Brevo (Sendinblue) alternatives: 6 email platforms compared for 2026

If you used Sendinblue a few years ago, you already know Brevo: Sendinblue renamed itself Brevo in May 2023 and has grown from an email and SMS tool into a wider platform with WhatsApp, a sales CRM, loyalty and transactional messaging. Many people still search for a "Sendinblue alternative", and they mean the same product.

Brevo is a good fit for a lot of businesses, especially ones with a large list that they email now and then. It isn't the right fit for everyone. This guide explains the most common reasons people look for a Brevo alternative, then compares six options with the same fields for each: who it suits, how it bills, what automation you get, and where it falls short.

Every vendor fact here comes from that vendor's own pricing page or help center, read in October 2026. Prices change often, so check each page with your own numbers before you switch.

Why people look for a Brevo alternative

Here is what Brevo's own pricing page and its machine-readable pricing reference show, as of October 2026.

It bills by emails sent, which cuts both ways

Brevo prices its marketing plans by monthly email volume, not by how many contacts you store. That's the main reason people choose it: a big list that you email twice a month can cost less than it would on a contact-based tool.

The same model works against you if you send often. A store that emails its whole list three times a week moves up the volume tiers quickly. Brevo's pricing reference also sets a contact limit for each email tier. For example, it lists 500 contacts at the 5,000-emails tier of Starter and Standard, with higher limits at bigger tiers. So "billed by emails" doesn't mean "any number of contacts" on the smallest tiers.

The free plan has a daily cap

Brevo's Free plan lets you send up to 300 emails a day once your account is approved for sending. That's fine for testing or a tiny list, but a single campaign to 1,000 people takes four days to go out.

Seats and channels jump at Professional

As of October 2026, Brevo lists:

• Starter: from $9 a month, 1 seat.
• Standard: from $18 a month, 1 to 3 seats. Brevo describes it as the plan for "small businesses ready to automate and test campaigns".
• Professional: from $499 a month including 150,000 emails, with 10 seats, plus WhatsApp, pop-ups and web and mobile push.
• Enterprise: custom pricing.

The step from Standard to Professional is large. A team of four that wants its own logins, or a store that wants WhatsApp, faces that step early.

Extra channels are paid separately

SMS credits are sold separately from the email plan. That's normal in the market, but it means the plan price isn't the whole bill if you use SMS.

You may only need part of it

Brevo covers email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat, a sales CRM, loyalty and transactional email. If you only use the newsletter editor, a simpler tool may suit you better. If you rely on Brevo's transactional email (password resets and receipts sent through its SMTP relay or API), plan for that separately: not every marketing tool sends transactional email.

Brevo alternatives at a glance

All details are as of October 2026. Notice the "billed by" column: only EterMail bills by emails sent like Brevo does. The rest bill by list size in some form, which changes the maths if you have a big list.

1. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is the most familiar name in small-business email, with newsletters, automations, landing pages and basic ecommerce data.

• Best for: small businesses that want a well-known tool and a gentle learning curve.
• How it bills: by contacts and plan tier (Free, Essentials, Standard, Premium). Its help center says subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts all count; archived, cleaned and deleted contacts don't. The Free plan allows up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a daily limit of 250. Paid prices on the pricing page are introductory offers that change often.
• Automation: Mailchimp positions Standard as the plan for "automations, personalization, and optimization tools", with a 14-day free trial.
• Where it falls short: coming from Brevo, a large list can cost more, because you pay for every contact, including unsubscribed ones until you archive them.

For a closer look at the two, see Mailchimp vs Brevo.

2. MailerLite

MailerLite focuses on doing the basics cleanly: newsletters, landing pages, forms and automations.

• Best for: creators and small businesses that want a simple editor and a low monthly bill.
• How it bills: by subscribers. The Free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. MailerLite lists Comfort from $12 a month and Power from $25 a month, with 10% off yearly billing. A 14-day trial needs no card.
• Automation: a visual builder on every plan. Free allows 3 active automations of up to 5 steps; Comfort allows 50; Power has no cap on active automations and no cap on seats.
• Where it falls short: its pricing page doesn't list SMS, WhatsApp or a sales CRM, and its ecommerce data is lighter than store-focused tools.

3. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an automation-first platform with CRM features for sales teams.

• Best for: B2B and service businesses that want detailed automations and sales follow-up in one place.
• How it bills: by contacts, on plans shown as billed yearly (Starter, Plus, Pro, Enterprise). There's no free plan; there's a 14-day free trial with no card needed. Prices depend on your contact count, so use the calculator on its pricing page.
• Automation: its core strength. Note the Starter limits: 5 actions per automation, up to 5 lists, and email only. Landing pages, sales automation and generative AI start on Plus.
• Where it falls short: SMS and the enhanced CRM are add-ons, and contact-based billing on yearly plans is a big change if you're used to Brevo's volume pricing.

We cover it in more detail in our ActiveCampaign alternatives guide.

4. Klaviyo

Klaviyo is built for online stores, with segments and flows driven by orders, products and browsing.

