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Trying to decide between Brevo vs ActiveCampaign? It’s a tough choice – especially as they happen to be two of our highest-rated email marketing platforms here at EmailTooltester.
Each tool is packed with must-have features to handle your email marketing, automation, and CRM needs. Both platforms are user-friendly and offer excellent value for money.
As a matter of fact, we’ve used both platforms in our own campaigns – and we still use one of them today (we’ll reveal which one later!).
But while they’re both powerful, each has unique strengths that might ultimately sway your decision.
If you’re looking for a little guidance on which one is the best fit for your business or project, we’ve got you covered with this detailed, feature-by-feature comparison. Let’s dive in…
Brevo vs ActiveCampaign: Key Takeaways
- Free plan vs. paid only: Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) offers a generous free plan with 300 emails/day, while ActiveCampaign provides a 14-day free trial but no ongoing free plan.
- Ease of use: Brevo’s dashboard and editor are simple and intuitive, making it easy for beginners. ActiveCampaign offers more advanced features but with a steeper learning curve.
- Automation and CRM: Both platforms offer strong automation and deal management features, but ActiveCampaign excels with more sophisticated options like conditional content, lead scoring, and deep ecommerce integrations (although many of these features come at an extra cost).
- Templates and design: ActiveCampaign offers over 250 customizable, purpose-driven templates, while Brevo provides around 50 responsive designs, included in all plans.
- Extra features: Brevo stands out with its live chat, transactional email, and SMS marketing features, all available as add-ons. ActiveCampaign also offers SMS and transactional emails, but they come at a higher cost.
Round 1: Ease of Use
Let’s start off by taking a look at how easy each platform is to navigate and use.
Ease of use is definitely one of Brevo’s key strengths. Upon logging in, you’ll be taken to the dashboard, which has everything clearly laid out – no need to decipher complex terminology to figure out what’s what, or go digging for hidden features!
I also love how easy it is to style your templates to reflect your brand. Brevo’s brand setup feature can automatically fetch your brand’s colors and logo based on your website, without you having to manually add them.
The email editor is also a breeze to use. It uses a drag-and-drop system to let you insert different content blocks – text, images, buttons, and so on – wherever you want. Editing text is as simple as using a document editor like Google Docs: you simply click and type. There’s even a built-in AI assistant if you need some help rewording your copy.
Brevo also offers the option to revert to previous versions of the email in case you make a mistake, which is super useful – not all the email editors we’ve tested offer this.
ActiveCampaign’s email editor is also very user-friendly, with an automated feature to add your branding that’s similar to Brevo’s.
One standout feature is the ability to save custom blocks, making it easy to reuse them in future emails. You can even set up actions, like tagging a recipient, triggered when they click an image or link in your email.
ActiveCampaign’s email editor
That said, my only minor gripe is that ActiveCampaign’s extensive range of features comes with a bit of a learning curve.
Working your way around the dashboard can feel more complex than Brevo’s. However, for those needing more advanced email marketing capabilities, the extra effort may be well worth it.
ActiveCampaign’s cluttered dashboard can be overwhelming for first-time users
Winner: Brevo takes this round, with its clear-cut dashboard and streamlined editor.
Brevo 1 – ActiveCampaign 0
Round 2: Templates and Designs
Brevo provides a solid selection of email templates, with around 50 responsive designs available. While the designs aren't the most modern, they offer a decent foundation if you prefer not to start from scratch.
The good news is that all templates are included across all plans – even the free one. However, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to remove Brevo’s branding from your emails.
If Brevo’s pre-made designs don’t quite fit your style, you also have the option to code your own newsletter and save it as a reusable template.
However, Brevo’s templates can’t quite compete with ActiveCampaign’s impressive collection of over 250 email templates, which are mobile-responsive, and thoughtfully categorized by purpose (e.g. abandoned cart, newsletters, event invitations).
ActiveCampaign’s email templates
What’s great is that you can even search for a template using a keyword – a handy feature that you don’t see too often in other email marketing platforms. This allows you to find and launch campaigns faster by starting with templates that already include key elements like call-to-action buttons and information blocks.
