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Top 4 Picks
Four picks. One of them is yours.

Best Email Marketing Services in 2026

Last reviewed 29 August 2026Data verified 29 August 2026Four picks, one role each

The short answer

MailerLite is the best email marketing software for most people, because every paid plan carries the same features and you only pay for list size. Brevo is the value pick if you mail a big list rarely. Kit is free to 10,000 subscribers. Klaviyo is the one to buy for a shop.

Every price on this page is quoted at the same list size, ten thousand contacts, and read off the vendor's own pricing page on . That sounds pedantic until you see what it does to the ranking. ActiveCampaign Starter is $15 a month at a thousand contacts and $149 at ten thousand. Kit Creator goes from $33 to $116. Entry prices in this category compare nothing at all.

Everyone ranking for this term sells one of the products on it

Worth knowing before you read any comparison of email tools, including this one.

When we checked the pages ranking for this search, the top result was published by Brevo and had Brevo at number one, with the ownership admitted in a single clause inside the introduction. The second was published by Sender and had Sender at number one, disclosed openly and honestly in the body. The third discloses affiliate commission and additionally labels three of its recommendations as paid testing partners who pay a fee for the hands on testing.

None of that is illegal and only one of them is even hiding it. It is simply the shape of this category: the people who rank for "best email marketing software" mostly sell email marketing software.

We take no commission from any vendor on this page. This site currently runs no affiliate links at all, in this category or any other, so nothing here is monetised. What we can promise permanently is narrower and written into the method: commission is not a field the scoring engine can read, so it cannot move an order even when we do start earning.

The only decision that really matters

Not features. Not templates. How you are billed.

Brevo charges for emails sent. Almost everyone else charges for contacts held. Klaviyo charges for active profiles, which is a third thing again. beehiiv charges by flat subscriber band and meters sending not at all.

Work out your own ratio before you compare anything else. Take your list size and your monthly sends. If you send fewer than about ten emails per subscriber per month, which means a large list you mail occasionally, per send pricing will be cheaper and often dramatically so. If you send more than that, which means a small list you mail constantly, per contact pricing wins.

That single number decides more of your bill than any feature on any of these pages.

What each one costs at ten thousand contacts

The whole comparison in one paragraph. Kit is $0, because its free plan reaches exactly this list size. MailerLite Comfort is $89. beehiiv Scale is $96. Mailchimp Standard has a standing price of $135. ActiveCampaign starts at $149. Klaviyo is $150.

Brevo is missing from that list on purpose. Its pricing page renders only in the currency of the country it detects and would not show us dollars, so we publish its model and no figure. On a site that promises dated, verified numbers, inventing a conversion would be worse than admitting the gap.

Two things fall out. The spread at a real list size is not the spread the entry prices suggest, and the cheapest paid plan here is a little over half the price of the dearest, before you reach ActiveCampaign's upper tiers, which run to $589.

Pick order is not score order on this page either. Kit scores 8.4 against MailerLite at 8.3, and MailerLite still takes Best Overall, because Kit charges for automation and automation is what most people came for.

The free tiers, and both halves of them

A free tier is two numbers, a contact cap and a send cap, and quoting one without the other is how this category misleads people.

Kit is the outlier by a distance: ten thousand subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, and automations withheld. beehiiv gives 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sending and no automations either. MailerLite gives 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Mailchimp gives 250 contacts, one audience and no automation flows. Klaviyo gives 250 profiles and 500 emails. Brevo takes the opposite approach and caps the sending at 300 emails a day while publishing no contact cap at all.

Notice the pattern. Automation is the usual paywall, because it is what makes a list compound and therefore what makes a tool worth paying for. MailerLite is the exception that proves it, allowing three automations on its free plan and then capping the list at 250 people instead.

Why there is no deliverability percentage on this page

You will find inbox placement figures on most pages competing with this one. We have not published one, and the reason is that every figure we found was either self reported by the vendor or carried no citation at all.

We did not run send tests. Nobody should take a deliverability percentage from a page that did not measure it, including ours, so this comparison scores what the vendors publish about their plans and stays silent on what lands in an inbox. If we ever run those tests, the number will come with the method attached.

The four picks

Side by side

Side by side comparison of the four picks
 MailerLiteBrevoKitKlaviyo
Score8.37.78.48.1
Starting price$10.80/moNot published$33/mo$45/mo
Free tierYesYesYesYes
PlatformsWebWebWebWeb
Support channelsEmail, Chat, CommunityEmail, PhoneEmail, ChatEmail
Team features

How we picked

What we scored, and how heavily

Criteria set: Software and apps. The same set applies to every product of this type across the site, so a score means the same thing wherever you find it.

