Brevo (Formerly Sendinblue) vs MailerLite: Multichannel Marketing With a CRM or Simple Email Priced by Subscribers?
Sendinblue is now called Brevo: the company announced the rebrand from Sendinblue to Brevo on 4 May 2023, and sendinblue.com now redirects to brevo.com. Most people who find this comparison still search for Sendinblue vs MailerLite or MailerLite vs Sendinblue, so this guide uses both names. Brevo is a customer platform for email, SMS, WhatsApp and push, with a free CRM, and it charges by how many emails you send, not by how many contacts you store. MailerLite is an email marketing tool with websites, landing pages, digital products and paid newsletters, and it charges by how many subscribers you have. We checked plans, prices, free plans and features on brevo.com and mailerlite.com in November 2026.
Quick answer: pick Brevo if you have a large contact list but email it rarely, need SMS or WhatsApp next to email, want a free sales pipeline, or send transactional emails from your app: the free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts and sends up to 300 emails a day, and Starter costs $9 a month on monthly billing for 5,000 emails. Pick MailerLite if you send a regular newsletter to a list that is still growing, want automations, a website and landing pages on the free plan, or plan to sell digital products and paid subscriptions: the free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, and Comfort costs $10.80 a month billed yearly for 500 subscribers. Both have free plans and need no credit card to start.
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Brevo vs MailerLite Pricing and Features Compared
Sources: brevo.com/pricing (default Yearly view, euros shown from our location), Brevo's official pricing.md for US dollar list prices (generated 29 September 2026), brevo.com/pricing/see-all-features, mailerlite.com/pricing (default view: 500 subscribers, billed yearly, US dollars), checked 11 November 2026. Prices exclude VAT or sales tax.
At the entry level Brevo is a few dollars cheaper, but the two price in different units, so the answer depends on your list. MailerLite's price rises with every subscriber tier, while Brevo charges by the email tier you pick, and that tier also sets how many contacts you may store: 500 contacts at 5,000 emails a month, 1,500 at 10,000, 2,500 at 15,000 and up to 500,000 from 20,000 emails on Starter and Standard. So a founder with 5,000 contacts needs at least Brevo's 20,000-email tier, or a 5,000-subscriber tier on MailerLite; a founder with 400 subscribers who emails every week is closer to MailerLite's sweet spot. Use the sliders on both pricing pages with your own numbers before you decide.
Brevo (Formerly Sendinblue): Email, SMS and WhatsApp With a Free CRM
Brevo describes itself as one AI-powered customer platform for marketing and sales, covering email marketing, SMS, WhatsApp and more, and says it has more than 600,000 customers. It was founded in 2012 by Armand Thiberge in India and France and traded as Sendinblue until May 2023. Every plan includes transactional email through an API and SMTP relay, so the same account can send your newsletter and your app's password-reset emails.
Plans (checked November 2026; default view Yearly, in euros from our location; US list prices on monthly billing in brackets):
- Free: free forever with no credit card. Once Brevo approves your account you can send up to 300 emails a day and store up to 100,000 contacts, with 1 user, email support and the Brevo logo in your emails.
- Starter, EUR 6.33 a month billed yearly ($9 monthly): from 5,000 emails a month, email and SMS campaigns (SMS credits sold separately), drag-and-drop editor, templates, AI content generator, MCP for ChatGPT and Claude, advanced segmentation, forms and basic reports. One user.
- Standard, EUR 13.50 ($18): unlimited automated workflows, A/B testing, click heatmaps and device reports, AI send-time optimisation, web and event tracking, 1 landing page and no Brevo logo; up to 3 users as an add-on. Brevo marks it most popular.
- Professional, EUR 449.08 ($499): from 150,000 emails a month, WhatsApp, popups, mobile and web push, 10 seats, contact scoring, ecommerce recommendations, phone support and a deliverability specialist.
- Enterprise: custom price for 1M+ contacts, with several brands under one account, a dedicated IP, SSO and a loyalty engine.
What the Brevo pricing page and the full feature list add: automations on Free and Starter work for up to 2,000 contacts, and the unlimited version starts on Standard. SMS reaches more than 180 countries, priced by destination. The free Sales plan gives you a pipeline with up to 50 open deals, so a founder can track early customers without a separate CRM. Brevo's official pricing file lists the same plans in US dollars: $9, $18 and $499 a month on monthly billing, 10% less on yearly billing.
