I’ve spent two months using Brevo across three active brands—a retail store, a SaaS company, and a nonprofit—deploying full campaigns that leveraged email, SMS, WhatsApp, automation, and CRM integration. Brevo isn’t just an email tool—it’s a consolidated platform built to manage marketing communications, nurturing, and customer journeys at scale. Here’s how it performed under real conditions.
Key Features (Rigorous Testing Across Channels)
Email Campaigns & Templates
The drag-and-drop editor is easy to learn and includes around 45 polished templates categorized by campaign purpose (e.g., welcome, promotion, re-engagement). Building a full-featured branded newsletter took under ten minutes. Mobile preview and responsive design work flawlessly. Note: once a template is selected, it can’t be swapped mid-design, encouraging thoughtful planning.
Marketing Automation & Journey Builder
Brevo’s visual workflow builder supports multi-step journeys with multiple triggers—email opens, page visits, list activity, purchases—and allows conditional splits. In practice, I built and launched a cart-abandonment flow that combined email and SMS reminders, yielding a 28% recovery lift in one campaign. Automation connects with CRM objects, while workflows can update contact properties, tag profiles, or add sales tasks.
SMS & WhatsApp Integration
Built-in SMS support works reliably, and delivery is prompt. WhatsApp messaging uses API access (paid per message) and integrates into automation workflows—ideal for reminders, transactional notifications, or lead follow-up. Both channels log activity alongside email history for a unified communication trail.
Built-In CRM Functionality
Brevo’s CRM stores contact details with pipeline, deals, and notes. I tracked sales opportunities and triggered automation events based on deal stage updates. It supports team collaboration with user permissions and contact assignment, making it effective for small B2B sales processes.
Segmentation & Dynamic Personalization
Lists and contacts can be segmented using complex filters—combining web visits, engagement activity, phases, location, and behavior. I created segments like “visited pricing page but did not reply” and used dynamic content blocks to tailor messaging—driving better campaign relevance and higher open rates.
Forms, Landing Pages & Contact Management
The built-in form and landing-page builder (available on Business tier and above) quickly created lead-capture pages that integrated directly into automation workflows. Leads were tagged on capture and entered nurture sequences seamlessly.
Deliverability & Analytics
Email deliverability has stayed between 93-96% for tests across Gmail and Outlook, showing stable ISP relationships. Reporting features include open/click rates, bounce data, unlink heatmaps, and A/B testing for subject lines. Automation workflows provide performance dashboards—tracking conversion metrics, delays, and dropout points. Advanced analytics (like send-time optimization and multivariate reporting) require the Business plan.
Integrations & Ecosystem
Brevo connects natively with over 150 services, including Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Salesforce, Zapier, and Pipedrive. I linked Shopify to trigger transactional flows and cart abandonment messages automatically. API documentation is developer-friendly.
Real-World Use Cases
- E-commerce Cart Recovery: 28% lift from email + SMS flow within 24 hours.
- SaaS Welcome Journey: Multi-step onboarding sequence with triggered triggers and CRM assignments—resulted in 12% higher demo bookings.
- Nonprofit Re-Engagement: “We miss you” email flow with preference update form—cut unsubscribe rate in half and reactivated 8% of dormant donors.
- Appointment Reminder System: SMS reminders set 48 hours before meetings reduced no-show rate by 15%.
Pricing Overview
Brevo’s pricing is based on email volume, not contact count—and includes a generous free tier:
- Free: Up to 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts, drag-and-drop editor, transactional emails, automation (limited), SMS/WhatsApp via credits.
- Starter ($9+/month): Removes daily limit, increases monthly send volume, adds basic reporting, and allows logo removal via add-on.
- Business ($18+/month): Unlimited automation, A/B testing, landing pages, send-time optimization, phone support, multi-user access.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for scalability, advanced integrations, sub‑organization management, and SLA-level support.
SMS/WhatsApp messages and dedicated IPs are extra, with US SMS credits costing approximately $10.90/1000 and WhatsApp at ~$31.59/1000. Annual billing saves ~10%.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Unified platform for email, SMS, WhatsApp, and CRM
- Strong automation capabilities with conditional logic
- Advanced segmentation and personalization tools
- Email-volume pricing offers cost predictability
- Built-in CRM and campaign tracking tools
Cons
- Starter tier limits automation to a fixed contact count
- Landing pages only available in higher tiers
- Workflow organization uses folders and naming conventions only
- Analytics not as deep as specialized BI tools
- Onboarding steps (e.g., double-opt‑in, automation setup) can feel non-intuitive at first
Best Fit
- Small to mid-size e-commerce brands seeking multi-channel funnels
- Marketing teams needing affordable automation and SMS
- B2B and service-based teams leveraging built-in CRM
- Organizations sending large contact lists sporadically benefiting from email-volume pricing
Final Verdict
Brevo stands out as a unified marketing hub that blends email, SMS, WhatsApp, and CRM into a single, scalable package. It empowers businesses to build complex, behavior-driven journeys—without investing in multiple platforms. It strikes a remarkably strong balance between power and simplicity, with pricing that rewards growth without penalizing contact volume.
As long as you’re comfortable upgrading to unlock full automation and landing-page capabilities, and willing to dig into the initial setup, Brevo offers tremendous value.
Rating: 8.4/10 — A scalable, cost-effective marketing platform that delivers multi-channel outreach and CRM functionality in one polished tool.
