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2026-11-13 02:55 Tool comparisons

HubSpot vs Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) (2027): CRM-First Marketing Hub vs Budget Email, SMS and WhatsApp, Free Plans, Pricing and Which Fits Your Startup

HubSpot vs Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): CRM-First Marketing Suite or Budget Multichannel Email in 2027?

If you are comparing HubSpot vs Sendinblue, you are comparing HubSpot with Brevo: Sendinblue renamed itself Brevo in May 2023, and sendinblue.com now redirects to brevo.com. The two tools take different routes to the same job. HubSpot Marketing Hub sits on HubSpot's CRM and is priced by seats and marketing contacts; Brevo is an email, SMS and WhatsApp platform priced mainly by how many emails you send. We checked both official pricing pages and product pages on 13 November 2026, so the plans, limits and prices below are current for 2027 planning, whether you search for HubSpot vs Brevo or Brevo vs HubSpot.
Quick answer: choose Brevo if you want the cheapest way to email a growing list and add SMS: the Free plan sends 300 emails a day and stores 100,000 contacts, and Starter is $9 a month for 5,000 emails (US list price, monthly). Choose HubSpot if your startup runs on a CRM with a sales team and you want marketing, deals and reporting in one place: the free tools cover 2 users, Starter showed $7 a seat a month as a new-customer deal ($20 regular), but Professional starts at $800 a month plus a $3,000 onboarding fee. Seed and Series A founders can get 90% off the first year through HubSpot for Startups.
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HubSpot vs Brevo at a Glance

HubSpot Marketing HubBrevo
What it isMarketing software built on HubSpot's CRM, with email, forms, automation, ads and reportingEmail, SMS, WhatsApp and push marketing with transactional email, a light sales CRM and loyalty tools
Free planUp to 2 users, 2,000 email sends a month with HubSpot branding, 1 automated action, no credit cardFree forever, no credit card: 300 emails a day once approved, 100,000 contacts, transactional email
How you payPer seat (Starter) or per tier with included seats (Professional, Enterprise), plus marketing contact tiersBy monthly email volume; contacts nearly unlimited from the 20,000-email tier
Entry paid planStarter from $7 a seat a month (new-customer deal; $20 regular), 1,000 marketing contactsStarter $9 a month for 5,000 emails ($97 a year)
Mid tierProfessional from $800 a month with 3 seats and 2,000 contacts, plus $3,000 one-time onboardingStandard $18 a month ($194 a year); Professional $499 a month from 150,000 emails
Top tierEnterprise from $3,600 a month, 5 seats, 10,000 contacts, $7,000 onboardingEnterprise: custom price
Automation1 action (Free), up to 10 (Starter), unlimited and omni-channel (Professional, Enterprise)Unlimited workflows from Standard; Free and Starter limited to 2,000 contacts in multichannel automation
ChannelsEmail, forms, ads and social; WhatsApp integration listed; SMS not on the pricing pageEmail and SMS on every plan (SMS credits extra); WhatsApp, popups and push from Professional
AIAgent Hub (Content, Prospecting, Customer, Data agents and more) on Starter and above, running on HubSpot CreditsAura AI, AI content generator and MCP for ChatGPT and Claude on every plan
Free trial or deal14-day free trial; 90% off year one for Seed and Series A foundersFree plan instead of a trial; 10% off for yearly billing
Sources: hubspot.com Marketing Hub pricing (US view, USD), product, AI and startups pages; brevo.com pricing page (default Yearly view, EUR from our location) and Brevo's official pricing.md (USD list prices), checked 13 November 2026.

