Brevo vs ConvertKit: The History of Email Marketing for Businesses vs Creators

Email marketing has evolved dramatically over the past two decades. What began as a simple digital newsletter system has transformed into a sophisticated ecosystem of automation, audience segmentation, customer relationship management, and creator monetization. Among the many platforms competing in this space, two companies stand out for targeting very different audiences: Brevo and ConvertKit.

Although both platforms offer email marketing tools, their histories reveal two fundamentally different philosophies. Brevo evolved into a business-focused communication suite for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while ConvertKit emerged as a creator-first platform designed for bloggers, writers, podcasters, and digital entrepreneurs.

This article explores the historical development of both companies, how they shaped different segments of the email marketing industry, and why their divergent strategies reflect broader shifts in the digital economy.

The Early Days of Email Marketing

Before understanding Brevo and ConvertKit, it is important to examine the broader context of email marketing.

In the early 2000s, platforms like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and AWeber dominated the market. Their primary focus was helping businesses send newsletters, promotional campaigns, and transactional emails. Email marketing was largely business-centric, aimed at e-commerce stores, agencies, and corporate marketing teams.

At that time, creators and independent publishers were not considered a major market segment. Bloggers and online educators often relied on generic business tools that were expensive, complex, or poorly suited for audience-building.

By the early 2010s, two trends began reshaping the industry:

1. The rise of small digital businesses and startups.
2. The growth of the creator economy.

Brevo and ConvertKit emerged during this transformation, but each chose a different path.

The Founding of Brevo (Formerly Sendinblue)

Brevo was founded in 2012 in Paris, France, by Armand Thiberge. Initially launched under the name “Sendinblue,” the company focused on transactional emails and affordable email marketing solutions for small businesses.

Unlike many American competitors that targeted enterprise customers, Sendinblue concentrated on European SMEs that needed cost-effective communication tools. The platform quickly gained attention because it offered a pricing model based on email volume rather than subscriber count, making it attractive for businesses with large contact databases but moderate email activity.

From the beginning, Sendinblue emphasized practicality over complexity. The company aimed to become an all-in-one communication platform rather than just another newsletter tool.

Its early services included:

• Transactional emails
• SMS marketing
• Marketing automation
• Contact management
• Campaign analytics

This broader approach helped distinguish Sendinblue from competitors that focused only on newsletters.

The company expanded rapidly throughout Europe and later into North America and Asia. Offices opened in Paris, Delhi, Seattle, Berlin, Toronto, Vienna, and New York.

By 2016, Forbes named Sendinblue one of the startups to watch. The company’s affordability and strong automation tools made it especially popular among startups, e-commerce businesses, and agencies.

ConvertKit: Built for Creators

While Brevo was building a business communication platform in Europe, another company was emerging in the United States with a completely different mission.

ConvertKit was founded in 2013 by Nathan Barry, a designer, author, and entrepreneur based in Boise, Idaho. Barry created ConvertKit after becoming frustrated with traditional email marketing platforms that were not designed for creators and bloggers.

Barry noticed that email was far more effective for audience engagement than social media. Existing tools like Mailchimp felt too corporate and complicated for independent creators who wanted simple automation and audience management.

ConvertKit was initially developed as a side project with a modest goal: generate recurring revenue while helping creators connect with their audiences. According to entrepreneurial discussions about the company’s growth, the platform struggled in its early months but gained momentum after narrowing its focus specifically to bloggers and online creators.

This strategic positioning became ConvertKit’s defining advantage.

Instead of competing directly with giant email platforms on every feature, ConvertKit specialized in creator workflows:

• Subscriber tagging
• Visual automation
• Landing pages
• Lead magnets
• Digital product sales
• Creator-focused email sequences

The company embraced simplicity. Its interface intentionally minimized complexity so creators could focus on publishing content rather than managing software.

Different Philosophies, Different Audiences

The histories of Brevo and ConvertKit reveal a fundamental divide in the email marketing industry.

Brevo: Business Communication Infrastructure

Brevo evolved into a multi-channel communication suite for businesses.

Its core philosophy was:

Businesses need integrated customer communication tools.

As a result, Brevo expanded beyond email into:

• CRM functionality
• SMS campaigns
• WhatsApp marketing
• Live chat
• Push notifications
• Customer data platforms
• Sales tools

The company aimed to help businesses manage the entire customer journey from acquisition to retention.

Brevo became particularly attractive to:

• Small businesses
• E-commerce stores
• SaaS companies
• Marketing agencies
• Retail brands

The platform’s pricing model also reinforced this strategy. Unlike creator-focused tools that charged heavily for subscriber growth, Brevo emphasized affordability and scalability for operational businesses.

ConvertKit: The Creator Economy Platform

ConvertKit pursued a completely different philosophy:

Creators need direct ownership of their audience.

This idea became increasingly important as social media algorithms made audience reach unpredictable. ConvertKit positioned email as the most reliable way for creators to maintain direct relationships with followers.

Over time, ConvertKit expanded beyond newsletters into creator monetization tools, including:

• Paid newsletters
• Digital product sales
• Creator recommendations
• Audience segmentation
• Commerce integrations

The platform intentionally avoided enterprise-style complexity. Instead, it focused on helping creators earn income from their audiences.

ConvertKit’s rise coincided with the explosion of the creator economy during the late 2010s and early 2020s.

As YouTubers, podcasters, writers, and educators sought more independence from social media platforms, ConvertKit became one of the leading tools for creator-owned audiences.

The Rise of Automation

Both companies benefited from a major trend in digital marketing: automation.

