# Brevo Transactional Email — Transactional Email Brevo Transactional Email by Brevo SAS holds a panel rating of 3/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 3/5), as of 2026-11-01. Provenance: EU-Made; sovereignty: not determined. - Vendor: Brevo SAS (https://www.brevo.com/products/transactional-email/) - Category: [Transactional Email](https://whats-best.ai/software/transactional-email.md) - Provenance (editorial classification): EU-Made - Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/transactional-email/brevo-transactional - Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/transactional-email/brevo-transactional/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/transactional-email/brevo-transactional/alternatives.md)) - Data as of: 2026-11-06 · evaluated 2026-11-01 · oldest source captured 2026-11-01 **AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology ## At a glance - Vendor: Brevo SAS - Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026 - Data hosting: Default not stated; pages mention France and Germany [S1] - Free plan: Yes, per the vendor’s own page [S3] - Starting price: “Starter Best for single users starting with email and multi-channel marketing. €7 -10% €6 .33 per month” (vendor’s words) [S5] ## The panel's verdict Brevo's transactional email service earns its best marks for its sending API, scored 7-8: a documented REST endpoint and SMTP relay, seven official SDKs, batch sending up to 1,000 emails per request, a sandbox mode, and idempotency keys with a 30-minute window. Deliverability and observability sit at 6-7; data security, reliability and accounts, and pricing transparency at 5-6, pricing transparency drawing four judges at 5 — we found no public information on the pay-as-you-go credit price, the dedicated IP price or any overage rate, so a full annual cost cannot be computed from public pages. The captured pages also give different figures for log retention: indefinite on product pages, deletion at least every 24 months in the terms. Persona-weighted totals range from 5.5 to 6.3. **Speaks for it:** - Sending API scores cluster at 7-8, the strongest criterion, on a documented REST endpoint and SMTP relay with seven official SDKs - Domain authentication for SPF, DKIM and DMARC is documented down to the DNS records and API validation endpoints, with dedicated IPs and automated warming on Professional and Enterprise plans - Event logs are searchable by message ID, recipient or subject, with webhook payloads carrying the bounce reason, the clicked link and the device, plus failure alerts - The free plan is 300 emails per day, forever, with no credit card required, and published tiers run from Starter at €7 per month for 5,000 emails to Professional at €499 per month from 150,000 emails - IP allow-listing supports CIDR ranges and blocks requests from unknown addresses even when the API key is valid **Held against it:** - Pricing transparency scores cluster at 5-6, and we found no public information on the pay-as-you-go credit price, the dedicated IP price or any overage rate - The terms state Brevo may use content and usage data to enrich and train its AI features, while logs store complete message content - The captured pages give different figures for log retention — indefinite or unlimited on product pages, deletion at least every 24 months in the terms - The privacy policy records transfers of personal data to the United States and India, and we found no public information on subprocessor locations - We found no public information on service credits, support response times per plan, or how mail is queued and retried during an outage **Best for:** - You are wiring order confirmations, password resets or receipts from a documented API, with seven official SDKs to choose from - Your platform sends over SMTP — the relay works with any application that supports it, and official plugins cover WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento and Zapier - You want transactional mail split from promotional mail by sender and IP address, with hard bounces suppressed automatically - You want to start without commitment — the free plan is 300 emails per day, forever, no credit card **Avoid if:** - You send health or other GDPR Article 9 sensitive data — the terms state the service was not designed to collect, process or manage sensitive data within the meaning of Articles 9 and 10 - Your transactional mail carries customer names and addresses and you cannot accept a clause under which Brevo may use content and usage data to enrich and train its AI features - You must price a contract fully on paper before signing — sub-account management sits in the Enterprise plan at a custom price, and we found no public information on the pay-as-you-go credit rate or a dedicated IP price - You need an end-to-end evidenced European chain — the privacy