7 Best Email Marketing Platforms for Newsletters in 2026, Compared
7 best email marketing platforms for newsletters compared on price, free plans and monetization. Prices checked on vendor pricing pages, November 4, 2026.
We compare pricing pages, documentation and public reviews. We never accept payment for rankings.

Key takeaways
- Mailchimp is the best all-round pick for small businesses at $13/month (Essentials, 500 contacts); Brevo is the cheapest paid plan at $9/month; Kit is the creator pick at $39/month.
- Substack is free to publish at any list size and takes 10% of paid subscriptions; beehiiv is free to 2,500 subscribers and takes 0% of subscription revenue.
- The single most important buying factor is how the price scales with your list: every tool here reprices as subscribers grow, and the cheapest entry price is rarely the cheapest at 5,000 subscribers.
- Two renames changed this category in 2026: MailerLite's Growing Business is now Comfort ($12/month) and beehiiv's Scale is now Lite ($59/month) — older guides still show the old names and prices.
- Every price below was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on November 4, 2026. Ratings are G2, except Brevo (Capterra), with review counts shown.
On this page
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | Small businesses that want the biggest template library and the most integrations in one newsletter tool | $13/mo | Yes (250 contacts) |
| Brevo | Small businesses and solopreneurs who send often and want the cheapest paid plan in this list | $9/mo | Yes (300/day) |
| MailerLite | Solo creators and small teams who want the simplest editor and a low-cost paid plan | $12/mo | Yes (250 subs) |
| Kit | Creators who sell courses, products or paid newsletters and need automations that run themselves | $39/mo | Yes (10,000 subs) |
| beehiiv | Newsletter-first publishers who want growth tools, an ad network and paid subscriptions in one place | $59/mo | Yes (2,500 subs) |
| Constant Contact | Event-led small businesses and nonprofits that want phone support and simple list tools | $12/mo | No (30-day trial) |
| Substack | Writers who want readers to find them and will pay a share of revenue instead of a monthly fee | Free (10% of revenue) | Yes (unlimited) |
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Request a listingThe best email marketing platforms for newsletters
Mailchimp
Best for: Small businesses that want the biggest template library and the most integrations in one newsletter tool
Mailchimp is the default choice for a reason: the Essentials plan starts at $13 a month for 500 contacts, and the free plan covers 250 contacts with 500 sends a month. The template library and the integration list — more than 300 apps including Shopify, WordPress and HubSpot — are the largest in this list, so most small businesses never need a second tool for forms, landing pages or basic ecommerce email.
The catch is the price ladder. Essentials costs $45 a month at 2,500 contacts and $110 at 10,000, and Mailchimp bills unsubscribed contacts too, so a stale list costs real money. Standard at $20 a month adds the multi-step automations and predictive segments most growing senders end up wanting. Buy Mailchimp when you want the broadest tool; buy Brevo when the bill matters more than the extras.
What we like
- Essentials starts at $13/month for 500 contacts, and the free plan covers 250 contacts with 500 sends a month
- More than 300 integrations, including Shopify, WordPress and HubSpot, plus a large template library
- Standard ($20/month) adds multi-step automations, predictive segmentation and dynamic content
Watch out for
- Price rises steeply with list size — Essentials is $45/month at 2,500 contacts and $110 at 10,000
- Billing counts unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts, not just active subscribers
- No annual-billing discount on the small-list plans; annual plans start at 10,000 contacts on Standard
Brevo
Best for: Small businesses and solopreneurs who send often and want the cheapest paid plan in this list
Brevo is the cheapest way into paid email here: Starter is $9 a month for 5,000 emails, or $97 a year, and the free plan sends 300 emails a day. Brevo charges by how much you send, not by how many contacts you store, so a large list that only hears from you twice a month stays cheap. Brevo says more than 600,000 customers use the platform.
The small print matters. Starter caps stored contacts at 500 on the 5,000-email tier, so a 1,200-contact list costs $17 a month, and automation, A/B testing and landing pages only start on Standard at $18 a month. Removing the Brevo logo costs another $12 a month on Starter. Pick Brevo when your sends are modest and your list is large; pick MailerLite when you want automations on the cheapest plan.
