18 Best Free Email Marketing Services in 2026 [Free Plans & Free Trials]

• Platforms with free trials, like Constant Contact, are worth considering if you’d rather test before you pay: The 30-day trial gives you time to explore core email marketing tools such as contact management and reporting.
• Some free tools are suitable for very specific needs: Sender is a good all-rounder for regular sending and automation, while Omnisend caters to ecommerce stores and beehiiv to newsletter publishers.
• Free plans usually come with a compromise somewhere: Contact and sending caps, branding, limited automation, or reduced support are common, and those allowances can change over time as your chosen platform evolves.

If there’s one thing all small business owners know, it’s that there’s always another expense waiting around the corner. So, another monthly subscription probably isn’t high on your wish list right now, especially when you’re just getting started with email. Free email marketing services sound like an easy win, but how free are they, really?

Well, that depends on the platform. Some offer an ongoing free plan, but with limits on contacts, sends, or features. Others give you a free trial to test more advanced tools before committing, but there’s an expiration date on it.

In this guide, we compare both, looking at what you can actually do without paying, where the limits start to matter, and what upgrading looks like when you need more.

Disclaimer: The information below is accurate as of August 2026.

Top free email marketing software to try

• Constant Contact: A 30-day trial with no credit card required and access to the full platform. Best if you want to test email, AI content generation, and reporting before choosing a paid service.
• Kit: Supports up to 10,000 subscribers and unlimited broadcasts for $0, giving creators and newsletter writers plenty of room to build an audience. The main catch is the one-automation limit.
• Sender: Offers 2,500 contacts and 15,000 monthly emails, along with an automation builder, making it one of the more practical options for small businesses that send regularly.
• EmailOctopus: Gives you 2,500 contacts and 10,000 monthly emails with a refreshingly simple campaign experience. It suits bloggers, nonprofits, and small businesses that don’t need particularly advanced automation or reporting.
• Moosend: Its 30-day trial includes unlimited campaigns and full access to automation. It’s worth a look if you want to build and test more advanced workflows before deciding whether to pay for them.

Free plan vs. free trial: Which should you choose?

Both let you try email marketing without paying upfront, but they serve different purposes. 

Free forever plan

A free plan gives you ongoing access for $0, usually with limits on contacts, sends, automation, reporting, or support.

That can be plenty if you’re building your first list, sending the occasional newsletter, or simply trying to keep costs down. A food bank running a Giving Tuesday drive, for example, may just need a reliable way to reach its supporters without incurring additional costs.

The drawback is room to grow. A 250-contact cap might seem generous at first, but it can disappear quickly if you’re actively collecting signups. The same goes for sending limits as your audience grows.

Free trial

A free trial is temporary, typically lasting 14 to 30 days, but it often lets you explore more of the platform’s paid functionality, such as automation, segmentation, reporting, and integrations.

This makes more sense if you’re choosing a platform for the long term, migrating from another provider, or already know you’ll eventually need more advanced tools. Instead of asking how long you can stay free, you can find out whether the platform is actually worth paying for.

How we selected the tools on this list

We tested each platform hands-on wherever possible, focusing on what a small business can actually accomplish without paying. We also checked the current product documentation and review sites such as G2 and Capterra to validate our findings.

For each free plan or trial, we looked at:

• Free limits: Contact and sending allowances, daily caps, platform branding, and other restrictions.
• Campaign creation: How easy it is to import contacts, use the editor and templates, and send a campaign.
• Additional marketing features: What you get for automation, segmentation, signup forms, landing pages, and AI tools without paying.
• Reporting: Which performance metrics are available and what insights require an upgrade.
• Room to grow: How quickly you’re likely to outgrow the free option, what the first paid tier costs, and what upgrading unlocks.

The goal was to see how far each free option can realistically take your email marketing before you need to pay.

Also, Constant Contact is included in this comparison, and we’ve evaluated it using the same criteria and scrutiny we apply to every other service. The order isn’t a best-to-worst ranking, either. We’re looking beyond headline limits to assess what each free plan or trial actually lets you accomplish and where the drawbacks start to show. 

Best free email marketing services at a glance

Before we dive into the specifics, here’s a quick tool comparison table:

1. Constant Contact

A free trial isn’t the same as a forever-free plan, but it can be more useful if you’re already considering paying for email marketing. Constant Contact lets you try Starter Email free for 30 days, with 100 email sends and no credit card required, before deciding whether a paid plan fits your budget.

