Inexpensive Email Marketing for Creators (2026)

A quick, honest note: Some links on this site may be affiliate links. If you sign up through one, we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. I’ve stuck to what each platform’s own pages say and tried to keep this fair.

Most “best free email tool” lists stop at the free plan. That’s useful on day one, but it’s not the whole picture. The real question for a small budget is what happens next: when your list grows, when you want automations, or when you want your emails to stop carrying someone else’s logo.

So this guide looks at budget over time. First, what $0 gets you. Then what about $10 a month gets you, then about $25 a month, and what each platform’s first real growth step costs. If you only want the free plans side by side, my roundup of the best free email marketing tools for beginners covers that.

A word on where this comes from. I’ve used Kit (a long time ago) and beehiiv. I haven’t used systeme.io, MailerLite, Brevo or GetResponse, so everything about them is based on their official pages. All prices and limits below were checked on Nov 3, 2026, and they’re in USD unless I say otherwise.

The short answer

• Spending $0 for a while: Kit’s free plan has the biggest subscriber limit here (10,000), and beehiiv’s free plan (2,500 subscribers) comes with growth tools built in.
• Around $10 a month: Brevo Starter and MailerLite Comfort are the two paid plans that land near $10.
• Around $25 a month: systeme.io Startup, Brevo Standard and GetResponse Starter all start under $20 a month.
• Bigger first step: Kit Creator and beehiiv Lite cost more, so it’s worth knowing that before you settle in.

Comparison chart

Platform	Features worth knowing	Free plan limits	First paid tier price	Best for
Kit	Landing pages, forms, tagging, sell digital products	Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts	Creator: $390 USD billed yearly, for 1,000 subscribers	Staying free the longest
beehiiv	Recommendation network, landing pages, templates	Up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends, 1 seat	Lite: $49 USD/month, yearly billing	Growing a newsletter
systeme.io	Funnels, courses, blog, checkout	2,000 contacts, unlimited sends, 3 funnels, 1 course	Startup: $17 USD/month, 5,000 contacts	Selling a first product cheaply
MailerLite	Automations, website, landing page, forms	250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/month, 2 seats	Comfort: $12 USD/month billed monthly, or $10.80/month billed yearly, for 500 subscribers	A small list that wants automations
Brevo	Large contact storage, automations, SMS add-on	300 emails/day, 100,000 stored contacts	Starter: from $9 USD/month, 5,000 emails and up to 500 contacts	Big list, few sends
GetResponse	Webinars and courses on higher plans	Up to 500 contacts, 2,500 messages/month	Starter: $19 USD/month billed monthly, or $15.58/month billed yearly, for 1,000 contacts	Paying early for unlimited sends

Prices checked Nov 3, 2026, from each platform’s official pricing page or help center. Taxes may be added on top.

I left Mailchimp out. Its pricing page clearly says it’s free under 250 contacts, but its paid prices didn’t load in a form I could read and confirm.

What $0 a month gets you

Every platform here has a free option, but they’re free in different ways.

Kit is free for up to 10,000 subscribers. The free plan includes unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited email broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, and selling digital products and subscriptions. Sales on any plan carry a fee of 3.5% plus 30¢. Visual automations and email sequences are listed as Creator features, so Free is mostly for sending broadcasts.

beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers, with unlimited sends, email templates, landing pages, the recommendation network, and API access. Free has 1 team seat. This is the one I know best. When I set up beehiiv, I found it easy, and it does a good job helping you promote a newsletter.

systeme.io is free for 2,000 contacts with unlimited sends, 3 sales funnels, 1 blog and 1 course. Free includes only 1 automation rule and 1 email campaign, and accounts with no activity for 6 months are deactivated. Free users can’t remove the systeme.io affiliate badge from their email footer.

MailerLite is free for 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. It includes campaigns, automations, a website, a landing page and signup forms, with 2 user seats.

Brevo lets you store up to 100,000 contacts free, but you can only send 300 emails a day. Campaigns to more than 300 people have to be resent the next day with a Requeue option. Free emails always carry the “Sent with Brevo” sticker, automations accept up to 2,000 contacts, and landing pages aren’t included.

GetResponse has a free account for up to 500 contacts and 2,500 messages a month. Premium features are included for the first 14 days. After that, autoresponders and automations stop, and you can keep 1 published landing page.

If you’re starting with nothing, Kit and beehiiv give you the most room to grow your list before paying. systeme.io gives you the most selling tools for $0.

What about $10 a month gets you

Only two first paid tiers sit near $10.

Brevo Starter starts at $9 a month. That buys 5,000 emails a month for up to 500 contacts, with no daily sending limit. Removing the Brevo logo on Starter is a separate paid add-on. Brevo takes 10% off if you pay yearly.

