Brevo vs Customer.io
We give Brevo a 2.6 GPA and Customer.io a 2.2, out of 4.0. Brevo grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Brevo
Email, SMS and WhatsApp marketing priced by emails sent, with a CRM
Customer.io
Data-driven email, SMS, push and in-app messaging for product teams
How we grade them
| 2.6GPABrevoGood | 2.2GPACustomer.ioFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BStarter is $9 a month for 5,000 emails, inside the cheaper quarter of email tools, and from 20,000 emails the contact cap jumps to 500,000. Automations and A/B tests need Standard at $18, and taking the Brevo logo off Starter is $12 a month more. | D$100 a month for 5,000 profiles, many times what email tools start at and well into the dearest tenth. It does include 1 million emails, unlimited users and unlimited push and in-app messages. Premium jumps to $1,000 a month billed yearly. |
| Free plan and trial | CFree for good with no card: 300 emails a day, campaigns and transactional email by API. Once your list passes 300 people, though, a single newsletter can't all go out on the same day. | CNo free plan, but there's a 14-day trial with up to 5,000 messages across every channel. Startups that raised under $10 million can get up to a year of Essentials free, which is a real deal if that's you. |
| Features | BCampaigns, transactional email, automations, SMS, segments, forms, AI writing and a sales CRM, all from one contact list. That covers the whole job and then some. WhatsApp, popups and push wait for the $499 Professional plan. | BVisual journeys across email, SMS, push, in-app, WhatsApp, LINE and webhooks, custom objects, an AI segment builder, warehouse syncs, transactional email and a design studio with version history. It covers the job across more channels than most, built around product data. |
| Ease of use | CNo App Store rating on record. It's a big web app with campaigns, automations, a CRM and SMS in it, so you'll be setting things up before it earns its keep. | CNo App Store rating on record. Before the first message your product has to send people and events through the API, SDKs or a warehouse sync, and every account is checked by hand before it can send. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with Shopify, WordPress, Stripe, Zapier, ChatGPT and Claude connections and an API. No desktop or phone app is listed. | BWeb, with Segment, Snowflake, Salesforce, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Twilio, Google Ads and Facebook Lead Ads, an API, mobile SDKs and an MCP server. There's no desktop app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | big lists you only email now and then | product teams messaging users from app data |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Brevo and Customer.io. How we grade
Price against what you get
Brevo starts at $9 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Customer.io starts at $100 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Brevo starts $91 a month lower. Of the other email marketing and newsletter tools on the chart, none scores higher than Brevo for less, and 3 score higher than Customer.io for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Brevo starts at $9 per month for 5,000 emails and up to 500 contacts, billed monthly. Customer.io starts at $100 per month for up to 5,000 profiles, billed monthly.
- Brevo has a free plan. Customer.io does not, though it has a free trial.
- Brevo also covers sales pipeline, forms and live chat.
- Customer.io also covers business texting.
At a glance
| Brevo | Customer.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $9 per month for 5,000 emails and up to 500 contacts, billed monthly | $100 per month for up to 5,000 profiles, billed monthly |
| Free plan | Up to 300 emails a day (campaigns and transactional), 1 marketing seat and transactional email by API and SMTP. No credit card needed. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 14-day free trial with up to 5,000 messages across all channels |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Brevo | Peaberry Software, Inc. |
| Price read from | brevo.com | customer.io |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Brevo
- Senders with a large list who email it only now and then
- Businesses that want marketing and transactional email in one account
- Small teams adding SMS or WhatsApp to email campaigns
Customer.io
- Software and app companies sending messages from product data
- Teams wanting transactional and marketing messages in one tool
- Startups under $10 million raised, through its free-year program
Worth knowing
Brevo
- Starter and Standard cap contacts by email volume: 500 contacts at 5,000 emails a month, 2,500 at 15,000, and 500,000 from 20,000.
- The Free plan is limited to 300 emails a day.
- Starter has a single seat and shows the Brevo logo unless you pay $12 a month; extra seats on Standard cost $12 a month each, up to 3.
