Compare seven affordable email marketing platforms by free allowance, starting price, contact and send limits, branding, automation, and cost at scale.
The cheapest email marketing software depends on what the provider meters. A contact-priced service can be inexpensive for a small, frequently emailed list; a send-volume plan can cost less when you store many contacts but mail infrequently. The lowest advertised price is therefore not enough to choose a platform.
For a free start, Email Bump, Sender, EmailOctopus, Zoho Campaigns, Mailjet, and Brevo each have a permanent free tier with different tradeoffs. MailerLite has a much smaller free allowance than many older comparison posts report, but remains relevant for its creator-oriented site, form, and newsletter tools. This guide compares the meter, not just the sticker price.
Cheap email marketing software compared
PLATFORM FREE CONTACTS FREE EMAILS FIRST ADVERTISED PAID OPTION
Email Bump 5,000 5,000/month $19/month for 10,000 active contacts
Sender 2,500 15,000/month from $7/month; verify billing term
EmailOctopus 2,500 10,000/month $9/month, billed yearly
Zoho Campaigns 2,000 6,000/month use live contact/send calculator
Mailjet 1,000 6,000/month; 200/day $9/month for 8,000 emails
Brevo unlimited 300/day $9/month from 5,000 emails
MailerLite 250 2,500/month Comfort from $12/month
Free and entry plans differ in branding, seats, automation, support, contact
counting, daily caps, and included features. Entry prices are not normalized quotes.The table answers who can start cheaply, not who will be cheapest at 10,000 or 100,000 contacts. Email Bump and MailerLite primarily scale around active subscribers; Brevo and Mailjet emphasize email volume; other services combine contact and send allowances. A buyer who sends one newsletter each quarter and a buyer who sends twelve automations per subscriber each month should not receive the same recommendation.
How we compared affordable email marketing platforms
- Permanent free plan versus a time-limited trial: a trial can help evaluation, but it is not free software after the trial ends.
- Active-contact rule: unsubscribed, bounced, archived, duplicate, and suppressed records may count differently by provider.
- Monthly and daily send limits: a generous monthly allowance can still block a launch when it has a low daily cap.
- Billing commitment: a yearly price shown as a monthly equivalent is not the same as a cancel-any-month subscription.
- Feature gates: branding removal, automation, templates, segmentation, testing, seats, landing pages, and support can force an upgrade before volume does.
- Operational fit: consent, suppressions, domain authentication, exports, webhooks, and deliverability controls matter even at a low price.
EFFECTIVE MONTHLY COST =
base plan at peak active contacts and required send volume
+ contact or email overages
+ required seats and workspaces
+ branding-removal or feature add-ons
+ SMS, dedicated IP, verification, or transactional-email charges
+ annual commitment divided by 12
+ recurring labor caused by missing workflow or integrations
Also record the amount paid today. “$9/month billed yearly” means cash and
cancellation risk differ from a true $9 month-to-month plan.1. Email Bump: a 5,000-contact free starting point
Email Bump’s Free plan includes 5,000 active contacts and 5,000 combined campaign and transactional emails per month. The first paid tier is $19 month-to-month for up to 10,000 active contacts, or $190 when paid annually. Paid plans include the product’s features, remove Email Bump branding, and provide unlimited sending subject to the fair-use policy.
- Best fit: teams that want campaigns, event-driven automations, forms, transactional email, and customer data in one product.
- Cost advantage: only active subscribers count; unsubscribed and bounced contacts do not consume the paid contact allowance.
- Team advantage: paid pricing includes unlimited projects, domains, and users instead of charging separately for each workspace or seat.
- Watch first: the Free plan has 5,000 total monthly sends, so a 5,000-contact list can receive one full-list message per month before smaller automations or transactional traffic are considered.
2. Sender: best free send allowance in this shortlist
Sender’s Free Forever plan includes up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month with no daily sending limit. Its current page includes email newsletters, automation, transactional emails, forms, landing pages, one seat, and 24/7 email and live-chat support on Free. Free messages and forms contain Sender branding; paid Standard removes it and adds three role-based seats, testing, and other features.
Sender advertises paid plans starting at $7 per month, but its live calculator changes with audience size, currency, and billing term. Quote the number of subscribers you expect at the busiest point of the year. The published comparison says Standard allows monthly emails equal to twelve times the subscriber allowance, while Professional raises that ratio to twenty-four.
