Best Free Email Marketing Tools in 2026
Key factsFree email tool limits vary: some cap contacts, others cap sends
- Mailchimp's free plan caps at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, the tightest limit in the comparison.
- Brevo's free plan allows 300 emails a day with unlimited contacts stored, then starts around $9 a month.
- beehiiv's free Launch plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends.
- MailerLite's free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month with two seats.
- Kit is free for up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages, and forms.
Every email tool has a free plan and every free plan stops in a different place. That is the entire decision, and comparison tables almost never show it.
Mailchimp caps you at 250 contacts as of September 2026. Brevo caps you at 300 emails a day but lets you store unlimited contacts. Kit gives you 10,000 subscribers free, and beehiiv 2,500. Those are very different constraints, and which one hurts depends on something you already know about yourself: whether you have a big list you email rarely, or a small list you email constantly.
I rechecked every free tier on the vendors' own pricing pages in September 2026. Here is where each one actually stops.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Free limit | Paid entry | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts | ~$9/mo | 4.6 | 5,959 |
| beehiiv | 2,500 subscribers | $43/mo (Scale, billed yearly) | 4.5 | 49 |
| Mailchimp | 250 contacts | ~$13/mo | 3.9 | 31,952 |
| MailerLite | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/month | By list size | 4.7 | 1,179 |
| Kit | 10,000 subscribers | $33/mo (Creator, billed yearly) | not rated | - |
Ratings aggregated by Toolradar across G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and SourceForge. Mailchimp's figure needs the explanation below before you read anything into it.
Notice that only one of these limits sends rather than contacts. That single difference reorders the list depending on your situation.
The Mailchimp number, and what it actually means
Mailchimp aggregates to 3.9 across 31,952 reviews, the lowest score and by far the largest sample in this comparison. Taken alone that looks damning for the category's best-known product. Broken apart it is more interesting.
Mailchimp scores 4.5 on Capterra across 17,595 reviews, 4.3 on G2 across 12,946, and 2.6 on Trustpilot across 1,411. Business software buyers rate it well. Consumers rate it badly. Same product, same year, a gap of nearly two points.
This is the sharpest example we have of something that shows up across our whole directory. G2 and Capterra collect reviews from people who chose software for an organisation and can be verified as customers, often shortly after a purchase decision they are invested in. Trustpilot collects reviews from anyone, and people who are content with an email tool rarely go there to say so.
Neither number is fake. They answer different questions. If you are asking whether Mailchimp does the job a business needs, the 4.5 from seventeen thousand Capterra reviewers is the relevant figure. If you are asking what happens when your account gets flagged and you need support, the 2.6 is the one telling you something.
Everywhere else in this table the platforms broadly agree, which is why we are singling this one out rather than quietly averaging it away.
Brevo: unlimited contacts, capped sends
Aggregated rating 4.6 across 5,959 reviews (4.5 on G2, 4.6 on Capterra). Brevo's free plan allows 300 emails a day with unlimited contacts stored, then starts at about $9 a month on Starter and $18 on Business.
This is the outlier and often the right answer. If you have five thousand contacts you email once a month, every contact-capped tool wants money from you immediately and Brevo does not. You are only constrained on the day you send, and 300 a day is 9,000 a month if you drip it.
It is also a broader product than the newsletter tools: transactional email, SMS, a basic CRM and automation are all in the same account. That makes it a reasonable spine for a small business rather than only a broadcast tool.
The daily cap is the catch. If you want to email six thousand people on Tuesday, you cannot, and no amount of unlimited contacts fixes that.
beehiiv: the free plan built for publishing
Aggregated rating 4.5, across only 49 reviews, so treat it as thin. beehiiv's free Launch plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends. Scale starts at $43 a month billed yearly ($517 a year) for 1,000 subscribers, adds three seats, and its price rises with your list.
That free ceiling is ten times Mailchimp's, though a quarter of Kit's. What beehiiv adds is the publication around the list: a hosted website and web archive, unlimited sends and up to three publications on the free plan. The growth and money tools (referral program, ad network, automations) start on Scale.
The trade is scope. beehiiv is built for publications, not for e-commerce lifecycle email. If your emails are triggered by orders and behaviour rather than published on a schedule, this is the wrong shape and Brevo or Mailchimp will fit better.
The jump from free to Scale is also steep in one step, and because Scale is priced by list size, crossing 2,500 subscribers costs more than that entry price.
Mailchimp: the default, with the tightest free tier
Aggregated rating 3.9 across 31,952 reviews, explained above. Mailchimp is free up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, then roughly $13 a month on Essentials, $20 on Standard, and $350 on Premium.
It remains the most familiar tool in the category, with the largest template library and the deepest integration list. If you use an e-commerce platform, Mailchimp is already supported, and that saves real setup time.
But 250 contacts ties MailerLite for the smallest free list here, the monthly send cap is lower, and Mailchimp's pricing then scales with contacts rather than sends. For a list that grows quickly and sends rarely, this is the most expensive shape in the comparison.
Worth knowing before you commit: contacts that unsubscribe can still count toward your tier depending on how your audience is configured. Audit that before renewal.
