Brevo
Novu
| Feature | Brevo | Novu |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $25/mo | Free / from $0.0025/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | small-businesses, startups, ecommerce, developers-needing-transactional-email | saas-developers, product-teams, startups, notification-heavy-apps |
| Founded | 2012 | 2021 |
| Email Campaigns | ✓ | ✗ |
| Sms Marketing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Whatsapp Campaigns | ✓ | ✗ |
| Marketing Automation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Crm | ✓ | ✗ |
| Transactional Api | ✓ | ✗ |
| Landing Pages | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi Channel Notifications | ✗ | ✓ |
| Notification Center | ✗ | ✓ |
| Subscriber Preferences | ✗ | ✓ |
| Workflow Editor | ✗ | ✓ |
| Digest | ✗ | ✓ |
| Templates | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self Hostable | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ 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
✓ Novu Pros
- Single API for all notification channels
- Open-source with self-hosting option
- Built-in notification center UI component
- Subscriber preference management included
✗ Novu Cons
- Complex setup for advanced use cases
- Documentation has gaps for edge cases
- Self-hosted version requires maintenance
The Verdict
Brevo is built for small businesses and startups, with a focus on email-campaigns and sms-marketing. Novu targets saas developers and product teams and leads with multi-channel-notifications and notification-center.
On pricing, Novu is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $0.0025/mo compared to $25/mo for Brevo. That $24.9975/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.
Both tools are a solid fit for startups — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
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.