Brevo Review 2026: The Best Free Email Marketing Tool for Freelancers?

Q: Brevo Free plan: how many emails per day in 2026?

Brevo's Free plan allows 300 emails per day — that's roughly 9,000 emails per month if you send daily. Other free-plan limits in 2026: unlimited contacts (the standout feature vs. Mailchimp's 500-contact cap), marketing automation up to 2,000 contacts, transactional emails included, drag-and-drop builder, SMS marketing (pay-per-send), CRM with unlimited contacts, sales pipeline. Brevo logo appears on all sent emails until you upgrade to Starter+ with the logo-removal add-on, or to the Standard plan and above where it's included.

Q: Brevo vs Mailchimp vs Kit (ConvertKit) — which is best for freelancers?

Brevo is best when your contact list is large but you send infrequently — the email-volume pricing model is dramatically cheaper than Mailchimp's contact-count model at scale. Mailchimp wins on UX polish, template variety and integration ecosystem, but pricing scales aggressively past 500 contacts. Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is the strongest for creators and content-based freelancers — clean tag-based subscriber management, strong automation for digital products. For freelancers with newsletters and growing lists: Kit. For client work + transactional: Brevo. For e-commerce + visual heavy: Mailchimp.

Fastlancer Team · Updated: Jul 17, 2026

4.2/5 Fastlancer Rating

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Ideal for

Freelancers and solo business owners building their own newsletter
Solopreneurs with a large contact list who email infrequently
Coaches and consultants who want email marketing combined with CRM

USP

Pricing driven by email volume — often cheaper than Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign for large lists (since 2026 with per-tier contact caps)

Free to start?

Yes — permanently free plan (≈9,000 emails/month)

For freelancers, coaches and consultants, email is one of the most direct channels to your audience — no algorithms, no reach restrictions. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) offers a genuinely free entry point as a GDPR-compliant European company.

What is Brevo?

Brevo is a French marketing platform, founded in 2012 as Sendinblue and rebranded in 2023. The core product is email marketing, but the platform also covers SMS marketing, transactional emails, an integrated CRM, forms, live chat and landing pages.

The key difference from competitors: Brevo charges by emails sent, not contact count. You can store a large contact list and only pay more when you actually email them — a real cost advantage over Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign for freelancers with growing lists and infrequent sending patterns.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Permanently free plan with storage for up to 100,000 contacts
Volume-based pricing — cheaper than contact-based models for large lists
CRM, forms and live chat included in free plan
Transactional emails in the same tool (welcome emails, order confirmations)
European company (France) — GDPR-compliant by default

Cons

Free plan: Brevo logo in all outgoing emails
Automation in free plan limited to max. 2,000 contacts in automated campaigns
Interface less intuitive than Mailchimp
A/B testing only from Standard plan

Key Features

Email campaigns: Drag-and-drop editor with responsive templates, segmentation by tags and attributes, send-time optimization (from the Standard plan).
Marketing automation: Automatic email sequences triggered by signup, click or date — free plan up to 2,000 contacts (unlimited from the Standard plan onwards).
Transactional emails: Welcome emails, order confirmations, password resets via SMTP or API — ideal for selling courses or digital products.
CRM: Contact management, deal pipeline and notes directly in Brevo — no extra tool needed for basic client management.
Forms & landing pages: Embeddable signup forms; landing pages from the Standard plan.
SMS & WhatsApp: Direct messages on the same platform for campaigns or transactional messages.

Why Brevo Makes Sense for Freelancers

The free plan is genuinely generous: up to 100,000 contacts, CRM and basic automation at no cost. Mailchimp's free plan caps at 500 contacts — a meaningful gap for a freelancer building a newsletter.

For European freelancers, Brevo's EU servers and ownership remove the data-transfer documentation burden that US services like Mailchimp require under GDPR.

Freelancers emailing infrequently can stay on the free plan for a long time and move to paid only when volume justifies it.

Your next step

Compare all email marketing tools — our email marketing overview covers free tiers, automation depth and pricing side-by-side.
Need funnels and webinars too? GetResponse bundles email, landing pages and webinars — our link includes 10 % off.
Still comparing? The best email marketing tools for freelancers guide ranks them all.

Alternatives to Brevo

GetResponse — stronger for webinars and landing pages, contact-based pricing
RGE Studio — email template design tool only, no sending infrastructure
Beehiiv — built for newsletter creators, strong monetization features
ActiveCampaign — more powerful automation, but more expensive and complex

All email marketing tools compared

Pricing

Free

free forever

≈9,000 emails/month (300/day)
Unlimited contacts
CRM, forms & live chat
Basic automation
Brevo logo in emails

Starter

€9

per month ($8.08/month annual)

From 5,000 emails/month
Drag-and-drop editor & templates
AI content generator
Email support
No Brevo logo add-on ($10/mo, $10.80 billed annually varies)

Recommended

Standard

€18

per month ($16.17/month annual)

Everything in Starter
Marketing automation (unlimited)
A/B testing
Landing pages (1 included)
Advanced reporting

Prices may change — check the official website for current plans.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Brevo really permanently free?

Yes — the free plan runs without a time limit and without a credit card. You can store up to 100,000 contacts and send 300 emails per day (≈9,000/month). Limits: Brevo logo in all emails, automation capped at 2,000 contacts.

What's the difference between Brevo and Mailchimp?

The pricing model: Mailchimp charges by contact count — once you have 500+ contacts it gets expensive. Brevo charges by emails sent. Anyone with a large list who emails infrequently pays significantly less with Brevo. Mailchimp has a more intuitive interface; Brevo offers more in the free plan (storage for up to 100,000 contacts).

Is Brevo GDPR-compliant?

Yes — Brevo is a European company headquartered in Paris that stores data on EU servers. This simplifies GDPR compliance compared to US providers like Mailchimp, where a valid data transfer agreement (SCCs) must be documented.

When does upgrading from Free to Starter make sense?

Once you send more than 300 emails per day or want to remove the Brevo logo. Starter costs $9/month ($8.08 annual) for 5,000+ emails. Removing the Brevo logo in Starter is an add-on ($10.80/month) — in Standard ($18/month) it's already included along with full automation and A/B testing.

Brevo Free plan: how many emails per day in 2026?

Brevo's Free plan allows 300 emails per day — that's roughly 9,000 emails per month if you send daily. Other free-plan limits in 2026: unlimited contacts (the standout feature vs. Mailchimp's 500-contact cap), marketing automation up to 2,000 contacts, transactional emails included, drag-and-drop builder, SMS marketing (pay-per-send), CRM with unlimited contacts, sales pipeline. Brevo logo appears on all sent emails until you upgrade to Starter+ with the logo-removal add-on, or to the Standard plan and above where it's included.

Brevo vs Mailchimp vs Kit (ConvertKit) — which is best for freelancers?

Brevo is best when your contact list is large but you send infrequently — the email-volume pricing model is dramatically cheaper than Mailchimp's contact-count model at scale. Mailchimp wins on UX polish, template variety and integration ecosystem, but pricing scales aggressively past 500 contacts. Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is the strongest for creators and content-based freelancers — clean tag-based subscriber management, strong automation for digital products. For freelancers with newsletters and growing lists: Kit. For client work + transactional: Brevo. For e-commerce + visual heavy: Mailchimp.

Verdict

Brevo is especially attractive for freelancers with a growing contact list who don't email frequently. The free plan is fully sufficient for getting started and small newsletters. Anyone sending more than 9,000 emails per month should upgrade to Starter ($9/month). For unlimited marketing automation and A/B testing, Standard ($18/month) is the right plan.