Brevo CRM: Features, Pricing & Is It Worth It in 2026?

Running a small business means wearing a dozen hats. You’re handling sales calls, answering customer emails, tracking leads on sticky notes, and somehow trying to remember who said what last Tuesday. It’s exhausting. And honestly? Most CRM tools out there feel like they were built for massive companies with dedicated IT teams. They’re complicated, expensive, and way more than you actually need.

Brevo CRM is a free, built-in customer relationship management tool that helps small businesses track contacts, manage sales pipelines, and communicate with leads through email, SMS, and WhatsApp — all from one dashboard. It used to be called Sendinblue, and the company rebranded in 2023. But here’s what matters: it’s designed for people who want something simple that actually works. No steep learning curve. No surprise fees for basic features.

So is Brevo CRM worth your time in 2026? That’s exactly what we’re going to figure out together.

In this article, you’ll learn what Brevo CRM does, how its features compare to other options like HubSpot and Pipedrive, and whether the free plan is enough for your needs. We’ll also look at pricing, automation tools, and real limitations you should know about before signing up.

Whether you’re a freelancer managing client projects, an ecommerce store owner tracking purchases, or a small sales team trying to close more deals — this guide will help you decide if Brevo CRM fits your business.

Let’s get into it.

What Is Brevo CRM and How Does It Work?

Brevo CRM is a sales and contact management tool that comes free with every Brevo account. You don’t pay extra for it. It’s baked right into the platform alongside email marketing, SMS campaigns, and WhatsApp messaging.

Here’s the simple version: Brevo CRM helps you keep track of everyone you do business with. Leads, customers, prospects — they all live in one place. You can see their contact details, past conversations, purchase history, and where they are in your sales process. No more digging through spreadsheets or searching your inbox.

The platform was formerly known as Sendinblue. They changed the name in 2023, but the core product stayed the same. Actually, it got better. In 2025, Brevo added Aura AI for lead scoring and smarter automation. So you’re getting a more capable tool than what existed a couple years ago.

Now, who is this built for? Honestly, it’s aimed at SMBs, solopreneurs, and small sales teams. If you’re running a business with fewer than 50 people and you need to track leads without paying HubSpot prices, Brevo CRM makes a lot of sense.

What really sets it apart is the multichannel piece. Most CRMs just track contacts. Brevo connects your email, SMS, and WhatsApp conversations in one unified view. So when a customer replies to your text message, you see it right there in their profile. Same with email opens, link clicks, and chat history.

Here’s how the basic workflow goes:

1. You add contacts manually, import them via CSV, or sync them through forms and Zapier
2. You segment those contacts based on behavior or attributes
3. You create a sales pipeline with custom stages
4. You track deals, assign tasks, and set follow-up reminders
5. You review dashboards to see what’s working

It sounds like a lot, but the interface is pretty clean. Most people figure it out within an hour. And because everything connects to Brevo’s marketing tools, you can trigger email sequences when someone moves to a new deal stage. That’s where automation comes in — but we’ll cover that later.

For now, just know this: Brevo CRM gives you a solid foundation without asking for your credit card.

Brevo CRM Features You Should Know

Before we break down specific tools, let’s talk about the big picture. Brevo CRM isn’t trying to compete with Salesforce on feature count. It’s not stuffed with enterprise-level customization or complex reporting dashboards that require a data analyst to understand.

Brevo CRM focuses on the features small businesses actually use every day: contact management, sales pipelines, deal tracking, and communication history.

That might sound basic. But here’s the thing — most small businesses don’t need 200 features. They need 10 features that work really well. And Brevo nails the essentials.

The CRM dashboard gives you a quick view of your pipeline, recent activities, and upcoming tasks. You can see how many deals are in each stage, which contacts need follow-up, and what your team accomplished today. It’s visual without being overwhelming.

You also get unlimited contact storage on fair use terms. That means you’re not hitting paywalls just because your email list grew. HubSpot’s free CRM limits certain features once you scale. Brevo keeps the core CRM open.

Another thing worth mentioning: everything syncs automatically with your marketing tools. If someone fills out a form on your website, they show up in your CRM. If you send an email campaign, their opens and clicks appear in their contact profile. This connection between sales and marketing is where Brevo really shines.

