Sendinblue was originally a digital agency that developed its email marketing platform to address one of the biggest challenges faced by small businesses: automating email marketing on a budget.
Its comprehensive feature set, including a CRM, marketing automation, transactional emails, SMS, landing pages, and Facebook ads, coupled with its highly competitive pricing, demonstrates its commitment to becoming a major player in the email marketing software market.
The company even boasts a popular email plugin for WordPress. With over 500,000 users and 200 million emails sent per day, Sendinblue's efforts seem to be paying off, despite being a relative newcomer to the market, having launched in 2012.
In this in-depth Sendinblue review, we'll delve into whether this email marketing platform delivers on its promise of providing a user-friendly, all-in-one solution.
Pricing Options
Sendinblue offers pricing plans based on the number of emails sent per month. They have a free plan that allows up to 300 emails per day, which is suitable for small businesses with a limited budget. Their paid plans start at $25 per month for the Lite plan, which includes up to 10,000 emails per month and allows for advanced email marketing features such as A/B testing, marketing automation, and landing pages.
For businesses that require more advanced features, Sendinblue offers two additional plans. The Essential plan costs $39 per month and includes up to 20,000 emails per month and additional features such as phone support, marketing automation workflows, and chat support.
The Premium plan costs $49 per month and includes up to 120,000 emails per month, advanced reporting, and Facebook ads integration.
In addition to the above plans, Sendinblue also offers a custom Enterprise plan for businesses with more complex needs. This plan includes a dedicated account manager, priority support, and custom volume pricing.
Overall, Sendinblue offers competitive pricing for its email marketing platform, making it a cost-effective solution for businesses of all sizes.
Pros
- Comprehensive feature set: Sendinblue offers a range of features, including email marketing, SMS marketing, marketing automation, landing pages, and more, making it a one-stop shop for businesses looking to manage multiple marketing channels.
- Affordable pricing: Sendinblue's pricing plans are competitive and offer a lot of value for the price, making it an excellent option for small businesses and those on a budget.
- Intuitive interface: The platform is easy to use, even for beginners, thanks to its intuitive interface and drag-and-drop editor.
- Advanced automation: Sendinblue's automation capabilities are extensive and highly customizable, enabling businesses to develop complex workflows that can be activated by various events and actions.
- Great deliverability: Sendinblue has a strong reputation for high deliverability rates. It is more probable that your subscribers will find your emails in their inbox instead of their spam folders.
- Strong customer support: Sendinblue offers excellent customer support. For its paid plans, Sendinblue offers email support, live chat, and phone support, providing businesses with the necessary assistance at any time.
- WordPress plugin: Sendinblue offers a popular WordPress plugin that allows users to integrate email marketing and other features directly into their WordPress site.
Cons
- Free Plan sending limit: The daily sending limit of 300 emails on their free plan may be insufficient for some users' needs.
- The system's speed may sometimes feel sluggish or slow: On occasion, certain pages may load slowly within the web application.
Would Sendinblue be the suitable email marketing solution for your needs?
Sendinblue may be the right choice for you if:
- If you're looking for a comprehensive platform that allows you to send not just email campaigns, but also transactional emails, SMS, and WhatsApp messages, then Sendinblue is a great option. Its automation workflow designer enables you to create campaigns that can be triggered by various actions such as clicks, opens, and webpage visits. Additionally, Sendinblue offers a dedicated section for transactional messages like password resets, sign-up confirmations, and purchase confirmations. You can even send SMS and branded WhatsApp campaigns to a segmented list.
- You want a sophisticated tool on a low budget: If you're after a value-for-money service with advanced segmentation, automations, live chat, and dynamic personalization, Sendinblue may be a noteworthy option. It can be a lot cheaper than other comparable tools if you send few emails to the same people.
- You're an ecommerce: Sendinblue is well-equipped to serve ecommerce with features like customizable triggers based on purchase data, the ability to import customer orders, and customizable KPIs. It also has integrations with popular platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento.
Not the best choice if:
- You require multiple logins and varying user access levels: If you need to provide access to multiple users with different permission levels, Sendinblue may not be the right fit for you, as this feature is only available in their Business and Enterprise plans.
- You prioritize the highest deliverability rates: Although Sendinblue usually maintains good deliverability rates, their scores have been known to vary across different tests conducted twice a year.
Sendinblue Features
Looking at Sendinblue, it's clear that they offer a strong set of professional features, and their affordability makes them an attractive option for small businesses. However, it's important to consider both the advantages and disadvantages of their key features.