  • 30%Capability. What the tool actually does versus what it promises.
  • 20%Usability. How fast you can get real work done in it.
  • 20%Value. What you get for the money against the alternatives.
  • 10%Integrations. Fit with the rest of your stack, and API access.
  • 10%Support. Documentation, response times, available channels.
  • 10%Trust. Company stability, security, pricing transparency, data handling.
Read the full rating methodology

The picks in detail

1. Best Overall

MailerLite

Every paid plan carries the full feature set, so you only pay for list size.

8.3/10
ARecommended

The most honest pricing in the category: one feature set, one variable, and every limit published as a number you can check before you pay.

What works

  • Every paid plan carries the full feature set, so the only thing you pay more for is list size and sending
  • Comfort at the anchor is the cheapest credible paid plan in this comparison
  • Automations, sites, landing pages and seats are all published as numbers per plan
  • Fourteen day trial of everything with no credit card

What does not

  • The free plan stops at 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, which is a demo rather than a working tier
  • Comfort caps sends at ten times your subscriber band, so a big list mailed often needs Power
  • The free plan gives community support only
  • A promotional code for half off the first month was running on the pricing page, so the headline can move

Best for

  • Small businesses and solo operators who want one predictable bill and no feature gates
  • Anyone who mails a list regularly and wants websites and landing pages in the same tool

Not for

  • Anyone hoping to run a real list on a free plan
  • Ecommerce senders who need product level revenue attribution

What it costs

From $10.80 per month · free tier available · 14-day trial

MailerLite pricing tiers
PlanMonthlyAnnual, per monthWhat you get
Free2 user seats$0Up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month · 3 automations, 1 website, 1 landing page, 3 signup forms · Community support only
Comfort at 500 subscribers3 user seats$10.80Monthly sends capped at ten times the subscriber band · 50 automations, 10 sites and landing pages · Removes the MailerLite logo
Comfort at 10,000 subscribers3 user seats$89$80.10$961.20 a year · 100,000 monthly emails · 24/7 email support
Power at 10,000 subscribersUnlimited user seats$129$116.10$1,393.20 a year · Unlimited monthly emails and unlimited automations · 24/7 live chat and email support
EnterpriseUnlimited user seatsNot published200,000+ subscribers · Dedicated success manager and deliverability support · Dedicated IP

Priced per subscriber, with the send allowance attached to the band: Comfort caps monthly sends at ten times the subscriber ceiling and Power makes them unlimited. Annual billing saves ten percent. The cheapest paid step is Comfort at the 500 subscriber band, quoted here at the annual billing rate that the pricing page displays by default. Annual billing saves ten percent against monthly. Every figure was read from the USD view of the pricing page, which also offers euros, with the subscriber slider moved to the band named in each tier.

Visit MailerLiteFull MailerLite review

2. Best Value

Brevo

The one that bills by emails sent, so a big list mailed rarely costs almost nothing.

7.7/10
BRecommended with a reservation

The right pricing model for a big list mailed rarely, with one reservation that is entirely about us: we could not get this page to show a dollar figure, so we publish the model and not the price.

What works

  • Bills by emails sent, so storing a large list costs nothing until you mail it
  • The free tier stores contacts without charging for them and allows 300 emails a day
  • Transactional email, SMS, WhatsApp and push sit on the same account as campaigns
  • Automation, A/B testing and send time optimisation start on the second tier rather than the third

What does not

  • The pricing page renders only in the local currency and gave us no way to switch to dollars
  • Removing Brevo branding from your emails is a paid add on rather than part of a paid plan
  • The jump from the middle tier to Professional is very large, with nothing in between
  • Sales tooling is priced separately again, so the headline plan price is not the whole bill

Best for

  • Anyone with a large list who mails it occasionally rather than weekly
  • Senders who want campaigns and transactional email on one account

Not for

  • Buyers who need to see the price in their own currency before deciding
  • High frequency senders, where paying per send stops being the cheap option

What it costs

No published price · free tier available

Brevo pricing tiers
PlanMonthlyAnnual, per monthWhat you get
FreeOne personNot published300 emails a day, with no published cap on how many contacts you store · Email and SMS, drag and drop editor, templates, AI content generator · Advanced segmentation and forms
StarterOne personNot publishedFrom 5,000 emails a month, configurable upwards · Basic reporting and email support · Removing Brevo branding is a paid add on
StandardSmall teamsNot publishedMarketing automation, A/B testing, send time optimisation · Advanced reporting with click heatmaps and device reports · One landing page included
Professional10 seats includedNot publishedFrom 150,000 emails a month · WhatsApp, popups, mobile and web push · Contact scoring, AI segmentation, phone support · Three hours a year with a deliverability specialist
EnterpriseQuote onlyNot publishedFor 1M+ contacts · Dedicated IP, SSO and SAML · Custom data integrations and loyalty engine

