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AcelleMail vs Brevo

AcelleMail vs Brevo — self-hosted email marketing vs cloud multi-channel SaaS

Side-by-side comparison of AcelleMail (self-hosted PHP application, $74 one-time license, MySQL/MariaDB, plugin SDK, multi-tenant SaaS layer) and Brevo, formerly Sendinblue (Paris-based cloud SaaS founded 2012, multi-channel: Email + Transactional + SMS + WhatsApp + Chat + CRM, REST API + SMTP relay, send-volume-based pricing). Pricing model, sending stack, automation, migration steps.

At a glance AcelleMail Brevo
License model Commercial license — $74 Regular / $199 Extended on CodeCanyon. Full PHP source included; one-time payment with lifetime point + minor updates. Cloud SaaS subscription. Free tier available; paid Marketing Platform tiers billed monthly per published Free / Starter / Business / Enterprise structure on brevo.com/pricing/.
Hosting Self-hosted on Linux + PHP 8.1+ + MySQL/MariaDB. Single-tenant or multi-tenant on the same install (Extended). Cloud-only — operated by Brevo from Paris-headquartered infrastructure. No self-hosted distribution.
Stack PHP 8.1+ (Laravel-based), MySQL/MariaDB, optional Redis cache. Brevo-managed cloud. Customer surface: REST API at developers.brevo.com + SMTP relay at smtp-relay.brevo.com.
Channels Email-focused. SMS / WhatsApp / chat / CRM are not in core; integrations exist via the plugin SDK or external services. Multi-channel: email marketing, transactional email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat, CRM, and meetings. All bundled in the Brevo dashboard.
Pricing model One-time license fee. Recurring cost is your VPS + your sending service (SES, SendGrid, etc.). Send-volume based for marketing email (the model brevo.com/pricing/ documents) — paid tiers price by monthly email volume, not contact-list size.
Multi-tenancy / SaaS Extended License ($199) ships a multi-tenant layer — customer accounts, plans, 6 payment gateways, dunning, white-label. Single-account product per Brevo subscription. Reselling Brevo to end customers is not a packaged feature in core.
Plugin SDK 4-pattern Hook system (REGISTRY, EVENT, FILTER, BEHAVIOR). Plugins live under storage/app/plugins/. See Plugin SDK. Extension via the public REST API and webhook subscriptions. No in-process plugin runtime in the cloud platform.
Feature parity

Feature-by-feature comparison

Roughly 30 attributes grouped into 7 categories, drawn from AcelleMail v4.2 and Mailchimp’s public feature documentation. Every ✓ can be verified against the cited source.

Email creation

Feature AcelleMail Brevo Notes
Drag-and-drop email builder ✓ ✓ AcelleMail ships a visual block editor with mobile preview. Brevo includes a drag-and-drop editor in the marketing dashboard.
100+ pre-built templates ✓ ✓ Both platforms bundle a starter template gallery and accept user-imported HTML templates.
Full HTML editor ✓ ✓ Both let you edit raw HTML/CSS for campaigns and transactional sends.
Spintax / dynamic content ✓ ◐ AcelleMail includes spintax + per-subscriber merge fields. Brevo Templates support attribute substitution and Liquid-style logic; spintax-style randomization is not in the published Templates API.
A/B testing ✓ ✓ AcelleMail supports subject-line and content split tests on every license. Brevo includes A/B testing on its paid Marketing Platform tiers.
Multi-language UI ✓ ✓ AcelleMail ships 18 locales for the admin UI. Brevo offers a multi-locale dashboard.

Lists & segmentation

Feature AcelleMail Brevo Notes
Unlimited subscribers (software cap) ✓ ✓ AcelleMail imposes no software-side cap on subscribers. Brevo's pricing model bills on monthly send volume rather than contact-list size.
Multiple lists ✓ ✓ Both support unlimited lists.
Advanced segmentation ✓ ✓ AcelleMail provides a visual segment builder over subscriber fields, behavior, tags, and date logic. Brevo segmentation supports contact attributes, list membership, engagement, and event data.
Tags ✓ ✓ Both support tag-style subscriber labeling.
Embeddable signup forms ✓ ✓ Both generate embeddable signup forms and double opt-in flows.
Bulk import (CSV) ✓ ✓ Both accept CSV bulk import. AcelleMail also supports XLSX and direct DB seed.