Now let’s look at the two biggest feature areas: contact management and sales pipelines.

Contact Management and Customer Profiles

Brevo CRM stores unlimited contacts with detailed profiles that include notes, documents, tags, and full interaction history. This is the foundation of everything else you’ll do in the platform.

When you add a contact, you’re not just saving a name and email address. You’re building a complete picture of who that person is. What did they buy? When did they last open your email? Did they click a link in your SMS campaign? What deal stage are they in? All of this lives in one profile.

You can add contacts in a few different ways. The manual route works for small batches — just fill out the form. But most people import CSV files when they’re getting started. If you have a list from another tool, you upload it and map the columns. Takes maybe 10 minutes.

For ongoing contact collection, Brevo syncs with forms on your website. Someone fills out a signup form, and boom — they’re in your CRM with the right tags already applied. You can also connect through Zapier if you use other apps like Typeform, Calendly, or Shopify.

Custom fields are a big deal here. You can add any attribute you want beyond the basics. Maybe you track “Company Size” or “Preferred Contact Method” or “Last Purchase Date.” These fields power your segmentation later.

Speaking of segmentation, Brevo uses dynamic lists that update automatically. You set conditions like “opened an email in the last 30 days” or “purchased more than $100” or “tagged as VIP.” The list rebuilds itself whenever someone matches or stops matching those rules.

Tags work a bit differently. They’re labels you apply manually or through automation. You might tag someone as “Hot Lead” after a sales call. Or tag them as “Webinar Attendee” after an event. Tags help you filter and organize without creating dozens of separate lists.

The interaction history is probably my favorite part. You see a timeline of every touchpoint: emails sent, emails opened, SMS replies, chat conversations, notes your team added, tasks completed. It’s all there. So when you pick up the phone to call someone, you know exactly what happened last time.

For teams, you can add internal notes that only your colleagues see. This keeps everyone on the same page without cluttering the contact record with messages the customer shouldn’t see.

Sales Pipeline and Deal Tracking

The sales pipeline in Brevo CRM uses a visual Kanban board where you drag deals through custom stages like Lead, Qualified, Proposal Sent, and Closed Won. It’s simple to set up and easy to use daily.

Think of the pipeline as a bird’s-eye view of your sales process. Each column represents a stage. Each card represents a deal. You move cards from left to right as deals progress. And at a glance, you see exactly where everything stands.

Setting up your pipeline takes maybe five minutes. You decide what stages make sense for your business. A simple setup might look like this:

• New Lead
• Contacted
• Qualified
• Proposal Sent
• Negotiation
• Closed Won
• Closed Lost

You can add more stages or fewer. Some businesses only need three. Others have 10. Brevo doesn’t force a structure on you.

Each deal card shows key info: contact name, deal value, expected close date, and assigned team member. You click a card to open the full view with notes, tasks, activity history, and attached documents.

Here’s where the Aura AI feature helps. Brevo introduced AI-powered lead scoring in 2025. The system looks at engagement signals — email opens, website visits, past purchases — and assigns a score. Higher scores mean hotter leads. So instead of guessing who to call first, you let the data guide you.

Task assignment keeps your team accountable. When you create a deal, you can assign it to a specific person. They see it on their dashboard. You can also create tasks like “Follow up by phone” or “Send proposal” with due dates. These show up in the activity feed and can trigger reminders.

Activity tracking happens automatically. When someone on your team sends an email from Brevo, it logs to the deal. When they add a note after a call, it’s timestamped. This history matters when deals take weeks or months to close. You’ll never wonder “wait, what did we talk about last time?”

For ecommerce stores, the pipeline connects to purchase data. You can see not just leads but actual revenue per customer. Agencies might track projects instead of products. The flexibility works across different business models.

One thing to keep in mind: Brevo CRM doesn’t support advanced custom objects like Salesforce does. So if you need to track multiple related entities — like companies with many contacts and each contact with many deals and each deal with many line items — you might hit limits. For most small businesses though, the standard structure is plenty.

How Brevo CRM Automation Works

Brevo CRM automation lets you trigger actions automatically when deals change stages, tasks are due, or contacts meet specific conditions. You set up rules once, and the system handles repetitive work for you.

