Email is the channel consumers prefer to receive brand info from, and you don’t need a big budget to take advantage. Today, many platforms offer free email marketing software you can start with that is reliable, feature-rich, and user-friendly, with email sends ranging from 500 to 15,000 a month.
After reviewing dozens of providers, here are our top picks for the best free email marketing software for growing your small business:
- Best for experienced email marketers: MailerLite
- Highly scalable for small businesses: Zoho Campaigns
- Free email plus SMS text marketing plan: Omnisend
- Best all-in-one free marketing, sales, and customer service bundle: HubSpot
- Great free plan for beginners: Enginemailer
- Most generous monthly email sends: Sender.net
- Free email marketing with AI site builder: GetResponse
- Free email software with unlimited landing pages: Mailchimp
- Best for marketing automation: Brevo (SendinBlue)
Best Free Email Marketing Platforms at a Glance
Monthly Email Sends | Contact Limit | Expert Score Out of 5 | Learn More | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 12,000 | 1,000 | 4.44 | |
 | 6,000 | 2,000 | 4.36 | |
 | 500 | 250 | 4.31 | |
 | 2,000 | 1,000 | 4.26 | |
 | 10,000 | Unlimited | 4.25 | |
 | 15,000 | 2,500 | 4.22 | |
 | 2,500 | 500 | 4.15 | |
 | 1,000 | 500 | 4.03 | |
 | 9,000 | Unlimited | 3.92 |
MailerLite: Best for Experienced Email Marketers
Pros
- Up to 12,000 emails a month (second-highest on this list) with no daily limit
- All email reporting types are available for free
- Highly clean and intuitive interface and editors
- Premium-level automation with unlimited automated email sequences
- Powerful free optimization like custom variables, A/B testing, and delivery by time zone
Cons
- No access to email or landing page templates in the free plan
- 24/7 support is only for the first 31 days
- 12,000 emails to up to 1,000 contacts
- Easy drag-and-drop editor for building emails
- Email automation builder with unlimited automated email sequences and up to 100 steps
- 1 website
- 10 landing pages
- Unlimited sign-up forms and pop-ups
- Unlimited segmentation and interest tags
- Custom variables and A/B email testing
- Custom date range reports
- List growth reporting
- Individual subscriber profiles
- Email click maps
- Ecommerce sales tracking
- Automation real-time reports
For MailerLite, all of the paid plans include unlimited monthly emails, with no daily limit. Nevertheless, the cost of the plans goes up depending on the number of subscribers, starting with 1,000 subscribers.
Growing Business: $9+/month, depending on the number of contacts
- From 500 contacts
- Unlimited landing pages
- Newsletter templates
- Create your own template
- Remove MailerLite ads
- Edit links in sent campaigns
- Dynamic email content
- Auto-campaign resends
- Unsubscribe page builder
- A/B testing for pop-ups and embedded forms
- 24/7 priority email support
Advanced: $18+/month, depending on the number of contacts
- Custom HTML newsletter editor
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) writing assistant
- Multiple automation triggers
- Subscriber preference customizations
- 15% off Google Workspace
- Promotion pop-ups
- Facebook custom audiences
- 24/7 live chat support
MailerLite offers one of the best free email marketing services that is hard to beat. Aside from the generous 12,000 monthly emails, second to only Sender, it also includes all of the reporting and analytics you can access on its premium plans. This includes list growth reporting, individual subscriber profiles, email click maps, automation real-time reports, and custom date range reports for more focused monitoring. You can also get sales tracking reports.
For businesses that rely heavily on data for optimizing and growing their campaigns with automation, MailerLite is one of the best free email marketing tools you can choose. Additionally, the fact that there is no daily limit is a huge advantage for businesses sending newsletters to all of their subscribers (as long as your list doesn’t exceed 1,000 contacts).
The biggest issue businesses can have with the free plan is the lack of access to email templates. Although MailerLite has one of the easiest and most intuitive drag-and-drop editors on this list, it may still be a deal-breaker for absolute beginners who are not confident with creating their newsletters from scratch.