Automation & flows

Feature AcelleMail Brevo Notes
Visual workflow builder ✓ ✓ AcelleMail Automation2 ships trigger / wait / condition / send / tag-update / segment-move nodes. Brevo includes a visual marketing automation builder on its paid Marketing Platform tiers.
Customer journey / multi-step flows ✓ ✓ Both platforms support multi-step journeys.
RSS-to-email ✓ ◐ AcelleMail can pull RSS feeds into scheduled campaigns. Brevo supports scheduled campaigns and external integrations via REST API; first-party RSS triggers depend on the current plan tier.
Behavioral triggers (opens / clicks) ✓ ✓ AcelleMail exposes engagement events as automation triggers. Brevo emits open and click events through its event tracking and webhook system.
Date / birthday triggers ✓ ✓ Both support date-field triggers natively in the automation builder.

Multi-channel

Feature AcelleMail Brevo Notes
Email marketing ✓ ✓ Both are designed for marketing email as the primary channel.
Transactional email ✓ ✓ AcelleMail can route transactional sends through any of its 8 sending drivers. Brevo offers transactional email through its REST API and SMTP relay.
SMS campaigns ✗ ✓ AcelleMail core is email-only; SMS would be a custom plugin or external integration. Brevo bundles SMS campaigns as a billable channel.
WhatsApp messaging ✗ ✓ Not in AcelleMail core. Brevo bundles WhatsApp campaigns and conversations.
Live chat / inbox ✗ ✓ Not in AcelleMail core. Brevo bundles a live-chat widget and a unified inbox.
CRM (deals + tasks) ◐ ✓ AcelleMail manages contacts and segments; deal pipelines and tasks are not in core (custom plugin or external CRM). Brevo bundles a CRM module with deals, tasks, and meeting scheduling.

Deliverability

Feature AcelleMail Brevo Notes
SPF / DKIM / DMARC tooling ✓ ✓ AcelleMail surfaces SPF/DKIM/DMARC record values per sending server. Brevo handles authentication record provisioning for sending domains added in its dashboard.
Custom sending domain ✓ ✓ AcelleMail supports per-sending-server return path. Brevo authenticates custom sender domains in the Senders & IP section.
Multiple sending services ✓ ✗ AcelleMail ships 8 native drivers (SES, SendGrid, SparkPost, Mailgun, Elastic Email, Blastengine, Gmail, generic SMTP). Brevo is itself the sending service.
IP warmup ✓ ◐ AcelleMail supports daily/hourly send caps per sending server for gradual warmup. Brevo provides dedicated IPs on higher plan tiers; warmup is managed by Brevo on those plans.
Bounce / complaint webhook ingestion ✓ ✓ AcelleMail registers webhook endpoints for SES/SendGrid/Mailgun/etc. (see app/SendingServers/Webhooks/). Brevo emits webhooks for delivered, hard-bounce, soft-bounce, opened, clicked, unsubscribed, complaint, blocked, error.

Integrations

Feature AcelleMail Brevo Notes
REST API ✓ ✓ AcelleMail's REST API is documented at /api. Brevo's API reference is at developers.brevo.com.
SMTP relay (use as upstream) ◐ ✓ AcelleMail itself is a marketing platform; outbound SMTP is delegated to your sending server. Brevo offers SMTP relay at smtp-relay.brevo.com — usable from AcelleMail via the Generic SMTP driver if you want to keep Brevo as the sender.
Webhooks ✓ ✓ Both emit outbound event webhooks for delivery and engagement events.
WordPress / WooCommerce sync ✓ ◐ AcelleMail provides an official WordPress / WooCommerce plugin. Brevo offers WordPress and WooCommerce plugins that sync subscribers and trigger marketing automation.
Zapier / Make / n8n ✓ ✓ Both are first-party listed on Zapier / Make / n8n.
Custom plugin SDK ✓ ✗ AcelleMail ships a four-pattern Hook system (REGISTRY, EVENT, FILTER, BEHAVIOR) — see Plugin SDK. Brevo extension is via the public REST API + webhooks; there is no in-process plugin runtime.

