Email Marketing Pricing Comparison 2026: What 59 Tools Actually Cost

Email marketing pricing is confusing by design. Some tools charge by subscribers, others by emails sent, and a few charge by features regardless of list size. We track 59 email marketing tools in our database, and we verified every price listed here against the official website.

This guide groups tools by realistic budget tiers so you can find the right platform without overpaying. All prices reflect the lowest paid plan at the lowest subscriber tier as of March 2026.

Free Tier: Tools That Cost Nothing to Start

Twenty-two of the 59 tools we track offer a free plan. But “free” varies wildly. Some give you 250 contacts; others give you 10,000.

Most generous free plans:

• Kit (ConvertKit) — free for up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages, and basic automations. The most generous free plan by subscriber count.
• Brevo — unlimited contacts with 300 emails per day. If you have a large list but send infrequently, this is the best deal.
• Sender — 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month.
• EmailOctopus — 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month.
• Systeme.io — 2,000 contacts with unlimited emails plus funnels, courses, and a blog.

Most restrictive free plans:

• Klaviyo — 250 subscribers. Tight, but includes the full feature set.
• Omnisend — 250 subscribers. Same restriction.
• Mailchimp — 500 subscribers and only 1,000 sends per month with no automation.

Under $15/Month: Budget Tier

This is where the best value lives for small businesses and solopreneurs. Eight tools start below $15/month:

• Plunk — $1/month. Bare minimum transactional email. Not a full marketing platform.
• Zoho Campaigns — $3.50/month for 2,000 contacts. Strong if you already use the Zoho ecosystem.
• Brevo — $9/month for 5,000 emails (unlimited contacts). Best for large lists with low send frequency.
• Moosend — $9/month for 500 subscribers with unlimited emails and automation. Our highest-rated budget tool (4.7/5). See the full Moosend pricing breakdown.
• EmailOctopus — $9/month for 500 subscribers. Simple and clean, no unnecessary features.
• MailerLite — $10/month for 500 subscribers with unlimited emails. Rated 4.6/5 and one of the easiest tools to learn. Check our MailerLite pricing page.
• Sender — $10/month for 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails.
• Constant Contact — $12/month. A legacy player with a solid template library.

$15-$40/Month: Mid-Range Tier

This tier covers most small to mid-sized businesses. You get proper automation, segmentation, and A/B testing at these prices.

• Mailchimp Essentials — $13/month for 500 subscribers. The brand everyone knows, but the value is middling. See how it stacks up in our Mailchimp pricing guide.
• AWeber Lite — $15/month for 500 subscribers with unlimited emails.
• tinyEmail — $15/month for 500 subscribers. Clean interface, good for straightforward campaigns.
• GetResponse — $19/month for 1,000 subscribers with autoresponders and A/B testing.
• Klaviyo — $20/month for 500 subscribers. Expensive per contact but the ecommerce features justify it for Shopify stores. Full details in our Klaviyo pricing breakdown.
• HubSpot Marketing Starter — $20/month for 1,000 marketing contacts.
• Kit (ConvertKit) Creator — $29/month for 1,000 subscribers with full automation.
• ActiveCampaign Starter — $29/month for 1,000 subscribers. The automation is a level above most competitors at this price.
• Flodesk — $38/month flat rate, unlimited subscribers. If you hate per-subscriber pricing, Flodesk eliminates it entirely.
• Drip — $39/month for 2,500 subscribers. Built for ecommerce.

$40-$100/Month: Professional Tier

At this level, you are paying for advanced automation, CRM integration, or specialized capabilities:

• Loops — $49/month for 1,000 contacts. Built specifically for SaaS product emails.
• Apollo.io — $49/month. Sales-focused with lead database and cold email tools.
• Reply.io — $49/month. Cold outreach and sales engagement.
• Mailmodo — $49/month. Interactive AMP emails that let subscribers take action inside the email itself.
• Lemlist — $55/month. Cold email with personalization images and video.
• Encharge — $79/month. Marketing automation for SaaS companies.
• Customer.io — $100/month. Event-driven messaging for product teams.

$100+/Month: Enterprise Tier

These are for established businesses with specific needs:

• Keap — $249/month. CRM-first platform with invoicing and payments.
• Maropost — $279/month. Multi-channel marketing for mid-market.
• Ortto — $509/month. Customer data platform with journey orchestration.
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud — $1,250/month. Enterprise-grade, the most expensive tool we track.
• Braze and Iterable — custom pricing, typically enterprise contracts.

Pricing Models: Per-Subscriber vs. Per-Email vs. Flat Rate

The pricing model matters as much as the dollar amount.

Per-subscriber pricing (most tools): You pay based on how many contacts are in your account. Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, and most others use this model. The risk: costs climb steadily as your list grows.

Per-email pricing (Brevo, Amazon SES, Elastic Email): You pay for each email sent, regardless of list size. If you have 50,000 contacts but only email them twice a month, this model saves money. If you send daily, it gets expensive fast.

Flat-rate pricing (Flodesk, Substack): You pay one price regardless of list size or send volume. Flodesk charges $38/month whether you have 500 or 50,000 subscribers. Substack takes a 10% cut of paid newsletter revenue but charges nothing for free newsletters.

Use our pricing calculator to estimate costs based on your specific list size and send frequency.

Where the Real Costs Hide

The sticker price is only part of the story. Watch for these:

• Contact counting. Mailchimp charges for unsubscribed contacts still on your list. Others like ActiveCampaign count only active subscribers. Clean your list regularly.
• Feature gating. HubSpot starts at $20/month, but automation requires the $890/month Professional plan. The jump from Starter to Professional is 44x.
• Overage charges. Some tools auto-upgrade you when you exceed your tier. Others pause sending until you upgrade manually. Know which model your tool uses.
• Annual vs. monthly billing. Most tools offer 15-40% discounts for annual billing. MailerLite saves 15%, AWeber saves up to 33%, and Sender saves 40%.

The Bottom Line

For most small businesses spending under $30/month, MailerLite and Moosend offer the strongest combination of features and value. For ecommerce, Klaviyo and Omnisend justify their higher prices with revenue-driving automation. For large lists on a tight budget, Brevo’s per-email pricing model is hard to beat.

Browse our full best email marketing tools ranking or compare any two tools head-to-head on our comparison pages.