Brevo Automation: Workflows You Can Build (and What Each Plan Allows)

Brevo automation is the visual workflow builder inside Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) that reacts to a contact's behaviour, a date, or an event and then runs a sequence of actions — send an email, wait, branch on a condition, update a field, or call an external system. It is not the same thing as a one-off campaign send, and it is more than a single welcome email: the same builder can drive email plus, on the Professional plan, WhatsApp, popups, mobile and web push. That multi-channel scope is one reason teams pick Brevo over a pure email tool.

What Brevo automation actually is

Think of it as a set of rules that live permanently in your account. A campaign is a broadcast you schedule and forget. An automation is a loop that keeps watching: a new contact arrives, a page gets visited, a renewal date approaches, or someone goes quiet for two months. When the condition matches, the workflow runs the steps you drew, in order, for that contact only.

Two consequences follow from that definition, and both matter more than the interface:

• You are designing for a moment, not a message. The trigger is the strategic decision; the copy is downstream of it.
• Workflows run in parallel. A contact can be inside several workflows at once, which is powerful and also a common source of accidental double-sends.

Brevo's own documentation is the place to confirm how its editor behaves and whether a given workflow can be duplicated — menu labels and capabilities shift between releases, so check the official docs rather than relying on a screenshot from last year.

Triggers, actions, and conditions: the three building blocks

Every workflow, however complex, is assembled from three kinds of block. The examples below are the categories most automation builders use; Brevo's exact trigger and action list lives in its official documentation, so treat these as a mental model rather than a feature list.

Triggers start the workflow. Typical categories across automation tools: a contact is added to a list, a specific event fires (a purchase, a form submission), a date or anniversary arrives, a contact becomes inactive, or a website page is visited.

Actions do the work: send an email, wait for a period, update a contact attribute, add or remove from a list, or call an external system. Which of these Brevo exposes, and on which plan, is documented on its own site.

Conditions split the path. Most builders let you branch on an attribute, on engagement, or on event data such as order value.

How to build your first Brevo workflow

1. Define the single outcome. One workflow, one goal: book a demo, activate a trial, recover a cart. If you cannot name the exit condition, you are not ready to draw anything.
2. Pick the trigger that best represents that moment. A page visit or event is usually more accurate than a list add, because it reflects intent rather than data hygiene.
3. Write the first email before adding branches. In practice, message quality usually matters more than logic.
4. Add one wait. A delay between step one and step two is the cheapest improvement you can make.
5. Add one condition. Not five. One branch on v1.
6. Test with a seed contact. Run yourself through the whole path end to end.
7. Check the log. Confirm the contact entered, moved, and exited where you expected.

If you already have a similar workflow, check whether your tool lets you duplicate it. Rebuilding a working diagram from memory is how small inconsistencies creep in.

Five workflows worth building first

Welcome and onboarding. Trigger: signup. Three emails over eight days, each with one action to take. Exit when the first purchase or key activation event fires. Watch: activation rate by day three.

Abandoned browse or cart nudge. Trigger: product page visit or cart event. Wait four hours, then check whether the order event fired. If it did, exit silently. If not, send one helpful email. Watch: recovery rate, not open rate.

Re-engagement. Trigger: no opens or clicks for 60 days. Two emails, spaced a week apart, with a genuine reason to return. If still inactive, suppress rather than send a third. Watch: reactivation rate versus list decay.

Date-based lifecycle. Trigger: anniversary or renewal date. Reminder 14 days before, confirmation on the day. Watch: renewal rate and support tickets.

Lead handoff. Trigger: high-intent page visit or form submission. Webhook to your CRM plus an internal notification to a sales rep. Watch: time from trigger to first human contact.

What each Brevo plan allows

Plan names, email volumes and feature availability below were checked on 2026-10-31 on Brevo's official pricing page (brevo.com/pricing). Brevo adjusts plans periodically, so confirm details on the official page before you buy.

Two further verified points: yearly billing gives a 10% discount, and Brevo reports 600,000+ customers worldwide.

