An email marketing tool sends one email to your whole list, keeps track of who signed up and who asked to stop, and can send a welcome email on its own. For an owner-operated business there are three honest answers to whether you need one. Not yet, while your emails are quotes, invoices, and individual replies, rather than newsletters or promotions sent to a subscriber list. A free plan, once you’re promoting something to a list: five of the six tools in this guide have one, and for one email a week, four fit a list of 250, two still fit 500, and Kit’s still fits well past 1,000. A paid plan, once your list or your sending outgrows them, or you want something they lack, such as your own branding instead of theirs: if you pay, a list of 1,000 sent one email a week costs $17 to $39 a month, depending on the tool.
Here is every email tool in this guide at a glance. The links in the first column go to each tool’s own page.
| Tool | Free plan | Lowest paid plan, billed monthly | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | Yes | From $13 a month (Essentials) | 14 days, card required: yes |
| MailerLite | Yes | From $12 a month (Comfort) | 14 days, card required: no |
| Brevo | Yes | From $9 a month (Starter) | No trial listed |
| Kit | Yes | From $39 a month (Creator) | 14 days, card required: no |
| Constant Contact | No free plan | From $12 a month (Lite) | 30 days, card required: no |
| AWeber | Yes | From $15 a month (Lite) | 14 days, card required: yes |
The lowest paid figure is where each tool’s prices start, on its smallest tier, not what your list will cost. Brevo’s tiers count the emails you send each month; the other five count the contacts on your list.
Do you need an email marketing tool yet?
Not while your email is ordinary business email: quotes, invoices, replies, one conversation at a time. The line is what the email is for, not how many people get it: once it promotes something to a list, it belongs in a tool. Can you send a customer newsletter from Gmail or Outlook? draws that line, shows what your inbox allows, and sets up a small list properly if you’re staying put for now.
Not sure whether you need this software yet? Our Do I Need This Yet? check asks a few practical questions and helps you evaluate your next step.
When is a free plan enough?
For many small businesses, for a long time: a free plan lasts while your list, your sending, and the features you need all fit, and what ends it is a cap, not a date. When a free email marketing plan is enough shows which of the three ends each free plan first, so you can pick the one you’ll outgrow last.
What will it cost?
Your list size sets the bill on five of the six tools, and the tool you pick matters more as the list grows: if you pay, a list of 5,000 sent one email a week costs $39 to $89 a month. What email marketing costs at 500, 1,000, 2,500, and 5,000 contacts gives the budget at each size and what automation and yearly billing change.
Which email tool fits your business?
There’s no single best one, so we pick by situation: a newsletter on your own, a free welcome email, a team sharing the work, a tight budget, or a person to call. Which email tool fits a 1 to 5 person business? makes the pick for each and says what it gives up.
Already on a tool and thinking of leaving?
Leaving pays when a plan elsewhere does what you use for clearly less at your size, and it pays less than it looks if you’d rebuild your sign-up forms, templates, and automated emails. When does leaving Mailchimp pay? works it through for Mailchimp, including what to try before you move, and what switching email tools costs counts the forms, automations, overlap months, and your own hours on any switch.