# ActiveCampaign vs Brevo: One Charges for Contacts, the Other for Emails

> ActiveCampaign prices by contact band and Brevo by monthly email volume, so which is cheaper depends on how many emails per contact you send. Both pages read from the United States on the same day.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/activecampaign-vs-brevo — The Professional's Toolkit · updated 2026-10-07_

---

ActiveCampaign charges you for the people on your list. Brevo charges you for the
emails you send to them. Everything else about this comparison follows from that one sentence.

**OUR TAKE:** These two are not cheaper or dearer versions of each other. They are priced on
different axes, so which one is cheaper depends on a number neither pricing page asks you for:
how many emails per contact you send in a month. Work that out before you compare anything else.

## Two different meters

Brevo's plans are built around monthly email volume. Its Starter plan is described as "From 5,000
emails per month", and its free plan is capped at five hundred contacts[22].

ActiveCampaign's plans are built around contacts, in bands from one thousand upward, with sending
included as a multiple of that band: ten times on Starter and Plus, twelve on Professional,
fifteen on Enterprise[2].

So ActiveCampaign effectively sells you a sending allowance tied to list size, and Brevo sells you
a sending allowance directly. If you mail your list twice a month, the contact meter flatters you.
If you mail a small list every day, the email meter does.



> 💡 **undefined:** Divide your monthly sends by your contact count before comparing. That single ratio decides which meter suits you.

## What each one charges

| Plan | Monthly, $/mo | Annual, $/mo | Metered on |
|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign Starter | 19 | 15.00 | contacts, 1,000 band |
| ActiveCampaign Plus | 59 | 49.00 | contacts, 1,000 band |
| ActiveCampaign Professional | 99 | 79.00 | contacts, 1,000 band |
| Brevo Starter | 9 | 8.08 | from 5,000 emails a month |
| Brevo Standard | 18 | 16.17 | monthly email volume |
| Brevo Professional | 499 | 449.08 | monthly email volume |

Brevo's figures come from its own page's structured data, which carries dollars[22].
ActiveCampaign's come from the vendor's billing catalogue, which carries both terms for every
tier and band[3].

## The jump in the middle of Brevo's ladder

Standard to Professional is eighteen dollars to four hundred and ninety-nine, a step of more than
twenty-seven times.

We have seen a gap like that before in this business and it usually means the top plan is a
different product sold under the same brand rather than a bigger version of the one below. We have
not measured what sits inside Brevo's Professional plan, so we are flagging the shape rather than
explaining it.

ActiveCampaign's equivalent ladder at the entry band runs $15, $49, $79, $145 — a little under ten
times from bottom to top, with the steepest capability jump at the first step rather than the
last.



> 💡 **undefined:** If you pick the contact meter, check whether auto-upgrade is on. It decides whether exceeding your band stops your sending or raises your invoice.

## One thing we noticed while reading Brevo's page from the United States

Rendered from a United States address, the visible pricing on Brevo's page was shown in euros,
with the dollar figures carried in the page's structured data rather than in the layout we
read[22].

We report it because a price in the wrong currency is a real friction for a buyer, and because we
have measured the same class of mismatch on other vendors' pages. It may be a default that a
visitor can change in a click. We did not test the selector.

## Capability, and where our measurement stops

For ActiveCampaign we have the vendor's own billing catalogue, which names every entitlement:
seventy-nine on Enterprise, seventy-one on Professional, fifty-six on Plus, eleven on
Starter[3]. We can say exactly what each tier contains and exactly where each capability
begins.

For Brevo we have read one page. Its Starter plan names email and SMS sending with SMS credits
sold separately, a drag-and-drop editor and templates[22]. That is what the page says; it
is not a measurement of the product.

Brevo's own cluster is in our queue for this category. When it is published, this comparison gets
rewritten with the same depth on both sides. We are saying that explicitly because the alternative
— filling the gap with what we assume a product like this contains — is how comparisons become
wrong.



