8 Best Mass Email Marketing Software in 2026, Compared

Quick comparison

The best mass email marketing software

#1

Brevo

Best for: Small businesses and senders with big lists who want the cheapest paid plan and a generous free tier

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (2,775 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit brevo.com

Starting price$9/month (Starter, billed monthly; $8.08/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free plan (300 emails a day, up to 100,000 contacts)

Brevo is the cheapest way into mass email because it charges for emails sent, not contacts stored. Starter costs $9 a month for 5,000 emails, and the free plan sends 300 emails a day while storing up to 100,000 contacts — the most generous free tier in this list. Email, SMS, WhatsApp and chat live in one account with a small CRM, so one login runs the whole outreach.

The catch is the contact cap on the small tiers. Starter at $9 holds only 500 contacts, so a 1,000-contact list needs the 10,000-email tier at $17 a month, and removing the Brevo logo costs $12 a month extra. Automation and A/B testing wait for Standard at $18. Buy Brevo when your list is large but your sending is modest; buy Mailchimp when you need automation on the entry plan.

What we like

• Cheapest paid entry here: Starter is $9 a month for 5,000 emails, and yearly billing drops it to $97 a year
• The most generous free plan: 300 emails a day with up to 100,000 contacts stored
• Prices by emails sent, not contacts stored, so a big list that mails rarely stays cheap
• Email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat and a CRM in one account, so one login covers the whole outreach

Watch out for

• Paid tiers cap stored contacts: Starter at $9 holds only 500 contacts, so a 1,000-contact list needs the $17 tier
• Removing the Brevo logo costs $12 a month extra on Starter; it is only included from Standard at $18
• Automation and A/B testing wait for Standard — Starter is mostly a sending tool

#2

Mailchimp

Best for: Small businesses that want the best-known all-in-one suite with the widest integration and template library

★★★★★★★★★★4.3/5 on G2 (12,997 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit mailchimp.com

Starting price$13/month (Essentials, 500 contacts, billed monthly; no annual discount)

Free planYes — free plan (250 contacts, 500 emails a month)

Mailchimp is the default pick for a reason: the biggest template library, the most integrations and an editor that needs no training. The free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, and Essentials costs $13 a month for 500 contacts with A/B testing and scheduling included. Standard costs $20 and adds multi-step automation, predictive segmentation and generative AI features.

The billing model is the thing to watch. Mailchimp charges by contacts stored, and unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts count until you archive them, so a 5,000-contact list costs $75 a month on Essentials. There is also no annual-billing discount on the marketing plans. Buy Mailchimp when you want the widest ecosystem and the easiest start; buy Brevo when a large list would make contact pricing expensive.

What we like

• The widest template library and the most integrations in this list — it connects to almost everything
• Free plan to start, then Essentials at $13 a month for 500 contacts with A/B testing included
• Generative AI features and predictive segmentation on Standard, from $20 a month
• 14-day free trial on paid plans, and a pay-as-you-go credit option for infrequent senders

Watch out for

• Contact-based pricing climbs fast: Essentials is $75 a month at 5,000 contacts, and unsubscribed contacts still count until archived
• Free plan cut to 250 contacts and 500 sends in 2026, with no automation and no scheduling
• No annual-billing discount on the marketing plans — the monthly price is the price

#3

MailerLite

Best for: Beginners and small teams that want a clean editor, real automation and the cheapest paid step up

★★★★★★★★★★4.6/5 on G2 (1,115 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit mailerlite.com

Starting price$12/month (Comfort, billed monthly; $10.80/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free plan (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month)

MailerLite is the easiest tool here to learn, with a clean drag-and-drop editor, a plain-text editor and a custom HTML editor on every plan. The free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month and still includes automations and A/B testing. Comfort costs $12 a month, adds an AI writing assistant and unlimited templates, and covers 50 automations.

The free plan shrank in June 2026, from 500 subscribers to 250, so it fills fast — and Comfort caps monthly sends at ten times your subscriber tier, which pushes heavy senders to Power at $25 a month. There is no phone support on any plan. Pick MailerLite when you want the simplest editor and the cheapest paid step up; pick Constant Contact when you want a human on the phone.

