As a Head of Growth who hasn’t personally used Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), I’ve based this review on in-depth research and feedback from clients. Below, I break down key considerations when evaluating Brevo, offer my candid take on its strengths and weaknesses, and provide an ultimate guide to help scale-up marketers and SMB founders assess if Brevo is the right fit.
In my research and conversations with clients, a consistent theme emerged: Brevo is a great value for what it offers. Its biggest strengths are accessibility and breadth. The platform is easy to learn, even if you’re not deeply technical, and it bundles together multiple capabilities (email marketing, basic CRM, SMS, WhatsApp, chat) under one roof. For a head of growth at a service-based SMB or a lean B2B team, that “all-in-one” convenience is appealing you can manage newsletters, automated drip campaigns and even simple sales pipelines without juggling multiple tools.
In day-to-day use, Brevo’s UI and workflow get positive feedback. Clients have told me they appreciate how quickly they can design an email or set up an automation. Having tried tools like Mailchimp and HubSpot myself, I can see why Brevo is often described as “refreshingly simple”. Unlike HubSpot, which can feel overwhelming with its dozens of hubs and features, Brevo keeps things focused on core marketing needs. And unlike Mailchimp (which is friendly but primarily email-centric), Brevo gives you extra channels and a CRM layer out-of-the-box. This means a small agency or startup can start building basic customer journeys (for example, an email nurture sequence followed by a sales call task in the CRM) without a heavy software investment.
Of course, no tool is perfect. Brevo has its limits, and it’s important to acknowledge them. Its CRM, while handy, is quite bare-bones. It works for tracking deals and contacts, but if you need complex sales automation or detailed analytics on your pipeline, Brevo won’t go as far as a dedicated CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce. Similarly, Brevo’s automation builder covers common use cases but doesn’t match the sophistication of ActiveCampaign or HubSpot workflows for really intricate logic. I’ve seen teams outgrow Brevo’s capabilities once their marketing gets more advanced for instance, if you want multi-step branching based on events, lead scoring, or highly personalised content streams, you might hit a ceiling. Additionally, some advanced features (like A/B testing emails or building landing pages) require upgrading to higher-tier plans, so the entry-level packages can feel a bit restricted as your needs grow.
When I compare Brevo to other platforms, I’d position it somewhere in the middle and that’s not a bad place to be. Mailchimp is often the go-to for beginners, and Brevo competes well there: it’s equally easy to use and notably more cost-effective as your contact list expands. In fact, Brevo’s unlimited contacts on the free plan and cheaper volume pricing is a clear win over Mailchimp’s contact-tiered pricing. Versus ActiveCampaign, Brevo falls short on high-end automation and deep segmentation, but not every team needs those from day one. I’d say if you’re a marketer who finds ActiveCampaign powerful but a bit overwhelming, Brevo offers a simpler, leaner alternative you sacrifice some advanced features, but you also save a lot of time and money. HubSpot, on the other hand, is a different beast: it’s incredibly powerful, combining CRM and marketing automation at enterprise level, but it can be overkill (and very expensive) for a small business. I see Brevo as a pragmatic HubSpot alternative for teams that want a CRM + email marketing combo without the hefty price tag or complexity.
Who is Brevo best for? In my opinion, Brevo shines for small to midsize teams the kind of marketers and founders who need to wear multiple hats. If you’re running marketing for a scale-up or SMB service firm, Brevo gives you the key tools to capture leads, send campaigns, and track follow-ups, all in a reasonably integrated way. It’s especially well-suited if you have a tight budget or limited tech support, because you can get a lot done in one platform without a steep learning curve. I’ve noticed many early-stage companies use Brevo to get started with email newsletters, simple automations, and basic CRM, and they’re quite happy with it. When does Brevo fall short? It’s when your operations become more complex. For example, a larger marketing department with multiple specialists might find Brevo’s feature set somewhat limiting they might demand deeper analytics, more creative automation hacks, or a wider range of integrations than Brevo currently offers. Also, if real scalability is a concern (millions of emails, very large databases, or multi-team workflows), you may lean towards more robust systems. In those cases, investing in something like HubSpot or a specialised enterprise tool could be justified.
All things considered, I come away with a balanced view of Brevo. It’s not the flashiest or the most powerful marketing platform out there, but it doesn’t pretend to be. Brevo is reliable, approachable, and hugely cost-effective for what it delivers. As a growth lead, I appreciate tools that solve real problems without unnecessary complexity, and Brevo largely fits that bill. Just be clear about your needs: if they align with Brevo’s sweet spot (affordable multi-channel marketing for a modest-sized team), this platform could be a perfect ally. If your needs outgrow it, the good news is you’ll have saved a lot of budget along the way and switching to a more advanced platform will be a sign that your marketing operation has matured beyond Brevo’s scope.
