Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, is a strong option for agencies that want an affordable API-based provider with a generous free tier and EU-friendly positioning. It is especially attractive for agencies based in Europe or serving European customers because the platform is GDPR-conscious by default and built on EU infrastructure.
In practical terms, Brevo is one of the easiest serious providers to justify on cost alone. For smaller agencies, its free tier can go a long way before an upgrade is necessary.
What Brevo is and why agencies choose it
Brevo handles the delivery side of email so your messages have a better chance of reaching the inbox reliably. It is marked as popular in the platform because it hits a useful middle ground: affordable, simple to set up, and solid on deliverability.
| Plan | Daily or monthly volume | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 300 emails per day | Free |
| Starter | Up to 20,000 per month with no daily limit | From $25 per month |
| Business | Up to 1 million per month | From $65 per month |
Brevo gives a much larger free daily allowance than SendGrid. For many small or mid-size agencies, that makes it one of the most practical first BYOK providers to test.
Before you start
- A Brevo account
- A domain or subdomain you want to send from
- Access to the DNS settings for that domain
Part 1: authenticate your sending domain in Brevo
As with any serious email provider, domain authentication is what helps inbox providers trust that Brevo can send on behalf of your domain.
In Brevo go to `Settings -> Senders, Domains & Dedicated IPs`, open the `Domains` tab, add the domain, then copy the DNS records Brevo gives you into your DNS provider.
You will usually be working with DKIM and SPF records, and DMARC is also worth adding for stronger protection and trust.
- Use a subdomain like mail.youragency.com if you want cleaner separation from the main domain
- Verify each DNS record inside Brevo after adding it
- Wait for propagation if verification does not pass immediately
Part 2: create the Brevo API key
In Brevo, open your account menu, go to `SMTP & API`, then create a new API key and give it a name you will recognise later.
- Copy the key immediately
- Store it safely before you move on
Part 3: connect Brevo in the platform
Go to `Platform -> Messaging -> Email`, click `Add Provider`, name the provider, choose `Brevo`, and move through the setup wizard.
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| Authenticate | Paste the API key and verify it |
| Throttling | Set a sensible send rate for the account tier you are on |
| Feedback | Let the platform register Brevo webhooks automatically |
| Summary and sender details | Set from and reply-to details, then send a test email |
Throttling, tracking, and webhook advice
Brevo can handle normal agency sending well, but if you are on the free tier it is sensible to be conservative on send speed. Faster sending does not change the daily cap, but it can still create unnecessary pressure on a smaller account.
Brevo also behaves differently from SendGrid in one useful but important way: open and click tracking are enabled on Brevo email and cannot be disabled through the API setup flow.
- On the free Brevo tier, slower sending is usually the safer move
- Tracking can make Gmail more likely to classify the email into Promotions rather than Primary
- The webhook setup sends bounce, spam, open, and click feedback back into the platform automatically when configuration succeeds
For review request campaigns, the Promotions tab is not automatically a disaster, but agencies should understand the trade-off instead of being surprised by it later.
Part 4: verify everything is working
- Check that the provider shows a setup complete badge on the email providers page
- Confirm it is the default or intentionally assigned where you want it
- Send a test email to yourself and verify the sender details
- Run a small campaign test to confirm delivery behaves as expected
Assigning Brevo to customer organizations
Brevo can operate as the agency default sender or be assigned to specific organizations at the organization level. That lets you control which customers should use Brevo without losing the higher priority of customer-owned Gmail or Outlook connections where those exist.
How Brevo interacts with custom-plan credits
Brevo changes the delivery provider. It does not change the underlying agency custom-plan credit model for review request invites in a normal agency-managed sending setup.
So if an invite fails because of credits, the usual issue is still the customer plan email limit, not the fact that Brevo is connected.
- Transactional emails remain separate from invite credits
- Normal agency-managed review request invites still respect the customer plan email limit
- The main exception remains customer-owned Gmail or Outlook sending from inside the customer account