MailPoet vs Brevo vs DoubleScale: Subscribers, Emails or Sites, Which Pricing Model Wins?

MailPoet, Brevo and DoubleScale are each “affordable email marketing”, but they disagree completely about what you should pay for. MailPoet charges for subscribers. Brevo charges for emails sent. DoubleScale, which we build, charges for the number of websites, with unlimited contacts.

Pick the wrong model for your list and you overpay every month. So this comparison starts with money, then moves to channels, automation and the CRM side, with a twist at the end: you do not always have to choose between Brevo and a WordPress plugin.

Full disclosure: we make DoubleScale. We have kept the two other tools’ strengths in, quoted every price from their own pricing pages, and listed the cases where DoubleScale is the wrong choice.

This MailPoet vs Brevo vs DoubleScale guide walks through each model with real numbers.

Quick verdict

Three pricing models, worked out

• MailPoet: free for 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails a month; Business $10 a month at 500 subscribers, $30 at 2,500, $80 at 10,000, unlimited emails.
• Brevo: free for 300 emails a day. Starter from $9 a month for 5,000 emails, Standard (automation, A/B testing, no Brevo logo) from $18. Its calculator now also caps contacts on small tiers: 500 at 5,000 emails and 1,500 at 10,000.
• DoubleScale: free plugin with unlimited contacts; Pro $99 a year for one site, $199 for five, $399 for twenty-five. You pay your sending provider separately.

Yearly cost on monthly billing, 4 campaigns a month to the whole list. Vendor pricing pages, checked October 17, 2026. DoubleScale includes Amazon SES at $0.10 per 1,000 emails.

MailPoet Business$960

Brevo Starter (no automation)$552

Brevo Standard$1,068

DoubleScale Basic + Amazon SES$147

40,000 emails a month. Using Brevo itself as DoubleScale’s sender costs more than SES but keeps Brevo’s infrastructure.

Round 1: Channels

MailPoet is email only. Brevo covers email, SMS, WhatsApp (Professional plan), web push, live chat and a sales CRM add-on. DoubleScale Pro covers email, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns with two-way conversations in a shared inbox, through Twilio or the WhatsApp Business API.

Round winnerBrevo for breadth; DoubleScale for SMS and WhatsApp tied to the CRM.

Round 2: Automation

MailPoet automates welcome emails, post notifications and WooCommerce flows. Brevo’s Standard plan unlocks unlimited multi-step workflows, A/B testing and send-time optimisation. DoubleScale’s visual builder reacts to WordPress events: WooCommerce orders and carts, form submissions, deals, bookings and support tickets (Pro).

Round winnerBrevo for marketing testing; DoubleScale for business events inside WordPress.

Round 3: What the subscriber sees

All three let you set the sender, subject and preview text. DoubleScale shows you a live inbox preview while you type, so you can see how the subject and preview text will look on a phone before you build the email.

Round winnerTie

Round 4: Sending, and the Brevo twist

MailPoet sends through its own service or your SMTP. Brevo sends from its own infrastructure and sells transactional email through an SMTP relay and API.

Here is the part most comparisons miss: Brevo is also one of the providers DoubleScale can send through. You can keep your contacts, campaigns and automations in WordPress, and use Brevo, Amazon SES or another service purely as the delivery pipe, with a fallback if it fails.

Round winnerDoubleScale for flexibility; MailPoet and Brevo for zero-setup delivery.

Round 5: Customer data

MailPoet stores subscribers in WordPress. Brevo stores contacts on its platform and offers a sales CRM add-on. DoubleScale keeps everything in WordPress on one timeline: emails, SMS, WhatsApp, deals, proposals, invoices, bookings and tickets.

Round winnerDoubleScale

Round 6: Transactional email

Password resets, order confirmations and booking emails need reliable delivery too. MailPoet can send all of your WordPress and WooCommerce emails through its sending service. Brevo sells transactional email through its SMTP relay and API. DoubleScale routes every WordPress email through the connections you set up, logs each one, and switches to your fallback provider if the default fails.

Round winnerBrevo for a dedicated transactional API; DoubleScale for logging and fallback inside WordPress.

Round 7: Getting started

MailPoet is the quickest start for a WordPress site. Brevo asks you to verify a sender and wait for account approval before sending. DoubleScale needs one sending connection first; with Brevo as that connection, you paste an SMTP key and you are ready.

Round winnerMailPoet

Using Brevo inside DoubleScale

1. Create a Brevo account and generate an SMTP key.
2. In DoubleScale, add a sending connection, choose Brevo and paste the key.
3. Set it as the default connection and, optionally, add Amazon SES as a fallback.
4. Authenticate your domain with Brevo’s DNS records (SPF, DKIM) before your first campaign.

When not to choose DoubleScale

• There is no built-in sending service. You connect your own provider (Amazon SES, Brevo, Mailgun, SendGrid, Postmark and more) and add its DNS records once.
• No A/B testing yet.
• We are new on WordPress.org, so there are fewer tutorials and community answers than for the big names.
• Automations that send email, sequences, automated campaigns, WooCommerce triggers, SMS and WhatsApp need a Pro plan (from $99 a year). The free automation builder handles tags, lists and contact updates.
• If your site is not on WordPress, Brevo is the natural choice of the three.

Choose by situation

Two-way comparison: MailPoet vs Brevo. Head-to-head: DoubleScale vs Brevo.

How we compared: prices were read on each vendor’s pricing page on October 17, 2026 (USD, monthly billing unless noted); the cost examples assume 4 campaigns a month to the whole list; DoubleScale screenshots are from DoubleScale 1.6 on a test site.

FAQ

Can DoubleScale send emails through Brevo?

Yes. Brevo is one of the 20+ sending providers DoubleScale supports, alongside Amazon SES, Mailgun, SendGrid and Postmark. You can also set a fallback provider.

Is Brevo cheaper than MailPoet?

It depends on sending volume. For 10,000 subscribers and four campaigns a month, Brevo Standard costs about $1,068 a year and MailPoet Business $960. For large lists emailed rarely, Brevo is often cheaper.

Does Brevo still have unlimited contacts?

Not on every tier. Its 2026 calculator includes 500 contacts at 5,000 emails a month and 1,500 at 10,000, and 500,000 from 20,000 emails a month.

Which supports WhatsApp marketing?

Brevo (Professional plan) and DoubleScale Pro. MailPoet is email only.

Do I pay Brevo if I send through it from DoubleScale?

Yes. Brevo charges for the emails you send through its SMTP according to its plan, and DoubleScale charges per site. Amazon SES is usually the cheaper sender for large volumes.

Can DoubleScale use two sending providers?

Yes. You can add several connections, choose a default and a fallback, and DoubleScale switches and alerts you if the default fails.