Brevo vs HubSpot: CRM & Automation Comparison for Growing Businesses (2025)
Choosing between Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) and HubSpot is one of the most common—and important—decisions for growing businesses that want email, automation, and CRM in a single stack. Both platforms promise to streamline communications and nurture customers, but they target different needs, budgets, and growth paths.
This guide gives a practical, unbiased, data-backed comparison (features, pricing, strengths, limitations, and real recommendations) so you can decide which tool fits your business today—and scales with you tomorrow.
Quick verdict (TL;DR)
- Choose Brevo if you’re a small-to-medium business or bootstrapped team that needs strong email & automation, SMS, and a lightweight CRM at a very competitive price. It’s practical, easy to use, and cost-effective for volume email and basic CRM workflows.
- Choose HubSpot if you need a full-featured CRM platform that unifies marketing, sales, service and content with advanced automation, attribution, and deep integrations—and you have the budget (or expect to) for enterprise-grade tooling. HubSpot scales better for multi-team organizations and advanced inbound programs.
Feature-by-feature comparison
1) Core offering: email, automation, CRM
- Brevo: Email marketing + marketing automation + lightweight CRM (contact management, deals) + SMS and chat. It’s built around email first but includes CRM features to run small-to-medium customer journeys.
- HubSpot: A full customer platform—free CRM at core, then modular Hubs for Marketing, Sales, Service, CMS, and Operations. Marketing Hub brings advanced automation, attribution, landing pages, and ABM features. HubSpot is CRM-centric and designed for cross-team use.
Why it matters: Brevo is an email-first platform with CRM attached; HubSpot is CRM-first with deep marketing capabilities built around it. That affects where complexity and strengths lie.
2) Automation & workflows
- Brevo: Visual automation builder supports common flows (welcome series, abandoned cart, lead scoring basics). It’s powerful for email and SMS workflows and is often praised for offering automation that “punches above its price.”
- HubSpot: Enterprise-grade workflows with branching, complex triggers, delayed actions, and cross-hub orchestration (e.g., marketing email → sales task → service ticket). HubSpot automations integrate deeply with CRM objects and custom properties.
Verdict: For simple-to-moderate automation, Brevo delivers excellent value. For complex multi-team orchestration and advanced lead routing, HubSpot is the stronger choice.
3) CRM capabilities
- Brevo: Basic CRM that covers contacts, companies, deals, and simple pipelines—sufficient for solo operators and small sales teams. Best when you want a unified email + CRM without needing deep sales tools.
- HubSpot: Full CRM with sales pipeline customization, playbooks, predictive lead scoring (on higher tiers), reporting dashboards, teams/permissions, and native sales tools (meetings, quotes, sequences). The free CRM is robust; paid hubs add automation and analytics.
Verdict: HubSpot wins CRM capabilities hands-down. Brevo keeps things simple and usable—not a replacement for enterprise CRM needs.
4) Pricing & total cost of ownership
- Brevo: Competitive pricing model focused on email sending volume (free tier with daily limits). It’s generally more affordable for high-volume email senders and small teams. See Brevo pricing for exact tiers and per-email send structures.
- HubSpot: Starts free for CRM basics, but Marketing Hub and advanced automation escalate quickly in cost (professional/enterprise tiers are expensive relative to SMB budgets). HubSpot often adds onboarding fees or per-seat costs for Sales/Service Hubs.
Practical point: If you’re price-sensitive and send lots of emails, Brevo will often be cheaper. If you need advanced analytics, multi-hub automation, and enterprise features, budget for HubSpot’s higher cost.
5) Deliverability & sending infrastructure
Both platforms provide solid infrastructure, but user experiences vary.
- Brevo: Strong deliverability for typical marketing sends; some reviews mention occasional transactional/Smtp issues—test for your use case. Overall, good value for transactional + marketing email volume.
- HubSpot: Excellent deliverability and sophisticated tools for deliverability health at scale, especially when combined with its CRM and content workflows.
Tip: Always run deliverability tests for transactional or critical emails regardless of platform.
6) Integrations & ecosystem
- Brevo: Many common integrations (Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Zapier); good for ecommerce & small tool stacks.