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MailerLite: Email Marketing Priced by Subscribers
MailerLite focuses on email marketing for creators and small businesses and says more than 1 million of them use it, with 24/7 support. Its pitch on the pricing page is simple: every paid plan gets the full feature set, and you only pay more for a bigger list or more sending. Next to newsletters and automations you can build a website with a blog, landing pages and signup forms, and sell digital products, bookings and paid newsletter subscriptions. Its data is stored in the European Union.
Plans (checked November 2026; default view: 500 subscribers, billed yearly, US dollars):
- Free, $0: up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, 2 user seats, 3 automations with up to 5 steps, 1 website, 1 landing page, 3 forms, 1 digital product or booking, and limited API and MCP access without sending. If you pass 250 active subscribers, sending locks until you upgrade or remove subscribers.
- Comfort, $10.80 a month billed yearly ($129.60 a year, $12 monthly): 5,000 emails a month at 500 subscribers (10 times your subscriber tier), 50 automations, 10 forms, 10 sites, 5 digital products, 3 seats, the AI writing assistant and no MailerLite logo; email support.
- Power, $22.50 a month billed yearly ($270 a year, $25 monthly): unlimited emails under a fair-use policy, unlimited automations, forms, sites, products and seats, multiple automation triggers and 24/7 live chat.
- Enterprise: custom pricing for 200,000+ subscribers, with a dedicated IP as an add-on and deliverability support.
- Trial and discounts: every new account gets 14 days of premium features with no credit card, and keeps its data when the trial ends; nonprofits get 30% off paid plans.
What the MailerLite pricing page adds: subscribers are counted as everyone active at any point in the billing cycle, so deleting people mid-month does not lower that month's bill. MailerLite's marketing plans send email only; for SMS and transactional email it points to MailerSend, a separate product with its own pricing tab.
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MailerLite vs Brevo: Feature by Feature
Free plans
Brevo's free plan is built for large lists sent slowly: up to 100,000 contacts but only 300 emails a day, so a 1,000-person newsletter takes four days to go out. MailerLite's free plan is built for small lists sent fully: 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, plus automations, a website and a landing page. For a new founder with under 250 subscribers, MailerLite Free gives more; for a founder importing a big contact list, Brevo Free is the only one that holds it.
Automation
MailerLite includes automations on every plan, from 3 on Free to unlimited on Power, with ready-made automation templates and ecommerce triggers. Brevo's automations reach email, SMS and more, but on Free and Starter they only cover 2,000 contacts; unlimited workflows, A/B testing and send-time optimisation start on Standard.
Channels and CRM
This is Brevo's clearest advantage: SMS on every plan, WhatsApp and push from Professional, transactional email on all plans and a free sales pipeline. MailerLite stays with email; it has no sales pipeline, and SMS lives in its sister product MailerSend.
Websites, products and paid newsletters
MailerLite is ahead for creators: websites with a blog, landing pages, digital products, bookings and paid newsletter subscriptions, with 1 digital product or booking on Free. Brevo includes landing pages only from Standard (1 page) and lists no paid-newsletter feature.
Teams and support
MailerLite gives 2 seats free, 3 on Comfort and unlimited on Power. Brevo gives 1 user until Standard (up to 3 as an add-on) and 10 on Professional. Brevo answers by email until Professional adds phone support; MailerLite offers email on Comfort and 24/7 live chat on Power.
What Changed Since the 2026 Version of This Comparison
- The name: the old title said Sendinblue. The company has been Brevo since May 2023, and its pricing and features now cover SMS, WhatsApp, push and a CRM.
- MailerLite free plan: the old text said it allows up to 1,000 subscribers. It now covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month.
- Prices: Brevo Starter is $9 a month (EUR 6.33 billed yearly from Europe); MailerLite Comfort is $12 a month or $10.80 billed yearly at 500 subscribers.
- AI: both now include an MCP server so ChatGPT or Claude can manage campaigns; Brevo adds Aura AI, MailerLite adds HeyLite intelligence on paid plans.
- Removed: the unsourced "$36 ROI for every $1" claim, "marketing trumps product development", generic "common mistakes" filler and third-party review links.
Brevo or MailerLite: Which Should You Choose?
- You are starting a newsletter from zero: MailerLite Free, then Comfort when you pass 250 subscribers.
- You have a big contact list from events or a previous business: Brevo Free, which stores up to 100,000 contacts, or Starter from the 20,000-email tier, because you pay for emails sent rather than per contact.
