ActiveCampaign vs Brevo: Email Automation Compared
ActiveCampaign vs Brevo for email automation — pricing, features, deliverability, and which one actually wins for your business in 2026.
ActiveCampaign and Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) both promise powerful email automation at reasonable prices. But they’re built for different types of businesses, and the wrong pick will either overcomplicate your life or leave you stuck with automations that can’t do what you need.
I’ve run both platforms for e-commerce stores, SaaS products, and service businesses. Here’s what actually differentiates them — beyond the feature checklists you’ll find on every other comparison page.
Pricing Comparison (2026)
These two platforms price completely differently, which makes side-by-side comparison tricky. ActiveCampaign charges by contact count. Brevo charges by email volume. That single distinction determines which one is cheaper for your situation.
ActiveCampaign Pricing
| Plan | Monthly Price | Annual Price | Contacts | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $39/mo | $19/mo | 1,000 | Basic automation, email, forms |
| Plus | $79/mo | $49/mo | 3,000 | CRM, landing pages, custom automation |
| Pro | $159/mo | $79/mo | 5,000 | Attribution, split automation, site messaging |
| Enterprise | $279/mo | $139/mo | 10,000+ | Custom reporting, dedicated account manager |
Additional contacts cost extra. On the Plus plan, going from 3,000 to 10,000 contacts bumps your monthly cost from $49 to $169 (annual billing).
See ActiveCampaign’s pricing →
Brevo Pricing
| Plan | Monthly Price | Email Volume | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 300/day | Unlimited contacts, basic automation |
| Starter | $27/mo | 20,000/mo | No daily limit, A/B testing |
| Business | $59/mo | 50,000/mo | Advanced automation, landing pages, CRM |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Dedicated IP, SSO, priority support |
Brevo’s key advantage: Unlimited contacts on every plan, including the free tier. You pay for email volume, not how many people are in your database.
Brevo’s SMS pricing: SMS credits are separate. On the Business plan, you get SMS credits based on your plan tier; additional SMS costs vary by destination country ($0.005-0.04 per message).
Which Is Cheaper?
For large lists with low send frequency: Brevo wins. A 50,000-contact list that sends twice a month pays $59/month on Brevo Business. The same list on ActiveCampaign Pro costs $379/month.
For small lists with high send frequency: ActiveCampaign wins. A 3,000-contact list that sends daily sequences pays $49/month on ActiveCampaign Plus. On Brevo, daily sends to 3,000 contacts = 90,000 emails/month, requiring the Enterprise plan.
Rule of thumb: If your contacts-to-emails ratio is above 5:1 (you email each contact more than 5 times per month), ActiveCampaign is typically cheaper. Below that ratio, Brevo wins.
Automation Capabilities
This is where the platforms diverge most sharply.
ActiveCampaign’s Automation Builder
ActiveCampaign’s automation builder is the most powerful in the mid-market price range. It supports:
- Multi-branch conditional logic — if/then/else splits based on any contact field, tag, score, or behavior
- Event-based triggers — page visits, link clicks, ecommerce purchases, custom events via API
- Wait conditions — hold until a specific action is taken (or not taken), not just a time delay
- Goal actions — automatically exit a nurture sequence when a contact purchases
- Split testing on automation paths — test two different email sequences within the same automation (Pro plan)
Building a 20-step onboarding sequence with behavioral branching in ActiveCampaign takes about an hour. The visual builder makes complex logic readable — you can see every path a contact might take through the automation.
Brevo’s Automation Builder
Brevo’s automation builder covers the essentials:
- Standard workflows — welcome series, abandoned cart, re-engagement, date-based triggers
- Conditional splits — based on contact attributes and email interactions
- Ecommerce triggers — purchase events, cart abandonment (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento)
- SMS in automations — send SMS at any point in a workflow (unique to Brevo at this price)
The builder is intuitive and easy to learn. You can set up a welcome sequence in 15 minutes. But the automation depth caps out at around 5-7 decision points before the visual builder gets unwieldy. Complex behavioral sequences with nested conditions — the kind ActiveCampaign handles elegantly — become difficult to manage in Brevo.
Verdict: ActiveCampaign for complex automations. Brevo for straightforward workflows.
Email Deliverability
Deliverability is the metric that matters most and gets talked about least. Beautiful emails landing in spam = zero revenue.
ActiveCampaign Deliverability
ActiveCampaign maintains consistently strong deliverability (95-97% inbox rate across monitored tests). Key factors:
- Dedicated IP available on Pro and Enterprise (recommended for 100,000+ contacts)
- Built-in domain authentication setup (DKIM, SPF, DMARC) with step-by-step guides
- Active list hygiene enforcement — they’ll flag high-bounce lists and require cleanup
- Spam check tool built into the email composer
Brevo Deliverability
Brevo’s deliverability is good but slightly more variable (92-96% inbox rate in testing). Factors:
- Shared IP pool on all plans (dedicated IP available on Enterprise)
- Strong European deliverability — Brevo is a French company with excellent European ISP relationships
- Automated bounce handling and list cleanup
- Authentication setup included but documentation is less detailed than ActiveCampaign’s
Verdict: ActiveCampaign edges out Brevo, especially for US-based senders. Brevo is stronger for European audiences. Both are solid — neither has chronic deliverability problems.
