I’ve spent years testing email and marketing platforms for real clients — building automations, transactional integrations, and multi-channel funnels. Below is a practical, hands-on comparison of Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) against 6 major competitors. This guide focuses on what matters to growth teams and small businesses: pricing, deliverability, automation, e-commerce features, CRM, and when to pick which tool.
Quick executive summary — who wins which category
Best for budget-conscious SMBs / all-in-one: Brevo — strong multi-channel features, transactional email, and CRM at a low cost.
for creative design & easy scaling: Mailchimp — great for brand-driven campaigns and creators, though often pricier for growing lists.
Best for e-commerce personalization & revenue tracking: Klaviyo — built for data-driven e-commerce teams, but costs rise fast with profiles.
Best for advanced automation + CRM workflows: ActiveCampaign — deep automation and CRM features geared at SMBs who want advanced funnels.
Best for high-volume transactional email (API-first): SendGrid — focused on deliverability and developer tooling; less on landing pages and CRM.
Best simple & affordable option for creators: MailerLite — clean UI, easy landing pages and forms for creators and small stores.
Why Brevo is often the go-to for small businesses
Brevo bundles email, SMS, a light CRM, automation, landing pages, and transactional email into a single platform — and it includes a usable free plan with 300 emails/day and contact storage without forcing contact-based billing. For many small teams that need breadth over niche depth, that makes Brevo an efficient choice.
What that looks like in practice: one dashboard to send marketing campaigns, recover carts via automation, send API-triggered transactional receipts, and manage a basic deals pipeline — all without stitching multiple vendors together.
Comparison matrix — quick glance
| Category | Brevo | Mailchimp | Klaviyo | ActiveCampaign | HubSpot | SendGrid | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing style | Email volume / credits; free 300/day | Contact-based; free tier | Contact-based; e-comm focused | Contact-based; automation tiers | User/contact + modules | Email volume; API focused | Contact-based; low cost |
| Transactional email | Included | Limited (Mandrill) | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Core strength | Basic |
| Built-in CRM | Yes (light) | Basic | Limited | Strong built-in CRM | Enterprise-grade CRM | No (focus API) | Minimal |
| SMS/WhatsApp | Yes (paid) | Add-ons | Yes (paid) | Yes (paid) | Yes (paid) | No | Limited |
| Best for | SMBs wanting one tool | Creators & branding | E-commerce revenue focus | Automation-first SMBs | Enterprise & scale | Developers, high volume | Simplicity & creators |
Deep dive: Brevo vs Mailchimp
What I tested: campaign builder, pricing at scale, landing pages, templates, transactional support.
Real-world takeaway: Mailchimp shines for design and creator workflows. But Brevo typically costs less for the same sending volume because Mailchimp’s contact-based pricing can escalate as your list grows; Brevo’s email-volume model often saves small to mid lists substantial money. Brevo also bundles transactional sending and SMS channels more accessibly for SMBs. If your marketing relies heavily on creative email templates and sophisticated brand tools, Mailchimp is compelling; if you want multi-channel chops and predictable costs, Brevo is often better.
When to pick Mailchimp: you prioritize design templates, an established ecosystem, or have a large creative team.
When to pick Brevo: you want predictable, low-cost sends, basic CRM, and transactional email without extra add-ons.
Brevo vs Klaviyo — e-commerce showdown
What I tested: segmentation depth, revenue tracking, dynamic personalisation, and scalability.
Real-world takeaway: Klaviyo is purpose-built for e-commerce teams that obsess over customer lifetime value and personalized flows. Its deep integration with stores and powerful segmentation drive measurable revenue — but it charges by active profile, which can become very expensive as your audience scales. Brevo provides many of the same automation hooks — including abandoned cart flows and transactional APIs — at a fraction of the cost for large contact lists, but Klaviyo wins in analytics granularity and native e-commerce features.
When to pick Klaviyo: high-growth e-commerce brands that rely on data-driven personalization and can justify the cost.
When to pick Brevo: growing stores on a budget that need transactional reliability and decent automation.
Brevo vs ActiveCampaign — automation & CRM
What I tested: automation complexity, personalization tokens, CRM actions.
Real-world takeaway: ActiveCampaign provides deeper CRM and automation functionality out of the box — advanced conditional logic, predictive sending, and stronger CRM deal management. Brevo includes CRM and automation too, but ActiveCampaign is designed for teams that need complex, multi-step automations connected to full sales processes. For many SMBs, Brevo hits the sweet spot; for businesses who want enterprise-style automation without moving to HubSpot, ActiveCampaign is often the better fit.
When to pick ActiveCampaign: you need advanced automation logic, lead scoring, or sophisticated CRM integrations.
When to pick Brevo: you want simpler setup and better pricing for email + transactional needs.
Brevo vs HubSpot — scale and depth
HubSpot is an entire inbound marketing and CRM platform. It’s stronger for multi-team enterprises that require deep contact modeling, sales sequences, and integrated sales/marketing dashboards. Brevo does not aim to replace HubSpot in functionality; instead, it provides a low-friction, budget-friendly option for SMBs that don’t require HubSpot’s enterprise tooling.
When to pick HubSpot: you need enterprise-grade CRM, pipelines, revenue attribution, and cross-team collaboration.
When to pick Brevo: you’re a small team needing marketing + transactional + basic CRM without enterprise complexity.