3. EmailOctopus: best for a simple low-cost newsletter
EmailOctopus Free supports 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month. Its Pro plan starts at $9 per month when billed yearly at the page’s default 500-subscriber, 10,000-email setting. That makes the service easy to shortlist for a conventional newsletter where subscriber count and monthly campaign volume are predictable.
- Best fit: newsletters and straightforward automations that do not need a broad customer-data or ecommerce suite.
- Useful free ratio: four monthly emails per subscriber when all 2,500 subscribers are active.
- Watch first: the attractive $9 headline is billed annually and shown at a small default list size; move the official sliders to your real subscriber and send volume.
- Migration check: recreate templates, segments, forms, automations, consent evidence, and suppressions in a test account before canceling the old service.
4. Zoho Campaigns: best for a small team already using Zoho
Zoho Campaigns’ Forever Free plan allows up to 2,000 contacts, 6,000 emails per month, and five users. Zoho says the 6,000 messages may be used in one day, so the monthly allowance does not conceal a separate daily cap. Paid plans use a calculator based on contact count or email volume, and Zoho also offers pay-as-you-go credits for occasional campaigns.
Zoho is most compelling when the rest of the team already works in Zoho CRM or related applications. Do not assume suite membership makes every integration or advanced feature free: compare the exact Campaigns edition, sync frequency, automation, segmentation, users, and support required by the workflow.
5. Mailjet: best for low-volume campaign and API sending
Mailjet Free includes 6,000 emails per month, a 200-email daily limit, and 1,000 contacts. Starter is $9 per month for 8,000 emails with no daily sending limit and 2,000 contacts. Essential is $17 per month for 15,000 emails. Mailjet meters sending volume closely, so it is easier to model when contact storage matters less than how many messages leave the account.
- Best fit: teams that want campaign tools and email API capability under one sending-volume model.
- Free-tier catch: 6,000 per month sounds generous, but the 200-per-day ceiling prevents sending one campaign to a 1,000-person list on a single day.
- Paid-tier catch: contact allowances still exist, so compare both the message package and stored-contact ceiling.
- Feature check: reporting, collaboration, automation, validation, and dedicated infrastructure vary by plan or add-on.
6. Brevo: best for many contacts and infrequent sending
Brevo’s Free plan permits unlimited contacts and up to 300 emails per day. Starter begins at $9 per month for 5,000 monthly emails, while Brevo shows a lower monthly equivalent for annual billing. Standard starts higher and adds capabilities intended for more developed marketing programs. Transactional email access is available across Brevo plans according to its official pricing FAQ.
Brevo’s volume-led model can suit a large database that receives occasional segmented messages. The free daily cap is the key constraint: 300 messages per day is roughly 9,000 in a 30-day month, but it cannot deliver a 5,000-person announcement at once. Model the maximum messages needed on the busiest day, not monthly average alone.
7. MailerLite: best when creator tools justify a smaller free tier
MailerLite’s current Free plan includes only 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails, plus two user seats, campaigns, automations, a website, a landing page, forms, and its three email editors. Comfort starts at $12 per month and adds templates, dynamic email, auto-resend, multivariate testing, preference tools, and other features. Power starts at $25 per month for more advanced and multi-user workflows.
Which platform is cheapest for your sending pattern?
YOUR PATTERN START THE QUOTE WITH
Up to 5,000 contacts, very low send volume Email Bump or Brevo
Up to 2,500 contacts, up to 15,000 sends Sender
Up to 2,500 contacts, simple newsletter EmailOctopus
Up to 2,000 contacts, team uses Zoho Zoho Campaigns
Up to 1,000 contacts, sends spread by day Mailjet Free
Large database, low monthly send frequency Brevo
Tiny list needing site/form creator tools MailerLite
Campaign + transactional + event automation Email Bump
This is a quote starting point, not a universal winner. Apply required features,
peak volume, commitment, tax, add-ons, and operational labor before deciding.Run four quotes instead of comparing starting prices
Create the same scenario in every vendor calculator. Use active subscribed contacts rather than the size of an unclean export, and include every campaign, automated step, resend, test variant, and transactional message that shares the allowance. Then repeat the quote at expected growth points.
SCENARIO A — STARTING
500 active contacts · 5,000 emails/month · 1 user
SCENARIO B — SMALL LIST, FREQUENT SENDS
2,500 active contacts · 20,000 emails/month · 2 users
SCENARIO C — GROWING BUSINESS
10,000 active contacts · 50,000 emails/month · 3 users
SCENARIO D — SCALE CHECK
25,000 active contacts · 100,000 emails/month · 5 users
For each: record monthly price, annual cash due, branding, automation limits,
contact rule, overage behavior, support, export, API/webhooks, and add-ons.Use the expected peak for contacts and the 95th-percentile month for volume. Average monthly sends understate seasonal launches. A provider that forces an annual jump for one holiday month may be more expensive than one with pay-as-you-go credits or a temporary upgrade.
