The digital marketing landscape continues its rapid evolution, with businesses increasingly reliant on sophisticated platforms to manage customer relationships, drive sales, and build brand loyalty. As of August 2026, two prominent contenders, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) and GetResponse, offer robust feature sets designed to cater to diverse business needs. This in-depth comparison delves into their pricing structures, feature offerings, and user experiences, providing a crucial guide for enterprises seeking the optimal marketing automation solution. Brevo distinguishes itself with multichannel e-commerce capabilities at competitive price points and cost-effective storage for extensive contact lists, particularly beneficial for infrequent senders. Conversely, GetResponse emerges as the preferred choice for businesses and creators with high-frequency sending requirements, offering an integrated suite for comprehensive marketing and content monetization.
Understanding the Contenders: Brevo and GetResponse in the Modern Marketing Ecosystem
Both Brevo and GetResponse have established themselves as key players in the competitive email and marketing automation industry, each carving out a distinct niche. Brevo, which underwent a significant rebranding from Sendinblue in 2023, aimed to broaden its appeal beyond email, emphasizing a comprehensive marketing and sales CRM platform. This strategic pivot reflects a broader industry trend towards integrated solutions that consolidate various marketing functions under one roof. Its core strength lies in its ability to offer a wide array of multichannel features, including email and SMS, across all its plans, catering to businesses that prioritize diverse communication channels without escalating costs.
GetResponse, on the other hand, has historically appealed to a wide range of users, from small businesses to large enterprises, with a strong focus on list growth, email marketing, and more recently, the burgeoning creator economy. Its emphasis on unlimited email sends positions it favorably for businesses that engage in frequent communication with their audience. The platform’s expansion into tools like webinars, conversion funnels, and course builders underscores its commitment to providing an all-in-one solution for content creators and marketers looking to monetize their digital assets directly within the platform. The strategic timeline for this comparison, set in August 2026, ensures that the analysis reflects the most current pricing, features, and market positioning of both platforms.
Core Differentiators: Pricing Models and Value Propositions
A fundamental distinction between Brevo and GetResponse lies in their pricing models, which dictate their suitability for different business operational scales and communication frequencies. Brevo’s pricing is structured around monthly email volume, accompanied by a contact cap per tier, making it exceptionally cost-effective for businesses with large contact lists that are emailed infrequently. For example, Brevo’s Starter plan at $32/month includes 20,000 sends and can hold up to 500,000 contacts. This model is particularly advantageous for businesses accumulating leads or maintaining extensive customer databases without the need for constant, high-volume outreach.
GetResponse adopts a contrasting approach, charging primarily by list size while offering unlimited email sends across all paid plans. This model is ideal for frequent senders and businesses with a high send-to-contact ratio, as the cost doesn’t escalate with increased email activity. However, this also means that as a list grows, GetResponse’s costs can quickly outpace Brevo’s for similar contact numbers, especially if the sending frequency isn’t exceptionally high.
Comparing their Starter and Marketer plans for varying contact numbers (as of August 2026, based on monthly billing without discounts) reveals significant disparities:
| Contacts | Brevo Starter | Brevo sends included per month | GetResponse Starter | GetResponse Marketer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $17 | 10,000 | $19 | $59 |
| 2,500 | $25 | 15,000 | $29 | $69 |
| 10,000 | $32 | 20,000 | $79 | $114 |
| 25,000 | $32 | 20,000 | $174 | $215 |
At 1,000 contacts, the pricing is relatively close. However, as lists scale, GetResponse’s cost increases substantially. For 25,000 contacts, Brevo’s Starter plan remains at $32, covering 20,000 sends, making it 5.4 times cheaper than GetResponse Starter ($174) and 6.7 times cheaper than GetResponse Marketer ($215) for holding the list. This highlights Brevo’s strong value proposition for list storage. However, if a business with 25,000 contacts needs to send more than 20,000 emails per month, Brevo would require an upgrade to a higher-tier plan, re-evaluating the cost-efficiency.
Both platforms offer annual discounts (GetResponse: 18%, Brevo: 10%), which can influence long-term financial planning. It is crucial for businesses to project their anticipated list growth and email sending frequency to determine which model aligns best with their budget and operational strategy.
