Email Marketing Pricing Compared: The Real Cost of 11 Tools

The Pricing Models Explained

Email marketing tools use three main pricing models, and understanding which one you are dealing with saves you from surprise bills.

Per-contact pricing is the most common. You pay based on how many subscribers are in your account, regardless of how many emails you send. MailerLite, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, GetResponse, Klaviyo, Kit (ConvertKit), AWeber, Drip, and Omnisend all use this model. The trap: some platforms count unsubscribed and bounced contacts toward your limit (Mailchimp, notably), while others only count active subscribers (MailerLite).

Per-email pricing charges based on how many emails you send, not how many contacts you have. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is the main player here. You can have unlimited contacts but you are limited to a certain number of email sends per month (or per day on the free plan). This model rewards businesses with large lists but low sending frequency.

Freemium with hard limits offers a free tier with strict caps, then charges per-contact above that. Mailchimp, MailerLite, Klaviyo, and Brevo all have free plans, but the limits vary enormously — from 250 contacts (Klaviyo) to unlimited contacts with 300 sends per day (Brevo).

The model that saves you money depends entirely on your ratio of contacts to emails sent. If you have 10,000 contacts but only send twice a month, Brevo's per-email model will be dramatically cheaper than per-contact platforms.

Real Costs at 1,000 Contacts

At 1,000 contacts, you are in the sweet spot where pricing differences are modest. Every dollar counts more for what you get at this scale.

MailerLite Growing Business: $10/month. Includes automation, landing pages, and email support. This is the lowest paid entry point among serious tools.

Brevo Starter: $9/month for 5,000 emails. You can also stay free with 300 emails/day (about 9,000/month) — enough for a 1K list sending 2x per week.

GetResponse Starter: $19/month. Includes autoresponders, landing pages, and basic automation.

ActiveCampaign Starter: $19/month. Includes email marketing and basic automation but not the CRM — that starts at $49/month.

Mailchimp Standard: approximately $30/month. Mailchimp's pricing restructured in late 2025, and the Standard plan is the first tier with useful automation. The Essentials plan at roughly $13/month is email-only without automations.

Kit (ConvertKit) Creator: $33/month. Premium-priced for creators who want simplicity. You are paying for the interface and creator-focused features.

Klaviyo Email: approximately $30/month at 1,000 contacts. Their pricing is transparent on their website — it scales in steps based on contact count.

AWeber Plus: $20/month. Straightforward pricing but the platform feels dated compared to newer alternatives.

Omnisend Standard: $16/month. Affordable e-commerce option with SMS capabilities.

Drip: $39/month. The most expensive option at this tier. Justified only if you need their e-commerce automation specifically.

beehiiv Scale: $42/month (billed annually). Primarily a newsletter platform — not a traditional email marketing tool. Pricing reflects the monetization features (recommendations, boosts, paid subscriptions).

Real Costs at 10,000 Contacts

At 10,000 contacts, pricing differences become substantial. The gap between the cheapest and most expensive option is over $200/month — that is $2,400+ per year.

MailerLite Growing Business: $54/month. Still the value leader by a wide margin.

Brevo Business: $18/month for 20,000 emails (enough for 2x/week sends to 10K). If you send more frequently, the Starter plan at 40,000 emails is $35/month. Brevo's model shines at this list size.

GetResponse Marketing Automation: $114/month. The jump from Starter is steep because the marketing automation features kick in at a higher tier.

ActiveCampaign Plus: $139/month. This gets you automation, CRM, and lead scoring. At this price, you are getting a genuinely powerful marketing platform.

Mailchimp Standard: approximately $110/month. Pricing varies based on exactly how Mailchimp calculates your audience, which includes unsubscribed contacts unless you manually archive them.

Kit Creator Pro: $119/month. The newsletter referral program and subscriber scoring are included here.

Klaviyo Email: approximately $150/month. Klaviyo publishes transparent per-contact pricing, so this scales predictably.