• Best for: Shopify and other ecommerce stores that rely on automated flows.
• How it bills: by active profiles, with a monthly send allowance per tier. The free plan includes up to 250 active profiles, 500 email sends a month and small monthly allowances for mobile messages and Composer, its AI agent. The pricing page uses a calculator. SMS is billed separately.
• Automation: ecommerce flows and real-time segments built from store data.
• Where it falls short: price grows with your emailable list, and it's aimed at B2C commerce rather than general newsletters or B2B.

5. HubSpot Marketing Hub

HubSpot Marketing Hub is the marketing module of HubSpot's CRM suite.

• Best for: teams that want marketing, sales and service on one CRM.
• How it bills: by seats and marketing contacts. Free tools cover up to 2 users and 2,000 sends a month with HubSpot branding. Starter is billed per seat with 1,000 marketing contacts. Professional starts at $800 a month with 3 core seats and 2,000 marketing contacts, plus a one-time $3,000 onboarding fee (all as of October 2026).
• Automation: email automation with up to 10 automated actions on Starter; workflows (up to 300) from Professional.
• Where it falls short: it costs far more than Brevo once you need real automation.

6. EterMail

EterMail is our product, so weigh this section with that in mind. It's the one option here that bills by emails sent, like Brevo, but it works differently.

• Best for: ecommerce stores, SaaS products and apps that want AI to write their campaigns and flows and want to pay per email.
• How it bills: in credits, 1,000 credits = $1. A marketing email costs 2 credits (about $2 per 1,000), a cold email 5, and AI is billed by usage. Plans: Free ($0, 1,000 credits a month, up to 1,000 contacts, no card), Starter $19, Growth $49, Pro $149 and Ultra $299. Unused top-ups ($10, $50 or $200) last 365 days.
• Automation: ready-made welcome, browse abandonment, abandoned checkout, post-purchase and win-back flows, plus flows triggered by custom events from your product. AI learns your brand from your website and drafts each email. AI can also make the pictures: on-brand banners, or scenes built from your real product photo, with an optional short greeting. A picture costs 48 credits, or 78 when built from a product photo, and failed pictures are free. By default, every send needs a person's approval.
• Where it falls short: no SMS, no WhatsApp, no sales CRM, and EterMail isn't in the Shopify App Store; you connect Shopify with a read-only custom app. If you need Brevo's extra channels, EterMail doesn't replace them.

EterMail also includes cold outreach from your own mailboxes and a shared inbox for replies. Details are on the pricing page.

A quick cost example

Say you have 8,000 contacts and send four campaigns a month to all of them: 32,000 marketing emails. On EterMail that's 64,000 credits, or about $64 of email. The number of contacts doesn't change the cost; the number of emails does. Run the same numbers through each vendor's calculator before you decide, because the cheapest option depends on how often you send.

How to choose

You have a big list and send rarely

Stick with volume-based pricing, which is why you chose Brevo in the first place. EterMail also bills by emails sent. Contact-based tools can work out more expensive at this shape.

You send often to a small list

Contact-based pricing often wins here. MailerLite and Mailchimp are worth pricing out with your real numbers.

You run an online store

Look at Klaviyo for depth or EterMail for AI-drafted flows from Shopify data. Our guide to the best email marketing apps for Shopify covers more options.

You need CRM and sales automation

ActiveCampaign and HubSpot Marketing Hub are built around automation and CRM. If Brevo's Sales module no longer covers your pipeline, these are the natural next steps.

Before you switch

1. Export contacts with consent status, and keep unsubscribes and bounces as a suppression list.
2. List your automations with triggers, delays and exit rules, so you can rebuild them.
3. Check transactional email. If Brevo sends your receipts or password resets, move those first or keep them on Brevo for now.
4. Authenticate your domain on the new tool with SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Our email deliverability guide explains how.
5. Warm up gently. Send to your most engaged contacts first and widen the audience over a few weeks.

FAQ

Is Brevo the same as Sendinblue?

Yes. Sendinblue announced its new name, Brevo, in May 2023. The product, accounts and features carried over, and the platform has since added more channels such as WhatsApp and loyalty. If you search for a Sendinblue alternative, you're looking for an alternative to Brevo.

Which is better, Brevo or Mailchimp?

It depends on how you send. Brevo bills by emails sent, which suits big lists that you email rarely. Mailchimp bills by contacts and is often easier for newsletter-first small businesses. Price both with your own list size and send frequency.

Is there a free alternative to Brevo?

Yes. As of October 2026, Mailchimp, MailerLite, Klaviyo and EterMail all have free plans, and HubSpot has free tools. Each caps contacts or sends. Brevo's own Free plan is limited to 300 emails a day.

Why is Brevo getting expensive for me?

Usually because your send volume has grown, since Brevo bills by emails sent and each email tier has its own contact limit. Needing more seats or WhatsApp can also push you to Professional, which starts at $499 a month. Check whether you're paying for volume you could reduce with better segmentation.

What is the cheapest alternative to Brevo?

There's no single cheapest tool, because each vendor bills by something different. A tool billed by contacts is cheaper for a small list you email often, and one billed by emails is cheaper for a big list you email rarely. Work out your monthly contacts and sends, then compare each calculator.