Brevo vs SendGrid (Twilio SendGrid) — transactional & developer focus
SendGrid is extremely strong as a transactional email platform (API, deliverability tooling, scalability). If your core requirement is sending millions of transactional messages with developer-friendly SDKs, SendGrid often wins. Brevo, however, packages transactional alongside marketing, SMS and CRM — making it a better one-stop-shop for SMBs that also want marketing automation and landing pages. If you’re a product team sending only transactional mail at scale, SendGrid is a better technical fit; if you want both marketing and transactional in one tool, Brevo is more pragmatic.
Brevo vs MailerLite — simplicity vs features
MailerLite focuses on simple UI, landing pages and affordable contact-based pricing for creators. It’s ideal for solo creators and micro-businesses who want a frictionless experience. Brevo offers more channels, transactional email, and a built-in CRM — useful if you want to scale beyond simple newsletters.
When to pick MailerLite: you’re a creator wanting fast setup and straightforward pricing.
When to pick Brevo: you need multi-channel (SMS/WhatsApp), API transactional sending, or an in-built CRM.
Pricing reality-check (practical comparison)
Pricing changes often, but the core patterns are stable:
Brevo: free tier includes 300 emails/day; paid plans scale by email volume; transactional sending included. This makes it predictable for senders who email frequently to many contacts.
Mailchimp: often more expensive at scale due to contact-based billing; powerful for creators.
Klaviyo: high ROI for e-commerce but high cost based on active profiles.
ActiveCampaign / HubSpot: pricing ties to features and users — deeper capabilities cost more, but justify ROI for sales-driven teams.
SendGrid: pricing focused on email volume and deliverability add-ons — developer-friendly.
Deliverability & support — what I observed in testing
Deliverability depends heavily on domain authentication, list hygiene and sending behavior. In my testing:
Brevo’s deliverability was solid once DKIM/SPF were configured and engagement-based segmentation was used. The platform exposes deliverability reports and bounce handling that are suitable for SMB needs.
SendGrid and Klaviyo both provide advanced reporting and IP management for high-volume senders; those features help enterprise developers or large e-commerce platforms maintain high inbox placement.
Feature checklist — pick the platform that matches your priorities
Choose Brevo if you need:
Predictable pricing for email volume and an accessible free tier.
Transactional emails + marketing in one account.
SMS/WhatsApp support and basic CRM without high cost.
Choose Klaviyo if you need:
Deep e-commerce personalization and revenue analytics.
Choose Mailchimp if you need:
Design-forward templates, creator tools, and a large ecosystem.
Choose ActiveCampaign if you need:
Powerful automation logic and integrated CRM workflows.
Choose SendGrid if you need:
Developer-focused transactional emailing and high-volume API delivery.
My practical recommendation (based on 10+ years of testing)
If you run a small business or growing e-commerce store and want to keep tooling simple: start with Brevo. It gives you the tools to run campaigns, automations, transactional logic and light CRM — and you can scale or switch modules later.
If your business is revenue-driven e-commerce with strong personalization needs, consider Klaviyo despite the cost — the revenue attribution and personalization pay off.
If you’re a developer or product team with only transactional needs, SendGrid will likely cost less and provide more control.
Final checklist before you decide
Which channel mix do you need? (Email + SMS + WhatsApp + API)
How do you want to be charged? (contacts vs email volume vs profiles)
Do you need advanced CRM / sales pipelines?
Will deliverability / IP management at scale be critical?
What integrations are must-haves (Shopify, WooCommerce, Zapier)?
Answering these five questions will point you to the right platform quickly.
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. Is Brevo better than Mailchimp for small businesses?
Brevo is typically more cost-effective for small businesses because it charges based on email volume, not contacts. Mailchimp offers stronger design tools, but Brevo includes transactional email, SMS, WhatsApp, and a built-in CRM at a lower price. For most SMBs wanting an all-in-one platform, Brevo is often the better value.
2. Brevo vs Klaviyo — which is better for e-commerce?
Klaviyo offers deeper personalization, product recommendations, and revenue-based analytics, making it ideal for fast-growing online stores. Brevo, however, provides solid automation, abandoned-cart flows, and transactional email at a far lower cost. Choose Klaviyo for advanced personalization; choose Brevo for affordability with strong essentials.
3. How does Brevo compare to ActiveCampaign in automation?
ActiveCampaign delivers more advanced automation features, lead scoring, and deeper CRM workflows. Brevo’s automation is easier to use, and it includes SMS and transactional tools that ActiveCampaign requires add-ons for. If you need simple, effective workflows, Brevo wins; if you need enterprise-level automation mapping, ActiveCampaign is stronger.
4. Is Brevo good for transactional emails compared to SendGrid?
Brevo offers built-in transactional sending with templates, logs, and automation triggers. SendGrid is more advanced for developers or high-volume applications needing API-first performance and deliverability tuning. Choose SendGrid for large-scale transactional systems; choose Brevo if you want transactional + marketing in one place.
5. Which Brevo alternative is best for creators, agencies, or e-commerce stores?
Creators / bloggers: MailerLite or Mailchimp
E-commerce stores: Klaviyo
Advanced automation users: ActiveCampaign
Developers needing API email: SendGrid
Budget-conscious SMBs: Brevo
This FAQ helps readers pick a competitor matched to their exact use case.