HubSpot Marketing Hub: Marketing on Top of Your CRM

HubSpot Marketing Hub describes itself as the platform where your CRM, content and campaigns work together. Every contact, email, form fill and deal sits in the same database as your sales pipeline, so a founder can see which campaign produced which customer. The product page offers a demo and a 14-day free trial, and the free tools work without a credit card.
On the Marketing Hub pricing page (US view, USD, 13 November 2026):
  • Free: $0 for up to 2 users, no credit card; 2,000 email sends a month with HubSpot branding and 1 automated action. Non-marketing contacts can be stored in the CRM for free up to 15 million.
  • Starter: from $7 a seat a month, with $20 a seat shown as the regular price; the banner says up to 65% off Starter for new customers only, for a limited time. 1,000 marketing contacts, 500 HubSpot Credits, up to 10 automated actions and sends up to 5 times your marketing contact tier each month.
  • Professional: from $800 a month ($890 also shown) with 3 core seats (more from $45 a month), 2,000 marketing contacts, 3,000 credits, unlimited actions and omni-channel automation, sends up to 10 times your contact tier, plus a required one-time onboarding fee of $3,000.
  • Enterprise: from $3,600 a month with 5 core seats (more from $75 a month), 10,000 marketing contacts, 5,000 credits, sends up to 20 times your contact tier and a $7,000 onboarding fee.
AI in 2027 planning: HubSpot's AI page now centres on Agent Hub, a place to build and manage AI agents such as the Content, Prospecting, Customer, Data, Campaign, Nurture and Revenue agents, plus the Breeze Assistant. Agent Hub is included in Starter, Professional and Enterprise, and many AI features run on HubSpot Credits, so heavy AI use can add cost. HubSpot prices also look different by location: from Europe the page showed a per-seat EUR layout, so check the page in your own region.
Startup deal: HubSpot for Startups gives Seed (under $2M raised) and Series A founders 90% off the first year. For HubSpot against other email tools, read HubSpot vs ActiveCampaign and SendGrid vs HubSpot; for CRM choices, Zoho CRM vs HubSpot.
Best for: B2B startups and service companies with a sales process, where marketing and sales share one CRM and you want reporting from first click to closed deal.
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Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): Email, SMS and WhatsApp Priced by Volume

Brevo says more than 600,000 customers use it. One account covers email campaigns, transactional email through an API or SMTP, SMS, WhatsApp, web and mobile push, live chat, a sales pipeline and a loyalty programme, with 150+ integrations such as Shopify, WordPress, Stripe and Zapier. Its pricing logic is the main difference from HubSpot: you pay for the emails you send each month, not for every contact you store.
On the Brevo pricing page the default view from our location was Yearly billing in euros (Starter EUR 6.33, Standard EUR 13.50 and Professional EUR 449.08 a month). Brevo's official pricing reference lists the US-dollar prices on monthly billing:
  • Free: $0 forever, no credit card; up to 300 emails a day once your account is approved for sending, 100,000 contacts, one user and transactional email.
  • Starter: $9 a month ($97 a year) for 5,000 emails a month and up to 500 contacts; email and SMS (SMS credits sold separately), AI content generator, advanced segmentation, forms, basic reporting and email support in six languages.
  • Standard: $18 a month ($194 a year): unlimited automated workflows, A/B testing, advanced reporting with click heatmaps, AI send-time optimisation, web and event tracking, one landing page and no Brevo logo; up to 3 users.
  • Professional: $499 a month ($5,389 a year) from 150,000 emails a month: WhatsApp, popups, mobile and web push, 10 seats, contact scoring, AI segmentation, the AI Data Analyst, phone support and deliverability specialist time.
  • Enterprise: custom price, with multi-account management, custom objects, a mobile wallet, a loyalty engine, a dedicated IP and SSO.
What 1,000 contacts cost on Brevo: the contact limit depends on your email tier: 500 contacts at 5,000 emails, 1,500 at 10,000 and 2,500 at 15,000, then up to 500,000 from 20,000 emails. So a 1,000-contact list needs the 10,000-email tier: about $17 a month on Starter or $35 on Standard with monthly billing ($183 or $378 a year). This is our own arithmetic from Brevo's official price tables. For Brevo against other tools, see ActiveCampaign vs Brevo, Brevo vs MailerLite and Brevo vs SendGrid.
Best for: bootstrapped founders, newsletters, online shops and local businesses that send to large lists, want SMS or WhatsApp in the same tool, and prefer paying for sends rather than contacts.
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Head-to-Head: Where Each Tool Wins

Free plan

Brevo wins for volume: 300 emails a day and 100,000 contacts at no cost. HubSpot's free tools give you a real CRM for 2 users and 2,000 email sends a month with HubSpot branding, which suits a founder who mostly needs contact and deal tracking.

Price as you grow

Brevo stays cheaper at almost every step: Starter is $9 and Standard $18 a month at 5,000 emails, and Professional starts at $499. HubSpot Starter is affordable on the new-customer deal, but the jump to Professional means $800 a month plus $3,000 onboarding, unless the startup discount applies.

CRM and sales alignment

HubSpot wins. Marketing contacts, deals, pipelines and reports share one CRM, and agents for prospecting and data clean-up run inside it. Brevo includes a free sales pipeline and sells Sales Essentials and Advanced seats separately, which is enough for a small team but not a full CRM.

Channels

Brevo wins for direct channels: email and SMS on every plan, WhatsApp, push and popups on Professional, and transactional email on every plan. HubSpot's pricing page lists a WhatsApp integration but no SMS, and its strength is forms, ads, social and content tied to the CRM.

