Top 5 Brevo Alternatives: A Detailed Feature and Pricing Comparison

What is Brevo? It is an email marketing platform that has earned its reputation by offering some of the most competitive prices in the industry. Plus, it has a suite of features that are liked by lots of users. However, as the digital marketing landscape evolves, so do the requirements of businesses and individual creators. This diversification in user needs has given rise to new, more niche, and specialized email services like Brevo, each designed to better address specific aspects of email marketing.

In this article, we will explore five such platforms: ActiveCampaign, Instantly, Benchmark Email, Mailmodo, and ConvertKit. Each offers unique features and pricing structures that may make them suitable alternatives to Brevo, depending on your specific marketing needs. Join us as we delve into a detailed comparison to determine how these platforms stack up as potential replacements or complements to Brevo.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a US-based cloud software platform that has been offering advanced email marketing, sales automation, and CRM categories for almost 20 years. It is particularly suited for small to medium-sized businesses looking to automate their marketing while closely integrating with their CRM system. 

ActiveCampaign features compared to Brevo

User interface and usability 

ActiveCampaign is considered to be a platform whose user interface is sophisticated and intuitive at the same time. It provides users with flexible email design options that allow them to incorporate various elements, like, for example, countdown timers or eCommerce product blocks. 

Source: Moosend 

In contrast, Brevo offers a more streamlined user experience, which makes it particularly attractive for those new to email marketing or those who prefer simplicity. The platform is especially user-friendly due to features like the Brand Library, which helps maintain consistency across campaigns.

ActiveCampaign is known for its powerful automation features. With ActiveCampaign, you can also test entire sequences against each other, while Brevo offers less complexity in its automation capabilities. 

When it comes to design and customization, ActiveCampaign offers a vast library of over 250 responsive email templates that can be customized to fit any brand’s style. It also allows for direct HTML code editing, giving advanced users the flexibility to tailor their designs even further.

Source: Moosend

Brevo focuses on ease of use in its design tools. The platform’s drag-and-drop editor includes an integrated image editor that is simple and effective for creating visually engaging emails. 

What might make ActiveCampaign better than Brevo is a choice of its extensive integration options of over 870 apps. Plus, it has robust native CRM functionalities. Brevo does not provide as many integrations as ActiveCampaign, but still has a good choice to choose from, including Shopify, Facebook, and WordPress. 

ActiveCampaign pricing

Source: ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign offers three different packages: Marketing, Sales, and both (Bundles).

In the Marketing package, there are four plans available, with the Lite one being the most affordable. For $39 per month and 1000 contacts, a user can get basic automation, a wide choice of integrations, and 150+ email templates, plus other options. 

Nonetheless, if you want an extended set of features offered by the Plus plan and your contact count reaches 2500, the monthly price will reach $99. 

Altogether, while ActiveCampaign is a feature-rich platform, it is also on a higher pricing spectrum.

Pros and cons based on user feedback and expert reviews

ActiveCampaign unique selling points

A unique feature of ActiveCampaign is its machine learning capabilities, such as predictive sending and content suggestions, user engagement by determining the best times to send emails, and personalizing content to increase relevance and response rates. Plus, an impressive number of integrations makes it a Brevo alternative worth considering for your marketing needs. .

Instantly

One of the newer Brevo competitors is Instantly, which was founded in 2022 and is designed primarily for sending cold emails. It targets retailers and e-commerce platforms looking to enhance their customer engagement and retention strategies. 

Instantly features compared to Brevo

Both Instantly and Brevo aim for simplicity of use, but with a different focus. While Brevo is a more classical email marketing platform, Instantly is focused on the optimization of cold email campaigns. It includes a centralized Unibox and CRM system that allows users to optimize their communications. 

Source: Webdew

Brevo’s automation builder supports complex workflows using conditional logic. Instantly provides specialized features for cold email automation, including unlimited warmups and email validation for better deliverability. While its automation tools are less comprehensive than Brevo’s, they are specifically tailored to the needs of users running cold email campaigns.

Brevo’s drag-and-drop editor and responsive design capabilities allow users to create visually appealing emails easily. Their Create image feature enables even complete beginners to craft engaging visuals. On the other hand, Instantly offers a collection of 600 pre-designed, customizable templates for cold emails. These templates, coupled with AI-powered analytics, help users optimize their emails for higher engagement.

