Comparisons
Free Email Marketing Tools: 9 Platforms Compared by Subscriber Limits
Kit, beehiiv, Sender, EmailOctopus, MailerLite, Mailchimp, Buttondown, Substack and Loops compared on free subscriber caps, sending limits and the features locked behind paid plans. Checked in October 2026.
An email list is the only audience you own. Social accounts get throttled, banned or bored. A list of 500 people who asked to hear from you will still open your launch email next year. The good news is that you can start one for free. The bad news is that free email marketing plans shrank a lot recently, and the tool that was generous last year may now stop sending at 250 contacts.
So this is a comparison by the number that decides everything: how many subscribers you get before the bill starts.
Free email marketing tools ranked by subscriber limit
- Kit: 10,000 subscribers
- beehiiv: 2,500 subscribers
- Sender: 2,500 subscribers
- EmailOctopus: 2,500 subscribers
- MailerLite: 250 subscribers
- Mailchimp: 250 contacts
- Buttondown: 100 subscribers
Substack and Loops do not fit that list, because they charge in different ways. They get their own sections below.
The generous ones
Kit
The Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited landing pages, forms and email broadcasts, plus tagging and segmentation. You can also sell digital products and subscriptions for 3.5% plus 30 cents, card processing included. What is missing is automation. Visual automations and sequences start on the Creator plan, so a welcome series needs a paid account. One reviewer worked out that subscriber number 10,001 would jump the bill to well over a hundred dollars a month, so plan for that cliff. See Kit.
beehiiv
Free covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, templates, landing pages, the recommendation network and an API. You get 1 seat, 1 publication and 30 days of analytics history. Paid subscriptions are not on Free, and the price jumps hard once you grow. Read the beehiiv listing.
Sender
The most sending room of the group: up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month on the Free Forever plan, with automation, landing pages, signup forms, popups and transactional email included. The price of free is Sender branding on your emails. Removing it needs the Standard plan at $6.30 a month. See Sender.
EmailOctopus
2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, no card and no time limit. Emails carry EmailOctopus branding, reports last 30 days and you get one landing page and one form. A reviewer says free allows 3 automations. Details at EmailOctopus.
The tight ones
MailerLite
The free plan once allowed 1,000 subscribers and now allows 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Above 250, campaigns and automations lock until you upgrade or remove people. You still get 2 seats, a website, a landing page and all 3 editors. Check MailerLite for the current numbers.
Mailchimp
Free is now 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a cap of 250 a day. Email scheduling, automation flows and branding removal are not included. Sending to one list twice nearly empties the month. See Mailchimp.
Buttondown
Your first 100 subscribers are free, with a markdown or rich text editor, hosted archives and sending from your own domain. Beyond that, extras are priced separately: segmentation, analytics and comments are $9 a month each, and automations are $29. A small setup is cheap. A full one adds up. See Buttondown.
The ones that work differently
Substack
Free to start with no platform fee until you charge subscribers. Then Substack keeps 10% of paid revenue and card fees come on top, so a $5 subscription can leave you less than you expect. If you never plan to charge, it costs nothing, and the export tool means you can leave with your list. See Substack.
Loops
Built for software companies, with marketing and transactional email in one place. The free plan allows 4,000 sends per rolling 30 days to your first 1,000 subscribed contacts, with a Loops footer on emails. It is the one to pick when your list is mostly app users. See Loops.
Which one should you start with
- Writing a newsletter and hoping to grow fast: Kit for the large free tier, beehiiv if you want growth tools.
- Need automation without paying: Sender or EmailOctopus.
- Emailing users of your own app: Loops, or a transactional email service.
- Tiny list, markdown lover: Buttondown.
- Planning to charge readers: Substack or Kit, after you read the fee math.
Whatever you pick, export your list once a month. A CSV on your own drive makes every future switch painless, and free plans have a habit of shrinking without much warning.