All in all, MailerLite is the best option for growing businesses that can benefit from in-depth reporting and premium-level automation. The 12,000 monthly emails, no daily limit, unlimited segmentation, and A/B testing further solidified its top ranking on our list. We recommend it for advanced email marketers who can create newsletters from scratch and take advantage of the range of premium features.
Zoho Campaigns: Easy & Scalable Free Email Marketing Software
Pros
- 6,000 monthly emails and 2,000 subscribers
- No daily limit and up to 5 users
- Highly scalable, with unlimited emails to 500 contacts as low as $3/month
- Integrates with other Zoho tools (customer relationship management, surveys, etc.)
- Advanced analytics on all pricing plans
Cons
- Limited functionality, especially with templates, automation, and segmentation
- 6,000 monthly emails, 2000 subscribers
- Basic predesigned newsletter templates
- Responsive templates
- Reporting and analytics
- Customizable signup forms
- Zoho integrations
- 25 third-party integrations
Zoho Campaigns has two paid plan tiers and a pay-as-you-go pricing option. There is a marked difference in functionality between the free plan and the paid plans, particularly for automation and contact management features. However, the paid plan starts at just $3 per month and increases depending on the number of contacts and the level of the plan.
Standard: From $3/month for 500 contacts
- Unlimited emails
- 10 users
- Advanced templates
- A/B testing
- Custom sign-up forms
- Basic drag-and-drop automation workflows
- Basic segmentation
- Advanced reports
- Add-ons for SMS text marketing and a dedicated IP sending address
Professional: From $4.50/month for 500 contacts
- 20 users
- Custom pop-up forms
- Advanced automation workflows
- Advanced segmentation
- Contact scoring
- Cart abandonment ecommerce and purchase follow-ups with workflows
- Dynamic content
- Email polls and attachments
- Batch sending
- Send emails by recipient time zone or optimal open time
Zoho Campaigns may not have the strongest functionality in the free plan, but the secure and user-friendly interface, free monthly email sends at 6,000 emails a month, and integration with Zoho’s customer relationship management (CRM) software make it a strong contender. The fact that the free plan is also available for up to five users shows that it’s a solid starting point for growing small businesses.
The glaring issue with Zoho Campaigns’ free plan is the sparsity of included features vs most other providers on this list (though the low cost of paid plans, from $3 per month, offsets this a bit). For example, email campaign scheduling is not available on the free plan. For even beginner email marketers, this is usually a must-have. A/B testing, automation templates, and segmentation are also not available without a paid plan.
Zoho Mail is an excellent free email marketing service for teams who are just starting to explore emails for their marketing initiatives. It has a decent number of monthly sends with no daily limit and strong reporting features that will allow businesses to learn from their campaigns. Most importantly, if these businesses find email marketing to be effective based on analytics, it would be easy and affordable to move up to the paid plans.
Omnisend: Free Email + SMS Text Marketing Plan
Pros
- Free 500 monthly emails
- Free 60 credits for SMS marketing
- Free 500 web push notifications
- Premium-level automation for email, SMS, push notifications, and ecommerce workflows
- Access to all paid features (except advanced reporting)
- Unlimited pop-ups, teasers, landing pages, and wheel of fortune
- Facebook custom audiences and Google customer match
- 24/7 support
Cons
- Lowest monthly email sends on this list
- Lowest contact limit
- Some user reviews show that it can be buggy for non-ecommerce businesses
- 500 email sends per month to 250 contacts
- Unlimited contact list size
- Up to 60 SMS and 500 web push notifications
- Professional-looking email templates
- Prebuilt automations and workflows
- Unlimited events for automation
- Pop-ups, sign-up forms, landing pages, and page features (teasers plus wheel of fortune)
- Unlimited segmentation
- Extensive sales and performance reports
- A/B testing
- Facebook custom audiences and Google customer match
- 24/7 email and live chat support
Omnisend has two paid plan options that both include unlimited web push notifications and up to 500 contacts on the base price. The cost for these plans increases for every increase in the number of contacts.