Brevo integrates a sales CRM that connects with its marketing tools, providing a unified platform for sales-oriented teams. 

Source: Webdew

Instantly, although limited in native integrations, compensates with a strong in-app lead management system. Its Lead Finder feature, which accesses a vast database of B2B contacts, and its centralized CRM enhance its functionality as a cold emailing tool. However, the lack of deeper integration capabilities might be a downside for businesses that rely heavily on third-party services.

Altogether Instantly should be considered a more niche alternative to Brevo with functionality different from classical marketing platforms. 

Instantly pricing

Source: Instantly

Instantly offers three pricing plans: Growth, Hypergrowth, and Light Speed. 

The offerings of the Growth plan are rather limited; they include unlimited email accounts and email warmups, email automation, and chat support. The Hypergrowth plan is more generous and offers 100,000 emails per month (compared to 5000 on the Growth plan), analytics, APIs, and integrations.

Without a free plan and prices that cater towards the middle across marketing platforms, Instantly definitely loses to Brevo, which offers a free plan and is much more price-friendly altogether. 

Pros and cons based on user feedback and expert reviews

Instantly unique selling points

One of Instantly’s standout features is email warming. Besides improving deliverability rates, this functionality also simplifies the process of managing multiple email accounts for your cold email campaigns. Instantly can be an excellent alternative to Brevo for digital agencies or small businesses aiming to expand through the use of cold emails.

Benchmark Email 

Benchmark Email was founded in 2004 in California. It is designed for small to medium-sized businesses and is known for its simplicity and user-friendly interface. Benchmark offers email marketing and automation tools that are easy to use, making it ideal for newcomers to the industry. 

Benchmark Email features compared to Brevo

Benchmark Email is considered to be a very well-organized and user-friendly platform, similar to Brevo.

Source: Website Planet 

Benchmark offers over 100 email templates with smart categorization. This diverse gallery covers different businesses and occasions and provides users with a plethora of design options.

Brevo’s automation builder is both powerful and accessible, enabling users to create complex workflows. It supports sophisticated marketing tactics with a simultaneous focus on ease of use.

Source: Website Planet

Benchmark’s visual automation builder allows for the creation of triggered campaigns, such as welcome emails and other event-based communications. Benchmark’s strength in automation positions it as a strong alternative to Brevo.

Brevo offers essential integrations that support most small to medium-sized businesses, particularly those that integrate marketing with sales efforts. Benchmark does not have many in-built integrations; nonetheless, its connection with Zapier opens up another 1500+ options. 

Source: Website Planet

Both Brevo and Benchmark Email place a strong emphasis on customer support. Benchmark Email is particularly noted for its responsive support team, which is accessible via phone, email, and live chat. 

Benchmark Email pricing structure

Source: Benchmark

Benchmark is one of few free alternatives to Brevo in this selection. For $0 per month, you will get basic automation and segmentation, live chat support, a drag-and-drop builder, email design, and a few others. In other words, everything you might need to start creating a simple email campaign. Its Pro plan offers substantially richer functionality, as well as 100,000 contacts instead of only 500 on the Free plan. 

Altogether Benchmark’s price model seems to be very competitive, both price- and feature-wise.

Pros and cons based on user feedback and expert reviews

Benchmark Email unique selling points

Benchmark Email is particularly known for its ease of use. The platform’s user-friendly interface makes it accessible for businesses of all sizes, particularly small to medium-sized enterprises that may not have dedicated technical teams. 

Mailmodo   

Mailmodo was founded in 2020 in New Delhi, India. This platform targets businesses that want to enhance their email marketing effectiveness through interactive emails. Mailmodo allows users to create and send app-like interactive emails where recipients can take actions directly within the email itself—like filling out forms or booking appointments. 

Mailmodo features compared to Brevo

Mailmodo, despite being a newer player in the email marketing scene, competes strongly with its intuitive, no-code email builder. The platform’s drag-and-drop editor is designed to accommodate a variety of use cases, making it accessible for users without technical skills. It makes it one of the email platforms similar to Brevo when it comes to the user interface.

Source: Crozdesk

Mailmodo steps up the interactivity in email marketing with its support for AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) elements, allowing the inclusion of dynamic content like forms, carts, and calendar bookings directly within emails. This functionality not only makes emails more engaging but also significantly increases conversion opportunities. Furthermore, Mailmodo offers a wide selection of modern email templates that are optimized for engagement and conversion.