> ⚠ **undefined:** ActiveCampaign's entry tier caps at two seats, five lists and five actions per automation, and none of those three ceilings can be raised by paying more.

## What ActiveCampaign does with the contact meter

Three mechanics matter if you are choosing the contact-metered option.

The limit stops your sending rather than raising your bill. "Once you reach your contact limit,
you will not be able to send any email campaigns until you upgrade your account"[9], with
automations continuing to run while their send steps are skipped. Auto-upgrade is opt-in and the
vendor recommends it; with it on, fees "increase immediately according to usage"[5].

Every contact counts. "All contacts, regardless of their list status, count towards your contact
limit"[11], for accounts created on or after 3 November 2025. Unsubscribed and bounced records
are included.

And going down is not symmetric with going up. "If you need to decrease your contact limit, please
contact our Customer Experience team"[10].

## The whole ActiveCampaign ladder, since the contact meter is the thing being compared

| Plan | Month to month, $/mo | Billed annually, $/mo | Charged once a year, $ | Sends a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 19 | 15 | 180 | 10,000 |
| Plus | 59 | 49 | 588 | 10,000 |
| Professional | 99 | 79 | 948 | 12,000 |
| Enterprise | 179 | 145 | 1,740 | 15,000 |

That is the entry band of one thousand contacts. The sends column is the part that makes this
comparable to a volume-metered product at all: the allowance is ten, ten, twelve and fifteen times
the contact limit, so it scales as your list grows.

At ten thousand contacts the four tiers become one hundred and forty-nine, one hundred and
eighty-nine, three hundred and seventy-five and five hundred and eighty-nine dollars a month on
annual terms, with allowances of a hundred thousand, a hundred thousand, a hundred and twenty
thousand and a hundred and fifty thousand emails.

Work your own ratio against those two columns. That is the comparison.



> ⚠ **undefined:** Rendered from the United States, Brevo's visible prices were in euros with the dollar figures in the page's structured data.

## The add-ons, because they change the sum

Six are named on ActiveCampaign's pricing page and none is priced there[2]: Pipelines enhanced
CRM, Sales Engagement enhanced CRM, Custom Reporting, SMS, AI Activities and WhatsApp Messaging.
Every appearance is "Available add-on" or "Included in add-on".

The catalogue prices some of them — SMS at twenty-one dollars a month for a thousand
non-rolling credits, Postmark at fifteen dollars for ten thousand transactional emails — and
leaves the two CRM add-ons with empty price ladders on every tier[3].

That matters for this comparison specifically. Brevo sells SMS alongside email with credits sold
separately, and ActiveCampaign does the same thing at a published price. On the CRM side neither
page gives you a number, and ActiveCampaign's own billing system does not either.

## Documentation, which is a buying criterion

ActiveCampaign publishes more working detail than any product we have measured. The overage rate,
the shutoff at three times the limit, warning thresholds at 75, 90 and 100 per cent, the reset
day for monthly and annual plans, the export columns, the seven-day download link, the pause
rules, the trial's hundred-send ceiling, and a dedicated article on whether unsubscribed contacts
count[8]. Each piece is dated.

The exception is prices. The pricing page publishes no monthly rate and no add-on price, and the
terms of service and the help centre give different answers about what happens when you pass the
send limit[5]. A vendor that documents its mechanics this well and its prices this thinly is
telling you something about where to spend your questions.



> ⚠ **undefined:** We have measured ActiveCampaign in full and Brevo's pricing page only. Brevo's own cluster is in the queue for this category.

## What the reviews argue about

Trustpilot displays 2.7 from 1,446 reviews while the distribution table on the same page averages
3.47[17]. The Gartner Digital Markets pool shows 4.6 from 2,570, counted once. TrustRadius
shows 8.6 out of ten from 946.

In the eighty-four English reviews we read and cross-tabulated, cancellation appears in 38% of the
one and two-star reviews and 4% of the four and five-star ones. Contract runs 29% against zero.
Complexity is flat and hitting the contact limit runs the other way, which is the interesting part:
the meter is not what people complain about.