policy records transfers of personal data to the United States and India, and we found no public information on subprocessor locations ## Scores by judge and criterion Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price, or the judge found no public information on that criterion. | Criterion | The SaaS Developer | The Platform Engineer | The Shop Operator | The Data Protection Officer | The Agency Lead | The Skeptic | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Sending API, SMTP & developer experience | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 3.5/5 | | Deliverability & sender reputation | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | | Message logs, events & webhooks | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | | Message data, retention & security | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2.5/5 | | Reliability, accounts & support | 3/5 | 2.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | | European sovereignty | 3.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 2.5/5 | | Pricing transparency | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | | **Weighted verdict** | **3/5** | **3/5** | **3/5** | **3/5** | **3/5** | **3/5** | ### The judges - **The SaaS Developer** (v1.0): Backend developer at a twelve-person B2B SaaS in Hamburg, built on Laravel, that sends sign-up confirmations, password resets, invoices and weekly digests to 40,000 users. Has replaced the mail driver once already and does not want to again. Wants an official driver for the framework, templates with variables, a test mode that never reaches a real inbox, signed webhooks for bounces, and a log that answers "did this user get the reset mail?" without opening a ticket. - **The Platform Engineer** (v1.0): Platform engineer at a fintech in Frankfurt whose customers sign in with a one-time code sent by email, so a delay of three minutes is an outage. Is on call for it. Reads the status page history before the feature list, wants the SLA in writing with credits, mail queued and retried during an incident, delivery latency per mailbox provider, alerts on bounce spikes, and scoped API keys that can be rotated without a deploy. - **The Shop Operator** (v1.0): Runs a Shopware shop for kitchen equipment in Germany and Austria with 900 orders a week. Order confirmations, invoices and shipping notices went out through the hosting provider's mail server until a customer found theirs in spam and the support inbox filled up. Wants guided SPF and DKIM set-up a non-specialist can follow, a plugin for the shop, order mail kept apart from the newsletter, and someone to ask when Gmail starts refusing. - **The Data Protection Officer** (v1.0): In-house data protection officer at a health software company whose appointment reminders and lab-result notices carry patients' names. Treats the sending service as a processor like any other. Reads the DPA, the subprocessor list and the retention section first: whether message bodies are stored and for how long, whether open tracking can be turned off, which entity signs, and whether the EU region covers the logs as well as the mail. - **The Agency Lead** (v1.0): Technical lead at a web agency in Cologne that builds and runs thirty client applications, from a booking portal to a membership site, each sending its own mail from the client's domain. Wants one account with a sub-account, keys and limits per client, domains verified by API, roles so a client can see their own logs and nothing else, and a price per client that can be written into a maintenance contract. - **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Has seen "99% deliverability" with no method behind it, "dedicated IPs" that shared a pool with bulk senders, "EU hosting" that covered the API endpoint but not the logs, and seven days of log retention discovered during an incident on day eight. Reads that a vendor is "trusted by thousands of developers" and asks how bounces are suppressed, what is stored per message, which entity signs the DPA — and what moving away would cost. ## European sovereignty — proven facts Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined. | Dimension | Finding | Points | Source | |---|---|---|---| | Legal entity | Not determined | — | — | | Hosting location | Not determined | — | — | | Hosting options | Not determined | — | — | | Open source | Not determined | — | — | | Data processing agreement | Not determined | — | — | | Transfer impact assessment | Not determined | — | — | ## Key facts Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources). **Compliance** - Auth measures: yes · yes [S10] - Certifications: yes · yes · yes · yes [S1] - Customer case: DSGVO-Konformität · Nestor [S18] - Data hosting: yes · EU [S11] - Documents included: General Terms and Conditions · Service-Specific Terms of Service · Country-Specific Terms