Choosing an email platform is easier when you ask the same few questions of every candidate. A feature list tells you what a tool can do. It does not tell you whether you will get a welcome email running this week, or whether the bill will surprise you once your list has grown.
This best email marketing software comparison covers five widely used platforms: Mailchimp, Kit, MailerLite, ActiveCampaign and Brevo. It ends with a pick for each common situation instead of a single winner, because an affiliate marketer building a niche newsletter and a shop owner sending order updates need different things.
How we compared them: three tests that matter to a small list
Each platform gets the same three checks, and each one reflects a decision you will actually face in your first year.
1. What you get at the free and entry tiers. Most beginners start on a free plan or the cheapest paid one, so what is included there matters more than the top-tier feature list. The questions are whether automation is included, whether there is a cap on contacts or daily sends, and which features are held back for higher plans.
2. How long a beginner takes to send a first automated welcome sequence. A welcome sequence is the short series of emails a new subscriber receives automatically after signing up. It is the first automation most people build and the one that matters most, because every new subscriber goes through it. A platform where this takes an afternoon is a very different experience from one where it takes a week of reading documentation.
3. Where each one starts to hurt as your list grows. Pricing models, contact counting and feature limits all behave differently at 500 subscribers than at 5,000 or 25,000. Knowing the pressure point in advance means you can choose a platform you will not need to leave in a year.
A note on method: the setup-effort comments below describe how each platform is designed and what its builder asks of you. They are not stopwatch results. Prices, plan limits and feature names change often, so confirm every number on the vendor’s own pricing page before you commit. This article deliberately avoids quoting exact prices for that reason.
One more check applies if you promote affiliate offers by email. Read each platform’s acceptable use or anti-spam policy before you build your list there, because some providers restrict or condition affiliate content. Finding that out after you have collected subscribers means a painful migration.
Mailchimp: familiar and polished, but watch how costs scale
Mailchimp is probably the best-known name in email marketing, and its appeal is polish. The email designer is approachable, the template library is large, and it connects to a long list of other tools, from online stores to form builders. If you want your emails to look designed without learning any design tools, it is a comfortable place to start.
Free and entry tiers. Mailchimp has offered a free plan for small lists, with a restricted feature set and limits on contacts and sends. The limits on the free plan have changed more than once over the years, so check the current terms. Paid plans are tiered, and several of the more useful features, such as more advanced automation and testing, sit on higher tiers instead of the entry one.
First welcome sequence. Mailchimp’s automation builder includes a prebuilt welcome flow that you customise with your own copy and timing. For a beginner, starting from a template shortens setup considerably. Expect most of your time to go into writing the emails and getting your signup form connected, not into the automation logic itself.
Where it starts to hurt. Cost is the usual complaint. Pricing is tied to contact count, and it is worth reading how Mailchimp counts contacts, including whether unsubscribed or inactive addresses affect your bill. As a list grows, many people find the price climbing faster than their results. If you plan to grow quickly, price out your list at three or four future sizes before committing.
Mailchimp suits someone who values a friendly interface and broad integrations, and who plans to keep the list modest or has budget for the tiers as it grows.
Kit: built for creators who sell and recommend
Kit, formerly known as ConvertKit, was designed around bloggers, newsletter writers, course creators and other people whose income depends on recommending or selling things to an audience. That focus shows in its structure. Subscribers are managed with tags and segments, forms and landing pages are built in, and the platform includes ways to sell digital products and paid subscriptions.
Free and entry tiers. Kit has a free plan aimed at people just starting an audience, with a cap on subscribers and some features reserved for paid plans. Look closely at which automation and sequence features the free plan includes today, since that is the part that matters for a welcome series. The paid plans are priced mainly by subscriber count.
First welcome sequence. The automation builder is visual and reads in a straightforward line: a trigger (someone joins through a form), followed by the emails and delays. Because sequences are central to how Kit works, a beginner can usually find the right tool without hunting through menus. The writing still takes the longest.
Where it starts to hurt. Two things. First, price rises with your subscriber count, and the cost can feel steep compared with some budget platforms once the list is large. Second, Kit’s email design leans toward simple, text-forward layouts. That is often a deliberate advantage for deliverability and a personal feel, but if you want heavily designed, image-driven promotional emails, the options are narrower than in Mailchimp or MailerLite.
Kit suits affiliate marketers, bloggers and creators who run an email-first business and care more about tagging and sequences than about elaborate templates.
MailerLite: the simple, budget-friendly middle ground
MailerLite has a reputation for being clean, quick to learn and inexpensive. Its drag-and-drop editor is easy to pick up, and it covers the basics most small senders need: signup forms, landing pages, automations, segmentation and basic reporting.
Free and entry tiers. MailerLite has a free plan for small lists, and its paid tiers are generally considered low-priced compared with larger competitors. As with every platform here, the exact subscriber cap and the features included for free have been adjusted over time, so read the current plan comparison. Pay particular attention to whether automation and the features you need are included at the tier you intend to use.
First welcome sequence. The automation editor is visual: you pick a trigger such as joining a group, then add emails and wait steps. The interface keeps options limited enough that a beginner is less likely to get lost. For a simple welcome series of three to five emails, this is one of the less intimidating builders in this comparison.
Where it starts to hurt. The limits show when your needs become more complex. If you want elaborate branching logic, detailed behaviour-based scoring or a full customer relationship tool linked to your email, MailerLite is lighter than ActiveCampaign. Growth also moves you up through pricing tiers, so confirm where the jumps happen. Most people with a straightforward list and a simple funnel will not hit these limits for a long time.