If you have a custom-coded template or HTML file, ActiveCampaign makes it easy to upload, edit, and personalize it using their drag-and-drop editor, giving you a lot of creative control over your email design.
Winner: With its larger selection and more modern, purpose-driven designs, ActiveCampaign beats out Brevo when it comes to templates.
Brevo 1 – ActiveCampaign 1
Round 3: List Management
When it comes to managing your subscribers and segmenting your lists, both Brevo and ActiveCampaign have you covered. However, there is one platform that is much stronger in this department.
With Brevo, you can organize subscribers into lists (e.g. “Newsletter subscribers”, “Customers”), which can then be further broken down into segments (e.g. “Engaged subscribers”, “Inactive subscribers”). These segments can be based on contact field criteria and behavior (email opens, clicks, etc.).
Brevo offers a few pre-made templates to get you started, but you can also build segments from scratch, combining multiple conditions. You can also automate the process – for example, when a new subscriber signs up, they can be added to the right list or segment based on predefined conditions.
However, one drawback we found is that Brevo doesn’t have a dedicated tagging feature. You can work around this by using contact attributes, but it lacks the flexibility that tagging provides for more advanced list management.
ActiveCampaign, on the other hand, takes list management to the next level with its powerful Segment Builder. It allows you to create highly detailed segments using a wide variety of conditions, such as tags, actions (like clicks or email opens), and even event data (e.g. whether a contact visited a specific webpage). You can apply up to 20 conditions per segment, giving you granular control over how you target your audience.
Another standout feature is the ability to send highly personalized emails using conditional content. This means you can tailor specific parts of your email – such as product recommendations – based on a recipient's previous interactions or interests.
On certain plans, you can also access advanced lead scoring, which ranks your contacts based on specific actions or behaviors, and can be useful for identifying your most engaged subscribers. What’s more, you can also create segments while crafting your email campaign – a unique time-saving feature that I haven’t seen in too many other platforms. Good work ActiveCampaign!
ActiveCampaign’s tagging system also offers a more flexible and dynamic way to segment your audience compared to Brevo.
Winner: ActiveCampaign takes this round with its superior segmentation options, tagging functionality, and advanced personalization features.
Brevo 1 – ActiveCampaign 2
Round 4: Automation
Brevo provides impressive automation features for its price, allowing you to create triggered campaigns based on contact data, email engagement, web behavior (via tracking code), and ecommerce activity.
You can integrate all of Brevo’s features into your workflows, and at EmailTooltester (that’s right, we use Brevo as our email marketing platform!), we’ve used it for sending opt-in requests after live chats and offering discounts following meetings.
Brevo’s workflows are surprisingly comprehensive, with features like lead scoring, campaign testing, and a ‘Best Time’ tool to optimize send times based on past performance. It also supports transactional emails (e.g. purchase confirmations) via SMTP, which is a nice touch for managing both marketing and transactional messages.
However, we’ve yet to find an email marketing platform that can beat ActiveCampaign when it comes to automation. ActiveCampaign allows you to automate nearly every aspect of your marketing, from campaigns and deals, to SMS and ecommerce.
ActiveCampaign’s 750+ automation “recipes” are organized by category, making it easy to find ready-to-use workflows for tasks like cart abandonment or post-purchase follow-ups. These templates are highly customizable, allowing you to add tags and custom fields. And of course, you can even start from scratch.
ActiveCampaign also supports multiple triggers per automation, letting you create complex workflows with ease. You can even run split tests within automations to find the most effective pathways.
While more advanced features like ecommerce automation and lead scoring require the higher-tier Plus plan, ActiveCampaign’s robust tagging system and one-to-one email automation (triggered through inbox communications) offer a level of flexibility that Brevo simply lacks.
Winner: ActiveCampaign. Its extensive automation capabilities, advanced customization, and specialized templates give it the advantage, although Brevo’s automations are enough to cover most small business needs (including ours!).
Brevo 1 – ActiveCampaign 3
Round 5: Forms and Landing Pages
How do Brevo and ActiveCampaign fare when it comes to capturing new subscribers? Let’s take a closer look at their form and landing page features.