AWeber Plus: $60/month. Competitive pricing at this tier, though feature-wise it trails the leaders.

Omnisend Standard: $105/month. Includes SMS credits and e-commerce features.

Drip: $154/month. Still premium, still primarily for e-commerce brands that need behavioral automation.

beehiiv Scale: $42/month (pricing is the same up to 10,000 subscribers). This makes beehiiv extremely affordable per-contact at this tier, but remember — it is a newsletter platform, not a full email marketing suite.

Real Costs at 50,000 Contacts

At 50,000 contacts, you are in serious money territory. Annual costs range from roughly $2,000 to over $10,000 depending on the platform. Choosing wrong here is expensive.

MailerLite Advanced: approximately $289/month. Even at 50K, MailerLite remains the most affordable traditional email platform.

Brevo Business: approximately $65/month for 60,000 emails (just over 1x/week to the full list). For 2x/week sends (120,000/month), you are looking at roughly $90/month. Brevo's pricing model makes it absurdly cheap at high contact counts with moderate sending frequency.

GetResponse: approximately $299/month on their MAX plan. Custom pricing may be available.

ActiveCampaign: approximately $386/month on the Professional plan. Enterprise pricing applies above this with custom quotes.

Mailchimp Standard: approximately $350/month. At this scale, Mailchimp's pricing is aggressive, and many businesses at this size have already migrated to alternatives.

Klaviyo Email: approximately $630/month. Klaviyo's per-contact pricing scales linearly, and at 50K it is one of the most expensive options. Brands stay because the e-commerce revenue attribution often justifies the cost.

Kit: approximately $379/month on Creator Pro.

Drip: approximately $699/month. At this price, you need to be generating significant e-commerce revenue to justify the investment.

Omnisend: approximately $330/month on Standard.

The pattern at scale: Brevo and MailerLite are 3-5x cheaper than the premium options. If you need advanced automation, ActiveCampaign offers the best features-to-price ratio. If you need e-commerce automation specifically, Klaviyo and Drip are expensive but purpose-built.

Hidden Costs You Will Not See on the Pricing Page

The monthly subscription is not the full picture. Several costs are buried in the fine print.

Overage charges: Mailchimp charges per-email overages if you exceed your plan's sending limit. ActiveCampaign does not charge overages — they ask you to upgrade. Kit pauses sending if you hit your limit. Know your platform's overage policy before you hit it.

Contact counting tricks: Mailchimp counts every contact in your audience, including unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts, toward your plan limit. If you have 5,000 subscribers and 2,000 unsubscribed contacts you have not archived, you are paying for 7,000. MailerLite only counts active, subscribed contacts. This difference can mean paying for a higher tier than you need on platforms with inclusive counting.

Premium features behind higher tiers: Many useful features are locked to more expensive plans. ActiveCampaign's CRM and lead scoring require the Plus plan ($49+/month). Mailchimp's advanced automation requires Standard ($20+/month). GetResponse's webinar hosting requires the Marketing Automation plan. MailerLite's ability to auto-resend to non-openers requires the Growing Business plan.

Add-on costs: Some platforms charge extra for SMS (ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp), dedicated IPs ($20-50/month on most platforms), premium support (Mailchimp charges for phone support), and advanced analytics or reporting.

Annual vs. monthly billing: Most platforms offer 15-20% discounts for annual billing. MailerLite offers 15% off. ActiveCampaign gives 20% off. The savings are real but you are committing to 12 months — factor in migration risk if you are not sure about the platform.

Free Tier Comparison

Free plans are a legitimate strategy for businesses with small lists, but the limitations vary dramatically.

MailerLite Free: 500 subscribers (reduced from 1,000 in September 2025), 12,000 emails/month. You get the drag-and-drop editor, automation, and landing pages. No templates, no auto-resend, no live chat support. Verdict: the most usable free plan for growing a real business.