of Service · Data Processing Agreement (DPA) · Security measures · Regulatory provisions · Service Level Agreement (SLA) · Acceptable Use Policy [S8] - DPA: yes [S1] - DPA appendix: Appendix 3 of Terms of Service · yes [S8] - DPA available: yes [S7] - Dpf certification: yes · EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework · UK · Swiss · U.S. Department of Commerce [S7] - Ftc enforcement: yes [S7] - GDPR applicability: yes [S7] - GDPR effective date: 2018-05-25 [S9] - GDPR era erasure deadline: 30 [S9] - GDPR fines: whichever is larger · 20000000 · 2-4 [S9] - GDPR posture: yes · yes · yes · yes · yes · yes [S1] - GDPR scope: yes [S9] - Geo redundancy: 3 [S18] - ISO 27001: yes · ISO 27001:2022 · yes [S18] - ISO 27001: yes · ISO 27001:2022 [S8] - ISO 27001: yes · ISO 27001:2022 [S10] - Not legal advice: no [S9] - Optin required: yes · yes · yes [S9] - Payment pci dss: yes [S8] - Policy last updated: 2025-10-01 [S7] - Regulations: yes · yes · yes [S10] - Regulations: DSGVO, CASL und CCPA [S18] - Right of access privacy policy: yes [S9] - Right to portability: yes [S9] - Right to rectification: account settings or contacting Brevo · yes [S9] - Security measures appendix: Appendix 4 of Terms of Service · yes [S8] - UK representative: dpo@brevo.com · yes [S7] - US state privacy laws: CCPA · Colorado · Iowa · Montana · Nevada · Nebraska · Oregon · Texas · Utah [S7] **Data** - Account deletion: closing the account · yes [S7] - Children minimum age: 16 · no [S7] - Deletion on termination: fees equivalent to the amount of your last monthly Subscription · 24 · yes [S8] - Do not track: no [S7] - Export: interoperable · for the duration of your Subscription · yes [S8] - Inactivity deletion: 6 · yes [S8] - International transfer: United States of America · India · yes [S7] - Log retention: indefinite [S3] - Logs retention: 24 [S8] - Payment processor pci: yes [S7] - Retention customer data: agreement end · 5 · providing Service and contractual relationship [S7] - Retention invoices: invoices · 10 [S7] - Retention newsletter: last contact · 2 · newsletter subscription [S7] - Retention security logs: event · 1 · connection and activity logs [S7] - Sales of personal data: yes [S7] - Sensitive data prohibited: 9 · 10 · no [S8] **Hosting** - Data residency: France · Germany · yes [S1] - EU datacenters: yes · yes [S10] - EU servers: yes · yes [S18] - Providers: Kinsta Inc · Vercel Inc. [S6] **Integrations** - API documentation: https://help.brevo.com/hc/en-us [S8] - API languages: PHP · Node · Python [S2] - API reference testing: yes [S4] - Auth methods: api-key · oauth2.0 [S4] - Cms methods: smtp_relay · webhook · plugin [S2] - Developer tools: Supabase · Developer Tools [S19] - Domains API reference: Public domain endpoints documented in API reference > Domains [S14] - Facebook messenger: Facebook Messenger · CRM · Helpdesk [S19] - Gmail: Gmail · CDP · Contact management · Email Marketing [S19] - Google analytics: Google Analytics · Analytics · CDP [S19] - Hubspot: HubSpot · CDP · CRM · Marketing Automation [S19] - Klaviyo migration: Klaviyo · yes [S19] - Mailchimp migration: Mailchimp · yes [S19] - Make: Make · Marketing Automation · No-code · 1000 [S19] - Marketplace intro: Brevo Marketplace [S19] - Marketplace pages: 7 [S19] - N8n: n8n · CDP · Marketing Automation · No-code · 1000 [S19] - Pipedrive: Pipedrive · CDP · CRM [S19] - Plugins: WordPress · WooCommerce · Shopify · Magento · Zapier [S1] - Rest API: REST API (JSON) · SMTP relay [S11] - Salesforce: Salesforce · CRM [S19] - Sdk languages: 7 · PHP · Python · Node.js · Ruby · Go · Java · C# [S1] - Sdks: yes [S4] - Shopify: Shopify · CMS · Ecommerce · Marketing Automation [S19] - Smtp relay: yes · 5 · 10 [S1] - Webhook API management: yes [S4] - Webhooks: yes [S3] - Whatsapp business: WhatsApp Business · Marketing Automation [S19] - Woocommerce: WooCommerce · CMS · Ecommerce · Email Marketing [S19] - Wordpress: WordPress · CMS · Email Marketing [S19] - Zapier: Zapier · CDP · No-code · 7000 [S19] **Legal** - Address: 17 rue de Salneuve, 75017, Paris, France [S6] - Company name: Brevo · 2026 [S9] - Data controller entities: Brevo France (SAS) · Brevo Inc. · North America (Inc.) · Brevo Germany (GmbH) [S7] - Entity: simplified joint-stock company · Brevo · Paris Trade and Companies Register · 9-17, rue Salneuve 75017 Paris · 498 019 298 [S8] - Entity details: French société par actions simplifiée · Brevo (SAS) · 498 019 298 [S7] - Entity type capital: French Simplified Joint Stock Company · 388177 [S6] - Geographic restriction: PRC · yes [S8] - Rcs number: RCS of Paris: 498 019 298 [S6] - Terms version: 2025-10-01 [S8] - VAT number: FR80498019298 [S6] **Pricing** - Annual discount: 10 [S1] - Auto renewal: yes · yes [S8] - Billing periods: monthly · annual [S8] - Cancel anytime: yes · yes [S5] - Commitment options: no · monthly · yearly [S5] - Customize