7 Best Email Marketing Platforms for Newsletters

How we chose

Each vendor's pricing page and help centre was read on 13 November 2026, and the figures below are the published starting prices with their billing basis. The ranking is by fit for a newsletter, not by feature count: free-plan size, how the price grows with the list, and whether the platform is built for readers, customers or both. No hands-on testing was done, and no vendor was asked for a quote. Based on published pricing and documentation, checked on 13 November 2026.

1. Mailchimp: best for small teams wanting the familiar default

Mailchimp is the default most teams already know. Its four Marketing plans are Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium, and the price is set by how many contacts you store, not by how many emails you send. The Free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a daily cap of 250, and sending pauses if you cross either limit. Essentials starts at $13 a month for up to 500 contacts, Standard at $20, and Premium at $350 a month for 10,000 contacts.

The send allowance is a multiple of the contact limit: 10 times on Essentials, 12 times on Standard and 15 times on Premium. Standard adds up to 200 automation flows, predictive segmentation and A/B testing; Essentials caps flows at four steps. Mailchimp's free plan is the smallest here, and its price climbs steeply as the list grows: Standard reaches about $100 a month at 5,000 contacts.

Skip Mailchimp if your list is already over 1,000 and you send weekly. The contact-based billing punishes a large, quiet list, and Brevo or Moosend will cost less for the same sends.

2. Brevo: best for senders billed by emails sent

Brevo charges by emails sent, not by contacts stored, which flips the maths for most newsletters. The free plan allows 300 emails a day with no credit card. Starter starts at $9 a month for 5,000 emails a month, and the price follows the volume you choose rather than the size of your list. A large list that gets one email a month stays cheap on Brevo and gets expensive on Mailchimp.

Starter includes the drag-and-drop editor, templates, an AI content generator and basic reporting. Automation, A/B testing and landing pages arrive on Standard at $18 a month. Brevo also bundles SMS and WhatsApp on the same account, which suits teams that already message customers on more than one channel.

Skip Brevo if you need deep ecommerce segmentation or a big template library. Its strength is the billing model and the multi-channel account, not the depth of any single feature.

3. Kit: best for creators growing a free list

Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is built for creators rather than shops. Its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited sends, unlimited forms and landing pages, and one email sequence — the largest free tier in this list by a wide margin. There are no sending limits on any Kit plan.

The Creator plan starts at $39 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers and adds unlimited automations, multiple sequences and the visual automation builder. Kit also runs a creator network for recommendations, and paid plans include free migration from another platform. Selling digital products and paid newsletters is built in, with Kit taking 0.6% plus card processing.

Skip Kit if you run a store and need order data in your segments. Kit is a creator tool first; its ecommerce integrations are thinner than Mailchimp's or Brevo's.

4. MailerLite: best for budget newsletters with full features

MailerLite renamed its paid plans in June 2026: Growing Business is now Comfort and Advanced is now Power. The free plan covers up to 250 subscribers, 2 user seats and 2,500 monthly emails, plus campaigns, automations, a website, a landing page and signup forms. Comfort starts at $12 a month for up to 500 subscribers and Power at $25, with annual billing taking 10% off.

Pricing is based on usage, not feature access: both paid plans include the full feature set, and the price rises only as the list and sending grow. Comfort gives 10 times the subscriber-tier ceiling in monthly emails; Power gives unlimited monthly emails and unlimited user seats. At 5,000 subscribers Comfort costs about $49 a month.

Skip MailerLite if you need phone support or a dedicated IP on a small budget. Those sit on Power and Enterprise, and the free plan locks sending entirely once you pass 250 active subscribers.

5. Constant Contact: best for local businesses and events

Constant Contact has no free plan, only a 30-day trial. Lite starts at $12 a month for up to 500 contacts and includes drag-and-drop editing, social posting, AI writing assistance and a welcome-series automation. Standard at $35 a month adds scheduling, three automation flows and advanced reporting; Premium at $80 adds unlimited automation, unlimited custom segments and 500 text messages a month.

Its edge is the non-email work: event management, social posting and social advertising sit in the same account, and prepaying 12 months takes 15% off. Nonprofits get larger prepay discounts. That suits a local business that sends a monthly newsletter, runs events and posts to social from one place.

Skip Constant Contact if price per contact is your main concern. At 5,000 contacts its Lite plan costs about $80 a month, well above Brevo, Moosend or MailerLite for the same list.

6. beehiiv: best for newsletters that charge readers

beehiiv is a newsletter-first platform with a website, paywall and community built in. Its free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, custom domains and the Recommendation Network. Paid plans take 0% of paid-subscription revenue; you pay only Stripe's processing fee.

On 1 October 2026 beehiiv renamed its plans: Launch became Free, Scale became Lite and Max became Pro. Lite starts at $49 a month on annual billing for up to 1,000 subscribers and adds paid subscriptions, automations, surveys, a referral program and the Ad Network. Pro starts at $95 a month on annual billing and removes beehiiv branding. Prices rise with subscriber count, so the entry figure is a floor, not a quote.

Skip beehiiv if you run a store or need marketing automation beyond newsletters. It is a publishing platform, not a general email marketing suite, and its entry paid price is the highest in this list.

7. Moosend: best for low-cost automation on a small list

Moosend keeps one self-serve paid plan, Pro, with no feature paywall inside it: unlimited sends, automation, landing pages, forms, A/B testing and an SMTP server are all included. Pro starts at $9 a month for 500 contacts on monthly billing, or $7 a month billed annually, and rises with contact count to about $48 a month at 5,000 contacts.

There is no permanent free plan, only a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. Moosend was acquired by Constant Contact in June 2025 and still runs as a standalone product. Transactional email, a dedicated IP and extra team seats need the custom-priced Moosend+ plan.

Skip Moosend if you want a free tier to grow into, or if you need certainty about the product's long-term roadmap after the acquisition. For a paid sender on a tight budget, it is the cheapest route to real automation in this list.

What a newsletter costs at 5,000 subscribers

Take a newsletter with 5,000 subscribers that sends weekly — four sends a month, 20,000 emails. Published prices at that size work out to:

The gap comes from the billing model. Brevo counts the 20,000 emails; Mailchimp counts the 5,000 contacts and prices the plan for them. If you send once a month instead of weekly, Brevo's figure falls further while Mailchimp's stays the same. Before you compare headline prices, count your sends per month — it decides the winner more than the entry price does.

How to choose

• Under 1,000 subscribers, no budget: Kit's free plan, then beehiiv if you plan to charge readers.
• A large list, few sends: Brevo, because it bills by emails sent.
• Weekly sends on a budget: Moosend Pro or MailerLite Comfort, both under $50 a month at 5,000 subscribers.
• A shop that needs segmentation: Mailchimp Standard, and accept the higher price for the ecommerce depth.
• Events and social in the same account: Constant Contact, starting on the 30-day trial.

Pair the platform with a plan for growing the list itself: the email marketing funnel guide covers the signup flow, and the best mass email service list compares the high-volume options if your list grows past 10,000. If you sell through a store, the email automations for your online store guide shows which flows to build first. For nonprofits, the best email platform for nonprofits list weighs the discounts. Adziq's email services can also run the setup and the first campaigns for you.

Common questions

Sources

• Mailchimp pricing (Mailchimp)
• Brevo pricing (Brevo)
• Kit pricing (Kit)
• The Kit Newsletter Plan (Kit Help Center)
• MailerLite pricing (MailerLite)
• Constant Contact pricing (Constant Contact)
• beehiiv pricing (beehiiv)
• Moosend pricing (Moosend)

Adziq sells marketing services and does not accept payment for placement in its articles. See our editorial policy.