What we like

• The cleanest editor here, with drag-and-drop, HTML and plain-text editors on the free plan
• Free plan includes automations, A/B testing and a website — rare at $0
• Comfort at $12 a month is the cheapest paid plan with an AI writing assistant included
• Paid newsletters and digital product sales built in, so a list can earn without a separate store

Watch out for

• Free plan cut to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month in June 2026 — it fills fast
• Comfort caps sends at 10 times your subscriber tier, so heavy senders need Power at $25 a month
• Fewer integrations than Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign, and no phone support on any plan

#4

Constant Contact

Best for: Small businesses and nonprofits that want phone support, event tools and a guided setup

★★★★★★★★★★4.1/5 on G2 (7,625 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit constantcontact.com

Starting price$12/month (Lite, up to 500 contacts, billed monthly; $10.20/month billed annually)

Free planNo — 30-day free trial (100 sends)

Constant Contact is the most guided tool in this list: phone support, a setup walkthrough and event management built in, which suits nonprofits, clubs and local businesses. Lite costs $12 a month for up to 500 contacts with 5,000 sends a month, and the 30-day free trial (100 sends) is the longest here. Annual prepayment takes 15% off, dropping Lite to $10.20 a month.

There is no free plan — the free plan was removed in June 2025 — so when the trial ends you pay or lose access. Automation is also thin on Lite, with a single automation template, and real workflows wait for Premium at $80 a month. Lite covers one user, so a second seat means Standard at $35. Buy Constant Contact when support and events matter more than automation depth.

What we like

• Phone support and a guided setup — the most hand-holding in this list
• Lite at $12 a month covers 500 contacts with a 30-day free trial (100 sends), the longest trial here
• Event management and surveys built in, which suits nonprofits and local businesses
• 15% off with annual prepayment, taking Lite to $10.20 a month

Watch out for

• No free plan since June 2025 — when the 30-day trial ends, you pay or lose access
• Automation is thin on Lite: one automation template, with real workflows waiting for Premium at $80 a month
• One user on Lite — a second seat means Standard at $35 a month

#5

ActiveCampaign

Best for: Growing businesses that need real automation and a CRM behind the email

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (14,851 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit activecampaign.com

Starting price$19/month (Starter, 1,000 contacts, billed monthly; $15/month billed annually)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

ActiveCampaign is the automation pick: multi-step workflows, branching, conditional content and a real CRM sit behind the email, which the cheaper tools cannot match. Starter costs $19 a month for 1,000 contacts, or $15 billed annually, with ten times your contacts in sends. More than 900 integrations cover ecommerce, sales and support tools.

The entry plan is deliberately limited: one user, five actions per automation and no landing pages, so a three-person team is pushed to Pro at $79 a month billed annually. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial limited to 100 contacts and 100 emails. The price also roughly doubles at each contact tier. Buy ActiveCampaign when automation and CRM depth are the job; buy MailerLite when a simple newsletter is enough.

What we like

• The strongest automation here: multi-step workflows with branching from Plus, and a real CRM behind the email
• Starter at $19 a month ($15 billed annually) covers 1,000 contacts with 10 times that in sends
• Segmentation and conditional content that the cheaper tools charge extra for
• More than 900 integrations, the widest app marketplace in this list

Watch out for

• Starter allows only 1 user and 5 actions per automation — a three-person team is pushed to Pro at $79 a month billed annually
• No free plan, only a 14-day trial limited to 100 contacts and 100 emails
• The interface can feel cluttered, and the price roughly doubles at each contact tier

#6

GetResponse

Best for: Businesses that want webinars, landing pages and email in one subscription

★★★★★★★★★★4.3/5 on G2 (1,147 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit getresponse.com

Starting price$19/month (Starter, 1,000 contacts, billed monthly; $15.58/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free plan (500 contacts, newsletters only)

GetResponse is the all-in-one pick: email, landing pages, webinars and a course builder in a single subscription. Starter costs $19 a month for 1,000 contacts, or $15.58 billed annually, and every paid plan includes unlimited sends — there is no monthly email cap to count against. Three users are included, and the 14-day trial needs no credit card.

