Easiest email marketing tools for a beginner
On the four criteria below, MailerLite is the benchmark for a simple start in this comparison: it is an email-first tool, and its free plan includes automations, forms, a landing page and a website. Each other tool adds something MailerLite lacks, and with it something more to learn: SendPulse adds SMS and chatbots, Kit a much larger free list, Brevo billing by emails sent, and Mailchimp a large integration directory.
The cards below are not a ranking. The comparison rests on each vendor’s own pricing and help pages: what the free plan includes, what support you get, and how the paid plan is billed.
MailerLite
Simplest start: email-first, automation on the free plan- At 500 subscribers
- $12/moComfort
- At 1,000 subscribers
- $19/moComfort
- At 2,500 subscribers
- $33/moComfort
- Emails on Comfort
- 10× contacts per month
- Free plan
- 250 contacts, 2,500 emails/month
MailerLite keeps the product narrow, which is why it suits a first list. The free plan already lets you build a welcome sequence, a signup form and a landing page. Dynamic segments and interest groups are unlimited on every plan, Free included. Active automations by plan: 3 with up to 5 steps on Free, 50 with up to 100 steps on Comfort, unlimited on Power, which also adds multiple automation triggers.
The trade-offs: free accounts get community support only, and Comfort caps sends at 10× contacts per month. The AI writing assistant and smart sending are included from Comfort up. At 2,500 and 5,000 subscribers it is the lowest price of the four tools here that charge by list size.
Strong points
- Email-only product with a free plan
- Low entry price at small list sizes
Limits
- Free plan is limited to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month
- No marketing SMS or messenger chatbots listed
- Comfort plan caps sends at 10× contacts; unlimited sending needs the Power plan
SendPulse
Adds SMS, chatbots and a larger free sending allowance- At 500 subscribers
- $12/moStandard
- At 1,000 subscribers
- $18/moStandard
- At 2,500 subscribers
- $38/moStandard
- Emails on Standard
- unlimited emails
- Free plan
- 500 contacts, 15,000 emails/month
SendPulse’s free plan sends the most emails of the capped free plans here, 500 contacts and 15,000 emails a month, and lists round-the-clock chat and email support, which matters when you are stuck on your first campaign. Automation flows are included on the free plan. Its paid Standard plan has no send cap and is the lowest price here at 1,000 and 10,000 subscribers.
It is not the simplest tool on this page. SMS, chatbots for WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and Messenger, a CRM and a course builder sit beside email, each with its own plan or allowance, so there is more to find your way around. Landing pages are a separate product, dynamic segments start on Pro, and at 2,500 and 5,000 subscribers MailerLite costs less.
Strong points
- Email, SMS and chatbots for WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and Messenger run from one account
- Standard plan includes unlimited emails at every list size
- Separate free tiers for SMTP, chatbots and the course builder
Limits
- Free plan stops at 500 subscribers and keeps SendPulse branding in emails
- Pay-as-you-go email credits expire after 12 months
- SMS is billed per message on top of the plan; none is bundled
- Chatbots beyond the free allowance are a separate paid plan
- A dedicated IP is listed only for the SMTP Pro and Enterprise plans
Mailchimp
Adds the largest published integration count here- At 500 subscribers
- $13/moEssentials
- At 1,000 subscribers
- $26.50/moEssentials
- At 2,500 subscribers
- $45/moEssentials
- Emails on Essentials
- 10× contacts per month
- Free plan
- 250 contacts, 500 emails/month
Mailchimp’s integration list is the main reason to pick it. Mailchimp’s pricing table lists 300+ integrations on every plan. The free plan is tight for learning. The Free plan has a daily cap of 250 sends, no email scheduling, a limited template selection, one seat and one audience, email support for the first 30 days, and the Mailchimp badge stays on emails.
On paid plans, going over the contact limit or the send limit does not interrupt sending; an additional charge appears on the monthly bill. Essentials costs more than MailerLite and SendPulse at every size from 1,000 to 10,000 subscribers.
Strong points
- Large directory of third-party integrations
- Pay-as-you-go email credits are available
Limits
- Free plan is capped at 250 contacts and 500 emails a month
- Essentials limits sends to 10× your contact count
Brevo
Adds billing by emails sent- Priced by
- Emails sentnot by list size
- 5,000 emails a month
- $18/moStandard
- 20,000 emails a month
- $69/moStandard
- Free plan
- 100,000 contacts, 300 emails/day
Brevo’s free plan stores the most contacts of the five, 100,000 contacts, but sends 300 emails a day, so a larger list goes out over several days. Automation is included on the free plan for a limited number of contacts.
