A simple, open source Brevo alternative

Why do teams look for a Brevo alternative?

Teams look for a Brevo alternative when the price steps up with their sending, or when they want software they can host themselves. Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, already prices by email volume and not by list size. So the reasons differ from tools that charge per contact.

Brevo covers a lot in one account. For a small B2B team, three issues come up:

• Price follows volume and plan. Each email tier raises the monthly price, and Standard costs more than Starter at every tier.
• Add-ons. Removing the Brevo logo is an add-on on Starter. SMS credits and paid sales packages are sold separately.
• No prospect search listed. Brevo's plan comparison lists contact enrichment in its paid sales packages, but no search for new B2B contacts.

Your list is also personal data. Under the GDPR, fines can reach 4% of yearly global turnover. Open source software on servers you choose lets you decide where that data is kept.

How much does Brevo cost?

Brevo's Starter plan costs £6 a month and Standard £13 a month, each for 5,000 emails a month on monthly billing, according to the Brevo pricing page. Professional starts at £429 a month for 150,000 emails. Yearly billing costs 10% less. The free plan sends up to 300 emails a day. We checked these prices on 12 October 2026, in pounds, as the page showed them to a UK visitor.

We found that the price rises with the monthly email volume you pick. On Starter, 40,000 emails a month costs £35 and 100,000 costs £60. On Standard, the same volumes cost £59 and £111. The calculator also shows a contact allowance: 500 contacts at 5,000 emails, and 500,000 from 20,000 emails.

Some features depend on the plan. Automation covers up to 2,000 contacts on Free and Starter, and is unlimited from Standard. A/B tests and landing pages start on Standard. Free and Starter are for a single user.

MagpieCRM also charges for what you send, with no per-contact tiers. On Magpie Cloud:

• 40,000 emails sent a month comes to £6.00 on Magpie Cloud, within the £10 monthly minimum40,000 emails sent a month comes to $10.00 on Magpie Cloud, within the $15 monthly minimum.
• 100,000 emails sent a month comes to £15.00 on Magpie Cloud100,000 emails sent a month comes to $25.00 on Magpie Cloud.

You choose your monthly email allowance up front. Sending stops when it runs out, and you can upgrade for the rest of the month. Unused allowance does not roll over. Self-hosting MagpieCRM is free. The two are not like for like: Brevo's plans include automation and, from Standard, A/B tests, which MagpieCRM does not have.

MagpieCRM vs Brevo: feature comparison

MagpieCRM and Brevo both send email campaigns and price by email volume, but Brevo has far more marketing features. MagpieCRM is simpler, and adds B2B prospect search. The table puts them side by side. Brevo details come from the Brevo pricing page and its plan comparison.

The main difference is scope. Brevo is a broad marketing platform with many channels. MagpieCRM finds B2B contacts, sends them simple campaigns, and tracks the deals that follow. In return, you give up automation, SMS and testing.

Where is Brevo stronger than MagpieCRM?

Brevo is stronger as a full marketing platform. Its plan comparison lists SMS campaigns, ecommerce integrations and abandoned cart recovery on every plan. Standard adds unlimited automation, A/B tests and a landing page. Professional adds WhatsApp campaigns and 10 seats. Its sales packages add meeting booking and live chat.

Brevo is likely the better fit if:

• You need welcome series or other automated flows.
• You want to A/B test subject lines or content.
• You send SMS, or run an online store.
• Several people need to log in to one hosted account. Magpie Cloud has no teammates yet.
• You want a free hosted plan. MagpieCRM is only free if you host it yourself.

MagpieCRM suits small B2B teams that send newsletters and announcements, and also need to find new contacts. If most of your email runs through automated flows, stay with Brevo.

What does MagpieCRM include for email marketing?

MagpieCRM includes the basics of email marketing: lists, a drag-and-drop builder, templates, scheduled campaigns and open and click analytics. We built MagpieCRM for small B2B teams, founders and agencies who send newsletters and announcements. It also adds sign-up forms, surveys and prospect search.

• Contacts. Import from CSV or paste, add custom fields, and export any time.
• Lists and personas. Group contacts for each campaign.
• Campaigns. Build with drag and drop or a template, then send now or schedule.
• Forms and surveys. Collect sign-ups with a form or the signup API, and run surveys with branching.
• Prospecting. Find B2B contacts and verify their emails with the mail server.
• Sequences and deals. Send a few plain-text emails that stop on a reply, and track deals in a drag-and-drop pipeline.
• Sending. On Cloud, email is sent for you. Self-hosted, use SMTP or your own email provider (Amazon SES, Postmark, Resend, SendGrid, Mailgun or Brevo).

MagpieCRM is early access software, at version 0.9.41. It has no automated flows, SMS, A/B tests or event-based segments yet.

How do you move from Brevo to MagpieCRM?

You move from Brevo by exporting your contacts to CSV, then importing the subscribed ones into MagpieCRM. Brevo's export guide shows how to include each contact's subscription status. Then set up sending and rebuild your templates.

1. Export your contacts from Brevo to CSV, with their subscription status.
2. Import only the subscribed contacts into MagpieCRM, and map each column to a field.
3. On Magpie Cloud, add the DKIM record we show you, and DMARC if you don't have it yet. Self-hosted, connect SMTP or your own email provider. That provider can be your Brevo account.
4. Rebuild your templates in the drag-and-drop builder, or paste in your own HTML.
5. Send to your most engaged contacts first, and keep Brevo for any flows or SMS you still need.