Starter allows only one automation workflow, so unlimited workflows start on Marketer at $59 a month, and the AI content generator is capped at three uses. The free plan stops at 500 contacts, sends newsletters only and carries GetResponse branding. Buy GetResponse when webinars and unlimited sends matter; buy ActiveCampaign when you need deep automation on the entry plan.

What we like

• Unlimited sends on every paid plan — no counting emails against a monthly cap
• Webinars, landing pages and a course builder in the same subscription, from $19 a month
• Starter at $19 a month ($15.58 billed annually) covers 1,000 contacts with 3 users included
• 24/7 chat support and a 14-day trial that needs no credit card

Watch out for

• Starter allows only one automation workflow — unlimited workflows start on Marketer at $59 a month
• The free plan stops at 500 contacts, sends newsletters only, and carries GetResponse branding
• AI content generation is capped at 3 uses on Starter

#7

AWeber

Best for: Small teams that want three seats included and a simple, long-running email tool

★★★★★★★★★★4.2/5 on G2 (650 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit aweber.com

Starting price$15/month (Lite, up to 500 subscribers, billed monthly; $12.50/month billed annually)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

AWeber is the small-team pick: Lite costs $15 a month for up to 500 subscribers and includes three seats, the only entry plan here with a team built in. It also includes landing pages, three automations and 5,000 sends a month, with annual billing dropping the price to $150 a year. Support is US-based by phone and chat, and reviewers praise it most here.

There is no free plan on the pricing page — only a 14-day trial that converts to a paid plan unless cancelled — so budget from month one. Lite also allows only one list, three landing pages and three automations, which pushes growing senders to Plus at $30 a month. The editor and templates feel dated next to MailerLite and Brevo. Buy AWeber when three people send the email; buy MailerLite when one person does.

What we like

• Three seats included on Lite at $15 a month — the only entry plan here with a team built in
• Long track record and US-based phone and chat support that reviewers praise
• Built-in landing pages and ecommerce tools on Lite, so a small shop can sell without a separate store
• Annual billing drops Lite to $150 a year, about $12.50 a month

Watch out for

• No free plan on the pricing page — only a 14-day trial that converts to a paid plan unless cancelled
• Lite allows only 1 list, 3 automations and 3 landing pages — growing senders move to Plus at $30 a month
• The editor and template library feel dated next to MailerLite and Brevo

#8

Kit

Best for: Creators who sell digital products and newsletters and want a free plan that lasts to 10,000 subscribers

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (236 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit kit.com

Starting priceFree (Newsletter plan, up to 10,000 subscribers; Creator $39/month billed monthly, $33/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free plan (up to 10,000 subscribers)

Kit is the creator pick, and its free plan is the most generous in this list: up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms, plus digital product sales. Creator costs $39 a month for 1,000 subscribers, or $33 billed annually, and adds unlimited Visual Automations, sequences and branding removal. Paid newsletters and products sell inside the same account.

The price climbs steeply past the free tier: Creator is $139 a month at 10,000 subscribers and Pro is $189, and Kit takes 3.5% plus 30 cents on every sale through Kit Commerce, on every plan. There is no visual template library to match Mailchimp, and reporting is thinner than ActiveCampaign. Buy Kit when you are a creator selling to a list; buy Brevo or Mailchimp when you are a business sending bulk campaigns.

What we like

• The most generous free plan here: up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms
• Creator at $39 a month ($33 billed annually) adds unlimited Visual Automations, sequences and branding removal
• Built-in commerce for digital products and paid newsletters, with no separate store needed
• Simple, text-first emails with strong deliverability that creators praise

Watch out for

• Creator jumps to $139 a month at 10,000 subscribers, and Pro to $189 — the steepest climb here
• Kit takes 3.5% plus 30 cents on every sale through Kit Commerce, on every plan
• No visual template library to match Mailchimp, and reporting is thinner than ActiveCampaign

The best mass email marketing software charges you for what you actually use — contacts stored or emails sent — and the wrong choice of billing model can triple your bill on the same list. We ranked the eight tools below by fit for the most common buyer, a small business sending bulk email to a growing list, and every price was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on November 5, 2026.

