Brevo is a marketing platform with a transactional email API attached: contacts, automation, SMS, WhatsApp, chat and a CRM, with a free plan of 300 emails a day across all of it. Notix is a developer email API with marketing features attached: a JSON send with an idempotency key, signed webhooks, an OTP API, a pre-send deliverability check, a 99.9% SLA on Pro, and 50,000 emails for $15. Teams that run their marketing in Brevo's automation editor or its CRM should stay; Notix does none of that. For a product team that needs receipts, codes and alerts to arrive and be traceable, the move takes an afternoon.
Brevo sells a marketing platform, and the transactional API lives inside it. That is the right shape for a marketing team and the wrong one for a product team: the send call has no idempotency key, so a retried request can send twice, and every feature a developer reaches for sits beside a dozen built for someone else.
Brevo's developer documentation recommends restricting your webhook endpoint to its IP addresses rather than verifying a signature. An allowlist is a thing to maintain and a thing that breaks when the addresses change. A signed event verifies itself.
Brevo delivers the message you compose. The one-time code for a sign-in flow, its expiry and the check are yours to build, and there is no test for whether a message is likely to land before it goes. The pricing page does not state an SLA for its self-serve plans.
Every Brevo figure was read from Brevo's own pricing page in a browser on 2026-09-13; it shows yearly prices by default, so the table records the monthly figure and the yearly one beside it. The date sits under the table. If a number has changed since, the page is wrong and we would like to know.
| Criterion | Brevo | Notix |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 300 emails a day once the account is approved for sending; API, SMTP and webhooks on every plan | 5,000 emails a month, 200 a day, no card, no end date |
| Entry paid plan | Starter $9 a month, $8 on the yearly plan | Pro $15 a month |
| Included on that plan | From 5,000 emails a month (Standard: $18 a month, $16 yearly; Professional from 150,000 emails at $449 yearly) | 50,000 emails, usage past that metered on the same invoice |
| SMTP relay | Yes, on every plan including Free | Yes, on every plan |
| SDKs | Node, Python, PHP | TypeScript, Python, Go, PHP |
| Webhooks | Yes; the docs recommend an IP allowlist rather than a signature | Yes, signed, for email, contact and domain events |
| OTP / verification API | No | Yes, email and SMS codes |
| Deliverability check before sending | No | Yes, a pre-send check API |
| Billing outside USD | By card through Adyen, or PayPal | USD by card; naira and shillings from a prepaid wallet |
| SLA | Not stated on the pricing page | 99.9% on Pro, credits on the pricing page |
| Prices and limits read from the vendors' own pages: www.brevo.com on 2026-09-13. Notix figures are from its own pricing page. | ||
Everywhere outside transactional email. Brevo has a contact database with segmentation, a marketing automation editor with unlimited multi-step workflows on Standard, A/B testing, landing pages and forms, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns, live chat and a sales CRM, and its free plan sends 300 emails a day, about three times Notix Free's monthly allowance. Its Enterprise plan adds dedicated IPs, SSO and custom objects. If your marketing team runs on any of that, Brevo is the right tool and this page is not for you.
Both send through a JSON API, both offer an SMTP relay on every plan including free, both deliver event webhooks, and both verify a sending domain with DNS records you add once. Both have contact lists, templates and campaigns. For a plain transactional send the two calls carry the same fields; the migration section shows how little changes.
Brevo Starter is $9 for 5,000 emails; Notix Pro is $15 for 50,000. Past that, the extra is metered on the same invoice rather than through a plan change; the pricing page has the per-unit rate.
One call sends a code by email or SMS, one call checks it. Expiry, attempts, rate limits and risk scoring are handled server-side. See OTP email.
A retried request never sends twice, and every delivery event verifies itself with an HMAC-SHA256 signature. See webhook signatures.
Post the message and get back a verdict, a score and the findings that would block a send before a single recipient sees it.