I tried the Starter Email trial, and I think the simplicity works in its favor when you’re learning the ropes. You basically get the essentials: email, contacts, and reporting, without a dashboard full of features to figure out first. The editor is smooth, and there are plenty of modern templates that need very little tweaking. I also liked the AI template builder. You just need to describe the email you have in mind, and it creates a design from your prompt, so you’re not always starting from scratch.

You also get AI help with your copy and reporting for open rates, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes. If you continue after the trial, $6/month gets you up to 2,500 sends and unlimited contacts, so growing your list alone won’t push up the price.

That simplicity can become a limitation once you want to do more, though. Starter Email doesn’t include automation, scheduling, SMS, social media, or event marketing. Those require Constant Contact’s all-in-one plans, which add automated workflows, segmentation, multichannel campaigns, event tools, and more without making you move your existing work to another platform.

Free trial features

• Unlimited contacts
• Ready-made email templates
• AI content and template creation
• Basic email performance reporting

Pros

• Very easy to learn if this is your first email marketing platform
• Trial gives you enough access to properly test the editor and campaign-building experience
• Easy upgrade path if you later need more advanced marketing tools

Cons

• Starter Email is intentionally focused on the basics, so there’s less to experiment with
• More advanced needs like automation and scheduling mean stepping up to an all-in-one plan
• 100 trial sends give you more room to test than to run full campaigns

Paid plans: Starter Email costs $6/month for unlimited contacts and 2,500 monthly sends. If you need more sending capacity or features like automation, scheduling, SMS, social media, and events, you can upgrade to Lite for $12/month. Standard ($35/month) includes more advanced automation and AI tools, while Premium ($80/month) unlocks advanced segmentation and ecommerce features.

2. Kit

If your business is really an audience you’re building, Kit (formerly ConvertKit) gives you plenty of room to grow. In fact, its free plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers before you pay a cent.

Kit is built around creators and newsletter writers rather than traditional marketing campaigns. The editor keeps things simple, with clean, mostly text-based emails that read like a note from a person rather than a designed promotion. That’s actually not a limitation if your goal is subscribers who feel like they’re getting something personal.

The free plan includes unlimited email broadcasts, unlimited landing pages and forms, subscriber tagging, and even digital product and paid newsletter sales, so you can start monetizing before you’re paying for software. Automation is where the free tier draws a hard line, though. You get exactly one visual automation, enough for a basic welcome sequence but not for branching, multi-step journeys.

So, while Kit gives you plenty of room to grow your subscriber list, you may outgrow the free plan sooner if automation becomes a bigger part of your email strategy. You can also test the paid features with a 14-day free trial before deciding whether an upgrade is worth it.

Free plan features

• Unlimited email broadcasts
• Unlimited landing pages and signup forms
• Built-in digital product and subscription sales
• Subscriber tagging and segmentation

Pros

• Highest free contact allowance in this roundup
• Strong built-in monetization tools
• Unlimited sends regardless of plan

Cons

• Free plan limited to one automation
• Design flexibility is limited even on paid tiers
• No native or Zapier integrations on the free plan

Paid plans: Creator starts at $39/month for 1,000 subscribers with unlimited automations. Pro starts at $79/month and adds subscriber analytics and unlimited team seats.

3. SendPulse

If you don’t want to use five different marketing tools for one small business, SendPulse’s free plan offers a much better ratio than most. You get 500 contacts and 15,000 monthly emails, enough room to send a newsletter multiple times a week without immediately hitting a wall.

SendPulse is a multichannel platform, so email shares space with SMS, web push notifications, chatbots for WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger, and a light customer relationship management (CRM). On the free plan, you get dozens of ready-made automation recipes for things like abandoned cart reminders, birthday sequences, and re-engagement, so setting up your first automated workflow is pretty easy. 

I also tried the AI flow generator, currently in beta, which builds an automation from a plain description of what you want rather than making you drag it together piece by piece. I’d say it’s a good shortcut, even if it still needs some manual cleanup afterward.

While the free plan is generous, the experience isn’t quite as polished. The editor can feel a little dated, and some users mention bugs or slower load times. I’d also expect things to get a bit messy once you start building more complicated workflows.

