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Email King

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Best free email marketing services

Every free email plan is a trial with the clock removed. The provider is betting that you will outgrow one of three limits (subscribers, monthly sends, or a feature you eventually need) and the plans differ enormously in which limit you hit first.

That is what this page compares. A plan capping you at 250 subscribers and 500 emails a month is a demo. A plan carrying 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails with automation included is a business you can run for a year without paying anything.

What we weighted

Stated up front so you can disagree with the criteria rather than only with the conclusion.
  • Subscriber ceiling on the free tier
  • Monthly email allowance, which is where most free plans really bite
  • Whether automation is included or held back for the paid tier
  • Whether the provider puts its own branding in your emails
  • What the first paid tier costs, since the free plan is only useful if the upgrade is affordable

Ranked by cost

1,000 subscribers mailed four times a month is a realistic small newsletter. No required features, because adding one would rule out free plans on a page about free plans. The feature differences are covered in the table instead.

Cost calculator

Contacts you actually hold, after bounces.

Campaigns plus automated sends. This is what breaks plans.

Billing
Features you need

Ticking a box removes every plan that does not include it. Leave them all clear to see the full field.

Reset

Cheapest

Sender

Free Forever

£0/mo

Lowest effective monthly cost of every plan that meets your requirements.

Visit Sender

Best value

Moosend

Pro

$16/mo

≈ £11.80/mo

Of the plans costing up to 2x the cheapest paid option, the one with the highest capability score.

Visit Moosend

Best automation

ActiveCampaign

Starter

£13/mo

Highest automation score among plans that actually include automation on that tier.

Visit ActiveCampaign

Best free plan

Sender

Free Forever

£0/mo

The most capable plan that costs nothing at your subscriber count.

Visit Sender
  • 1Sender

    Free Forever

    £0
    ≈ £0/mo
    CheapestBest free plan
    Monthly
    £0
    Annual (per mo)
    £0
    Subscribers
    2,500
    Emails/mo
    15,000
    AutomationLanding pagesEcommerceForms

    Up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month. Sender branding on emails.

    Visit SenderRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 2Brevo

    Free

    $0
    ≈ £0/mo
    Monthly
    $0
    Annual (per mo)
    $0
    Subscribers
    Unlimited
    Emails/mo
    9,000
    AutomationSMSFormsCRM

    Capped at 300 emails a day. Brevo logo on emails. Marketing automation limited to 2,000 contacts.

    Visit BrevoRead more
    Needs review8 September 2026source
  • 3Kit

    Newsletter

    $0
    ≈ £0/mo
    Monthly
    $0
    Annual (per mo)
    $0
    Subscribers
    10,000
    Emails/mo
    Unlimited
    Landing pagesEcommerceForms

    Up to 10,000 subscribers. Unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts, and you can sell digital products. No automation sequences, no third-party integrations, and Kit branding stays on emails.

    Visit KitRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 4EmailOctopus

    Starter

    £0
    ≈ £0/mo
    Monthly
    £0
    Annual (per mo)
    £0
    Subscribers
    2,500
    Emails/mo
    10,000
    Landing pagesForms

    EmailOctopus branding on emails, 1 landing page, 1 form, 1 user, reports kept 30 days

    Visit EmailOctopusRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • $16
    ≈ £11.80/mo
    Best value
    Monthly
    $16
    Annual (per mo)
    $13
    Subscribers
    1,000
    Emails/mo
    Unlimited
    AutomationLanding pagesEcommerceForms

    Unlimited email sends on every band. SMTP server and transactional emails included.

    Visit MoosendRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • £13
    ≈ £13/mo
    Best automation
    Monthly
    £13
    Annual (per mo)
    £13
    Subscribers
    1,000
    Emails/mo
    10,000
    AutomationLanding pagesForms

    Send allowance is 10x your contact band. 1 user, limited segmentation, 5 actions per automation.

    Visit ActiveCampaignRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 7GetResponse

    Starter

    £13
    ≈ £13/mo
    Monthly
    £13
    Annual (per mo)
    £10.66
    Subscribers
    1,000
    Emails/mo
    Unlimited
    AutomationLanding pagesForms

    One custom automation workflow plus a welcome series. No ecommerce tools, SMS or webinars.

    Visit GetResponseRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 8MailerLite

    Comfort

    $19
    ≈ £14.01/mo
    Monthly
    $19
    Annual (per mo)
    $17.10
    Subscribers
    1,000
    Emails/mo
    10,000
    AutomationLanding pagesEcommerceForms

    50 automations, 10 landing pages, 10 signup forms, 3 user seats. Send allowance is 10x your subscriber band.

    Visit MailerLiteRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 9Omnisend

    Standard

    $20
    ≈ £14.75/mo
    Monthly
    $20
    Annual (per mo)
    Same
    Subscribers
    1,000
    Emails/mo
    12,000
    AutomationEcommerceForms

    Send allowance is 12x your contact band. Unlimited web push.

    Visit OmnisendRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 10HubSpot

    Marketing Hub Starter

    $20
    ≈ £14.75/mo
    Monthly
    $20
    Annual (per mo)
    $20
    Subscribers
    1,000
    Emails/mo
    5,000
    AutomationLanding pagesFormsCRM

    Send allowance is 5x your marketing contact band. Simple automation only.

    Visit HubSpotRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 11AWeber

    Lite

    $25
    ≈ £18.44/mo
    Monthly
    $25
    Annual (per mo)
    $20.83
    Subscribers
    1,000
    Emails/mo
    10,000
    AutomationLanding pagesForms

    1 email list, 3 landing pages, 3 automations, 1 custom segment, 3 users. AWeber branding.

    Visit AWeberRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source
  • 12Drip

    Drip

    $39
    ≈ £28.76/mo
    Monthly
    $39
    Annual (per mo)
    Same
    Subscribers
    2,500
    Emails/mo
    Unlimited
    AutomationEcommerceSMSForms

    Every feature is included on every band. Unlimited sending up to 30,000 contacts; above that the allowance is 12 sends per contact. Up to 50 workflows.

    Visit DripRead more
    Verified8 September 2026source

Ranked by the effective monthly cost on your chosen billing cycle, converted to pounds where a provider quotes in another currency. Only the cheapest qualifying plan per provider is shown. Prices are the provider’s own published rate. Always confirm before buying.

Our shortlist

Who we would actually look at first for this use case. This is an editorial judgement and it is deliberately separate from the price ranking above, where the two disagree, both are shown.

  1. 1.Sender

    #1 on price for this preset

    The most generous combination here: 2,500 subscribers, 15,000 emails a month, and automation included rather than withheld.

    Read the full reviewVisit Sender

  2. 2.EmailOctopus

    #4 on price for this preset

    2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails with a clean upgrade path to one of the cheapest paid tiers we track.

    Read the full reviewVisit EmailOctopus

  3. 3.Kit

    #3 on price for this preset

    10,000 subscribers free (far and away the highest ceiling) at the cost of no visual automation until you pay.

    Read the full reviewVisit Kit

  4. 4.MailerLite

    #8 on price for this preset

    Only 250 subscribers, but the free plan includes automation, a landing page and the best editor of the group.

    Read the full reviewVisit MailerLite

Who this page is not for

If you run a store, free plans are a poor fit: the ecommerce-native providers put their cart-recovery flows behind the first paid tier, which is precisely the feature that pays for itself.

Other use cases

Open this preset in the full calculator →

Affiliate disclosure

Email King may earn a commission if you sign up through some of the links on this page, at no additional cost to you. Commission never affects the ranking: results are ordered by the price you would actually pay, calculated from published rate cards. Read the full disclosure.