Email is the channel with the highest ROI in marketing — and the software pricing is all over the map. Here's the honest comparison: which platforms have genuinely useful free tiers, which discounts are real, and which ones quietly penalize you as you grow.
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ConvertKit (now Kit) — the creator default
Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with the basics: landing pages, broadcasts, and a single automation visual. That's the most generous free tier among the serious tools. Paid plans start around $29/month and scale by subscriber count.
Get it for: newsletters, creator audiences, and anyone who wants automations without enterprise complexity.
MailerLite — best value paid
MailerLite's free tier (1,000 subscribers) is smaller, but its paid plans are the cheapest of the reputable tools — and it runs 30% off for the first year fairly regularly through partner links.
Get it for: small businesses that want solid deliverability on a budget.
Constant Contact — the enterprise-lite pick
Constant Contact rarely discounts — its deal is a 30-day free trial (no credit card in many regions). It's priced for businesses that want phone support and event tools, not for bootstrappers.
What to watch for
- Subscriber-count pricing: the cost jumps at tier boundaries — model your next 12 months of growth before choosing.
- Feature gating: some "cheap" plans remove automations or A/B testing entirely. Check the feature matrix, not just the price.
- Deliverability: a $5/month difference means nothing if your emails land in spam. All three tools above have good reputations; ultra-cheap no-name senders usually don't.
Verdict
Start free with Kit if you're under 10K subscribers. Move to MailerLite if you outgrow it and want the best paid value. Pay Constant Contact prices only if you need the support model.
Pair any of these with a real email course or onboarding sequence — that's where the ROI is, not the software itself. Get next week's verified deals before you commit to an annual plan.