Brevo vs ActiveCampaign for Email Automation on a Small Budget: Which One Runs Your Workflows?

The short answer: list the automations you actually need, then check one thing: does any of them branch? If every flow is a straight line (a welcome series, a single cart reminder, a follow-up after a download), start on Brevo's free plan. It includes automation and cart recovery for $0, as long as fewer than 2,000 contacts enter your automations. If you need If/Else logic, like a cart reminder that stops once someone buys, ActiveCampaign Plus is the cheapest plan we could confirm includes it: $49/month billed annually or $59 billed monthly at 1,000 contacts. Brevo has a conditional split too, but we couldn't confirm which Brevo plans include it, so test it on a free account before you rely on it.

Prices and plan details are as of November 2026 and were checked on the vendors' pricing pages on November 1–2, 2026. They change, so confirm before you pay. We started a Brevo free signup but haven't built automations in it, and we haven't used ActiveCampaign. Everything below comes from the official pricing pages, help-center excerpts, and community threads, and we say where we couldn't confirm something.

Pick by workflow

Sources: Brevo feature comparison, Brevo pricing, ActiveCampaign pricing.

Welcome series: Brevo Free is enough for most

Both tools run a welcome series. The difference is what it costs and how much room you get.

On ActiveCampaign Starter, each automation holds five actions, and the safe reading counts Wait steps as actions. Three emails with two waits is exactly five. Five emails with four waits is nine, so you'd split it into two automations linked by a tag. Our guide to the Starter 5-action limit walks through those counts step by step, so we won't repeat them here.

On Brevo, the feature table doesn't list a per-automation step limit, and we didn't find one in Brevo's help-center excerpts. The free account costs nothing, so build your longest sequence there before you count on it.

The free plan's real constraint is sending, not steps. Free accounts can send 300 emails a day. Brevo doesn't describe a separate allowance for automations, so plan as if welcome emails share those 300 with everything else you send. A newsletter to 280 people plus welcome emails to 25 new signups would go past it. If that's your situation, our Brevo free plan limits guide has the math. Brevo Starter has no daily cap (Brevo help, excerpt).

Abandoned cart: fine on both, until you need the "did they buy?" check

Brevo's feature comparison lists abandoned cart recovery on every plan, Free included. ActiveCampaign's pricing page lists abandoned cart as included on all four plans too. One caveat on that side: an older ActiveCampaign University course says it's Plus and above. We'd go by the current pricing page, but ask support if cart emails are why you're buying.

A single reminder, meaning wait an hour and send one email, needs no branching. That runs on Brevo Free and ActiveCampaign Starter.

The usual second reminder is where it changes. You want to check whether the person has bought before sending it, or you'll nag customers who already paid. On ActiveCampaign that check is an If/Else step, and the plan data behind the pricing page includes If/Else, Go to, and Goal on Plus and above only (pricing catalog). So a two-reminder cart flow means Plus.

On Brevo, the same check would be a conditional split. See the next section.

Branching (if/else): the one thing we couldn't settle for Brevo

Brevo does have branching. Its help center describes a conditional split rule in the new automation editor that sends contacts down different branches based on their details and behavior, and you can add more than two branches (help article, excerpt). The older editor had a YES/NO if/else, and Brevo says that editor is being phased out (classic if/else, excerpt).

What we couldn't confirm is which Brevo plans include the conditional split. The help article's plan-availability box didn't appear in what we could read, Brevo's help center was unreachable from our tools, and the pricing pages we pulled didn't list it as a separate row. Some third-party sites guess it's a Standard feature, but none cites Brevo. We're not going to guess either.

Here's how to settle it yourself in about ten minutes, at no cost:

1. Create a free Brevo account. No credit card is needed.
2. Start a new automation and open the Rules tab.
3. Add a conditional split and try to save or activate the workflow.
4. If Brevo asks you to upgrade, note which plan it names.

On ActiveCampaign, testing isn't as straightforward. The free trial runs with Professional-level features (trial details, excerpt), so an If/Else you build during the trial will work there even though Starter doesn't include it. Decide on Starter or Plus before you build. Don't wait to see what the trial lets you do.

The 2,000-contact automation cap on Brevo Free and Starter

This is Brevo's main automation limit. On Free and Starter, automations are "limited to 2,000 contacts," and Standard and above are unlimited (feature comparison). Brevo's quota article, in the excerpt we could read, adds the details (quotas, excerpt):

• It counts unique contacts. Someone who enters two automations counts once.
• Brevo emails you at 80% of the cap and again when you reach it.
• Once you're at the cap, new contacts can't enter, but people already in a workflow keep going.

