Five of the six tools in this guide charge by the size of your list, so the bill stays the same whether you send once a month or every week, as long as you stay inside the plan’s sending allowance. Brevo charges by the emails you send, with a cap on the contacts each smaller tier can store. Which costs less depends on your list and your rhythm. For one email a week, priced so a month with five sends fits, the lowest paid bill at 2,500 contacts is Brevo (Starter) at $25 a month. Send twice a week and the lowest paid bill at 2,500 becomes MailerLite (Comfort) at $33 a month.
How each tool meters your bill
Per contact. The price is set by how many people you keep, in tiers or bands. Sending more costs nothing extra until you reach the plan’s monthly allowance, and each tool handles that point differently:
- Mailchimp counts every contact it stores, unsubscribed ones included, unless you archive them. Essentials allows 10 times the contact limit each month. Going over the contact limit on a paid plan doesn’t stop you; it adds a charge to your bill.
- MailerLite counts active subscribers only. Comfort allows 10 times the subscriber tier (5,000 at 500 subscribers, 100,000 at 10,000), based on the top of your tier; at the limit you upgrade to Power or wait for the month to reset.
- Kit counts unique, active subscribers and says there are no sending limits on any plan.
- Constant Contact ties each plan’s monthly sends to your contact tier. Lite’s is 10 times the contact tier; overage $0.002 per email. Going over doesn’t stop your emails; it adds the per-send fee.
- AWeber prices by subscriber tier and sends. Lite includes 10 times the subscriber tier, and sending past it moves you up a tier automatically.
Per email sent. Brevo prices Starter and Standard by the emails you send each month, and each smaller tier also caps the contacts you can store: 500 at 5,000 emails; 1,500 at 10,000; 2,500 at 15,000; up to 500,000 from 20,000. Its billing period is 30 days, and emails you don’t use that month expire.
The practical difference: on a per-contact tool, a second email in a week is free until you hit the allowance, and a bigger list costs more however rarely you send. On a per-email tool, every send counts, and a big list you email rarely can cost less.
Four sends or five?
A weekly email goes out four times in most billing months and five times in some. On a per-contact tool that makes no difference. On a per-email tool it can, because a 30-day billing period holds five of some weekdays, and the emails you didn’t use in a four-send month don’t carry over to the next.
So this guide prices a weekly email on five sends, the same rule we use for daily caps: a plan fits only if it can run your newsletter every month. On Brevo it changes the price only where your sending, not the contact cap, sets the tier. For 5,000 contacts, a four-send month is 20,000 emails, which fits the tier at $32 a month; a five-send month is 25,000, which needs the tier at $39 a month.
There are two ways around paying for the bigger tier every month. You can buy the four-send tier and add emails in the months that need them: Brevo charges the addition at once, pro rata to your next billing date, and a removal takes effect from the next billing date. Or you can keep the smaller tier and buy a pack of prepaid email credits: they’re a one-time purchase, they never expire, and Brevo uses your plan’s emails first and the credits only when you run short. Either takes a little attention each month; the bigger tier takes none.
What each sending rhythm costs
Each table shows every tool at four list sizes on the cheapest plan that fits, free plans included. Each figure is the whole monthly bill. Only the sending assumption changes between them.
Twice a month
| Tool | Total for 500 contacts | Total for 1,000 contacts | Total for 2,500 contacts | Total for 5,000 contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | $13 a month Essentials | $26.50 a month Essentials | $45 a month Essentials | $75 a month Essentials |
| MailerLite | $12 a month Comfort | $19 a month Comfort | $33 a month Comfort | $49 a month Comfort |
| Brevo | $9 a month Starter | $17 a month Starter | $25 a month Starter | $32 a month Starter |
| Kit | Free Free plan | Free Free plan | Free Free plan | Free Free plan |
| Constant Contact | $12 a month Lite | $30 a month Lite | $50 a month Lite | $80 a month Lite |
| AWeber | Free Free plan | $25 a month Lite | $35 a month Lite | $60 a month Lite |
Brevo’s free plan holds lists of 500, 1,000, 2,500, and 5,000 contacts but sends at most 300 emails a day, so one email can’t reach the whole list on the same day. Those cells show the cheapest plan that can.
On the smaller lists here, Brevo’s contact caps set the tier, so sending less doesn’t lower its price: 2,500 contacts need the tier that stores them, whatever you send. On bigger lists your sending sets it again, so compare the 5,000 column with the weekly table below. The lowest paid bill at 1,000 contacts is Brevo (Starter) at $17 a month.
