The right email marketing service is the one you can afford, operate consistently, and leave if your needs change. A freelancer with a small list may need a simple newsletter and a reliable export. A growing store may need segmentation, transactional email, and automations. A small software business may care more about event-based workflows and integrations than about a template gallery.
This comparison focuses on those trade-offs rather than declaring one universal winner. Plans, limits, and features change frequently, so use each provider's official pricing page to confirm the cost for your list size and monthly send volume before subscribing.
The original version cited a 2018 industry benchmark. It is retained as a historical source reference here, but it is not used to support current pricing, deliverability, or return-on-investment claims.
What to compare before choosing an email service
Write down the following requirements before you compare plan names:
- Audience size and sending volume: Some services price by stored contacts, while others primarily price by emails sent. Count inactive and unsubscribed records according to the provider's billing rules, not just the number of people who opened your last campaign.
- Campaigns and automation: Decide whether you need one welcome sequence, branching lifecycle workflows, abandoned-cart messages, or event-triggered messages. “Automation” can mean anything from one autoresponder to a full visual workflow builder.
- Consent and deliverability: You need permission-based collection, a visible unsubscribe path, suppression handling, bounce management, and authentication for your sending domain. A provider cannot make an unsolicited list safe or deliverable.
- Export and portability: Confirm that you can export contacts, custom fields, consent information, unsubscribes, and campaign data in a usable format. A cheap plan is not cheap if leaving requires manual copying.
- Total cost: Include paid automation, extra users, transactional email, SMS, landing pages, premium templates, migration help, and overage charges. A free plan may be ideal for testing but unsuitable once you need segmentation or a larger list.
- Privacy and data handling: Check the provider's data-processing terms, retention options, integrations, and where your business needs to comply with privacy or marketing laws. Do not upload contacts unless you have a lawful basis and the expected communication.
The FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide covers United States requirements such as truthful headers, a physical postal address, and honoring opt-out requests. Other jurisdictions may impose additional requirements. Your email platform supplies tools; it does not decide whether your collection and campaign practices are lawful.
Quick comparison
| Service | Pricing model and entry point | Automation and list considerations | Good fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | A free plan is available for a small subscriber list and capped monthly sends; paid tiers scale with subscribers and add features. | Straightforward campaigns, forms, landing pages, and visual automations. Check the current free-plan subscriber and send limits before importing a list. | A freelancer, creator, or small business that values a simple editor and predictable workflow. |
| Brevo | Plans are primarily based on monthly email volume, with a free daily-send allowance and separate contact and feature limits. | Useful when the contact database is larger than the monthly sending volume. Advanced automation, transactional email, and higher limits depend on plan. | A small team sending occasional campaigns to a comparatively large contact database. |
| Kit | The free tier is aimed at creators with a limited feature set; paid tiers scale with subscribers. ConvertKit is now Kit, so older references may use the previous name. | Strong creator-oriented forms, broadcasts, tags, and visual automations. Check which automation rules and subscriber count are included at your tier. | A newsletter or course creator building a direct audience and simple product funnels. |
| Mailchimp | Pricing is based on contacts and plan features, with a limited free entry point and paid tiers for larger audiences and more automation. | Familiar campaign and template tools, but archived, unsubscribed, and duplicate contacts can affect billing. Review the current contact definition before comparing prices. | A new small business that wants a widely supported integration ecosystem and guided campaign tools. |
| GetResponse | A free entry tier and paid subscriber-based plans are available; landing pages, automation, and conversion features vary by tier. | Useful for combining newsletters with forms, landing pages, and more involved funnels. Check automation limits and contact caps rather than assuming every tier includes the same builder. | A business that wants email, landing pages, and marketing automation in one service. |
| AWeber | A free plan supports a small list with capped sends and features; paid plans increase list and automation capacity. | Includes conventional newsletters, forms, tags, and autoresponders. Confirm the current subscriber and send limits, especially when importing historical contacts. | A small organization that values a familiar email workflow and human support options. |
| ActiveCampaign | There is no permanent free plan; pricing depends on contacts, features, and often the selected marketing or sales products. | One of the more capable choices for branching automations, segmentation, and customer journeys, but complexity and add-ons increase the total cost. | A growing business with a clear lifecycle process and enough volume to justify advanced automation. |
The table is a starting point, not a substitute for a quote. Providers change free-plan limits, contact-counting rules, and feature gates. Recheck the linked page on the day you subscribe and save a copy of the plan details that affect your budget.
MailerLite: a practical starting point for a small list
MailerLite is a sensible first comparison when you need newsletters, signup forms, landing pages, and a manageable automation builder without a large marketing-operations setup. Its pricing is subscriber-based, so the important question is how many people you store, not just how many messages you send in a month.
Before choosing it, check whether the current free tier includes the automation steps, templates, custom domains, and support you need. Remove invalid and unengaged addresses rather than keeping them indefinitely: a larger billed list does not automatically produce better results. Export a copy of your subscribers and fields before making a migration decision.