One question we couldn't answer: whether the 2,000 ever resets. A Brevo Community thread, seen only through a search excerpt and using older plan names, quotes staff calling it a limit for the lifetime of the plan. If that's still true, a welcome series could take in at most 2,000 new subscribers before you need Standard. If your list grows by a few hundred people a month, plan for Standard within a year or so. If you're near 2,000 contacts already, start on Standard.

ActiveCampaign has no equivalent cap that we found. It prices by contacts instead, so a larger list means a higher tier.

What each one costs for automation

Brevo

Brevo prices by monthly email volume, and on Starter and Standard each volume tier caps how many contacts you can store (pricing data):

The $9 and $18 entry prices are on Brevo's pricing page ($97 and $194 a year on annual billing). The other figures are our own math: the base price plus the extra-email charge in Brevo's published pricing data (for example, $9 + $8 = $17). We haven't seen those totals on the pricing slider, so check them there.

So at 1,000 contacts, you need the 10,000-email tier just to store your list. That's $17/month on Starter or $35/month on Standard.

What the plans add for automation:

• Free ($0): automation and cart recovery, a 2,000-contact automation cap, 300 emails a day, Brevo's logo on every email, one user. It stores up to 100,000 contacts.
• Starter (from $9/month): no daily cap, but the same 2,000-contact automation cap. Removing the logo is a $12/month add-on.
• Standard (from $18/month): unlimited contacts in automations, A/B testing, one landing page, no Brevo logo. One user is included, and you can add up to two more at $12/month each.

ActiveCampaign

At 1,000 contacts (pricing page, pricing catalog, checked November 2, 2026):

At 10,000 contacts, Starter is $149/month billed annually ($189 monthly) and Plus is $189/month ($239 monthly). Each plan's monthly sends are 10 times its contact limit. Starter and Plus both include one user, and Starter has no landing pages. Our Kit vs ActiveCampaign comparison has the full four-plan breakdown.

Side by side for branching automation

If branching is a must, the comparison that matters is ActiveCampaign Plus against whichever Brevo plan turns out to include the conditional split. At 1,000 contacts on monthly billing, Plus costs $59. Brevo Standard is $35 by our math, and Brevo Starter is $17. If your test shows the split works on Brevo Free, that's $0.

At 10,000 contacts the gap is larger. ActiveCampaign Plus is $239/month billed monthly, with 100,000 sends included. Brevo Standard at 20,000 emails a month is $69 by our math. That's enough for two emails per contact per month, not a weekly newsletter. For more volume, price it on Brevo's slider.

Brevo: pros, cons, and who should skip it

Not for you if: your revenue depends on multi-branch flows and you can't spare time to test the split yourself, or you already have well over 2,000 contacts going through automations and need a high send volume.

Start on Brevo's free plan

ActiveCampaign: pros, cons, and who should skip it

We haven't used ActiveCampaign ourselves. This section is based on its pricing page, its pricing data, and help-center excerpts.

Who should not choose ActiveCampaign: businesses whose flows are all one path, since Brevo runs those for less. Also anyone who needs to spend $0 right now.

Start an ActiveCampaign free trial

FAQ

Can I run an abandoned cart flow on Brevo's free plan?

Brevo's feature comparison lists abandoned cart recovery on all plans, including Free. A one-reminder flow needs no branching. Whether a "skip if purchased" split works on Free is what we couldn't confirm, so test it in a free account.

Does ActiveCampaign Starter have If/Else?

No. The plan data behind ActiveCampaign's pricing page includes If/Else, Go to, and Goal on Plus and above only.

What happens when Brevo's 2,000 automation contacts fill up?

New contacts stop entering your automations. People already inside keep going. Brevo emails you at 80% and at 100%. To lift the cap, move to Standard or higher.

Which is cheaper for a simple welcome series?

Brevo. Its free plan runs one at $0 within the 300-a-day sending limit. ActiveCampaign starts at $15/month billed annually and has no free plan.

How to decide

1. Write down each automation and mark any step that depends on a condition ("if they bought," "if they clicked," "if the field is X").
2. No conditions anywhere? Start on Brevo Free. Move to Starter when the 300-a-day limit gets in the way, and to Standard as you near 2,000 contacts in automations.
3. Conditions in one or more flows? Spend ten minutes testing Brevo's conditional split on a free account. If it works on the plan you'd pay for, Brevo is the cheaper route.
4. The split needs a plan you won't pay for, or you'd rather not test? Go with ActiveCampaign Plus ($49/month billed annually at 1,000 contacts) and build your branching flows during the trial.

• Try Brevo free
• Start an ActiveCampaign free trial