Free plan features

• Flow automation with templates
• Email address verifier
• 140+ pre-made newsletter templates
• AI flow generator (beta)

Pros

• Strong sends-to-contacts ratio on the free plan
• Multichannel messaging included without extra tools
• Beginner-friendly automation builder

Cons

• Interface feels less modern than newer competitors
• Reporting could go deeper
• Workflows can feel cluttered once they get complex

Paid plans: Standard starts at $12/month for 500 subscribers with unlimited sends and A/B testing. Pro adds re-engagement tools and email verification.

4. Sender

Sender doesn’t get talked about as often as other free email marketing services; however, its free plan is actually pretty generous with 2,500 contacts and 15,000 monthly emails. That gives you enough room to send a weekly newsletter to a real list without immediately hitting a wall.

I liked the redesigned email editor more than expected. Section controls are now cleaner, image resizing happens directly on the canvas, and reusable pre-made sections reduce the need to rebuild the same layout every send. Signup forms and landing pages are similarly quick to put together, even without a design background. The automation builder holds up well too, with ecommerce workflows like abandoned cart emails available even on the lower-cost plans, which is unusual at this price point.

What you don’t get on the free plan is deep reporting. It covers the basics (opens, clicks, unsubscribes) but skips long-term trend analysis, and some templates feel a step behind the redesigned editor. Support, though, consistently gets good feedback from users, even on the free tier, which matters when you’re troubleshooting your first campaign alone.

Free plan features

• Visual automation builder with ecommerce workflows
• Drag-and-drop editor with reusable sections
• Transactional emails and SMTP server
• Signup forms and landing pages

Pros

• Offers numerous paid features on the free plan
• Automation builder is fully functional
• Very responsive support 

Cons

• Sender branding on campaigns
• Fewer native integrations than larger competitors
• Some templates look dated next to the new editor

Paid plans: Standard starts at $10/month for 1,000 subscribers. Professional starts at $20/month and includes deeper automation, SMS credits, and priority support.

5. EmailOctopus

If you just want to send a clean newsletter without spending a weekend learning new software, EmailOctopus is about as close to plug-and-play as free email marketing gets. 

Everything about the platform is built around simplicity. Building a campaign is quick, subscriber management doesn’t require a manual, and you’re rarely stuck looking for the next step. The editor includes about nine content blocks, which is enough to build a professional-looking email in under an hour, but it’s noticeably less flexible than more advanced editors when you want something custom.

At 2,500 free contacts and 10,000 monthly emails, the free plan is one of the more usable ones on this list. Automation covers simple drip campaigns and welcome sequences without asking you to think through branching logic. That combination makes EmailOctopus a good fit for nonprofits, bloggers, creators, and local businesses that mainly want to automate routine emails rather than build complex customer journeys.

The drawback is exactly what you’d expect from a tool this simple. You’ll likely outgrow it if your business scales past basic newsletters. I also found that reporting skips revenue tracking and deeper engagement data, and design flexibility stays limited even after you upgrade to a paid plan.

Free plan features

• Beginner-friendly newsletter builder
• Landing pages and signup forms
• Basic email automation
• Integrations with Stripe, PayPal, and Zapier

Pros

• Plenty of room to grow your list and send regularly
• Clean, distraction-free dashboard that’s easy to get around
• UK-based email service provider (ESP), making it worth considering for businesses looking for a local platform

Cons

• Limited content blocks and design flexibility
• Campaign analytics are stored for 30 days only
• EmailOctopus branding on emails

Paid plans: Pro starts at $10/month for 500 subscribers, based on a monthly email allowance rather than unlimited sends.

6. Moosend

Like Constant Contact, Moosend skips the forever-free plan in favor of a 30-day trial. The difference is that you get plenty of room to experiment, with unlimited campaigns plus access to its automation and reporting tools.

Automation is where I’d spend most of those 30 days. The visual builder lets you create welcome sequences, abandoned cart flows, and behavior-based journeys using a wide range of triggers and conditions. You can even trigger emails based on the weather in a subscriber’s location, which opens up some fun possibilities for seasonal promotions. For what Moosend costs once the trial ends, I was surprised by how much control you get.

Campaign creation is straightforward too, with product blocks, countdown timers, dynamic content, and an AI writer for copy and subject lines. I also found that you can create RSS campaigns that can automatically turn new blog posts into emails. So, if you’re a publisher or a blogger, you can definitely use the feature to promote your content.