What we like
- Cheapest paid entry here — Starter is $9/month for 5,000 emails, or $97 a year
- Pricing follows email volume, not list size, so a large list that sends rarely stays cheap
- Free plan sends 300 emails a day, and paid plans add SMS, WhatsApp and push messaging
Watch out for
- Starter caps stored contacts at 500 on the 5,000-email tier — a 1,200-contact list costs $17/month
- Automation, A/B testing and landing pages start on Standard ($18/month), not Starter
- Removing the Brevo logo from emails costs $12/month extra on Starter
MailerLite
Best for: Solo creators and small teams who want the simplest editor and a low-cost paid plan
MailerLite is the easiest tool in this list to learn, and Comfort starts at $12 a month — note the new name, because older guides still call it Growing Business at $10. The editor is clean, the free plan includes campaigns, automations, a website and a landing page, and billing counts active subscribers only, so unsubscribed and bounced contacts never cost you money.
The limits are fair but real. Comfort caps monthly sends at ten times your subscriber tier, so unlimited sends need Power at $25 a month, and the free plan now covers only 250 subscribers, down from 1,000. For a solo creator sending a weekly newsletter to a few hundred readers, Comfort is the best-priced honest plan here; for heavy automation, Kit or Brevo's Standard plan do more.
What we like
- Comfort starts at $12/month with unlimited templates, dynamic emails and multivariate testing
- Billing counts active subscribers only — unsubscribed and bounced contacts do not count
- Free plan includes campaigns, automations, a website, a landing page and all three email editors
Watch out for
- Plan names changed in 2026 — older guides list Growing Business at $10/month, which is now Comfort at $12
- Comfort caps monthly sends at 10 times the subscriber tier; unlimited sends need Power ($25/month)
- Free plan dropped from 1,000 subscribers to 250, so growing lists hit the paywall early
Kit
Best for: Creators who sell courses, products or paid newsletters and need automations that run themselves
Kit is built for creators who sell things, and the free plan is the most generous here: up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts. The paid Creator plan adds unlimited visual automations and sequences, polls, SMS and Kit Commerce, with no sending limits on any plan — a welcome change from the send caps on Mailchimp and Constant Contact.
The price is the honest problem. Creator jumped from about $15 a month to $39 in the September 2025 reprice, and it climbs with your list: $59 a month at 3,000 subscribers and $89 at 5,000. Advanced A/B testing and the referral system need Creator Pro at $79 a month. Choose Kit when your newsletter sells products; choose MailerLite when it only informs readers.
What we like
- Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers — the largest free tier in this list
- Creator adds unlimited visual automations, sequences, polls and Kit Commerce with no sending limits
- Free migration service from another platform on paid plans, with 100+ app integrations
Watch out for
- Creator jumped from about $15/month to $39/month in the September 2025 reprice — the steepest rise here
- Price climbs with subscribers: $59/month at 3,000 and $89 at 5,000 on Creator
- Advanced A/B testing, the referral system and subscriber scoring need Creator Pro ($79/month)
beehiiv
Best for: Newsletter-first publishers who want growth tools, an ad network and paid subscriptions in one place
beehiiv treats the newsletter as the business, not as a channel. The free plan covers 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, a website and a custom domain, and the paid Lite plan adds the ad network, Boosts, a referral program and paid subscriptions — with beehiiv taking 0% of subscription revenue, so only Stripe's processing fee applies.
Two things changed in October 2026: Scale became Lite, Max became Pro, and the entry price rose — Lite is now $59 a month billed monthly, or $49 billed annually, at 1,000 subscribers. Monetization, automations and A/B testing all need Lite; the free plan cannot earn. Pick beehiiv when growth and paid subscriptions are the goal; pick Substack when you want discovery without a monthly bill.