Brevo: useful when send volume matters more than contact count
Brevo takes a different approach from many subscriber-priced services: email plans are centered on monthly sending volume, while contacts and advanced features have their own limits. That can be economical for a business with many opted-in contacts that receives or sends campaigns only occasionally.
Compare the daily or monthly sending allowance with your busiest campaign month, not your average. If you also need transactional messages, SMS, advanced automation, or multiple users, include those products in the calculation. A low newsletter price can become a different total when operational messages and additional channels are added.
The service was previously branded Sendinblue. The old SendinBlue reference in the original article has therefore been replaced by the current Brevo name and site.
Kit: a creator-focused alternative to a general marketing suite
Kit is the current name for ConvertKit. It is built around newsletters, forms, tags, creator products, and audience automations rather than a broad sales-and-service suite. That focus can be useful if you sell a course, membership, digital product, or paid newsletter and want the audience workflow to remain understandable.
Check the current subscriber ceiling and the number of automation rules included in the free tier. Creator tools often look inexpensive at the start but become more expensive as subscribers grow. Also check export behavior for tags and custom fields before relying on provider-specific segmentation.
Mailchimp: familiar, but model the bill carefully
Mailchimp remains a common choice because many website, ecommerce, and form tools integrate with it. Its template and campaign workflow can help a new business get a first newsletter out quickly.
The trade-off is that contact-based pricing can be difficult to compare with send-based services. Read how Mailchimp counts subscribed, unsubscribed, archived, and duplicate contacts on the current plan. Include the automation, audience, reporting, and support features you will actually use. If you have more than one audience, check whether keeping separate audiences creates avoidable duplicate billing.
GetResponse: consider it for funnels and broader campaigns
GetResponse combines email campaigns with forms, landing pages, webinars or conversion features on some plans, and visual automation. That can reduce the number of separate tools in a small marketing stack.
The same breadth can make a plan harder to evaluate. Map your intended sequence—signup, welcome, education, purchase, and post-purchase support—to the plan's actual automation limits. Do not pay for conversion features you will not maintain. If you only need a weekly newsletter, a focused service may be easier to operate and cheaper.
AWeber: a conventional newsletter workflow
AWeber is worth comparing when you want standard broadcasts, signup forms, tags, autoresponders, and a conventional email marketing interface. A small business that prefers support and a straightforward workflow may value that more than a large catalog of advanced integrations.
Check the current free-plan cap, monthly send allowance, template restrictions, and automation features. Before importing a list, confirm how the service handles previous unsubscribes and bounced addresses. Sending to people who opted out elsewhere can create both compliance and deliverability problems.
ActiveCampaign: powerful automation with a higher operating cost
ActiveCampaign is better treated as an automation and customer-journey platform than as a basic newsletter tool. It can make sense when you have defined events, sales stages, segments, and follow-up responsibilities that a simple autoresponder cannot express.
Start with the workflow, not the feature checklist. Document the trigger, audience condition, message, exit rule, and owner for each automation. Then price the required contact volume and products. Advanced branching, CRM features, extra users, and transactional or sales add-ons can make the total cost and maintenance burden substantially higher than a newsletter-only service.
A safe setup checklist
Whichever service you choose, set up the basics before sending a promotional campaign:
- Collect permission clearly. Explain what the subscriber will receive, use a form that is not pre-checked, and keep a record of the source and consent wording. Do not buy a list or add people from business cards without an appropriate follow-up process.
- Authenticate your sending domain. Configure the provider's SPF, DKIM, and, where appropriate, DMARC instructions. Use a domain you control and send from an address that can receive replies.
- Create a suppression path. Every campaign needs a working unsubscribe link. Do not manually re-add people who unsubscribed, and keep suppression records when moving providers.
- Start with a small segment. Review the rendered message, links, alt text, plain-text fallback, reply address, and unsubscribe behavior. Send to an internal test group before the full audience.
- Measure useful actions. Track deliveries, bounces, unsubscribes, replies, signups, and sales where consent and the measurement setup allow it. Opens are an imperfect signal because mail clients and privacy features can alter them.
- Export periodically. Keep a secure, limited-access export of contacts and important fields. Treat it as personal data and remove old copies according to your retention policy.
For a practical campaign workflow, see our guide to high-impact email marketing tactics that boost clicks and conversions. If segmentation is the main reason you are changing providers, also review how to effectively segment your email marketing lists.
How to make the final choice
Choose the smallest plan that supports your next real workflow, not every feature you might use someday:
- Pick MailerLite or AWeber for a straightforward newsletter and modest list.
- Compare Brevo when your contact database is large but monthly send volume is relatively low, or when transactional email matters.
- Consider Kit when a creator newsletter, product, or course is the center of the business.
- Consider Mailchimp when existing integrations and guided campaign tools outweigh the complexity of contact-based billing.
- Choose GetResponse when landing pages and funnel automation belong in the same tool.
- Choose ActiveCampaign only when advanced automation will save more time or revenue than it costs to configure and maintain.
Whichever option you select, export a small test audience, configure authentication, send a test campaign, and verify the unsubscribe flow before moving the entire list. The best email marketing service is the one that respects consent, keeps your data portable, and remains simple enough for you to use consistently.