Sendinblue Templates
Sendinblue offers a decent collection of 47 responsive email templates, categorized by purpose such as sale, re-engagement, welcome, and more, instead of industry-specific themes. This approach ensures that the design is already optimized for specific call-to-actions. Unlike many competitors, all email templates are available on all plans, including the free one, although the Sendinblue branding can only be removed on paid plans. Additionally, users have the option to code their own newsletter and save it as a template. It's worth noting that once a template is selected, changing it requires starting from scratch.
Sendinblue SMS Marketing
SMS marketing is available on Sendinblue's free plan, but you need to buy credits, and the cost varies by country. For example, sending 500 SMS within the US costs €5, while 1000 SMS cost €10, and so on. It's important to note that you'll be charged in Euros, regardless of your location.
Being able to send SMS is a valuable feature, as many email marketing platforms don't offer it, including the popular tool Mailchimp. The prices for SMS credits on Sendinblue are similar to those on Omnisend, another email marketing platform we compared.
Sendinblue SMTP
Sendinblue's SMTP relay service is designed to send transactional emails and ensure that they avoid spam filters. This is a valuable feature for those who need to send time-sensitive bulk emails.
According to Sendinblue, their SMTP service promises rapid delivery times, with 50% of emails delivered within 1 second and 99.98% of emails delivered in under 20 seconds. The free plan allows you to use Sendinblue's SMTP service with a limit of 300 emails per day. However, if you need to send a higher volume, you will need to upgrade to one of their paid plans.
It's important to note that they don't have specific pricing plans for transactional emails, so their pricing may be a bit more expensive compared to other services that specialize in transactional emails.
Sendinblue CRM
The free plan of Sendinblue includes a CRM along with unlimited contacts, marketing automation, and web tracking. This is a great advantage compared to other all-in-one email marketing services that usually charge extra for this feature. We even included Sendinblue's CRM in our list of the best CRM software for small businesses. Although dedicated CRMs like HubSpot offer more advanced features, if you need a simple solution, Sendinblue's CRM may suffice. That's why we also listed it as one of the best HubSpot alternatives.
In our view, Sendinblue has a well-designed and user-friendly deal pipeline. Although Sendinblue's CRM may be less complex than other options, this does not necessarily make it a disadvantage. You will be inundated with a manageable number of options and levels of navigation. Instead, editing columns and adding/editing attributes is a breeze.
However, there are two significant omissions: lead scoring and analytics. The lack of reporting on deals could be better.
Conversations App
Sendinblue offers multichannel contact management through their Conversations app, which allows users to manage live chat, chatbot, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram messages. This is an excellent addition to their emailing software, as it helps users stay on top of messages and identify opportunities quickly. Additionally, there is a Conversations mobile app available for both iOS and Android.
Although this feature is available for free, it has some limitations, as it does not allow for external messaging app integration. To integrate Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, users need to pay an additional $15 per user on top of their monthly subscription. However, Sendinblue promises to integrate WhatsApp into the dashboard in the near future.
WhatsApp Campaigns
With Sendinblue being one of the first Meta partners for WhatsApp Campaigns, you now have the ability to send targeted messages to your audience through the messaging app.
Customization is key with WhatsApp campaigns, as you can use images, videos, attachments, and CTAs to keep your customers engaged. It's important to note that an unsubscribe link is required in your WhatsApp campaigns, and monitoring the unsubscribe rate is advised as it will impact your quality score. Unfortunately, A/B testing is not currently available for these campaigns.
Bulk uploading of contacts and segment creation are both possible, allowing for use across other channels like SMS and email campaigns. This multichannel management feature is available on all plans, though sending charges will vary depending on the country.
Sendinblue Competitors
Along with Sendinblue, MailerLite is one of the most affordable tools available, and they also offer a generous free plan. It's a great option for beginners because it's easier to use than Sendinblue.
GetResponse offers some advanced features such as a webinar hosting platform, detailed reports, and useful analysis features. Their email automations and list management capabilities are also impressive.
ActiveCampaign is a more advanced tool than Sendinblue, with a powerful and flexible automation system that can't be compared. However, it comes at a higher price point and doesn't offer a free plan.
Summary
In summary, Sendinblue provides a comprehensive set of features suitable for businesses of any size, making it an all-encompassing email marketing tool. With its user-friendly interface, marketing automation capabilities, and multichannel contact management, Sendinblue is a great choice for beginners as well as advanced users. While there are some areas where Sendinblue could improve, such as reporting on deals and lead scoring, the platform offers excellent value for money. Moreover, Sendinblue's ability to integrate with WhatsApp and its Conversations app make it a versatile tool that can help businesses stay on top of their customer communications. Overall, Sendinblue is a solid email marketing solution that offers a lot of value for its users.
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