I’d use the trial to build a real multi-step workflow rather than just send yourself a test email. Just keep in mind that Moosend lacks SMS and social media tools, while its interface and some templates can feel a little dated.

Free trial features

• Visual automation builder with pre-built recipes
• Unlimited email campaigns
• AI writer for copy and subject lines
• Reporting and analytics

Pros

• Full automation access during the trial, not a limited preview
• Strong reporting and click heatmaps
• Affordable paid plan once the trial ends

Cons

• Signup forms and landing pages are pretty basic
• No multichannel marketing tools (SMS, social, etc.)
• Interface feels dated next to other platforms

Paid plans: Pro starts at $9/month for 500 subscribers with unlimited campaigns, automation, and SMTP access. A custom Moosend+ plan is available for advanced needs.

7. Mailchimp

I’ve reviewed Mailchimp enough times over the years to notice its free plan getting a little less free each time. It’s still one of the biggest names in email marketing, but today’s free tier is much tighter than its reputation might suggest.

You get 250 contacts and 500 monthly sends, with a daily cap of 250 emails. That’s enough to email a full 250-person list about twice a month. During testing, the campaign-building experience was still one of the easier parts of Mailchimp for me. The editor feels polished, the templates are easy to customize, and I could navigate with ease.

The free plan itself, though, has a few more limitations you should know about. You can’t schedule campaigns, which means more manual work for you. Mailchimp branding also remains on your emails, and email support is available only for your first 30 days. 

If you go for a paid plan, keep an eye on your contact count. Mailchimp counts unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts toward your total unless you archive them, so you could end up paying for contacts you’re no longer emailing.

Free plan features

• Drag-and-drop email editor and templates
• Audience segmentation
• Lead generation tools (forms, landing pages)
• Shopify, WooCommerce, and Zapier integrations

Pros

• Editor is polished and quick to get comfortable with
• Good choice of integrations even if your marketing stack grows
• Paid-plan trials let you test more advanced functionality before committing

Cons

• Contact syncing is limited to the 250 contacts allowed on the free plan
• Unsubscribed contacts can eat into an already small contact allowance
• The lack of certain features makes the free plan less practical for regular sending

Paid plans: Essentials starts at $13/month for 500 contacts. Standard ($20/month) adds customer journeys and predictive segmentation, while Premium ($350/month) is better suited to larger businesses that want more advanced functionality.

Mailchimp also offers 14-day trials for its Essentials and Standard plans, during which many of these free-tier restrictions are removed.

8. HubSpot

HubSpot’s free plan answers a different question than most of this list. It’s not “how cheap can I send email,” it’s “can I get both a CRM and email marketing without paying for either.”

The free tier includes up to 1,000 contacts, 2 user seats, 2,000 marketing emails per month, and a pretty usable CRM that tracks how contacts interact with your site, forms, and emails. If you have a small business and haven’t invested in a CRM yet, that combination can replace two separate marketing tool subscriptions with one free platform.

The main drawback here, though, is automation. The free plan doesn’t support multi-step automated workflows, so you can send one-off campaigns and simple follow-ups, but not branching customer journeys. Reporting also stays basic until you upgrade, and HubSpot’s paid tiers jump in price quickly once you need the marketing automation depth that competitors like ActiveCampaign build their whole platform around.

If your priority is contacts and sends, other free email marketing services will get you further. However, if your priority is combining email with a real CRM, HubSpot is the most suitable free-to-use option.

Free plan features

• Email editor and CRM tool
• Ad management and retargeting tools
• Signup forms for collecting new contacts
• Contact activity tracking through the free CRM

Pros

• Genuinely useful free CRM
• Free tools extend beyond marketing into sales, service, content, and data
• Useful for managing more of the customer journey in one system

Cons

• HubSpot branding appears on marketing emails and live chat
• Automation is limited to one automated action per form
• Paid plans can become expensive as you need more advanced functionality

Paid plans: Starts at $20/month for 1,000 marketing contacts with core features. Professional-tier automation starts at a considerably higher $890/month for 2,000 contacts. 

9. MailerLite

MailerLite built its reputation on being one of the easiest email tools for beginners, but its free plan has gotten a lot stingier, and that’s worth knowing before you count on it long-term.

