Up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month — completely free. No credit card required. Enough runway to build your first meaningful list before spending anything.

Designed with simplicity as a core value. The automation builder, form builder, and email editor are genuinely beginner-friendly — build a complete welcome sequence without touching documentation.

Unlike platforms that lock automations behind paid tiers. Your welcome sequence, content upgrade delivery, and basic re-engagement automation can all be built and run for free.

Consistently performs well in deliverability benchmarks. Emails land in the Primary inbox reliably when following best practices.

Build dedicated opt-in landing pages without a separate tool — included in all tiers.

One of the best affiliate programs in the email marketing space. Recommending MailerLite genuinely to your audience earns you 30% recurring commissions — every month the referral stays subscribed.

Up to 10,000 subscribers completely free — the most generous free tier of any major email platform. If your primary concern is keeping costs low while building a large list, ConvertKit’s free tier is unmatched.

Designed around how content creators actually work — selling digital products, running paid newsletters, managing multiple content offerings. Its Commerce feature lets you sell digital products directly through ConvertKit without a separate payment tool.

Tag-based system rather than separate lists — subscribers hold multiple tags simultaneously, enabling highly targeted sends based on content engaged with, products bought, and actions taken. More powerful than MailerLite’s group-based system for complex segmentation.

ConvertKit’s creator network lets you recommend other creators’ newsletters to your audience — and have yours recommended to theirs. An organic list-building mechanic built into the platform itself.

The most sophisticated available to small businesses. Complex conditional logic, multiple trigger types, behavioral automation based on site visits and link clicks, and CRM integration — all in one platform.

Full customer relationship management — deal pipelines, contact scoring, sales automation, and task management. For businesses that combine email marketing with active sales processes, this integration is genuinely valuable.

Consistently tops deliverability benchmarks. Emails land in Primary inboxes at higher rates than most competitors.

AI-powered send time optimization that predicts the best time to send to each individual subscriber based on their historical engagement patterns.

Set your “From” name and “From” email address.

Email authentication records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) tell receiving email servers that your emails are genuinely coming from you — not a spammer spoofing your domain. All major platforms walk you through adding these to your domain’s DNS settings.

CAN-SPAM law requires every marketing email to include a visible unsubscribe link and your physical mailing address. Your platform adds the unsubscribe link automatically, but you need to provide a mailing address. Use a PO Box if you prefer not to publish your home address.

Create a clearly named group for each subscriber source. Organized groups make segmentation, automation targeting, and reporting significantly easier.

Subscribe to your own list using a personal email address and verify every email in every automation arrives correctly, in the correct order, at the correct interval. Fix anything that doesn’t work before sending real traffic to your opt-in forms.