How to choose the best mass email marketing software

• Count contacts or emails first. Brevo bills by emails sent, while Mailchimp, MailerLite, Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, AWeber and Kit bill by list size. Work out which side of that line your list falls on before comparing headline prices.
• Check the free plan's real cap. Brevo stores 100,000 contacts free and Kit covers 10,000 subscribers, while Mailchimp stops at 250 contacts and MailerLite at 250 subscribers. The cap you hit first is your real starting price.
• Check what the entry plan automates. Most tools here include basic automation on the entry plan, but Brevo holds automation for Standard and GetResponse allows only one workflow on Starter.
• Count the seats. AWeber includes three seats on Lite, while ActiveCampaign and Constant Contact allow only one user on their entry plans — a team of three pays far more than the headline price on those two.
• Check the branding. Brevo and Mailchimp charge extra to remove their logo on the entry plan, while MailerLite, Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, AWeber and Kit remove it on the first paid plan.
• Check the send limit. Mailchimp Essentials allows ten times your contacts a month, GetResponse allows unlimited sends, and Kit allows unlimited broadcasts — the limit decides whether a heavy sending month costs extra.

Email is one system in your stack, not the whole stack. If the business also needs to be found online, our guide to email marketing platforms covers the visibility side of the same tools. And before you send a campaign, run every link through the free UTM builder tool — it tags your links so you can see in analytics exactly which email drove each visit.

Whatever you shortlist, try it with a real send before you pay. The free plans and trials in this list are long enough to run one genuine campaign — your list, your template, your subject lines — and that send tells you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that your emails land in the inbox rather than spam, and that the automation you need actually runs on the plan you would buy. Every tool here lets you export your list, so a trial costs you nothing but an afternoon.

Mass email marketing software pricing: what you will actually pay

Take a 500-subscriber list sending two campaigns a month. On list prices, the subscription costs $0 a month on Kit, $9 on Brevo Starter, $12 on MailerLite Comfort or Constant Contact Lite, $13 on Mailchimp Essentials, $15 on AWeber Lite, and $19 on ActiveCampaign Starter or GetResponse Starter. Two of those numbers need adjusting before they are real: ActiveCampaign and GetResponse both price their entry plan at 1,000 contacts, so a 500-subscriber list pays the same $19 as a 1,000-subscriber list, and Brevo Starter at $9 holds only 500 contacts — a 501st subscriber moves you to the $17 tier.

Over a year, that is $0 on Kit, $97 on Brevo billed annually, $122.40 on Constant Contact Lite billed annually, $129.60 on MailerLite Comfort billed annually, $150 on AWeber Lite billed annually, $156 on Mailchimp Essentials, $180 on ActiveCampaign Starter billed annually, and $186.96 on GetResponse Starter billed annually. The same 500 subscribers and the same two campaigns a month cost $0 at the free end and $186.96 at the dear end — a gap that comes entirely from free-plan caps and billing choices, not from features.

Three costs sit outside every number above. First, the trials — 14 days on most tools here, 30 days on Constant Contact — end, so budget on the list price. Second, SMS and WhatsApp sending are billed separately on Brevo, Mailchimp and Kit, so a multichannel campaign costs more than the email price. Third, a dedicated IP address for high-volume sending is a paid add-on on most tools here, and deliverability help at that scale usually means a higher tier. If you run a business-to-business list rather than a general small business list, the automation tools differ too — see our guide to the best B2B email marketing software.

Annual billing cuts the bill on most tools here: Brevo Starter drops from $108 to $97 a year, MailerLite Comfort from $144 to $129.60, Constant Contact Lite from $144 to $122.40, AWeber Lite from $180 to $150, ActiveCampaign Starter from $228 to $180, and GetResponse Starter from $228 to $186.96. Mailchimp publishes no annual discount on its marketing plans, so the monthly figure is the whole story. One more cost to check before you commit: the price at 5,000 contacts. Mailchimp Essentials climbs to $75 a month, while Brevo Standard covers 10,000 emails a month for $35 — the billing model, not the feature list, decides the bill at that size.