Once a week (five sends a month)
| Tool | Total for 500 contacts | Total for 1,000 contacts | Total for 2,500 contacts | Total for 5,000 contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | $13 a month Essentials | $26.50 a month Essentials | $45 a month Essentials | $75 a month Essentials |
| MailerLite | $12 a month Comfort | $19 a month Comfort | $33 a month Comfort | $49 a month Comfort |
| Brevo | $9 a month Starter | $17 a month Starter | $25 a month Starter | $39 a month Starter |
| Kit | Free Free plan | Free Free plan | Free Free plan | Free Free plan |
| Constant Contact | $12 a month Lite | $30 a month Lite | $50 a month Lite | $80 a month Lite |
| AWeber | Free Free plan | $25 a month Lite | $35 a month Lite | $60 a month Lite |
Brevo’s free plan holds lists of 500, 1,000, 2,500, and 5,000 contacts but sends at most 300 emails a day, so one email can’t reach the whole list on the same day. Those cells show the cheapest plan that can.
This is the assumption every other email page in this guide uses. The lowest paid bill is Brevo (Starter) at $17 a month at 1,000 contacts and Brevo (Starter) at $39 a month at 5,000.
Twice a week (ten sends a month)
| Tool | Total for 500 contacts | Total for 1,000 contacts | Total for 2,500 contacts | Total for 5,000 contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | $13 a month Essentials | $26.50 a month Essentials | $45 a month Essentials | $75 a month Essentials |
| MailerLite | $12 a month Comfort | $19 a month Comfort | $33 a month Comfort | $49 a month Comfort |
| Brevo | $9 a month Starter | $17 a month Starter | $39 a month Starter | $56 a month Starter |
| Kit | Free Free plan | Free Free plan | Free Free plan | Free Free plan |
| Constant Contact | $12 a month Lite | $30 a month Lite | $50 a month Lite | $80 a month Lite |
| AWeber | $15 a month Lite | $25 a month Lite | $35 a month Lite | $60 a month Lite |
Brevo’s free plan holds lists of 500, 1,000, 2,500, and 5,000 contacts but sends at most 300 emails a day, so one email can’t reach the whole list on the same day. Those cells show the cheapest plan that can.
At this rhythm the lowest paid bill at 2,500 contacts is MailerLite (Comfort) at $33 a month, and at 5,000 it’s MailerLite (Comfort) at $49 a month. Free plans with a monthly send cap drop out sooner, too: AWeber’s covers 3,000 emails a month, which a list of 500 uses up well before the month ends at this rhythm.
These tables stop at ten sends a month on purpose. Past that, some per-contact plans reach their monthly allowance, and each tool’s answer differs (an overage fee, an automatic tier change, or a wait). If you send more than twice a week, check the allowance on the tool’s own page first.
A worked example
Say you run a bike shop with about 2,400 people on your list. In the quiet months you send one email a week; in the spring rush you send two, with new stock and service slots.
On Brevo, a weekly email to 2,400 people is up to 12,000 emails in a month, which fits Starter’s 15,000-email tier at $25 a month. Two a week is up to 24,000, which needs the 30,000-email tier at $39 a month. On MailerLite, Comfort for 2,400 subscribers is $33 a month in every month, because its allowance for your tier covers two emails a week.
So Brevo’s bill changes with the season and MailerLite’s stays the same all year. Which comes out lower over a year depends on how many months you send twice a week: multiply each figure by your own months and compare. If you choose Brevo, add emails before the rush starts and remove them when it ends, or buy a credit pack for the spring, rather than paying for the bigger tier all year.
Our view
Pick the meter that matches how you send. If you email a list of a few thousand once a week or less, per-email pricing is worth pricing first. If you send several times a week, or want one figure to budget every month, per-contact pricing is simpler to budget, and the tables above show what it costs at that rhythm. On a list of a thousand or so, the difference is small and the contact caps decide Brevo’s price anyway, so choose on features. What any choice gives up is the other meter’s best case, so check your busiest month, not your average one.
Your next step
Write down two numbers: your list (people who agreed to hear from you) and the emails you send in your busiest month, counting a weekly newsletter as five. Find the table closest to your rhythm and read your column. Then open the tool page for the lowest bill that has the features you need: Brevo, MailerLite, Mailchimp, Kit, Constant Contact, or AWeber. What email marketing costs at 500, 1,000, 2,500, and 5,000 contacts covers which free plans fit at each size.