Feature Showdown: Key Capabilities for Modern Businesses
Beyond pricing, the functional breadth and depth of each platform are critical. Both Brevo and GetResponse offer extensive marketing tools, but with different strengths.
| Brevo | GetResponse | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Storing lots of contacts cheaply and having email and SMS in one tool with e-commerce integrations. | Frequent senders with a high send-to-contact ratio, creators and marketers wanting one platform to sell and earn. |
| G2 rating | 4.5/5 (2,600+ reviews) | 4.3/5 (1,140+ reviews) |
| Capterra rating | 4.6/5 (3,500+ reviews) | 4.2/5 (520+ reviews) |
| Channels | Email, SMS, MMS, web push*, mobile push*, WhatsApp* | Email, web push*, mobile push*, SMS* |
| Email sends | From 5,000–10,000,000+, plan-dependent | Unlimited in paid plans |
| SMS | Prepaid credits, available to purchase in all plans | Enterprise only |
| Support | Email only up to Professional; Professional plans also receive phone support | Email and live chat in paid plans, phone support in Enterprise |
| SMS coverage | 180+ countries | 50+ countries |
| Email templates | 50+ | 150+ |
| Landing pages | From Standard | All plans |
| CRM | Yes, sales and marketing | No |
| Monetization features | No | Yes, requires the Creator plan |
| E-commerce integrations | All plans | All plans |
| AI features | Aura AI, with four agents for marketing, sales, data management, and conversations; plus a chatbot and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector | Chatbot, AI website builder*, segment builder (beta), insights, landing page builder, email generator, subject line generator |
(*Plan-dependent. Brevo vs. GetResponse comparison accurate as of August 2026.)
Brevo’s higher G2 and Capterra ratings, based on a larger number of reviews, suggest a slightly more satisfied or broader user base, potentially due to its strong core offerings and transparent pricing for multichannel features. Its inclusion of SMS and MMS (in the US) across all plans, along with broader international SMS coverage, gives it an edge for businesses prioritizing multichannel communication from the outset. GetResponse’s strength in email templates (150+ vs. Brevo’s 50+) indicates a richer starting point for email design, while its availability of landing pages in all plans contrasts with Brevo’s plan-dependent access.
E-commerce Prowess: Tailored Solutions for Online Stores
For e-commerce businesses, specific automation features are critical for driving conversions and fostering customer loyalty. Brevo generally offers more accessible e-commerce features, making it a strong contender for online retailers. Notably, Brevo includes purchase automation and abandoned cart triggers in all plans, including its free tier. This is a significant advantage, as abandoned cart recovery is a vital tool for recouping lost sales, and GetResponse requires at least a $59/month Marketer plan to access it.
Brevo also provides unique capabilities such as back-in-stock alerts for popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop, a feature GetResponse currently does not offer. While both platforms integrate with major e-commerce tools, Brevo’s inclusion of Stripe and PayPal integrations in all plans further simplifies payment processing for businesses of all sizes.
| Feature | Brevo | GetResponse |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce integrations | All plans | All plans |
| Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop integrations | All plans | All plans |
| Stripe and PayPal | All plans | Creator, $69 |
| Abandoned cart recovery | All plans | Marketer, $59 |
| Order confirmation automation | All plans | Marketer, $59 |
| Purchase automation | All plans | Marketer, $59 |
| Product blocks in emails | All plans | Marketer, $59 |
| AI product recommendations | Professional, $499 | Enterprise, quoted |
| Back-in-stock alerts | Starter, $9 | Not offered |
| Promo codes/coupons | Professional, $499 | Marketer, $59 |
| Sign-up forms | All plans | All plans |
| Pop-ups | Professional, $499 | All plans |
| Landing pages | One on Standard, 10 on Professional | All plans |
| Revenue tracking | All plans | Marketer, $59 |
| Advanced segmentation | All plans | Marketer, $59 |
| AI segmentation | Professional, $499 | Paid plans |
| Web push | 1,000 subscribers on Starter to 40,000 on Enterprise | Marketer, unlimited |
| Mobile push | Professional, $499 | Enterprise, quoted |
| SMS campaigns | All plans | Enterprise, quoted |
| Transactional email | All plans | Enterprise, quoted |
| WhatsApp campaigns | Professional, $499 | Not offered |
| Loyalty | Enterprise, quoted | Not offered |
(Brevo prices are at its entry-level 5,000-email volume. GetResponse prices are at 1,000 contacts. Both show the cheapest plan to include the features.)