The extra learning is the price rule. Brevo charges by emails sent, so you need to estimate how often you will mail before you can read the bill. A list of 500 mailed weekly fits the smallest tier of its Standard plan, $18 a month ($9 on Starter, which has tighter limits). Over Starter, Brevo’s Standard plan adds automation for unlimited contacts, A/B testing, send-time optimization, one landing page and removal of the Brevo logo.
Strong points
- Priced by emails sent, which suits lists that are mailed rarely
- Prepaid email credits never expire
- Transactional email and SMTP included on every plan
Limits
- The 100,000-contact storage belongs to the free plan; the smallest paid tiers store far fewer contacts
- Free plan sends only 300 emails a day
- The bill rises with every extra send, so it cannot be compared with per-subscriber plans without knowing how often you mail
- Telegram is not listed; WhatsApp sits on the Professional plan
Kit
Adds the largest free list with no email cap- At 1,000 subscribers
- $39/moCreator
- At 2,500 subscribers
- $59/moCreator
- At 10,000 subscribers
- $139/moCreator
- Emails on Creator
- unlimited emails
- Free plan
- 10,000 contacts, unlimited emails
Kit’s free plan covers 10,000 contacts and unlimited emails, with unlimited forms and landing pages: room to grow an audience for a long time before paying. It leaves out what makes email run on its own. Kit’s free plan leaves out the visual automation builder, automated email sequences, RSS campaigns, app integrations and removal of Kit branding; those start on Creator.
The first paid step is the highest entry price here, $39 a month on Creator at 1,000 subscribers.
Strong points
- Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers
- Built for creators selling digital products and subscriptions
Limits
- Highest entry price here: the smallest paid tier covers 1,000 subscribers
- No messenger chatbots or pay-as-you-go option listed
What makes a tool easy to start with
For a beginner, “easy” comes down to how little you have to learn before the first email goes out and the first automation runs. Four things in the vendors’ own plan tables show it: one product rather than several, automation and forms on the free plan, support you can reach while on that plan, and a price you can predict from your list size.
- One product or several. MailerLite is email-first and also lets you sell digital products. Kit lists SMS on its paid Creator plan. SendPulse, Brevo and Mailchimp add other channels too, and SendPulse puts SMS, chatbots, CRM and courses in the same account.
- Automation from day one. A welcome email that sends itself is the first automation most lists need. MailerLite, SendPulse and Brevo include automation on the free plan; Mailchimp and Kit do not.
- Help while you learn. On free plans, support ranges from round-the-clock chat to a community forum. The table in the next section shows what each vendor states.
- A bill you can forecast. Four of the five price by list size. Brevo prices by emails sent, which needs one more estimate before you can compare it.
This page has no verified data on the email editors or the number of templates each tool offers, apart from Mailchimp’s own note that its free plan has a limited template selection.
Free plans to learn on
All five tools have a free plan, so you can learn without paying. Kit’s has no cap on emails, SendPulse allows the most emails of the capped plans, and Brevo stores the most contacts but limits sends by the day. MailerLite’s allows more emails than Mailchimp’s on the same subscriber limit, and Mailchimp’s allows the fewest emails of the five.
| Tool | Subscriber limit | Emails | Vendor branding in emails | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kit | 10,000 | Unlimited | Yes | |
| SendPulse | 500 | 15,000 / month | Yes | 5 automation flows, 3 sender addresses |
| Brevo | 100,000 | 300 / day | Yes | unused daily sends do not roll over |
| MailerLite | 250 | 2,500 / month | Yes | |
| Mailchimp | 250 | 500 / month | Yes | also capped at 250 sends a day |
| Tool | Automation | Forms and landing pages | Support |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | 3 automations, 5 steps each | 3 forms, 1 landing page, 1 website | Community only |
| SendPulse | 5 flows | Subscription forms; landing pages are a separate product | 24/7 chat and email |
| Mailchimp | Not included | Forms and landing pages | Email for the first 30 days |
| Brevo | Included, for up to 2,000 contacts | Signup forms; no landing pages | |
| Kit | Not included | Unlimited forms and landing pages |
What to read in these tables as a beginner: the email column tells you how often you can practise on your list, and the automation column tells you whether you can build a welcome series before you pay. Every free plan here keeps the vendor’s branding in your emails.