Standard: From $16/month for 500 contacts
- 6,000 emails per month (12x list size)
- Up to 60 SMS/MMS text marketing sends/month (plus add-ons or monthly SMS plans)
- Unlimited web push
- Remove Omnisend branding
Pro: From $59/month for 500 contacts
- Unlimited emails
- Additional SMS/MMS credits
- Unlimited web push
- Advanced reporting
Omnisend is one of the very few free email marketing software that allow access to virtually all features at no cost. Aside from the basics like scheduling, email templates, and reporting, it also includes premium features such as A/B testing, unlimited segmentation, and automation. On top of that, Omnisend boasts unique features that can enrich any email marketing campaign, such as SMS marketing, push notifications, and custom audience match for Facebook and Google.
With that, we can say with confidence that Omnisend has some of the most comprehensive features on its free email marketing plan on this list. Although to note, Enginemailer also provides full-feature access on the free plan, but it doesn’t have the sheer number of additional tools Omnisend has to offer.
The biggest drawback of Omnisend’s free email marketing service is that it has the lowest number of emails you can send in a month and, consequently, the lowest number of contacts you can have. With a 500 monthly email cap, Omnisend is not for businesses that plan to regularly send out emails to their full contact list.
Feature-wise, it’s difficult to find any other provider that can rival Omnisend’s free plan for email marketing. From A/B testing, unlimited segmentation, and unlimited advanced automation to SMS and push notification marketing, Omnisend is perfect for a comprehensive email campaign with a smaller contact list size.
HubSpot: Free Email Marketing, Sales & Web CMS Bundle
Pros
- Up to 2,000 emails a month
- AI writer and chatbots
- Intuitive and user-friendly interface
- Platform includes marketing, sales, customer service, and content management system (CMS) for free
- New SMS text marketing add-on
- HubSpot Academy with hundreds of free video tutorials to master startup marketing topics or the app’s tools
Cons
- Costly to unlock all features (highest-tiered plan starts at $800 a month)
- Although there are plenty of features, usage is limited on the free plan
- A/B testing not available for free—use MailerLite instead
- 2,000 monthly emails and up to 1,000 contacts
- Facebook Messenger integration
- List segmentation
- Email reply tracking
- 1 email automation
- 1 shared inbox
- Website, blog, CRM, and customer service starter hubs
- AI content writer access and web chatbots
- Email health reporting
- Sign-up and lead generation forms with automation
- Free landing pages (20)
HubSpot has a free plan for marketing, sales, service, content management system (CMS), and operations tools. You can purchase a bundle for these services starting at $18 per month. Alternatively, you can simply pay for the marketing services if you only plan to use the platform for email marketing. The prices below are for the marketing tools.
Starter: $18/month
- Up to 2,000 contacts
- Landing pages, popups, and sign-up forms
- Up to 10 automated actions
- 50 active lists (segmentation)
- 10 reporting dashboards, 10 reports each
Professional: $800/month
- 2,000+ contacts
- A/B email testing
- Advanced and unlimited automations
- Up to 1,200 segments
- 25 dashboards, 30 reports each
HubSpot has topped many of our lists, including the best email marketing software for small businesses, due to its comprehensive tools for marketing, sales, and customer service. All of these features are available on the free Starter Hub plan, with a number of handy features to aid in email marketing, such as mobile-optimized emails and sales templates.
HubSpot’s CRM suite may be overwhelming at first, considering the breadth of its features, but it has an intuitive and user-friendly interface that doesn’t take too long to get accustomed to—not to mention a vast library of video tutorials and documentation available in the free HubSpot Academy. This extends to HubSpot’s reporting and analytics capabilities, with reports collated in easy-to-understand yet comprehensive dashboards.
There’s no question that HubSpot is jam-packed with features that can scale with a growing business. But some of the essentials of email marketing, in particular, are lacking. For example, the number of emails per month is on the lower end of the spectrum. Additionally, A/B testing is only available on the most expensive plan. At the same time, email automation is limited to one automated action at a time versus MailerLite’s unlimited steps.
If a business is looking for more than just email marketing software, such as a sales or customer service platform, HubSpot is the way to go. It has extensive features ranging from marketing to operations, all under the free plan. As long as you don’t need the more advanced tools for email marketing, such as automation or A/B testing, you can expect a seamless and solid experience with HubSpot.