SaaS / multi-tenancy

Feature AcelleMail Brevo Notes
Multi-tenant workspaces ✓ ✗ AcelleMail Extended ($199) ships a reseller layer with customer accounts, plans, and billing. Brevo is a single-account product per subscription.
Subscription plans + payment gateways ✓ ✗ AcelleMail bundles 6 payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Razorpay, Paystack, Offline) for resellers. Brevo does not include reseller-billing primitives.
White-label / remove vendor branding ✓ ◐ AcelleMail Extended removes branding for reseller use. Brevo "Remove Brevo logo" is a paid feature on higher plan tiers per its dashboard settings; the dashboard itself remains Brevo-branded.
Reseller billing / dunning ✓ ✗ AcelleMail's Cashier package covers subscriptions, prorated upgrades, and dunning. Brevo does not provide reseller billing primitives.

Operations

Feature AcelleMail Brevo Notes
Self-hosted on your servers ✓ ✗ AcelleMail is a PHP application — runs under PHP-FPM + nginx/Apache on hardware you control. Brevo is a Brevo-operated cloud service.
Database — relational ✓ ◐ AcelleMail uses MySQL ≥ 5.7 or MariaDB ≥ 10.3 — direct SQL access. Brevo data is in Brevo's managed cloud; access is via REST API and CSV export.
On-premise / air-gapped deployment ✓ ✗ AcelleMail can run fully on-premise or in air-gapped environments. Brevo is cloud-only.
Localization (UI translations) ✓ ✓ AcelleMail ships 18 locales out of the box. Brevo dashboard offers multiple locales for the admin UI.

Cost & ownership

Feature AcelleMail Brevo Notes
License model ✓ ◐ AcelleMail Regular is $74 one-time; Extended is $199 (lifetime point/minor updates + 6 months support). Brevo is a recurring monthly subscription per the Free / Starter / Business / Enterprise tiers on brevo.com/pricing/.
Lifetime updates ✓ ✓ AcelleMail license includes lifetime point + minor releases. Brevo customers receive product updates as part of the subscription.
Data export ownership ✓ ✓ AcelleMail runs on a database you control — full SQL access, CSV export, and REST API. Brevo offers contact CSV export plus the developers.brevo.com REST API for programmatic export.
Source code visibility ✓ ✗ AcelleMail ships full unencrypted PHP source. Brevo is a closed-source cloud service; only the published REST/SMTP API surface is documented.
Total cost of ownership

3-year cost across three real scenarios

Brevo is a cloud subscription billed monthly on send volume per its published Free / Starter / Business / Enterprise tiers; AcelleMail is a one-time license you self-host on a VPS plus a sending service. The dollar values below assume Amazon SES at $0.10 per 1,000 emails for the AcelleMail rows. Specific Brevo tier prices change — consult brevo.com/pricing for current values.

Small business — 1,000 contacts, 4× sends/month

Brevo — Brevo Free or entry-tier paid plan Brevo Free tier covers a published daily-send cap. 4,000 monthly sends across 1,000 contacts may fit Free or require an entry paid tier — verify against current brevo.com/pricing thresholds.
Recurring monthly subscription if above Free; check current paid-tier cost.
AcelleMail — AcelleMail Regular License + small VPS + Amazon SES $5/mo VPS + $0.40/mo SES (4,000 sends × $0.0001)
$74 license + $180 VPS + $14 SES = $268 total

At 1,000 contacts and 4 sends/month, both models are inexpensive. AcelleMail one-time cost is ~$268 over 3 years; Brevo at this volume may fit Free. Compare against your current Brevo invoice on the published tier.

Growing newsletter — 10,000 contacts, 80,000 sends/month

Brevo — Brevo Business or higher tier covering 80K monthly sends Brevo paid tier billed monthly per the published send-volume tier covering 80K monthly sends. Marketing automation is included on the Business tier per brevo.com/pricing.
Recurring monthly subscription × 36 months — verify against current pricing.
AcelleMail — AcelleMail Regular License + $10 VPS + Amazon SES $10/mo VPS + $8/mo SES (80,000 × $0.0001)
$74 license + $360 VPS + $288 SES = $722 total

At 10K contacts and 80K monthly sends, AcelleMail self-hosted on SES converges to roughly $20/month after the license is amortized. The cost gap depends on the Brevo tier covering this volume.

