Brevo Review (2025): Pricing, CRM, Automation, SMS & More
If you’re exploring marketing tools for 2025, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) stands out as a compelling all-in-one platform. Whether you’re a small business, freelancer, or startup, Brevo offers email marketing, automation, CRM, SMS/WhatsApp outreach, and transactional messaging in one unified dashboard—often at a lower cost than alternatives.
Let’s break down exactly what makes Brevo tick, and whether it’s the right choice for your needs.
🏢 About Brevo
Founded in Paris in 2012 by Armand Thiberge, Brevo has grown into a global SaaS platform with over 500,000 users worldwide. It’s designed for relationship marketing, combining essential tools like email, automation, CRM, SMS, landing pages, and live chat into a single ecosystem—accessible even on its free plan.
💸 Pricing & Plans (2025)
Brevo offers flexible pricing based on emails sent per month, not the number of contacts. This model gives predictable costs and flexibility, especially for businesses with large lists that don’t send frequently.
Free Plan — $0/month
- 9,000 emails/month (300/day)
- Unlimited contacts
- Includes email editor, automation (up to 2,000 contacts), CRM, signup forms, transactional email, and SMS credits (pay-as-you-go)
Starter Plan — From $9–$17/month
- Tiered volume (e.g. 5K–100K emails)
- No daily limit, basic analytics, email support
- Brevo branding removal costs extra (~$10–12/month)
- Automation limited to ~2,000 contacts/month
Business Plan — From $18–$65/month
- Increased volumes (20K–1M+)
- Unlimited automation workflows
- A/B testing, landing pages, advanced statistics, send-time optimization
- Multi-user support (up to 10), phone support, heat-maps
Enterprise / BrevoPlus — Custom Pricing (~$10K/year+)
- Unlimited contacts and automation
- Dedicated onboarding, SSO, sub-accounts, priority support
- Ideal for high-volume campaigns or complex needs
Pay-As-You-Go Credits
- One-off email packs (5K to 1M emails)
- Credits never expire
- Included features from Starter plan, except custom landing pages
- 100K emails = ~$275; 1M =
$1,600 ($0.002/email)
🌐 CRM & Contact Management
Brevo combines email marketing with a lightweight CRM, letting you store unlimited contacts, tag them, add notes, assign tasks, and track deals. Even on the free plan, basic CRM is included—unlike many competitors that require CRM as an extra module
- Create pipelines and manage deal stages
- Use segmentation filters to personalize outreach
- Automate actions like tagging, scoring, and contact cleanup
🔁 Email Automation & Workflow Tools
Brevo’s visual automation builder is intuitive and powerful:
- Set triggers based on contact events (e.g., email opens, link clicks, form submissions)
- Pre-built workflows: welcome series, cart abandonment, re-engagement, birthday, etc.
- Support for multi-step paths with if/then logic, behavior tracking, lead scoring, and more
What makes Brevo stand out:
- Automation available even on the free plan (for up to 2,000 contacts)
- Blend email and SMS triggers in the same workflow
- Real-time reporting on workflow performance
📧 Email Campaign Builder & Templates
Brevo offers a robust drag-and-drop editor with:
- Responsive, professional email templates (~60+ included)
- Personalization via dynamic fields (name, location, etc.)
- A/B testing, heatmaps, and send-time optimization included in Business tier
ConvertKit-style text emails aside, Brevo gives you full design flexibility while still maintaining mobile responsiveness across devices.
📱 SMS & WhatsApp Marketing
One of Brevo’s differentiators is built-in SMS and WhatsApp campaign tools:
- Purchase credits per country (e.g., 100 SMS to US ~$1.09, to UK ~$3.45)
- Send test messages, real-time campaigns, and include SMS in automation workflows
- Ideal for appointment reminders, flash offers, local business outreach
🔍 Deliverability & Analytics
Brevo maintains 99% deliverability rates, backed by features like SPF/DKIM setup and optional dedicated IPs (~$251/year)—free for enterprise customers
Analytics includes:
- Opens, clicks, bounce rates
- Heatmap visual metrics
- Send-time optimization suggestions
- Automation performance dashboards
✅ Pros & Cons
Pros:
- All-in-one solution: CRM, email, automation, SMS, forms, live chat
- Transparent email-volume pricing
- Generous free tier with automation
- Multi-channel capabilities built into every plan
- Strong deliverability and real-time analytics
Cons:
- Free tier limited by daily email cap
- Starter plan lacks A/B testing, landing pages, and advanced analytics unless upgraded
- Some UI navigation can feel unintuitive
- Integration options are fewer than enterprise competitors
🧰 Who Should Use Brevo?
Best for:
- Small businesses on a budget with easy feature needs
- Local shops, freelancers, coaches needing automated email + SMS
- Growing e-commerce brands wanting built-in transactional email and automation
- Startup teams looking to scale outreach with minimal cost
Less ideal if you need:
- A top-tier enterprise-level CRM ecosystem
- Advanced third-party integrations with custom products
- Granular analytics or segmentation beyond core marketing workflows
🧠 Verdict: Is Brevo Worth It in 2025?
If you’re looking for a cost-effective, easy-to-use marketing suite that grows from zero to enterprise-ready, Brevo delivers massive value for its price. With a generous free tier, intuitive automation builder, and multiple outreach channels—Brevo offers more than most platforms in its budget bracket.
It’s especially attractive for:
- Small businesses starting email marketing from scratch
- Marketers who need simplicity without compromising on features
- Brands that want transactional email, automation, and SMS in one tool
❓Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How much does Brevo cost in 2025?
Brevo’s free plan includes 9,000 emails/month and core features. Paid plans start at $9/month (Starter) and $18/month (Business), scaling to custom Enterprise plans (~$10K/year).
2. Does Brevo include CRM in the free version?
Yes—contact management, tagging, and sales pipelines are available even on the free plan.
3. Can I send SMS with Brevo?
Absolutely—SMS and WhatsApp campaigns are supported with pay-as-you-go credits for all plans.
4. Is Brevo good for automation workflows?
Yes, Brevo includes drag-and-drop automation with behavior-based triggers, branching logic, and integrated SMS/email actions in paid and free tiers.
5. Is deliverability good with Brevo?
Yes—Brevo offers high deliverability (up to 99%) plus options for dedicated IP setup and analytics like click heatmaps and send optimization.