MailerLite: Support by plan: community only on Free, 24/7 email on Comfort and 24/7 live chat and email on Power. Mailchimp: On the Free plan, going over the contact or send limit pauses sending until you upgrade or reduce the contact total.
What it costs once you outgrow free
At 1,000 subscribers SendPulse Standard is the lowest of the four tools priced by list size and MailerLite Comfort is second; at 2,500 and 5,000 MailerLite is the lowest. Mailchimp Essentials comes third at every size from 1,000 to 10,000, and Kit Creator has the highest entry price. Brevo charges by emails sent and is listed separately.
| Tool | Plan | Price at 500 subscribers | Price at 1,000 subscribers | Price at 2,500 subscribers | Price at 5,000 subscribers | Price at 10,000 subscribers | Emails included |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SendPulse | Standard | $12 | $18 | $38 | $52 | $78 | unlimited emails |
| MailerLiteSimplest start | Comfort | $12 | $19 | $33 | $49 | $89 | 10× contacts per month |
| Mailchimp | Essentials | $13 | $26.50 | $45 | $75 | $110 | 10× contacts per month |
| Kit | Creator | $39 1,000 tier | $39 | $59 | $89 | $139 | unlimited emails |
Brevo is priced by emails sent, so it has no single price at a list size and is not ranked above. We compare its Standard plan. Starter costs less at the same volume but stops at 100,000 emails a month, limits automation to 2,000 contacts and keeps the Brevo logo unless you pay to remove it. The tier is set by emails sent and by stored contacts: the three smallest tiers hold 500, 1,500 and 2,500 contacts, and every tier from 20,000 emails up holds 500,000. Standard stops at 500,000 emails a month. Your tier is the first one that covers both the emails you send in a month and the size of your list.
| Emails per month | Standard | Starter | Contacts included |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | $18 | $9 | 500 |
| 10,000 | $35 | $17 | 1,500 |
| 15,000 | $49 | $25 | 2,500 |
| 20,000 | $69 | $32 | 500,000 |
| 30,000 | $79 | $39 | 500,000 |
| 40,000 | $89 | $46 | 500,000 |
| 50,000 | $97 | $56 | 500,000 |
| 60,000 | $104 | $65 | 500,000 |
| 80,000 | $119 | $74 | 500,000 |
| 100,000 | $139 | $82 | 500,000 |
| 150,000 | $179 | — | 500,000 |
| 250,000 | $249 | — | 500,000 |
| 350,000 | $309 | — | 500,000 |
| 500,000 | $429 | — | 500,000 |
Notes on these prices (3)
- Kit. The smallest tier is 1,000 subscribers; the pricing page opens on yearly billing, which is lower.
- Mailchimp. These are regular prices. The 1,000 row uses the 501–1,500 tier, so a list of up to 1,500 pays that price.
- MailerLite. Unlimited emails need the Power plan: $39 at 1,000 subscribers and $129 at 10,000.
Two of the cheapest plans cap sends. MailerLite Comfort and Mailchimp Essentials both allow 10× contacts per month, about two emails a week to everyone on the list. SendPulse Standard and Kit Creator include unlimited emails. For a weekly newsletter the cap does not bite; for daily sends it does.
Mailchimp: The monthly send limit is 10 times the contact limit on Essentials, 12 times on Standard and 15 times on Premium.
Your first campaign, step by step
None of the vendors here publishes a setup time. These steps work the same on any of the five tools. The order matters more than the tool: a confirmed sender domain and a test send come before the real send.
- Sign up with an address on your own domain. A free mailbox address as the sender can cause problems with delivery and with account review.
- Add your contacts. Import people who agreed to hear from you; never bought or scraped lists.
- Put a signup form on your website so the list keeps growing after the first send.
- Write one short email from a template: a subject line, one message, one link.
- Send a test to yourself and read it on a phone.
- Send it, or schedule it. Scheduled sending is a paid feature on Mailchimp and SendPulse.
- Turn on a welcome automation on a plan that includes one, so new subscribers get an email without you.
Which one to choose
Start on MailerLite if you want one email product with automation on the free plan and a low price at small list sizes. Choose another tool for what it adds: SendPulse for SMS, chatbots and a larger free sending allowance, Kit for a big free list, Brevo for rare sends to a large list, Mailchimp for integrations.
