Brevo vs ActiveCampaign: Honest Comparison for 2026

Choosing between Brevo and ActiveCampaign feels like comparing two really good restaurants—both serve quality food, but the experience and specialty dishes differ. I’ve used both extensively, so let me give you an honest breakdown without the fluff.

The Quick Summary

Brevo is the budget-friendly all-rounder with surprisingly robust features. ActiveCampaign is the automation powerhouse with more sophisticated capabilities and a higher price tag to match.

Pricing Reality Check

This is where the differences become immediately obvious.

Brevo charges based on email volume, not subscriber count. Their free plan allows 300 emails daily with unlimited contacts. Paid plans start at $25/month for 20,000 monthly emails. You can have 50,000 subscribers and still pay the same rate as someone with 5,000 if you send similar volumes.

ActiveCampaign charges based on contacts. Their Lite plan starts at $29/month for 1,000 contacts. At 10,000 contacts, you’re looking at $174/month. At 25,000, it’s around $286/month. Features increase with higher tiers, but so do costs significantly.

For growing businesses watching their budget, Brevo’s pricing model is considerably more forgiving. You won’t face a sudden bill spike just because your list grew.

Automation Capabilities

This is ActiveCampaign’s crown jewel. Their automation builder is genuinely powerful—you can create complex branching logic, lead scoring, site tracking, conditional content, and sophisticated multi-step workflows that respond to practically any trigger.

The learning curve is steeper, but once you master it, you can build automations that feel almost magical. If your business depends heavily on sophisticated nurturing sequences, ActiveCampaign’s depth is hard to match.

Brevo’s automation is solid but simpler. You can create effective welcome sequences, abandoned cart flows, and basic conditional logic. For 80% of businesses, it’s more than sufficient. But if you need advanced features like predictive sending, site event tracking, or deep CRM integration, you might feel constrained.

Email Design and Templates

Both platforms offer drag-and-drop email builders with responsive templates. Brevo’s editor is intuitive and fast—you can create professional emails quickly without fighting the interface.

ActiveCampaign’s editor is equally capable, though I find Brevo’s slightly more user-friendly for beginners. Both support custom HTML if you need complete control.

Template quality is comparable. Both offer modern, mobile-responsive designs across various industries and use cases.

CRM and Contact Management

Brevo includes a free CRM with contact profiles, deal pipelines, task management, and notes. It’s not Salesforce, but for small to medium businesses, it handles the basics well without additional cost.

ActiveCampaign’s CRM (available on Plus plan and above) is more tightly integrated with their automation. Lead scoring, win probability, and sales automation features are more sophisticated. However, you’re paying for this—the Plus plan starts at $49/month for just 1,000 contacts.

Additional Channels

Brevo started as an email and SMS platform, and their multi-channel capabilities show. You get SMS marketing, WhatsApp business messaging, chat widgets, and transactional email services all under one roof.

ActiveCampaign focuses primarily on email with site messaging and SMS available but less central to the platform. If you need true omnichannel marketing, Brevo offers more out of the box.

Ease of Use

Brevo wins for beginners. The interface is clean, navigation is logical, and you can get campaigns running quickly without extensive tutorials.

ActiveCampaign’s power comes with complexity. Expect a steeper learning curve, though their educational resources are excellent. If you’re willing to invest time learning the platform, the payoff is substantial.

Deliverability and Support

Both platforms maintain strong deliverability reputations. Neither has significant red flags for inbox placement when you follow best practices.

Support quality is comparable—both offer email support on lower tiers with phone and chat available on premium plans. ActiveCampaign’s knowledge base and training resources are particularly comprehensive if you’re a self-learner.

Making Your Decision

Choose Brevo if you’re budget-conscious and want predictable costs, need SMS and WhatsApp alongside email, want a simple but capable CRM included, prefer quicker setup with a gentler learning curve, or have a large list but don’t email super frequently.

Choose ActiveCampaign if advanced automation is central to your strategy, you need sophisticated lead scoring and sales automation, your team has time to master a more complex tool, budget is less constrained and you need premium features, or you run a SaaS or B2B company with complex buyer journeys.

My Recommendation

For most small businesses and solopreneurs, Brevo delivers better value. You get 90% of what you need at a fraction of the cost, and the simplicity means you’ll actually use the features rather than feeling overwhelmed.

For established businesses with dedicated marketing teams and complex automation needs, ActiveCampaign’s depth justifies the premium. Just make sure you’ll actually use those advanced features—no point paying for capabilities that sit untouched.

Both platforms offer free trials, so test them with your actual use cases before committing.