Agency / SaaS — 50,000 contacts, 400,000 sends/month, 50 client tenants

Brevo — Brevo + custom multi-tenant integration layer Brevo is a single-account product per subscription; agencies typically operate 50 separate Brevo accounts or a custom routing layer over a single Brevo subscription.
50 accounts × subscription, OR aggregate Brevo Business/Enterprise + custom tenant build.
AcelleMail — AcelleMail Extended License + $20 VPS + Amazon SES (multi-tenant on a single instance) $20/mo VPS + $40/mo SES (400,000 × $0.0001) — covers all 50 tenants on one install.
$199 license + $720 VPS + $1,440 SES = $2,359 total

AcelleMail Extended ships a multi-tenant SaaS layer (customer accounts, plans, 6 payment gateways, dunning) bundled. Brevo handles the cloud infrastructure but does not bundle reseller-billing primitives.

Migration playbook

Brevo → AcelleMail in seven steps

Most teams cut over inside a week. The technical setup is half a day; the time-consuming step is rebuilding multi-step automations and templates.

  1. 1. Export from Brevo

    In the Brevo dashboard, export contacts as CSV from Contacts → Lists → Export. For programmatic export, the Contacts API at GET /contacts returns paginated records with attributes and list memberships. Campaign HTML can be retrieved per-campaign via GET /emailCampaigns/{id}. Marketing automation flows are documented in the Brevo dashboard; rebuild logic from those screenshots in AcelleMail Automation2.

  2. 2. Get AcelleMail

    Buy the Regular License — $74 on CodeCanyon. Download the ZIP, upload to your server, run the web installer (5 minutes — sets DB, admin user, cron). PHP 8.1+, MySQL ≥ 5.7 or MariaDB ≥ 10.3, ~512 MB RAM minimum. The installation guide walks through cPanel, DigitalOcean, AWS, and Docker.

  3. 3. Configure your sending service

    In Sending Servers → Add, pick Amazon SES (recommended — cheapest), SendGrid, Mailgun, SparkPost, Postmark, Elastic Email, or any SMTP. If you want to keep Brevo as the sender, configure the Generic SMTP driver pointing at smtp-relay.brevo.com with your Brevo SMTP key. Paste the API key, run the test-send, confirm. The 8 built-in drivers live in app/SendingServers/Drivers/Vendors/.

  4. 4. Import contacts + attributes

    In Lists → Create List, recreate your Brevo lists with their attribute schema (Brevo contact attributes map to AcelleMail subscriber custom fields one-to-one). Use Import → Upload CSV and map columns. For lists over 100K, use the chunked import or seed via the REST API.

  5. 5. Recreate templates and campaigns

    For Templates, paste your Brevo HTML into AcelleMail's template editor. Substitution syntax differs: Brevo Templates use {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }}; AcelleMail uses {{ subscriber.first_name }}. Subscriber-attribute access is equivalent. For automation flows, use Automation → New Workflow — Brevo flows expressed in its visual builder rebuild as AcelleMail visual journeys.

  6. 6. Configure tracking + DKIM

    AcelleMail tracking is enabled by default per campaign (open pixel + link wrapping). DKIM signing is configured at the Sending Server level — paste the DNS records AcelleMail generates into your domain. If you continue using Brevo as the upstream sender via SMTP relay, the existing Brevo DKIM/SPF records keep working unchanged.

  7. 7. Test deliverability + cut over

    Send a test campaign to GlockApps or Mail-Tester (free). Aim for 9.5/10. Run the next live campaign from AcelleMail in parallel for one cycle, watch open/click rates against your prior baseline, then turn off Brevo Marketing Platform. Most teams cut over inside a week. Brevo SMTP relay can stay if you want — AcelleMail uses Generic SMTP with your Brevo credentials.
Operational fit

When self-hosting isn’t the right fit

Self-hosted email marketing is a tradeoff: lower cost and full ownership in exchange for operational responsibility. A managed SaaS may be the better choice for any of the situations below.