As of mid-2026, the free version covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails, down from what it previously offered. That’s still enough for someone sending an occasional newsletter to a small list, but a business actively collecting signups will likely outgrow it within a few months. The editor itself remains easy to figure out, and automations feel less complicated than they do on more advanced platforms, which matters if this is your first time setting one up.

Where MailerLite gets more interesting is when you look at the paid tiers. The lower-cost Comfort plan still limits automations and sends, while the Power plan removes those caps entirely. So, if you outgrow the free plan, getting unlimited sending means making a fairly significant jump rather than a small upgrade.

Free plan features

• Drag-and-drop email editor with AI writing assistant
• Limited landing pages and signup forms
• Email automation 
• 100+ integrations, including Claude and ChatGPT

Pros

• One of the easiest editors to learn
• Automations feel approachable for beginners
• Clean, modern interface

Cons

• Free plan recently cut to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month
• Only the pricier Power plan removes sending and automation caps
• Free-plan support is limited after the first 14 days

Paid plans: Comfort starts at $12/month for 500 subscribers with limitations on email sending, automation, landing pages, and forms. Power starts at $25/month and removes these limits entirely.

10. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is definitely one of the more advanced free-to-try tools on this list, and I wouldn’t recommend going in completely cold, especially when you only have 14 days to do so. 

There are a lot of triggers, conditions, and branching options to get your head around, especially once you start building more complex workflows. I’ve used ActiveCampaign since before its Active Intelligence AI assistant rolled out, though, and that addition has made getting an automation off the ground noticeably easier. You can describe the workflow you want, then refine what it produces rather than starting from scratch.

That’s important because automation is really why you’d choose ActiveCampaign. Behavioral triggers, website tracking, lead scoring, and its built-in CRM give you much more room to build around how customers actually behave.

Since the trial is short, I’d use it to build one realistic multi-step workflow rather than explore every feature. If you mainly need newsletters and a few simple automations, a forever-free tool will probably do a better job.

Free trial features

• Advanced automation with branching logic
• Built-in CRM and lead scoring
• AI-assisted email campaign and automation building
• Behavioral and website tracking

Pros

• Automation depth well beyond most free-to-use tools
• CRM and marketing data in one place
• The AI tools will help you speed up initial setup

Cons

• No permanent free plan, only a 14-day trial
• Trial capped at 100 contacts
• First-time users will need some time to get used to it

Paid plans: The Standard plan costs $19/month for 1,000 contacts, with certain automation and segmentation limitations. Plus then starts at $59/month, while Pro goes up to $89/month, giving you access to more advanced tools.

11. Omnisend

If most of your emails are about products, carts, and getting shoppers back to your store, Omnisend’s free plan speaks your language. Rather than giving you a stripped-back newsletter tool, it lets you try the ecommerce features the platform is actually known for.

The contact and email sending limits are tight, though, with only 250 contacts, 500 emails per month, and 500 web push notifications. After signing up for the free plan, I found it easy to connect a store and start experimenting with product blocks, which pull images, prices, and links straight into your emails instead of making you add everything manually. You can also try pre-built workflows, like abandoned cart sequences, to see how automations respond to shopping behavior rather than to basic email triggers.

With those limits, I’d treat the free plan as a way to see how Omnisend fits your store, rather than as a place to stay in the long term. And if you don’t sell online, much of its appeal disappears anyway; you’ll get more mileage from a general-purpose free email marketing service with higher sending limits.

Free plan features

• Pre-built ecommerce automation workflows
• AI subject line and email copy assistant
• A/B split testing tool
• Unlimited email segmentation

Pros

• Automations built specifically around shopping behavior
• Native Shopify integration to connect your store
• Easy to learn for beginners

Cons

• SMS is completely unavailable on Free and Standard tiers.
• Ecommerce focus leaves fewer benefits for other business types
• Costs can increase quickly once you upgrade

Paid plans: Standard starts at $16/month for 500 contacts. Pro starts at $59/month with unlimited sends, SMS automation, and advanced personalization.

12. GetResponse

GetResponse combines more than most platforms on this list, with email marketing, landing pages, sign-up funnels, and webinars. However, the free plan only really gives you a taste of the first two.

