Free Email Marketing Software Compared: What You Really Get

Plenty of email marketing platforms offer a free plan, and for a new newsletter or small business that can be enough for months or even years. But “free” means very different things from one provider to the next. One plan gives you thousands of subscribers but no automation. Another gives you automation but a tiny list. A third lets you store a huge database but only send a few hundred emails a day. This guide compares the free plans we could verify on official pages as of 28 October 2026, explains the hidden costs, and helps you pick the one that fits how you actually send.

Free plans at a glance

Free email marketing plans compared (October 2026)

Criteria	Audience limit	Sending limit	Notable inclusions and gaps
MailerLite	250 subscribers	2,500 emails/month	3 automations (5 steps each), 3 forms, 1 landing page, 1 website, A/B testing, 2 seats; knowledge-base support
Kit	Up to 10,000 subscribers	Unlimited broadcasts	Unlimited forms and landing pages, digital products and subscriptions; no visual automations or sequences
Brevo	Up to 100,000 contacts stored	300 emails/day	Up to 2,000 contacts in active automations (per Brevo’s help center)
Mailchimp	Up to 250 contacts	500 sends/month, max 250/day	1 seat, 1 audience, limited templates, basic reporting, trial versions of landing pages and forms
Sender	Up to 2,500 subscribers	15,000 emails/month	Sender branding on forms, pop-ups and newsletters; shared IP
MailPoet (WordPress)	Up to 500 subscribers (Starter plan); up to 1,000 with the free plugin and your own sending	5,000 emails/month (Starter plan)	Basic automation; MailPoet branding; forum and knowledge-base support

The table only shows what each provider publishes. Where a cell does not mention something (for example, whether automation is included), that is because we could not confirm it on the official page, not because the feature is necessarily missing.

A closer look at each free plan

MailerLite

MailerLite’s free plan is small on audience but broad on features. Up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails per month is enough for a new list, and you get 3 active automations, A/B testing, a landing page and a 5-page website. That makes it useful if you want a complete setup, including a simple welcome sequence, without paying. Support on Free is knowledge base only. Account approval is automatic at signup, and new accounts get a 14-day free trial of premium features, including live chat support. When you outgrow it, Comfort starts from $12 per month. See our MailerLite review for the full picture.

Kit

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) has the largest free audience allowance we verified: up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited forms, landing pages and broadcasts. It also includes selling digital products and subscriptions, and Creator Network recommendations. The big gap is automation: visual automations and email sequences require a paid plan. Kit says free-plan support requests are answered within 24 hours. Our MailerLite vs Kit comparison looks at the trade-offs in detail.

Brevo

Brevo lets you store up to 100,000 contacts for free, but limits sending to 300 emails per day. Brevo’s help center explains that if a campaign goes to more people than that, the rest must be sent on later days. This suits a business that mainly needs a contact database and occasional small sends, or one that wants to try Brevo’s SMS add-on (bought as prepaid credits). It is less suited to a weekly newsletter to a few thousand people. See MailerLite vs Brevo for how its email-volume pricing compares.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp’s free plan covers up to 250 contacts, 500 sends per month with a daily cap of 250, one user seat and one audience. Mailchimp’s help page lists a limited set of templates, basic reporting and trial versions of landing pages and forms. It says that if you go over the contact limit, sending is put on hold until you upgrade or reduce your contacts. Our MailerLite vs Mailchimp comparison covers the paid plans.

Sender

Sender’s Free Forever plan lists up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month, which is generous for a mid-sized list. Sender’s pricing page says its branding is added to forms, pop-ups and newsletters on the free plan and removed on paid plans. Sending uses a shared IP. Sender’s page did not make clear which automation features are included on Free, so check before relying on them.

MailPoet

MailPoet is an email plugin for WordPress. There are two free routes. The free plugin on wordpress.org covers up to 1,000 subscribers if you send through your own provider (your host, Amazon SES and so on). MailPoet’s free Starter plan, which uses the MailPoet Sending Service, lists up to 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails per month, with basic marketing automation. MailPoet branding stays on the free plan, and support is through the WordPress forums and knowledge base. If your site already runs on WordPress, it keeps everything in your dashboard. Our WordPress email marketing guide compares plugin and hosted approaches.

What “free” really costs

A free plan has no monthly bill, but it is not without costs. Here is what to weigh.

Limits

Caps on subscribers, monthly or daily sends, automations, forms and pages. The tightest limit is the one that matters for you.

Branding

Several providers, including Sender and MailPoet, show their branding on free-plan emails or forms. Check each provider’s plan page for its current branding rules.

Support

Free plans often come with self-serve help only. MailerLite Free and MailPoet Starter rely on knowledge bases and forums.

Outgrowing it

Going over a limit can pause sending. Mailchimp places a hold on sending; Kit requires an upgrade at 10,000 subscribers.

Switching later

Moving platforms means rebuilding templates, forms and automations, and re-authenticating your domain.

Limits that shape how you work

Look past the headline number. A daily cap (Brevo’s 300 per day, Mailchimp’s 250 per day) affects how fast a campaign reaches your list. A monthly cap (MailerLite’s 2,500, Sender’s 15,000) gives you more flexibility on timing. And a large audience allowance is less useful if you cannot automate a welcome sequence for new signups.

Branding

A small provider logo at the bottom of an email is a fair trade for a free tool, but some businesses prefer a clean look. If that matters, factor in the cost of the first plan that removes it.

Support

When something goes wrong (a form stops collecting signups, or emails start landing in spam), free-plan users usually rely on help articles. That is fine if you are comfortable troubleshooting. Our email deliverability checklist covers the most common fixes.

What happens when you outgrow it

This is the cost people forget. If your list grows fast, the price of the first paid plan, and how pricing scales after that, matters more than the free plan itself. A tool with a generous free plan can become expensive later, and a tool with a small free plan can have a cheap first upgrade. Look at the paid pricing page before you commit, and read our MailerLite pricing guide if MailerLite is on your shortlist.

How to choose

Answer three questions, then match the answers to the plans above.

1. How big is your list, and how big will it be in a year? If you are starting from zero, almost any free plan works. If you already have a few thousand subscribers, Kit, Sender and Brevo’s free plans are among the few that can hold them.

2. How often do you send, and do you need automation? A weekly newsletter needs a sending allowance well above your list size. If you want a welcome sequence for new subscribers, check that automation is included. MailerLite and MailPoet include some automation on Free; Kit does not include sequences.

3. What else do you need in the same tool? A website or landing pages (MailerLite, Kit), SMS (Brevo, as a paid add-on), WordPress integration (MailPoet), or the ability to sell subscriptions (Kit on Free, MailerLite on paid plans).

Hypothetical examples

• A new podcast newsletter with 4,000 listeners on its list and one email a week, no automation needed: Kit’s free plan fits, and Sender is worth comparing.
• A local bakery starting a list from scratch, wanting a signup form, a welcome email and a simple website: MailerLite’s free plan covers all three.
• A B2B firm with 30,000 contacts that emails a small segment occasionally: Brevo’s contact storage fits, as long as each send stays within the daily limit or you upgrade.
• A WordPress blog that wants signups and newsletters managed inside its dashboard: MailPoet keeps it all in WordPress.

For a wider decision framework, see how to choose email marketing software and our roundup of MailerLite alternatives.

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