plan included: 500 · 5k/month · 1000 [S5] - Dedicated ips: yes · yes [S3] - Deliverability center availability: yes [S13] - Enterprise plan: custom · 1M+ [S1] - Enterprise price: custom · yes · 1M+ [S5] - Enterprise price: yes · 1000000 [S11] - Free daily limit: free · 300 [S3] - Free daily limit: 300 [S5] - Free forever: yes · 300 [S3] - Free no credit card: yes · no [S3] - Free plan: 300 [S1] - Free plan details: yes · 300 · 9000 · no [S1] - Free plan forever: yes · no [S1] - Free tier: 300 [S2] - Free tier: yes · no [S5] - Free tier: no · yes [S9] - Liability cap: price paid in 6 months preceding incident [S8] - Markdown page offered: yes [S5] - Monthly billing period: 30 [S5] - No downgrade: no [S8] - Paid starting price: 9 · month [S3] - Payg credits: one email = one credit · no [S5] - Payg no phone support: no [S5] - Payment methods: credit card · PayPal · direct debit (SEPA) · yes [S8] - Price change notice: 30 · yes [S8] - Professional email volume: 150000 [S5] - Professional notice period: Professional · 15 · yes [S8] - Professional plan: month · 499 · 449.08 [S1] - Professional price: 499 · 449.08 · 10 [S5] - Remove branding addon: 8.1 [S5] - Sales advanced: 53.08 [S5] - Sales advanced price: EUR · 53.08 [S11] - Sales essentials: 26.08 · 1 [S5] - Sales essentials price: EUR · 26.08 [S11] - Sales free: 0 · 1 [S5] - Sms campaigns: yes · price based on volume and destination [S5] - Specific invoicing fee: 100 · annual · EUR · specific invoicing platform derogation or wire-transfer-only public/governmental entity [S8] - Standard plan: month · 15 · 13.5 [S1] - Standard price: 15 · 13.5 · 10 [S5] **Product** - Ab testing templates: drag-and-drop · rich text · HTML · yes [S1] - AI control center: no · yes · no [S8] - AI features present: yes [S8] - AI no high risk: no · no [S8] - AI third party processing: Subprocessors list in the DPA · yes [S8] - AI training on content: yes [S8] - Analytics reporting: yes [S3] - API playground: yes [S11] - Attachment local files unsupported: yes · yes · no [S12] - Automation workflows: user activity · website behavior · yes [S3] - Backup redundancy: 3 · yes [S10] - Batch limits: 1000 · 25 · 40 [S11] - Batch send: 1000 [S4] - Batch sending: 1000 [S1] - Body types: htmlContent · textContent · templateId · yes [S4] - Bounce reason field: Deferred (and bounce) events include a reason field [S16] - Click device fields: Click and open events include user_agent and device_used fields [S16] - Click link field: Clicked event includes the link (URL) accessed by recipient [S16] - Company scale: 500000+ [S3] - Customer count: 600,000+ [S5] - Data platform features: advanced data management · contact scoring · AI data analyst [S2] - Datetime parameters: ts_epoch and ts_event are UTC; date is CET/CEST timezone [S16] - Dedicated ip: Professional · Enterprise [S11] - Dedicated ip description: yes [S5] - Dedicated ip warming: yes · yes [S1] - Dedicated ips: yes [S1] - Deliverability center: Centralized Deliverability Center with a Deliverability Score and actionable recommendations [S13] - Deliverability history months: 6 [S13] - Deliverability rate: 99 [S1] - Deliverability rate: 99 [S11] - Deliverability recommendations: yes [S13] - Deliverability score drivers: open rates · bounces [S13] - Deliverability setup: feature toggle in account settings [S13] - Deliverability specialist hours: 3 [S11] - Deliverability team: yes [S3] - Delivery rate: 99 [S2] - Delivery speed: 50 · 99.98 [S3] - Dev setup resources: developer guides · SDKs · API libraries · code recipes [S2] - Domain authenticate endpoint: https://api.brevo.com/v3/senders/domains/{domainName}/authenticate · PUT [S14] - Domain authenticate error dkim mismatch: 400 · Invalid or missing parameters, or a value mismatch between DKIM records and the Brevo code. [S14] - Domain authentication: SPF · DKIM · DMARC [S1] - Domain authentication: SPF · DKIM · DMARC [S3] - Domain dns records: dkim_record · brevo_code · dmarc_record [S14] **Subprocessors** - Chatbot AI provider: AI chatbot · OpenAI [S7] - Listed in DPA: Data Processing Agreement · yes [S7] - Optional third party features: WhatsApp Messages · Facebook Ad · Google Fonts · Google ReCAPTCHA · Cloudflare Turnstile · OpenAI [S7] - Payment providers: Adyen · PayPal · GoCardless · Stripe · Chargebee · payment processing · PCI DSS [S8] **Support** - Technology partner: Brevo technology partner program, contact via link [S19] 102 more facts on the canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/transactional-email/brevo-transactional ## Questions ### Is Brevo Transactional Email European? Yes. whats-best.ai classifies Brevo Transactional Email as EU-Made. ### Where does Brevo Transactional Email store data? The default storage location for customer data is not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026. The vendor’s pages mention France and