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… |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| beehiiv | 2,500 | Unlimited | Ad network requires scaling | Growth & Monetization |
| Kit | 10,000 | Unlimited | No automated sequences | Authors & Creators |
| Sender | 2,500 | 15,000 | Sender branding on emails | Free Automations |
| Jetpack | Unlimited | Unlimited | WordPress sites only | Unlimited WordPress Scale |
| Substack | Unlimited | Unlimited | 10% revenue share if paid | Easy Writing & Discovery |
| Brevo | 100,000 | 9,000 | 300 emails per day cap | Storing Huge Lists |
| MailerLite | 500 | 12,000 | Low subscriber limit | Beginner Simplicity |
Pros & Cons
1. beehiiv
Your own dedicated website and good deliverability.
Pros:
- One-click ad placements and easy premium subscription setups.
- Boost to monetize your list and grow your audience.
- Excellent deliverability.
- Useful automations.
Cons:
- A bit of a learning curve. Can be overwhelming for total beginners who just want to write.
- Boosts, the ad network and automations are locked behind the paywall.
2. Kit
Incredibly generous free plan, your own simple website.
Pros:
- Generous Free Tier: 10,000 subscribers for free is the best value for mid-sized creators.
- Creator Network: Makes it very easy to partner with other writers for mutual recommendations.
- Custom Domains: Unlike many competitors, you can use your own domain even on the free plan.
Cons:
- The email editor is intentionally simple; it’s hard to make “fancy” or image-heavy layouts.
- Once you cross the 10k free limit, or you want marketing automations the paid plans become pricey compared to competitors.
3. Sender
Not positioned for newsletters, more for email marketers but they make my list because their free plan is outstanding.
Pros:
- One of the few platforms that gives you advanced automation workflows on a free plan.
- High Deliverability: Known for having very high “inbox rates,” ensuring your emails don’t hit spam.
- Very intuitive drag-and-drop editor for excellent landing pages and email templates.
Cons:
- You have to keep the “Sent via Sender” badge at the bottom of all free emails.
4. Jetpack Newsletter
Turn your WordPress website into a newsletter website with this plugin.
Pros:
- Truly Unlimited: No caps on subscribers or sends, ever.
- You write in the WordPress editor you already know, no new dashboard to learn.
- SEO Benefits: Every email is automatically a blog post on your domain, boosting your site’s authority.
Cons:
- Basic Features: Lacks advanced “marketing” tools like A/B testing or complex growth loops.
- WordPress Only: You can’t use this as a standalone tool; you must have a WordPress site.
5. Substack
Pros:
- Built-in Audience: The “Recommendations” engine and Substack Notes can drive thousands of signups without you doing any marketing.
- No design or tech setup required; you just signup, customize your site to a small degree, write and hit send.
Cons:
- They take a 10% cut of your revenue forever. This is much more expensive than a flat fee as you grow.
- To unlock a custom domain costs a one time fee of $50.
6. Brevo
Email a massive list for cheap. If you’re wanting to send out a monthly newsletter you’ll LOVR Brevo.
Pros:
- You can have a huge list for cheap.
- Multi-Channel marketing: Great if you want to eventually add SMS or WhatsApp marketing to your newsletter.
Cons:
- The free plan limits you to 300 emails per day, fine if you’re just gettin gstarted.
- It’s built for traditional businesses, so it lacks creator-specific features like “Boosts” or “Tip Jars.”
7. MailerLite
Nice combination of low prices, dedicated website, landing pages and the ability to sell products.
Pros:
- Get your own dedicated website for your newsletter.
- Strong Landing Pages: Includes a great website builder and a landing page builder.
- Sell one product or coaching offer on the free plan.
- Can set a custom domain for sending purposes.
- Very affordable compared to a Kit paid plan.
Cons:
- They are known for having a manual and strict account approval process. But this is good thing as it protects the deliverability for all Mailer Lite users.
- The 500-subscriber limit is low compared to other plans, but fair given what Mailer Lite provides.
- Can not set a custom domain for your website and landing pages on the free plan.
TLDR?
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.
Have a WordPress site and want a free option?
Then it’s Jetpack to the rescue.
You can have unlimited subscribers and unlimited email sends. When you write a blog post you can also choose to email your list, publish to your blog or do both.
You can also offer paid subscriptions too. Last, if you upgrade to a paid plan then the transaction fee drops from 10% to 3%.
The catch?
No automations, not even a simple onboarding sequence when someone subscribes. All emails have WordPress branding as well.
Prefer a “done for you” writers first platform?
The sign up to Substack.
You get your own website, good deliverability, the ability to offer paid subscriptions and community of writers.
The catch?
Substack branding and no way to remove that, setting a custom domain for your site costs a one time fee of $50, 10% transaction fee on your paid subscription revenue and no automations.
What about Mail Chimp?
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 a month with support for only the first 30 dayas.
This is more of a “free trial” plan and not really a proper free plan to grow your list.
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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