Brevo’s form builder is user-friendly and surprisingly advanced. You can allow subscribers to select which list they’d like to join, add CAPTCHA for spam protection, and even pre-fill fields when users access forms via email. It also gives you the flexibility to choose between single or double opt-in.
However, it falls short in terms of design flexibility, offering limited options for integrating forms into your website (for example, you’d need an extra integration to create a pop-up form).
Brevo’s landing page builder is available on the Business and Enterprise plans, and I actually prefer it over their email editor! It offers sleek, modern templates or the option to design from scratch, giving you plenty of options for customization.
ActiveCampaign, on the other hand, doesn’t provide form templates, but it does allow you to create a variety of form types, including floating forms, pop-ups, and modals. The form editor is intuitive, offering custom fields and responsive design.
ActiveCampaign’s form options
The standout feature, however, is ActiveCampaign’s landing page builder, which offers over 50 responsive templates that are both attractive and easy to edit. However, moving blocks around can be a bit fiddly.
What sets ActiveCampaign apart is its ability to add dynamic content to landing pages, allowing you to personalize pages based on user behavior, geolocation, or purchase history. You can also add specialized buttons for calling, emailing, or downloading files, and enable tracking on your pages.
One drawback, though, is that landing pages are only available with the higher-tier Marketing Plus plan or above.
Winner: Both ActiveCampaign and Brevo offer a solid form builder with useful automation features, so this round is a tie!
Brevo 2 – ActiveCampaign 4
Round 6: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Both Brevo and ActiveCampaign offer CRM features, although there’s one key difference: Brevo’s is available for free (though you can upgrade to add extra features), while ActiveCampaign’s needs to be purchased as a separate add-on.
Brevo’s CRM is refreshingly simple and straightforward. Its deal pipeline is clean and easy to use, which is perfect if you don’t want to be bogged down by too many options. You can quickly edit columns, add attributes, and manage deals without much hassle. Plus, Brevo’s built-in live chat feature syncs with the CRM, giving you a complete record of your conversations.
Brevo’s CRM includes a drag-and-drop deal pipeline
However, it’s missing some key features like detailed deal analytics. And while Brevo’s CRM works well enough, setting it up can be a bit tedious, as you’ll need to manually link email marketing contacts with companies before you can manage them within the sales pipeline.
ActiveCampaign, on the other hand, offers a much more robust CRM experience. It’s easy to set up multiple customizable deal pipelines and move deals through the stages with its simple drag-and-drop feature.
ActiveCampaign’s CRM is fully integrated with its automation capabilities, allowing you to automate tasks like deal updates based on customer actions – very handy when you want to save time. There are also advanced automation templates for lead scoring, task management, and deal tracking.
One standout feature is ActiveCampaign’s ability to predict win probabilities for open deals, which can help you focus your efforts where they’re most likely to pay off.
ActiveCampaign’s CRM does come at a price, though. The B2C-targeted “Pipelines” and the B2B-focused “Sales Engagement” start at $50/month and are available only with the Plus plan or higher. But when you factor in the advanced sales automation, lead scoring, and integrated marketing features (like email, SMS, and Facebook Custom Audiences), it’s a solid investment for businesses looking for a more powerful CRM.
Winner: With its feature-packed CRM, ActiveCampaign wins this round, although Brevo offers a simple, no-cost solution for those with basic needs.
Brevo 2 – ActiveCampaign 5
Round 7: Reporting
When it comes to reports, Brevo covers most of the basics, offering tools like click maps, geo-tracking, and integration with Google Analytics. If you’ve integrated an ecommerce platform, you can also track conversion data.
However, Brevo’s reports can be a bit tricky to navigate, and if you’re on the Starter plan or lower, you’ll face some limitations, such as not being able to see which specific links were clicked in your emails. It’s also lacking in social media reports, which could be a drawback if you rely heavily on those channels.
ActiveCampaign, on the other hand, offers an impressive array of reporting options. You can track nearly everything, from campaign and automation stats to contact and CRM performance. Other reports include contact trends, deal tracking, chat conversions, and more, though custom reports are only available on the higher-end Enterprise plan.
A handy feature is its click map tracking, where you can easily see which email links are getting the most engagement. It also offers BotSense, which filters out bot-generated clicks and opens and gives you a more accurate picture of real email engagement, although this feature is only available on Pro and Enterprise plans.