Automation and AI

Both are strong. Brevo opens unlimited workflows from Standard at $18 a month; HubSpot limits Starter to 10 automated actions and opens unlimited, omni-channel automation on Professional. HubSpot's Agent Hub offers more AI agents but bills many of them in credits; Brevo includes Aura AI and an MCP connection for ChatGPT and Claude on every plan.

HubSpot or Brevo: Which Should Your Startup Choose?

  • Bootstrapped, list growing fast, email first: Brevo Free, then Starter or Standard. Compare it with Omnisend vs Brevo if you sell online.
  • B2B startup with a sales team: HubSpot Free CRM now, Starter when you need automation, and apply for HubSpot for Startups before you buy Professional.
  • You need SMS or WhatsApp: Brevo, since SMS works on every plan and WhatsApp comes with Professional.
  • You need marketing reports tied to deals and revenue: HubSpot Professional or Enterprise.
  • You want the cheapest per-contact cost at scale: Brevo, where contacts are almost unlimited from the 20,000-email tier.
  • You want open source or a free CRM elsewhere: see the open-source HubSpot alternatives, free HubSpot Service Hub alternatives and free Mailchimp alternatives.
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What Changed Since the Old Version of This Comparison

  • Sendinblue is Brevo: the company renamed itself in May 2023 and now sells email, SMS, WhatsApp, push, a sales CRM and loyalty tools under one brand.
  • Brevo's free plan is not unlimited: it covers 100,000 contacts and 300 emails a day. Paid plans are Starter, Standard, Professional and Enterprise, priced by email volume.
  • HubSpot prices are per seat at Starter, with a limited new-customer deal, and Professional carries a required $3,000 onboarding fee. AI now runs through Agent Hub and HubSpot Credits.
  • Removed: six "Winner" verdicts without facts, vague "HubSpot can be expensive" claims and links to third-party review sites.

How Founders Use HubSpot, Brevo and the Rest of Their Marketing Stack

Most founders start with one list, a welcome email and a short nurture sequence, then add SMS or a sales pipeline when there is a reason. Our mean.ceo guides explain how to build an email list and how to automate email marketing in a young company, and our guide to AI marketing automation shows where AI fits.
Comparing more tools? Read Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact vs ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp vs Pardot and the enterprise view in Marketo vs Constant Contact. Pick a CRM with the CRM tools for startups, connect your apps with one of the open-source Zapier alternatives, plan texts with our SMS marketing strategy for startups, and plan spend with the marketing budget calculator. To bring readers to your sign-up form, the F/MS AI SEO Tool writes articles built to rank on Google and in AI assistants.

FAQ About HubSpot vs Brevo

Is Sendinblue the same as Brevo?

Yes. Sendinblue renamed itself Brevo in May 2023, and sendinblue.com now redirects to brevo.com. A HubSpot vs Sendinblue comparison today is a HubSpot vs Brevo comparison.

What is the main difference between HubSpot and Brevo?

HubSpot Marketing Hub is marketing software built on HubSpot's CRM and priced by seats and marketing contacts. Brevo is an email, SMS and WhatsApp platform priced mainly by the number of emails you send, with a light sales CRM.

Brevo vs HubSpot: which is cheaper for a startup?

Brevo, at almost every list size. Starter is $9 and Standard $18 a month for 5,000 emails (US list prices, monthly). HubSpot Starter showed $7 a seat as a new-customer deal ($20 regular), and Professional starts at $800 a month plus $3,000 onboarding.

Does Brevo have a free plan in 2027?

Yes. Brevo Free costs nothing, needs no credit card and lets you send up to 300 emails a day once your account is approved, with up to 100,000 contacts.

Does HubSpot have a free plan?

Yes. HubSpot's free tools cover up to 2 users with 2,000 email sends a month with HubSpot branding and 1 automated action, and you can store up to 15 million non-marketing contacts in the free CRM.

Does HubSpot offer a startup discount?

Yes. HubSpot for Startups gives Seed and Series A founders 90% off the first year, according to hubspot.com/startups in November 2026.

Which tool is better for SMS and WhatsApp?

Brevo. SMS is available on every plan with credits bought separately, and WhatsApp campaigns come with Professional. HubSpot's pricing page lists a WhatsApp integration but no SMS.

Which is better for sales and marketing alignment?

HubSpot. Marketing contacts, deals, pipelines and revenue reports share one CRM, and Professional adds unlimited omni-channel automation.

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Can I use AI to write SEO articles that grow my email list?

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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.