ActiveCampaign vs. Brevo

In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, choosing the right tools can be a game-changer for your business. As for email marketing and automation software, there are plenty of solutions with two giants of the industry being ActiveCampaign and Brevo. Both platforms are used by hundreds of thousands of companies, but how do they stack up against each other?

We have tested both of them and will provide you a quick summary of our findings to help you choose the best option for your email marketing and automation needs.

ActiveCampaign Overview

ActiveCampaign has carved out a significant niche in the marketing world, primarily known for its robust email marketing and automation tools. Founded in 2003, the platform has consistently evolved, offering solutions that cater to a wide range of businesses, from small startups to large enterprises. In terms of marketing automation, it offers by far the most versatile options on the market today.

Highlights

• Advanced Automation: ActiveCampaign's automation workflows are as customizable and sophisticated as it can get, making it ideal for complex marketing strategies.
• Segmentation and Personalization: Offers dynamic content and behavior tracking options for highly targeted and personalized email campaigns.
• Integrations: Offers a wide range of integrations, allowing for seamless connectivity with numerous third-party applications and services.

Brevo Overview

Brevo focuses on providing streamlined and intuitive marketing automation and CRM solutions. It aims to make email marketing, sales, and customer support accessible without the complexity often associated with such platforms. Their unique approach to delivering free plans for each service level combined with the great ease of use makes it a fantastic solution for people who are just getting started.

Highlights

• User-Friendly Interface: Designed with simplicity in mind, Brevo offers an intuitive interface that makes marketing automation accessible to businesses of all sizes.
• Volume-Based Pricing: Instead of paying by the number of contacts, Brevo charges by the volume of emails you can send.
• Comprehensive Suite: Next to email marketing it also offers a CRM, live chat and chatbot, and capabilities to manage calls and meetings.

Buying Guide

When deciding between ActiveCampaign and Brevo for your email marketing and automation, we can sum it up as follows.

Both platforms offer a very comprehensive set of features when compared to the entire email marketing software landscape. In addition to email campaigns, you can also use both tools for SMS campaigns, CRM, transactional emails, and the creation of landing pages.

If you look at the quality and possibilities in terms of all points relating to email marketing and automation, ActiveCampaign is the stronger software overall. The features allow for a more detailed setup and have more advanced capabilities. Due to the many integrations, you can also connect it to more tools natively for more seamless automation processes. Although the software is a little more expensive, it is worth the extra cost for companies that intend to create complex automation workflows.

Brevo, on the other hand, is generally more broadly positioned. The software offers the option to integrate WhatsApp messages into your automations, make calls directly via the platform, book and manage meetings with customers, and handle text conversations via live chat, Instagram, etc. Furthermore, the interface is very intuitive, making it easy to navigate despite the many features. If the additional scope of functions is of interest to you, Brevo may be the better and slightly cheaper choice for you without giving away many other features. However, it is only cheaper if you send fewer than 8 emails per contact and customer, as you only pay for the email volume.

Final Remarks

In conclusion, both ActiveCampaign and Brevo offer powerful email marketing and automation capabilities. Your choice should depend on the specific needs of your business.

ActiveCampaign focuses most of its powers on advanced marketing automation and segmentation, while Brevo stands out for its all-in-one marketing solution that offers a larger set of different services. If email marketing and automation are your primary concern, then ActiveCampaign is generally the better solution and could even be cheaper in case you're planning to send out a lot of emails like 10-12 per contact and month. Instead, if you don't require every possible automation feature and tend to send less than 8 emails per contact and month, then you'll be better off with Brevo. Overall, Brevo can be concluded as the better option for beginners since it's easier to use and there's a free plan available for all their core services.

If you're still not sure which platform is right for you, go try them both out.

Usually, it's easiest to see which platform suits you better or where limits are reached if you see it firsthand. Since ActiveCampaign offers a free trial and Brevo offers free plans, you can jump right in without any financial commitments.