Free users get 500 contacts and 2,500 monthly emails, which is enough for testing the platform but not for much beyond that. The core email editor is user-friendly, and the pop-up and landing page builders are genuinely useful if you’re trying to grow your list, with modern templates and simple customization. Webinars, sales funnels, and the AI email generator, arguably GetResponse’s most distinctive features, sit behind a paid plan entirely, so the free tier mostly tests basic sending rather than what makes GetResponse different from competitors.

That’s the key thing to understand before relying on the free plan: you’re testing the entry point, not the platform’s actual differentiators. If lead capture matters as much to you as the emails themselves, it’s worth the test. If you just want to send newsletters, the free allowance here is tighter than other free email marketing tools on this list.

Free plan features

• Drag-and-drop email creator for one-time newsletters
• Reporting for key email campaign metrics (open rates, click-through rates, and more)
• One landing page with signup and contact forms
• Drafts for autoresponders and automation flows

Pros

• Easy to create and customize newsletters
• Built-in forms make it simple to collect new leads
• Basic campaign reporting is included for free

Cons

• To activate your automation flows and autoresponders, you need a paid plan. Same for landing pages
• Only one landing page on the ongoing free plan
• Integrations with tools like Shopify, Zapier, and Google Analytics are part of the premium trial rather than the core free offering

Paid plans: Starts at $19/month for 1,000 contacts. Marketer plan ($59/month) adds ecommerce automation and sales funnels. You can also try the paid features through the 14-day free trial.

13. Mailjet

Mailjet’s free plan solves a different kind of problem: what happens when you need marketing campaigns and transactional emails (receipts, password resets, order confirmations) without paying for two separate tools.

The free tier gives you 1,000 contacts and 6,000 emails per month, though daily sending is capped at 200 emails, which matters if you send in bursts rather than steadily throughout the month. What sets Mailjet apart is the developer-facing side. SMTP relay and API access are available even on the free plan, so a small business with any technical help can route transactional email through the same dashboard as its newsletters.

The AI campaign generator, when tested on paid tiers, produced polished drafts from a short brief, but that’s not part of the free experience. Automation on the free plan remains basic, and you can’t fully explore some parts of the platform until business verification is cleared, which slows testing more than it should.

If transactional and marketing email genuinely need to live in one place, Mailjet’s free plan is worth the setup friction. If you just want a newsletter tool, the daily send cap will likely frustrate you faster than the monthly one does.

Free plan features

• SMTP relay and API for transactional email
• Open, click, and non-delivery reporting
• Advanced email campaign builder
• Online form editor

Pros

• Combines transactional and marketing email for free
• Developer-friendly API access included
• Affordable entry point for growing lists

Cons

• Daily sending capped at 200 emails
• Can’t fully explore the platform before verification clears
• Automation is a bit weaker than competitors at this price

Paid plans: Starter begins at $9/month for 8,000 emails, while Essential starts at $17/month. Mailjet charges based on email sends rather than contact count, with Essential allowing unlimited contacts.

14. Benchmark Email (Next Generation)

Benchmark Email recently pulled in a different direction from most of its competitors. Instead of adding more automation, it removed it entirely for new users, leaving simplicity as the whole point.

The free plan covers 500 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails, enough for testing or a genuinely small list. The HTML editor is clean and lightweight, templates are usable without hours of tweaking, and reporting is easy to read at a glance, all consistent with the platform’s redesigned, “zero-BS” positioning. 

What you won’t find, on the free plan or any current plan, is automation. It’s now reserved exclusively for legacy accounts, which is a significant change if you were counting on a welcome sequence or drip campaign. Benchmark says automation is on its roadmap, though, so that may change. 

That makes Benchmark Email a good fit for businesses that want simple newsletters and occasional promotions with minimal learning. If you need automation, though, I’d look elsewhere for now.

Free plan features

• Simple drag-and-drop email editor
• Smart text and AI image generation
• Popups, embedded forms, and standalone form pages
• Contact management and tagging

Pros

• The Next Generation (NGX) platform is very modern and user-friendly
• Easy-to-read reporting for beginners
• Good fit if your goal is to create straightforward newsletters

Cons

• No automation for new accounts, at any tier
• Not suited to businesses needing customer journeys
• Pricing gets less competitive as lists grow

Paid plans: Starts at $19/month for 1,000 subscribers with a 10x monthly send limit, email validation, 10 API keys, and 1 user. For more users, you’ll need to pay an extra $15/month per person.