For ecommerce users, ActiveCampaign offers dedicated reports on platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, depending on your plan. There’s even a “Recommendations for you” section that suggests actions based on your report data, which is a nice touch.
Winner: ActiveCampaign takes the lead again, with a much more comprehensive and customizable reporting suite, though Brevo provides just enough for those who don’t need all the bells and whistles.
Brevo 2 – ActiveCampaign 6
Round 8: Integrations
Integrations are important for connecting your email marketing with other key tools, such as your website, online store, CRM, or helpdesk. Let’s take a look at what Brevo and ActiveCampaign each offer in this department.
Brevo provides around 60 integrations, some of which are direct, and others which are provided via Zapier. It covers ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, payment processors like Stripe and PayPal, website platforms like WordPress and Wix, and a handful of others.
In short: it’s enough to help you easily embed your signup forms on your website to capture subscribers, import customer orders, and send automated campaigns such as abandoned cart reminders and product recommendations.
Despite this, Brevo’s range of integrations is no match for ActiveCampaign’s, which boasts close to 1,000 integrations with a variety of tools and apps (including analytics, project management, customer support, and more).
Another thing that sets ActiveCampaign apart is its deep-data integrations with platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento, which let you use more granular data (e.g. revenue per customer, last purchase date) for triggering automations.
Winner: ActiveCampaign takes their lead even further in this round, with an impressive range of integrations that make working across different channels and tools seamless.
Brevo 2 – ActiveCampaign 7
Round 9: Support
Which email marketing platform will be there for you when you really need them? When it comes to customer support, Brevo does a solid job. One of its most useful features is the universal help button, which gives you quick access to their knowledge base, lets you leave a message, or connect with their support team via live chat (weekdays only).
That said, the help button can sometimes be a bit inconsistent, showing different support options at different times, which can get confusing. However, when we used the live chat, the response times were fast, and the knowledge base itself is detailed and useful. For email marketing beginners, there’s also the Brevo Academy, which offers training resources.
But ActiveCampaign also steps up its support game, offering fast and friendly service across all mediums. Their knowledge base is well-organized and easy to navigate, with relevant search results being easy to find. In addition to that, they offer video tutorials, live and archived webinars, and one-on-one training for those on the Plus plan.
Live chat is also available during weekdays on all plans, though unfortunately, phone support isn’t an option.
ActiveCampaign also has plenty of help documentation, but there’s a small downside: the articles tend to be organized into long lists, which can make finding the right solution a bit of a challenge. However, if you need in-depth assistance, you’ll likely find everything you need with a little patience.
Winner: Both Brevo and ActiveCampaign offer a great support experience with their live chat and accessible knowledge base, so each gets a point in this round.
Brevo 3 – ActiveCampaign 8
Round 10: Pricing
Our Brevo vs ActiveCampaign is coming to an end, and one has emerged as a clear-cut winner. But we couldn’t finish it off without taking a look at the all-important round of pricing. And depending on your budget, this might actually be the deciding round!
Brevo is all about affordability and flexibility. It offers a free plan that lets you send 300 emails per day to up to 100k contacts, which is ideal for small businesses looking to get started with email marketing.
For those needing more, Brevo’s Starter plan starts at just $9 per month for 5,000 emails, though you’ll have to pay extra to remove Brevo’s branding and won’t get access to detailed reports on who’s opening or clicking your emails. Prices go up when you start needing to send more emails.
Starting at $18 per month, the Business plan offers more robust features, such as landing pages, multi-user access, and phone support.
Brevo also offers a pay-as-you-go option, which is a great choice if your email volume fluctuates month to month. You only pay for what you use, keeping costs predictable and manageable.
ActiveCampaign doesn’t offer a free plan, but its pricing is still competitive for what you get. Starting at $19 per month, the Starter plan comes with essential automation features, ecommerce integrations, and site tracking. Similar to Brevo, prices will go up based on how many contacts you have.
If you need more advanced tools like retargeting ads or a landing page builder, the Plus plan will set you back $49 per month, and for conditional content or priority support, the Pro plan costs $79 per month.
