Brevo Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Brevo alternatives: MailerLite, Mailchimp, listmonk, Mautic and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 22, 2026.
•3 min read•Email Marketing & Newsletters
Verdict:Brevo's free plan sends 300 emails a day with no time limit, which is generous for a small list if you send often but poor if you want to send one large blast. The price of paid plans is not shown as a number on the page we could read, so check it before you compare. Most people leaving Brevo want either simpler newsletters, fewer send limits, or a different bill. MailerLite is the easiest swap for newsletters, with 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month free. Mailchimp's free tier is smaller on sends, 500 a month, so it only suits very small lists. If the limit is the issue, listmonk removes it: the software is free, though you pay an SMTP provider and take on deliverability. Mautic is the equivalent for automation. MailerSend is a better fit if the emails come from your app, not a marketing tool. The trade-off is Brevo's all-in-one scope: email, SMS, a CRM and chat under one account. None of the replacements here match all of that, so list which pieces you use. Leave if you only send newsletters; stay if you use Brevo's SMS or CRM along with email.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | Free (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails per month); paid from $12 per month, billed monthly (stated as starting price in the pricing FAQ) | Web browser | Newsletter-first small lists | Docs only |
| Mailchimp | Free (250 contacts, 500 sends per month or 250 per day, 1 seat, 1 audience) | Web browser | Familiar tooling and integrations | Docs only |
| listmonk | Free (Self-hosted and free; needs Postgres and your own SMTP or sending service) | Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, Docker | Developers with large lists | Docs only |
| Mautic | Free (free open-source software; hosted version has a 14-day trial) | Web browser, Self-hosted | Self-hosted marketing automation | Docs only |
| MailerSend | Free (500 emails per month); paid from $7 per month, billed monthly (Hobby, 5,000 emails) | Web API | Transactional email from an app | Docs only |
| ActiveCampaign | See pricing page | Web browser | Email Marketing & Automation | Docs only |
| Klaviyo | Free (250 active profiles and 500 email sends per month) | Web | Email marketing | Docs only |
| Constant Contact | Paid from $12 per month (Lite, from; price rises with contact count) | Web browser | Email Marketing | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You send newsletters to a small list (MailerLite is the pick)
- You want no sending caps and can host (listmonk is the pick)
- You want automation workflows self-hosted (Mautic is the pick)
- You send app emails more than campaigns (MailerSend is the pick)
- You want the biggest template library (Mailchimp is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Brevo features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Brevo today: Free (300 emails per day, no time limit) (Brevo pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Why people look for Brevo alternatives
Brevo's free plan caps sending at 300 emails per day once your account is approved for sending. Starter begins at 5,000 emails a month and is described as best for single users; marketing automation, A/B testing and the option to remove the 'Sent with Brevo' footer are listed first under Standard. WhatsApp, pop-ups, push and 10 included seats start at Professional, which is a talk-to-sales plan, so growing teams move up tiers as they add channels.
MailerLite
Compared with Brevo: Free plan: 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Brevo's free plan caps by day, at 300 emails, instead. MailerLite has cleaner newsletter tools but no built-in SMS or CRM of the kind Brevo offers.
Price: Free (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails per month); paid from $12 per month, billed monthly (stated as starting price in the pricing FAQ) (MailerLite pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Newsletter-first small lists.
Worth knowing: Yearly billing saves 10%.
Mailchimp
Compared with Brevo: Free plan: 250 contacts, 500 sends a month. That is a tighter send cap than Brevo's 300 a day, but it has a larger template library and many integrations. Paid prices were not clear on the page.
Price: Free (250 contacts, 500 sends per month or 250 per day, 1 seat, 1 audience) (Mailchimp pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Familiar tooling and integrations.
listmonk
Compared with Brevo: Free, open-source (AGPL-3.0) newsletter manager with a single binary. It removes Brevo's sending limits, but you must run Postgres and connect your own SMTP, and nothing handles deliverability for you.
Price: Free (Self-hosted and free; needs Postgres and your own SMTP or sending service) (listmonk pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, Docker. AGPL-3.0 (open source).
Project activity: 24k GitHub stars · latest release v7.0.0-beta.1 (Oct 20, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Developers with large lists.
Worth knowing: Sending costs depend on the SMTP provider you connect.
Mautic
Compared with Brevo: Open-source (GPL-3.0) automation with a 14-day trial on the hosted version. Covers Brevo's workflows and forms and more, but you run it, and you still need a separate sending provider.
Price: Free (free open-source software; hosted version has a 14-day trial) (Mautic pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. GPL-3.0 (open source).
Project activity: 10.9k GitHub stars · latest release 7.2.2 (Oct 26, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Self-hosted marketing automation.
Worth knowing: No hosted prices shown on the site.
MailerSend
Compared with Brevo: Free plan: 500 emails a month; Hobby is $7 monthly for 5,000. It is transactional-first, so you lose Brevo's campaign builder, though pricing for API sends is lower at small volumes.
Price: Free (500 emails per month); paid from $7 per month, billed monthly (Hobby, 5,000 emails) (MailerSend pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web API. Proprietary.
Best for: Transactional email from an app.
Other popular options (paid)
ActiveCampaign
Compared with Brevo: Starter, Plus, Pro and Enterprise plans are priced by contact count, with a 14-day trial, a 30-day money-back guarantee and no free plan. Heavier automation tooling than a basic email sender.
Price: See pricing page (ActiveCampaign pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Klaviyo
Compared with Brevo: Free plan covers 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month; its pricing page gives no paid price as a number. Built around ecommerce data, so expect less general newsletter tooling.
Price: Free (250 active profiles and 500 email sends per month) (Klaviyo pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Constant Contact
Compared with Brevo: Lite starts from $12 a month and rises with contact count, with no free plan. Simpler, template-led email marketing, with fewer automation options than Brevo.
Price: Paid from $12 per month (Lite, from; price rises with contact count) (Constant Contact pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Which one to pick
- You send newsletters to a small list: MailerLite
- You want no sending caps and can host: listmonk
- You want automation workflows self-hosted: Mautic
- You send app emails more than campaigns: MailerSend
- You want the biggest template library: Mailchimp
Limits of this review
Docs-only for MailerLite, Mailchimp, listmonk, Mautic, MailerSend: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Brevo. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked 2026-10-22: Brevo, MailerLite, Mailchimp, listmonk, Mautic, MailerSend, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Constant Contact. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.