Cheapest Email Marketing Software in 2026
Ranked by the lowest genuinely usable paid plan, with the free-tier caps and billing basis stated for each pick.
Mailjet, Brevo, and Buttondown all open their paid tiers at $9 a month, though each caps a different resource: emails sent for Mailjet and Brevo, subscribers for Buttondown. AWeber undercuts $13 with a $12.49 a month annual rate, and Mailchimp enters at $13 a month for just 500 contacts. ActiveCampaign, Flodesk, Klaviyo, Kit, and Drip round out the list, climbing from $15 to $39 a month as feature depth and send volume increase.
"Cheapest" email marketing software is not a single number. One vendor prices by contacts, another by emails sent per month, and a third by neither, charging a flat rate for unlimited sends up to a subscriber cap. A $9 plan that caps at 5,000 emails a month is a different product than a $9 plan that caps at 1,000 subscribers with unlimited sends, and comparing the two on price alone hides that difference. Of the 10,000+ tools Toolradar tracks, 36 in the Email Marketing category have verified pricing, meaning we pulled the current entry price directly from the vendor's own pricing page rather than a cached number that goes stale within months.
This guide ranks 10 email marketing tools by their cheapest genuinely usable paid plan, stating the exact billing basis, whether that is emails sent, contacts, or subscribers, for each one. We verified every entry price against the vendor's live pricing page as of August 2026, checked what the free plan covers where one exists, and dropped pool candidates that turned out to be CRM, sales-outreach, or payments tools mislabeled as email marketing, along with any tool priced only through a custom sales quote.
Top Picks
Based on features, user feedback, and value for money.
| Tool | Starting price | Rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailjet | From $17/mo | 4.1(621) | Small businesses sending a moderate campaign volume who want no daily limit on when the... |
| Brevo | From $9/mo | 4.6(5,959) | Teams that want the lowest email-volume price and don't mind Brevo branding at the entr... |
| Buttondown | From $9/mo | 4.7(115) | Independent newsletter writers who send often and want a subscriber cap instead of a se... |
| AWeber | From $15/mo | 4.1(968) | Small lists that want a genuinely permanent free tier before committing to a paid plan |
| Mailchimp | Free plan | 3.9(31,952) | Small businesses that want Mailchimp's brand recognition and template library at the lo... |
| ActiveCampaign | From $49/mo | 4.5(17,353) | Small teams that want real automation workflows without waiting for a mid-tier upgrade |
| Flodesk | From $25/mo | 4.6(325) | Creators who want design-forward templates and a flat unlimited-send rate rather than a... |
| Klaviyo | From $20/mo | 4.6(1,898) | E-commerce stores that want deep Shopify and product-catalog integration baked into the... |
| Kit | From $33/mo | 4.5(4,453) | Creators who want to stay on a real free plan far longer before their first paid bill |
| Drip | Custom | 4.4(473) | E-commerce brands that want full automation and onsite pop-ups included without feature... |
Small businesses sending a moderate campaign volume who want no daily limit on when they can send
Mailjet's Free tier is quite generous with 6,000 emails per month, making it a good starting point.
Watch out
Higher email volumes increase price significantly
Teams that want the lowest email-volume price and don't mind Brevo branding at the entry tier
Brevo's pricing is quite competitive, especially at the entry level.
Watch out
Email volume increases cost significantly
Independent newsletter writers who send often and want a subscriber cap instead of a send-volume cap
Buttondown's pricing is quite generous, especially for smaller newsletters.
Watch out
Add-ons can significantly increase monthly cost
Small lists that want a genuinely permanent free tier before committing to a paid plan
Aweber's pricing is on the expensive side, especially the 'Lite' tier at $15/month for only 500 subscribers and limited features, considering competitors offer more for less or even free.
Watch out
Subscriber count increases price significantly.
Small businesses that want Mailchimp's brand recognition and template library at the lowest available tier
Mailchimp was once the default email marketing tool for small businesses, and its free tier was legendary.
Watch out
ALL contacts count: subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed, and 'cleaned' contacts all count toward your plan limit. You pay for contacts who unsubscribed last year unless you manually archive them. This inflates costs by 20-40% for most lists
Small teams that want real automation workflows without waiting for a mid-tier upgrade
Creators who want design-forward templates and a flat unlimited-send rate rather than a per-email charge
Flodesk's pricing is fair for creators, especially with the 'Lite' tier at $25/month for up to 25K subscribers, which is quite generous compared to many competitors.
