Most small-business email guides list six tools side by side and leave you to guess. This one works the other way: four questions that eliminate the wrong platforms before you sign up for anything. Every price below is a publicly listed 2026 rate — check the vendor's pricing page before you buy, because tiers move.
First: how big is your list, really?
If you have fewer than about a thousand contacts, you may not need to pay at all. MailerLite's free plan covers a thousand subscribers with twelve thousand emails a month and puts no branding on your messages. Brevo's free plan sends three hundred emails a day with no cap on how many contacts you can store. Mailchimp's free plan covers five hundred contacts with a thousand sends a month, but every message carries its logo.
The honest test: count the addresses you actually email, not the ones sitting dead in a spreadsheet. A shop with a few hundred real customers runs free for a long time on either of the first two. Pick the platform whose free tier matches your real list, not the one with the famous name.
Second: do you send often, or in bursts?
This is where pricing models split. Brevo charges by email volume, so a business with a large stored list but modest sending — the classic small-shop pattern of a weekly newsletter — usually pays the least there. Moosend goes further: every paid tier includes unlimited sends at a flat price, which suits daily digests and broadcast-heavy shops that would blow through per-email allowances.
If you only send a monthly update to a modest list, volume barely matters and you should optimize for ease instead. But if your calendar says daily, filter every candidate by its overage policy first — that line decides your bill more than the headline monthly price.
Third: do you need more than email?
Some platforms bundle extras you may never open. GetResponse packs landing pages, sales funnels, webinars and a basic CRM into one subscription — worth it when you would otherwise pay for those separately, noise when you only need newsletters. Constant Contact leans the other way: guided campaigns, event tools and live human support by chat and phone, aimed at owners who would rather call someone than learn automation.
MailerLite and Brevo sit in the middle with visual automation builders — welcome sequences, abandoned-cart emails, birthday campaigns — that cover most small businesses without a separate tool. Only reach for a dedicated automation product when your journeys connect email to a sales pipeline across multiple touches.
Fourth: what will the second year cost?
Introductory pricing is the oldest trick in software. Mailchimp turns into one of the pricier options once a list passes a few thousand contacts, and every vendor's price steps up at contact-count thresholds. Before committing, price your list at double its current size and compare that number, not today's.
Two practical levers cut the bill: annual billing, which typically shaves roughly a fifth to nearly a third off across these vendors, and starting free while you validate. A free tier that fits under a thousand people buys you months of real sending data before the first invoice — use that data to pick the paid tier instead of guessing.
Two mistakes that cost real money
First, choosing by brand instead of by list math. The best-known platform charges a premium above a couple thousand contacts that smaller rivals simply do not. Second, ignoring branding on free plans — one vendor stamps its logo on every free email while two competitors send clean. Your customers notice the difference even if you do not.
A path by stage
Starting from zero: MailerLite or Brevo free, no card required. Growing past a thousand contacts with modest volume: Brevo's volume pricing or MailerLite's mid tier. Sending daily at flat cost: Moosend. Needing funnels and webinars in one bill: GetResponse. Wanting a human on the phone: Constant Contact.
This is a condensed, restructured version of a longer comparison on my site — the full guide includes the six-platform comparison table, the Vietnam-specific buying notes (payment cards, consent rules under the personal-data law effective 2026, pairing email with local channels), and five detailed FAQs: https://tanit365.com/en/blog/posts/best-email-marketing-software-small-business-2026/
Top comments (0)