Categories Alternatives Email Marketing

CampaignHQ vs Brevo: Honest Comparison for Email Marketers (2026)

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If you’re comparing CampaignHQ vs Brevo for your email marketing stack in 2026, you’re probably stuck in a familiar place. Brevo (the platform formerly known as Sendinblue) is one of the most well-known names in email marketing. CampaignHQ is a newer, AWS-native alternative that’s been gaining traction with startups and growing businesses.

Both platforms let you send email campaigns, build automations, and manage contacts. But they take fundamentally different approaches to how they do it, and more importantly, how they charge you for it.

This post is an honest breakdown. We’ll cover features, pricing, limitations, and who each platform is really built for. No fluff, no misleading feature checklists. Just a clear look at what matters when you’re choosing between these two tools.

Let’s get into it.

Quick Comparison: CampaignHQ vs Brevo at a Glance

Before we dive deep, here’s a high-level look at how these two platforms stack up:

CampaignHQ

  • Built specifically for AWS-native teams
  • Bring Your Own Account (BYOA) model using AWS SES
  • Email + WhatsApp campaigns in one dashboard
  • Pricing based on contacts, not emails sent
  • Unlimited email sending through your own AWS SES
  • Starting at $34/month (annual billing)
  • WhatsApp chatbot builder and inbox included
  • Newer platform, focused feature set

Brevo

  • Established all-in-one marketing platform (formerly Sendinblue)
  • Uses its own email infrastructure
  • Email, SMS, WhatsApp (on higher plans), landing pages, CRM
  • Pricing based on number of emails sent per month
  • Free plan available (300 emails/day)
  • Starting at $9/month for Starter
  • More mature CRM and landing page features
  • Broader feature set across marketing and sales

Now let’s break each of these down in detail.

Feature Deep Dive

Email Campaigns and Editor

Both platforms offer drag-and-drop email editors with templates. Brevo has been building its editor for years and it shows. You get a polished experience with a large template library, AI content generation, and solid customization options across all plans.

CampaignHQ’s editor is clean and functional. It covers everything you need for building professional email campaigns. Where it differs is the sending layer. Instead of routing through Brevo’s shared infrastructure, your emails go through AWS SES, which is your own dedicated sending environment. This matters for deliverability and cost, which we’ll get to shortly.

Verdict: Brevo has a more mature email editor. CampaignHQ’s editor gets the job done, and the AWS SES backend is a real advantage for deliverability-conscious senders.

Marketing Automation

Brevo gates its automation features by plan. On the Free and Starter plans, automation is limited to 2,000 contacts. You need the Standard plan ($18+/month) for unlimited automation, and the Professional plan ($499/month) for advanced features like AI segmentation and contact scoring.

CampaignHQ includes user journey automations (drip sequences) starting from its Core plan. You get 20,000 automation executions on Core, scaling up to 200,000 on the Scale plan. The automation builder supports both email and WhatsApp channels, which is a significant differentiator if you’re running multi-channel campaigns.

Verdict: Brevo has more sophisticated automation features at the higher tiers. CampaignHQ gives you solid multi-channel automation at lower price points with no arbitrary contact limits on who can enter your workflows.

WhatsApp Marketing

This is where CampaignHQ really stands out. WhatsApp isn’t a bolt-on feature here. It’s built into the core of the platform. You get:

  • WhatsApp campaign manager alongside email
  • WhatsApp chatbot flow builder
  • Team inbox for WhatsApp conversations
  • WhatsApp template management
  • Multi-WABA (WhatsApp Business Account) support
  • Direct WhatsApp Cloud API integration through your own AWS account

With Brevo, WhatsApp is only available on the Professional plan, which starts at $499/month. That’s a steep barrier if WhatsApp is an important channel for your business.

Verdict: CampaignHQ wins on WhatsApp, and it’s not even close. If WhatsApp marketing matters to you, CampaignHQ gives you everything from $34/month. Brevo makes you pay $499/month just to unlock the channel.

CRM and Contact Management

Brevo offers a built-in CRM across all plans, including the free tier. It’s a legitimate CRM with deal pipelines, contact management, and sales tools. On higher plans, you get features like Sales Essentials and Sales Advanced that make it a viable option for teams that want marketing and sales in one tool.

CampaignHQ focuses on contact management with segmentation, custom attributes, and tagging. It’s built for marketing-first teams, not sales teams looking for a full CRM replacement. You can manage your contacts effectively and build detailed segments, but you won’t find deal tracking or sales pipelines here.

Verdict: Brevo wins on CRM features. If you need a combined marketing and sales platform, Brevo offers more out of the box. If you’re focused on marketing campaigns and already have a separate CRM (like HubSpot or Salesforce), CampaignHQ’s approach may be all you need.

Landing Pages

Brevo offers a landing page builder starting from the Standard plan (1 page) and expanding to 10 pages on the Professional plan. It’s a handy feature for teams that want to keep everything in one platform.

