Email automation for SG SMEs: GetResponse vs Brevo (2026)

The short answer: count two numbers before you compare a single feature. How many contacts you hold, and how many emails you actually send.

GetResponse bills by list size. Your 3,000 lapsed-customer list costs money every month, even if you only email it quarterly. Brevo bills by send volume: unlimited contacts, 300 emails a day free, and you pay when you send more. So a big list you rarely email points to Brevo, often at S$0. A small list you email hard every week points to GetResponse, where sends are unlimited within your tier. And under about 200 subscribers, you don't need either yet.

At a glance (checked 15 Jul 2026)

Two things to know before you trust any table, including this one. First, GetResponse's pricing page prices by location, so this table prints its verified structure and no converted guess. Open the page yourself for the SGD/USD figure. Second, GetResponse had a free plan on 11 July; by 15 July its pricing page showed only a trial. Free tiers rot. Date-check everything, including us.

What you're actually buying

GetResponse is the fuller marketing suite of the two. Autoresponders, funnels, landing pages, webinars on the higher tiers, all on the classic list-size meter. The subtle cost is that dead weight gets billed. Every unsubscriber you haven't pruned and every cold lead from 2024 counts toward your tier. Its AI is tier-gated in a way that bites at the bottom: Starter's "up to 3 uses" of the AI generators is a demo, not a tool. The working AI starts at Marketer.

Brevo grew out of transactional email (it was Sendinblue), and you can see it in the meter: hold 10,000 contacts free and pay for what you send. The 300-a-day free plan is a real operating tier for a small business, not a trial. Its AI features (content generation, segmentation, send-time optimisation) ship across the paid range with no use-counter. And its SMS and WhatsApp campaign channels fit how SG customers actually talk, though verify the current WhatsApp specifics on the page when you set up.

The decision-flip, in numbers. Take a café with 2,800 collected contacts sending one monthly update. That's 2,800 emails, or about 93 a day averaged out. On Brevo's free plan that's S$0, forever. On GetResponse it sits in the 2,500–5,000-contact tier every month, sends or no sends. Now flip it. A coach with 400 subscribers sending three emails a week plus automations will feel Brevo's daily cap pinch, while GetResponse's unlimited sending at the 1k tier is the calmer buy.

Singapore-specific notes

• Currency: neither publishes SGD list prices. Brevo quoted USD to us; GetResponse geo-serves. Add GST on imported services to the mental maths.
• PDPA is the real email law here. Consent before marketing, a working unsubscribe, and no quietly repurposing enquiry emails into a broadcast list. Our lead-capture playbook bakes the consent line in. Both platforms handle the mechanics (double opt-in, unsubscribe) once you configure them.
• The site's own choice, disclosed: our newsletter promises double opt-in before any send (privacy). Whichever tool you pick, turn that on. Trust compounds. Lists built without it burn.

Which one for which business

• Retail or F&B with a big, quiet list (collect many, email monthly): Brevo, likely at S$0.
• Content-led business emailing weekly or more (courses, coaching, newsletters as the product): GetResponse. Unlimited sends per tier and stronger funnel tooling. Start at Marketer if you want its AI to be real.
• Transactional needs too (order confirmations from your shop): Brevo's transactional roots serve both jobs in one place.
• Either way: prune your list quarterly. On GetResponse it cuts the bill. On Brevo it protects deliverability.

You might need neither if…

…your list is under about 200 people. At that size, "email marketing" is a personal note. A clean, BCC-free send from your own mailbox (or the newsletter capture building quietly until the list justifies tooling) converts better than any automation. Collect first. The lead-capture playbook does it for S$0. Buy the platform when the list, not the ambition, demands it.

Your first campaign, step by step (Brevo free, ~40 minutes)

1. Sign up free (no card). Verify your sender domain when prompted; their wizard walks you through it.
2. Import your consented contacts. Only people who said yes. PDPA isn't decoration.
3. Build one template: your logo, one offer or update, one button. The AI content pack drafts the copy for free.
4. Turn on double opt-in for new signups.
5. Send it to yourself, check how it looks on a phone, then send for real. Watch opens for a week before you decide you need more than S$0 worth of tooling.

FAQ

Mailchimp? The name everyone knows, with a meter (contacts × features) everyone outgrows. We haven't verified it to this page's standard, so it gets no table row. The two-number test above applies to it all the same.

Do the AI generators actually help? For subject lines and first drafts, yes. But a free ChatGPT or Gemini tab with our prompts does the same job without tier-gating. Never pick an email tier for the AI. Pick it for the meter.

What about WhatsApp instead of email? For SG customers, often the better channel, and a different cost model entirely (WhatsApp app vs API). Email is still the channel you own. Platforms can't suspend your list.

Can I switch later? Yes. Export contacts, rebuild templates, re-verify the domain. An afternoon, not a migration. The list is the asset; the platform is plumbing.

Next step

Count your two numbers (contacts held, emails sent last month) and the table picks your platform in thirty seconds. If the answer is Brevo free, set it up this week and put the subscription money toward collecting more consented subscribers instead.