## Seats and ceilings

ActiveCampaign's entry tier includes one seat and allows a maximum of two, where every tier above
allows nine hundred and ninety-nine[3]. It also carries two ceilings that money does not
move: five lists, and five actions per automation.

Those are the three numbers that decide whether Starter is a real plan for you or a trial with a
price on it.

## Leaving

No refunds, in the vendor's own words: "As a policy, our company does not provide partial or full
refunds"[6]. Cancellation is self-service and may be emailed, with three exceptions that
require a conversation[7]. Pausing exists for monthly plans only, three months maximum, once
every twelve[12].

And the data line that matters more than any of those: "Upon cancellation or termination, you will
not have access to or be able to restore any Contact Data"[5]. Export before you cancel, not
after. The export covers contacts with custom fields, lead scores, deal scores and tags, and
excludes contact notes[13].

We have not read Brevo's equivalent terms.

## Which one to pick

Do the arithmetic first. Count your contacts, count the emails you send them in a typical month,
and divide. If that number is under ten, ActiveCampaign's included allowance covers you and the
contact meter is the one that suits your pattern. If it is well over ten, you are paying
ActiveCampaign for contacts and then paying again for sends, and a volume-metered product deserves
a serious look.

Beyond that, the honest summary is short. ActiveCampaign is the deeper platform by a margin we can
show from the vendor's own catalogue, with the largest integration count we have measured at
1,056[16] and the best documentation. Brevo's entry price is lower and its meter is simpler.

Everything else about Brevo in this article came from one page read on one day, and we would
rather say that than pretend to a comparison we have not earned.

## Working the ratio, with numbers

An example makes this concrete, and the arithmetic is the whole decision.

Take five thousand contacts. On ActiveCampaign that band costs $79 a month on Starter or $145 on
Plus, both annual rates, and the included allowance is ten times the band, so fifty thousand
emails a month[3]. If you send your list four campaigns a month plus automated follow-ups, you
are at roughly twenty to twenty-five thousand sends and comfortably inside it.

Now take five hundred contacts and a daily email. That is about fifteen thousand sends a month
against an allowance of five thousand, so the contact meter is working against you: you would be
paying for a band you do not need and buying sends on top at half a cent each[8].

Brevo's model inverts both cases. The small, high-frequency sender pays for volume and nothing for
the extra contacts; the large, low-frequency sender pays for a volume tier that their list size
would have covered more cheaply elsewhere.

There is no universal answer, which is exactly why neither pricing page can give you one. Count
first.

## What a second year looks like

Worth checking on both, for different reasons.

On ActiveCampaign the renewal mechanism is published and simple: the subscription is "continuous
until you cancel it", at whatever term you selected[5]. The thing to watch is not the renewal
but the band. Contacts accumulate, every contact counts regardless of list status[11], and
moving up a band is self-service while moving down requires contacting support[10]. A list that
grows 20% a year moves you up the ladder on its own.

There are also no refunds of any kind, so an annual term is a full year of commitment with the
fourteen-day trial as the only published way to de-risk it[6].

On Brevo we have not read the renewal terms and will not guess at them. It is the first thing we
will check when we measure that product properly.



## FAQ

**Is Brevo cheaper than ActiveCampaign?**

At the door, yes: Brevo's entry paid plan is nine dollars a month against nineteen. But they meter different things. Brevo charges by monthly email volume from five thousand, ActiveCampaign by contact band with sends included at ten times the band, so the answer depends on how often you mail your list.

**Does ActiveCampaign count unsubscribed contacts?**

Yes, for accounts created on or after 3 November 2025. The vendor publishes a dedicated article stating that all contacts count toward the limit regardless of list status. Older accounts count only active contacts.

**Which one has the better automation?**

ActiveCampaign, on the evidence we have. Its vendor's billing catalogue names seventy-nine entitlements on the top tier and fifty-six on the middle one, including unlimited automation actions, split automations and conditional content. We have not measured Brevo's automation depth and will not claim a comparison we have not made.