MailerLite Comfort is $12 a month billed monthly, or $10.80 a month billed yearly, for 500 subscribers. Comfort includes 50 automations, 10 forms, 10 sites, 5 digital products, 3 user seats, and removing the MailerLite logo.

The trade-off is list size. Both of these $10 plans cover about 500 people. That’s fine early on, but you’ll move up a tier fairly soon if your list grows. If you already have more than 500 people but send rarely, Brevo’s free plan, with its 100,000-contact storage, may serve you better than either paid plan.

What about $25 a month gets you

This is where more options open up.

systeme.io Startup is $17 a month for 5,000 contacts, 10 sales funnels, 10 automation rules and 5 courses. Every plan has 0% systeme.io transaction fees. For the price, it’s the largest contact limit in this guide. If selling a product is part of your plan, my systeme.io review goes into more detail.

Brevo Standard starts at $18 a month. It adds marketing automation for unlimited contacts, A/B testing, 1 landing page, and no Brevo logo.

GetResponse Starter is $19 a month billed monthly, or $15.58 a month billed yearly, for 1,000 contacts. It includes unlimited monthly sends, a welcome email series, 1 custom automation workflow and the landing page builder.

MailerLite at this budget gets you Comfort for 1,000 subscribers at $19 a month billed monthly ($17.10 billed yearly), or its Power plan for 500 subscribers at $25 a month ($22.50 billed yearly).

When your budget needs to stretch further

Two of the most creator-focused tools start higher.

Kit Creator is $390 billed yearly for 1,000 subscribers, shown as $33 a month. It adds unlimited visual automations and email sequences. Kit offers a 14-day trial with no credit card, and a refund within the first 30 days on monthly or annual plans.

beehiiv Lite is $49 a month with yearly billing. It adds paid subscriptions with a 0% take rate, ad monetization, automations, polls and A/B testing. beehiiv says you keep what you earn, minus Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Removing beehiiv branding is a Pro feature, at $95 a month with yearly billing.

That’s why the free plans on these two matter so much for a small budget. You can stay on Kit Free up to 10,000 subscribers, or beehiiv Free up to 2,500, before you have to think about these prices.

Planning for growth: 1,000 and 2,500 subscribers

Here’s what a few platforms charge as your list grows, based on their published tiers.

• At 1,000: Kit and beehiiv are still free. systeme.io is still free up to 2,000. MailerLite Comfort is $19 a month, and GetResponse Starter is $19 a month, billed monthly.
• At 2,500: Kit is still free, and beehiiv’s free plan reaches its limit. systeme.io Startup is $17 a month for up to 5,000. MailerLite Comfort is $33 a month billed monthly, and GetResponse Starter is $29 a month billed monthly.

Some platforms move you up automatically. Kit says it upgrades you to the next subscriber tier when you go over your limit. Brevo auto-upgrades Starter and Standard to the next tier when you pass the contact limit. It’s worth knowing before a bill surprises you.

Small costs that add up

• Your own domain. systeme.io says you can’t authenticate Gmail, Yahoo or ProtonMail addresses for sending, only custom domains. Budget for a domain if you don’t have one.
• Branding. Removing a platform’s logo or badge is often a paid feature. Check this if it matters to you.
• Taxes. Brevo’s prices exclude taxes. MailerLite says prices may be subject to taxes, and GetResponse says its prices are net amounts.
• Selling fees. Kit charges 3.5% plus 30¢ on sales. systeme.io charges 0%. Payment processors still charge their own fees.
• Yearly billing. It saves money, but you pay up front. beehiiv says yearly billing saves up to 20%, and MailerLite’s yearly option saves 10%. systeme.io says its payments are non-refundable.
• Free plans that shrink. GetResponse’s free account loses autoresponders, automations and chat support once the first 14 days end. Read what happens after a trial before you build your welcome emails somewhere.

If you’re in Canada, Brevo publishes CAD prices: Starter is C$10 a month and Standard is C$22 a month. MailerLite shows prices in USD or EUR only.

How I’d choose on a small budget

Start with what you’ll do in the next six months, not the next three years.

If you’re writing a newsletter and want to grow it, I’d start on a free plan with room to grow. beehiiv is what I’d pick today, because of its recommendation network and referral program. If you’d rather have the biggest free list size, look at Kit. I compared the two in Kit vs beehiiv.

If you want to sell a small product soon, systeme.io’s free plan and $17 Startup plan stretch furthest. I haven’t started selling anything yet, so I’m going by its pages here.

If you mainly want automations on a small list, MailerLite’s free plan and Brevo’s $9 Starter are worth comparing.

If you’re brand new, my guide on how to start a newsletter walks through the first steps. Check each pricing page on the day you sign up, because plans change.