Quick verdict
Start with MailerLite if you want a small-business email list with room to try simple automation. Its free allowance is small, so treat it as a starting point rather than a long-term home for a growing list.
For a writer or creator sending a regular newsletter, Kit is the stronger free shortlist candidate. For a newsletter that will also be a publication, consider beehiiv. Brevo makes sense when daily sending limits fit your schedule. Mailchimp belongs on the shortlist when you have a specific reason to use it, such as an existing workflow—not simply because you recognise the name.
These are editorial recommendations based on current documentation, not a claim that we tested five inboxes side by side. The right choice changes when you need automated emails, more subscribers or a particular integration.
| Tool | List limit | Email sends |
|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | 250 | 2,500 / month |
| Kit | 10,000 | Unlimited broadcasts |
| beehiiv | 2,500 | Unlimited |
| Brevo | 100,000 stored | 300 / day |
| Mailchimp | 250 | 500 / month; 250 / day |
Choose around your first three emails
You probably do not need an elaborate marketing system yet. You need somewhere to collect sign-ups, write a useful email and send it without getting lost in settings.
Before comparing plans, write down three emails you actually intend to send. Perhaps a welcome message, a helpful weekly tip and an occasional offer. That short list tells you more about what you need than a page of feature badges.
A broadcast is a one-off email you send to a chosen audience. A sequence is a series of emails sent over time. An automation decides what happens after something occurs, such as a new sign-up. A free plan that supports newsletters may still require payment for your welcome sequence.
| Tool | Free automation |
|---|---|
| MailerLite | 3 automations; 5 steps |
| Kit | Sequences require a paid plan |
| beehiiv | Automations require a paid plan |
| Brevo | Up to 2,000 contacts; daily sending cap still applies |
Five tools worth shortlisting
MailerLite: our starting point for a small business
MailerLite earns the first look here because its current free plan combines email sending with a landing page, sign-up forms and limited automation. That is a useful mix for learning the whole process, from collecting a subscriber to following up.
The current allowance is 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails per month. The pricing table lists three automations with five steps. Once the list is bigger than 250, free sending is locked until you upgrade or bring it back within the limit. See MailerLite’s current plan comparison.
Choose it if: you are starting with a small list and want to try a basic automated journey. Look elsewhere if: keeping a much larger newsletter free matters more than automation.
Do not choose on the free allowance alone. Build the welcome flow you need, then check the paid tier for your expected subscriber count before committing.
Kit: for creators who mainly want to write and send
Kit’s free plan allows up to 10,000 subscribers and unlimited broadcasts, alongside forms, landing pages, tagging and segmentation. For a writer building a regular newsletter, that removes an early pressure to upgrade simply because the audience grows.
The catch is automation. Kit’s current help documentation places email sequences and visual automations on paid plans. A large free list does not mean a free multi-email welcome series. Its Free plan guide also says Creator Network recommendations can be turned off in settings.
Choose it if: you publish regular emails and can start with broadcasts. Budget for an upgrade if: a sequence delivering a course, onboarding readers or following up automatically is central to your plan.
For this use case, I would decide the welcome journey before comparing subscriber limits. An automation you need on day one matters more than capacity you may not use for a year.
Two newsletter alternatives, and when Mailchimp fits
beehiiv: when the newsletter is the publication
beehiiv’s Launch plan offers up to 2,500 subscribers and unlimited email sends, together with a newsletter website and custom-domain support. That combination makes it worth considering when readers will both receive your work by email and browse it online.
Email automations are not included in Launch; the current comparison lists them on Scale. Check the beehiiv pricing table against the features you need, rather than assuming every advertised growth tool is free.
Choose it if: you are building a newsletter-led publication. Pause if: you mainly need automated follow-ups for a service business. A publishing-focused setup may solve a different problem from yours.
If you already have a website, decide where the public newsletter archive should live. Two places to publish can mean two places to maintain.
Brevo: useful when the daily limit matches the job
Brevo’s free plan lets you store up to 100,000 contacts, but email sending is capped at 300 per day. Unused sends do not roll over. A campaign larger than the allowance needs to be requeued for the remaining recipients, as explained in Brevo’s free-plan limits.
That distinction is easy to miss. Storing a list of 1,000 people is not the same as emailing all 1,000 on Friday morning.
Brevo lists free marketing automation for up to 2,000 contacts. Its paid Starter tiers also have contact-storage limits: the 5,000-email tier allows 500 contacts, while the 10,000-email tier allows 1,500. Check both limits in the plan guide.
Choose it if: your small campaigns and automated messages fit the daily allowance. Plan to pay if: your newsletter must reach more than 300 people on the same day. Leave capacity for automated messages too.