While GetResponse offers pop-ups in all plans, compared to Brevo’s Professional plan requirement, Brevo’s accessibility to critical e-commerce automations like abandoned cart and purchase automation from the free tier provides substantial value for growing online stores. The cost of advanced features like AI product recommendations and dynamic coupons remains high on both platforms, typically reserved for their higher-tier or Enterprise plans.
The Creator Economy Advantage: Funnels, Webinars, and Website Builders
For content creators, educators, and businesses focusing on digital products, GetResponse offers a significantly more integrated suite of tools for monetization and audience engagement. GetResponse stands out as the only platform offering conversion funnels, webinars, a dedicated website builder, and a course creator. This makes it an ideal choice for individuals or businesses looking to sell digital content, host online events, or build comprehensive online learning platforms without relying on multiple third-party integrations. The ability to integrate Stripe or PayPal directly within GetResponse allows for seamless selling without the need for a separate e-commerce storefront.
| Feature | Brevo | GetResponse |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion funnels | No | Marketer |
| Landing pages | Standard | All plans |
| Website builder | No | Creator |
| Webinars | No | Creator |
| Course builder | No | Creator |
| Monetization | No | Creator |
| Chat widget for customers | All plans (part of Sales Free) | Marketer |
Landing Pages: GetResponse provides unlimited landing pages across all paid plans, coupled with over 90 templates catering to various niches like e-commerce, ebooks, and portfolios. Its AI landing page creator, available from Marketer plans, streamlines the design process. Brevo, in stark contrast, limits users to one landing page in its Standard plan and ten in its Professional plan, with a more modest offering of 16 templates and no AI builder. This makes GetResponse a far superior choice for businesses requiring numerous, high-quality landing pages for diverse campaigns.
Conversion Funnels: Exclusive to GetResponse, conversion funnels (available from the Marketer plan) guide users through a series of steps, from lead magnet acquisition to standard opt-ins and, in the Creator plan, webinar funnels. These tools provide comprehensive analytics on pageviews, contacts, and success rates, empowering marketers to optimize their lead generation and sales processes.
Webinars and Courses: GetResponse’s Creator plan unlocks live and on-demand webinars, with recording capabilities, supporting up to 100 attendees. The Enterprise plan expands this to 1,000 attendees and 20 hours of recording storage. The integrated course builder, also in Creator and Enterprise plans, allows for the creation of multi-module courses with various content types (text, video, audio, PDF, quizzes) and external resources, supporting up to 40,000 students by default. With 0% transaction fees (excluding third-party payment processor fees), GetResponse offers a compelling platform for digital content monetization. Brevo currently lacks these critical features for the creator economy.
Live Chat: Both platforms offer live chat functionality to enhance customer communication. Brevo includes a basic live chat widget in its Sales Free offering (part of all marketing plans), featuring an AI conversations agent that summarizes chats and drafts messages. More advanced chatbot flows and lead capture options are available via paid Sales add-ons. GetResponse provides its chat widget from the Marketer plan, supporting both its own websites and external sites, and includes a dedicated mobile app for chat management. User ratings for GetResponse’s chat app are significantly higher (4.7/5) than Brevo’s (2.5/5), suggesting a more polished and reliable user experience.
AI Integration: Intelligence at the Forefront of Marketing
Artificial Intelligence is increasingly vital for optimizing marketing efforts, and both Brevo and GetResponse have integrated AI capabilities, albeit with different architectural approaches and feature concentrations. Brevo leverages "Aura AI" with distinct AI agents for marketing, sales, data management, and conversations, offering a more structured, agent-based AI ecosystem. GetResponse, conversely, lists its AI functionalities as separate features, focusing on specific tasks like content generation, website building, and segmentation.