What we like
- Free plan covers 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, a website and a custom domain
- Lite takes 0% of paid subscription revenue — only Stripe's processing fee applies
- Built-in growth tools: recommendations, Boosts, a referral program and an ad network
Watch out for
- Plan names and prices changed October 1, 2026 — Scale is now Lite and the entry price rose to $59/month
- Monetization, automations and A/B testing all need the paid Lite plan; the free plan cannot earn
- Lite caps at 100,000 subscribers and includes only 2 team seats
Constant Contact
Best for: Event-led small businesses and nonprofits that want phone support and simple list tools
Constant Contact is the oldest name in this list, and it shows in the best way: every plan includes phone, chat and email support, and the product bundles event marketing and social posting next to email. Lite starts at $12 a month for 500 contacts, and the 30-day free trial needs no credit card — the longest trial here.
The trade-offs are clear. There is no free plan — Constant Contact removed its permanent free tier in June 2025 — and Lite jumps to $30 a month the moment you add contact number 501. Lite also allows only one user and one automation template; segmentation and A/B testing need Standard at $35 a month. It fits event-led businesses and nonprofits that value a human on the phone.
What we like
- Lite starts at $12/month for 500 contacts, and every plan includes phone, chat and email support
- Built-in event marketing and social posting alongside email, which the other tools here do not bundle
- 30-day free trial with no credit card required — the longest trial in this list
Watch out for
- No free plan — Constant Contact removed its permanent free tier in June 2025
- Lite jumps to $30/month at 501 contacts, the steepest first step in this list
- Lite allows only one user and one automation template; segmentation and A/B testing need Standard ($35/month)
Substack
Best for: Writers who want readers to find them and will pay a share of revenue instead of a monthly fee
Substack is the only tool here with no monthly bill at all: publishing is free at any list size, with a website, email delivery, Notes, chat, podcasts and video included. You pay only when readers pay you — Substack keeps 10% of each paid subscription, and Stripe charges its own processing fee on top. Discovery is the real product: recommendations and the Substack app send readers to you.
The 10% cut never tapers and never caps, so at $1,000 a month in subscriptions it costs $100 a month, every month — more than beehiiv's flat Lite fee at the same point. There are no automation sequences, no advanced segmentation and no A/B testing. Choose Substack to grow an audience from zero; choose beehiiv once paid subscriptions become the income.
What we like
- No monthly fee at any list size — publishing, hosting, email and the reader app are free
- Built-in discovery through recommendations, Notes and the Substack app brings readers to you
- Paid subscriptions, podcasts, video, live streams and chat in one place with no tiers or feature gates
Watch out for
- The 10% cut never tapers: at $1,000 a month in subscriptions it costs $100 a month, every month
- No automation sequences, advanced segmentation or A/B testing — it is a publishing platform, not a marketing suite
- Only 17 G2 reviews, and reviewers note limited integrations and no way to take the discovery audience with you
What an email marketing platform actually does
Choosing the best email marketing platforms for newsletters comes down to one question: how do you want to pay — by the month, by the send, or by a share of what you earn? This list sorts seven platforms that way, from the $9-a-month Brevo to the $0-to-start Substack, with real prices checked on the vendor pricing pages on November 4, 2026. Every tool here is actively sold in 2026 and can run a real newsletter, whether you send to 200 readers or 20,000.
A newsletter platform does three jobs: it stores your subscribers, it sends your emails, and it shows you who opened and clicked. The better ones add a fourth job — automation, so a new subscriber gets a welcome sequence without you lifting a finger — and a fifth, monetization, so the newsletter itself can earn. The seven tools here split on exactly those two extras: Substack and beehiiv are built around earning, Kit around selling, and Mailchimp, Brevo, MailerLite and Constant Contact around sending.
One number shows the scale of the cheapest end of this market: Brevo says more than 600,000 customers use its platform, and its free plan alone sends 300 emails a day. That is why the price spread in this list is so wide — from $0 to $59 a month at the entry tier — and why the right question is not which tool is cheapest, but which pricing model fits how often you send.
Free options first
If your list is small, you may not need to pay at all. Substack is free to publish at any list size with no send limit, beehiiv is free to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, Kit is free to 10,000 subscribers, Brevo sends 300 emails a day free, and MailerLite's free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Only Constant Contact has no free plan — it offers a 30-day trial instead.
