7 Best Email Marketing Tools in 2026

We review tools for solo creators and side-hustlers, so we weight our scores toward the person running a list alone. Each tool is rated on five criteria from 1 to 10, and the overall score is their average:

• Value for money: price against what you actually get at a small-to-mid list size.
• Free plan depth: how far the free tier takes you before you must pay.
• Ease of start: setup, onboarding, and how quickly you can send.
• Feature depth: automations, forms, landing pages, and commerce.
• Docs and support: documentation quality and support channels.

One disclosure: StackPicks runs live paid accounts on beehiiv and systeme.io only, so the beehiiv entry below is hands-on. The other six ratings are spec-based, drawn from official 2026 pricing pages and documentation. See our methodology for the full detail on how we test and rate.

Every price below was verified on the official pricing pages in July 2026. Figures for subscriber-priced tools reflect roughly 1,000 subscribers billed annually. Brevo is priced by email volume and Mailchimp by contacts, as noted, and prices scale as your list or send volume grows.

MailerLite is our best overall value pick, scoring 8.2/10 (spec-based). The free plan covers up to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, and it includes visual automations, signup forms, and a landing page rather than holding them back for paid tiers. Paid pricing is the draw: the Comfort plan starts at about $12 per month (1,000 subscribers, billed annually), and Power at about $25 per month adds unlimited emails and unlimited automations.

For a solo sender that mix is hard to beat. The editor is clean, onboarding is quick, and the automation builder handles welcome sequences without a steep learning curve. Deliverability has a solid reputation and the documentation is thorough.

Our spec-based take: start here for the lowest-friction paid plan that still scales with you. The main limits are the 250-subscriber free cap (Kit and beehiiv are more generous) and a few reports reserved for Power. See how it fits a wider stack in our best newsletter platforms guide.

Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is built for creators who sell, scoring 7.8/10 (spec-based). Its free Newsletter plan is among the most generous anywhere: up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, unlimited landing pages and forms, plus the ability to sell digital products and paid subscriptions. The catch is a single basic automation on the free tier. Paid plans unlock the rest, with Creator at about $33 per month for 1,000 subscribers (billed annually) and Creator Pro at about $66 per month adding engagement scoring, deliverability reporting, and unlimited seats.

Kit's strengths are tagging, visual automations, and email sequences that suit course sellers, coaches, and writers building a business around a list, with commerce tools baked in.

Our spec-based take: the free plan is excellent for reaching 10,000 subscribers cheaply, but paid pricing climbs faster than MailerLite or EmailOctopus as your list grows. Read our full Kit review, or see it head to head in beehiiv vs Kit.

GetResponse is the most complete all-in-one platform in this roundup, scoring 7.4/10 (spec-based). Beyond email it bundles a website builder, landing pages, signup forms, webinars, and conversion funnels. The free plan allows up to 500 contacts and 2,500 emails a month with light branding, though several premium features are limited to the initial 14-day trial. Paid pricing starts with Starter at about $16 per month (1,000 contacts, billed annually), Marketer at about $48 per month for full automation, and Creator at about $57 per month for courses and premium newsletters.

If you would otherwise buy email, landing pages, and webinar software separately, GetResponse replaces several tools at once, with marketing automation and abandoned-cart recovery on the mid tiers.

Our spec-based take: choose GetResponse when breadth matters more than the lowest price, especially if webinars or funnels are part of your plan. For funnel-first needs, compare it in our best funnel builders guide.

beehiiv is our best pick for newsletters and one of only two tools here we run on a live paid account, so this take is hands-on rather than spec-based. It scores 8.0/10. The free Launch plan is strong: up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, a hosted website, custom domains, and the recommendation network that drives growth. Paid plans are flat up to 100,000 subscribers rather than per-subscriber: Scale at about $43 per month (billed annually) removes the take rate on paid subscriptions and adds automations, surveys, and the ad network; Max at about $96 per month removes beehiiv branding.

In our own use, the growth and monetization tooling is the differentiator: referrals, boosts, an ad network, and native paid subscriptions all live in one place, with fast editing and clear analytics.

Our take: for a newsletter you plan to grow and monetize, beehiiv is the most focused option here. Read our beehiiv review, the beehiiv vs Substack comparison, or our guide to starting a newsletter.

Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, wins on free sending volume, scoring 7.6/10 (spec-based). Its pricing model is unusual and useful: you pay for emails sent, not contacts stored. The free plan allows up to 300 emails a day (around 9,000 a month) with unlimited contacts, which suits large lists that email occasionally. Paid plans remove the daily cap, with Starter from about $9 per month for 5,000 emails and Business from about $18 per month adding marketing automation, A/B testing, and advanced reporting.

Brevo also folds in SMS, a light CRM, and transactional email, so it doubles as sending infrastructure for a small store or app.

Our spec-based take: if you store many contacts but only email now and then, Brevo is often cheaper than subscriber-priced rivals. Heavy senders should check the per-email tiers, which rise with volume.

Mailchimp is the best-known name and has the deepest integration ecosystem, but it scores lowest here at 6.6/10 (spec-based) on value. The free plan has been trimmed over the years and now allows about 250 contacts and 500 emails a month. Paid plans start with Essentials at about $13 per month (500 contacts), Standard at about $20 per month for automation flows and generative AI, and Premium at about $350 per month for larger senders.

Where Mailchimp still leads is connections: it integrates with hundreds of ecommerce, CRM, and website platforms, and its brand recognition means most tools support it out of the box. The editor and reporting are polished.

Our spec-based take: Mailchimp is defensible if you depend on a specific integration or already know the interface, but for most solo creators the price climbs faster than the value. MailerLite and EmailOctopus cover the core email features for less.

EmailOctopus is our budget pick and the cheapest route to a paid plan, scoring 7.6/10 (spec-based). The free plan is generous: up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month with one landing page and one form, carrying EmailOctopus branding. The single Pro plan starts at about $9 per month (billed annually), removing branding and adding unlimited landing pages, unlimited users, and reports kept forever.

EmailOctopus keeps the feature set deliberately lean: campaigns, basic automations, forms, and landing pages, without the webinars, CRM, or commerce tools of the bigger suites. That simplicity is the point, and the low price reflects it.

Our spec-based take: to send clean emails to a growing list at the lowest cost, weigh EmailOctopus against MailerLite's free tier. Pick EmailOctopus for the higher free-plan ceiling, and MailerLite for deeper automation as you scale.

Match the tool to the job:

• Best overall value: MailerLite, for a usable free tier and paid plans from about $12 per month.
• Best for creators selling products: Kit, thanks to a 10,000-subscriber free plan and built-in commerce.
• Best for newsletters: beehiiv, for growth and monetization tooling in one place.
• Best all-in-one: GetResponse, if you also need webinars, funnels, or a website builder.
• Best for large, low-frequency lists: Brevo, priced by emails sent rather than contacts stored.
• Best for integrations and brand familiarity: Mailchimp, if a specific connection matters more than price.
• Tightest budget: EmailOctopus or MailerLite's free plan.

If you are only starting out, a free plan from Kit, beehiiv, EmailOctopus, or MailerLite will carry you a long way before you pay. Our guide to starting a newsletter walks through the first setup, and we cover the wider stack, including all-in-one options like systeme.io, across StackPicks.