What the table does not tell you is which tier unlocks which automation depth. Automation capability and channel coverage differ by tier, and the honest answer is to read the official plan comparison rather than assume. If automation is your deciding factor, check that specific row before committing.

Where Brevo is strong, and where it may not fit

Brevo's real strength, based on its own published plan descriptions, is breadth in one place: email, WhatsApp, popups and push under one login, with a free entry point that genuinely costs nothing and a large customer base. For a small team that wants marketing and CRM-adjacent functions without stitching three vendors together, that combination is hard to argue with.

Where it may not fit: teams that prefer unlimited sending over a monthly email allowance should check whether Brevo's allowance model fits their volume, and teams whose automation needs are simple enough that paying for channels they will never use is poor value. That is not a criticism of Brevo — it is a statement about fit. Brevo's own plan descriptions are organised around company size and channel ambition, so use those as your filter.

Common mistakes when building Brevo workflows

• Drawing before defining the exit. Fix: write the exit condition on paper first.
• Stacking waits with no suppression. Fix: add a condition that removes converted contacts.
• Using a list-add trigger when an event is more accurate. Fix: trigger on the behaviour, not the data entry.
• Forgetting parallel entry. Fix: decide which workflows a contact may be in simultaneously.
• Skipping the test contact. Fix: always run yourself through, then read the log.
• Sending identical copy on every channel. Fix: adapt the message per channel.
• Never reviewing after launch. Fix: put a review date in the calendar.
• Treating it as set-and-forget. Fix: update workflows when the offer changes.

A short pre-launch checklist

• One clear goal written down
• Trigger matches the real moment
• Exit condition defined
• Suppression for already-converted contacts
• At least one wait included
• One branch maximum on v1
• Test contact run end to end
• Links and personalisation tokens checked
• Sender domain and consent in place
• Review date in the calendar

If you are comparing Brevo with other tools

Judge on criteria, not on feature lists. How many emails do you actually send per month — and would an unlimited model suit you better than an allowance? Which channels will you genuinely use in the next year? How many seats do you need? How deep does the branching logic have to go? And how much work is migration, really?

If you are weighing options, our breakdown of Brevo alternatives for marketing and transactional email walks through the trade-offs, and the pricing models comparison is useful if per-contact versus per-email billing is your sticking point. For a deeper look at automation depth specifically, see Brevo vs ActiveCampaign.

Mailerflow is worth a look if unlimited sending matters to you: every paid plan includes unlimited emails, a free plan covers 2,500 contacts and 10,000 emails a month, and paid plans start at $14.90/month. Migration help is free on eligible paid plans and covers contacts, suppression lists, templates and core automations, with CSV import that checks for duplicates and invalid addresses. Visual automations support waits, conditions, webhooks and AI steps, triggered by signups, events, dates, inactivity and website behaviour. You can see the full breakdown on the features page.

FAQ

Can I automate channels beyond email in Brevo? Brevo's published plan information lists WhatsApp, popups, mobile and web push on the Professional plan; check the official comparison for SMS and other channels on your tier.

Do I need a paid plan to use automations? Brevo's free plan is free forever with no credit card, but automation depth and channel coverage differ by tier, so check the official plan comparison for your tier.

Can a contact be in more than one workflow at the same time? Yes, and that is usually intended. The practical risk is receiving two emails on the same day from different workflows, so add a suppression or condition step to prevent overlaps.

How do I stop a workflow for someone who already converted? Add a condition after your first wait that checks the conversion event, and route converted contacts to an exit. Doing this at the top of the workflow is cleaner than trying to patch it later.

Can I send a webhook to my CRM from a workflow? Check Brevo's official documentation for the current list of automation actions — webhooks are a common action type in workflow builders, and if Brevo supports them you can use them for lead handoff and for writing event data back to your own systems.

How long should I wait between emails? There is no universal number. Match the wait to the decision cycle: hours for a cart nudge, days for onboarding, weeks for re-engagement. Test one wait length at a time so you know what changed.

If you want to see how a workflow builder with unlimited sending on paid plans fits your list size, compare the plans and start on the free tier.