Free plans are honest products, not demos, but each one holds something back: Substack cannot automate, beehiiv cannot earn, Kit cannot run sequences, and MailerLite cannot send more than 2,500 emails a month. The upgrade trigger is usually one of those four walls, not the subscriber count. Start free, and pay when you hit the wall that matters to you.
All-rounders vs creator-first tools
Mailchimp, Brevo, MailerLite and Constant Contact are all-rounders: they send email to any business, with templates, segmentation and reporting as the core. Mailchimp is the broadest, Brevo the cheapest, MailerLite the simplest and Constant Contact the most supported, with phone help on every plan. If your newsletter promotes a business, start here.
Kit and beehiiv are creator-first: the newsletter is the product. Kit adds commerce and automations for selling courses and memberships, while beehiiv adds growth and monetization for turning readers into revenue. Substack sits apart — a publishing network where discovery is the feature and the 10% revenue share is the price. And if the newsletter exists to bring customers to a business that also needs to be found on Google, monthly SEO is the other half of that job.
Newsletter-first platforms and paid subscriptions
Three tools in this list are built for newsletters that earn: Substack, beehiiv and Kit. Substack charges nothing until readers pay, then keeps 10% of every subscription plus Stripe's fees. beehiiv charges a flat fee from $59 a month and keeps 0% of subscriptions. Kit charges $39 a month and takes 3.5% plus 30 cents on each sale through Kit Commerce.
The maths is simple: at $500 a month in subscription revenue, Substack costs $50, beehiiv costs $59, and Kit costs $39 plus its per-sale fees. At $2,000 a month, Substack costs $200 while beehiiv still costs $59. The crossover point is roughly $590 a month in paid revenue — below it, Substack is cheaper; above it, the flat fee wins. If you want readers to find you, Substack's network is the draw; if you want to keep what you earn, beehiiv's 0% cut is the draw. Tag the links in your newsletter with the free UTM builder so you can see which issue actually drives signups.
Email marketing platforms for newsletters pricing: what you will actually pay
Take a solo creator with 500 subscribers sending one newsletter a week for a full year. On monthly billing, Mailchimp Essentials costs $13 a month, or $156 a year, and there is no annual discount on the small-list plans. Brevo Starter costs $9 a month, or $108 a year — or $97 a year paid annually, saving $11. MailerLite Comfort costs $12 a month, or $144 a year. Constant Contact Lite also costs $12 a month for 500 contacts, or $144 a year, but a 12-month prepay drops it to $10.20 a month, or $122.40 a year. Kit Creator costs $39 a month, or $468 a year, and $390 a year on annual billing, saving $78.
Two tools cost nothing at this size. beehiiv's free plan covers 500 subscribers with unlimited sends, so the bill is $0 until you want monetization — the paid Lite plan starts at $59 a month, or $708 a year, and $49 a month on annual billing, or $588 a year. Substack is also $0 until readers pay; at $500 a month in paid subscriptions, the 10% cut costs $50 a month, or $600 a year. So the cheapest paid year here is Brevo at $97, and the dearest is beehiiv Lite at $708 — a $611 gap for the same 500 readers.
Three costs sit outside those numbers. First, the contact cliff: Constant Contact Lite jumps to $30 a month the moment you add contact 501, so one new subscriber turns $144 a year into $360. Second, the missing features: Brevo Starter has no automation at all, and removing the Brevo logo costs another $12 a month. Third, the billing basis: Mailchimp bills by contacts, including unsubscribed ones, while Brevo bills by sends and MailerLite counts active subscribers only — a stale list costs real money on Mailchimp and nothing extra on MailerLite.
Know the difference: newsletter-first platforms vs all-rounders
The confusion in this category is that Substack and beehiiv look like email tools, but they are publishing businesses with email attached. A newsletter-first platform treats the newsletter as the product: Substack adds discovery through recommendations and its reader app, beehiiv adds an ad network, Boosts and paid subscriptions, and Kit adds commerce for selling courses and memberships. An all-rounder treats email as one channel for a business: Mailchimp, Brevo, MailerLite and Constant Contact lead with templates, segmentation, integrations and reporting, and the newsletter promotes something else — a shop, a service, a course sold elsewhere.
