We are halfway into 2023, and the ActiveCampaign vs Brevo debate has intensified.
Which solution is the better fit for your business?
Both ActiveCampaign and Brevo are great platforms. They offer a range of features to help businesses streamline their marketing efforts.
By comparing these two platforms, we want to help you choose the one that better aligns with your business goals.
In this post, we’ll provide a detailed comparison of the two tools on key features.
Let’s get started.
ActiveCampaign vs. Brevo: Quick overview
ActiveCampaign and Brevo are two strong contenders for the best marketing automation tools. ActiveCampaign is well-known for its robust automation. Brevo is known for its user-friendly interface and simplicity.
With a Shopify rating of 4.4, ActiveCampaign is more popular among ecommerce businesses than Brevo with a 2.5 rating.
In this comparison post, we are going to compare various features such as automation, analytics, and more. This will help you make an informed choice for your business.
Also, if you’re interested in more in-depth tool reviews, check out the following articles:
But first, check out this quick side-by-side feature comparison of the two platforms.
Now, let’s do an in-depth comparison in the next section.
ActiveCampaign vs Brevo: Feature-by-feature comparison
If you can’t choose between ActiveCampaign and Brevo, this feature-by-feature comparison should help.
Ease of getting started
You can try both ActiveCampaign and Brevo for free, with no credit card required. Let’s see which one is easier to get started: ActiveCampaign or Brevo (Sendinblue).
Both platforms offer a quick and easy setup process and onboarding wizards to help you get started. However, once inside ActiveCampaign, you can immediately sense the comprehensiveness and advanced nature of the platform. Despite the menu and submenu bars being logically organized and user-friendly, you can see numerous options and capabilities available.
It’s a tie. Both platforms are good in terms of getting started.
Building an email campaign
ActiveCampaign vs Brevo: which is better at building an email campaign?
- Email builder
Both email editors meet industry standards and have all the necessary features to design beautiful email campaigns. However, from our perspective, Brevo’s email builder is more intuitive and provides an inbox preview feature which is very useful while writing the subject line.
- Email templates
While ActiveCampaign offers 21 basic and 230+ email templates for all occasions and business cases, Brevo library consists only of 42 email templates. And we have to admit, not all of them look modern and up-to-date. This is the place where Brevo could improve.
- Personalization
Both platforms provide similar email personalization options in the subject lines as well as email content.
ActiveCampaign is a clear winner when it comes to building email campaigns.
Marketing automation
Which is better at marketing automation: Brevo (Sendinblue) or ActiveCampaign?
Let’s see.
ActiveCampaign offers a powerful automation builder. It allows you to create complex automation workflows.
You can define triggers, actions, and conditions based on user behavior. This flexibility enables you to create personalized and targeted automation sequences.
ActiveCampaign provides advanced segmentation capabilities. You can segment your audience based on various criteria, such as:
- Demographics
- Behavior
- Tags
- Custom fields and more.
Brevo is suitable for users who prefer a more straightforward approach to marketing automation. The platform provides pre-built automation templates and guides to help you get started quickly.
Brevo may not have the same level of advanced automation as ActiveCampaign. However, it offers solid automation features to streamline marketing efforts.
Robust automation capabilities make ActiveCampaign the clear winner here.
Signup forms and landing pages
In this section, we’ll compare the features that ActiveCampaign and Brevo offer for creating signup forms and landing pages.
ActiveCampaign offers many features for creating customizable signup forms and landing pages. It offers a drag-and-drop form builder with advanced form fields. However, there are no ready-made templates for forms.
It offers A/B testing capabilities and seamless integrations. This makes it suitable for creating engaging and high-converting forms.
Brevo offers more basic functionality. It comes with customizable templates for landing pages and essential form fields.
This makes Brevo a simpler choice for those with less complex requirements.
ActiveCampaign is a more comprehensive and feature-rich solution. It provides:
- Advanced form-building capabilities
- A/B testing
- Detailed analytics
ActiveCampaign wins hands down, thanks to its robust features.
Segmentation
Here is a quick comparison of the segmentation features that ActiveCampaign and Brevo offer.
ActiveCampaign offers advanced segmentation capabilities. It allows you to create highly targeted segments.
Meanwhile, Brevo offers simpler segmentation functionality. It allows you to target specific groups based on demographics and contact properties.
Also, there are fewer conditional logic options in Brevo compared to ActiveCampaign. This means that you can’t use it to create complex segments best suited to your ecommerce business.
ActiveCampaign offers more robust and advanced segmentation capabilities compared to Brevo. It provides greater flexibility in defining segments based on diverse criteria.
Brevo is more suitable for those with simpler segmentation needs.
ActiveCampaign is the clear winner when it comes to segmentation.
Analytics
Here’s a comparison of ActiveCampaign vs Brevo, in terms of their analytics capabilities.
Both platforms provide robust analytics features. The only thing, in Brevo you have to set up the conversion part separately, it doesn’t work out of the box.
It’s a tie. Both platforms offer powerful analytics.
Customer support
Brevo (SendinBlue) vs ActiveCampaign: which one offers better customer support?
Let’s find out.
ActiveCampaign provides 24/7 email support to all customers. Live chat support is available during business hours.
Brevo offers customer support through email, live chat and phone during business hours. It also provides a personalized onboarding process and implementation support.