The seven traps hidden inside a cheap plan
- Daily throttles: the month has enough credits, but the campaign cannot finish on the required day.
- Contact inflation: unsubscribed, bounced, duplicated, archived, or suppressed records push the account into the next tier.
- Annual-only headlines: the displayed monthly equivalent requires paying twelve months and accepting different cancellation risk.
- Branding gates: the free allowance is usable, but every message or form advertises the vendor until upgrade.
- Automation gates: the editor is included while branching, multiple triggers, event data, or active journeys require a higher plan.
- Seat and workspace fees: a low solo price becomes expensive when marketing, support, engineering, and clients need access.
- Separate products: transactional email, validation, SMS, dedicated IPs, advanced reporting, or priority support may be another bill.
Cheap software still needs deliverability controls
A higher subscription does not buy guaranteed inbox placement, and a low subscription does not automatically cause spam placement. Deliverability depends on expected mail, consent, list quality, complaint and bounce behavior, authenticated domains, sending consistency, content, recipient engagement, and the infrastructure and controls the provider supplies.
- Verify custom-domain SPF and DKIM support and publish DMARC with reporting.
- Confirm complaint, bounce, and unsubscribe suppressions are automatic and shared across relevant sends.
- Check whether marketing email supports a visible unsubscribe link and RFC 8058 one-click unsubscribe headers.
- Ask how the provider handles imports, abuse review, warming, rate limits, deferrals, retries, and compromised credentials.
- Export contacts, consent evidence, suppressions, templates, reports, and event history before a migration or cancellation.
Migration checklist
1. Export subscribed contacts, consent source/time, and purpose.
2. Export unsubscribes, complaints, hard bounces, and manual suppressions.
3. Clean duplicates and separate active from inactive contacts.
4. Rebuild segments, fields, templates, forms, and automation exit rules.
5. Authenticate a sending subdomain; verify SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
6. Test links, plain text, personalization, unsubscribe, and reply handling.
7. Send to the most recently engaged eligible cohort first.
8. Monitor deferrals, bounces, complaints, unsubscribes, and conversions.
9. Keep rollback access until forms, events, and suppressions are verified.
10. Cancel the old plan only after exports and cutover checks are complete.Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest email marketing software?
For a permanent free plan, the answer depends on list size and sends: Email Bump supports 5,000 contacts and 5,000 monthly emails; Sender supports 2,500 and 15,000; EmailOctopus supports 2,500 and 10,000; Zoho Campaigns supports 2,000 and 6,000; Mailjet supports 1,000 and 6,000 with a 200-per-day cap; and Brevo permits unlimited contacts but only 300 messages per day. Quote the paid tier at your expected peak before choosing.
What is the best free email marketing software?
There is no universal best free plan. Choose Email Bump for a 5,000-contact campaign-and-transactional allowance, Sender for the largest monthly send allowance in this shortlist, Brevo for unlimited contact storage with low daily sending, EmailOctopus for a simple newsletter, Zoho Campaigns for a small Zoho-centered team, or Mailjet when a low-volume campaign and API model fits. Test the editor, automation, branding, and support before migrating.
Is free email marketing really free?
A permanent free tier has no subscription while the account remains within its terms, but it still carries switching, setup, domain, content, compliance, and operating costs. Free plans can include vendor branding, low support priority, daily or monthly caps, and feature gates. A free trial is different: it ends or converts after a defined evaluation period.
Should I choose contact-based or send-based pricing?
Contact-based pricing is often easier for a small list that receives frequent automations and campaigns, especially when sending is unlimited. Send-based pricing can be cheaper for a large database mailed selectively or infrequently. Model both active contacts and the busiest month; confirm which suppressed or inactive records count.
Can I use Gmail as free email marketing software?
Gmail and Google Workspace are human mailbox services with sending and abuse limits, not substitutes for a permission-based campaign platform. They do not provide the full consent, suppression, unsubscribe, automation, segmentation, reporting, and bulk-sending workflow expected from email marketing software.
Does cheap email marketing software hurt deliverability?
Price alone does not determine inbox placement. Compare authentication, suppression, complaint, bounce, retry, abuse-prevention, rate-control, and reporting features, then operate a permission-based program recipients expect. No responsible provider can guarantee inbox placement.