- You need SMS or WhatsApp reminders: Brevo.
- You send password resets and receipts from your app: Brevo, with transactional email on every plan (or MailerSend if you choose MailerLite).
- You sell an ebook, a course booking or a paid newsletter: MailerLite.
- You want a light CRM for your first deals: Brevo's free Sales plan.
- You run an online shop: compare Omnisend vs Brevo and Klaviyo vs Constant Contact.
Brevo and MailerLite Alternatives
More MailerLite comparisons: Constant Contact vs MailerLite and Autopilot vs MailerLite. More Brevo (Sendinblue) comparisons: Omnisend vs Brevo, Moosend vs Sendinblue, Sendinblue vs Drip, Brevo vs SendGrid, ActiveCampaign vs Brevo, Sendinblue vs Mailgun and Marketo vs Sendinblue. Other head-to-heads: Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp vs Constant Contact for small business, Constant Contact vs ActiveCampaign, SendGrid vs Constant Contact, Mailchimp vs Mailgun and HubSpot vs ActiveCampaign. For more free options see the free Mailchimp alternatives, and to host email marketing yourself, the open-source Mailchimp alternatives.
How Founders Use Brevo or MailerLite to Get Customers
Email works best for a startup when it starts before the product is ready: collect signups on a landing page, send a short update every week or two, and ask readers to reply with their problems. Our email marketing tips for startups and the list of email marketing tools for startups cover the first steps. Before you spend on promotion, validate your startup idea.
Grow the list from social media with the schedulers in Loomly vs Sendible and SocialPilot vs MeetEdgar, and keep track of which AI assistants mention you with the AI visibility tracking tools. Newsletters are easier to fill when they point to good articles. The F/MS AI SEO Tool writes articles from your keywords that are built to rank on Google and to be cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity; link them from your Brevo or MailerLite campaigns, or feed them into a MailerLite RSS campaign. F/MS Marketing Services help you get backlinks and guest posts that build your authority.
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FAQ: Brevo (Sendinblue) vs MailerLite
Is Sendinblue the same as Brevo?
Yes. Sendinblue announced its rebrand to Brevo on 4 May 2023, and sendinblue.com now redirects to brevo.com. Brevo's group still includes companies registered as Sendinblue SAS and Sendinblue, Inc.
Where can I submit a guest post about my startup?
You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Get a quality backlink.
Which is cheaper, Brevo or MailerLite?
At entry level Brevo: Starter is $9 a month on monthly billing for 5,000 emails, against $12 for MailerLite Comfort at 500 subscribers (checked November 2026). Brevo stays cheaper for big lists you email rarely, because it charges by emails sent; MailerLite can be cheaper for small lists you email often, because Power gives unlimited emails at a subscriber price.
Which free plan is better, Brevo or MailerLite?
Brevo Free stores up to 100,000 contacts but sends only 300 emails a day. MailerLite Free covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month and adds automations, a website and a landing page. Small new lists fit MailerLite; large imported lists fit Brevo.
Does MailerLite have SMS marketing?
Not in its marketing plans, which are email only. MailerLite points to MailerSend, a separate product, for SMS and transactional email. Brevo includes SMS campaigns on every plan, with credits bought separately.
Does Brevo have a CRM?
Yes. Brevo's free Sales plan gives you a pipeline with up to 50 open deals; Sales Essentials and Sales Advanced are paid. MailerLite has subscriber profiles and segments but no sales pipeline.
Which tool is better for selling digital products or paid newsletters?
MailerLite. It sells digital products, bookings and paid newsletter subscriptions; you get 1 digital product or booking on Free, 5 on Comfort and unlimited on Power. Brevo's pricing page lists no paid-newsletter feature.
Do I need a credit card to try them?
No. Brevo's free plan needs only an email address and an organisation name. MailerLite gives every new account a 14-day trial of premium features without a credit card, after which the premium features switch off and your data stays.
Can ChatGPT or Claude manage my campaigns?
Yes. Brevo lists MCP for ChatGPT and Claude on every plan, and MailerLite has an MCP server too; on MailerLite Free, API and MCP access is limited and cannot send emails.
What other tools should I compare?
For ecommerce, Omnisend and Klaviyo; for automation-heavy marketing, ActiveCampaign; for a classic newsletter tool, Constant Contact or Mailchimp; for free and self-hosted options, our free and open-source Mailchimp alternatives lists.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