Brevo Free: Unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day. The daily limit means about 9,000 emails per month. You get the editor, automation, and transactional email. No landing pages, limited reporting. Verdict: best for large lists with low frequency.

Mailchimp Free: 250 contacts, 500 emails/month. Severely limited since they cut the free plan from 2,000 contacts. You get basic email campaigns with Mailchimp branding. Verdict: barely functional — you will outgrow it almost immediately.

Klaviyo Free: 250 contacts, 500 emails/month. Full access to Klaviyo's features at this tiny scale. Verdict: only useful for testing the platform, not for running a business.

beehiiv Launch: Free for up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited emails. Includes the newsletter editor, website, and basic analytics. Verdict: the most generous free plan, but it is a newsletter tool — not a full email marketing platform.

Kit Free: recently introduced a free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers. Includes landing pages and basic email sends. No automation, no sequences. Verdict: great for list building, but you cannot do much with the list until you upgrade.

If you are genuinely starting from zero with no budget, MailerLite Free is the best all-around option. If you already have a large list, Brevo Free is uniquely positioned with unlimited contacts.

Best Value by Use Case

Best value for small business on a budget: MailerLite. At every contact tier, it is the cheapest option among full-featured email platforms, and the deliverability is the best we have found. The risk is their account approval process, but if you pass it, the value is unbeatable.

Best value for high-volume senders: Brevo. If you have a large list but moderate sending frequency, Brevo's per-email pricing can save you 50-80% compared to per-contact platforms. At 50,000 contacts sending 2x/week, you are paying roughly $90/month versus $300-600 on competitors.

Best value for e-commerce: Omnisend at lower price points, Klaviyo once you can afford it. Omnisend gives you e-commerce automation and SMS for less than Klaviyo, but Klaviyo's revenue attribution and behavioral data are superior if you are generating enough sales to justify the premium.

Best value for automation-heavy businesses: ActiveCampaign. Yes, it is mid-to-high priced, but the depth of automation, the built-in CRM, and the deliverability make it the best bang for your buck if you actually use those features. Paying $139/month for ActiveCampaign Plus is cheaper than paying $54/month for MailerLite and $50/month for a separate CRM.

Best value for creators and newsletters: beehiiv or Kit. If your primary use case is a newsletter with monetization, beehiiv's pricing is extremely competitive and the built-in growth tools (recommendations network, boosts) can generate revenue. Kit is pricier but has a stronger ecosystem of creator tools.

The Pricing Traps to Avoid

Trap 1: Choosing a platform based on the free plan, then being locked in by migration costs when you outgrow it. Mailchimp is the biggest offender here — they hook you with a (now barely useful) free plan, and by the time you have 5,000 subscribers, you have templates, automations, and integrations that are painful to rebuild elsewhere.

Trap 2: Not archiving unsubscribed contacts on platforms that count them. On Mailchimp, this can mean paying one full tier higher than necessary. Check your audience regularly and archive contacts who will never receive another email.

Trap 3: Paying for features you do not use. If you signed up for ActiveCampaign Professional ($187/month for 1,000 contacts) but you are only using basic automations, you are overpaying. Downgrade to Starter or Plus and save $100+/month.

Trap 4: Ignoring annual billing discounts. If you are committed to a platform, annual billing saves 15-20% on most tools. On ActiveCampaign at 10,000 contacts, that is roughly $300/year in savings.

Trap 5: Not renegotiating at scale. Once you are above 25,000-50,000 contacts, most platforms will negotiate custom pricing. Ask for a discount before your renewal, especially if you can reference lower pricing from a competitor. Account managers at ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, and Mailchimp have flexibility on pricing for accounts at this scale.

Trap 6: Focusing on cost per contact instead of cost per engaged subscriber. A $50/month platform where 80% of your list is engaged is cheaper per engaged subscriber than a $30/month platform where 40% of your list is dead weight.