## What we measured, and what we did not

On ActiveCampaign: the pricing page as served, the vendor's billing catalogue of eighteen
products, the published fallback price file, the terms of service in full, fifteen help-centre
articles, the app marketplace, three review platforms and ninety-nine reviews, with every
quotation checked against the vendor's own text before it was written.

On Brevo: one page, its pricing page, rendered from the United States on the same day, plus the
structured data that page carries.

We are naming that gap rather than papering over it. Brevo's full measurement is queued for this
category, and this comparison will be rewritten when it lands.



## Sources

[1] ActiveCampaign vendor pricing page, read from the United States — https://www.activecampaign.com/pricing (2026-10)
[2] ActiveCampaign billing product catalogue, the vendor's own price list — https://billing-product-catalog.cluster.app-us1.com/api/v1/read/products?currency=USD&billing_interval=1&billing_interval=12&c=ac2024&referer=/pricing (2026-10)
[3] ActiveCampaign published fallback price file — https://www.activecampaign.com/dist/pricing/fallback/USD.json (2026-10)
[4] ActiveCampaign terms of service — https://www.activecampaign.com/legal/terms-of-service (2026-10)
[5] ActiveCampaign vendor refund policy — https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/218253598-Refund-Policy (2026-10)
[6] ActiveCampaign vendor documentation on cancelling — https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/218790117-How-do-I-cancel-my-account (2026-10)
[7] ActiveCampaign vendor documentation on send limits and overage — https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/10918125380764-About-email-send-limits-and-overage-fees (2026-10)
[8] ActiveCampaign vendor documentation on the contact limit — https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000364264-What-happens-when-I-reach-my-contact-limit (2026-10)
[9] ActiveCampaign vendor documentation on auto-upgrade — https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000337284-Does-ActiveCampaign-automatically-increase-my-contact-limit (2026-10)
[10] ActiveCampaign vendor documentation on contact counting — https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000337324-Do-unsubscribed-unconfirmed-or-bounced-contacts-count-against-my-contact-limit (2026-10)
[11] ActiveCampaign vendor documentation on pausing billing — https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/13613456314652-Pause-billing-for-your-ActiveCampaign-account (2026-10)
[12] ActiveCampaign vendor documentation on exporting contacts — https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/221393808-How-do-I-export-all-contacts (2026-10)
[13] ActiveCampaign vendor documentation on the free trial — https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/218789987-Free-trial-capabilities (2026-10)
[14] ActiveCampaign vendor documentation on account reviews — https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/221362648-About-account-reviews-and-suspensions (2026-10)
[15] ActiveCampaign vendor app marketplace, counted with its own filter — https://www.activecampaign.com/apps (2026-10)
[16] Trustpilot profile and its own distribution table — https://www.trustpilot.com/review/activecampaign.com (2026-10)
[17] GetApp profile and published distribution — https://www.getapp.com/marketing-software/a/activecampaign/ (2026-10)
[18] TrustRadius rating — https://www.trustradius.com/products/activecampaign/reviews (2026-10)
[19] Mailchimp vendor pricing page, read from the United States — https://mailchimp.com/pricing/ (2026-10)
[20] GetResponse vendor pricing page, read from the United States — https://www.getresponse.com/pricing (2026-10)
[21] Brevo vendor pricing page, read from the United States — https://www.brevo.com/pricing/ (2026-10)
[22] The vendor's documentation on sharing an automation, the only published way to take one out of the account — https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001963270-How-do-I-share-an-automation
[23] ActiveCampaign's anti-spam policy, which governs suspension and is stamped September 2021 — https://www.activecampaign.com/legal/anti-spam-policy
[24] ActiveCampaign's minimum advertised price policy, which names its own pricing page as the price of record — https://www.activecampaign.com/legal/minimum-advertised-price-policy
[25] The vendor's trial signup page: fourteen days, no credit card — https://www.activecampaign.com/free
[26] Software Advice's profile, which files this product under CRM and publishes the same pool as percentages — https://www.softwareadvice.com/crm/activecampaign-profile/