Look, manually sending follow-up emails and setting reminders gets old fast. Especially when you’re managing 50 or 100 leads at a time. Automation fixes that.

Here’s a simple example. Someone fills out your contact form and becomes a new lead. An automation creates a deal in your pipeline, assigns it to a sales rep, sends a welcome email, and schedules a follow-up task for three days later. All without you lifting a finger.

The trigger-based workflow system connects directly to Brevo’s marketing automation. So the same tool you use for email sequences also powers your CRM actions. They’re not separate systems. They talk to each other.

Common triggers include:

• Contact added to a segment
• Deal moved to a new stage
• Task marked complete
• Email opened or link clicked
• Form submitted
• Tag added or removed

When a trigger fires, you choose what happens next. Send an email. Send an SMS. Update a contact attribute. Create a task. Assign the deal to a different person. Add a tag. The options stack together into full workflows.

Deal stage automation is especially useful. Let’s say you move a deal to “Proposal Sent.” An automation could send the proposal PDF by email, notify your manager, and create a task to follow up in five days if no response. When the deal moves to “Closed Won,” a different automation might send a thank-you email and add the contact to your customer segment.

Lead assignment rules help distribute work evenly. If you have three sales reps, you can round-robin new leads so everyone gets equal opportunities. Or you can route leads based on criteria — like all leads from California go to Rep A while leads from Texas go to Rep B.

The meeting scheduling tool fits here too. Brevo includes a free booking link feature. You share your calendar availability, and leads book calls directly. When they do, Brevo creates a task and logs the meeting in the contact’s timeline.

For 2025-2026, Brevo added Aura AI to suggest automation improvements. The system looks at your workflows and recommends changes based on engagement patterns. It’s not perfect, but it’s a nice starting point if you’re not sure what to automate first.

The big advantage? Everything connects. Your CRM isn’t isolated from your email marketing. When you understand this connection, you stop thinking about sales and marketing as separate jobs. They become one continuous customer relationship.

Brevo CRM Pricing — Free and Paid Plans

Brevo CRM is completely free on all plans, including the free tier that gives you unlimited contacts, full CRM access, and 300 emails per day. You don’t pay extra for basic CRM features like you would with some competitors.

Let me break this down because it’s actually pretty generous.

When you sign up for Brevo, you get the CRM automatically. No separate subscription. No upgrade required just to see your contacts and deals. The free plan includes:

• Unlimited contact storage (fair use policy applies)
• Sales pipeline with custom stages
• Contact profiles and interaction history
• Segmentation and tagging
• Task management
• 300 emails per day
• Email templates
• Chat widget

That’s a real CRM, not a crippled trial version.

Now, there are limits on the free plan. You get one user. Brevo’s AI features require a paid plan. Advanced reporting and multi-user access sit behind the paywall too. And 300 emails per day is fine for very small businesses, but you’ll outgrow it fast if you send newsletters or campaigns.

The paid plans work like this:

CRM access stays free across all tiers. What you’re paying for with Starter and Business is higher email volume, AI tools, and team features. If you’re a solo freelancer who just needs to track clients, the free plan works indefinitely. If you’re a five-person sales team that needs everyone accessing the same pipeline, Business makes sense.

Compare this to HubSpot. Their free CRM is solid, but once you need marketing automation or advanced reporting, prices jump to $800+ per month fast. Salesforce Essentials starts at $25 per user per month, and it doesn’t include native email marketing.

Brevo bundles CRM with email, SMS, and WhatsApp. That’s the value play. You’re not cobbling together three separate tools.

Here’s when to upgrade: If you’re sending more than 300 emails a day, upgrade to Starter at minimum. If you want AI lead scoring, automated workflows beyond basics, or multiple team members, go Business. If you’re running a small operation and just need CRM plus occasional emails, stick with free.

Brevo CRM vs HubSpot, Pipedrive and Salesforce

Brevo CRM offers native email and SMS integration at no extra cost, while HubSpot charges for marketing add-ons and Salesforce requires paid seats — making Brevo the most affordable option for small businesses who need marketing and sales in one tool.

Let’s compare these honestly. Each platform has strengths depending on your situation.

