Brevo: the email marketing and CRM platform for freelancers
The European email marketing platform: newsletters, automations, SMS, CRM and transactional emails, with a free plan and no credit card required
What is Brevo?
Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, is an email marketing and customer relationship platform born in France. It brings together in one tool your newsletters, your transactional emails (confirmation, invoice, reminder), SMS and WhatsApp, sign-up forms, marketing automation and a sales CRM. The company is based and hosted in Europe, which makes the GDPR question simpler for a European freelancer.
Who is Brevo for?
Freelancers who want a single platform for all their client communication: the monthly newsletter, the automatic message after a contact form, lead follow-up and, later on, the SMS appointment reminder. The free plan lets you start without spending a cent. On the other hand, if you only want to send a newsletter and nothing else, a simpler tool like MailerLite or Kit (formerly ConvertKit) will be faster to pick up.
What you can do with Brevo
- Send newsletters: drag-and-drop editor, responsive templates by industry, AI content generation for subject lines and copy.
- Collect subscribers: forms in your colours, with an automatic welcome email as soon as someone signs up.
- Automate: multi-step workflows (welcome, follow-up, purchase anniversary), A/B tests and send-time optimisation, from the Standard plan.
- Segment precisely: filters by activity on your site, engagement with your campaigns and custom events.
- Manage your leads: a sales CRM with pipeline, tasks and follow-ups, including a free Sales plan with one user.
- Go beyond email: SMS, WhatsApp, push notifications, live chat and appointment booking, depending on the plan.
- Drive it from your AI tools: an MCP server lets you manage campaigns and contacts from ChatGPT or Claude.
Brevo pricing in 2026
Brevo bills on the number of emails sent, not on contacts: a large list you rarely email does not cost you more.
- Free: no credit card, up to 300 emails a day, with the Brevo logo in your emails.
- Starter: $9 a month for 5,000 monthly emails ($8.08 yearly). Removing the Brevo logo is an add-on at $10.80 a month.
- Standard: $18 a month ($16.17 yearly). Adds marketing automation, A/B tests, advanced reports, one landing page and removes the Brevo logo.
- Professional: $499 a month ($449.08 yearly), from 150,000 emails, 10 users, WhatsApp, push and phone support.
- Enterprise: custom pricing.
Yearly billing gives a 10% discount and email volumes can be adjusted in tiers. Prepaid SMS and email credits (no expiry) exist for occasional sends. Prices checked in dollars on brevo.com in November 2026; check the amount in your currency when you subscribe.
Why we recommend Brevo
At FreelanceKit, we picked Brevo because it is the most complete European tool to start for free. The free plan is no gimmick: 300 emails a day is plenty for a freelancer's newsletter for months, and you can plug in your transactional emails and your sales follow-up without switching tools when your business grows.
The weak point to know: the features that really save time (automated workflows, A/B tests) start at the Standard plan, and removing the Brevo logo costs extra on Starter. And because it tries to do everything, the interface is busy: if all you need is a monthly newsletter, you will pay in complexity what you do not pay in money.
Brevo or another solution?
To compare Brevo with MailerLite, Mailchimp, ConvertKit or Systeme.io, see our page on alternatives to Brevo.
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
- Free plan with no credit card: up to 300 emails a day, enough to start a newsletter at no cost
- Everything in one tool: email campaigns, transactional emails, SMS, WhatsApp, forms and a sales CRM
- Company born in Europe and hosted in Europe, with support in several languages
- Billed on the number of emails sent, not on contacts: a large list you rarely email does not cost more
Weaknesses
- Marketing automation (multi-step workflows) and A/B tests require the Standard plan, not Starter
- The free plan is capped at 300 emails a day and shows the Brevo logo in your emails
- A rich interface, sometimes heavy if you just want to send a monthly newsletter
Frequently asked questions about Brevo
Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, is an email marketing and customer relationship platform born in France. It brings together newsletters, transactional emails, SMS, WhatsApp, sign-up forms, marketing automation and a sales CRM. The company is based and hosted in Europe.
Brevo has a free plan with no credit card (300 emails a day). Then the Starter plan begins at $9 a month for 5,000 monthly emails, the Standard plan at $18 a month (automation, A/B tests, no Brevo logo), and the Professional plan at $499 a month from 150,000 emails. Yearly billing gives a 10% discount. Prices checked in dollars on brevo.com in November 2026.
Yes, there is a permanent free plan, with no credit card, limited to 300 emails a day. It includes the drag-and-drop editor, email templates, forms and transactional emails, but your emails carry the Brevo logo.
Brevo is a company born in Europe, hosted in Europe, and presents itself as natively GDPR compliant. You remain responsible for your own list: collection with consent, unsubscribe link, data retention.
Yes. Brevo includes a sales CRM with a free Sales plan (one user included) to track your contacts, deals and follow-ups, on top of marketing campaigns.
MailerLite is simpler and designed for the pure newsletter. Brevo is more complete (SMS, WhatsApp, CRM, transactional) and bills on email volume rather than contact count. If you just want to send a newsletter, MailerLite is enough; if you want to centralise emailing and sales follow-up, Brevo is a better fit.
Alternatives to Brevo
What we would use instead, in the same category.
Compare all the alternatives to Brevo
See our full comparison of the 4 alternatives to Brevo in 2026: prices, features and strengths, in detail.
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