Enginemailer: Best Free Email Marketing Software for Beginners
Pros
- 10,000 monthly emails and unlimited subscribers
- 180+ email templates categorized by use case and industry
- Instant access to all features available in paid plans, such as integrated analytics, A/B testing, and transactional emails
- Unlimited pop-ups and sign-up forms
- Comes with easy-to-use landing page builder with mobile-optimized templates
Cons
- Can only send 500 emails a day
- Takes some time to set up
- Customer support can be improved
- Unlimited subscribers, 10,000 monthly emails
- Intelligent contact imports
- Advanced segmentation
- 3 landing pages, unlimited online and pop-up forms
- Automated email cleansing
- Drag-and-drop email editor
- 180+ email templates and landing page templates
- Free stock photos
- Custom surveys
- Auto-responders and triggered emails
- Integrated analytics
- Delivery failure reports
- Google Analytics integration
- Location tracking and device engagements
- A/B testing
Aside from the free-forever plan, Enginemailer has a paid plan whose price goes up depending on the number of emails sent. Both of these plans have the same features and unlimited subscribers—the only difference is that the Enginemailer logo will be removed and there is no daily email limit.
Paid Plan Price | Monthly Emails |
|---|---|
$9 | 12,000 |
$29 | 25,000 |
$49 | 75,000 |
$299 | 500,000 |
$499 | 1,000,000 |
Instant full-feature access is the reason why Enginemailer made it to this list, despite the fact that it is much less familiar than other providers on this list. Once you sign up for Enginemailer, you get access to email marketing essentials such as hundreds of templates, easy drag-and-drop editor, email automation, and unlimited segmentation. On top of that, you get a suite of premium features like advanced reporting, A/B testing, and landing page builder.
Aside from the sheer number of features you get on the platform, Enginemailer uses a no-nonsense interface that allows you to explore the full functionality of the software without being overwhelmed. The 10,000 monthly emails and unlimited subscriber list are also quite generous and more than enough for email marketing beginners. However, it’s important to keep in mind that Enginemailer has a 500-email daily limit.
We find Enginemailer to be one of the most promising free email marketing software because its functionality rivals paid plans, and the 10,000 monthly email limit is one of the most generous options in the market right now. The platform is user-friendly and has a wide range of templates that small businesses and startups can take advantage of. Whether it’s for permission-based email marketing, newsletters, or business emails, Enginemailer is an excellent choice.
Sender: Most Generous Monthly Emails in a Free Plan
Pros
- Up to 15,000 monthly emails, the highest on this list, with no daily limit
- Comes with strong email automation capabilities and prebuilt workflows
- Drag-and-drop editor is easy to use and comes with image library and editor
- Unlimited segmentation
- Unlimited pop-ups and sign-up forms
- Solid reporting, including heatmaps
Cons
- Landing pages aren’t offered on any of the plans
- Templates look outdated, and the graphics are of poor quality
- No A/B testing
- Potential issues on deliverability and poor customer support (based on customer reviews)
- 2,500 subscribers, 15,000 monthly emails
- Google Analytics tracking
- SPAM check
- Email automation, prebuilt workflows, automation splits, custom triggers
- Plain text editor
- Drag-and-drop editor
- Email templates
- Image library
- Image editor
- Unlimited segmentation and contact profiles
- Pop-ups and sign-up forms with unlimited custom fields
- Campaign reports
- Heatmap/clicks
- Audience growth
- Automation reports
- Ecommerce integrations
Unlike Brevo, you don’t have to pay for email credits in Sender. However, it is also not like MailerLite, which has unlimited emails for paid plans. Sender’s pricing plans go up depending on the number of subscribers, and the monthly email limit is calculated with its multiplier. Sender does not offer unlimited emails on any of its plans.
