From the desk of David Utke
Subj: The Lean List-Builder: High-Value Starter Plans for Beginners
While I have a dedicated guide on the best overall email marketing options, I know not everyone is an experience email marketer, a lot of you are just starting out.
If that’s you, then having a feature rich free plan to get started and grow your list with is quite helpful, particularly if you don’t really have an audience yet.
So what are the best free email marketing plans available and what are their ideal use case?
Let’s get to it.
Overview of the best free plans:
| Platform | Free Contacts | Monthly Sends | The Catch | Best For… |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kit | 10,000 | Unlimited | No automated sequences | Creators & Bloggers |
| beehiiv | 2,500 | Unlimited | Newsletter focus only | Newsletters |
| Sender | 2,500 | 15,000 | Sender branding on emails | Free Automations |
| Brevo | 100,000 | 9,000 | 300 emails per day cap | High contact storage |
| MailerLite | 500 | 12,000 | Very low subscriber limit | Basic Landing Pages |
| Mailchimp | 250 | 500 | Extremely restrictive | Very small hobbies |
If you are a “Creator” (blog, YouTube etc)
Having a 10,000-subscriber ceiling for free is simply unbeatable.
Honestly, most people will never come anywhere close to having a list of this size. Yes, you don’t get any automations but for growing a list and selling products, the free newsletter plan is very competitive.
The catch?
You will have to manually hit “send” every time you want to talk to your list because they gate the “Welcome Sequence” (automation) behind the paid tier. This should be fine if you’re doing the weekly newsletter thing.
But if you want marketing workflows, automations and access to their excellent tagging system then you’ll need a paid plan.
If you are starting a “Newsletter” (Content is the product):
Then beehiiv is your platform.
They give you a custom website and the ability to scale to 2,500 subscribers with zero sending limits.
The catch?
It’s built for writing an email newsletter, think something like the Milk Road, a crypto newsletter that comes out once a week. If you want to set up complex “if this, then that” triggers for marketing funnels, then this platform is not for you.
Overall though the free plan with Beehiiv is enough to get you going understanding the platform and actually growing a profitable newsletter.
If you need “Automations” for free
Easy, sign up to Sender.
They are the only ones currently giving you 2,500 subscribers and the ability to create automated workflows (like an “Abandoned Cart” or “Welcome Series”) without a credit card.
The catch?
The interface is a bit more basic than the others, and their deliverability requires you to be very strict with your list quality. But Sender in my opinion has now dethroned Mailer Lite as the free plan king.
Marketing workflows/autoresponder automations are typically something only available to paid users with most email marketing providers.
If you have a massive list that you don’t email frequently
Brevo is your choice.
You can store 100,000+ contact list on their free plan.
The catch?
The free plan has a 300-per-day limit.
Brevo is still a good option because if you have a tiny list of up to 300 people, you can email them everyday.
Brevo however is what I like to call the “low frequency, high volume” king.
They charge a monthly subscription, but their focus is on emails sent and not list size like other platforms. That means you for a low price you can email a huge list once a month.
What about Mail Chimp and Mailer Lite?
Oh how times have changed.
Mail Chimp used to be the most generous free plan at one time, but they have since scaled it back to only 250 subscribers and 500 email sends. This is more of a “free trial” plan and not really a proper free plan to grow your list.
Mailer Lite scaled back from 1k subscribers to 500 subscribers so you’ll hit the paywall bottle neck with them much more quickly then other platforms.
Don’t get me wrong, I still like Mailer Lite! Their free plan is totally useable and they have great deliverability. But compared to what Sender, Beehiiv, and Kit now offer, they are no long the best “free plan” option.
Wrap-up
Alright everyone, that’s it for my breakdown on the best free plans for email marketing. Make sure to bookmark and share this with someone it can help.
Till next time,
-David.
*P.S. – I personally use Kit for my email marketing.
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