Bounces and complaints suppress across transactional and marketing mail in one account, and Pro carries a 99.9% monthly uptime commitment with credits on the pricing page.
A prepaid wallet in NGN or KES, topped up locally. Pro is charged from the balance each month; no dollar card needed.
The send call carries the same fields. Swap the request and the key, or the SMTP host, verify your domain, and the rest of your code stays as it is. Marketing automation built in Brevo's editor has no export into Notix journeys and has to be rebuilt.
// Brevo transactional send over its REST API
const response = await fetch("https://api.brevo.com/v3/smtp/email", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"api-key": process.env.BREVO_API_KEY,
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
body: JSON.stringify({
sender: { email: "receipts@acme.com" },
to: [{ email: "customer@example.com" }],
subject: "Your receipt",
htmlContent: "<p>Thanks for your order.</p>",
}),
});
import { Notix } from "notix-js";
const notix = new Notix(process.env.NOTIX_API_KEY);
const { data, error } = await notix.emails.send(
{
from: "receipts@acme.com",
to: "customer@example.com",
subject: "Your receipt",
html: "<p>Thanks for your order.</p>",
},
{ idempotencyKey: "order-48213-receipt" },
);
# Before
SMTP_HOST=smtp-relay.brevo.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=<your Brevo login>
SMTP_PASS=<Brevo SMTP key>
# After
SMTP_HOST=smtp.usenotix.dev
SMTP_PORT=465 # or 587 for STARTTLS
SMTP_USER=notix
SMTP_PASS=<your Notix API key>
Add the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records Notix gives you. They sit beside Brevo's records, so both services can send while you switch. The quickstart walks through it.
Replace the Brevo request with notix-js and the key in your environment; add an idempotency key named after the thing you are sending about. Over SMTP, point your mailer at smtp.usenotix.dev on 465 or 587 with user notix and your API key as the password; the SMTP relay takes the message your mailer already builds.
Export contacts and blocked addresses from Brevo as CSV. Contacts go into a contact book with double opt-in on; blocked addresses go under Suppressions, one per line, so the first sends from Notix never reach an address that has already said no. Webhook URLs move last, once traffic has.
| Emails a month | Brevo | Notix |
|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | Free (300 a day) or Starter, $9 a month | Pro, $15 (Free stops at 5,000) |
| 50,000 | Standard, $18 a month, volume-priced above 5,000 | Pro, $15 |
| 150,000 | Professional, from $449 a month on the yearly plan | Pro, $15 plus the 100,000 above the allowance, metered on the same invoice |
Under 300 emails a day Brevo costs nothing and wins on price. At 50,000 Notix Pro at $15 includes the whole volume while Brevo's Standard price is the base for 5,000 and rises with volume. At 150,000 Brevo's Professional starts at $449 a month; Notix keeps you on Pro and adds the overage at the per-unit rate on the pricing page, where you can run the estimate for your own volume. Brevo prices read on 2026-09-13.
Teams in Nigeria and Kenya fund a prepaid wallet in naira or shillings through local payment methods and Pro is charged from that balance each month, so nobody needs a dollar card that clears international charges. The free plan is the same everywhere. The local price per email is on the pricing page when you open it from either country, and every receipt is in the wallet currency.
A marketing suite with a transactional API against a developer email API, on price, sending, deliverability and billing regions.
NotixA free plan with no card, and Pro at $15 a month for 50,000 emails. Only sent volume is metered.
AlternativesA MailerSend alternative with a larger free tier, an OTP API, a pre-send deliverability check and wallet billing in naira and shillings.
AlternativesA free plan that does not end after 60 days, a suppression import, and an API you can move to in an afternoon.
ProductOTPs, receipts and alerts with idempotency keys, a deliverability pre-check and a shared suppression list.
AlternativesHonest switch pages for the email APIs people move away from, with the vendor's own numbers and read dates.
5,000 emails a month on Free. When you outgrow it, Pro is $15 for 50,000, payable by card or from a naira or shilling wallet.