§05 · Email · Which newsletter tool?
Email marketing and newsletters
Email marketing tools send newsletters, onboarding sequences and product announcements to lists that people opted into. Most price by the number of contacts, so the table shows what each costs at 10,000 subscribers alongside its free plan, automations and landing pages.
Where we would start, by stage
Editorial picks from the data below, never paid. They change when prices or free tiers do; the full table is underneath.
Free up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts.
Creator from $33/mo (1,000 subscribers, monthly)
A free plan to start, then automations and landing pages at modest per-subscriber prices.
Comfort from $12/mo
Event-triggered workflows on every plan, with marketing and transactional email in one place.
Paid plans from $49/mo
Visual workflows on every plan and 1M emails a month included on Essentials.
Essentials from $100/mo (5,000 profiles)
All 32 compared
A to Z · never paid placement32 tools
| Tool | From | Free option | Free plan | 10k contacts/mo | Automations | Landing pages | Stages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign activecampaign.com | $15/mo | Trial | No free plan (14-day trial) | Starter: 5 actions each; Plus and up: unlimited | Plus plan and up | ||
| Acumbamail acumbamail.com · EU | Free tier | 250 subscribers, 2,000 emails/mo | Yes | ||||
| beehiiv beehiiv.com | $49/mo | Free tier | 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends | $109/mo (Scale) | Scale plan and up | Hosted website builder, all plans | |
| Bento bentonow.com | $29/mo | No free plan | $79/mo (calculated from published rates) | Included (flows) | Forms and popups; no landing pages listed | ||
| Brevo brevo.com · EU | $9/mo | Free tier | 100,000 stored; 300 emails/day | Yes; Free/Starter capped at 2,000 contacts | Standard plan and up (1 page included) | ||
| Buttondown buttondown.com | Free tier | 100 subscribers | Add-on, +$29/mo | Hosted archive and subscribe page | |||
| Customer.io customer.io | $100/mo | Trial | No free plan | ~$145/mo (Essentials + profile overage) | Visual workflow builder, all plans | ||
| Elastic Email API elasticemail.com | $19/mo | Free tier | |||||
| EmailOctopus emailoctopus.com | $9/mo | Free tier | 2,500 subscribers, 10,000 emails/mo | Free: 3 (5 steps); Pro: included | Free 1; Pro unlimited | ||
| Encharge encharge.io | $99/mo | Trial | No free plan | Unlimited flows, all plans | |||
| GetResponse getresponse.com | $19/mo | Free tier | 500 contacts, 2,500 emails/mo | Starter: 1 workflow; Marketer and up: unlimited | Yes, all plans (1 on free) | ||
| Ghost ghost.org · OSS · EU | $18/mo | Free tier | Self-host free; Ghost(Pro) no free plan | Full website and themes | |||
| Keila keila.io · OSS · EU | €8/mo | Open source | Self-host free; cloud has no free plan | By emails: 15,000 emails = €32/mo | |||
| Kit kit.com | $33/mo | Free tier | 10,000 subscribers | Creator plan and up (unlimited) | Unlimited, all plans | ||
| Klaviyo klaviyo.com | $20/mo | Free tier | 250 active profiles, 500 emails/mo | $150/mo (third-party figure) | Yes, all plans including free | ||
| listmonk listmonk.app · OSS · EU | Free tier | Unlimited (self-hosted) | $0 software; server and SMTP costs | No drip builder; transactional API and webhooks | |||
| Loops loops.so | $49/mo | Free tier | 1,000 subscribed contacts, 4,000 sends/mo | $99/mo | Yes, event-triggered workflows, all plans | ||
| Mailchimp mailchimp.com | $13/mo | Free tier | 250 contacts, 500 sends/mo | Essentials: 4-step flows; Standard: up to 200 flows | Yes, all plans | ||
| Mailcoach mailcoach.app | $9.99/mo | Trial | No free plan; unlimited contacts on paid | Per email: 10,000 emails = $25.99/mo | Unlimited, included | ||
| MailerLite mailerlite.com · EU | $12/mo | Free tier | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo | $89/mo (Comfort), $129/mo (Power) | Free 3, Comfort 50, Power unlimited | Free 1, Comfort 10, Power unlimited | |
| Mailjet mailjet.com · EU | $9/mo | Free tier | |||||
| Mautic mautic.org · OSS · EU | Free tier | Unlimited (self-hosted) | $0 software; hosting and sending extra | Yes, campaign builder | Yes, drag-and-drop builder | ||
| Moosend moosend.com | $9/mo | Trial | No free plan (30-day trial, 1,000 contacts) | Multi-step workflows on Pro | Yes, Pro | ||
| Notifuse notifuse.com · OSS · EU | $19/mo | Open source | Self-host free; cloud has no free plan | $49/mo cloud, plus your ESP costs | Yes, all plans (10 node types) | Blog CMS; no landing page builder listed | |
| Plunk useplunk.com · OSS · EU | Usage-based | Free tier | |||||
| Resend resend.com | $20/mo | Free tier | |||||
| Sender sender.net · EU | $7/mo | Free tier | 2,500 subscribers, 15,000 emails/mo | Yes, all plans; advanced on Professional | Yes, all plans | ||
| Sendy sendy.co · EU | Usage-based | Unlimited subscribers (self-hosted) | $0/mo after $69 licence; SES per email | Autoresponders (drip), rules and webhooks | |||
| Twilio SendGrid Email API twilio.com · EU | $19.95/mo | Trial | |||||
| Userlist userlist.com | $149/mo | Trial | No free plan | $149/mo (Basic) | Visual workflows, all plans | Signup forms; no landing pages | |
| useSend usesend.com · OSS | $10/mo | Free tier | |||||
| Zoho Campaigns zoho.com | Free tier | 2,000 contacts, 6,000 emails/mo | Standard: basic workflows; Professional: advanced |
No tools match these filters.
How to choose a newsletter tool
- Price at the list size you expect in a year, not today: per-contact pricing grows quickly.
- Product teams sending event-triggered lifecycle email need an API and event data (Customer.io, Loops, Bento); creators need a good editor, landing pages and paid subscriptions (Kit, beehiiv, Buttondown).
- Check whether unsubscribed contacts count towards your bill.
- Self-hosted options such as listmonk cost almost nothing but need a sending service (such as Amazon SES) and your own maintenance.
Questions
What is the best free email marketing tool?
Free plans differ in contact limits, monthly sends and branding. The "Free plan" column lists each one's limits as published on its pricing page, with the date checked.
Should I use the same service for newsletters and transactional email?
It works at small scale, and some providers offer both. Many teams still separate them so a marketing complaint rate cannot affect password resets and receipts.
Comparisons and pricing changes
Head to head
Resend vs Postmark Twilio SendGrid Email API vs Mailgun Mailchimp vs MailerLite Kit vs beehiivRecent changes
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MailerLite renames plans and updates prices and limits
MailerLite · source ↗
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Mailchimp halves its free plan limits
Mailchimp · source ↗
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SendGrid retires its Free Email API plan
Twilio SendGrid Email API · source ↗
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New SendGrid accounts get a 60-day trial instead of a free plan
Twilio SendGrid Email API · source ↗
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Klaviyo enforces profile-based plan compliance
Klaviyo · source ↗