Winner: If you’re looking at hard numbers alone, Brevo is clearly the more wallet-friendly option – and so it takes this round. However, if you’re ready to scale and need more advanced automation and CRM tools, ActiveCampaign’s higher price point can be justified by the sheer depth of features it offers.
Brevo 4 – ActiveCampaign 8
Round 11: AI Features
When it comes to AI-powered email marketing, ActiveCampaign offers some impressive tools that go beyond the basics. It can generate email text and create images for your campaigns (though the quality of these images can be hit or miss). A standout feature is the AI brand kit, which uses your site’s fonts and colors to design on-brand email templates quickly, saving you time and effort.
ActiveCampaign also excels in automation. Its AI automation builder takes the guesswork out of creating workflows—just describe the process you want to automate, and it does the hard work for you. If you’re using ActiveCampaign’s CRM, the win probability feature is another great addition, helping you prioritize deals with higher chances of success based on historical data.
Brevo, by comparison, keeps its AI features more straightforward. Its AI assistant can generate headings, paragraphs, and calls to action, and even refine your copy with tools to rephrase, change the style, or translate text.
Brevo also includes smart sending, which predicts the best time to send emails based on past engagement or general user data. If you’re using Brevo’s Conversations tool, you’ll appreciate its ability to summarize customer chats and craft responses in your preferred tone. Although they offer a decent range of AI-powered features, Brevo doesn’t quite match ActiveCampaign’s more advanced AI capabilities.
Winner? ActiveCampaign takes this one for its powerful AI automation and customization features, which are perfect for businesses looking to level up their marketing and CRM workflows.
Score: Brevo 4 – ActiveCampaign 9
Side-by-side comparison of Brevo vs ActiveCampaign
Detailed comparison of features
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|---|---|---|
| Ease of Use | ||
| Editor | ||
| Personalization | ||
| Email types | ||
| Choice and Flexibility of Template Designs | ||
| Email Marketing Automation | ||
| List Management | ||
| Registration Forms/ Opt-in & Opt-out- Process | ||
| Deliverability | ||
| Reports and Analysis | ||
| Languages | ||
| Spam- and Design-Testing | ||
| Bounce Management | ||
| Blocklist | ||
| Storage available for data and images | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Authentication | ||
| Own Domain | ||
| Different levels of account access | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Landing Page Builder | ||
| Customer Support | ||
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Up to 1,000: $19/mo Up to 2,500: $49/mo Up to 5,000: $99/mo Up to 10,000: $189/mo Up to 25,000: $489/mo Up to 50,000: $759/mo |
Free Plan: $0/mo 5000 emails: $9/mo 10,000 emails: $17/mo 20,000 Starter: $29/mo 40,000 emails: $39/mo 60,000 emails: $55/mo 100,000: $69/mo 100,000: $129/mo 150,000 emails: $169/mo 250000 emails: $239/mo |
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Overall rating |
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Brevo vs ActiveCampaign: Who is the winner?
Taking a look at the final tally, it’s clear that ActiveCampaign beats Brevo in most categories. But does that mean it’s the best tool for you?
If you’re after a platform that can support your needs in the long run, ActiveCampaign makes sense. With its advanced automations, CRM and deal management tools, lead scoring features, and deep ecommerce integrations, it’s ideal for businesses who rely on email as a sales channel, and want to set up an ecosystem where you can put your sales and marketing on autopilot.
However, if you’re working with a smaller list (and budget), and only want to set up a few simple automations, Brevo has more than enough to cover your needs. Add to that its live chat tool, transactional emails, and SMS marketing, and you’ve got yourself a very affordable and complete email marketing platform that delivers incredible value for money.
As I mentioned earlier, we use Brevo for our own email marketing campaigns, and are pretty pleased with the results so far! So ultimately, the best way to decide is to try them out for yourself. Brevo’s free plan gives you a generous opportunity to explore its features, while ActiveCampaign’s 14-day trial lets you see how its advanced tools fit into your strategy.
You can give each one a spin here:
> Try ActiveCampaign for free for 14 days
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22 Nov 2024 - Added AI section
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This article has been written and researched following our EmailTooltester methodology.
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