Best Email Marketing Software: Mailchimp, Kit, Brevo, ActiveCampaign and More Compared
Mailchimp, Kit, Brevo and ActiveCampaign bill in different ways. The cheapest tool for a small list can become the most expensive as it grows.
By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-09T10:21:04+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-09T10:21:04+00:00
Best Email Marketing Software: Mailchimp, Kit, Brevo, ActiveCampaign and More Compared
The best email marketing software depends on how you are billed. Mailchimp charges by contacts stored. Brevo charges by emails sent. Kit charges by subscribers. ActiveCampaign charges by contacts and automation depth. The cheapest tool for a small list can become the most expensive as the list grows. This guide compares Mailchimp, Kit, Brevo and ActiveCampaign on free plans, entry prices and the limits that matter. Every price below is a published list price from the vendor's own pricing page.
Best email marketing software at a glance
Four tools cover most small business needs. The table shows the free plan, the entry paid price and how billing works.
| Tool | Free plan | Entry paid price | Billing basis | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | $0, up to 250 contacts, 500 sends a month | Essentials from $13 a month (500 contacts) | Contacts stored | Beginners who want an all-in-one tool |
| Kit | $0, up to 10,000 subscribers | Creator from $39 a month (1,000 subscribers) | Subscribers | Creators and newsletter writers |
| Brevo | $0, 300 emails a day, up to 100,000 contacts | Starter from $9 a month (5,000 emails) | Emails sent | Small businesses on a budget |
| ActiveCampaign | No free plan, 14-day trial | Starter from $15 a month (1,000 contacts, annual billing) | Contacts | Automation-heavy marketers |
Mailchimp: the best-known option, with a shrinking free plan
Mailchimp is the most recognised name in email marketing. Its free plan now covers up to 250 contacts and 500 email sends a month, with a 250-send daily limit. That is a small allowance. It suits testing the interface, not running a real list. The free plan includes one user and one audience. It has no scheduling, no automation and no A/B testing. Paid plans start with Essentials at $13 a month for 500 contacts. Standard starts at $20 a month for 500 contacts. Premium starts at $350 a month for 10,000 contacts. Send allowances scale with the contact tier. Essentials allows up to 10 times the contact count. Standard allows 12 times. Premium allows 15 times. Essentials and Standard include a 14-day free trial. Mailchimp charges for every contact stored, including unsubscribed contacts. That is the cost to watch. A list of 10,000 contacts costs $110 a month on Essentials and $135 a month on Standard. Mailchimp is a solid pick for a small business that wants an easy all-in-one tool. It is a poor pick for a large list that emails rarely. The per-contact billing punishes inactive subscribers.
Kit: the best email marketing software for creators
Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is built for creators who sell to an audience. Its free plan is the most generous in this list on list size. It covers up to 10,000 subscribers at $0. It includes unlimited forms, landing pages and broadcasts. It also includes tagging and segmentation. The catch is automation. The free plan includes only one basic automation and one sequence. Automations stop running while you stay on the free plan. Creator costs $39 a month billed monthly, or $33 a month billed yearly, for 1,000 subscribers. It adds unlimited visual automations and unlimited email sequences. Pro costs $79 a month billed monthly, or $66 a month billed yearly, for 1,000 subscribers. It adds engagement scoring, deliverability reporting and a referral program. Both paid plans include a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Kit charges a 3.5% plus 30 cent fee on product and paid newsletter sales. Prices rise with the list. Creator costs $139 a month at 10,000 subscribers. Kit is the pick for writers, coaches and newsletter sellers. It is the wrong pick for a business that needs team seats. The free plan allows one user. Creator allows two.
Brevo: the best value for most small businesses
Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, bills by email volume instead of contacts. That makes it the cheapest option for a large list that emails a few times a month. The free plan costs $0 forever. It allows 300 emails a day and storage for up to 100,000 contacts. It carries Brevo branding. Automation on the free plan is limited to 2,000 contacts per workflow. Starter starts at $9 a month for 5,000 emails a month. Standard starts at $18 a month for 5,000 emails a month. Professional starts at $499 a month. Starter removes the daily cap structure. Standard adds full marketing automation, A/B testing and logo removal. Sending 20,000 emails a month costs about $32 on Starter. The same volume would cost far more on a per-contact tool. Brevo also sells SMS and WhatsApp through prepaid message credits. Prices for those credits vary by country. The trade-off is the contact cap on paid tiers. The entry Starter tier stores up to 500 contacts. A growing list pushes you to a higher-volume tier. Brevo is the pick for a small business with a large list and modest sending volume. Check the contact cap before you buy.
ActiveCampaign: the automation leader, with no free plan
ActiveCampaign is the strongest tool here for automation. It has no free plan. A 14-day free trial is the only free option. Its four plans are priced by contact count on annual billing. At 1,000 contacts, Starter costs $15 a month. Plus costs $49 a month. Pro costs $79 a month. Enterprise costs $145 a month. Monthly billing costs roughly 20% more. Starter includes multi-step automation, AI-powered campaign builders and 250+ templates. It allows 10,000 email sends a month at 1,000 contacts. Plus adds landing pages, predictive sending and cross-channel marketing. Pro adds conditional content, advanced reporting and three user seats. Starter and Plus are single-user plans. Prices climb steeply with list size. At 10,000 contacts, Starter costs $149 a month and Plus costs $189 a month. The Pipelines CRM is an add-on, not part of the marketing plan. On Plus it costs $39 a month billed yearly. For accounts opened on or after 3 November 2025, every contact counts toward the limit, including unsubscribed and bounced contacts. ActiveCampaign is the pick for marketers who build complex automations and want CRM features in the same tool. It is the wrong pick for a simple newsletter. The entry price is low. The realistic price for a growing list is not.
How to pick the best email marketing software for you
Start with your list size and how often you email. A small list that emails weekly fits Mailchimp Essentials or Brevo Starter. A large list that emails rarely fits Brevo, because it bills by sends. A creator selling a newsletter fits Kit, because the free plan covers 10,000 subscribers. A marketer building multi-step automations fits ActiveCampaign, because automation is its core strength. Next, check the free plan limits. Mailchimp's free plan is now tiny. Kit's free plan is generous on size but blocks automation. Brevo's free plan caps daily sends. ActiveCampaign has no free plan at all. Then check what counts toward billing. Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign charge for stored contacts, including unsubscribed ones. Brevo charges for volume. Clean your list before you compare prices. A short checklist helps: count active contacts, count monthly sends, list the automations you need, and compare the price at your real list size, not the entry tier.
Bottom line
Brevo is the best value for most small businesses. Its free plan is genuinely useful and its paid plans stay cheap for large lists. Kit is the best pick for creators and newsletter writers, with the most generous free plan on list size. Mailchimp is the easiest all-in-one tool for beginners, but its free plan is small and its per-contact billing grows fast. ActiveCampaign is the best pick for automation-heavy marketing, with the strongest automation features and no free plan. Pick by how you are billed, not by the headline price.