Brevo

Brevo (the former Sendinblue) earns its place by being a genuine all-in-one marketing platform at a price that undercuts the obvious names. Where Mailchimp is email-first and Klaviyo is e-commerce-premium, Brevo bundles email, SMS, WhatsApp, a built-in CRM, and automation into one tool — and crucially, its free plan is based on a daily send limit (300 emails/day) with unlimited contacts, rather than capping your list size the way Mailchimp does. For startups and small businesses that have a large contact list but modest send volume, that pricing model alone can make it the cheaper choice by a wide margin. The drag-and-drop builder, automation workflows, and transactional email APIs are all solid, and having SMS and a CRM in the same place reduces tool sprawl. The honest caveats: the interface and templates feel a step behind Mailchimp's polish, deliverability and support can be uneven on the free and lower tiers, and the most useful automation and reporting sit on paid plans starting at $25/month. But for multichannel marketing on a budget — especially when your contact list is bigger than your monthly send volume — Brevo is one of the best-value platforms going, and the path from free to paid is gradual rather than a cliff.