Brevo
Ghost
| Feature | Brevo | Ghost |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $25/mo | Free / from $9/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Best For | small-businesses, startups, ecommerce, developers-needing-transactional-email | professional-bloggers, independent-publishers, news-sites, creators |
| Founded | 2012 | 2013 |
| Email Campaigns | ✓ | ✗ |
| Sms Marketing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Whatsapp Campaigns | ✓ | ✗ |
| Marketing Automation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Crm | ✓ | ✗ |
| Transactional Api | ✓ | ✗ |
| Landing Pages | ✓ | ✗ |
| Publishing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Newsletters | ✗ | ✓ |
| Memberships | ✗ | ✓ |
| Seo | ✗ | ✓ |
| Themes | ✗ | ✓ |
| Integrations | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self Hosting | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Brevo Pros
- Generous free plan with 300 emails per day
- Multi-channel: email, SMS, WhatsApp, push in one tool
- Built-in CRM included in all plans
- Transactional email/SMS API for developers
✗ Brevo Cons
- Email editor less polished than Mailchimp
- Automation features less advanced than ActiveCampaign
- Customer support can be slow on free plan
✓ Ghost Pros
- Open-source and self-hostable (free)
- Native membership and paid subscription support
- Fast and SEO-friendly by default
- Clean writing experience without bloat
✗ Ghost Cons
- Themes require code knowledge to customize
- Smaller plugin ecosystem than WordPress
- Self-hosting requires technical maintenance
The Verdict
Brevo is built for small businesses and startups, with a focus on email-campaigns and sms-marketing. Ghost targets professional bloggers and independent publishers and leads with publishing and newsletters.
On pricing, Ghost is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $9/mo compared to $25/mo for Brevo. That $16/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.