Brevo

Category: Email/Newsletter

Email, SMS and CRM priced in pounds, with a caveat.

Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, bundles email marketing, SMS, WhatsApp, chat, a sales CRM and transactional sending into one platform. Pricing is based on monthly email volume rather than contact count, which suits anyone with a large but infrequently-mailed list, though the contact caps on lower tiers are tighter than people expect. The platform covers automation workflows, segmentation, landing pages, forms, A/B testing and a shared inbox, with transactional email and SMS available through the same account and API. Recent additions push it upmarket: Aura AI handles data analysis, segmentation and send-time optimisation, there is a customer data platform, and loyalty and mobile wallet features. It is French, hosted in the EU, and bills natively in pounds, which is unusual in this category. There is a first-party remote MCP server covering 27 modules, plus an official Claude connector limited to drafting rather than sending.

Our verdict

The best value in this category for a UK buyer, largely for reasons that have nothing to do with features. It bills in pounds natively, which almost nothing else here does, and it is French and EU-hosted, which makes a data-transfer review far shorter than with a US-owned alternative. Volume-based rather than contact-based pricing also suits anyone sitting on a big list they mail occasionally. The MCP server is real and covers a lot of ground, though note their own pages disagree on which tier includes it. One thing we would rather flag than skip: Brevo disclosed a CDN compromise in September 2026, where a hardcoded full-permission key allowed a malicious script to be injected into its own domains, alongside a separate incident involving access to client accounts the same month. They published a write-up on the first, which is the right behaviour, but if you are evaluating now it belongs in your assessment. Check the contact caps on lower tiers carefully, as they bite harder than the email allowance suggests.

Best for: UK and EU small businesses who want email, SMS and a light CRM on one bill, in pounds, hosted in Europe.

Pros

  • Bills natively in pounds, which almost nothing else in this category does
  • French and EU-hosted, which shortens a UK data-transfer review considerably
  • Priced on email volume rather than contacts, good for large infrequently-mailed lists
  • First-party remote MCP server covering 27 modules, plus an official Claude connector
  • Email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat, CRM and transactional on one bill
  • Genuinely usable free tier

Cons

  • Disclosed a CDN compromise and a separate account-access incident in September 2026
  • Contact caps on lower tiers are much tighter than the email allowances suggest
  • Their own pages contradict each other on which tier includes MCP
  • Sharp jump in price between the mid and professional tiers
  • Recurring reports of mid-term account suspensions and slow support

Pricing: Free, then from £6/mo (Freemium)

Rating: 4/5