With over 500,000 customers, Brevo is one of the leading providers of email marketing and newsletter software. In our guide, we explain everything you need to know about Brevo – from features to pricing models.
Note: We have tested Brevo and Newsletter2Go (which has since merged into Brevo) for nearly 10 years and used them for various projects. Our review is based on firsthand experience with over four million emails sent through the platform. If you want to sign up for Brevo, you can do so here for free.
What is Brevo?
Brevo is an all-in-one platform for digital marketing and customer relationship management (CRM). It allows businesses and freelancers to manage their communication and sales strategies from one central location.
The main focus is on marketing tools for direct communication with customers, subscribers, and prospects. These include integrated tools for email marketing as well as SMS and WhatsApp campaigns.
Its second core area – the sales platform – helps optimize communication specifically for selling products. This is particularly useful for online shop owners. You can set up pipelines, schedule meetings, and manage all customer data clearly and efficiently.
We’ll explain all the features and tools in more detail later on.
Who is behind Brevo?
Brevo was founded in 2012 by French entrepreneur Armand Thiberge in Paris under the name Sendinblue. His goal was to build an intuitive customer relationship management solution. In 2018, Brevo integrated the German newsletter provider Newsletter2Go and expanded operations from Berlin.
Today, 500,000 companies in 180 countries use the email marketing software – including market leaders like Ebay, Doctolib, and Louis Vuitton. Brevo employs over 850 people worldwide. In 2023, the company surpassed the milestone of 100 million US dollars in revenue for the first time.
In our test, Brevo impresses with a deliverability rate of over 99 percent and integration with 75 external partners.
What does Brevo offer?
Since its founding, Brevo’s product portfolio has grown significantly. Here are the most important areas and features.
1. Marketing Platform
Brevo’s first and core offering is the so-called Marketing Platform. This includes all tools for push communication with your customers, subscribers, and leads – such as:
- SMS
- Landing pages
- Mobile wallets
- Push notifications for websites and apps
A drag-and-drop editor allows you to easily design newsletters using over 50 free templates. Campaigns can be automated in various ways – all in compliance with GDPR. Artificial intelligence (AI) has also been integrated into the Marketing Platform.
For direct customer communication – such as product questions – Brevo also offers live chat, a chatbot, and scheduling tools for online meetings and calls. (These are officially part of the Conversations Platform.)
2. Sales Platform
Brevo’s second core area is the Sales Platform. It’s designed to support sales professionals and shop owners in selling their products more effectively.
You can build sales pipelines, automate sales emails, manage a shared inbox, generate reports, and use built-in tools for calls and meeting scheduling.
The Loyalty Platform adds further value by enabling the creation of loyalty programs – strengthening customer retention, increasing purchase frequency, and boosting average cart value.
3. Customer Data Platform and Integrations
Brevo also continues to expand its range of technical services. You can import databases or create status reports. There’s a multi-table data model and multiple APIs for integrating external providers.
According to Brevo, over 75 software partners can be connected to the platform, making it easy for businesses to manage all digital activities in one place.
4. Help and Support
If you have questions or run into issues, Brevo offers a comprehensive knowledge base. You’ll find a blog, events, e-books, webinars, and a community for exchanging ideas with other users.
If that’s not enough, there’s the Brevo Bot as a first-level support tool. A detailed FAQ also helps solve common problems.
Depending on your subscription model, customer support is available via contact form, email, phone, or even through a dedicated account manager.
Pricing: How much does Brevo cost?
Brevo allows businesses to test its platform in a limited way for free. The free Brevo trial includes a daily limit of 300 emails, customizable email templates, the drag-and-drop editor, and access to WhatsApp and SMS campaigns.
The Starter Plan (from €6.33 per month) and the Business Plan (from €13.50 per month) let you tailor the service to your needs. Both start with 5,000 emails per month and are scalable.
- The Starter plan removes the daily sending limit, the Brevo logo, includes 24/7 email support, and basic reporting.
- The Business plan adds A/B testing, multiple users, send-time optimization using AI, automation, and phone support.
For personalized onboarding, premium support, and enterprise-level security, there’s a custom Enterprise plan with exclusive features and advanced integrations.
By the way: Annual billing saves you 10 percent compared to monthly billing. Monthly plans offer greater flexibility.
Is Brevo a trustworthy provider?
To determine if a newsletter provider is secure and reliable, we evaluated several factors in our Brevo test.
GDPR-compliant
Businesses that contact customers via email, SMS, or WhatsApp must comply with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Brevo meets all GDPR requirements and offers customizable forms, consent tools, and data request management. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany.
Very high deliverability
Effective communication depends on emails actually reaching the inbox. Brevo scores highly with a 99 percent deliverability rate.
This is achieved through sender reputation control, dedicated IPs for high-volume senders, and automatic hard bounce exclusion.
Certified security
Brevo prioritizes data protection and IT security. All servers are located in the European Union, ensuring that your customers’ data never leaves the EU.
Data is encrypted and external audits are conducted regularly. Brevo is ISO 27001:2013 certified, confirming its commitment to security.
Our test results show Brevo is a safe and reliable email marketing provider – supported by multiple awards for its software and as an employer.
Is Brevo GDPR-compliant?
Yes, Brevo’s products are GDPR-compliant. In a dedicated help section, the company explains in detail:
- how it ensures GDPR compliance and where customer data is stored,
- how to collect user consent legally and which rules apply to signup forms,
- how to set up a proper data processing agreement (DPA).
Brevo reviews: What do customers say?
To evaluate a newsletter tool, we rely on our own experience with Brevo and look at feedback from other customers and media outlets.
In our test, Brevo impressed us with fair pricing and flexible features for email, SMS, WhatsApp, and push notification campaigns.
Reviews on independent platforms are also very positive. On Trustpilot, Brevo scores 4.4 out of 5 stars based on over 6,000 ratings. On Capterra (4.6 out of 5 from nearly 3,000 reviews) and EmailTooltester (4.5 out of 5), it performs very well too.
Conclusion: Who should use Brevo?
Brevo lets you start a newsletter project for free and scale it based on your needs using flexible plans – with no subscription traps. Thanks to templates, an intuitive interface, and AI integration, no technical or design skills are needed to create effective newsletters and marketing campaigns.
Our Brevo test and independent user reviews confirm: this newsletter software offers the right plan for all business sizes – from startups to multimillion-dollar companies.
