Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) Review — Honest Pros, Cons & Pricing (2026)

Category: Email marketing, transactional email, and CRM

Also known as: Brevo(formerlySendinblue), brevo(formerlysendinblue), brevo (formerly sendinblue).

Overview

Brevo is an email marketing and CRM platform — not a cold email tool. It handles marketing emails to opted-in subscribers, transactional emails (receipts, password resets), SMS campaigns, and basic CRM. People search for 'Brevo cold email' frequently, so here is the straight answer: do not use Brevo for cold outbound. Their terms of service prohibit unsolicited email, and they will suspend your account. Use Brevo for warm nurture sequences to leads already in your pipeline — after cold email gets them there.

Pricing

Free tier: 300 emails/day. Starter: $9/month. Business: $18/month. Enterprise: custom.

Strengths

Strong email marketing automation with visual workflow builder
Transactional email API that is reliable and well-documented
Built-in CRM covers basic pipeline management
SMS marketing included alongside email
Generous free tier for getting started

Weaknesses

NOT for cold email — accounts will be suspended for unsolicited outreach
Shared IP infrastructure means your deliverability depends on other users
CRM features are basic compared to HubSpot or Pipedrive
Email builder is functional but not as polished as Mailchimp

Best For

Nurturing warm leads generated by cold email campaigns
Sending transactional emails (confirmations, onboarding, receipts)
Small businesses needing marketing email + basic CRM in one affordable tool

Not Ideal For

Cold email outbound of any kind — will result in account suspension
Teams needing advanced CRM pipeline management
High-volume senders needing dedicated IP and deliverability control