  • You need SMS, WhatsApp, chat, and CRM in one dashboard

    AcelleMail core is email-focused. SMS and WhatsApp campaigns, the live-chat widget, and the CRM module are not in core — they would be custom plugin work or external integrations. Teams that need a unified marketing-and-sales dashboard with email + SMS + WhatsApp + chat + CRM in one product may find Brevo's bundle a better fit out of the box, accepting the recurring subscription cost.

  • You don't want to operate any server infrastructure

    AcelleMail is a self-hosted PHP application — you provision a VPS, install PHP-FPM + a web server, point a domain, and maintain backups. Teams that prefer a fully managed cloud service with no servers to operate may pick Brevo and accept the recurring subscription cost. The tradeoff is between recurring SaaS spend and one-time license + ops responsibility.

  • You require a managed cloud sender with bundled IP reputation

    Brevo manages IP reputation and sending infrastructure for the cloud service. AcelleMail self-hosted relies on the underlying sending service (SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, etc.) for IP reputation; the application layer doesn't replace the deliverability work that a managed cloud provider does on shared/dedicated IP pools.

  • Your buyer expects EU data residency by default

    Brevo is headquartered in Paris and operates EU data infrastructure per its published terms. Teams whose buyer expects EU-only data residency by default and who don't want to operate the underlying infrastructure may find Brevo a closer policy fit. AcelleMail self-hosted lets you choose the exact data residency by picking the VPS region — but the operational responsibility is yours.

Cost by use-case

Three buyer situations

Cost figures pair the verified entry-tier prices with calculator-quoted ranges where applicable. Compare the numbers; the right pick depends on your team’s capacity for the operational tradeoffs above.

  • SaaS team — product newsletter + transactional

    Situation: 8,000 trial signups + 2,000 paid customers, weekly product newsletter (~10,000 sends/week), 4-step onboarding drip, transactional sends for billing + receipts.

    Brevo cost: Brevo Marketing Platform paid tier covering 40K+ monthly sends + transactional volume. Billed monthly; consult brevo.com/pricing for the tier and current price.

    AcelleMail cost: $74 once + $10/mo VPS + ~$5/mo SES (50K total sends × $0.0001). Or keep Brevo SMTP relay and pay Brevo only for the sending volume; the marketing platform layer becomes free after the one-time license.

  • Marketing agency — 50 client lists

    Situation: Email service for 50 small-business clients, average 2,000 subscribers each, monthly newsletter + occasional promo.

    Brevo cost: Brevo: 50 separate accounts (~50× subscription) OR a single aggregate Business/Enterprise plan + custom tenant routing. Reseller-billing primitives are not bundled.

    AcelleMail cost: $199 Extended License once + $40/mo VPS + ~$30/mo SES total across all clients on one install. Built-in SaaS layer: per-client login, plans, dunning, 6 payment gateways.

  • Indie newsletter — 5,000 subscribers

    Situation: Weekly newsletter (~20K sends/month), no automation flows, no SMS or WhatsApp.

    Brevo cost: Brevo paid tier covering 20K+ monthly sends, billed monthly per the published send-volume tier.

    AcelleMail cost: $74 license + $5/mo VPS + ~$2/mo SES (20K × $0.0001). License recovers ~12-24 months of equivalent paid SaaS subscription if previously paying for hosted email.