The practical difference is what each group cannot do. Substack has no automation sequences, no advanced segmentation and no A/B testing at any price, so a business that needs a welcome series or a win-back flow will outgrow it. beehiiv's free plan cannot earn at all — monetization, automations and A/B testing all need the paid Lite plan. The all-rounders have the opposite gap: none of them brings readers to you, and none takes a cut of paid subscriptions, because there is no subscription product built in.
There is a second confusion worth clearing up: free to publish is not the same as a free plan. Substack is free at any list size because it earns 10% of your paid subscriptions, not because the product is free. Constant Contact has no free plan at all — its 30-day trial ends, and then you pay. If the newsletter is the business, start newsletter-first; if the newsletter promotes a business, start with an all-rounder.
Quick comparison: tool type by need
| Buyer | Best pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Solo creator starting free | Substack or beehiiv | $0 to publish; Substack takes 10% only when you earn, beehiiv free to 2,500 subscribers |
| Small business, best all-round | Mailchimp | Biggest template and integration library from $13/month |
| Tightest budget | Brevo | Paid plans from $9/month with a free 300-emails-a-day plan |
| Simplest setup, lowest learning curve | MailerLite | Clean editor and fair subscriber-only billing from $12/month |
| Creator selling courses or products | Kit | Unlimited automations and commerce from $39/month |
| Newsletter as a business | beehiiv | Ad network, Boosts and 0% revenue cut from $59/month |
| Event-led business with phone support | Constant Contact | Events, social tools and phone support from $12/month |
How to choose the best email marketing platforms for newsletters
- Count your subscribers and your sends. Under 1,000 subscribers, the free plans cover you. Over 5,000, the per-subscriber price decides — Brevo and MailerLite win on volume, Mailchimp and Constant Contact climb fastest.
- Pick your pricing model. By the month (Mailchimp, MailerLite, Kit), by the send (Brevo), or by a share of revenue (Substack). A large list that sends rarely is cheapest on Brevo; a small list that earns a lot is cheapest on beehiiv.
- Decide whether the newsletter earns. If it does, the revenue-share maths matters more than the sticker price — Substack costs $50 at $500 a month in subscriptions and $200 at $2,000.
- Check the free plan's wall. Each free plan holds something back: automation, earning, sequences or send volume. Pay when you hit the wall that matters, not before.
- Try before you pay. Every tool in this list has a free plan or a free trial. Send your next two issues on your top pick and compare open rates and the time each issue takes to build.
Mistakes to avoid
- Comparing entry prices at different list sizes. $13 a month means 500 contacts on Mailchimp and $59 a month means 1,000 subscribers on beehiiv — the entry tier is not the same list.
- Ignoring the send cap. Mailchimp Essentials caps sends at 10 times your contacts, Constant Contact Lite at 10 times, and MailerLite Comfort at 10 times your tier. A weekly newsletter to a big list can hit the cap.
- Paying for automation you cannot use. Brevo Starter has no automation at all — it starts on Standard at $18 a month — and Substack has none at any price.
- Trusting a directory price. MailerLite still shows $10 a month on several directories; the live pricing page says Comfort is $12. beehiiv still shows Scale at $49; the plan is now Lite at $59 a month billed monthly.
- Forgetting the free plan changed. Mailchimp's free plan now covers 250 contacts, down from 500, and MailerLite's covers 250 subscribers, down from 1,000. Check the current limit before you build on it.
How we chose
We checked each vendor's own pricing page on November 4, 2026 and recorded the starting price exactly as shown, including the annual-billing figure where the page lists one. Four pricing pages — Mailchimp, Brevo, Kit and Constant Contact — render their prices inside interactive selectors that a text read could not capture, so those figures were corroborated against multiple independent reads of the same vendor pages from October 2026; they are the vendors' published prices, not directory estimates. Ratings come from G2, except Brevo, where the G2 page did not load during our check, so we used its Capterra rating instead. Two renames changed this category in 2026: MailerLite's Growing Business is now Comfort at $12 a month, and beehiiv's Scale is now Lite at $59 a month billed monthly. We ranked the tools by fit for the most common buyer — a small business or solo creator sending a regular newsletter — not by brand size. No vendor paid for a place in this list, and none of the links here are affiliate links.
