I think you feel bored reading the headline. Looks like just another blind guide on the search for the perfect Email marketing platform?
Let me explain first. Tons of reviews and comparison posts are available on the net. And how many times you have searched for the term “Best Email marketing platform”. You have probably also read many of them. But yet undecided, confused or unhappy with the current platform!
So, how will you be benefitted from this article? How to choose the right platform that aligns with your business goal?
Ok, let me answer in short.
Table of Contents
Every Email Marketing platform is not for you
There are many email marketing platforms out there in the market. Not every platform is the same. Some require a bit of technical knowledge and some have a Drag-n-Drop editor to set up an Email campaign. Some platforms are built to serve specific industry people. Some have free versions to kick off and some provide only paid plans. You must choose one according to your needs.
In this article I will put ConvertKit and Brevo to the test. If you are a small and medium business owner or a freelancer or a self made creator, this deep comparison will help you to get a fresh start with your email.
Introduction To ConvertKit and Brevo
First of all, it is important to know some basic points about ConvertKit and Brevo(formerly Sendinblue). If you want to make a decision without reading further, this intro will help.
ConvertKit is practically designed and built for content creators like Bloggers, YouTubers, Coaches, Freelancers, Musicians, Podcasters, Authors and Entrepreneurs.
ConvertKit helps creators worldwide to earn their living online and thus becomes one of the best Email marketing platform for creators.
Brevo is perfect for B2B and B2C businesses, eCommerce sellers, and agencies providing an all-in-one digital marketing experience to them. Sendinblue is helpful for small and medium-sized business owners as they offer a large volume of email sending facilities with a dedicated IP.
Area of Comparison
On what basis do you purchase a product or a service? It may be like having a low price, better user experience, high quality branded service and many more.
In terms of email marketing platform, there are some key features to consider-
- Contact list management
- Number of emails sending limit
- Email segmentation
- Varied email templates, landing pages building and Newsletters set up options.
- Drag and Drop editor
- Email automation and scheduling
- Proper delivery of email
- Personalization features
- Selling digital products and collect payments from ecommerce platforms
- A/B testing
- SMS and RSS notifications
- Live chat functionalities with customers
- Integrations with others
- Advanced reporting
- Priority support
Here we will compare the core and common features one by one and later mention the unique features ConvertKit and Brevo(formerly Sendinblue) have.
Subscriber list management Comparison
The most important question asked by the businesses is “How can I start with my email list?”.
Most of the email marketing platforms offer free contacts upto certain number.
ConvertKit is free for up to 1000 subscribers where Brevo offers to manage unlimited contacts for free.
You can send unlimited emails with convertKit in any free or paid plan. Brevo’s free plan is limited to 300 emails per day. If you purchase any paid Brevo plan this limit will lift off.
You can build unlimited landing pages and email opt-in forms with ConvertKit.
But you have to choose a premium plan or an Enterprise plan in Brevo to use landing pages. You can also build an unlimited unsubscribe page builder with ConvertKit with ease rather than Brevo.
Subscriber tagging and segmentation are both found common in ConvertKit and in Brevo.
So, We have found ConvertKit as a clear winner for beginners and for those who have a low budget and want to manage contacts in order.
Which is better for growing an audience?
Growing an audience is easy but building a targeted engaged audience is super hard for marketers. Many entrepreneurs fail at this stage and become frustrated when they don’t get traffic and sales. For email marketers, it is quite tough now to get noticed as the inboxes are full of emails and promotions.
ConvertKit has a list of features to grow your audience and send your emails directly into the customers inbox. You can create your own custom domain with ConvertKit to win trust from customers at no cost. ConvertKit server handles unlimited traffic for you also.
Brevo calls this feature as Dedicated IP which is only included in the Enterprise plan.
You can offer customers to download your free ebook, cheat sheet, templates,courses or training that will be sent straight to inbox by ConvertKit.
You can also set facebook ads and newsletter referral system from ConvertKit Creator Pro account which is comparatively less cheaper than Brevo.
Adding additional team members with the ConvertKit Creator Pro plan is unlimited, whereas the Brevo premium plan only permits 3 users.
Finally, we select ConvertKit as the better choice for growing an audience initially. Brevo is perfect for large enterprise solutions.
Which one performs better Email Campaigns?
ConvertKit has a visual email builder. You can easily embed any image , file, button, countdown timer or video with ConvertKit Broadcast. ConvertKit has integration with Unsplash and instagram to embed an image from there.
ConvertKit also has some ready-made email templates to use. Beginners and self creators will feel comfortable using ConvertKit.
You can also create your own custom templates. ConvertKit has Subscriber tagging and segmentation feature which helps you to send personalized emails.
Email automation is not available in the ConvertKit free plan. It is only available for any paid plans.
With ConvertKit automation, You can create a series of emails based on customer behavior.
You can also do A/B testing with ConvertKit in any plan.
ConvertKit does not have SMS marketing features which is a downside for them.
On the other hand Brevo has also a visual builder. To send any simple email you can use their Rich text editor or the Drag & drop editor. Sendinblue has also built an HTML editor for users.
Brevo has many ready-made email templates. You can choose the right campaign from there like welcome mails, newsletters etc.