Standard: From $8.33/month for 1,000 contacts
- From 30,000 sends per month
- SMS text messaging access
- Remove Sender branding
- Multi-user access
- Auto-campaign resends to non-openers
- Basic reporting
Professional: From $29.17/month for 1,000 contacts
- From 60,000 sends per month
- Advanced reports
- Free SMS credits
- SMS automation
- Transactional emails (e.g., post-purchase, order confirmations and updates, and so on)
- Inbox preview
- Feedback block
- Timer
Sender has the highest number of emails allotted per month among all the free email marketing services we’ve tested. At 15,000 monthly emails with no daily limits and up to 2,500 subscribers, the numbers are unbeatable and more than enough for some businesses. On top of that, Sender’s free plan includes unlimited segmentation, automation with customizable triggers, and strong reporting capabilities.
One of the important features missing from Sender’s services is A/B testing. There are excellent reporting tools available on the platform that aren’t available on other free email marketing software, such as heatmaps and audience growth analytics. On the other hand, it can be difficult to fully optimize your email marketing campaign if you can’t pinpoint the variables that perform well, which is made possible with A/B testing.
For businesses looking for a free way to support their heavy email marketing campaigns or email blasts, there is no better option than Sender. The 15,000 monthly email limit and no daily cap are almost as good as paid email marketing tools in the market. Although there are lacking features and a few negative user reviews, it is definitely an up-and-coming provider that can benefit small to medium businesses.
GetResponse: Free Email Marketing With AI Site Builder
Pros
- Up to 2,500 emails per month
- Email SPAM checker
- Basic segmentation and strong website building capabilities
- AI site creator and website builder
- Predesigned templates for landing pages
- Highly customizable email templates
What's Missing
- No email automation or auto-responders
- Poor customer support on the free plan
- Minimal list management capabilities
- Reports are gated behind paid plans
- 2,500 monthly email sends for 500 contacts
- Visual email editor
- Custom DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
- Click tracking
- Predesigned templates
- HTML editor
- Manual creator for promo codes
- SPAM check
- Import and export contacts
- Basic segmentation
- Website builder
- AI site creator
- Website predesigned templates
- 5GB Site bandwidth
- Contact and sign-up forms
- SEO settings
- 1 landing page and templates
- Pop-ups and pop-up templates
GetResponse has three primary paid plans: email marketing, marketing automation, and ecommerce marketing. All of these have unlimited monthly emails, landing pages, and access to the AI email generator. The cost for each plan increases depending on the number of contacts.
Email Marketing: From $13.20/month for 1,000 contacts
- AI email generator
- Auto-responders
- AI campaign generator
- Website and landing pages
- Sign-up forms and pop-ups
Marketing Automation: From $41.10/month for 1,000 contacts
- Marketing automations
- Event-based workflows
- Webinars
- Advanced segmentation
- Contact scoring
- Sales funnels
Ecommerce Marketing: From $82.90/month for 1,000 contacts
- Ecommerce integrations
- Quick transactional emails
- Cart abandonment emails
- Promo codes
- Product recommendations
- Web push notifications
GetResponse is one of the frontrunners in our list for best free email marketing software because of the artificial intelligence (AI) features. Although the free plan does not have access to the AI content writer, users can still use GetResponse’s website building capabilities, including its in-house AI site creator. Partnered with email marketing, the AI site creator can make it easier to lead potential customers down the funnel with a compelling website.
This email marketing solution has a number of well-designed email templates that users can customize to their liking. The templates, along with the AI site creator, make this free email marketing software convenient for email marketing beginners who want to prioritize speed in building campaigns. The search engine optimization (SEO) settings, pop-up templates, and visual email editor are additional features that show how quickly businesses can set up their website and email campaigns with GetResponse.
It’s no secret that compared to most providers on this list, GetResponse can feel underwhelming, especially in core email marketing tools such as automation, segmentation, and analytics. Because of these limitations, we do not recommend GetResponse to intermediate or advanced email marketers who value these features.
For businesses that rely on templates or marketing AI tools to build their campaigns, GetResponse is a solid contender for free email marketing software. Not only does it have a decent range of email, website, and pop-up templates—it also has an AI site creator and visual email editor for additional customization. Upon subscription to the paid plans, users will also enjoy an AI email assistant.
Want to streamline your work and save time with AI? Read our list of the best AI marketing tools for small businesses, from content writers to image generators, public relations, and search engine optimization.