Brevo bills by emails sent rather than by contacts held, which is the structural outlier in this category and the reason a large list mailed occasionally costs far less here than anywhere else. We cannot publish a dollar figure. Brevo prices this page in the local currency of the buyer and would not render a USD view from our location: on the EU render on 29 August 2026 the ladder read Starter 7 euros a month, Standard 15 euros, Professional 499 euros, each about ten percent cheaper on annual billing, with a free tier of 300 emails a day. Those are euro figures on a euro page and we do not convert them, so this entity carries no price. See the review for what that means for a buyer, We would rather show nothing than a number we did not read.

Visit BrevoFull Brevo review

3. Best Free

Kit

The free plan runs to 10,000 subscribers, which no rival comes close to.

8.4/10
ARecommended

The best free plan in email marketing by a wide margin, and an honest one: it gives away the sending and charges for the automation.

What works

  • The free plan runs to 10,000 subscribers, which is the whole anchor this comparison uses
  • Unlimited email broadcasts, landing pages and forms even on the free plan
  • The 14 day trial needs no credit card, and migrations are advertised as free
  • Pro includes unlimited users where most rivals meter seats

What does not

  • The free plan has no visual automations and no sequences, which is the feature most people came for
  • Above the free tier it is not cheap: Pro at the anchor costs more than any other paid plan we picked
  • Built around a creator publishing to one audience rather than around multi brand campaign work
  • Only two paid tiers, so there is no cheap step between free and Creator

Best for

  • Writers and creators building a list they mail regularly
  • Anyone who wants to grow to five figures of subscribers before paying anything

Not for

  • Teams that need automation on a budget, because automation is the paywall here
  • Ecommerce senders who need product and revenue data in the email

What it costs

From $33 per month · free tier available · 14-day trial

Kit pricing tiers
PlanMonthlyAnnual, per monthWhat you get
FreeOne person$0Free up to 10,000 subscribers, the largest free tier in this comparison · Unlimited email broadcasts and unlimited landing pages and forms · Audience tagging and segmentation, and selling digital products · No visual automations and no email sequences
Creator at 1,000 subscribersOne person$33$390 billed yearly · Unlimited visual automations and sequences · SMS marketing, A/B subject lines, integrations
Creator at 10,000 subscribersOne person$116$1,390 billed yearly, a saving of $278 · Everything on Free plus automations and sequences
Pro at 10,000 subscribersUnlimited users$158$1,890 billed yearly, a saving of $378 · Subscriber engagement scoring and deliverability reporting · Newsletter referral system

Priced per subscriber. Figures were read with annual billing selected, which is how the pricing page presents them, and Kit states the yearly saving in dollars against each plan. The cheapest paid step is the Creator plan at the 1,000 subscriber band; the tiers above also carry the figures at 10,000 subscribers, the size this comparison prices every vendor at. The headline fact is that the free plan itself reaches 10,000 subscribers, so at that size Kit costs nothing. The 14 day trial needs no credit card and Kit advertises free migrations.

Visit KitFull Kit review

4. Best for online shops

Klaviyo

Priced per active profile, and built so the email knows what the customer bought.

8.1/10
ARecommended

The right answer for an online shop and the wrong one for everybody else, which is exactly what a specialist pick should be.

What works

  • The send allowance scales with profiles at roughly ten emails per profile a month
  • Profile based data model makes purchase and behaviour segmentation native rather than an integration
  • A free plan exists and includes mobile messaging credit, which is rare
  • Every rate, from profiles to per message SMS pricing, is published as a number

What does not

  • Active profiles are a third pricing unit again, so it cannot be compared like for like with contact or send pricing
  • Mobile messages, the Composer agent and service products are all metered separately on top of the plan
  • The free plan stops at 250 profiles and 500 emails a month
  • Three of the add on products were showing time limited introductory discounts, so the configurator total is not a standing price

Best for

  • Online shops that want the email to know what the customer browsed and bought
  • Senders who need email and SMS governed by one profile and one set of segments

Not for

  • Newsletter publishers with no product catalogue behind the list
  • Anyone who wants a single plan price rather than a configurator

