Start with your list shape
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) and ActiveCampaign compete for the same small and mid-sized businesses, but their pricing models reward opposite list shapes. Before you compare features, count two numbers: how many contacts you store, and how many emails you send per month.
Brevo bills for sending. You can import 80,000 past customers and pay nothing extra for keeping them. ActiveCampaign bills for storing. Every contact on the account counts, whether you email them weekly or never. If your list is large and your sending is moderate, Brevo will almost always be cheaper. If your list is small and each contact is valuable, ActiveCampaign's per-contact price is easier to justify.
From Sendinblue to Brevo
Many buyers still know Brevo as Sendinblue, a low-cost email and SMS tool with a strong transactional side. The 2023 rename came with a wider suite: CRM, live chat, WhatsApp and more. The core strengths carried over, including volume pricing and a well-used transactional API, but the product now covers more ground than many small teams use.
That history matters when you read reviews. Older praise and complaints about Sendinblue often refer to the simpler product. When comparing with ActiveCampaign, judge Brevo on the plan you would actually buy today and which of its newer modules you need.
The Postmark factor
ActiveCampaign owns Postmark, a transactional email service with a strong reputation among developers, but sells it as a separate product. That is a deliberate split: marketing email in ActiveCampaign, receipts and password resets in Postmark, each with its own account, domain setup and bill.
Brevo takes the opposite approach and runs both from one account. For a small team, one vendor is simpler. For a team that wants transactional mail isolated from marketing reputation, ActiveCampaign plus Postmark is a reasonable design; it just costs more and adds setup.
Whichever you pick, check how unsubscribes flow between the two streams. A customer who unsubscribes from marketing must still receive receipts and password resets, while a marketing suppression must never be ignored by a newsletter sent from the transactional side. With one account, Brevo keeps those lists together. With ActiveCampaign and Postmark, your developers own that boundary.
Costs at three list sizes
| Scenario | Brevo | ActiveCampaign (annual) |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 contacts, 10,000 emails/mo | Starter or Standard in the $9 to $65 range, depending on volume tier | Plus from $49 at 1,000 contacts, rising by contact band |
| 10,000 contacts, 40,000 emails/mo | Starter between $29 (20k) and $69 (100k) tiers; Standard $65 to $129 | Starter $149, Plus $189, Pro $375 |
| 50,000 contacts, 100,000 emails/mo | Starter $69 or Standard $129 | Higher contact bands, several hundred dollars a month |
Brevo figures come from its published volume tiers; pick the tier that covers your monthly sends. SMS and WhatsApp credits are extra on Brevo, and SMS is an add-on on ActiveCampaign.
Automation: breadth versus precision
Brevo's workflow editor covers the flows most businesses need: welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase follow-ups and re-engagement. Full automation, A/B testing and advanced reporting sit on Standard, so budget for it if automation is a priority.
ActiveCampaign's builder is where it earns its price. You can combine site visits, tag changes, field values and email engagement in one condition, set goals that pull contacts out of a flow when they convert, split-test paths, and update lead and deal scores along the way. For a B2B company that nurtures a lead over several weeks before a sales call, that precision matters.
A practical test: write down your three most important automations. If each is a straight sequence with one or two conditions, Brevo will do it. If they need goal exits, score thresholds and site behavior, ActiveCampaign will save you workarounds.
When the cheaper tool ends up costing more
Brevo's low sticker price assumes your sending stays moderate. If you email a 10,000-person list three times a week, you are sending well over 100,000 emails a month and moving into higher volume tiers, while ActiveCampaign's price would not change with send frequency. Add SMS credits for a promotional calendar and the gap narrows further.
ActiveCampaign's price can surprise you in the other direction. Imports, lead magnets and old customer lists all add contacts, and each one raises the monthly bill until you archive them. Teams that never prune their list pay for thousands of people who no longer open.
Transactional email and channels
Brevo sends transactional email, such as order confirmations, password resets and receipts, from the same account through its API or SMTP relay. That means one vendor, one domain setup and shared contact data.
ActiveCampaign's core product is for marketing email. Transactional mail runs through Postmark, which ActiveCampaign owns but sells separately. That is a good service, but it is a second account and a second bill.
Brevo also adds WhatsApp campaigns and a live chat widget. If your customers reply on messaging apps, that is a real advantage. ActiveCampaign stays focused on email and CRM.
CRM: both have one, used differently
Brevo includes a free sales CRM with deals, pipelines and tasks, which is enough for a small sales team. ActiveCampaign's CRM is less a separate tool and more a part of automation: an automation can create a deal, move it between stages, assign a task and adjust a score. Teams that want marketing and sales to hand off automatically will prefer ActiveCampaign's approach.
Use-case matchups
| Need | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 60,000 past customers, monthly newsletter | Brevo | Contacts are free; you pay for sends |
| Five-stage lead nurture with scoring | ActiveCampaign | Goals, splits and scoring inside automations |
| Receipts and marketing from one vendor | Brevo | Transactional API and SMTP in the same account |
| Customers who reply on WhatsApp | Brevo | WhatsApp campaigns supported |
| SaaS trial and dunning emails from billing data | Sequenzy | Native Stripe, Paddle and Polar triggers |
Migration checklist
ActiveCampaign to Brevo
- Export contacts with tags and custom fields; export unsubscribes and bounces separately.
- Create matching contact attributes in Brevo. Tags usually become lists or attribute values.
- Import the blocklist before any contacts.
- Authenticate your sending domain in Brevo.
- Rebuild automations; check that the flows you need are available on your chosen plan.
- Move deals to Brevo's CRM by CSV if you use them.
Brevo to ActiveCampaign
- Export contacts, attributes, list membership and the blocklist.
- Map lists to tags, which ActiveCampaign automations handle more naturally.
- Install site tracking and rebuild workflows as automations.
- Decide where transactional email goes: keep Brevo for it, or set up Postmark.
- Review your contact count before choosing a tier, since dormant contacts now cost money. Archive or delete them first.
Decision checklist
- Large list, moderate sending, tight budget: Brevo.
- Need transactional and marketing email from one account: Brevo.
- Complex nurture with scoring and sales handoff: ActiveCampaign.
- Smaller, high-value list where per-contact pricing is acceptable: ActiveCampaign.
- Billing and product events should drive email: Sequenzy.
Where Sequenzy fits
Sequenzy shares Brevo's pricing model: you pay for emails sent and keep unlimited contacts. Like Brevo, it sends transactional and marketing email from one account. The difference is the triggers. Sequenzy connects to Stripe, Paddle and Polar and to your product through an API and web SDK, so trial endings, failed payments and feature usage can start sequences. It also syncs Shopify and WooCommerce (beta) for store flows.
It is not the pick if you need WhatsApp, live chat or a CRM; Brevo covers those, and ActiveCampaign covers CRM-driven automation. Pricing is $49/month for 60k emails (unlimited subscribers), with a free plan of 2,500 emails a month.
See the Brevo pricing breakdown and the ActiveCampaign pricing breakdown for plan details.