MailerLite: the clean middle
Aggregated rating 4.7 across 1,179 reviews (4.6 on G2, 4.8 on SourceForge), the highest here on a meaningful sample. MailerLite's free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month with two seats, and paid tiers scale by list size.
Its reputation is deserved on one axis in particular: the editor is the least annoying in this group. Building a decent-looking email takes minutes rather than a fight with a drag-and-drop grid, and the landing page builder is genuinely usable.
It sits between the newsletter tools and the marketing suites. Automations exist and are competent without being deep. If Mailchimp feels heavy and beehiiv feels too publication-shaped, this is the tool people land on.
The free list is small, so treat it as a place to learn the editor. Plan on paying once you pass a few hundred subscribers.
Kit: the biggest free subscriber allowance
Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is free for up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms. Creator starts at $33 a month billed yearly for 1,000 subscribers and scales with list size.
Kit's model is tagging rather than lists, which sounds like a detail and changes how you work. One subscriber, many tags, and automations that branch on behaviour. For a creator selling several things to overlapping audiences, that is the correct mental model and Mailchimp's list-based approach fights you. The catch on the free plan: one user, and the visual automation builder only unlocks on Creator.
The templates are plain by design, on the theory that plain text converts better from a personal sender. If your brand needs a designed email, that is a real limitation rather than a philosophy you will enjoy.
The cost the free tiers hide
None of these plans mention the thing most likely to waste your first month: sending domain setup.
On a free plan you are usually sending from a shared pool of IP addresses alongside every other free user of that platform, including the ones sending things nobody asked for. Your deliverability is partly their behaviour. That is a reasonable trade at zero cost, and it is why a campaign that looks fine in the dashboard can land in promotions or spam.
Two things materially help and both are free. Authenticate your domain properly with SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, which every tool here documents and most people skip. And send from a subdomain you control rather than the platform's default, so your reputation accrues to you and travels with you if you switch.
The second point is the one that matters at the twelve-month mark. If you build a sending reputation on a vendor's domain, migrating means starting from nothing. Set it up correctly on day one and changing tools later costs you a weekend rather than a quarter of degraded inbox placement.
How to choose
Answer one question first: are you contact-constrained or send-constrained?
If you have a large list you email occasionally, Brevo is the only free plan here that does not punish you, because it counts sends rather than contacts.
If you are publishing a newsletter, Kit gives you the most room free, and beehiiv gives you a hosted publication with a website and archive around a smaller free list. Our free newsletter growth tools guide covers what happens after the list exists.
If you run e-commerce and want the integrations to already exist, Mailchimp is worth the tight 250-contact free tier, and you will be paying within a quarter anyway.
If you want the nicest editor, MailerLite. If you sell multiple products to overlapping audiences, Kit's tagging model will save you from rebuilding your automations in a year.
The mistake to avoid is choosing on the free tier alone and discovering the paid curve afterwards. Mailchimp scales with contacts, beehiiv scales in large steps, Brevo scales with volume. Model your list at twelve months, not today.
Our email marketing automation guide covers the layer above broadcasting, and the Dupple reviews directory has individual write-ups with current pricing.
FAQ
Which email marketing tool has the best free plan?
It depends on your shape. Kit's free plan has the largest subscriber allowance, 10,000, with unlimited broadcasts. Brevo stores unlimited contacts and limits you to 300 emails a day instead, which suits large lists you email rarely. Mailchimp's 250 contacts and 500 monthly sends are the tightest of the group.
Can I run a real business on a free email plan?
Yes, for a while, and Brevo makes it last longest because a growing list does not force an upgrade. What forces the upgrade is usually not volume but a feature: removing vendor branding, adding a second seat, or an automation the free tier withholds.
What does email marketing actually cost after the free tier?
Entry paid plans run from about $9 a month on Brevo and $13 on Mailchimp Essentials to $33 on Kit Creator and $43 on beehiiv Scale (both billed yearly, for 1,000 subscribers). MailerLite, Kit and beehiiv all rise with list size. Kit and beehiiv figures checked September 2026.
Should I use a newsletter tool or a marketing platform?
If your email is published on a schedule to people who chose to read it, use a newsletter tool like beehiiv or Kit. If your email is triggered by what someone did on your site, use a marketing platform like Brevo or Mailchimp. Using the wrong one is survivable and you will feel the friction weekly.
Which email marketing tool is rated highest?
MailerLite, at 4.7 across 1,179 aggregated reviews, followed by Brevo at 4.6 across 5,959. Mailchimp's 3.9 is the lowest and comes from by far the largest sample, 31,952 reviews, but it splits sharply by platform: 4.5 on Capterra and 2.6 on Trustpilot. Read that spread rather than the average.
Is Mailchimp still worth using?
For a business that wants the deepest integration library and templates that work out of the box, yes, and its Capterra and G2 scores from thirty thousand business reviewers support that. The complaints concentrated on Trustpilot are mostly about support and account handling rather than the product doing its job, which is a real consideration if you are running something you cannot afford to have interrupted.
Across our whole catalogue the median is $24 a month and 33% of tools advertise a free tier. Figures are the lowest recurring monthly price quoted in our own review of each tool, read on 2026-08-19. Full method and every category.