But setting up transactional email in Brevo requires some technical knowledge which may be time consuming for users.
We like the automation system for Brevo.
It is available in both free and paid plans. You can set up Welcome messages, abandoned cart emails, post purchase emails from Brevo easily.
A/B testing is only available in Premium and Enterprise Brevo plans.
Brevo offers SMS marketing also. We think this is a nice advanced feature they have in their arsenal.
We don’t declare a winner in this field. As it is a close call, it’s a tie from us.
Which one is Ecommerce friendly?
As Ecommerce is a booming industry, we think having eCommerce functionalities should be a must for every email marketing platform.
First of all take a look at how ConvertKit helps eCommerce store owners and handle online sales.If you are a creator and want to sell digital products, ConvertKit is the perfect place for you.
You can also run paid newsletters, sell subscriptions and set up tip jars ( a nice way to collect tips from fans) in any plan of ConvertKit. Another nice thing is that all these features can be set unlimited times. So, time to sell unlimited products with ConvertKit!
You only have to pay a low transaction fee when the sale occurs.
ConvertKit has integration with Woocommerce, shopify, Gumroad and many other ecommerce platforms.
Here are the full list of integrations.
You can also integrate more from ConvertKit using Zapier.
Time to focus on Brevo now.
Brevo has a sales CRM in every plan which helps to track every customer interaction in your site. You can also install a live chat system on your site to contact your clients directly.
You can easily set up a workflow on abandoned cart, Product purchase or any special deal to customers through Sendinblue. You can retarget your customers from Brevo too. Brevo also covers integrations with many eCommerce sites.
In our opinion, to start an online business, ConvertKit should be your first choice as you can sell unlimited digital products and services from there as well as integrate with your online store.
Advanced reporting system comparison
ConvertKit has a nice dashboard for advanced reporting for emails. You can watch how your subscribers grow over the days from there.
You can also get open rate, click rate, deliverability report from there. You can find your most engaging subscriber from the Subscriber scoring graph.
It is also possible to find top performing landing pages and forms from reports.
Brevo also delivers real time reporting for your emails.
There are separate data tables both for email campaigns and SMS campaigns. You can check open rate, click rate, unsubscription rate, bounce rate from Brevo reporting. There is geography & device reporting available in the premium Brevo plan. You will also get a Heat map( exactly where customers click) reporting from there.
Brevo(formerly Sendinblue) is the winner here for advanced reporting.
A better community support
ConvertKit has live chat and email support for users. It has a large community of creators to help you with any question.
ConvertKit has a creator university in every plan. It is built with some awesome free courses for marketers.
Moreover ConvertKit regularly arranges workshops and training for creators. You can view their support page for further learning.
Brevo has email and phone support for users. If you purchase their Enterprise plan, a dedicated account manager will be assigned for you.
Brevo Academy is enriched with free courses and certificates that will both boost your business and career.
Brevo has over 10,000 expert partners to help your business to grow.
Our vote goes for ConvertKit for outstanding support.
How about Price?
The last thing we want to compare between ConvertKit and Brevo is the price.
Convertkit pricing is based on the number of subscribers while Brevo is based on the number of emails sending.
Both platforms have a free plan for users. Let’s break down one by one
ConvertKit has 3 types of pricing. They name them as Free, Creator and Creator Pro.
The free plan costs you nothing. You can easily create an account with them without any credit card details. You can use the free plan features up to 1000 subscribers and start building your email list.
The Creator plan gives you more freedom and automation facilities. You have to pay $25/month for 1000 subscribers to grow your business.
If you want to level up your business to a new height, the Creator Pro plan is right for you. It will cost $50/month for 1000 subscribers with unlimited opportunities.
Remember that the pricing plan i explained to you is for 1000 subscribers. If you have more on your list, the price will go up.
Brevo has 4 types of plan otherhand.
These are Free, Starter, Business and BrevoPlus.There no limit for maintaining the number of subscribers in Sendinblue.
The free plan covers sending 300 emails per day with minimum features.
The Starter plan is $25/month with email sending limit of 20,000/month. It is best suitable for growing marketers and brands.
The Business plan costs $65/month with the same email sending limit. It is best for marketing managers.
The BrevoPlus plan lets you to set custom volume of emails with priority sending. It is best for large organizations.
We see both the entrance barrier for using ConvertKit and Brevo is low.
But the more your email contacts go higher, you have to pay more in Brevo than ConvertKit.
We would like to put ConvertKit ahead of Brevo in terms of pricing.
Reviews
Read the Comparison reviews on G2, Capterra and on TrustRadius.
If you want to get the full single review on ConvertKit, explore my favorite teacher Brian Dean’s article.
Find Brevo complete review from here.
Overall Verdict
It’s always hard to make a choice. But you have to go for it.
We have outlined some important areas and from there it is very clear that ConvertKit is the final winner for best email marketing platform.
It is beginner friendly, easy to setup, relatively cheap and has an engaged community of creators to help you along with.
Brevo gives unlimited contacts but later it costs too much.
Disclosure: Our team writes about stuff we think you’ll like. We aim to highlight the products and services you might find interesting, and if you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partner.
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