Watch out
Subscriber count increases price significantly
E-commerce stores that want deep Shopify and product-catalog integration baked into the entry tier
Klaviyo offers a genuinely useful free tier (250 contacts, 500 emails/mo) but costs escalate rapidly with list growth, from $30/mo at 1,000 contacts to $150/mo at 10,000 and $1,380/mo at 100,000.
Watch out
Since Feb 2025, you pay for ALL active profiles, not just contacts you email. Imported but unengaged contacts still count toward billing
Creators who want to stay on a real free plan far longer before their first paid bill
ConvertKit's pricing is fair for creators, with a generous free tier up to 10,000 subscribers.
Watch out
Price scales significantly with subscribers
E-commerce brands that want full automation and onsite pop-ups included without feature-gating by tier
Drip's pricing is on the higher side for smaller contact lists, with the 2,500 People tier at $39/month offering standard features.
Watch out
Pricing scales significantly with contacts
Other Email Marketing worth considering
Beyond the editorial top picks, these are also strong choices we evaluated.
What 'Cheapest Email Marketing Software' Actually Means
Email marketing tools bill on three different axes, and confusing them is the fastest way to pick the wrong "cheap" plan. Mailjet and Brevo charge by emails sent per month regardless of list size, so a small list that emails daily can hit the cap faster than a large list that emails monthly. Buttondown, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and Kit charge by subscriber or contact count with a send allowance attached, so list growth drives the bill even if send frequency stays flat. Flodesk and Drip charge a flat rate per subscriber tier with unlimited sends included, which rewards frequent senders and penalizes anyone who never uses the full allowance.
This guide states both the price and the billing unit for every pick, so a $9 plan capped at 5,000 emails is never confused with a $9 plan capped at 1,000 subscribers. Read the cap that matches how you actually send, not just the headline dollar figure.
Why the Billing Unit Matters More Than the Sticker Price
Two tools can both advertise "$9 a month" and land in completely different budgets six months later. Mailjet's Starter plan is $9 for 8,000 emails a month with no daily cap, workable for a small business sending two or three campaigns a week. Buttondown's $9 Basic plan is capped at 1,000 subscribers with no send-volume limit at all, since Buttondown charges for list size, not volume. A newsletter with 900 subscribers that sends daily will outgrow Mailjet's send cap long before it outgrows Buttondown's subscriber cap, and the reverse is true for a low-frequency sender with a large list.
The other trap is the permanent-free-plan claim. AWeber's free plan is genuinely free forever up to 500 subscribers with the full feature set, one of the most generous in the category. Drip and ActiveCampaign, by contrast, offer only a time-limited trial with no permanent free tier, so "starting free" on those platforms means a countdown clock, not a lasting option.
Key Features to Look For
Mailjet and Brevo cap by emails sent per month; Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Kit, and Buttondown cap by contact or subscriber count; Flodesk and Drip charge a flat rate per subscriber tier with unlimited sends.
The number that matters is the actual price on the vendor's current pricing page for the smallest paid tier, not a promotional rate that expires after a few months.
AWeber, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Buttondown, and Kit all offer a lasting free tier with real caps; ActiveCampaign, Drip, and Flodesk's email-sending tier do not, offering only a time-limited trial instead.
AWeber, ActiveCampaign, Flodesk, and Kit all show a meaningfully lower monthly-equivalent price when billed annually, sometimes a 20 to 30 percent gap versus the monthly rate.
Brevo and Kit both keep vendor branding on outgoing emails at the entry tier and charge extra, or require a higher tier, to remove it.
Contact-based pricing (Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Kit) scales the bill automatically as the list grows, while flat send-based pricing (Mailjet, Brevo) can stay flat for years if send volume does not increase.
Mistakes to Avoid
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Comparing a send-based price to a contact-based price as if they measure the same thing. Mailjet's $9 plan caps emails sent; Buttondown's $9 plan caps subscribers with unlimited sends, and picking the wrong axis for your sending pattern causes an unexpected upgrade.
