Sender vs Brevo: Free Plan Limits, SMS and Seats

The short answer: you are not misreading the two free plans: they count different things. Sender counts the month, 15,000 emails to up to 2,500 subscribers, and Brevo counts the day, 300 emails (Sender pricing, Brevo pricing, checked on 26 October 2026). For a small business sending one newsletter a week to 2,000 people, Sender's free plan sends each issue in one go. Choose Brevo if your job is storing a large list you mail rarely, app emails with long log history, or WhatsApp and a CRM later.

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Both are built for small budgets, both list transactional email on the free plan, and both connect to AI assistants. What Sender changes is the shape of the price: by subscribers, with sends at a multiple of the list and three seats on its cheapest paid plan. Brevo prices by emails sent, starts paid plans with one seat, and keeps WhatsApp, popups and mobile push for Professional.

Three sums before you choose:

1. Turn the daily cap into days. For example, one issue to 2,000 subscribers on Brevo's free plan needs 2,000 / 300 = 6.7, so 7 days of sending quota. On Sender's free plan the same list mailed four times a month is 2,000 x 4 = 8,000 emails, well inside 15,000.
2. Add the footer to the price. At 2,500 subscribers mailed weekly, Brevo Starter is $25 a month at the 15,000-email step, and removing the Brevo logo is a $12 add-on, so $25 + $12 = $37. Sender Standard at 2,500 subscribers is $27 with no Sender branding and 30,000 emails (Brevo pricing, Sender pricing).
3. Price the texts you plan to send. For example, Sender's Professional plan includes $10 of SMS a month, and at $0.015 a text to the United States that is $10 / $0.015 = 666 texts (Sender pricing). Brevo sells SMS credits priced by volume and destination; see its rate table before comparing.
4. Test where the mail lands, not only what it costs. Send the next issue from each free plan to a 200-person slice of your list and compare opens and clicks after 48 hours. Two free accounts cost nothing; a migration that hurts deliverability does.

Where each one stops you

Plans for 5,000 subscribers, side by side

Monthly billing in USD, checked on 26 October 2026 on the Sender pricing page and the Brevo pricing page. Brevo needs its 20,000-email step for more than 2,500 contacts, which allows four sends a month to 5,000 people.

Brevo's yearly billing takes 10% off. Sender's annual billing takes 30% off the first year for first-time users; at 500 subscribers, Standard is billed $75.60 for the first year against $108 after that (Sender pricing).

Three things that tip it

The meter under the free plan

Sender's free plan is generous by the month and small by headcount: 2,500 subscribers and one seat, with a 14-day Pro trial to start (pricing). Brevo's free plan is the reverse: it stores a far larger list but sends 300 emails a day once Brevo approves the account (pricing FAQ). A weekly newsletter fits Sender's shape; a big list you contact twice a year fits Brevo's.

Seats and footers on the first paid plan

Sender's Standard plan, $9 a month for 500 subscribers, removes Sender branding and gives three role-based seats (pricing). Brevo's Starter, also $9 for 5,000 emails and 500 contacts, keeps one seat and charges for logo removal; Standard at $18 removes the logo and can add two more seats (pricing). A three-person team pays less on Sender at the size priced above.

Channels beyond email

Sender covers email, SMS, popups, forms and landing pages, with dedicated IPs available on Professional (pricing). Brevo goes further: SMS credits on every plan, web push from Starter, WhatsApp and mobile push on Professional, and live chat and a sales CRM among its products (homepage, pricing). Pay for that reach only if a channel on the list is in next quarter's plan.

A narrow analytics server and a full-access key

Brevo's MCP guide offers one main server with 27 modules and narrower servers for single jobs, and says a smaller set of tools can improve the answers. Create an MCP key under Settings, SMTP & API, API Keys & MCP, with "Create MCP server API key" switched on, and store it at once, because Brevo shows it only once. Then point Claude Desktop or Cursor at the campaign analytics server, https://mcp.brevo.com/v1/brevo_campaign_analytics/mcp, and ask which of the last six newsletters lost the most readers between open and click, and what those issues had in common. Brevo's Email MCP page warns that an MCP key grants full read and write access, so a narrow server limits the tools, not the key. Keep the key private, let a person make any change in Brevo itself, and delete the key when the analysis is done. Sender's MCP server takes a different line: it never sends campaigns and creates workflows inactive.

Sender's first-year discount is priced to win the switch, and the renewal at full price is the figure to compare with Brevo's. Put the second year in your spreadsheet before you move.

Choose Sender if your job is

• A weekly newsletter to up to 2,500 people, free, sent in one go.
• Giving three to ten colleagues access without paying per seat.
• Adding text messages on a plan that includes some each month.

Choose Brevo if your job is

• Storing a large list on the free plan and mailing it a few times a year.
• Sending app emails with log history that does not expire.
• Keeping WhatsApp, push and a sales CRM in reach with the same vendor.

FAQ

Do both free plans include transactional email?

Yes. Sender lists transactional emails among its free plan's features, and Brevo includes transactional email on every plan, sharing the free plan's 300 a day (Sender pricing, Brevo pricing).

Which removes vendor branding more cheaply?

Sender, from its Standard plan at $9 a month for 500 subscribers. Brevo removes the logo on Standard from $18, or with a $12 a month add-on on Starter (Brevo pricing).

Can I send occasional campaigns without a subscription?

On both. Sender sells 5,000 email credits for $29, and Brevo sells pay-as-you-go credits that its FAQ says do not expire (Sender pricing, Brevo pricing).