| AI Feature | Brevo | GetResponse |
|---|---|---|
| Chatbot | All plans | Paid plans |
| Segment builder | Professional | Paid plans |
| Automation builder | Paid plans | No |
| Email content generator | All plans | Paid plans |
| Translation | Text blocks in all plans, campaigns in Professional | No (generates, doesn’t translate) |
| Subject line generator | All plans | Paid plans |
| Image generation | All plans | No (stock only) |
| Insights/data analysis | Professional | Paid plans |
| Sales sequence builder | Sales Essentials add-on | No |
| Landing page builder | No | Paid plans |
| Website builder | No (lacks website feature) | Creator |
| AI product recommendations | Professional | Enterprise |
| MCP connector for AI | All plans | No (via Zapier/community) |
AI Subject Lines: In practical testing, GetResponse’s AI subject line generator performed more effectively, consistently incorporating specified keywords like "Black Friday" into its suggestions. Brevo’s tool, while offering natural language input, sometimes missed key terms and provided fewer options.
AI Email Copy: Brevo’s AI email copy generator produced more natural-sounding and contextually relevant text, with convenient one-click options for shortening or translating text blocks. GetResponse’s AI content generation, when tested, occasionally resulted in grammatical errors and lacked the refinement seen in Brevo’s output.
AI Email Design: Brevo’s Aura AI chatbot, when given a design brief, generated more customized and aesthetically pleasing email designs, albeit taking longer (four minutes) compared to GetResponse. GetResponse’s AI email design was quicker (21 seconds) but produced more basic, functional layouts.
AI Landing Pages: GetResponse holds a clear advantage here, being the only platform with an AI landing page builder. It can generate three distinct landing page styles from a prompt in about 10 seconds, providing a significant head start for creating campaign assets.
AI Automations: Brevo is the sole platform offering an AI automation builder. While not supporting natural language fully, it assists in setting up triggers, actions, and conditions. However, testing revealed it could produce incomplete automations, requiring manual refinement. GetResponse lacks this direct AI-driven automation building capability.
Multichannel Reach: SMS and Transactional Communications
For businesses requiring robust SMS and transactional email capabilities, Brevo presents a more accessible and comprehensive solution compared to GetResponse. Brevo integrates SMS and transactional email across all its plans, with transparent prepaid credit pricing for SMS and messages counting towards the monthly email volume. SMS coverage extends to over 180 countries, with MMS available in the United States, allowing for diverse multichannel automations and campaigns.
GetResponse, by contrast, restricts SMS and transactional email functionality to its custom-quoted Enterprise plan. Even within Enterprise, SMS bundles are limited to marketing texts and do not support transactional messages. This significant limitation makes Brevo a superior choice for businesses needing reliable, integrated, and cost-effective transactional and marketing SMS from the outset, particularly for critical communications like order confirmations, shipping updates, or account alerts.
User Experience and Campaign Workflow: A Practical Assessment
The ease of use and efficiency of campaign and automation builders are crucial for marketers. A practical test involved building an email campaign and an abandoned cart automation on both platforms.
Building an Email Campaign:
Brevo’s campaign builder, structured with distinct steps (sender, recipients, subject, design), proved intuitive and linear. The progress indicators and clear navigation between settings pages streamlined the process. Integrating AI for heading and text changes, the campaign was built in 11 minutes and 43 seconds. Brevo also offers advanced scheduling options, including "send at best time" (AI-driven) and "send in batches" (Professional plans).
GetResponse’s campaign builder presented all options on a single screen, offering a comprehensive overview but potentially leading to more visual information to digest. While it pre-filled sender details, users needed to actively select subject line, recipients, design, and tracking options. Utilizing AI for content, the campaign took 14 minutes and 11 seconds to complete. GetResponse also provides a "perfect timing" feature (Marketer+ plans) that delivers emails based on past recipient engagement.
Building an Abandoned Cart Automation:
Brevo’s abandoned cart automation offers an optional AI-guided setup. Following a three-step wizard for trigger (cart updated), time delay (default two hours), and email content, the process was straightforward. The automation, including minor template edits and setting re-entry/exit conditions, was built in eight minutes and four seconds. Brevo’s dashboard clearly displays the status and key metrics of active automations.