Frequently asked

Common questions

Can I migrate from Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) to AcelleMail without losing subscriber data?
Yes. Brevo exports contacts as CSV from Contacts → Lists → Export; the Contacts API at GET /contacts returns paginated JSON for full programmatic export. AcelleMail's import accepts CSV with custom-field mapping and supports XLSX or direct DB seed for very large lists. Brevo contact attributes map to AcelleMail subscriber custom fields one-to-one. Plan a half-day for a list under 5,000 contacts; 2–3 days for lists with extensive automation logic to rebuild.
Can I keep using Brevo as the sending engine after switching to AcelleMail?
Yes — Brevo offers an SMTP relay at smtp-relay.brevo.com which is reachable from AcelleMail's Generic SMTP driver. Configure it under Sending Servers → Add → Generic SMTP with your Brevo SMTP key. AcelleMail then handles the marketing platform layer (lists, campaigns, automations) and Brevo continues handling the actual SMTP delivery and reputation management.
How does AcelleMail's automation compare to Brevo's marketing automation?
AcelleMail Automation2 ships a visual workflow builder with trigger / wait / condition / send / tag-update / segment-move nodes — multi-step journeys are configured in the UI without code. Brevo includes marketing automation on its paid Marketing Platform tiers with a similar visual flow builder. Both approaches support multi-step journeys; the platform-fit difference is whether you want the marketing layer self-hosted (AcelleMail) or fully managed multi-channel (Brevo).
Why does AcelleMail charge $74 when Brevo offers a Free tier?
AcelleMail Regular License ($74 one-time) is a commercial license that includes lifetime point + minor updates, 6 months of support, and full PHP source code with no per-email or per-contact recurring fees. Brevo offers a Free tier with a published daily-send cap; above that cap, paid tiers bill monthly on send volume. The $74 covers a different bundle: visual automation, plugin SDK, 8 sending drivers, multi-language UI, and the Extended path to a multi-tenant SaaS layer ($199).
Does AcelleMail include SMS and WhatsApp like Brevo?
AcelleMail core is email-focused. SMS and WhatsApp campaigns are not bundled in core; you would integrate via the plugin SDK (REGISTRY pattern for adding a sending channel) or via an external service like Twilio. Brevo bundles SMS and WhatsApp as billable channels in the same dashboard. Teams whose primary need is multi-channel marketing in one product may find Brevo a closer fit; teams that want email-platform control with separate channels for SMS/WhatsApp may prefer AcelleMail + a dedicated SMS provider.
Can I run multiple client accounts under one AcelleMail install?
Yes — that's the AcelleMail Extended License ($199). It bundles a multi-tenant layer: customer accounts, subscription plans, 6 payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Razorpay, Paystack, Offline), prorated upgrades, dunning, and white-label branding. Brevo is a single-account product per subscription. See the For Agencies page for the architecture.
What stack does AcelleMail need vs Brevo?
AcelleMail: PHP 8.1+, MySQL ≥ 5.7 or MariaDB ≥ 10.3, ~512 MB RAM minimum, 1 GB recommended for lists up to ~50K. Runs under PHP-FPM behind nginx or Apache. Brevo is a Brevo-managed cloud service — no stack to host on the customer side. Customer-side surface is the REST API at developers.brevo.com or SMTP relay at smtp-relay.brevo.com.
Does AcelleMail have a plugin SDK?
Yes. AcelleMail ships a four-pattern Hook system (REGISTRY, EVENT, FILTER, BEHAVIOR) — plugins live under storage/app/plugins/ and can register sending drivers, payment gateways, UI panels, and lifecycle hooks. See the Plugin SDK documentation for the four patterns and worked examples (Postal MTA, Paddle gateway, AI plugin). Brevo extension is via the public REST API + webhooks; there is no in-process plugin runtime.
Where does my data live with AcelleMail vs with Brevo?
AcelleMail data lives in the database on the VPS you provisioned. You pick the data residency by picking the VPS region. Brevo is operated by Brevo (Paris-headquartered) on Brevo's cloud infrastructure per its published terms; teams with strict EU residency requirements often consider that a fit. The cost difference is operational: AcelleMail residency choice costs nothing extra but requires you to operate the host; Brevo residency is bundled with the subscription.
Get started

Try AcelleMail before you migrate.

AcelleMail Regular License is $74, one-time. Includes lifetime updates, 6 months of support, full PHP source code, and unlimited subscribers. Brevo SMTP relay stays usable as a sending driver if you want both. Try the live demo before you buy.

Get AcelleMail — $74 one-time Try Live Demo

Brevo is the trademark of its respective owner. This page is an objective product comparison authored by AcelleMail; we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Brevo. All facts cited are sourced from publicly available documentation linked above; please report any inaccuracy to contact@acellemail.com and we will correct it.

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