CampaignHQ does not include a landing page builder. If you need landing pages, you’ll use a separate tool like Unbounce, Carrd, or a simple page on your website. For many teams, this isn’t a dealbreaker since dedicated landing page tools often outperform what’s bundled into email platforms anyway.

Verdict: Brevo wins here. If you want landing pages in your email platform, Brevo has them and CampaignHQ doesn’t.

Analytics and Reporting

Brevo’s reporting gets progressively better with each plan tier. Basic analytics on Starter, advanced reporting with click heatmaps and device/geography reports on Standard, and a full Analytics Studio on Professional and Enterprise.

CampaignHQ includes analytics and domain warmup tools across its plans. You get campaign performance tracking, deliverability metrics, and the kind of reporting you need to make data-driven decisions about your email and WhatsApp campaigns.

Verdict: Brevo offers more advanced reporting features, especially on higher plans. CampaignHQ covers the essentials well.

A/B Testing

Brevo includes A/B testing from the Standard plan ($18/month) onward. CampaignHQ supports campaign testing as well, letting you optimize subject lines and content.

Verdict: Both platforms offer A/B testing. Brevo locks it behind its second paid tier, while CampaignHQ includes campaign scheduling and testing tools more accessibly.

Integrations and API

Brevo has a wide integration ecosystem built over many years. Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Salesforce, and dozens more. It also offers a robust API for custom integrations.

CampaignHQ offers API access across all plans and integrates with popular tools. Its standout integration is, of course, the deep AWS ecosystem connection. If your stack runs on AWS, CampaignHQ fits in natively. You connect your AWS SES and WhatsApp Cloud API accounts directly, and everything runs through your own infrastructure.

Verdict: Brevo has more third-party integrations. CampaignHQ has deeper AWS integration, which is a major advantage if AWS is already part of your stack.

Pricing Comparison: Where It Gets Interesting

Pricing is where the CampaignHQ vs Brevo comparison gets really interesting, because these two platforms use completely different pricing models.

How Brevo Charges You

Brevo prices based on the number of emails you send per month:

  • Free: 300 emails/day (about 9,000/month), Brevo branding included
  • Starter: From $9/month for 5,000 emails, up to $69/month for 100,000 emails
  • Standard: From $18/month for 5,000 emails, up to $169/month for 150,000 emails
  • Professional: Starting at $499/month for 150,000+ emails, includes WhatsApp and advanced features
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Hidden costs to watch for:

  • Removing Brevo branding on Starter is a paid add-on
  • Multi-user access is an add-on on Standard (up to 3 users)
  • WhatsApp only unlocks at $499/month
  • SMS credits cost extra on all plans
  • Dedicated IP is an additional cost

How CampaignHQ Charges You

CampaignHQ prices based on contacts, not emails:

  • Core: $34/month (annual) for 10,000 contacts, 1 user, 20,000 email credits
  • Growth: $104/month (annual) for 50,000 contacts, 5 users, 100,000 email credits
  • Scale: $209/month (annual) for 100,000 contacts, 10 users, 200,000 email credits
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

The key difference: email sending through your own AWS SES is unlimited and billed by AWS directly (roughly $0.10 per 1,000 emails). The email credits included in CampaignHQ plans are for emails sent through CampaignHQ’s own infrastructure if you don’t connect AWS SES.

Real-World Cost Comparison

Let’s look at what you’d actually pay at different volumes:

Sending 50,000 emails/month to 10,000 contacts:

  • Brevo Standard: $84/month (no WhatsApp, limited automation)
  • CampaignHQ Core + AWS SES: $34/month + ~$5 AWS SES cost = ~$39/month (includes WhatsApp, full automation)

Sending 100,000 emails/month to 50,000 contacts:

  • Brevo Standard: $129/month (no WhatsApp)
  • Brevo Professional (with WhatsApp): $499/month
  • CampaignHQ Growth + AWS SES: $104/month + ~$10 AWS SES cost = ~$114/month (includes WhatsApp, 5 users)

Sending 500,000 emails/month to 100,000 contacts:

  • Brevo Professional: $499/month+ (depending on volume)
  • CampaignHQ Scale + AWS SES: $209/month + ~$50 AWS SES cost = ~$259/month (includes WhatsApp, 10 users)

The savings become more dramatic as your volume grows. At scale, CampaignHQ with AWS SES can cost 40-60% less than Brevo for comparable functionality.

The BYOA Advantage

CampaignHQ’s Bring Your Own Account model means your emails go through your own AWS SES account. Here’s why that matters beyond just cost:

  • Your sending reputation is yours. You’re not sharing IP reputation with thousands of other Brevo users.
  • Your data stays in your AWS account. Full control, full compliance.
  • You can use AWS credits. Startups on AWS Activate or companies with AWS commitments can apply existing credits to their email costs.
  • No vendor lock-in on the sending layer. Your SES setup, verified domains, and sending reputation stay with you even if you stop using CampaignHQ.

This is a fundamentally different approach than traditional email platforms, and for AWS-native teams, it’s a game changer.