In the early days of email marketing, campaigns were mostly manual broadcasts. Businesses or creators sent newsletters to entire lists with little personalization.

By the mid-2010s, automation transformed the industry.

Brevo adopted automation to support customer lifecycle marketing for businesses. Its workflows focused on:

• Cart abandonment
• Customer onboarding
• Transactional communication
• CRM-driven segmentation

This aligned with its business-centric strategy.

ConvertKit, meanwhile, approached automation differently. Its visual automation builder focused on creator journeys:

• Welcome sequences
• Lead magnet delivery
• Course launches
• Subscriber tagging
• Audience nurturing

Rather than emphasizing complex sales funnels, ConvertKit simplified automation for non-technical users.

This distinction became one of the clearest differences between the platforms.

Rebranding and Expansion

Sendinblue Becomes Brevo

In 2023, Sendinblue officially rebranded as Brevo.

The rebrand reflected the company’s evolution from an email-focused service into a broader customer relationship platform. The name “Sendinblue” was closely associated with email sending, while “Brevo” represented a more expansive communication ecosystem.

Following the rebrand, Brevo expanded its capabilities through acquisitions and AI integrations. It added:

• Push notifications
• Customer data tools
• Loyalty systems
• AI writing assistance

The company increasingly positioned itself as a challenger to CRM giants like HubSpot and Salesforce for small and mid-sized businesses.

ConvertKit Becomes Kit

ConvertKit underwent a similar transformation in 2024 when it rebranded to “Kit.”

The rebrand symbolized the company’s ambition to become more than an email platform. Kit described itself as an “email-first operating system for creators.”

This transition reflected broader creator economy trends:

• Paid newsletters
• Independent publishing
• Community monetization
• Creator-owned businesses

Kit expanded into commerce features and creator networking tools while maintaining its creator-first identity.

The company emphasized transparency throughout the rebranding process, publicly documenting its strategic decisions and evolution.

Pricing Models and Market Positioning

One of the most important historical differences between Brevo and ConvertKit lies in pricing philosophy.

Brevo’s Business Pricing

Brevo traditionally priced its services based on email volume rather than subscriber count. This model appealed to businesses managing large databases but sending campaigns selectively.

Advantages included:

• Lower costs for SMEs
• Scalable transactional email systems
• Flexible communication infrastructure

This pricing strategy aligned with Brevo’s focus on operational businesses.

ConvertKit’s Creator Pricing

ConvertKit used subscriber-based pricing, reflecting its emphasis on audience growth and monetization.

The company believed creators were willing to pay more as their audiences expanded because larger audiences directly translated into revenue opportunities through:

• Courses
• Sponsorships
• Memberships
• Paid newsletters

ConvertKit also introduced generous free plans to attract emerging creators early in their growth journey.

Community Perception and User Experience

Historically, both platforms developed strong reputations in their respective niches.

Brevo’s Reputation

Brevo gained recognition for affordability and multi-channel marketing features. Users frequently praised:

• SMS integration
• CRM functionality
• Cost efficiency
• Automation flexibility

However, some community discussions criticized aspects of customer support and interface reliability. Reddit users occasionally reported frustrations involving account restrictions, template limitations, and technical bugs.

Despite this, Brevo remained popular among businesses seeking budget-friendly alternatives to enterprise software.

ConvertKit’s Reputation

ConvertKit earned a reputation as one of the most creator-friendly platforms in the industry.

Users praised:

• Simplicity
• Automation clarity
• Tag-based subscriber management
• Creator-focused design

Many creators viewed ConvertKit as a platform built by people who genuinely understood online publishing and digital entrepreneurship.

Criticism usually centered on pricing and limited visual customization compared to enterprise email tools.

Still, ConvertKit’s niche positioning proved extremely powerful. Community discussions frequently cite its success as an example of how specialization can outperform broader competition.

The Creator Economy vs Business Marketing

The divergence between Brevo and ConvertKit reflects a larger economic transformation.

Brevo Represents Traditional Digital Business

Brevo’s history mirrors the needs of modern businesses:

• Customer relationship management
• Omnichannel communication
• Sales pipelines
• E-commerce retention
• Marketing automation

It evolved as a tool for organizations managing customers at scale.

ConvertKit Represents the Creator Economy

ConvertKit’s history reflects the rise of independent digital entrepreneurship.

Its success was driven by:

• Bloggers
• YouTubers
• Newsletter writers
• Course creators
• Podcasters
• Solopreneurs

Instead of managing “customers,” creators managed “audiences.”

This subtle difference shaped everything from product design to pricing strategy.

Which Platform Fits Modern Users?

Today, both platforms continue to thrive because they serve fundamentally different needs.

Brevo Is Best For

• Small businesses
• E-commerce brands
• Agencies
• CRM-driven marketing
• Multi-channel communication

Its strength lies in operational marketing infrastructure and affordability.

ConvertKit (Kit) Is Best For

• Creators
• Writers
• Coaches
• Newsletter publishers
• Online educators
• Personal brands

Its strength lies in audience ownership, monetization, and simplicity.

Conclusion

The histories of Brevo and ConvertKit demonstrate how the email marketing industry evolved into two distinct worlds.

Brevo emerged from the business software ecosystem, focusing on customer communication, automation, and CRM integration for companies. ConvertKit emerged from the creator movement, focusing on audience ownership, monetization, and direct creator-to-fan relationships.

Both companies recognized that email remained one of the most powerful communication channels on the internet. However, they interpreted its value differently.