Brevo focuses on personalized onboarding and proactive customer success management. It also resolves issues through a customer support ticketing system.
For us, both platforms replied very quickly, so we consider them equally good.
Both platforms offer similar customer support, so it’s a tie.
Integrations
In this ActiveCampaign vs Brevo comparison, let’s now discuss integrations.
ActiveCampaign integrates with over 920 apps, including:
- PayPal
- Shopify
- Bigcommerce
- Google Analytics
- WordPress
It can also integrate with social media platforms, list building tools, shipment and warehouse management tools, etc. In addition, you can always find Zapier integration that helps you connect even more necessary platforms, in case they aren’t on the ActiveCampaign’s list.
Brevo also integrates with a range of third-party applications and services. It also integrates easily with ecommerce platforms, such as:
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- Magento
You can integrate Brevo with Google Analytics. This is useful for tracking and analyzing campaign performance.
Both ActiveCampaign and Brevo offer extensive integration options.
Both platforms offer similar integration capabilities. So, it’s a tie again.
Compatibility with other marketing channels
Which is more compatible with other marketing channels? ActiveCampaign or Sendinblue?
Both platforms go beyond email marketing. They offer CRM functionality, so the compatibility with other channels, obviously, is also very good.
On both platforms you will find SMS marketing, push notifications, live chat, Facebook custom audiences and ads, etc.
Brevo on top has a WhatsApp channel. Facebook ads are available on Business and Enterprise plans.
Although both platforms have very similar options, ActiveCampaign feels more complete. But Brevo feels more user-friendly.
ActiveCampaign vs Brevo: Price Comparison
When it comes to the final decision, pricing plays an extremely important role.
So far, ActiveCampaign won more rounds than Brevo. But let’s take a look at the price aspect.
Free plan comparison
- No free plan
- 14-day free trial
- Unlimited contacts
- 300 emails/day
- Customizable email templates
- Drag and drop editor
- Transactional emails
- SMS and Whatsapp campaigns
ActiveCampaign has no free plans. However, it does offer a 14-day free trial.
Brevo has a free plan but with limited features. If budget is an issue, Brevo’s free plan may be more suitable for you.
Paid plan comparison
When it comes to paid plans, the main difference between these two platforms becomes apparent.
ActiveCampaign charges customers based on the size of their database and offers tiered pricing plans. The lowest tier Lite plan doesn’t have many important features, including integrations with ecommerce platforms.
On the other hand, Brevo charges customers based on the actual number of email sends. This means that if you have a large database but only send targeted campaigns to small groups of recipients, this pricing model would be more beneficial for you.
Additionally, if you haven’t established a regular email sending routine or only send emails occasionally, this pricing model would also work well for you.
Now, let’s take a look at the exact amounts you can expect.
- No free plan
- $39 up to 500 subscribers
- $39 up to 1,000 subscribers
- $99 up to 5,000 subscribers
- $174 up to 10,000 subscribers
- $486 up to 50,000 subscribers
- Free plan
- $19 for 20K emails/mo
- $29 for 40K emails/mo
- $39 for 60K emails/mo
- $59 for 100K emails/mo
- If more sends, custom pricing or switching to Business plan.
When it comes to pricing, Brevo is the clear winner.
ActiveCampaign vs Brevo: Which one wins?
The table below summarizes the features and pricing of ActiveCampaign and Brevo.
4.1
4.1
1,000 contacts – $39
2,500 contacts – $61
5,000 contacts – $99
10,000 contacts – $174
>50,000 contacts – $486
20K emails – $25
40K emails – $35
60K emails – $49
100K emails – $69
- Paid plans only
- Up to 300 emails/day
- Email templates
- Basic email reports
- Transactional emails
- SMS and WhatsApp campaigns
- Email support
- Very good marketing automation features
- Good email templates
- Extended tracking and reporting capabilities
- Very broad functionality including CRM, transactional emails, sales funnels, etc.
- Good free plan
- Great marketing channels compatibility
- Good marketing automation features
- Transactional emails
- More expensive than Brevo
- Might be overwhelming for non-tech-savvy people or marketing beginners
- Ecommerce reports available on the higher tier plans only
- Signup forms don’t have templates
- Basic signup forms
- Many features don’t work out of the box
- Well-established ecommerce businesses
- B2B companies
- B2B companies
- Non-profit organizations
- Ecommerce beginners
- Ecommerce beginners
- Non-profit organizations
- Solopreneurs
- Ecommerce sites that are in their active growth stage
- Established ecommerce businesses
Both ActiveCampaign and Brevo are powerful marketing automation platforms. ActiveCampaign excels in its comprehensive automation capabilities and offers advanced CRM functionality, along with extensive integrations. It is an excellent choice for businesses seeking a robust all-in-one solution.
On the other hand, Brevo stands out with its intuitive user interface and customizable workflows. It also provides CRM functionality and offers great compatibility with other marketing channels.
These two platforms can meet the needs of similar companies but at different stages of growth. Brevo is well-suited for beginners, while ActiveCampaign, considering its higher price and advanced features, is better suited for matured companies with established budgets and dedicated human resources.
Read full reviews
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Our team strives to be accurate and unbiased in reviewing email tools. However, we recognize that mistakes can happen, and it’s essential for us to stay up to date. If you come across any errors or things that need to be reviewed again, please let us know.