- HubSpot: Massive integration ecosystem (1,000+ apps, native APIs, enterprise connectors). Best choice if you need to stitch together many systems across sales, CRM, service, and content.
Verdict: HubSpot is the integration leader; Brevo covers common SMB needs well.
7) Ease of use & onboarding
- Brevo: Simple UI and short learning curve—great for solo founders and small teams. Many users praise its straightforward setup for email workflows.
- HubSpot: Friendly UI but broader feature set means steeper learning curve. HubSpot Academy helps; higher-tier plans often include onboarding packages.
Recommendation: If you lack internal onboarding resources, Brevo gets you live faster. If you have a marketing operations team, HubSpot’s investment can pay off.
Feature comparison table (quick glance)
| Feature | Brevo | HubSpot |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes (daily send limit) | Yes (robust free CRM) |
| Email sending & templates | Strong, drag-and-drop | Advanced + personalized tokens |
| Automation builder | Visual, email & SMS flows | Enterprise workflows, cross-hub |
| CRM | Lightweight included | Full-featured (free + paid hubs) |
| Integrations | Common apps, Zapier | 1000+ apps, deep integrations |
| Pricing model | Volume/feature based, affordable for SMBs | Free base; paid hubs are costly at scale |
| Best for | SMBs, agencies, ecommerce on a budget | Growing teams, enterprises, multi-team orgs |
Pros & cons (realistic, experience-driven)
Brevo — Pros
- Cost-effective for email volume and small teams.
- Simple to set up and use; includes SMS & transactional email.
- Good automation capabilities for the price.
Brevo — Cons
- CRM is basic; not ideal for complex sales processes.
- Some reviewers flag occasional deliverability or transactional edge-cases—test for critical systems.
HubSpot — Pros
- Comprehensive CRM + marketing + sales + service platform—built for scale.
- Deep automation, attribution, and analytics.
- Massive integration marketplace and enterprise features.
HubSpot — Cons
- Pricing escalates quickly; costs can be prohibitive for small budgets.
- Complexity requires time and (often) skilled operators or onboarding.
Real-world use cases & recommendations
Use case: Solo founder / bootstrapped ecommerce store
- Recommendation: Brevo. You need affordable sending, simple automations (welcome + cart recovery), and an easy CRM to manage orders and contacts. Brevo’s pricing model and built-in SMS make it a practical stack.
Use case: Growing SaaS with a marketing + sales team
- Recommendation: HubSpot. The free CRM is useful initially, but as you require multi-stage lead scoring, advanced nurture flows, and cross-team visibility, HubSpot’s hubs and automation are worth the price.
Use case: Agency managing multiple small clients
- Recommendation: Brevo is attractive for client projects that need fast setup and cost predictability. For enterprise clients, HubSpot may be necessary for deeper customizations.
Migration & hybrid approach
You don’t always need an all-or-nothing decision. Many businesses use a hybrid approach:
- Keep Brevo for high-volume transactional & marketing emails to control costs, and adopt HubSpot for CRM and complex sales automation—or vice versa depending on priorities.
- Migrations are common; HubSpot provides tools and services, but expect time and cost for data mapping and workflow rebuilds.
Pro tip: Export contact data with tags, map custom fields, and recreate key automations (welcome, cart, post-purchase) first when migrating.
Final recommendation checklist (pick the right fit)
Ask yourself:
- Do I need enterprise CRM features today? → HubSpot.
- Do I prioritize low cost for high email volume? → Brevo.
- Do I need cross-team automation, attribution, and multi-hub workflows? → HubSpot.
- Do I want fast setup and affordable SMS + email in one tool? → Brevo.
- Am I prepared to invest in onboarding and higher recurring costs for advanced features? → HubSpot.
Closing pro tips from 10 years of building email programs
- Proof before commitment: Run a 30–60 day proof of concept for automation and deliverability on your own data.
- Prioritize revenue metrics: Measure revenue per recipient (RPR) and conversion—not vanity metrics.
- Think beyond email: If your growth needs cross-team workflows (marketing → sales → service), prioritize a CRM-first platform.
- Plan for scale: What solves today’s problem may create huge rewrite costs later—factor migration effort into your decision.
By a 10-year veteran blogger, marketer & digital strategist