- MailerLiteYou want an email-first tool, a welcome automation and a landing page on the free plan, and you mail no more than about twice a week.
- SendPulseYou want help by chat while you learn, more free emails on a small list, or SMS and messenger chatbots in the same account later.
- KitYou are building an audience first and want thousands of subscribers on a free plan, and can wait for automation until you pay.
- BrevoYou have many contacts and mail them rarely, and you are comfortable estimating your monthly sends before choosing a tier.
- MailchimpA tool you already use connects only to Mailchimp, and you accept a higher price and a small free plan.
Frequently asked questions
What is the easiest email marketing tool for a beginner?
Of the five tools here, MailerLite asks the least of a beginner. It is an email-first product, and its free plan (250 contacts and 2,500 emails a month) already includes automations, forms, a landing page and a website. When you outgrow it, Comfort is $19 a month at 1,000 subscribers. Pick another tool when you need what it adds: SendPulse for SMS and chatbots, Kit for a larger free list.
Can I start email marketing for free?
Yes. All five tools here have a free plan, and all of them keep their own branding in your emails. They differ in what runs out first: Kit covers 10,000 contacts and unlimited emails, SendPulse 500 contacts and 15,000 emails a month, MailerLite 250 contacts and 2,500 emails a month, Mailchimp 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, and Brevo stores many contacts but sends 300 emails a day.
Is Mailchimp good for beginners?
It is well known and connects to many other tools, but its free plan is the smallest here for sending: 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, with no automation, no scheduling and email support only for a short period after signup. Its cheapest paid plan, Essentials, costs $26.50 at 1,000 contacts, more than MailerLite ($19) or SendPulse ($18).
How long does it take to send a first campaign?
None of these vendors publishes a setup time, so this page gives none. The work itself is short: confirm a sender address on your own domain, import or collect a few contacts, put a signup form on your site, write one email from a template, send a test to yourself, then send or schedule it. On Mailchimp and SendPulse, scheduled sending needs a paid plan.
What should a beginner look for in an email tool?
Four things: a free plan large enough to learn on, automation included on that free plan so a welcome email runs by itself, a way to ask for help (support differs a lot between free plans here), and a price rule you can predict. List-size pricing is the easiest to forecast; Brevo charges by emails sent, so you first need to know how often you will mail.
Sources
Every price and limit on this page comes from the vendor’s own public pages. How we choose and check.
- MailerLite: mailerlite.com/pricing — checked September 29, 2026
- MailerLite: mailerlite.com/pricing-mailersend — checked September 29, 2026
- SendPulse: sendpulse.com/pricing?country=us — checked September 29, 2026
- SendPulse: sendpulse.com/pricing/sms?country=us — checked September 29, 2026
- SendPulse: sendpulse.com/pricing/messengers?country=us — checked September 29, 2026
- SendPulse: sendpulse.com/pricing/edu?country=us — checked September 29, 2026
- SendPulse: sendpulse.com/pricing/smtp?country=us — checked September 29, 2026
- SendPulse: sendpulse.com/features/ai — checked October 2, 2026
- SendPulse: sendpulse.com/pricing/crm?country=us — checked October 2, 2026
- Mailchimp: mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/?currency=USD — checked September 29, 2026
- Mailchimp: mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/compare-plans/?currency=USD — checked September 30, 2026
- Mailchimp: mailchimp.com/pricing/transactional-email/ — checked September 29, 2026
- Mailchimp: mailchimp.com/help/about-mailchimp-pricing-plans/ — checked September 30, 2026
- Mailchimp: mailchimp.com/help/about-additional-charges/ — checked September 30, 2026
- Mailchimp: mailchimp.com/help/about-the-pay-as-you-go-plan/ — checked September 30, 2026
- Brevo: brevo.com/pricing/ — checked September 29, 2026
- Brevo: help.brevo.com/hc/en-us/articles/208580669-FAQs-What-are-the-limits-of-the-Free-plan — checked September 30, 2026
- Brevo: brevo.com/pricing/pay-as-you-go/?selected=email — checked September 29, 2026
- Brevo: brevo.com/pricing/see-all-features/ — checked September 30, 2026
- Kit: kit.com/pricing — checked September 29, 2026
- Kit: help.kit.com/en/articles/16627071-the-kit-free-plan — checked September 30, 2026