Brevo, while less advanced in terms of interactivity, allows marketers to create sophisticated workflows that can include if/else conditions, making it easier to personalize communications based on user behavior and preferences.

Mailmodo also offers robust automation capabilities, with triggers that can initiate campaigns from a variety of integration points, including popular tools like Zapier and Integromat. 

Source: Capterra

Mailmodo introduces several innovative features, such as interactive AMP elements in emails and an AI-driven subject line generator, which are not commonly found in other email platforms like Brevo. 

Mailmodo pricing structure

Source: Mailmodo

Mailmodo offers three pricing plans, with an option to pay monthly and yearly. 

The platform offers no free plan, and its Lite plan starts at $39 if billed annually. For this price for 2500 contacts, you will get 20,000 email sending credits, basic integrations (incl. Facebook, Shopify, and Zapier), chat, and email support.  

Plus, on all plans, you will get the Editor and email templates, reporting, and analytics at different levels. 

While Mailmodo is not the most expensive marketing platform, it is also among the less budget-friendly alternatives to Brevo. 

Pros and cons based on user feedback and expert reviews

Mailmodo unique selling points

Mailmodo stands out with its ability to send interactive, app-like emails that allow recipients to engage with content directly within the email. Users can fill out forms, book appointments, and even make purchases without ever leaving their inbox. This capability significantly enhances user engagement and conversion rates.

ConvertKit 

ConvertKit was founded in 2013 by a blogger and designer Nathan Barry, specifically targeting creators such as bloggers, authors, and artists. ConvertKit offers an array of features tailored to content creators looking to grow their audience and manage their email marketing campaigns effectively. 

ConvertKit features compared to Brevo

ConvertKit presents a clean and straightforward interface that is well-organized, making it easy for first-time users to navigate. The platform’s visual workflow builder enhances this usability, offering a user-friendly environment to manage complex automation workflows. This makes ConvertKit a viable Brevo alternative for creators who need powerful yet accessible tools.

ConvertKit provides users with 19 pre-built automation templates that cover a wide range of needs, particularly for content creators. Its visual automation builder allows for the creation of custom workflows based on actions, events, and conditions, offering up to five entry points to accommodate complex sequences. 

Brevo and ConvertKit have a comparable number of email templates: 40+ for Brevo and 30+ for ConvertKit. ConvertKit further supports customization with colors, images, text, quotes, and countdown timers. Additionally, ConvertKit offers several form formats, including inline, modal, slide-in, and sticky bars, which are designed to enhance subscriber engagement and conversion.

Both platforms are connected to Zapier, which greatly extends their ability to interact with other popular online platforms. Nonetheless, while ConvertKit has 130 own integrations, Brevo is less diverse in this regard, accounting only for 66 in-built integrations.

ConvertKit pricing structure

Source: ConvertKit

ConvertKit is the second free alternative to Brevo. All three of its plans—Free, Creator, and Creator Pro—look very budget-friendly. 

The platform’s free plan allows up to 1000 subscribers. It will also provide you with: 

• Unlimited emails, forms, and landing pages
• Audience tagging and segmentation
• Selling digital products & subscriptions
• Community support

For someone who is just trying it out, that might be a good option. Plus, you have nothing to lose.

For 1000 subscribers on the Creator plan, you can get all the functions of the Free plan plus free and paid recommendations, automation, third-party integrations, chat and email support, plus one additional team member and a free migration from another tool. That will cost you $9 per month if paid yearly. 

While this might be not the most feature-rich plan, it is nonetheless reasonably priced. If you want to get additional deliverability reporting or unlimited team members, you can get that by switching to the Creator Pro plan, which costs $25 per month if paid yearly. 

Pros and cons based on user feedback and expert reviews

ConvertKit unique selling points

ConvertKit is an email marketing software targeted towards creators of all kinds, including professional bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, and course creators.

To Sum Up

Each platform we’ve explored in this article offers unique features that distinguish it from the others, underscoring the fact that no single tool can encompass every aspect of email marketing perfectly. So, if you are still on a quest to find the best alternative to Brevo or any other platform you use, it might be time to drop it.

As the marketing landscape continues to diversify, new players are emerging, providing tailor-made solutions that cater more precisely to the specific needs of their target audiences. This development is beneficial for businesses and marketers alike, as it opens up opportunities to select solutions that align more closely with their strategic goals instead of looking for one-size-fits-all solutions.