Here’s what jumps out:

Brevo wins on price and integration. If you want CRM plus email plus SMS without juggling subscriptions, it’s hard to beat. Small businesses get real value from the free plan.

HubSpot wins on ecosystem. Their CRM is free and solid. But the moment you want marketing automation, landing pages, or advanced reporting, costs stack up fast. HubSpot works great if you can afford it. Most small businesses can’t.

Pipedrive wins on pure sales focus. It’s built specifically for sales teams who live in their pipeline all day. The interface is clean and focused. But there’s no built-in email marketing. You need integrations for everything.

Salesforce wins on enterprise customization. If you’re a large company with complex sales processes, Salesforce does things nobody else can. For small businesses? It’s overkill and overpriced.

So which should you choose?

Pick Brevo CRM if you’re a small business or solopreneur who wants sales tracking and email marketing in one place without paying much.

Pick HubSpot if you’ve got budget for their paid plans and want a massive ecosystem of tools.

Pick Pipedrive if your focus is pure sales pipeline management and you already have email marketing handled elsewhere.

Pick Salesforce if you’re an enterprise company with dedicated admins and complex requirements.

For most readers of this article — beginners, small businesses, new marketers — Brevo CRM is probably the right fit. You get plenty of power without the complexity or cost.

Who Should Use Brevo CRM?

Brevo CRM works best for small businesses, startups, freelancers, ecommerce stores, and agencies who want sales tracking and email marketing in one simple tool. If that sounds like you, keep reading.

Let’s start with small businesses and startups. You probably don’t have a dedicated sales team or a big software budget. You need something that works out of the box without weeks of training. Brevo CRM fits that perfectly. The free plan gives you real functionality, and the interface won’t overwhelm you on day one.

Ecommerce store owners get specific value here too. Brevo connects to Shopify, WooCommerce, and other platforms. So when someone buys from your store, that purchase shows up in their contact profile. You can segment customers by purchase history, send targeted emails based on what they bought, and track lifetime value. That’s powerful for a free tool.

Freelancers and agencies manage client relationships differently. You’re not tracking hundreds of small sales. You’re nurturing a handful of high-value relationships over months. Brevo’s pipeline works great for this. Create stages like “Proposal Sent” and “Project Active” and “Invoice Paid.” Keep notes on every client call. Never forget where things stand.

SaaS companies benefit from the lead scoring and automation features. When someone signs up for your trial, Brevo can score them based on engagement. Your sales team focuses on the hottest leads instead of guessing.

Now, who should NOT use Brevo CRM?

If you’re an enterprise company with complex requirements, this probably isn’t your tool. Brevo doesn’t support advanced custom objects. You can’t build elaborate relational databases like you can in Salesforce. If you need multiple linked entities with custom fields on each, you’ll hit walls quickly.

Also, if your sales process requires deep customization and dedicated admin support, look elsewhere. Brevo is built for simplicity, not endless configuration.

Brevo CRM Limitations You Should Know

Brevo CRM lacks advanced custom objects, has limited enterprise features, includes a learning curve for automation, and applies fair use limits on contact storage. Let’s be honest about what you’re not getting.

First, custom objects. In Salesforce, you can create entirely new data types and link them together. Companies, contacts, deals, products, invoices — all connected. Brevo doesn’t do this. You get contacts and deals. That’s the structure. You can add custom fields, sure. But you can’t build complex relational databases.

Enterprise features are thin too. There’s no advanced territory management. No sophisticated permission structures for large teams. No dedicated account managers on lower tiers. If you have 50+ sales reps with complex reporting needs, Brevo won’t scale with you.

The automation system is powerful but takes time to learn. Setting up your first workflow feels intuitive. Building complex multi-step sequences with conditional branches? That requires practice. Expect to spend a few hours experimenting before you feel confident.

Finally, the fair use policy on contacts. Brevo says “unlimited contacts,” but there are limits. If you’re storing millions of contacts or using the platform in ways they consider abusive, they’ll reach out. For most small businesses, this never matters. But if you’re planning to import a massive legacy database, read the terms first.

None of these limitations are deal-breakers for the target audience. They’re just honest boundaries. Know them before you commit.

Frequently Asked Questions About Brevo CRM