GetResponse’s approach to abandoned cart automation presents two paths: a templated "Campaigns flow" or a more complex "Automation builder" requiring JavaScript Web Connect. Opting for the simpler Campaigns flow, the setup involved naming the campaign, setting tracking options, defining the abandonment period (changed from default four days to one hour), and designing the email. An initial error during publishing ("The Wait action cannot be the final action in a flow") required manually repositioning the wait step, indicating a slight lack of intuitive user guidance. Despite this, the automation was built in nine minutes and three seconds. GetResponse provides detailed reports for abandoned and recovered carts, conversion rates, and attributed revenue.
In summary, Brevo’s step-by-step approach generally offered a slightly more guided and efficient user experience for both campaign and automation building, with its AI tools proving more robust in content generation. GetResponse’s comprehensive single-screen approach for campaigns and its templated automation flows are functional but sometimes lack the clarity and seamlessness of Brevo’s workflow.
Strategic Choice: Tailoring the Platform to Business Needs
The decision between Brevo and GetResponse ultimately hinges on a business’s specific operational model, communication frequency, and growth objectives.
- For Frequent Senders with Smaller Lists or Creator Businesses: GetResponse is the unequivocal choice. Its unlimited monthly emails, robust suite of creator tools (webinars, course builder, website builder), and extensive landing page capabilities make it ideal for marketers and content creators who frequently engage their audience and monetize digital assets.
- For Businesses with Large, Infrequently Emailed Lists and Multichannel Priorities: Brevo offers a compelling value proposition. Its cost-effective contact storage, transparent pricing for SMS and transactional emails across all plans, and strong e-commerce automations (like abandoned cart recovery from the free tier) make it suitable for businesses managing extensive customer databases and prioritizing diverse communication channels without incurring high monthly sending costs.
- For E-commerce Stores Prioritizing Multichannel Communication and Essential Automations: Brevo’s inclusion of critical e-commerce features like abandoned cart recovery, purchase automation, and back-in-stock alerts across all plans provides significant value. Its wider SMS coverage and accessible transactional email make it a powerful tool for comprehensive customer engagement. GetResponse’s e-commerce features are robust but come at a higher entry point (Marketer plan for $59/month).
- For Businesses Seeking Advanced AI Features: Both platforms offer compelling AI tools, but their focus differs. Brevo’s AI agents and superior email content generation may appeal to those seeking integrated AI assistance across various marketing and sales functions. GetResponse’s AI landing page and website builders offer a distinct advantage for rapid asset creation.
Exploring Alternatives: When Neither Fits the Bill
While Brevo and GetResponse are strong contenders, the market offers other powerful platforms that might better suit highly specialized needs. Omnisend, for example, positions itself as an e-commerce-first alternative, designed to maximize revenue and customer retention specifically for online stores. Its pricing model is based on contacts, similar to GetResponse, but its feature set is geared towards comprehensive e-commerce marketing.
| Feature | Omnisend | Brevo | GetResponse |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cart recovery | All plans | All plans | Marketer |
| Back-in-stock alerts | All plans | Starter | No |
| Pop-ups | All plans | Professional | All plans |
| Landing pages | All plans | Standard | All plans |
| SMS | Pro | All plans | Enterprise |
| Transactional email | All plans | All plans | Enterprise |
| Predictive analytics | All plans: AI customer lifecycle maps based on Recency, Frequency, and Monetary value (RFM) analysis | Professional, including predictive customer lifetime value (CLV) and churn risk | No |
| AI segment builder | All plans | Professional | Paid plans |
| Support | 24/7 live chat and email in all plans | Email in all plans; phone support available in Professional | Email and chat support in paid plans |
| Pricing model | Contacts | Monthly email volume | Contacts |
| Starting price | $16/month | $9/month | $19/month |
Omnisend offers all email and multichannel features from its Pro plan ($59/month), including advanced predictive analytics (RFM analysis) and AI segment builders in all plans, making it a powerful consideration for e-commerce businesses focused on deep customer insights and personalized automation. Its 24/7 live chat and email support across all plans also offer a robust support structure.
In conclusion, the choice between Brevo and GetResponse requires a detailed assessment of a business’s current and future marketing needs. Brevo shines for its cost-effective list storage and accessible multichannel capabilities, while GetResponse excels in providing a comprehensive platform for frequent senders and the burgeoning creator economy. Understanding these core differences, supported by practical insights and data, will empower businesses to make an informed decision that drives their digital marketing success in 2026 and beyond.
