There’s no single best email tool for a business of one to five people, so here’s our pick for each situation. A newsletter on your own: Kit’s free plan, which holds up to 10,000 contacts with no sending limit. A welcome email for free, under 500: AWeber’s free plan, with 1 workflow automation. Two to five people sharing the work: MailerLite’s Comfort, with 3 users, at $19 a month up to 1,000 subscribers. Paying, on a tight budget: the lowest paid bill at 1,000 contacts for a weekly email, Brevo (Starter) at $17 a month. A person to call: Constant Contact, with live phone and chat support on every plan.

On your own, sending a newsletter: start free with room to grow

Our pick is Kit’s free plan. It holds up to 10,000 contacts, Kit says there’s no sending limit on any plan, and it includes sign-up forms, landing pages, and a freebie delivered automatically to new sign-ups. A list of a few hundred or a few thousand can get a weekly newsletter for nothing, for a long time. Start Kit’s free plan.

What it gives up: automated email sequences (a welcome series, a follow-up) start on Creator, at $39 a month up to 1,000 subscribers, which is a big step from free. The free plan shows Kit’s branding and has 1 user. If you’ll want a welcome series soon, the next pick may suit you better.

A welcome email for free, on a list under 500

Our pick is AWeber’s free plan. It holds up to 500 contacts, sends 3,000 emails a month, which covers a weekly email to a full list, and includes 1 workflow automation: enough for a welcome email that goes out on its own. AWeber calls it lifetime access. Start AWeber’s free plan.

What it gives up: room. Past 500 contacts, AWeber asks you to upgrade, and Lite, at $25 a month up to 1,000 subscribers, still shows AWeber’s branding; removing it takes Plus (AWeber’s pages differ on this, so check the plan card before you pay). MailerLite’s free plan also includes a few automations and 2 users, but stops at 250 contacts.

Two to five people sharing the newsletter

Our pick is MailerLite’s Comfort. It gives 3 users, so each of you has your own login, removes MailerLite’s logo, includes 50 automations, and bills on active subscribers only, so people who left cost nothing. It’s $12 a month up to 500 subscribers, $19 a month up to 1,000, and $33 a month up to 2,500. Its free plan already has 2 users, so a pair with a tiny list can start there. Start with MailerLite.

What it gives up: a fourth or fifth login means Power, at $39 a month up to 1,000 subscribers. If three logins aren’t enough and you want one well-known tool, Mailchimp’s Standard has 5 users, at $45 a month up to 1,500 contacts. Plans with two or three logins are common in this guide; the cost table shows each at your size.

Paying, on a tight budget

Our pick is the lowest paid bill in this guide. At 1,000 contacts and one email a week, the lowest paid bill is Brevo (Starter) at $17 a month. For that you get no daily sending limit, automation for up to 2,000 contacts entering your workflows, and pricing by the emails you send. Start with Brevo.

What it gives up: Starter has 1 user and shows Brevo’s logo unless you buy the add-on, and Brevo’s own pages show two different prices for that add-on. A second login means Standard plus a paid seat. And because Brevo charges by emails sent, the answer can change if you send more often: per-contact or per-email pricing shows the bill at other rhythms.

A person to call

Our pick is Constant Contact. Live phone and chat support and one-to-one onboarding come with every plan, Lite included. Lite is $12 a month up to 500 contacts with 1 user, and Standard, which adds email scheduling and 3 users, is $35 a month. Start Constant Contact’s trial.

What it gives up: there’s no free plan, so you pay from the first month for something a free plan could do on a small list. If you don’t expect to pick up the phone, price the picks above at your size first.

A worked example

Say you run a four-person tutoring center with about 700 families on your list. You send a newsletter twice a month and a reminder before each term starts. Two of you write the emails, and the other two never touch them.

So you need two logins, and a little room. Kit’s free plan has 1 user, and AWeber’s free plan would hold your list only up to 500 contacts, so you’re paying. MailerLite Comfort for 700 subscribers is $19 a month, with a login for each of the two writers and the logo removed. On a tight budget, Brevo Starter would cost $17 a month at your size, but with one login; giving the second writer their own means Standard at $35 a month plus a paid seat.

Our pick for this office is MailerLite Comfort. Before you import, keep only the families who agreed to hear from you; a past enrollment alone isn’t a newsletter sign-up.

What we didn’t pick, and why

  • Mailchimp is complete and widely known, which helps if you’ll hand the newsletter to someone else. We didn’t pick it for any situation because its free plan allows 500 emails a month, too few for a weekly email to a full list, and its contact count includes people who unsubscribed until you archive them. If you already use it, when leaving Mailchimp pays tells you whether to stay.
  • Brevo’s free plan stores a large list but sends 300 emails a day, so one newsletter can’t reach a bigger list in a day. It’s a fit only for a list under that cap.

Our view

Pick by situation, not by brand. On your own with a small list, start on a free plan that fits your sending and pay nothing until a cap stops you. When two or more of you share the work, give each person a login and price the plan that includes them. When you’re paying anyway, decide what matters most: the lowest bill, no vendor logo, or a person to call. Each has a clear pick above. What this approach gives up is a single answer, but a single answer would be wrong for most of you.

Your next step

Write down three numbers this week: your list (people who agreed to hear from you), the emails you send in your busiest month, and the people who need their own login. Find your situation above and start its free plan or trial; trial lengths differ, so note the day yours ends. Before you import, run the checks in what switching email tools costs: export your list in every status, keep the record of who unsubscribed, and import only people who agreed to hear from you. Then send your next email from the new tool and use it for a few sends before you pay for anything more. When a free email marketing plan is enough compares every free plan if you’re not sure yours fits.