Mailchimp: Most Extensive Integrations in Free Email Marketing Software
Pros
- Basic CRM features
- 300+ integrations
- Beginner-friendly interface and editors
- Behavioral targeting + segmentation
- Content studio is free for use
- Comprehensive marketing calendar with email and social posting
- Free ecommerce website builder with unlimited pages and bandwidth
- Mobile app and new SMS text marketing add-on
Cons
- Lower number of emails and contacts (1,000 emails to 500 contacts)
- Very limited email automation
- Email support is only available for first 31 days
- No A/B testing, email scheduling, or dynamic content
- 1,000 monthly emails and 500 subscribers
- 1 audience included
- Basic segmentation, contact profiles, and tags
- Mailchimp mobile app
- Audience dashboard
- Custom surveys
- Behavioral targeting based on campaign engagement, purchase behavior, and site views
- Content studio access
- Basic templates
- Marketing channels included: email, landing pages, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, social posting, postcards, pop-ups
- Single-step automations
- Basic reports
- Personalized product recommendations
- Next-best action feature
- Subject line helper
- Free Mailchimp domain for website publishing
- Unlimited pages, bandwidth, SEO tools, and site analytics
- Appointment scheduling tools
- 300+ integrations
Mailchimp does not offer unlimited subscribers or emails on any of its plans. Instead, you pay as you increase your contact list. The email limit is entirely dependent on the contact limit, with a set multiplier based on the plan.
Essentials: From $13/month for 500 contacts
- 10x list size sends
- 3 user seats
- 3 audience segments (plus unlimited tags)
- Unlimited templates
- A/B testing
- Email scheduling
- 300+ integrations
- Basic reports
- Creative Assistant (limited access)
- Personalized onboarding
- Mailchimp branding removed
- Automated customer journeys (4 points)
- SMS add-on available
Standard: From $20/month for 500 contacts
- 12x list size sends
- Send time optimization
- Custom coded (HTML) templates
- Predictive and advanced segmentation
- Content optimizer
- Dynamic content
- 5 audiences
- Full Creative Assistant access
- Up to 200 customer journey points
- Multivariate testing
- Advanced and comparative reporting
Mailchimp is arguably the most popular option on this list and has been a leading email marketing platform for years. Although the monthly email allotment is underwhelming, its website and additional capabilities make it a fantastic tool for building brand presence alongside email marketing. Additionally, it has over 300 app integrations from essential business tools and a highly intuitive interface that makes it beginner-friendly.
When it comes to website features, Mailchimp offers a drag-and-drop site builder with multiple templates to choose from. Its commerce features and ecommerce app integrations make it an excellent choice to boost online sales. From product catalog management (unlimited products on all plans) to secure payment gateways for the U.S. and U.K., Mailchimp enables you to create and manage your online store with ease.
Although Mailchimp is a powerful marketing platform on its own, the free plan is still short of email marketing tools. You’ll need a paid plan for complex email automations, real-time data for reporting, and A/B testing. Although notably, Mailchimp is the only provider on this list to offer multivariate testing—though you’ll need the second paid tier for this.
Overall, the user-friendly interface and broad ecosystem of integrations make Mailchimp a valuable asset for small and medium-sized businesses that are looking for capabilities outside of just email marketing. We recommend it to ecommerce businesses or anyone who has a low monthly email volume to enjoy the other features.
Brevo (SendinBlue): Best Free Software for Email Marketing Automation
Pros
- Unlimited subscribers and 9,000 monthly emails
- 40 responsive email templates
- Includes option for SMS or WhatsApp marketing
- Transactional emails included
- Advanced automation in visual Workflow Editor
- Unlimited contact storage and advanced segmentation
Cons
- Limited to 300 emails a day
- Limited reporting
- Plenty of features are locked in the Business plan (third tier), like A/B testing, landing page, and heatmap
- Unlimited subscribers, 9,000 monthly emails
- 40 responsive email templates
- Drag-and-drop editor
- Customizable sign-up forms
- 1 shared inbox for team
- SMS marketing
- WhatsApp campaigns
- Transactional emails included with real-time email statistics
- Visual Workflow Editor for automations
- Marketing automation for up to 2,000 contacts
- 500 push notifications
Brevo boasts unlimited subscribers for all plans. However, it is not the most easily scalable (or most affordable) platform if you still want to expand.
