beehiiv vs Brevo Comparison 2026
beehiiv runs a newsletter with subscriptions and growth tools built in: free to 2,500 subscribers, including paid ones, then $49 a month for the referral program and boosts. Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, charges by how many messages you send rather than by list size, with a free plan needing no card and Starter at $9 a month once the daily cap is too small. One suits a list that gets mailed every week. The other suits a list that sits mostly quiet and goes out occasionally.
Newsletters with paid subscriptions and referrals
Email, SMS and automation on one free plan
At a glance
- Brevo starts cheaper, at $9.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
beehiiv | Brevo | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $49 | From $9 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | None | None |
| API |
beehiiv
Newsletters with paid subscriptions and referrals
beehiiv handles sending, paid subscriptions, a referral program and a basic website, which covers most of what someone writing a weekly letter actually needs. It was built by people who ran Morning Brew, and it shows in the growth tooling. Automation is thinner than a dedicated email platform.
Our note
If you are starting a newsletter you intend to charge for, start here. The free tier goes further than it looks, the growth tools are the reason people stay, and the export is clean if you decide to leave.
Only on this side
- Covers monetization & payments
- Works with Substack
Brevo
Email, SMS and automation on one free plan
Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, prices by messages sent rather than by contacts stored, which is the cheaper shape for anybody with a big list they mail rarely. Email, SMS and WhatsApp sit in one place. The editor and templates are plainer than the newsletter-first tools.
Why people weigh these two
- Brevo instead of beehiiv
- Brevo adds SMS to the same free plan and starts at $9 against beehiiv's $49, though it has none of the paid-subscription or referral tooling beehiiv builds around growing a newsletter.
- beehiiv instead of Brevo
- beehiiv is shaped for writers growing a paid newsletter, with subscriptions and referrals built in and a free tier; Brevo is the send-priced workhorse.
Which one should you pick
beehiiv is for a writer building a newsletter around a growing, paying audience. The free plan already includes paid subscriptions up to 2,500 subscribers, and Stripe processes payments with no extra cut from beehiiv above the plan fee. Scale at $49 a month adds the referral program and boosts once growth is the priority, and automation stays thinner than a dedicated email platform throughout.
Brevo is for anybody with a large list they mail occasionally, or who needs transactional email such as receipts alongside marketing sends. The free plan needs no card, and Starter at $9 a month, or $8.08 billed yearly, is far cheaper than beehiiv's first paid tier. That advantage disappears for a weekly newsletter, though, since Brevo's price rises with send volume rather than staying flat, and a writer chasing growth and revenue should be on beehiiv instead.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper, beehiiv or Brevo?
- Brevo, for most people. Starter is $9 a month, or $8.08 billed yearly, against beehiiv's first paid tier at $49 a month. Both offer a free plan first, though beehiiv's is capped by subscriber count and Brevo's by daily sends.
- Which is better for a newsletter I want to charge for?
- beehiiv. Paid subscriptions are included on its free plan up to 2,500 subscribers, with no cut taken above the plan fee beyond Stripe's standard processing. Brevo is built around send volume and transactional email, not subscriber monetisation.
- Does Brevo send SMS and WhatsApp as well as email?
- Yes, all three from one contact record, which beehiiv does not offer. beehiiv's tools are built around the newsletter itself: a website, an archive, referrals and boosts.
- When does Brevo stop being the cheaper option?
- Once mailing becomes weekly. Brevo prices by how many messages are sent each month, so a regular newsletter climbs the price bands quickly, while beehiiv's price is set by subscriber count and stays flat regardless of how often you send.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.