What is Brevo?
Brevo is an Email marketing platform founded in 2007, headquartered in France. Pricing: Free · paid from $9/mo. It targets teams running marketing campaigns and transactional mail from one contact database. Our verdict: Bills emails sent, not contacts stored, so the list can grow free. Watch for: Account protection suspends new accounts before the first campaign. Rated 7.7/10 overall across ease of use, deliverability, and pricing value.
What is Brevo?
Brevo has two starting points, which is why sources disagree about its age. The French company behind it was registered in Paris in May 2007, when Armand Thiberge was running a small web services agency he had started outside New Delhi. The email platform itself arrived in 2012 under the name Mailin, with first offices in Noida and Paris, and traded as Sendinblue until 4 May 2023, when it was renamed Brevo on the grounds that only a minority of its customers were using it purely for newsletters.
What that produced is one account running marketing campaigns and transactional mail off the same contact database. Brevo publishes an SMTP relay at smtp-relay.brevo.com alongside its v3 API, so a WordPress site and an application’s password-reset mail can live where the newsletter already lives. Billing follows emails sent rather than contacts stored, the opposite of how Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign charge.
Much of the platform was bought rather than built: chat from Chatra, analytics from Metrilo, push from PushOwl and WonderPush, the customer data layer from Octolis, wallet passes from Captain Wallet. In December 2025 General Atlantic and Oakley Capital led a €500 million round that made Brevo a unicorn and bought Partech out entirely, leaving founder, management and staff as the largest shareholder group. eBay, H&M, Louis Vuitton and Carrefour are named customers.
Explore Brevo on SMTPedia
Frequently asked questions
Is Brevo worth it in 2026?
Our full editorial review covers pricing, deliverability, ease of use, support quality, and API/MCP maturity. Read the Brevo review →
How much does Brevo cost?
All pricing tiers, hidden fees, refund policy, and the true cost per email are broken down in the pricing tab. See Brevo pricing →
What are the best alternatives to Brevo?
Brevo compared with its closest competitors by use case, pricing, and switching cost. See alternatives →
What are the SMTP settings for Brevo?
Hostnames, ports, authentication, rate limits, and DKIM/SPF configuration for Brevo. See SMTP settings →
Does Brevo have an official MCP server?
Our API tab covers Brevo's REST API version, SDKs, rate limits, and MCP server support (official, community, and commercial wrappers). See API + MCP →
This review follows our email infrastructure testing methodology. We disclose affiliate relationships in our editorial independence policy.