What it costs

From $45 per month · free tier available

Klaviyo pricing tiers
PlanMonthlyAnnual, per monthWhat you get
FreeOne person$0Up to 250 profiles and 500 emails a month · $5 of mobile messages a month and 10,000 Composer credits · Built in reporting and email support
Marketing at 1,500 profilesOne person$4515,000 emails a month included · Campaigns, flows and segmentation
Marketing at 5,000 profilesOne person$10050,000 emails a month included
Marketing at 10,000 profilesOne person$150100,000 emails a month included · Ten emails per profile per month, which is the same ratio ActiveCampaign gives on its entry plans

Priced per active profile, which is a third model again: not contacts held and not emails sent, but profiles that were active. The send allowance scales with it at roughly ten emails per profile per month. SMS, WhatsApp and RCS are metered separately per message on top, and the Composer marketing agent is a separately priced add on with its own credit slider. The published total on the pricing page is therefore a configurator result rather than a plan price, and the figures above are the email marketing product alone.

Visit KlaviyoFull Klaviyo review

Also considered

These are good products that lost on a specific point. A higher score than one of our picks does not automatically win a slot, because each slot answers a different question.

  • beehiiv7.8/10

    Scores 7.8, above our best value pick, and is outside the four on purpose. It is a newsletter platform rather than an email marketing service: unlimited sends on every tier and an ad network attached, but the wrong shape for ecommerce or transactional sending, and its free tier stops at 2,500 subscribers.

  • Mailchimp7.5/10

    The most connected tool in the category and the one most people are trying to leave. At the anchor its standing price is $135 a month against $89 at MailerLite for a similar send allowance, the headline figure is a twelve month promotion, and it is the only vendor here that bills overages against two ceilings at once.

  • ActiveCampaign7.5/10

    The deepest automation in the comparison and the steepest price curve. Starter is $15 a month at 1,000 contacts and $149 at 10,000, and it still gives you one user seat at that price. Buy it for branching automation, not as a general sender.

How to choose between them

Do the ratio first, before you look at a single feature list. Take the number of people on your list and the number of emails you expect to send them in a month. Divide. Under roughly ten emails per subscriber a month, paying per send is cheaper. Over it, paying per contact is. Everything else on this page is a smaller decision than that one.

What does your list actually look like?

Check the second ceiling before you sign anything

Ask each vendor what happens when you exceed the plan, and get two answers rather than one. Most meter a single thing. Mailchimp bills overages against your contact limit and your send limit independently, so a growing list and a heavy campaign month can each trigger charges on their own. It is the only double ceiling in this comparison, and it is worth understanding before you sign rather than after.

Two more habits worth more than the choice. Export your list somewhere you control on the day you sign up, because switching cost in this category is rebuilt automations and reconnected integrations rather than the contacts themselves. And price your second year, not your first: Mailchimp's headline figure at ten thousand contacts is a twelve month rate with the standing price in a footnote, and it is the standing price you will pay for longer.

If your newsletter is meant to earn money rather than support a business, beehiiv answers a different question than any of the four above, and it answers it better.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best email marketing service?
MailerLite for most people. Every paid plan carries the same feature set, so you only pay more for list size, and at 10,000 subscribers Comfort is $89 a month with 100,000 sends. Kit is free at that same list size if you can live without automations.
Should I pay per contact or per email sent?
It depends on how often you mail. Per send, which is Brevo, is cheapest for a large list you contact occasionally. Per contact, which is almost everyone else, is cheaper for a small list you mail weekly. This single choice moves the bill more than any feature does.
Which email marketing service has the best free plan?
Kit, and it is not close. Its free plan runs to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts. MailerLite gives 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails, Mailchimp and Klaviyo both give 250, and beehiiv gives 2,500. The catch at Kit is that automations are the paid feature.
What does email marketing cost at 10,000 contacts?
Verified on 29 August 2026: Kit $0, MailerLite $89, beehiiv $96, Mailchimp $135 standing, Klaviyo $150, ActiveCampaign $149 on its cheapest plan. The same tools cost between nothing and $43 at 1,000 contacts, which is why entry prices tell you nothing.
Do you earn commission on these recommendations?
No. This site runs no affiliate links at all, in this category or any other, so nothing on this page is monetised. Several of these vendors run affiliate programmes and we are in none of them. That is worth saying because the pages currently ranking for this term are mostly published by the vendors themselves or carry paid testing partnerships.
Why is there no deliverability percentage on this page?
Because every figure in this category is either self reported by the vendor or uncited. We compared published authentication support and stated infrastructure and we did not run send tests, so we do not publish an inbox placement number.

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