- ×
Assuming every 'free' plan is permanent. ActiveCampaign and Drip offer only a 14-day trial with no lasting free tier, while AWeber, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Buttondown, and Kit all have a genuinely free plan that never expires.
- ×
Ignoring branding removal costs. Brevo charges an extra $9 a month to remove its logo from the Starter tier, and Kit's free and entry plans both keep Kit branding on every email sent.
- ×
Locking into monthly billing without checking the annual rate. AWeber, ActiveCampaign, Flodesk, and Kit all show a 20 to 30 percent lower monthly-equivalent price when billed annually.
- ×
Picking a flat unlimited-send plan for a low-frequency sender. Flodesk and Drip charge a flat rate per subscriber tier regardless of send volume, which is a poor deal if you only send once a month.
Expert Tips
- →
Match the billing unit to your actual sending pattern before comparing price: a high-frequency, small-list sender wants a send-based plan (Mailjet, Brevo), while a low-frequency, larger-list sender wants a flat unlimited-send plan (Flodesk, Drip).
- →
Check whether the free tier you're eyeing still includes automation. Mailchimp removed automation from its free plan entirely in 2025, a change many buyers miss until they hit the wall.
- →
If branding removal matters for your business, verify it is included at the entry price. Brevo and Kit both require either an add-on fee or a plan upgrade to drop vendor branding.
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Toggle every pricing page to annual billing before comparing across vendors; the headline number defaults to monthly on most sites to look lower at first glance.
- →
For a solo creator with a growing list, Kit's 10,000-subscriber free plan and AWeber's 500-subscriber permanent free plan solve very different problems: Kit for list size, AWeber for feature completeness at zero cost.
The Bottom Line
The cheapest usable email marketing tool in 2026 depends on how you send, not just what the price tag says. Mailjet, Brevo, and Buttondown all start at $9 a month, but Mailjet and Brevo cap emails sent while Buttondown caps subscriber count with unlimited sends. AWeber undercuts $13 with its annual rate and pairs it with a genuinely permanent 500-subscriber free plan, and Mailchimp enters at $13 for a recognizable brand and a large template library. Of the 10,000+ tools Toolradar tracks, 36 in the Email Marketing category have verified pricing, and every price above was checked against the vendor's live pricing page in August 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest email marketing software in 2026?
Mailjet, Brevo, and Buttondown all tie at $9 a month for their entry paid plan. Mailjet's $9 Starter plan caps at 8,000 emails a month with no daily limit, Brevo's $9 Starter plan caps at 5,000 emails a month but keeps Brevo branding unless you pay extra to remove it, and Buttondown's $9 Basic plan caps at 1,000 subscribers with unlimited sends.
Which email marketing tools have a genuinely permanent free plan?
AWeber, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Buttondown, and Kit all offer a free plan that never expires. AWeber's is the most generous at 500 subscribers and 3,000 monthly sends with the full feature set, while Kit's free plan scales to 10,000 subscribers but limits you to one automation. ActiveCampaign and Drip, by contrast, offer only a 14-day trial with no lasting free tier.
Is it cheaper to pay for email marketing software monthly or annually?
Annual billing is consistently cheaper. AWeber's Lite plan is $12.49 a month billed annually versus $15 a month billed monthly, and Kit's Creator plan is $33 a month annually versus $39 a month monthly, both roughly a 15 to 17 percent discount for committing to a year upfront.
Should I pick a tool that bills by emails sent or by subscriber count?
It depends on your sending frequency relative to your list size. Mailjet and Brevo bill by emails sent, which favors a smaller list that emails often. Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and Kit bill by contact or subscriber count with a send allowance attached, which favors a larger list that emails less frequently. Flodesk and Drip charge a flat rate per subscriber tier with unlimited sends, which rewards frequent senders regardless of list size.
Which cheap email marketing plans still show vendor branding on sent emails?
Brevo's Starter plan keeps the Brevo logo on outgoing emails unless you pay an extra $9 a month to remove it. Kit keeps its branding on both the free plan and the entry Creator plan; removing it requires a higher tier. Mailjet, Buttondown, AWeber, ActiveCampaign, Flodesk, Klaviyo, and Drip do not add vendor branding to paid-tier emails.
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