Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is an all-in-one marketing platform built around email marketing, with SMS, WhatsApp, web push notifications, live chat, and a built-in sales CRM layered on top. Its defining trait is the billing model: you pay by monthly email send volume, not by how many contacts you store. That makes it unusually economical for businesses with large lists and modest sending needs.
Method note: this profile is research-based, not hands-on tested. The facts below come from Brevo’s official help-center pricing documentation and official product terms read in September 2026 — not from a live product trial. Where the official pages left gaps, we say so plainly. For the full deep-dive, see our Brevo review.
Key features
Based on Brevo’s official plan documentation, here is what the platform offers across its tiers.
Email campaigns. A drag-and-drop email editor with custom templates and reusable sections is available on every plan, including Free. Sending is capped at 300 emails per day on the Free plan; paid plans remove the daily limit and sell monthly send volumes instead.
SMS and WhatsApp. SMS campaigns and transactional SMS are available on all plans, billed with SMS credits rather than included in the send quota. WhatsApp campaigns are gated to the Professional plan and above, and require an active WhatsApp Business account. Official product terms (version Feb 2026) set a fixed SMS/WhatsApp credit unit price of $0.0109 per credit, with per-message consumption following country-specific rates and an overage rate of $0.0142 per credit. SMS credit packs start at 100 credits and never expire.
Marketing automation. Multi-channel marketing automation is available on all plans. On Free, automation is limited to 2,000 contacts. Starter keeps some automation gates, Standard unlocks automation with unlimited contacts plus A/B testing and AI send-time optimization, and Professional adds contact scoring, AI segmentation, and marketing pressure management (capping how often individual contacts are messaged).
Landing pages, forms and web push. Standard includes 1 landing page; Professional includes 10; Enterprise supports a custom number. Web push notifications are tiered: Starter includes 1,000 targeted subscribers per campaign send, Standard allows 10,000, and Professional starts at 20,000.
Built-in sales CRM. Every plan, including Free, includes basic sales tools: 50 open deals, 1 sales pipeline, automated meeting scheduling, live chat, meeting and revenue reporting, forecasting, task management, one connected calendar and mailbox, a mobile Conversations app, and an AI Conversations agent — unusual at the free tier.
AI assistant. Aura, Brevo’s AI-powered assistant, is included on all plans. Paid add-ons include Brevo logo removal ($9/month, Starter only), a dedicated IP ($251/year on Professional; included on Enterprise), SAML SSO ($324/month on Professional; included on Enterprise), and an International multi-language package ($215/month on Professional).
Pricing
Brevo’s Marketing Platform has five tiers: Free ($0), Starter (from $9/month), Standard (from $18/month), Professional (from $499/month), and Enterprise (custom pricing). Billing is by monthly email send volume, not contacts — and the send tier you pick also sets a contact-storage cap. Starter tiers by sends run 5,000 sends (up to 500 contacts) up to 20,000–100,000 sends (up to 500,000 contacts); Standard reaches 20,000–500,000 sends.
Auto-upgrade on contact limits: on the first three tiers of Starter and Standard (500/1,500/2,500 contacts), Brevo sends warning notifications as you approach the cap, then automatically upgrades you to the next tier and price if you exceed it. Professional covers 150,000 to 10 million monthly sends with storage for up to 2 million contacts; Enterprise offers unlimited contact storage and fully tailored volumes. Yearly billing gets a 10% discount, charged upfront; monthly plans can be paused for up to 3 months. Unused monthly credits expire — they don’t roll over.
Pricing caveat: only the starting prices ($9, $18, $499) were confirmed on Brevo’s official pages during our research. The exact per-tier dollar amounts above those entry points were not published on the official help-center page we read — third-party sites report conflicting figures. Pricing may have changed — check the official page before budgeting.
Who it’s best for
- Small businesses with large contact lists and modest sending. Newsletters and periodic campaigns for audiences in the tens of thousands are Brevo’s sweet spot.
- Budget-conscious starters. The free plan ($0, 300 sends/day, up to 100,000 contacts stored, no credit card required) is a legitimate starting point, not a demo.
- Businesses needing SMS alongside email. Transactional SMS and SMS campaigns are available from the free tier up, billed per credit — and the credits never expire.
- Teams wanting email plus light CRM in one login. The free sales tools — pipelines, live chat, meeting scheduling — may replace a separate basic CRM.
- High-volume ecommerce senders. The Professional tier’s 150,000–10 million sends, AI product recommendations, and back-in-stock alerts target serious ecommerce operations.
Limitations
- Auto-upgrade can surprise you. Exceeding the contact cap on lower Starter/Standard tiers automatically bumps you to the next price tier — you get warnings, but the upgrade is automatic.
- Send volume, not contacts, is the constraint. Heavy senders with small lists may find contact-based pricing (Mailchimp, Kit) cheaper; Brevo rewards the opposite profile.
- Unused monthly credits don’t roll over, and key features (WhatsApp, AI product recommendations, contact scoring, AI segmentation) are gated behind the $499+/month Professional tier.
- Research gaps. We did not verify a published integration count or specific third-party integration list from the official pages we read, and we did not review Brevo’s security or privacy policy pages — so we can’t speak to certifications, data residency, or GDPR specifics. For compliance-sensitive use cases, review Brevo’s documentation on their site before deciding.
Verdict
Brevo is one of the strongest value plays in email marketing — for the right sender. Send-based billing, a generous free tier, and built-in sales tools make it an easy recommendation for large lists, modest sending frequency, or tight budgets. The trade-offs are real: auto-upgrades on contact caps, expiring monthly credits, and high-tier gating for advanced features.
If your profile matches — big audience, reasonable sending volume, one platform for email, SMS, and light CRM — Brevo deserves a serious look. Start with the free plan and judge it yourself. For deeper detail, read our full Brevo review and Brevo pricing explained, the comparisons Brevo vs Mailchimp, Brevo vs Kit and Brevo vs ActiveCampaign, and our best email marketing software roundup. To check current pricing, visit the official Brevo website.