Brevo vs GetResponse — which should you choose?

Brevo and GetResponse are the two European all-rounders in our comparison, and they resemble each other more than most pairs. Both keep the data in the EU, both sell something besides email, and both are at the cheaper end of the field. They differ in two things, and one of them changes your bill entirely.

The short answer

Choose Brevo if the list is large and the newsletter goes out rarely. It is cheaper at every list size, and at a 10,000-contact list the difference is €492 a year. Text messages and a CRM come on top.

Choose GetResponse if you write to the list often or run webinars. Its price does not move with sending pace at all, and the webinar module replaces a separate tool.

Comparison table

← scroll →

Prices exclude VAT, billed monthly unless stated otherwise.

• The price is the monthly price of the cheapest paid plan at that list size. The Free plan column shows when you do not have to pay.
• GetResponse: the smallest list sold is 1,000 contacts, so the 500-contact column shows that price.

Two different models — this is where the whole comparison starts

The services bill for different things, and that is a more important difference than any single price figure.

Brevo’s bill follows the number of emails sent. A large list written to once a month is therefore unusually cheap. The same list with a weekly newsletter costs many times more.

GetResponse’s bill follows the number of contacts, and sending is unlimited on every paid plan. A weekly newsletter therefore costs no more than a monthly one.

The practical rule of thumb is the same as throughout our comparison: multiply subscribers by sends per month. If the figure stays below about twice the list size, the volume-based model is cheaper. Both models in full: two pricing models.

Prices side by side

← scroll →

Cheapest paid plans (Brevo Starter, GetResponse Starter) read from the price lists (Brevo, GetResponse) on 3 September 2026, monthly prices excluding VAT. Brevo’s package is set by sending volume, and the row shows the cheapest package whose contact quota covers that list; on the largest row that means two newsletters a month. GetResponse’s smallest list sold is 1,000 contacts, so the 500-contact row shows the price for a thousand contacts.

Note the middle row: at 2,500 contacts the difference is only €72 a year. It is the smallest difference in the whole table, and exactly there GetResponse’s unlimited sending can flip the comparison. If you write to a 2,500-name list weekly, Brevo’s package goes up and GetResponse’s does not move.

Contact counting — GetResponse has three traps

The price list says what a thousand contacts cost. In GetResponse’s case it does not say nearly everything.

← scroll →

The rules are read from the providers’ own help pages. “Not read” means the rule could not be opened in the original source — we do not guess it in either direction.

• Brevo. The price is set by monthly sending volume rather than contact count, so the question of counting unsubscribed contacts does not apply to Brevo the way it does to the others. The flip side is that the same list costs more the more often you write to it.
• GetResponse. Billing is set by two figures: the month’s highest number of active contacts and the total number of contacts added during the month, regardless of what later happens to them. The same address on several lists is counted several times. Exceeding the limit is not a one-off charge but recurs every billing period, on an annual contract too, and above 100,000 contacts the charge is $4 for every thousand started.

GetResponse’s billing is set by the month’s highest number of active contacts and additionally by the total number of contacts added during the month, regardless of what later happens to them. The third point: the same address on several lists is counted several times. One import can therefore push you permanently over the limit, and the overage recurs every billing period, on an annual contract too.

At Brevo the question does not exist the same way, because the price is not set by contact count. The flip side has already been mentioned: the same list costs more the more often you write to it. All seven rules side by side: how contacts are counted.

Deliverability: one measures, the other cleans

We do not test deliverability ourselves. Below are two things: Tooltester’s 2017–2024 series as history — it ended in January 2024, and the source no longer stands behind its method — and eight points from the services’ own help pages, which are the current basis of this comparison.

← scroll →

Tooltester ended the series with the January 2024 round and explained why in August 2026: seed lists proved unreliable and providers started optimising for them. The figures are therefore history, not a measurement of current deliverability.

Source: Tooltester deliverability test, 12 rounds 8/2017–1/2024. About 80 seed addresses, 28 providers, shared IP addresses. Average across all platforms in the latest round 83.1%. Average and range calculated from the published rounds.

Deliverability features from the help docs

Eight points read from each provider’s own help pages on 13 September 2026. This replaces percentages as a buying basis: a feature can be checked and dated, a seed-list result no longer can. Every cell links to the article it was read from.

← scroll →

Yes = the help page describes the feature. No = the help page says it is absent or points to an external tool. — = not found in the help pages; that does not mean the feature is absent.

As history: in Tooltester’s series these two had the lowest averages of the five we compare, GetResponse 83.8% and Brevo 82.7%, and Brevo’s range was the widest of the five we compare. The series ended in January 2024.

Read from the help pages, the difference is in two points. Brevo shows a deliverability score in the app and lists actions based on it; GetResponse’s help page describes no equivalent meter, although the complaint rate shows in the reports. GetResponse has a List hygiene page for blocking addresses and domains; Brevo’s help page tells you to blocklist by hand. A dedicated IP and a deliverability team are at both only on the most expensive plans: at Brevo on Professional, at GetResponse on MAX.

Most of deliverability is still the sender’s own responsibility — authentication, list quality and sending pace: what Gmail and Yahoo require of senders.

Data location: both in the EU

Brevo is a French company and GetResponse a Polish one, and both have their servers in the EU. For neither, then, is a transfer basis outside the EU needed. Both read from the services’ own privacy policies on 3 September 2026.

This is one of the few pairs in our comparison where data location does not separate the tools at all — and that is good news, because at both your own entry stays short. What still belongs in the policy: email marketing and GDPR.

What else the price includes

Neither is a plain newsletter tool, and the extras go in different directions. GetResponse has webinars built in — if you run them, calculate what a separate tool would cost. Brevo has text messages and a CRM in the same account.

The same caveat applies to both: if you do not use the extra, you pay for it anyway. At GetResponse it is clearer, because the webinar module is a large part of the product and shows in the price.

A third option

If you came to this page for the cheapest EU option, also look at EmailOctopus: 2,500 subscribers free and a paid plan at €16 a month, lists in AWS’s Irish data centre. If, on the other hand, you want funnels and courses in the same package, Systeme.io does that on its free plan up to 2,000 contacts. The whole field’s prices side by side: best email marketing software.

Which one for you