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TierGauge

Email marketing pricing comparison

Every email marketing tool we track, side by side on price. Numbers pulled from each vendor's published pricing page and refreshed weekly. No invented benchmarks, no estimated tiers.

11 Tools compared
8 Have a free plan
$18 Lowest paid entry
Most recent capture

Free tiers

What each tool gives you on the free plan, before any paid upgrade. Tools without a free plan are listed in the next table.

Tool Plan Contact limit Monthly send limit Source
beehiiv Launch 2,500 subscribers Unlimited Vendor
Buttondown Free 100 subscribers · Vendor
Flodesk Free Unlimited · Vendor
Kit Newsletter 10,000 subscribers · Vendor
Mailchimp Free 250 contacts 500 sends (or 250/day) Vendor
MailerLite Free 500 subscribers 12,000 sends Vendor
Omnisend Free 250 contacts 500 sends Vendor
Substack Standard Unlimited Unlimited Vendor

Entry paid plans

The cheapest published paid plan for each tool. This is the upgrade target after a free trial or free tier. Custom / contact-sales plans are excluded; see the per-tool page for those.

Tool Plan Monthly price Contact limit Send limit Action
beehiiv Scale $43 /mo 100,000 subscribers Unlimited Try beehiiv
Buttondown $9 add-ons $9 /mo Custom · View Buttondown
Flodesk Lite $25 /mo 25,000 subscribers · View Flodesk
Kit Creator $33 /mo 1,000 subscribers (anchor; scales up) · View Kit
Mailchimp Essentials $13 /mo 500 contacts (anchor; scales up) 5,000 sends (10x contacts) View Mailchimp
MailerLite Growing Business $10 /mo 500 subscribers (anchor; scales up) Unlimited View MailerLite
Omnisend Standard $16 /mo 500 contacts 6,000 sends View Omnisend
Ghost Starter $18 /mo 1,000 members Unlimited View Ghost
Drip Standard $39 /mo 2,500 contacts (entry tier; scales) · View Drip
Customer.io Essentials $100 /mo 5,000 profiles (people plus objects) 1,000,000 View Customer.io

Rows tagged "Try {tool}" link to that vendor through TierGauge's affiliate program. We earn a commission if you sign up; this never changes ranking, which is purely free-plan-first then ascending entry price. See methodology for the full disclosure rules.

Mid-tier paid plans

The plan above entry-tier where most growth-stage publishers land as the contact list scales. Tools without a published mid tier jump straight to enterprise / contact-sales pricing and are omitted here.

Tool Plan Monthly price Contact limit Send limit
beehiiv Max $96 /mo 100,000 subscribers Unlimited
Buttondown $29 add-ons $29 /mo Custom ·
Flodesk Pro $28 /mo 255,000 subscribers (anchor; scales) ·
Kit Pro $66 /mo 1,000 subscribers (anchor; scales up) ·
Mailchimp Standard $20 /mo 500 contacts (anchor; scales up) 6,000 sends (12x contacts)
MailerLite Advanced $20 /mo 500 subscribers (anchor; scales up) Unlimited
Omnisend Pro $59 /mo 2,500 contacts Unlimited
Ghost Publisher $29 /mo 1,000 members Unlimited
Customer.io Premium $1,000 /mo Custom Custom

Beyond price

Cost is one dimension. The pages below cover the same email marketing set on different axes.

Editorial ranking /best/email-marketing Ranks the same tools by editorial fit (free-plan-first, then ascending price, then alphabetical) with verdict tags and best-for / not-for slices per row. Switch guides 25 email marketing migration guides Long-form switch guides for the in-category pairs (export mechanics, automation rebuilds, DKIM sequencing, what you lose vs gain). Head-to-head 55 pairs in /compare Two-tool head-to-head matchups with side-by-side plan grids, limits at the entry tier, and best-for splits.

Email marketing migration guides

Featured head-to-head pairs

How this table is built

Vendor pricing-page citations

Every plan in the tables above is sourced from the URLs below. Click through to verify any number; vendors update prices on their own cadence and we capture weekly.