Germany as hosting locations, per [the vendor’s page captured 1 Nov 2026](https://whats-best.ai/evidence/14182). ### Does Brevo Transactional Email have a free plan? Yes. Brevo Transactional Email has a free plan, per [the vendor’s page captured 1 Nov 2026](https://whats-best.ai/evidence/14191). ### What are the best alternatives to Brevo Transactional Email? As of 2 Nov 2026, the panel rates [Lettermint (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/transactional-email/lettermint), [Bird Email API (formerly SparkPost) (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/transactional-email/bird-email-api) and [Postmark (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/transactional-email/postmark) highest among the other 15 Transactional Email products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [Lettermint](https://whats-best.ai/software/transactional-email/lettermint) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Brevo Transactional Email alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/transactional-email/brevo-transactional/alternatives). ## Head-to-head - [Brevo Transactional Email vs Mailjet Email API](https://whats-best.ai/compare/brevo-transactional-vs-mailjet-email-api.md) ## What this page leaves out - 42 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 14 integrations facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 10 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 5 support facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 3 compliance facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 1 data fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 3 sovereignty dimensions could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and are shown as unknown. - 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement. ## Sources - [S1] Vendor homepage (transactional email): https://www.brevo.com/products/transactional-email/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S2] Features page (transactional email, German): https://www.brevo.com/de/products/transactional-email/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S3] Features page (SMTP relay): https://www.brevo.com/free-smtp-server/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S4] API documentation (transactional email): https://developers.brevo.com/docs/send-a-transactional-email (checked 2026-11-01) - [S5] Pricing page: https://www.brevo.com/pricing/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S6] Legal notice: https://www.brevo.com/legal/notice/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S7] Privacy policy: https://www.brevo.com/legal/privacypolicy/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S8] Terms of service: https://www.brevo.com/legal/termsofuse/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S9] Security / trust page (GDPR): https://www.brevo.com/company/gdpr/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S10] Security / trust page (data security): https://www.brevo.com/features/data-security/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S11] Sending API, SMTP & developer experience — found from sitemap: https://www.brevo.com/features/email-api/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S12] Sending API, SMTP & developer experience — found from sitemap: https://developers.brevo.com/docs/smtp-integration (checked 2026-11-01) - [S13] Deliverability & sender reputation — found from sitemap: https://www.brevo.com/releases/new-release-deliverability-center-mvp/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S14] Deliverability & sender reputation — found from sitemap: https://developers.brevo.com/docs/domain-authentication-and-verification (checked 2026-11-01) - [S15] Message logs, events & webhooks — found from sitemap: https://www.brevo.com/releases/event-logs-page/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S16] Message logs, events & webhooks — found from sitemap: https://developers.brevo.com/docs/transactional-webhooks (checked 2026-11-01) - [S17] Message data, retention & security — found from sitemap: https://developers.brevo.com/docs/ip-security (checked 2026-11-01) - [S18] Message data, retention & security — found from sitemap: https://www.brevo.com/de/features/data-security/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S19] Reliability, accounts & support — found from sitemap: https://www.brevo.com/integrations/ (checked 2026-11-01) - [S20] Reliability, accounts & support — found from sitemap: https://www.brevo.com/integrations/v0/ (checked 2026-11-01) --- Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Brevo Transactional Email — Transactional Email", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-11-06. https://whats-best.ai/software/transactional-email/brevo-transactional Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/1268?target=page