Email Marketing · head to head
Brevo vs Keila
Keila
Email Marketing
AGPL newsletter tool from Germany, self-hostable or hosted in the EU with no free plan
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Brevo paid plans are priced by email volume sent per month, with higher tiers running past $100 per month as list and send volume grows; Keila there is no free hosted plan at all, stated as deliberate policy, so unlike almost every competitor there is no way to run a small list at zero cost without self-hosting it yourself.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Brevo and Keila actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Email Marketing).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Brevo
Nothing recorded that Keila does not also cover.
Only in Keila
- Priced by emails sent
- Bring your own sender
- Self-hosting
- EU hosting
- Sign-up forms
- Segmentation
- Markdown and block editor
- Multiple projects
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Brevo
- Email marketing campaigns with drag-and-drop editornot Keila
- SMS and WhatsApp multichannel messagingnot Keila
- Customer loyalty program managementnot Keila
- Transactional email and API-triggered messagingnot Keila
Keila
- A membership organisation holding forty thousand contacts but sending only one newsletter a month, where contact-metered pricing would cost many times morenot Brevo
- A European publisher or public body that needs subscriber data held in the EU under a GDPR-friendly arrangementnot Brevo
- A technical team that wants to self-host its newsletter tool and route sending through its existing AWS SES accountnot Brevo
- An agency running several separate client lists that does not want to pay per project or per additional listnot Brevo
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Brevo
- Paid plans are priced by email volume sent per month, with higher tiers running past $100 per month as list and send volume grows
Keila
- There is no free hosted plan at all, stated as deliberate policy, so unlike almost every competitor there is no way to run a small list at zero cost without self-hosting it yourself.
- Marketing automation is minimal, with none of the behavioural triggers, journey builders or e-commerce revenue attribution that Klaviyo, Brevo and Mailchimp treat as table stakes.
- The self-hosted route puts deliverability entirely on you: reputation, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, warm-up and bounce handling are your problem, and a badly configured instance will land in spam folders.
- It is a small project from a small company, so the integration ecosystem is thin and there is no partner network, template marketplace or large body of community expertise to draw on.
- Email volume tiers step in fixed blocks, so an organisation whose sending is uneven across the year either overbuys at the annual peak or has to change plan repeatedly.
Pricing, plan by plan
Brevo
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Brevo review.
Keila
Free- Self-hostedFree
- AGPL-3.0-or-later licence with no fee
- Official Docker image and sample compose file
- You supply hosting and a sending backend
- Keila XS$8/month
- Two thousand emails per month
- Unlimited contacts and projects
- Send with Keila or bring your own email server
- Keila M$32/month
- Fifteen thousand emails per month
- Unlimited contacts and projects
- Sign-up forms and segmentation
- Keila XXL$256/month
- Two hundred and fifty thousand emails per month
- Unlimited contacts and projects
- Intermediate tiers at 16, 64 and 128 EUR for 5,000, 50,000 and 100,000 emails
Which should you pick?
Choose Keila if
- You need priced by emails sent.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Linux, Self-hosted.
- You also want bring your own sender.
Questions people ask
- Is Brevo or Keila better?
- Neither clearly leads. Brevo starts at Free and Keila at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Brevo or Keila?
- Brevo starts at Free and Keila at Free.
- Does Brevo or Keila run on more platforms?
- Brevo runs on Web. Keila runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted.
- Can I use Brevo for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Brevo best used for?
- Brevo is most often used for email marketing campaigns with drag-and-drop editor, sms and whatsapp multichannel messaging, customer loyalty program management, transactional email and api-triggered messaging. Of those, email marketing campaigns with drag-and-drop editor and sms and whatsapp multichannel messaging are not what Keila is typically brought in for.
- What can Brevo do that Keila cannot?
- Keila covers Priced by emails sent, Bring your own sender, Self-hosting, EU hosting.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Brevo: Does Brevo offer a free plan?
Yes, Brevo offers a free tier with no credit card required. You can launch marketing campaigns, access templates, and use basic automation without paying.
SourceKeila: Is Keila free?
The software is, under AGPL-3.0-or-later, if you self-host. The hosted service has no free plan by deliberate policy and starts at 8 EUR a month.
Brevo: What pricing model does Brevo use?
Brevo uses a freemium model. No specific pricing rates are published on their main website. Users must navigate to the pricing page or contact sales to see tiered pricing based on email volume and features needed.
SourceKeila: How is the hosted service priced?
By emails sent, from 8 EUR for two thousand up to 256 EUR for two hundred and fifty thousand a month. Contacts and projects are unlimited on every tier.
Brevo: What channels does Brevo support?
Brevo supports email, SMS, WhatsApp, web and mobile push notifications, live chat, chatbot, wallet, phone, and transactional messaging across all plans.
SourceKeila: Can I use my own email provider?
Yes. AWS SES, Sendgrid, Mailgun, Postmark, generic SMTP or a personal inbox are all supported as sending backends.
Keila: Are there discounts?
Pentacent offers reduced rates to nonprofits and open source projects on request.
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