Starter: From $25/month
- Unlimited contacts
- From 20,000 sends per month, no daily limit
- Add-on to remove Brevo logo
- Basic reports and analytics
Business: From $65/month
- From 20,000 sends per month, no daily limit
- Marketing automation
- A/B testing
- Advanced statistics
- Multi-user access
- Send time optimization
Brevo (formerly SendinBlue) won a place in our search for best free email marketing apps with its generous monthly emails, unlimited subscribers, and robust automation, including tailored workflows for individual contacts. It also comes with a barrage of additional features like SMS text marketing, WhatsApp campaigns, transactional emails, and 500 push notifications a month.
This platform’s visual Workflow Editor for creating custom automations and customizing premade templates is intuitive and powerful. Marketing automation allows users to create automated workflows to target individual contacts at key moments along their customer journey. With this, email marketers are able to create more precise and targeted campaigns.
However, a glaring concern with Brevo’s email marketing free plan is that it can only send out a maximum of 300 emails a day. Plenty of features that are available elsewhere are also locked behind its highest-priced plan, such as A/B testing and landing page builder.
With that in mind, we recommend Brevo for drip campaigns or businesses that don’t need to email all of its subscribers on the same day. Other than that concern, we find that Brevo’s free email marketing software has everything you need to run successful email campaigns, such as reliable templates, automations, and advanced segmentation.
Several of the providers here offer SMS and MMS bulk text marketing. But if you want a full-featured text marketing service, check out our list of the best SMS software for small businesses instead.
How We Tested & Ranked the Best Free Email Marketing Software
After rounding up all of the top email marketing software currently available, we narrowed it down to providers that have free-forever plans. Click the tabs to see the criteria we used to test and rank the platforms that scored the best against our data points.
30% of Overall Score
For small businesses needing free email marketing software, cost is a top driving factor. We considered not only the availability of a free plan but also the cost of paid plans for scaling with a growing business.
20% of Overall Score
We looked for must-haves in the software, like email scheduling capabilities, A/B subject line testing, drip and triggered campaigns, landing pages, third-party integrations, and whether ancillary tools for SMS text marketing were available.
20% of Overall Score
Beyond the basics, we considered the advanced and niche features included in the free and base plans of providers. This included things like the ability to custom-code templates and newsletters, built-in contact management tools, advanced reporting and segmentation, auto-responders, multivariate testing, AI, and the ability to create complex automations based on the customer journey.
20% of Overall Score
No matter how good a plan looks on paper, nothing makes up for how it works in real life. We tested each platform and leveraged our team’s collective decades of firsthand experience creating and delivering email marketing campaigns to provide an expert rating for each app. We also researched and considered online user reviews from real customers in our determination.
10% of Overall Score
The factors considered for support included access to live support (and when it’s available) as well as knowledge bases and documentation.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes. Email marketing continues to be a valuable and effective strategy for businesses. Not only do most people have emails—it also allows personalized messaging and the ability to track and analyze campaign performance. With these features, businesses can use email marketing to connect and engage with their target audience more, ultimately driving leads or conversions.
Yes, you can send marketing emails through Gmail for business, but not with a personal account. Gmail has limitations and restrictions when it comes to bulk email sending to prevent spam. If not followed, it can result in deliverability issues and potential account suspension. Google Workspace accounts can send up to 2,000 emails a day. A personal account can only send 500.
Mailchimp is an email marketing platform that allows users to create, manage, and send email campaigns. You can use Mailchimp to send emails. Emails are just a form of electronic communication sent through an email platform, such as Gmail or Outlook.
Bottom Line
Finding the best free email marketing service for your business will depend on your business needs, such as the number of emails needed per month, contact list size, and preferred email marketing. This may be email automations, premade templates, or landing page builders to direct traffic to.
With these needs in mind, MailerLite has the best free-forever plan for small business email marketing. Send up to 12,000 emails a month and take advantage of unlimited automation, segmentation, and its most comprehensive reporting and analytics.