Know the difference: priced by contacts vs priced by sends

The confusion in this category is the billing model, not the feature list. Seven tools here charge by contacts stored: the price follows your list size, and you pay the same whether you mail once a month or once a week. Brevo charges by emails sent: the price follows your volume, and a large list that mails rarely stays cheap. A 50,000-contact list mailed once a month costs a fraction on Brevo of what it costs on Mailchimp, while a 500-contact list mailed every day is cheaper on a contact-priced tool.

There is a second, quieter confusion: mass email software is not a transactional email service. Mass email tools send campaigns and newsletters to a list; transactional services send one-to-one messages like order confirmations and password resets through an API. Most tools in this list do both — Brevo and Mailchimp both sell transactional sending — but a pure API service like SendGrid's Email API is a different category, built for developers rather than marketers, and it belongs in a different list.

A third distinction worth knowing is the free plan versus the free trial. A free plan, like Kit's or Brevo's, stays free with no end date and no card; a free trial, like Constant Contact's 30 days or ActiveCampaign's 14 days, ends and starts billing. Five tools here have a real free plan and three do not, and the difference matters most for a list that grows slowly — a free plan lets you build the list for months before paying anything.

Quick comparison: tool type by need

Mistakes to avoid

• Budgeting on the free plan, then finding the cap. Mailchimp's free plan stops at 250 contacts and MailerLite's at 250 subscribers. If your list is already past that, count the first paid plan in the price from day one.
• Ignoring the billing model. A tool can be cheap and still be the wrong buy: Mailchimp Essentials at $13 is no bargain once you pass 5,000 contacts, and Brevo Starter at $9 is no bargain if you send daily to a small list.
• Buying on the trial, then finding the seat costs extra. ActiveCampaign Starter and Constant Contact Lite cover one user each. A second seat can double the bill or force a plan upgrade, so price the whole team before you commit.
• Paying for automation you cannot use. GetResponse Starter allows one workflow and Brevo Starter has no automation at all. If the welcome sequence is the reason you are buying, check that it runs on the plan you would actually buy.
• Sending to a list you did not earn. Bought or scraped lists get accounts suspended and damage deliverability, and every tool here requires permission-based sending. Build the list slowly and keep the unsubscribe link visible.

How we chose

We checked each vendor's own pricing page on November 5, 2026 and recorded the starting price exactly as shown, including the annual-billing figure where the page lists one, and we ranked the tools by fit for the most common buyer — a small business sending bulk email to a growing list — not by brand size. Where a pricing page renders its prices in JavaScript, we used a fresh crawl of that same vendor page. Ratings come from the G2 review pages for each tool, checked November 5, 2026. One conflict to note: AWeber's own pages disagree about a free plan — its pricing page shows only a 14-day trial, while its help pages still describe a free tier — so we list the pricing page, since that is what a new buyer sees at checkout. 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 free plan or trial of your top pick and send one real campaign to your list. Check that the emails land in the inbox, the reports make sense, and the automation you need actually runs on the plan you would buy before you commit to a year. If the email side is sorted but new subscribers are not finding you, our monthly SEO service handles the visibility side — or compare providers in our guide to email marketing software for small business. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.

Sources we checked (16)

• Brevo pricing — brevo.com/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
• Mailchimp pricing — mailchimp.com/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
• MailerLite pricing — mailerlite.com/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
• Constant Contact pricing — constantcontact.com/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
• ActiveCampaign pricing — activecampaign.com/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
• GetResponse pricing — getresponse.com/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
• AWeber pricing — aweber.com/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
• Kit pricing — kit.com/pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
• Brevo (Sendinblue) reviews — g2.com/products/sendinblue (checked November 5, 2026)
• Mailchimp reviews — g2.com/products/mailchimp (checked November 5, 2026)
• MailerLite reviews — g2.com/products/mailerlite (checked November 5, 2026)
• Constant Contact reviews — g2.com/products/constant-contact (checked November 5, 2026)
• ActiveCampaign reviews — g2.com/products/activecampaign (checked November 5, 2026)
• GetResponse reviews — g2.com/products/getresponse (checked November 5, 2026)
• AWeber reviews — g2.com/products/aweber (checked November 5, 2026)
• Kit reviews — g2.com/products/convertkit-kit (checked November 5, 2026)