MailerLite suits beginners who want a low monthly cost, a clean editor and enough automation to run a welcome series and a regular newsletter.
ActiveCampaign: powerful automation and the learning curve that comes with it
ActiveCampaign is the most automation-focused platform of the five. It combines email with a customer relationship management layer, so you can build sequences that respond to what people do: which links they click, which pages they visit, which tags they carry, how they score against criteria you set. It is built for marketers who want the email system to make decisions.
Free and entry tiers. ActiveCampaign has generally been offered through a free trial and paid plans, not an ongoing free plan, so check whether that is still the case. Its lower tiers include email and basic automation, while the more advanced capabilities, such as deeper CRM features and more sophisticated automation, are in higher tiers. You should expect to pay from the start.
First welcome sequence. Building a basic welcome flow is possible, and the platform provides automation recipes to start from. But the builder exposes a very large set of triggers, conditions and actions, and a beginner will spend more time understanding the options than on any other platform here. Setting aside extra time to learn the system is realistic.
Where it starts to hurt. Two pressure points. Cost rises as you move up for more contacts and advanced features. And complexity can become a problem of its own: elaborate automations are harder to maintain, and it is easy to build more than you need. The platform rewards you only if you use what it offers.
ActiveCampaign suits small businesses and experienced marketers with a clear funnel in mind, such as lead nurturing for higher-priced products or services, who are willing to invest time and money in automation.
Brevo: email plus SMS on one account
Brevo, which used to operate as Sendinblue, bundles email with other channels such as SMS and also offers CRM and transactional email features. If you expect to message customers by text as well as by email, having both under one login and one contact list is the main draw.
Free and entry tiers. Brevo has offered a free plan with a daily sending limit, and its pricing has often been based on how many emails you send instead of how many contacts you hold. That model can work in your favour if you have a large list that you email infrequently, and against you if you send often. Confirm the current structure, including which automation features are free and what SMS costs, since text messages are typically charged separately.
First welcome sequence. Brevo’s automation tool lets you start from templates and build a workflow with a trigger, emails and waiting periods. The interface carries a lot of features because of the multi-channel design, so a beginner may need a little longer to find their way around than in MailerLite, though less than in ActiveCampaign.
Where it starts to hurt. A daily sending cap on the free plan can slow a larger send, and the pricing model means you should estimate how often you will email before judging cost. If you only ever want email, you will be paying attention to a platform with more built in than you need. If you do want text messaging, our guide to SMS marketing tools for customer engagement explains how that channel fits alongside email. Whichever route you take, get consent for each channel separately and keep records of it.
Brevo suits small businesses that send both email and text messages, and anyone who wants transactional emails such as order confirmations handled by the same provider.
Side-by-side table: free tier, automation, templates, support and ease of use
This table summarises the qualitative differences described above. It contains no prices or numeric limits because those change frequently; use the vendor pages for the current figures.
Platform Free tier Automation Templates Support Ease of use for beginners Mailchimp Free plan for small lists, with restrictions Prebuilt flows; more advanced options on higher tiers Large, polished library Level of support varies by plan Easy, with a friendly interface Kit Free plan for smaller audiences Visual sequences built around tags and triggers Fewer, simple and text-forward Check what each plan includes Easy for creators, clear structure MailerLite Free plan for small lists Visual builder, good for straightforward funnels Clean drag-and-drop designs Check what each plan includes Very easy, minimal clutter ActiveCampaign Trial rather than an ongoing free plan Most advanced of the five, with CRM-driven logic Solid selection Check what each plan includes Hardest to learn, most capable Brevo Free plan with a daily sending limit Workflows across email and SMS Reasonable selection Check what each plan includes Moderate, many features in one place
Support is the column to verify most carefully. Live chat, email support and response times are often tied to the plan you pay for, so check which channel your tier includes before you rely on it.
Which one fits you: picks by goal, budget and list size
No platform wins every category, so match the tool to your situation.
- You are an affiliate marketer or blogger building an audience from zero. Kit and MailerLite are the natural shortlist. Kit is built for recommending and selling to an audience, and its tagging suits segmenting subscribers by interest. MailerLite does the core job at a lower cost. Before choosing, read the affiliate policy of whichever one you pick.
- You are on the tightest possible budget. Start with a free plan from MailerLite, Kit, Brevo or Mailchimp, and compare their current free limits against your first six months of expected growth. A free plan that caps you before your list is useful just postpones the decision.
- You run a small local or product business and want polished emails. Mailchimp’s templates and integrations are a good fit, as long as you check what the price will be at the list size you expect in a year or two.
- You also want to text customers. Brevo keeps email and SMS in one place. Confirm SMS pricing for your country first.
- You have a defined sales funnel and want the system to react to behaviour. ActiveCampaign is the only one here designed for that depth. Choose it when you know what you will build, not as a platform to grow into by accident.
- You are a complete beginner who wants the least friction. MailerLite is the least intimidating of the five for a simple welcome sequence, with Kit close behind if you are a creator.
Two habits apply whichever you choose. Before you commit, work out the monthly cost at three list sizes: today’s, double and ten times. And make sure you can export your subscribers, so that moving later is possible if your needs change. Our piece on data privacy and consent covers what you need to have in place before you collect addresses.
Pick the platform that fits your situation, then follow our guide on building your first profitable email list from scratch so you have subscribers ready on day one.