15. Zoho Campaigns

Zoho Campaigns proves that free doesn’t always have to mean bare-bones. The interface may show its age in places, but with 2,000 contacts and 6,000 monthly emails, there’s plenty of room to get your campaigns moving before your budget has to.

It becomes more appealing if your business already uses Zoho, particularly its CRM, since you can keep your contact and campaign data within the same ecosystem. Just don’t mistake Campaigns for Zoho’s automation product. More advanced workflows live in Zoho Marketing Automation, a separate product starting at $22/month. There’s a 14-day trial, though, so you can test those automation features before paying.

The drawback here is the experience. I found the email editor less refined than newer platforms, some menus took a little getting used to, and template customization can feel restrictive. Still, if your priority is getting a decent contact and sending allowance for $0, Zoho Campaigns covers the basics well.

Free plan features

• Drag-and-drop template editor
• Customizable signup forms
•  Basic reports and analytics
• Integrations with all Zoho products (CRM, surveys, automations, and more)

Pros

• More room for contacts and sends than many free plans
• Useful campaign reporting included at no cost
• Strong value if you already use other Zoho products like its CRM

Cons

• Editor feels dated next to other platforms
• Limited ready-to-use newsletter templates
• Additional functionality requires paid Zoho subscriptions

Paid plans: Standard starts at around $5/month (pricing is only available in EUR and GBP) for 500 subscribers, with unlimited sends.

16. beehiiv

If Kit caught your attention because you’re building an audience rather than a traditional email list, beehiiv takes that idea a step further. It’s a bit of an outlier here because it’s really a newsletter publishing platform, not an email marketing platform. You’re here to write, publish, and grow a readership rather than build promotional campaigns and customer journeys.

The free plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers, and I found the writing experience pretty simple for beginners. You can open the editor and get on with writing without wading through a bunch of marketing tools first. Built-in recommendations and referral tools can also help you find new readers without adding another app to your setup.

That focus does narrow what you can do, though. Monetization features like paid subscriptions and automation require an upgrade. So, if you’re a busy bee focused on building a readership, beehiiv will work best when the newsletter itself is what you’re growing.

Free plan features

• Distraction-free writing and publishing tools
• Newsletters, Website, and Podcast
• Website and landing page tools
• Campaign analytics

Pros

• Clean writing experience built for newsletters
• Real audience growth tools without extra apps
• Generous free subscriber allowance

Cons

• Automation is only available on paid tiers
• Not built for ecommerce or complex journeys
• Less useful if you need traditional marketing campaigns

Paid plans: Scale starts at $49/month, while Max is $109/month for up to 1,000 subscribers.

17. Klaviyo

Klaviyo’s free plan feels more like a way to get acquainted with the platform than somewhere a growing store will stay for long. You’re capped at 250 profiles and 500 emails per month, although you also get $5 in mobile messaging and 10,000 Composer (marketing agent) credits to experiment with.

There’s quite a bit to explore in Klaviyo beyond sending emails. You get basic segmentation, campaign reporting, revenue attribution, and engagement tracking, so you can see how customer activity connects to campaign performance. Creating emails is pretty easy too, with basic templates, a drag-and-drop editor, and an AI subject line generator.

The free plan isn’t just about email, either. You also get Customer Hub tools for things like order tracking and one-click “Buy again,” plus a Helpdesk with basic ticket management and a shared inbox. There’s quite a bit to explore for $0, but a busy store could run into the profile and sending limits pretty quickly. One other thing to keep in mind: email support is only available for your first 60 days.

Free plan features

• Visual automation builder with prebuilt flows
• Basic email templates and drag-and-drop editor
• Email campaign performance metrics
• SMS credits 

Pros

• Same automation engine paid customers use
• Strong segmentation even at the free tier
• No separate CRM or automation add-on needed

Cons

• Limited contact and email sending allowance
• No A/B testing without upgrading
• Support drops to none after 60 days

Paid plans: Starts at $20/month for up to 500 profiles, scaling with active profile count rather than emails sent.

18. AWeber

AWeber has been around for a while, and if you’ve done email marketing before, there’s a good chance you’ve come across the name. It was especially popular with bloggers and creators, but it’s been getting a refresh lately, with an updated editor and an AI Newsletter Assistant that can pull content ideas from your website.

