enterprise only) as add-ons. ActiveCampaign’s CRM is the deeper product; Brevo’s is the cheaper entry point.
Messaging channels. Brevo covers more channels natively: email, SMS (all plans, credit-billed), WhatsApp campaigns (Professional+), web and mobile push, and live chat. ActiveCampaign offers WhatsApp automation (as an official business service provider) and transactional-email add-ons at the high end. If SMS and push matter to you, Brevo’s channel breadth is the advantage.
AI features. Brevo includes its Aura AI assistant on all plans, with AI send-time optimization (Standard+), AI product recommendations and AI segmentation (Professional). ActiveCampaign’s Active Intelligence includes AI-suggested segments and AI campaign drafting. Both vendors are investing here; neither publishes enough detail on official pages to declare a winner.
Templates and content. ActiveCampaign advertises 250+ professionally designed email templates. Brevo includes custom templates and reusable sections on every plan. Both offer landing page builders and forms.
Ease of Use
ActiveCampaign provides free onboarding for qualifying plans, an AI chatbot plus email support, and dedicated support on Enterprise — signaling a product with a learning curve worth onboarding for. Brevo’s editor and Aura assistant are available from the free tier, and its Standard plan adds priority email support while Professional adds phone support and a customer success manager.
We haven’t hands-on tested either platform, so we won’t score usability from experience. Both offer no-credit-card entry points (Brevo’s free plan, ActiveCampaign’s 14-day trial) — use them to judge the builders yourself.
Integrations
ActiveCampaign claims 1,000+ integrations on its official comparison page — a clear, verifiable-from-source figure and a genuine strength. For Brevo, the official plan pages we read document webhooks and an API but no published integration count, so we can’t compare breadth fairly from verified sources. If your stack depends on specific native integrations, check both vendors’ integration directories directly; on the verified evidence, ActiveCampaign’s ecosystem is the safer bet.
Ratings Note
ActiveCampaign publishes 4.5/5 on G2 and 4.6/5 on Capterra on its official comparison page. We include these as the vendor’s own published figures, not as our verified research — third-party review scores change over time and reflect the vendor’s selection.
Who Should Choose Brevo
- Your list is large relative to how often you email — send-based pricing will likely save significant money.
- You want a permanent free plan to start or run a small operation.
- You need SMS, push, and WhatsApp alongside email in one platform.
- Budget is the primary constraint and “good enough” automation suffices.
Who Should Choose ActiveCampaign
- Complex automation is the core of your marketing — branching workflows, lead scoring, predictive content.
- You want a full built-in sales CRM rather than light sales tools.
- Your list is modest and highly engaged, so contact-based pricing stays reasonable.
- You’re willing to pay from day one (no free plan) for workflow depth and 1,000+ integrations.
The Verdict
Choose Brevo if price-to-channel-breadth is your priority: it’s cheaper to start, cheaper to scale for large lists, and covers more messaging channels out of the box. Choose ActiveCampaign if automation sophistication and CRM depth are worth paying for: it’s the stronger workflow product with the deeper integration ecosystem, at a higher price and with no free tier.
The honest middle ground: many businesses outgrow Brevo’s automation before they outgrow its pricing, and many overpay for ActiveCampaign’s depth they never use. Map your actual sending profile and automation needs first — then verify current prices on both official pricing pages before deciding, since billing details were partially unverified at research time.
— Try Brevo free · — Start ActiveCampaign’s 14-day trial