Features Beyond Email
CRM
ActiveCampaign’s CRM is functional and included on Plus and above. It supports deal pipelines, task management, and contact scoring. It’s not Pipedrive, but it handles a straightforward sales process.
Brevo’s CRM is basic — contact management with deal tracking. It works for simple pipelines but lacks the depth for complex sales processes.
Verdict: ActiveCampaign > Brevo. Neither replaces a dedicated CRM, but ActiveCampaign’s is more usable.
Transactional Email
Brevo wins this category. Brevo’s transactional email service (SMTP relay) is genuinely excellent — it handles password resets, order confirmations, and shipping notifications with high deliverability and detailed logging. Pricing is pay-per-email, which keeps costs predictable.
ActiveCampaign supports transactional email through its API, but it’s not a focus. For high-volume transactional sending, most ActiveCampaign users integrate with Postmark, SendGrid, or Mailgun.
Verdict: Brevo > ActiveCampaign. If transactional email matters to you, Brevo is the better choice.
SMS Marketing
Brevo includes SMS natively. You can send SMS campaigns, add SMS steps to automations, and track SMS performance. This is a significant differentiator for businesses that need multi-channel outreach.
ActiveCampaign doesn’t include SMS natively. You can integrate with Twilio or other SMS providers, but it’s an additional cost and configuration.
Verdict: Brevo > ActiveCampaign for SMS.
Landing Pages and Forms
Both platforms include landing page builders and form tools on their mid-tier plans.
ActiveCampaign’s landing page builder (Plus and above) is decent — it handles opt-in pages, webinar registrations, and simple sales pages. The templates are clean but not remarkable.
Brevo’s landing page builder (Business and above) is comparable. Both produce pages that convert; neither competes with dedicated page builders like ClickFunnels or Leadpages.
Verdict: Tie. Both are functional but not best-in-class.
When to Choose ActiveCampaign
- Complex automation is your priority — behavioral sequences, multi-branch logic, deep integrations with your product
- You need a usable CRM alongside email — ActiveCampaign’s CRM handles a real sales process
- You email frequently — daily or near-daily sends make ActiveCampaign’s contact-based pricing economical
- US deliverability matters — ActiveCampaign has stronger US ISP relationships
- You use WordPress or Shopify heavily — ActiveCampaign’s plugin ecosystem is deeper
ActiveCampaign is the right call when email automation is central to your revenue and you need the automation depth to support complex customer journeys. Explore ActiveCampaign →
When to Choose Brevo
- You have a large list but email infrequently — Brevo’s volume-based pricing saves significant money
- You need transactional email — Brevo’s SMTP relay is better than ActiveCampaign’s
- SMS is part of your strategy — Brevo includes native SMS; ActiveCampaign doesn’t
- Your audience is primarily European — Brevo’s European deliverability is strong
- You want to start free — Brevo’s free plan includes automation with unlimited contacts
Brevo is the right call when you need solid automation without ActiveCampaign’s complexity, or when your contact list has grown past what ActiveCampaign’s pricing comfortably supports. Explore Brevo →
FAQ
Is Brevo the same as Sendinblue?
Yes. Sendinblue rebranded to Brevo in 2023. Same platform, same team, same features — just a new name and updated branding. Your Sendinblue account works on Brevo without migration.
Can Brevo handle complex automations like ActiveCampaign?
For basic to intermediate automations (5-7 decision points, standard triggers), Brevo works well. For advanced automations with 15+ steps, nested conditions, API event triggers, and goal-based exits, ActiveCampaign is significantly more capable. If your automations are simple, Brevo is fine. If you’re building sophisticated behavioral sequences, ActiveCampaign is worth the premium.
Which platform has better integrations?
ActiveCampaign, by a significant margin. Its integration library includes 900+ apps, with deep native integrations for Shopify, WordPress, Stripe, Zapier, and most major CRMs. Brevo has 150+ integrations covering the essentials, but it’s notably thinner for niche tools and SaaS platforms.
Does Brevo’s free plan include automation?
Yes. Brevo’s free plan includes basic automation workflows with unlimited contacts, limited to 300 emails per day. This makes Brevo one of the few platforms offering free automation — most competitors gate automation behind paid plans. It’s a genuine option for testing automations before committing to a paid plan.
How does deliverability compare for e-commerce stores?
Both platforms integrate with Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento for abandoned cart and purchase-based automations. ActiveCampaign has a slight deliverability edge for US-based stores. Brevo’s transactional email (order confirmations, shipping updates) gives it an edge if you want marketing and transactional email from the same provider. For pure marketing automation, ActiveCampaign. For marketing + transactional, Brevo.
Bottom line: ActiveCampaign for automation depth. Brevo for cost efficiency on large lists and multi-channel (email + SMS + transactional). Pick based on whether your bottleneck is automation complexity or cost per contact.