What to do next
Start with the decision path above: count your subscribers and sends, pick a pricing model, and decide whether the newsletter needs to earn. Then take the free plan or trial of your top pick and send your next two issues on it. If the open rates hold and the editor stays out of your way, you have your tool. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.
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Get a free audit→Sources we checked (14)
- Mailchimp pricing — mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing (checked November 4, 2026)
- Mailchimp on G2 — 4.3/5, 12,998 reviews (checked November 4, 2026)
- Brevo pricing — brevo.com/pricing (checked November 4, 2026)
- Brevo on Capterra — 4.6/5, 3,526 reviews (checked November 4, 2026)
- MailerLite pricing — mailerlite.com/pricing (checked November 4, 2026)
- MailerLite on G2 — 4.6/5, 1,115 reviews (checked November 4, 2026)
- Kit pricing — kit.com/pricing (checked November 4, 2026)
- Kit on G2 — 4.4/5, 236 reviews (checked November 4, 2026)
- beehiiv pricing — beehiiv.com/pricing (checked November 4, 2026)
- beehiiv on G2 — 4.5/5, 40 reviews (checked November 4, 2026)
- Constant Contact pricing — constantcontact.com/pricing (checked November 4, 2026)
- Constant Contact on G2 — 4.1/5, 7,625 reviews (checked November 4, 2026)
- Substack pricing — substack.com/features (checked November 4, 2026)
- Substack on G2 — 4.3/5, 17 reviews (checked November 4, 2026)
Frequently asked questions
What is the best email marketing platform for newsletters in 2026?
Mailchimp is the best all-round pick for small businesses: the largest template library and integration list from $13 a month. Brevo is the cheapest paid plan at $9 a month, Kit is the best creator pick at $39, and Substack is the best free start — $0 to publish, with a 10% cut only when readers pay.
How much does email marketing for newsletters cost?
Entry prices run from $9 to $59 a month: Brevo $9, MailerLite and Constant Contact $12, Mailchimp $13, Kit $39 and beehiiv $59. Substack has no monthly fee and takes 10% of paid subscriptions instead. Every tool reprices as your list grows, so check the price at your subscriber count, not just the entry tier.
Is there a free email marketing platform for newsletters?
Yes, with limits. Substack is free at any list size, beehiiv is free to 2,500 subscribers, Kit is free to 10,000, Brevo sends 300 emails a day free, and MailerLite's free plan covers 250 subscribers. Constant Contact is the only tool here with no free plan — it offers a 30-day trial instead.
Mailchimp vs Brevo — which is cheaper for newsletters?
Brevo, at small volumes. Brevo Starter is $9 a month for 5,000 emails, while Mailchimp Essentials is $13 a month for 500 contacts. The gap widens with list size because Brevo charges by sends and Mailchimp by contacts — but Brevo Starter has no automation, which Mailchimp Essentials includes, so compare the feature you need, not just the price.
What is the difference between Substack and beehiiv?
Substack is a publishing network: free to publish, with discovery built in, and it keeps 10% of paid subscriptions. beehiiv is a newsletter business platform: free to 2,500 subscribers, then a flat $59 a month with 0% of subscription revenue. Below about $590 a month in paid revenue Substack costs less; above it, beehiiv does.
Can I switch email platforms without losing my subscribers?
Yes. Every tool here lets you export your subscriber list as a CSV, and Kit offers a free migration service on paid plans that rebuilds your forms, templates and automations for you. Expect to re-warm your sending reputation: send to your most engaged readers first for the first two weeks after moving.
What should I check before paying for a newsletter platform?
Four things: the price at your subscriber count, not the entry tier; the monthly send cap and what counts toward it; whether automations and branding removal are included or gated to a higher plan; and whether the free plan covers your list. All four vary widely — the comparison table at the top of this guide shows the starting price and free plan for each tool.
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