The free plan gives you 500 subscribers and 3,000 monthly emails, which is enough for a small newsletter or to get a proper feel for the platform. I also found the workflow builder pretty handy. There are pre-made automation templates to get you started, and AWeber doesn’t bury simple tasks under complicated terminology. You also get landing pages, signup forms, and basic ecommerce integrations.

Things start to feel more limited once you want to do anything particularly advanced. Automation and segmentation aren’t as powerful as those in some other tools, while free emails carry AWeber branding. But if you just want to send newsletters and set up a few straightforward automations, that simplicity may actually work in its favor.

Free plan features

• AI Newsletter Assistant
• Landing pages and signup forms
• Pre-made automation templates
• Ecommerce integrations (Shopify, WooCommerce, and more)

Pros

• Beginner-friendly overall experience
• AI assistant speeds up newsletter creation
• Good support resources and tutorials

Cons

• Automation depth lags behind other competitors
• Free plan carries AWeber branding
• Reporting stays basic

Paid plans: Lite starts at $15/month for 500 subscribers. Plus starts at $30/month with unlimited automations.

How to choose the right free email marketing service

After testing enough free plans, I’ve learned that the biggest allowance on paper doesn’t necessarily make a tool the best choice. What matters is how well those limits fit the way you’ll actually use it.

• Choose between a free plan and a free trial: Go with a free plan if keeping costs at $0 is the priority. If you’re evaluating a platform you expect to pay for later, go for any available free trials to see how the tool works.
• Check the contact allowance: Make sure your existing list fits comfortably, with some extra room if you’re actively collecting subscribers.
• Compare the features you actually need: Look for essentials such as automation, segmentation, forms, templates, and reporting rather than choosing based on the longest feature list.
• Look for hidden restrictions: Check for platform branding, daily sending caps, limited integrations, reduced support, or features that disappear after an introductory period.
• Consider how easy it is to use: A generous free plan isn’t much help if creating and sending a campaign feels like a chore. Test the editor and your usual workflow before settling on one.
• Check what happens when you outgrow it: Look at the first paid tier and what triggers an upgrade, so you know whether staying with the platform will still make sense later.

Start email marketing without stretching your budget

A free email marketing service can take you a long way when your list is small, but chances are you’ll outgrow it eventually. More subscribers, regular campaigns, or a need for better automation can quickly turn today’s generous free plan into tomorrow’s limitation.

So, it’s worth thinking about what comes next, too. Constant Contact’s 30-day trial gives you time to try the core features you’ll need to grow your business before adding another subscription to your budget.

FAQs

1. What is the best free email marketing service?

Kit is a strong choice if you want a large free contact allowance that supports up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts. Sender is better suited to businesses that want more room for regular campaigns and automation. If you expect to pay eventually, Constant Contact offers trials for both Starter Email and its higher-tier plans, so you can test the functionality you actually need before committing.

2. Can I do email marketing completely free?

Yes. Tools like Kit, Sender, EmailOctopus, Zoho Campaigns, and Mailchimp offer ongoing free plans. The drawback is that you’ll usually face limits on contacts, email sends, automation, support, or other features.

3. What’s the difference between a free plan and a free trial?

A free plan lets you use the platform indefinitely without paying, provided you stay within its limits. A free trial gives you temporary access to a paid platform or premium features, usually for 14 to 30 days.

4. How many emails can I send for free?

Sender and SendPulse allow up to 15,000 emails per month, EmailOctopus offers 10,000, and Zoho Campaigns allows 6,000. More restrictive plans, such as Mailchimp and Klaviyo, limit you to 500 emails per month.

5. When should I upgrade from a free email marketing service?

Consider upgrading when your contact list approaches the free limit, or you start needing features the free tier doesn’t provide, such as more advanced automation, segmentation, reporting, or integrations. It may also be time to upgrade if platform branding or limited support starts getting in the way of your day-to-day marketing.

6. Can an email marketing free plan be discontinued or changed?

Yes. A free plan isn’t guaranteed to stay the same forever. Moosend, for example, previously offered a permanent free plan but now only has a 30-day trial. Mailchimp and MailerLite have reduced their free allowances over time, while Omnisend has removed SMS from its free tier. Free plans can change as products and pricing evolve, so make sure the platform still makes sense for your business if you eventually need to upgrade.