Mailchimp: choose it for a reason, not familiarity
Mailchimp’s free plan currently includes 250 contacts, 500 sends per month and a daily limit of 250. It includes one audience, one seat, basic reporting and a limited template selection. These are the figures in Mailchimp’s current plan guide.
At the full 250-contact allowance, two emails to everyone use the entire 500-send monthly budget. Four newsletters would require 1,000 sends, before any additional messages.
Choose it if: someone who will help you already knows it, or you have confirmed that a particular integration suits your workflow. Compare alternatives if: your main goal is a weekly newsletter on a free plan.
The familiar option can save time when a team already uses it. Starting from scratch, however, is a good moment to check whether that familiarity is worth the limits.
What happens at 1,000 subscribers?
Audience
1,000
subscribers
Frequency
4
newsletters / month
Sending budget
4,000
emails, before welcome messages
Here is a more useful comparison than a headline starting price. Imagine 1,000 subscribers receiving four newsletters in a month: that is 4,000 individual email sends. A welcome sequence would add more.
Kit and beehiiv: that broadcast-only example fits their stated free subscriber and sending allowances. It does not make automated sequences free.
MailerLite and Mailchimp: 1,000 subscribers exceed their current 250-person free limits, so compare paid tiers.
Brevo: the free daily cap prevents sending the whole newsletter to 1,000 people in one day. If considering Starter, the 5,000-send tier is still too small for this list because of its 500-contact storage cap.
Before paying, get a quote for the same list size and sending schedule in each tool. Note the billing currency, monthly versus annual commitment, taxes, renewal price and any add-ons. A price advertised as “from” is not a quote for your list.
What to check before you sign up
Can you finish a real email without fighting the editor?
Use your own draft, not the sample newsletter. Add a heading, a short paragraph, one image and one link. Send a test to yourself and open it on your phone. If simple edits keep sending you back to help pages, that is useful information about fit.
Does the plan include the welcome email you mean?
A sign-up confirmation and a three-message welcome sequence are different things. Sketch the exact journey: sign up, receive message one, wait two days, receive message two. Verify that the plan supports each step after any trial ends.
Can you take your audience with you?
Before importing your whole list, check the export process. Ask which fields, tags and subscription-status records you can download. Keep your own records of how people joined. Changing tools should not mean losing track of who agreed to hear from you.
Does it connect to the form you already use?
If your website runs on WordPress, test the actual sign-up route. An embedded form may be enough; a separate plugin is not automatically necessary. If you use an Elementor form, confirm what your current plan and chosen email service support before paying for a connector.
You can read our Elementor Pro review for the wider website-building decision. An email service and a page builder solve different parts of the job.
Can you get help when sending stops?
Check the support channel included in the plan you will keep. A trial may expose features or help options that disappear later. Find the instructions for domain authentication, a failed import and a paused campaign before you need them.
A sensible first-week setup
1. Make one clear promise. Tell readers what they will receive and roughly how often. “A practical website tip every Tuesday” is easier to understand than “sign up for updates.”
2. Start with people who asked to hear from you. Do not buy a list or import everyone in your address book. A small, interested audience is a better place to learn than a large list that does not recognise your name.
3. Authenticate your sending domain. Follow the provider’s setup instructions and check the result. Google’s email sender guidelines cover authentication and unsubscribe requirements, including additional rules for bulk senders. Domain authentication is part of setup, not a guarantee of inbox placement.
4. Keep the first email simple. Remind people why they signed up, deliver something useful and give them one clear next action. Check links and the unsubscribe route before sending.
5. Learn from the response. Look at replies, clicks, unsubscribes and whether readers took the action you intended. Do not change platforms because one email performed poorly; first check the audience, subject and message.
Which one would we choose?
For a small business starting with a short list and a simple welcome flow, MailerLite is our first shortlist pick. If the main job is writing a newsletter and keeping it free as the list grows, start with Kit. Consider beehiiv when publishing the newsletter itself is the business.
Brevo is a practical alternative when its sending schedule fits. Mailchimp is a reasonable choice when a verified integration or an existing workflow gives you a concrete reason to use it.
Pick two, build the same small email in each and compare the paid plan you would actually need. You will learn more from that exercise than from another hour counting features.
How we researched this guide
We checked official pricing pages and help documentation on September 26, 2026. We compared subscriber limits, sending allowances, automation access and the implications for a beginner’s first newsletter. Plan terms can change; check the linked documentation again before subscribing.
We have not performed a comparative hands-on test, measured delivery rates or assessed support response times for these five services. The recommendations are editorial judgments about documented features and limits. There are no affiliate tracking links in this version of the guide.
The featured image is an AI-generated editorial illustration of newsletter preparation. It is not a screenshot of any recommended service.
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