Who Should Choose Brevo?

Brevo is the better choice if:

  • You want an all-in-one platform with built-in CRM, landing pages, and sales tools
  • You’re a small business or solopreneur who needs a free plan to get started
  • You don’t use AWS and don’t want to manage any infrastructure
  • You need a broad ecosystem of native integrations
  • Your email volume is low (under 20,000 emails/month) and you want the simplest setup possible
  • You don’t need WhatsApp marketing or are willing to pay $499/month for it

Brevo is a solid, well-established platform. It’s been serving businesses for over a decade, and its breadth of features is genuinely impressive. For teams that want everything in one tool and don’t mind the pricing model, it works well.

Who Should Choose CampaignHQ?

CampaignHQ is the better choice if:

  • You’re already on AWS or planning to be
  • You want to use your own AWS SES for email sending (cost savings, data control, dedicated reputation)
  • WhatsApp marketing is important to your business
  • You’re sending at volume (50,000+ emails/month) and want to keep costs low
  • You have AWS credits you want to put to work
  • You need multi-channel campaigns (email + WhatsApp) without paying enterprise prices
  • You value data ownership and want your marketing data in your own AWS account
  • You’re a startup or growing company that wants to scale without hitting expensive pricing tiers

CampaignHQ isn’t trying to be everything. It’s built for a specific use case, AWS-native teams that want powerful email and WhatsApp marketing without the bloat and inflated pricing of traditional platforms. If that describes you, it’s hard to beat.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CampaignHQ a good Brevo alternative?

Yes, especially if you’re an AWS user or need WhatsApp marketing at an affordable price. CampaignHQ covers the core features most email marketers need (campaigns, automation, segmentation, analytics) while offering significant cost savings through its BYOA model. It’s not a 1:1 replacement if you rely heavily on Brevo’s CRM or landing page features, but for email and WhatsApp marketing specifically, it’s a strong alternative.

Can I switch from Brevo to CampaignHQ easily?

Switching is straightforward. You can export your contacts from Brevo and import them into CampaignHQ. You’ll need to set up your AWS SES account and verify your sending domains, but CampaignHQ provides guided onboarding (free with annual plans) to help you through the process. Your email templates will need to be recreated, but the drag-and-drop editor makes that quick.

Does CampaignHQ work without AWS?

CampaignHQ is designed for AWS-native teams, and AWS SES integration is its primary value proposition. The platform includes its own email credits for sending without SES, but you get the most value by connecting your AWS account. If you have no plans to use AWS, Brevo or another traditional platform might be a simpler fit.

How does CampaignHQ’s deliverability compare to Brevo’s?

Because CampaignHQ sends through your own AWS SES account, your deliverability depends on your own sending reputation rather than shared infrastructure. AWS SES has excellent deliverability rates, and having your own dedicated sending environment means you’re not affected by other users’ bad practices. Brevo also has good deliverability, but you’re sharing infrastructure with other senders unless you pay for a dedicated IP.

Is Brevo still called Sendinblue?

No. Sendinblue rebranded to Brevo in 2023. If you’re searching for “Sendinblue alternative” or “Sendinblue pricing,” you’ll find that all results now point to Brevo. The platform, features, and team are the same. Only the name changed as the company expanded beyond just email to become a broader customer engagement platform.

Which platform is better for e-commerce businesses?

It depends on your setup. Brevo offers dedicated e-commerce features, Shopify and WooCommerce plugins, and advanced e-commerce reporting on its Professional plan. CampaignHQ works well for e-commerce too, especially if your store runs on AWS infrastructure. The WhatsApp chatbot and inbox features are particularly useful for e-commerce businesses that use WhatsApp for customer support and order updates. If you’re on Shopify and want plug-and-play simplicity, Brevo has an edge. If you’re on AWS and want cost efficiency at scale, CampaignHQ is the smarter pick.

The Bottom Line

The CampaignHQ vs Brevo decision comes down to what kind of team you are and what you value most.

Brevo gives you breadth. It’s a mature, full-featured platform that covers marketing, sales, and customer engagement in one place. You get CRM, landing pages, SMS, and a long list of integrations. The tradeoff is higher costs at scale, shared infrastructure, and WhatsApp locked behind a $499/month paywall.

CampaignHQ gives you depth where it counts. It’s purpose-built for AWS-native teams that want powerful email and WhatsApp marketing without the overhead. You get your own sending infrastructure, dramatically lower costs at volume, and WhatsApp as a first-class channel from day one. The tradeoff is a more focused feature set and a newer platform.

Neither platform is universally “better.” But if you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance you already have an AWS account and you’ve been wondering why you’re paying so much for email marketing when you have SES sitting right there.

That’s exactly the problem CampaignHQ was built to solve.

Ready to see how much you could save? Start your free trial with CampaignHQ and connect your AWS account in minutes. No credit card required, no long-term commitment. Just better email and WhatsApp marketing on the infrastructure you already trust.

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