- SMS credits are bought separately and priced by volume and destination; WhatsApp campaigns start at the $499 Professional plan.
Customer.io
- Usage beyond the plan costs extra: $0.12 per 1,000 emails on every plan, and AI credits at $10 per 100,000 on Essentials and Premium.
- Every account is reviewed by hand before it can send messages.
- SMS volume is priced on request on every plan.
- Chat support, onboarding help and custom roles start with Premium, which is billed yearly from $1,000 a month.
Key features
Brevo
- Email campaigns and transactional email
- A drag-and-drop editor and templates for campaigns, plus transactional email over an API and SMTP relay on every plan, Free included.
- Marketing automation
- Standard and above allow unlimited multi-step workflows triggered by sign-ups, website activity and custom events.
- SMS and WhatsApp
- SMS campaigns are sold as credits priced by volume and destination on every plan. WhatsApp, popups and web and mobile push come with Professional.
- Sales CRM
- Sales seats add pipelines, deals and sales automation to the same contact database, sold as a separate monthly charge per seat.
- Segments and forms
- Paid plans can save unlimited segments filtered by website activity, campaign engagement and custom events, and build branded sign-up forms.
- AI tools
- An AI writer drafts subject lines and copy from Starter, send-time optimization comes with Standard, and Aura AI segmentation and data questions come with Professional.
Customer.io
- Journeys and workflow builder
- Cross-channel campaigns built in a visual workflow builder, with send-time optimization, LLM actions and API-triggered broadcasts.
- Many channels
- Email, transactional email, SMS, push, in-app messages, WhatsApp, LINE and webhooks from one account; push and in-app are unlimited.
- Profiles and custom objects
- Store people and objects such as accounts or courses with unlimited attributes, then segment on them, including an AI segment builder.
- Data in and out
- Unlimited API calls, mobile SDKs, reverse ETL from a data warehouse and an MCP server; warehouse destinations need Premium.
- Design Studio
- Drag-and-drop and code editors with reusable components, version history, AI translation and 25 inbox previews.
- AI Agent
- A beta agent that carries out tasks in the account, with scheduled routines: one weekly task on Essentials and five daily on Premium.
Plans
Brevo
Free$0
300 emails a day, 1 seat, campaigns and transactional email. Upgrading removes the daily sending limit.
Starter$9
per month for 5,000 emails and up to 500 contacts, billed monthly
1 seat, forms, segmentation and AI writing help; removing the Brevo logo costs $12 a month. Price rises with volume: $17 a month at 10,000 emails.
Standard$18
per month for 5,000 emails and up to 500 contacts, billed monthly
Automation workflows, A/B testing, send-time optimization, no Brevo logo, up to 3 seats. $69 a month at 20,000 emails, where the contact cap rises to 500,000.
Professional$499
per month for 150,000 emails, billed monthly
10 seats, WhatsApp, popups and push, contact scoring, AI segmentation, phone support and up to 2 million contacts.
EnterpriseCustom
For 1 million or more contacts: multiple brands under one account, dedicated IP, SSO and SAML, custom data integrations.
Customer.io
Essentials$100
per month for up to 5,000 profiles, billed monthly
1 million emails a month, unlimited users, 2 object types, visual workflows and the AI Agent. Extra profiles cost $0.009 each and extra emails $0.12 per 1,000.
Premium$1,000
per month and up, billed yearly
Custom profile and email volume, 10 object types, chat support, 90-day onboarding, managed deliverability and HIPAA compliance at extra cost.
EnterpriseCustom
Dedicated hardware, audit logging, a customer success manager, priority technical support and a shared Slack channel.
Ways to pay less
Brevo
- Annual discount
Save 10% with yearly billing
Brevo's pricing page takes 10% off Starter, Standard and Professional when billed yearly: Starter at 5,000 emails is $97 a year instead of $108.
Customer.io
- Startups
Up to 12 months free for startups
Startups new to Customer.io that have raised less than $10 million can get up to 12 months of Essentials features free, with up to 30,000 profiles.
