Best Email marketing in 2026
Email marketing platforms send newsletters and automated emails to people who opted in to hear from you, and most now add landing pages, signup forms and ways to sell. Choosing one usually comes down to three questions: how far the free plan goes, how quickly prices climb as your list grows, and whether you need extras such as paid newsletters, a referral program or detailed segmentation.
All three tools here price by list size, but they count differently. Mailchimp counts contacts, including unsubscribed and non-subscribed ones, while MailerLite and Kit count only active subscribers. Free plans range from 250 contacts at Mailchimp and MailerLite to 10,000 subscribers at Kit, and automation limits differ sharply between free and paid tiers.
Each tool is compared on the same eight points: free tier size, automations, landing pages, paid newsletters, segmentation, referral program, API and deliverability tools. Prices are list prices in US dollars from each vendor's pricing page.
Our ranking
Email marketing for creators, formerly ConvertKit, with a free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers.
Compare: vs Mailchimp · vs MailerLite
Email marketing platform from Intuit with automation flows, landing pages, an SMS add-on and 300+ integrations.
Compare: vs Kit · vs MailerLite · vs Klaviyo · vs Brevo
Newsletter platform with referrals, an ad network, a website and paid subscriptions; free plan up to 2,500 subscribers.
Compare: vs Substack
Email marketing with automations, websites, landing pages and paid newsletters, billed by active subscribers.
Compare: vs Kit · vs Mailchimp · vs Brevo
Marketing automation with email, contact profiles, landing pages and SMS, WhatsApp and CRM add-ons, priced by contacts.
Email marketing for small businesses with social posting, events, US-only SMS and live phone support on every plan.
Email and text marketing for consumer brands, with flows and segments built on data from 350+ integrations.
Compare: vs Mailchimp
Newsletter platform that is free to publish on, with paid subscriptions, podcasts, video and a built-in reader network.
Compare: vs beehiiv
Email and SMS marketing platform, formerly Sendinblue, with transactional email and pricing by monthly email volume.
Compare: vs Mailchimp · vs MailerLite
Design-first email marketing with custom fonts, workflows, forms and a Stripe checkout, priced by active subscribers.
Top 5 compared
| Feature | Kit | Mailchimp | beehiiv | MailerLite | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier size | Yes · Up to 10,000 subscribers | Yes · 250 contacts, 500 emails/month (250/day) | Yes · Up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited email sends | Yes · 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/month | No · No free plan; 14-day free trial with 100 email sends, no credit card |
| Automations | Yes · Unlimited visual automations and sequences on Creator and Pro; none on Free | Yes · Essentials: flows up to 4 steps; Standard/Premium: flows up to 200 steps with branching; Free: preview only | Yes · Lite: 10 live automations; Pro: unlimited, adds click triggers and A/B splits; Free: welcome email only | Yes · Free: 3 active, 5 steps; Comfort: 50 active; Power: unlimited; paid plans up to 100 steps | Yes · Multi-step automations and 950+ recipes on all plans; Starter: 5 actions per automation; Plus and up: unlimited actions |
| Landing pages | Yes · Unlimited on all plans, including Free | Yes · All plans, including Free | Yes · Website builder on all plans; custom pages: Free 1, Lite 5, Pro unlimited | Yes · Free: 1; Comfort: 10; Power: unlimited | Yes · Unlimited on Plus, Pro and Enterprise; not on Starter |
| Paid newsletters | Yes · All plans; 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction | No · No native paid subscriptions; Mailchimp points to partner payment apps | Yes · Lite (1 paid tier) and Pro (unlimited tiers); 0% platform fee, Stripe 2.9% + $0.30; not on Free | Yes · Comfort and Power plans; not on Free | No · No built-in paid subscriptions; Pro and Enterprise sync Stripe subscriptions (Recurring Payments) to trigger automations |
| Segmentation | Yes · Tags and segments on all plans | Yes · Basic on Free/Essentials; advanced and predictive on Standard/Premium | Yes · Segments on all plans (Free 3, Lite 10, Pro unlimited); sending to a segment needs a paid plan | Yes · Unlimited dynamic segments and groups on all plans | Yes · Limited on Starter, standard on Plus, advanced on Pro, premium on Enterprise; saved segments on all plans |
| Referral program | Yes · Pro only, via an included SparkLoop plan | No · No built-in subscriber referral program listed | Yes · Built in on Lite (3 reward milestones) and Pro (unlimited); not on Free | No · No built-in; integrates with referral tools such as GrowSurf | No · No built-in subscriber referral program; partner apps such as GrowSurf and SparkLoop add one, on all plans |
| API | Yes · All plans | Yes · Marketing API; Transactional email add-on on Standard/Premium (demo only on Free/Essentials) | Yes · API on all plans: 30 requests/min on Free, 180 on Lite, 500 on Pro; Send API on Pro and Enterprise | Yes · Full on paid plans; limited on Free (no sending) | Yes · API and webhooks on all plans; 5 requests per second per account; Claude and ChatGPT connector via MCP |
| Deliverability tools | Yes · Verified sending domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC); deliverability reporting and custom tracking domain on Pro | Yes · Domain authentication (DKIM, DMARC); Inbox Preview on paid plans (25 tokens/month) | Yes · Custom sending domain with SPF, DKIM and required DMARC on paid plans; DMARC wizard; dedicated IPs on Enterprise | Yes · Domain authentication (DKIM, SPF); MailerCheck verifier from a sister company, paid separately; dedicated IP add-on on Enterprise | Yes · SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up with your sending domain; spam check on all plans; inbox preview 5/month on Plus and Pro, unlimited on Enterprise |